September 2012

The club was crowded and hot, and despite spending what seemed to be forever looking for them, Renly couldn't find Brienne or any of the others he'd arrived with. He sighed, taking another sip from his drink and wincing when the vodka burned his throat and he remembered quite why he'd left it only half-drunk in the first place. He briefly contemplated renewing his search for Brienne, but glancing at his phone, he reckoned there was a definite possibility that she'd have already been tracked down by Jaime and taken home; she was never a fan of this sort of thing anyway. Instead thus, he headed over towards the bar, the bass pounding through his chest and his vision swimming slightly from the drink that was definitely too much vodka and not enough orange juice.

Renly had to force his way through the crowd to get there, weaving in and out of people that seemed too drunk to stand. Every now and then, a girl would try and catch his eye, one even pressing herself up against him so that he could see down her top. Renly sighed. He had no desire to buy her a drink, or take her home, and he especially hadn't wanted to find out first-hand that she most definitely wasn't wearing a bra.

There was a queue to get drinks, and Renly was almost at the front when a row broke out between some girl and a guy who'd apparently tried to put his hand up her skirt. Moments later, the girl's boyfriend got involved, and before Renly could see what was going on, people were pushing and shoving, yelling for the two guys to fight. Renly winced as a girl's stiletto landed painfully on his foot; he'd only wanted another drink.

He stopped complaining, however, when he happened to glance up and find that the crowd had pushed him up against someone who by all standards was devastatingly attractive. He was tall, not quite as tall as him, but tall enough Renly thought. And unlike the last guy he'd met in a club that Renly had thought to be passing attractive, he was sure that this one would still be drop dead gorgeous in the morning, when there was no vodka interfering with his judgement.

What surprised him more however, was that he seemed to be interested, not even complaining when the crowd pushed him up against Renly for a second time. Renly grinned. Usually, he loathed nightclubs like this one; everyone he seemed to think was attractive always turned out to be straight, or on the off chance that they were interested in guys, more often than not they were already involved. Sadly, it was never something he'd thought to consider when trawling through university league tables, and whilst he'd been advised to check out the student satisfaction statistics and the ratio of tutors to students, nobody had thought to tell him to also look into the proximity to gay bars.

This guy however had no stumbling girl, or guy for that matter, hanging onto his arm, and judging from how attractive he was, Renly wouldn't have expected that. He decided to test the water, not stepping back even when there was clearly room to do so. Instead, he looped his fingers about the guys wrist.

The guy just smirked, and not breaking the eye contact until he really had to, turned around and headed out towards the smoking area, evidently inviting Renly to follow him.

Renly did, downing his drink and following him out. It was cooler outside and Renly pushed his hair out of his eyes, breathing in the smoky air.

The guy was standing by the wall, rolling up a cigarette.

"Got a light?" He asked when Renly approached and Renly was pleased to see he was still gorgeous even under the harsh light of the street lamps. He had the most amazing hair, Renly thought. It fell over his eyes in corkscrew curls. They looked like they would be fun to play with and Renly had the sudden urge to tug on one and see if was as springy as it looked.

Instead though, he fished in his pockets and pulled out a lighter, handing it to him. "What's your name?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

"Loras." the guy replied, lighting his cigarette and taking a drag. "What's yours?"

"Renly." He took the cigarette when it was offered and inhaled deeply before handing it back. "You a student here?"

The guy looked thoughtful for a moment, rolling the cigarette in between his fingers before answering. "Yeah." he said. "First year, English Lit."

Renly was half way through telling him that he was a second year lawyer when he was cut off rather shortly, the guy pressing him up against the wall and leaning in to kiss him. He tasted of vodka and smoke, and something faintly sweet that Renly couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Yours or mine?" Renly panted when they parted for long enough for him to get a few words out.

"Yours." The guy grinned up at him as he wrapped an arm around Renly's waist and leant in to kiss him once more.

…...

It took Loras a few moments to remember where he was when he woke up. Daylight was streaming through the curtains and it was only when Loras glanced sleepily around and saw his clothing still strewn about the room, that it all came flooding back to him; the shared cigarette, the drunken kisses, the rather awkward walk back to the guy's house. He remembered it all, even the part where he'd been pushed up against the opposite wall and fucked so hard that he'd panted the other guy's name into his mouth. He grinned, especially that part perhaps.

The name was slow in coming to him now though and it wasn't until he glanced up and saw the guy in question sitting across from him on a tattered old desk chair that Loras managed to recall it. Renly. Renly, the second year lawyer who could do truly amazing things with his mouth in fact. Loras formed it silently in his head. The name felt good on his tongue.

He grinned and sat up, hopeful that Renly, or whatever he was called, would come back to bed and fuck him again. Glancing at his expression though, Loras didn't think it likely somehow. He had a small frown on his face and, unless Loras was sorely mistaken, was looking at him rather disdainfully. He was holding something too, something small and rectangular that he kept glancing back down at before looking again back at him.

Looking closer, Loras' heart sunk when he realised it was his fake ID. It had done well enough to get him past the bouncers yesterday, but that had been in the dark, and the doormen had only casually glanced at it before stamping his hand. In broad daylight, however, Loras reckoned it would be painfully easy to see that his photo was glued on with Pritt Stick and that the fake holographic sticker was peeling off slightly at the sides.

"What's this?" Renly's tone was mild but Loras reckoned he was the sort of guy who probably wouldn't show it if he was angry.

He just shrugged. He'd lied to a lot of guys about his age. This one just happened to be the first one who'd called him out on it.

"What is this?" Renly repeated when Loras didn't answer.

Loras rolled out of bed, fishing around for his clothes. "You know full well what it is." He pulled on his boxers. "Look, I'm sorry. Is that what you want to hear?"

The guy's frown deepened. "Are you even a student?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters." He put the ID back on the floor. "You're seventeen right?"

Loras winced. It looked like this guy was going to take this badly, which was a shame, Loras thought, because he'd really have liked to see him again. He briefly contemplated lying again and confirming that he was seventeen but he thought perhaps that to lie twice about the same thing in twenty four hours would be pushing the boundaries."I'll be sixteen in April." He said eventually, not meeting the guy's eyes.

"Sixteen in April." He looked mildly horrified. "You do realise that's illegal?"

"What's illegal?" Loras yawned.

"This." Renly hissed. "What we did last night."

"Oh that." Loras grinned. "Well nobody actually cares about that sort of stuff anymore."

Renly seemed to think otherwise. He'd picked up one of the large textbooks on his desk and was brandishing it in Loras' face. "I'm a lawyer. I care." He rifled through the text book. "Ashby 2001. Stevens 2006. Wilson 2010. See. People do care. You can get prosecuted for this."

Loras resisted the urge to laugh. It was quite endearing somehow, the way he was flipping through the pages and reeling off various cases to try to prove his point.

He must have done a poor job at hiding his amusement, for Renly ran his hands through his hair despairingly. "This is statutory rape, what I just did."

Loras shrugged. "I was up for it. It was hardly without my consent."

"That's not the point." Renly hissed. "You're not old enough to give consent. And I should know, half of my first year exams were on this sort of stuff."

"A pity." Loras said. "Because last night was really good." He couldn't hold back the laughter this time at Renly's expression. "No chance of a repeat of that this morning?"

The guy's eyebrows disappeared into his hair. "Obviously not." He snapped. "Get your clothes on."

Loras sighed and pulled on his jeans. He hadn't had all that many one night things with guys, but this would definitely mark the first time that he'd ended by being reprimanded the morning after.

"That's it." Renly hissed when Loras was fully dressed. "I'm taking you home."

And with that, Loras was ushered out of the room and down the stairs. He could hear people chatting in what he assumed was the kitchen, but Renly didn't stop to speak to them and Loras very much got the impression that Renly didn't want any of his housemates to see him leave.

Renly's car was a rather beat up red thing with a large dent in the front. Loras resisted the urge to sigh as he was pushed almost forcefully into the passenger seat. He'd thought previously that he'd hit an all time low as far as embarrassing situations went that time in year seven when his grandmother had decided to accompany his mother to parent's evening, but he thought this might just top it.

"Seatbelt." Renly instructed, not even looking at him as he put the key in the ignition. It took several tries to start. "Where do you live?"

Loras rolled his eyes and recited his address.

They drove for a while in silence, Loras watching the people passing by and trying to work out quite where they were in relation to his house. It wasn't long before Renly had turned onto a road he recognised and Loras guestimated it to be a couple of miles perhaps between his own house and where Renly lived.

"So," Loras started, thinking he had nothing left to lose here. "I'm guessing there isn't any chance of me seeing you again?"

"Certainly not." Renly said curtly, though Loras was pleased to see him hesitate slightly. As much as he was claiming now to be horrified, Loras knew that he'd very much enjoyed last night too, he'd certainly given that impression at the time at least. Loras grinned, remembering. At nineteen, or maybe even twenty or twenty one, depending on whether he'd taken a gap year, Renly was the oldest guy Loras had been with, and it had certainly showed.

"Suit yourself." Loras shrugged and they didn't speak again until Renly had pulled up on his road, thankfully a little way down from his house, for which Loras was grateful. This morning could only be made worse, he reckoned, by his parents finding out that he most certainly hadn't been staying at Robb's house like he'd told them.

He sighed as he made to get out the car, mildly surprised when the guy put his hand on his arm.

"Here's your ID back." He handed it back to him seemingly rather reluctantly, black hair falling over his eyes and making Loras' stomach do back flips. ""And nobody can know about this."

"Alright." Loras shrugged.

"Nobody" He repeated

"I said alright." Loras got up and shut the door behind him, sighing slightly. He supposed it was only ever going to have been a one night thing, but even so, he reckoned that this particular guy, with his silky black hair which felt so good knotted around Loras' fingers and his sparkling eyes which had seemed so green in the bar and yet were so clearly blue by the light of the street lamps, was going to be rather difficult to forget. All the same, he didn't turn around to say goodbye.