tinydroplets | Dave and John - Warm me Up (Reply)

“It had to be today of all days that we had to let everyone go home early.” Dave sighed as he turned his eyes towards the clock on the dark dingy wall beside him, arms folded and a slight frown on his lips. Bro, as usual, was taking his sweet time making sure everything was put away and locked up. He had just finished with the liquor cabinets, and turned to check the fire exits and the front door.

He's taking his sweet time to piss me off.

The younger Strider was sure of it. The club had been dead the entire night, and so one by one all the extra help had been sent home early, and while it was only midnight, Dave wanted to be home too. The absolute last to be sent home had been Jake English, the new bartender, and his apprentice. It wasn't Jake that had caught Dave's eyes, but the assistant certainly had. Why? Because the assistant bartender happened to be none other than one room mate John Egbert.

Plopping into a bar stool, Dave allowed his fingers to drum on the bar top softly at first, but rising in loudness as he waited for Bro to finish. Hitting his hands open on the top of the table, Dave leaned forward looking at his reflection in the glass. “I'm about to do an angry flip off the bar top, and you know how English gets about footprints on his clean glass.”

Bro turned to watch Dave for a second, giving nothing away behind the dark shades he wore. It was an instant static and tension that filled the room instead. Had they been home this mouthing off would have resulted in a strife session, luckily the club was some sort of neutral grounds. No one wanted in the middle of a strife battle between Striders. Just once had been enough for both Dave and Bro to know they shouldn't fight in their own club. Liquor, the general upkeep and maintenance, as well as losing customers cost a lot after all.

Sighing, Dave's fingers busied themselves with unbuttoning the buttons that held his white shirt in place. Tonight had been a guest DJ, so he had worked as a server. “I hate when I don't get the tables. Those are my tables. I am the only one that people want to hear sending out sick beats from them.” '

Pulling up the sleeves around his elbows he turned in the chair leaning his back against the edge of the bar. The wood dug into his spine just right. “Man this agreement sucks about as hard as a- well never mind.”

Dave shook his head and tipped it back to give a look at the ceiling. When they had opened the club, Dave and Bro had decided that every night to make it fair, they would both stay behind to close the club. It was in the contract, and one they had ironically signed in blood to show how serious they were. However, this had been before John had moved down with them to Texas. This was also after Dave had started going out with, and banging one prankster extraordinaire.

“Bro, you are driving my hormones into a frenzy. If John is the meat and my hormones were a starving lion, they would be in fucking death throes about now.” Dave bit out through his clenched teeth as he sat up, leaning over. He wanted to be home, in between his sheets with Egbert. That was no secret, especially after the way the other had been acting all night in the club. It was time for some sweet Egbert lovings.

Seriously. How long does it take to lock three doors?

Bro didn't answer, however he was standing beside the door with his arms across his chest. Turning, the older Strider flicked the light off, leaving his little brother in the locked down club by himself. Dave sighed and slid from the stool meandering towards the door, “Finally.”

Dave wanted nothing more than to race home right now, but if he did then he would definitely lose some cool points. So instead of racing to his motorcycle and leaving his brother in the dust, he slowly made his way to the bike. Bro had already started the engine on his matching machine, and he was waiting patiently for Dave. After all, they were going to the same place since Bro lived in the same apartment with Dave and John.

In fact, it was Bro's apartment to begin with. John had drifted a little apart from his father after the man had married Rose's mother, and John had come to Texas to stay and work with them. There hadn't been any real discussion about it, Bro hadn't really ever cared what Dave did anyway.

The air smelled fresh, and the humidity was so thick it could be cut with a knife. It would probably start raining soon. Climbing onto his bike, settling down and placing his helmet on his head, Dave kicked the bike into gear revving up the engine. Nodding to Bro, both took off towards home.

The rain started up when the Brother's were about ten minutes from home. It hadn't been particularly cold until the water soaked through his jacket and then he felt his body start to shiver involuntarily. These were the type of storms that were nice to listen to, but horrible to be out in. Thunder rumbled and Dave slowed down on the accelerator to accommodate for how slick the road was becoming. After slowing down however, the drive home was miserable and hail started as Dave and Bro pulled into their shared parking spot. Talk about some luck.

Getting out into the hail and into the warmth and cozy were all Dave had in mind as he made his trek to the front door. Since John had been there for a good two hours, it should have been bright, warm and cozy and all that sentimental bullshit. However, all notions of warmth and comfort went out the window upon seeing John huddled outside the door, shivering. “Egbert? What the hell man?”

Jumping at the sound of Dave's voice, the prankster turned around. “Dave, Bro! You're back.”

Bro nudged the wet and shivering John towards his brother and moved to open the door. On the kitchen counter were John's keys in plain view from the doorway. Dave felt like face palming, but his arms were full of John before he could. The other was hugging him, and his skin was slick with rain. It hadn't been raining long, but it hadn't been a sauna out before that either. “ Well, I went outside to get something from the car, and the door shut behind me before I remembered to get my keys.”

The way John's hair stuck to his forehead and his glasses fogged up as he took a deep breath, made Dave's heart skip a beat.

Shaking his head in wonder, Dave guided John past the threshold of the apartment and slowly down the hall. Both of them were drenched and shaking by now, and Bro again nudged them aside as he came out of his room in only a pair of boxers and a towel slung around his neck. The house was at least warm, but Bro had to have been cold. Instead of calling him out and causing a strife battle to break out, Dave turned to eye his partner. John was clinging to his side shivering as he looked over at Dave and gave a small smile. The other felt and looked as if he had been soaked past his bones. “How long were you out there exactly?”

“An hour I think?” John reached up to take off his glasses as his teeth chattered together and he tried to wipe his glasses clean. Of course, being wet and trying to dry glass lenses didn't do anything to help, so the black haired male settled for putting back on his glasses and shivering with wet hair stuck to his forehead. Grabbing his hand, Dave pulled him towards the hallway that led to their shared room. Turning to look over his shoulder and over the top of his glasses, red eyes connected with Bro's behind his shade. The older man gave his little brother a thumbs up, and Dave turned around. Once the two adults had moved into their room and shut the door, Bro turned up the television.

The volume of the television didn't really matter as Dave moved to the CD player on the desk, turning it on and up loud. Moving to the door, he locked it behind them, and moved to the bathroom to turn the shower on nice and hot. Once steam was fogging up the glass to his satisfaction he moved into the bedroom. John had turned down the music a little, so that the bass was not able to be felt under his feet, but he had long since gave up arguing with John about their neighbors. “It's good that all our neighbors are loud too, huh?”

Dave leaned against the wall beside the adjoining bathroom entrance. “Strip before you catch a shake that even your skeleton can't forget, John.”