Crows and parties were Andres' bread and butter. His college years particularly rowdy. But even before that, the many festivities and celebrations to congratulate Galar challengers and champions. Parties were fun. And after years of being excluded form them, he was eager to accept any invite that came his way. That's how he'd found himself inside this particular one. Amongst throngs of similarly minded individuals, scantily clad for Halloween. [break][break]

His friend, Fletcher, matching angel to his devil had gotten them invites. They'd met up with more friends. They'd drank weird cocktails served to them by undead nurses or curated in plastic test tubes by evil scientists. He's beyond buzzed, but the bumping music and throngs of people don't seem to put him down. He moves easily, following the flow of people and every so often playfully smacking away a frisky hand as he knocked back another drink. At some point in time he'd spotted another- friend? familiarity amongst the crowd. "Onyx! onyx straub !! Heeey!" he had shouted probably once or twice over an hour and a half ago. [break][break]

He could recognize that sour puss stare anywhere. But he didn't stop further than that assuming Onyx had friends to play with and the like. Because Onyx, in his drunken mind, would always have more friends than him. Over the course of the night inevitabilities happen. He gets a little sweaty, his make up smudges. He tongues strangers. Perfectly styled and mused hair gets pulled and messy. Fringes of hair falling over his face as he laughs and sings with the rest of his group. [break][break]

At some point in the night he tries to retouch it with his friend. [break][break]

And then, immediately after, ends up on the dance floor shamelessly flirting, and laughing as a stranger clings to him. And even in the gloom, he catches Onyx's eyes and waves, as he's drunkenly done and forgotten already twice now. But before he can say much his stranger- a stereotypical vampire- leans into say something into his ear that gives him a start, but there's a nod. He forgets of his greeting instead turning to follow them, only for a hand to sneak its way up his backside, revealing a stupidly simple but well hidden bat motif on Andres ass. "Ta da! You found it." he snorted.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Onyx doesn’t hear him over the soprano of the music, a bass-heavy, synthetic mix that hinted slightly at something spooky. There’s a particular evil laugh that keeps getting reworked into the song and it’s driving Onyx mad.

He’s just a bouncer. He’s there to stop people from fighting. He’s not there to stop them from basically having sex standing up in the middle of the floor, or fucking in bathrooms, or doing whatever the fuck they want to be doing. The throng of people is like one, living, breathing mass, to him, each individual an organelle of one huge, funky organism.

Onyx catches what he thinks are glimpses of a familiar costume but is torn between whether or not he’s seeing things. Part of him is hopeful, part of him is filled with dread.

There, a swatch of blonde. He doesn’t want to look. He looks anyway.

Yeah. It’s Andres. In that stupid, sexy costume.

Mother of fuck.

Over the course of the night Andres tries to get his attention and, while he succeeds every time, Onyx is nothing if not professional. It would be more accurate to say Onyx never stopped noticing Andres, after the initial shock of it, but he’s there to do a job and that job is-- well, we’ve already been through that.

But he is solidly too sober when he watches the stranger in his slicked back hair and his fake widows peak and his cheap plastic fangs grab entire handfuls of Andres’ ass as they’re heading off the dance floor. He’s not a smart man but he doesn’t have to be a fucking genius to know where they’re going.

So he decides he’s going there, too. He decides he’s gotta take a leak. And if Andres’ vampire friend just so happens to fall down and crack his skull against a urinal and have to be escorted out for being too fucked up, well, that’s just what happens, right?

He takes a roundabout way to the bathroom so it doesn’t seem like he beelined straight there. Out of habit, he locks the door behind him, and steps around the dividing wall to the bathroom proper, boots hollow on the tile.

andres buenaventura
costume

☉

There's a reason this particular party was so popular. It's all thanks to the multiple sets of bathrooms. Multiple sets on multiple floors with multiple entry points as well as etiquette. Some fancier than others. All plastered with paper signs that explicitly said 'only one person per stall'. Half of those signs torn or missing. [break][break]

At least in this particular bathroom, where clubbers were up to more unsavory activities. Because what was Halloween without a little bit of anonymous fucking? For someone as noncommittal as Andres, Halloween is the best day of the year. Kind of hard to have hook ups during Christmas. The themes just didn't fit. [break][break]

Whatever the case, Andres is more than content to follow his current date into the bathrooms, into a stall. Casually, and quietly making out in privacy as they tried to set the mood. Or as much as one could in a club bathroom. [break][break]

The place is mostly deserted, save for the two carousers taking their business to the stall furthest from the door. There's a bit of murmuring, some whispering, but mostly laughing at stupid puns and dirty euphemisms thrown about. It's nothing innovative, but it works for half drunk, horny bastards. Of course, all merry making stops. "Wazzat?" comes slurred, out before replaced with a quiet moan. Then a snicker and 'shh' sound followed by Andres going, "Don't shush me." and then another quick, "Get your hand out of there, be serious." Obviously all parties involved are not the most secretive.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

He wasn’t an idiot but sometimes… sometimes, he really, really challenged that statement. Mostly by being present here in the first place, but secondarily after he wondered why there were so many fucking bathrooms in this one, piece of shit club.

Onyx wasn’t (read: when Andres wasn’t on his radar) a being prone to carnalities. He enjoyed a good tryst every now and then but he wasn’t hormonal, or whatever the fuck they called it when you just slept with everything that moved. As mentioned above, Andres being in the picture fucked up all his systems, sent his meters out of whack, readings spiraling-- like a plane in freefall.

So it wouldn’t even occur to him that people would need seven different outlets for fucking.

It was a moot point. If anything, he was thankful for the extra bathrooms, now, because that meant they’d come to this one, find the door locked, and be able to fuck off instead of becoming a nuisance.

His lingering sobriety clashes fiercely with his topsy-turvy libido and the result is a downright menacing aura, eyes glinting highblood purple in the weak bathroom lights. He makes (unfortunate) eye contact with the two unassociated parties, and his minatory air makes them wilt, giggles going silent as he jerks a thumb over his shoulder and says, “Beat it.”

Wisely, they do; there’s fumbling with the door for a second as they whisper frantically to themselves before they make their escape.

The door clicks shut again.

Onyx has Andres cornered. Well, him, and his fucking piece-of-shit hanger-on,

He’s had to chase down his fair share of cowards hiding in bathroom stalls, so he’s… weirdly proficient in busting the stall open, jimmying the latch with a hard jerk and just barely restraining himself to not kick it open. He pushes it, instead, and it slams against the wall of the stall with a satisfyingly loud noise.

He deals, first, with the interloper.

“Get the fuck out.”

His voice has the natural air of someone leaving no room for argument-- cold and direct, without sounding like he’s trying too hard.

andres buenaventura
costume

☉

Of course there's other people, of course Andres doesn't care. All partyers involved are too high or too drunk or too both to care what anyone but they're doing. So when the first group scatters, Andres is still busy finding a tongue creeping into his mouth. When the next party bolts there's hands around his thighs, griping hard with anticipation. And then there's the sudden jerk as his date of 10 minutes breaks their kiss and whips his head around, angry he's been interrupted. [break][break]

Andres doesn't see the interloper at first, hands griping on a shitty velvet red vest. He barely has time to peek to the side of him before there's an aggressive protest, which, Andres does not appreciate all that much before its cut short. Someone far more sober issues an order. There's a moment of hesitation before Dracula drops him and he plops onto the toilet, half undressed. "Dude, seriously?" he groaned as the guy bolted past Onyx. [break][break]

He pulled down his shitty top, covering some of his chest and adjust the batty miniskirts, not really in a rush to get up. Hazel eyes squint in the darkness, staring up at a familiar face before recognition flashes. There's a brief hint of a smile before it turns to grimace. "Onyx, what the fuck?" he asked, whining more than anything as he reached for the wall to lean on as he stood up. "Trynna get my numbers up. Fletcher's beating me." There's a flash of tick marks as he lowered a side of his skirt to show off a hip. Gods, he's been drinking.

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

No matter how the rest of this night goes, Onyx will take this win.

The way the shitty vampire and his shitty drawn-on widows peak bolts like a startled bird, and he will remember that and know that his menacing aura and his commanding tone of voice and just the general vibe he exudes will get him results even when he doesn’t know what, exactly, he’s fucking doing.

Andres sits askew on the toilet (seat closed, thankfully, or his ‘date’ would have dropped him right in like yesterday’s breakfast).

His eyes are silver in the low light. Huh.

His first instinct is to step in and help Andres stand, so he does, balancing out the wavering of the taller man by taking his hand and guiding him slowly to lean on the bathroom stall. Stepping this close he can smell the booze rolling off of him, but also the smell of his body spray and the absolute cacophony of other colognes and perfumes and--

It was a mistake. Stepping this close was a mistake. He can clearly see the hickies sucked into Andres’ skin and he wants to mark over them, wants to strip him down and ruin him from ever doing this ridiculous bullshit again.

“You’ve been trying to get my attention all night,” Onyx hisses, pointedly not looking down when Andres tugs his skirt-- his fucking skirt-- to reveal the Sharpie hash-lines over his hip.

“What’s your problem?” spouts from him, unbidden, and he’s thankful, at least, that it can mean two things in this situation. He hopes that Andres infers it to mean what the fuck do you want and not what he really meant which was what the fuck are you doing this for?

andres buenaventura
costume

☉

He doesn't know what to expect of the situation, frowning in disappointment and mild annoyance, but still taking Onyx's hands when the bouncer helped pull him to his feet. He leans back, steadied by his companion but swaying slightly. "Uh- yeah?" he replied not sure why Onyx was mad at him for saying 'hi'. He'd already forgotten just how may times he'd done so. [break][break]

"I can't say 'Hi' when I see you?" he continued, eyes drooping slightly as he realized he'd irritated Onyx again. His specialty when it came to interactions with the guy. The yell made him flinch, confused frown hardening as a hand gripped the metal bar attached to the tile wall. [break][break]

"Nothing?? I've just been partying-" he said looking down at himself and then back at Onyx. "What's yours?" Though irritated, the barest lilt of concern can be heard in his words. "Not having a good time?"

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

To be completely honest, Onyx doesn’t know what he expected from the situation either. Probably something delusional like Andres swooning in the grasp of a man he didn’t want to be with and falling into Onyx’s arms with a wearily protested take me away or something as equally idiotic.

God, he was a fucking idiot.

“Saying ‘hi’ thirty-two times gives the impression of something more than hi,” Onyx insisted through clenched teeth. “I thought--- I thought you needed help, or something.”

Which wasn’t entirely a lie. Somewhere along the wild ride the night had gone on Onyx had wondered if maybe Andres was trying to get his attention for something other than just saying hello. It had been a fleeting throught, as ridiculous as his aforementioned Andres the Damsel scene, and so he hadn’t ruminated on it long. But it comes up now as a shield, a deflection.

He conveniently pays no attention to the fact that he'd been counting.

It explodes out of him in an instant. “My problem is you!” he all but shouts, not realising he’s grabbed Andres by the hips and turned to face him fully in the confined space of the stall.

andres buenaventura
costume

☉

In the haze of his night, Onyx seemed angry for not much more than it as Andres speaking. But alcohol gives him courage, and while maybe once upon a time he would've hung his head low and submitted to Onyx's emotion, he's older now. Drunker too. So he audaciously rolled his eyes at the count. "C'mon, don't exaggerate." he huffed when he finally looked back at the man. [break][break]

Despite his own annoyance with the guy currently killing his vibe, he can't help but feel just a little guilty. "Oh-....you were-" the gears turn ever so slowly and he lost the thought when the guy yells at him. Whatever good will that had been turning his mood evaporates as he felt hands on him. He smacked back onto the wall, gripping on the bar and beginning to glower at Onyx. His skin is hot, and this close he felt warm. But he also felt insulted, upset he'd been misunderstood. Again. [break][break]

"Yeah? Well what fuckin' else is new, Onyx?" He snapped back. He wondered if Onyx really was going to try to pin him. For partying? Trying to be nice to him? Fuck's sake, it's Halloween night why couldn't they just have a laugh about it?

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Andres rolls his eyes at him and he-- he can’t decide if he’s two seconds away from strangling the man, or-- or something else. “I’m not exaggerating," he hissed, face somehow floating closer to the wavering, alcohol-loose man, despite the fact that his every instinct was streaming to let go and walk away.

He doesn’t mean to hurt him, to jostle him and shake him ever so slightly-- which, given their history, is a new occurrence. If anything it just makes him hold tighter, trying to stabilize Andres while his thumbs dig imprints into the front of his hips, feeling the tug and pull of the (outrageously muscular) man’s obliques beneath his fingertips.

“You know, that’s a good fucking question,” he says, no longer shouting, voice dropped an octave and gone hoarse with-- with rage, he thinks, it has to be rage, please be rage-- “‘cause it seems like you’ve been my fucking problem for a long damn time.”

Looming ever closer, surely seconds away from disaster.

andres buenaventura
costume

☉

Andres laughed, but it's dry and harsh. "What? You were counting?" he asked lips pulling back into a mocking grin as he shifted into gear. He didn't try to deescalate the situation that he hadn't started. At least in his mind. Even a little fuzzy, he didn't seem to want to back down, as years of bitterness and feelings of unfairness rose to the surface. Everything he had been willing to ignore and suppress for the chance of some kind of friendship with Onyx was rearing it's ugly head again. [break][break]

He thought he'd gotten over this in high school. [break][break]

Onyx gets in his face and Andres locked on, refusing to break eye contact. He's in a dangerous position, vulnerable to Onyx's wild tendencies. A good headbutt would rock his world right about now. [break][break]

Onyx's hands burn, too hot in this shitty bathroom. He felt his heartbeat spiking as the other man doesn't relent. There's a change in Onyx's voice that signals danger, but instead of panic there's only defiance. Uncaring recklessness. He's tired of this shit. After years and years of it, falling into the same patterns of when he was young again? Tailing and chasing after one guy he needed to stop thinking was so cool? It made him angry, frustrated. Even now when he wanted to forget, Onyx does shit like this. [break][break]

"Fuck you." the phrase is sharp, accompanied by a fist gripping Onyx's collar and yanking him closer. He lets their foreheads bang together as he hazel eyes glare back into deep blues. "Because that sounds like a personal fuckin' problem, you arrogant little prick." He's never done that before, never dreamed of it. Not to Onyx. But it's true. "If a greeting makes you so miserable, maybe look inward."

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Andres' bark of laughter is like fuel on the fire. Onyx wants to grab him and shake him-- but the thought of it, of slamming his head against the wall and laughing as he falls, doesn’t sit the way it used to. Doesn’t feel the way it used to.

So, for the briefest of moments, while he and Andres are staring each other down, he imagines leaning in the final few inches and kissing him. And that image elicits in him the old feelings, the rush in his veins. The chase he’d been after for so long.

This was different. He knew he was attracted to Andres-- physically, at least. You’d be a fucking moron not to be.

But this was different.

The realization hits him in the same moment that Andres curses at him, and that, too, feels different. Andres’ hand is hot as his collar and their foreheads collide, Andres having to crane his head down to glare at him because the man is so fucking tall. His eyes go wide for a half second because as Andres is telling him to look inward that’s exactly what he’s doing.

But he also has to look outward, too. He’s out of his element. The effect that Andres has on him in this stupid, skimpy, slutty costume is-- it’s unbalancing. It’s unreal. Like a rubberband snapping, Onyx ricochets off the multitudinous graffiti etched into the walls of the bathroom stal and reverberates back into his body.

Very slowly-- deadly slow-- he reaches up and slips a thumb against the flat of Andres’ hand, in the curve of his fisted palm. He disentangles the fingers gripped into the collar of his shirt, and gently presses it away.

His eyes have gone glassy. His movements are slow and methodical. He bounces open the stall door with his elbow and, robotic, steps back, and walks to the bathroom door, unlocks it, lets it fall closed behind him as he escapes into the stifling heat and bone-rattling electrohouse of the club floor.

andres buenaventura
well what would YOU do if you realized you were falling in love with someone you used to hate
costume

☉

Andres' entire body is gearing up for a fight, an opportunity to lash out and bite as at a person that had been making him miserable for more years than he cared to count. Onyx doesn't explode on him, and that worries Andres. Becuase perhaps he's encoutnering something different. Something liek the kind of deadly silence that led Onyx to string up those men all those months ago. A painful scene Andres never forgot, and probably wasn't meant to see in the first place. The relization Onyx was in Hoenn, despite running form him all those years ago. [break][break]

Now he expected something jsut as painful and deadly from the quiet man. He braced himself, staring daggers into Onyx's eyes and not resisting when he peeled away his hand from their neck. When Onyx backs up, he thinks the guy is getting somethign hard. A weapon of some sort. But when the sounds of the club sift into the bathroom he stayed put, waiting for the shoe to drop. [break][break]

And waiting. [break][break]

And waiting. [break][break]

"He's not coming back?" the words that leave him are indignant. All thsoe horrible feelings, all that negativity bubbling and burning inside his chest are left there roiling wildly as the realization hits. The fight still left unfinished. If that even qualified as one. [break][break]

Unsteadily, he stomped forward ripping the door open to the club, glaring at a mob of people. He's looking for the son of a bitch. He wouldn't be left wanting when Onyx had been the one to interrupt and disorient him. He no longer goes with the flow of the crowd, not bouncing and shifting along with it from one lover to another. He's no longer grinning with ease, or laughing when he felt people touch him. He stands as tall as his drunken self can, swaying and following the walls as he tried to find the mother fucker in the crowd. He slapped away at hands on him, shoved people out of his way before swiftly disappearing into the mess of the party. His head is spinning, and his jaw is clenched so tight his cheeks hurt. Where was he?

[break][break]

+ onyx straub [break][break]

[attr="class","pokeclass"]