Notes: A continuation of Watering Hole part 1. There shall be a part 3.
Moments of Haven Part 117
Watering Hole Part 2
They both looked up as they heard voices come down the hall in their direction. Three of Duo's students came around the corner, duffles slung over their shoulders. They were fresh from the locker room and still merrily discussing the day's events. When Joe caught sight of them, he waved. "Yo, Teach, still here?"
"Yeah, got some loose ends to tie up," Duo answered, wiggling his fingers airily at his report. "And I couldn't let you kids go without some sort of last words or something."
"You were watching the whole time, right?"
"Yeah. Why would I go through all the trouble to help set this thing up and then fall asleep in the skybox?"
"So what did you think? Did we do you proud? Well, maybe except this loser over here," he added with a loud whisper, not-so-subtly pointing a finger at the man beside him.
The agent in question protested. "Hey, you can't hold me accountable for the actions of my entire team."
"What, you're not going to stand up for your comrades-in-arms? For shame!"
"Dude, that's just bad management to make the whole team take the fall for no good reason. Our leaders should be the ones stepping up, yeah?" Their eyes swiveled in Duo's direction.
Duo held up his hand to ward off their implications. "Whoa, hey there. I was your teacher, not your leader."
A soft snort came from Heero's side of the corner lounge.
"Um, not that we should be pointing fingers or anything," he amended with a false conscientiousness. "That's not cool at all."
"Hn."
Joe perked up. "Hey, a bunch of us are getting together in a little bit at Jerry's. You should come. Um, you're invited, too, Agent Yuy," he added a bit stiffly.
Duo hid a snicker. "Yeah, that sounds great." He turned to his partner with zeal. "We'll be there, right?"
"Hmpf."
"Yup," he confirmed brightly. "We'll head on over as soon as we finish up here."
"Looking forward to it." They waved goodbye and left, chatting amongst themselves.
"Jerry's?" Heero repeated. "South, down the street?"
"Yeah. I hear it's a popular hang-out for the locals."
"That's a bar, right?"
"Yup." His grin was equal parts good cheer and challenge.
"...This should be interesting."
"Thirty says I can score some booze."
"...Deal. No need to get drunk, though."
"Aw, come on, Yuy. You know me better than that. 'Sides...," he added with a wink, his voice dropping to a level of confidentiality. "I'm saving that cherry for you, remember?"
Heero rolled his eyes and moved to finish his report. Perhaps he took advantage of the fact that his face was turned downward to hide a small smile.
~*~
They strolled into the bar with their usual confidence and did a quick survey of the foreign surroundings. Many students from both their classes, and Shevtsova's as well, were present, making up a majority of the patronage this evening. They barely had time to absorb that when they were flagged down by one of the clumps of agents.
"Hey, guys," Daven greeted as soon as they made it to the table. "Cool you guys came."
Duo shrugged, throwing a glance over the room. "You guys all look like you're getting along great now."
"We could say the same about you two." A few of the guys at the table eyed the pair of them. "Sort of."
"Huh?" It took him a moment to remember that the only experience most of his students had had with Heero had been witnessing their little bean bag battle. "Oh, ha. Nah, it's all fun and games, long's no one gets their eye poked out, right?" He turned to Heero for agreement.
"Hm."
One of his students laughed. "Man, if there were two guys that could poke someone's eyes out with bean bags, I'm sure you'd be it."
Heero unfortunately attempted to participate in the conversation. "I don't think it would be all that difficult to poke someone's eyes out with a bean bag, given the proper application."
The lone CQC student at the table saluted his erstwhile instructor with his bottle. "Here here, sir. You tell 'em."
Duo was pleased that Heero's students had apparently acclimated to his occasionally odd perspective. He smiled brightly at his own students like it had been a great thing to say and headed the conversation off in a different direction. "Most of you all are shipping out tomorrow, eh?"
"Yeah."
Another agent chimed in. "'Bout damn time, too. Not that it hasn't been a riot, but I'd like to get back to my life, and, well, my job, man. Gotta put some of these new-found skills to use, right?"
"You better," Duo said, nodding righteously. "I didn't waste my time teaching a bunch of desk jockeys."
"You betcha." He finished his beer and signaled to the nearby barkeep. "Hey, one more, please? Hm, and two for these guys here, eh?"
Jerry eyed them critically. "I don't think so."
"Hey, what now?"
"I don't serve alcohol to minors."
There was a brief lull in the air around them before most of the people laughed with some level of amusement. Duo shared the amusement, but only smiled with dignity. "I don't believe we are minors, my good sir."
"You may not be minors," he conceded grudgingly. "But you sure ain't twenty-one."
"We're older than we look, yanno."
"Yeah? Lucky for you, even older-than-twenty-one's has got to show some ID."
"Don't suppose a Preventers badge will do the trick?" Duo asked hopefully, but wasn't feeling like enough of an ass tonight to whip it out uninvited and try to parade it around like it granted him some sort of divine authority.
Jerry was unfazed. "Not unless it shows your date of birth."
Yeah, he didn't think so. Duo tried a lateral move instead. "The war was a tricky thing, though, yanno? Lots of records got messed up."
"Pity."
One of his students spoke up in their defense, but Duo didn't turn around to see who it was. Charlie, he thought it was. "Aw, come on, Jerry. We're celebrating the end of class here. And these guys were our teachers. Can you believe that?"
"Still not serving them alcohol."
"Aw, we're not gonna tell."
"Still not serving them."
Heero leaned against the bar casually beside his partner. "You serve mostly law enforcement around here?"
The barkeep's eyes flicked over to him and he nodded, both grimly and proudly. "And I don't like conflicts of interest."
Duo sighed loudly and with much drama. "Well, can we at least get something else to drink? Something that looks alcoholic?"
Jerry snorted and turned to fetch some drinks. He came back with two colorful fruity drinks with umbrellas in them.
Duo stared at them for a few seconds before laughing. "Aw, fuck. Now you're just messing with me."
The barman shrugged. "You didn't specify."
As he walked away, Heero chuckled almost imperceptibly. "That's thirty to me."
"Ha, no way, Yuy. Not yet. Night's young."
"Good luck."
"Mmm, hey, this is actually pretty tasty!"
Heero plucked the umbrella from his drink and dropped it in Duo's before taking a tentative sip. His response was a neutral sound, but he took second taste.
TBC...
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