Kyle (brainoverbrawn) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-11 20:35:00 |
|
|||
The hospital had been busy and by the time Kyle finished up at six he was honestly dead on his feet but he’d made plans and so after grabbing a shower and changing into his civilian clothes rather than heading home he was catching a taxi to the bar address given to him by Michael Guerin. He would have driven but he was going to drink and he knew better than to drink and drive so public transport it was.
It was relatively easy to navigate the crowd which filled the inside of the bar and even easier to spot Michael so Kyle made his way over to him quickly, slipping onto a stool beside the other man.
“Hey,” he greeted as he shrugged out of his leather jacket and rested it on the bar next to him before he looked up to catch the attention of the bartender. “Can I get whatever is on tap?”
The bartender nodded. “Sure, man, coming right up.”
“Michael, you need a refill?” Kyle asked, looking over at him.
It had been years since Michael had seen Kyle Valenti. Since high school really. But with Alex coming back into his life he figured he might as well try and reconnect with a few others from that high school. Minus Max and Isobel, he had remained close with them throughout the years.
Kyle though, he was important to Alex. That much Michael knew. And Alex? Alex was important to Michael. So he might as well have a few drinks with the guy.
Michael arrived at the bar a little before 7. He was never late when it came to drinks. He drove his truck, if he drank too much? Well it wouldn’t be the first time he had left his truck in a bar parking lot all night.
“Hey,” Michael greeted with a small nod. As for a refill. Well his beer wasn’t completely gone yet but it was never to early to order another. “Yeah, I’ll have another,” he told the bartender before turning his attention back to Kyle. “So how many hours you work today?”
Kyle was at a slight disadvantage. He had a hunch and a gut feeling about Guerin and his best friend but there was nothing solid so he didn’t know the exact importance of Michael in Alex’s life.
“Twelve,” he supplied easily and readily. “Relatively short shift for me all things considered.” He offered Michael a smirk before he thanked the bartender as a glass of cool beer was rested in front of him and he took the first slow pull.
Not that it had been an easy shift. He’d done five emergency surgeries and thankfully each patient had come through the other side. “What you doing with your time these days?”
Michael didn’t expect that Kyle would know anything about his relationship with Alex. There wasn’t really much to tell of the present - other than that night they had together after apartment hunting. And they may have had a date a few nights ago. But the point stood that he didn’t think Alex had mentioned it. And their relationship in high school? Well that had been kept secret.
“You do know that’s half your day, Valenti,” Michael replied finishing off his beer just as the bartender brought over his new one. As for what he was doing? “Just fixing cars,” Michael said with a shrug. “Not exactly on the same scale as saving lives.” But he liked the work. He was good with his simple life, it worked for him. And most importantly it was stable. Michael was finally in control of his own damn life.
“Yes, Guerin, I can actually tell the time,” Kyle shot back with a smirk that was sharp only because of the angular face he’d inherited from his father. “But it beats out a sixteen or eighteen hour day so I’ll take it.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “And? As long as you enjoy it, right? Plus cars are sometimes like a lifeline to a person so…” Kyle trailed off and gave an accompanying smile.
“Yeah,” Michael said taking another swallow of beer. “That’s just… too long.” It wasn’t like Michael had a huge social life, although it had picked up quite a bit lately. And as much as he loved cars, he didn’t think he could live his life only working. Because eighteen hour days left time for nothing else. “I’m surprised you’re still functioning.”
Michael’s car had been more than a lifetime to him throughout the years. But he wasn’t about to share with Kyle that he lived in his car for a few months. Not that he was ashamed. It was his and he was proud of that. It just wasn’t exactly small talk conversation. “I do,” Michael said with a nod. “It’s good work and I rarely go past eight hours. Definitely no more than ten,” he added pointedly.
Kyle idly turned his glass around on the bar and pressed the width of both palms to the cool edges to the point where he could feel the condensation pooling against the warmth of his skin, contrasting temperatures were interesting like that. “Oh, trust me, all of this?” He gestured towards himself with a smirk. “Is a combination of coffee and not knowing when to quit.”
He’d crash out later, but that was later, not right now.
“I feel like I have no reference point for an eight or ten hour day,” he admitted with a small shake of his head. “But that’s not exactly something to be proud of.”
“We really need to change that,” Michael replied. Because that was just way too much work if you asked him. And apparently he decided then and there that he was going to be the one to help Kyle change that. Or at least one of the ones. “Saving lives is important and all. But you gotta have a little fun in live too, Valenti.”
Kyle arched his eyebrow as he turned his head to regard Michael. “Yeah? Well, of all the people to offer he would not have pegged it for being Guerin, but Kyle wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was a lot of things, idiot was not one of those things.
“Fun,” he repeated as if feeling out the word and it was some sort of foreign concept. “I think I’ve forgotten what that is.”
Michael may not have known Kyle very well - other than he was Alex’s best friend and apparently a doctor now. But if there was one thing Michael knew? It was how to have fun. Or at least let loose a little. It was something he partook in basically every damn night.
“Well you’re off to a good start,” Michael replied gesturing to Kyle’s drink before picking up his own and taking a long swallow. “Most good nights start with a few beers.”
Kyle turned his head in time to watch as Michael all but down that beer in one swallow and he shut down the doctor in him which might have cautioned the other man about drinking too much. There was a time and place for that and this was not the time or the place.
“And what else do good nights involve?” He asked.
It would be interesting to find out what Guerin did for fun.
Michael’s immediate answer? Getting laid. But no way in hell was he about to say that to Kyle. He didn’t want it getting back to Alex. And if Alex ever told Kyle about whatever the two of them were, he didn’t want Kyle to think it was something casual for him. That Alex was just another guy he slept with. Because Alex Manes was so much more than that. Though really, Kyle probably did need to get laid.
“We’ll just have to see where the night takes us,” Michael finally said finishing off the last of his beer. “But you’re going to have to keep up,” he added with a smirk. Kyle was still working on his first beer after all. While Michael already had two.
Kyle had spent many a night in med school downing a lot of alcohol and trawling through clubs and bars, too many, so many that the idea of doing that as an adult? Felt like a step backwards. “Nothing wrong with taking it a little slow, Guerin,” Kyle pointed out as he took a pull from his glass. “But I’m definitely down for seeing where the night takes us.”
It’s not like he had anywhere to be.
Michael probably drank too much. He was slightly aware of that fact. But he didn’t really care. The guy had been through enough shit in his early years that he did as he pleased now. Drinking was the perfect way to unwind after work if you asked him. Plus it kept his mind off his past.
Michael chose to ignore the taking it slow comment instead ordering himself another beer. He turned his attention back to Kyle. “So you’re a surgeon now,” he commented stating the obvious. “What else have you been up to since I left?” The high school he went to with Kyle that was. Michael never left Orange County.
“Yep, that’s what I am,” Kyle replied with a nod of his head. “Well I left to attend med school in Boston.” And he could have gone to any city in any part of the world but he’d come home because it was home and also because his father’s health had deteriorated. Family was and would always be really important to Kyle. “But figured I’d come home, stick close to my dad, and now I work at a local hospital while also volunteering at the VA and free clinics. It was actually how I ran into Alex.”
He sipped at his beer and glanced up to order himself another as he’d finally gotten through his first.
“Mostly I’ve just been working and surfing.”
Michael tried not to react when Kyle brought up Alex. Though just at the mention of him, Michael’s stomach did a little flip. “Yeah,” Michael finally said. “He mentioned that.” Michael was pretty sure Kyle had no idea how much he and Alex talked and well more than talked. But Michael didn’t think it needed to be kept secret. At least not that they had been in touch. Well any of it really, Michael wasn’t a fan of secrets. But he also knew how private Alex was.
“You have time for that?” Surfing that was. Michael had never gotten into it. But then he was never able to afford a surfboard anyway. “I feel like your sixteen hour days don’t leave time for much other than sleep.”
“On Sundays I have time,” Kyle pointed out. “It’s like the one day I try to keep free.” So that he could surf. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be as sane as he was if he didn’t have the escape to the ocean every week. Something about the waves just made him feel… serene.
He was curious however how Michael had been told by Alex that they’d run into each other at the VA clinic as he’d been under the impression that Alex had been keeping to himself since he’d come back to LA, but apparently not? Interesting.
“I’m not religious or anything but it is the day of rest after all.”
“I’m not sure surfing counts as rest,” Michael replied with a smirk. It was a sport after all. Thereby active and not resting. But he got what Kyle meant. Having a day to himself where he got to do something other than save lives. “But good for you, man,” Michael said reaching out and giving him a slap on the back. “Can’t save lives twenty-four/seven. Pretty sure you’d get burnt out and I can’t imagine that would be good.”
Kyle glanced over at Michael with a lifted eyebrow as the other man reached out to give him a slap on his back. “Uh, thanks.” He wasn’t wrong, he would burn out if all he did was work, all the time, which admittedly he’d been doing a lot of. Well that and looking out for his old man as it was more work now than it ever had been before. Apparently he was getting worse.
He was about to say something else when his pager buzzed and he shot Michael an apologetic look as he checked it,a frown catching his features as it was from Kelly, his father’s carer, asking for Kyle to call her.
“Hey, I gotta make a quick phone call,” he said as he got to his feet and pulled out his cell, the first number on his speed dial being hit. “Hey Kelly, what’s up?”
Michael watched the frown that appeared on Kyle’s face. Michael’s own brow furrowed in concern. Not that he knew Kyle all that well but still he didn’t want the guy upset… about whatever that call was about.
Michael finished off his beer while Kyle was on the phone, giving the guy a concerned look when he returned. “You need to take off?”
“Uh, yeah, sorry,” Kyle said with a shake of his head. “I have someb-” He stopped before he said the word and quickly corrected himself. “Something I need to take care of.” Kyle rummaged out his wallet and threw down the cash to cover his and Michael’s drinks including another one if Michael wanted it. It was the least he could do for bailing on him.
He leaned in and borrowed a pen from the bartender because that natural Valenti charm of his could pretty much get him anything he wanted, pen included. His number was scribbled down on a napkin and passed over to Michael.
“Call me if you ever want to do this again.”
Michael was about to protest. He didn’t need his drinks paid for. Yes, he led a fairly simple life but he could afford everything in it with money to spare… or to spend on drinks every night. He was no longer the foster kid that needed handouts. Not that he ever took them when he was in foster care anyway. Even from Max and Isobel.
But Kyle was already writing down his number and getting ready to leave. Michael really wasn’t bothered by the sudden bailing. But yeah the least he could do was pay he supposed. Or at least he hoped that was what Kyle’s reasoning was and not that he pitied Michael or anything like that.
“See ya, Valenti,” Michael said accepting the napkin then turning to the bartender to order his next drink. Looks like he was going to spend the rest of his night drinking alone.