shadows_have_offended | (no subject)

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harry starks,
ig

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He has work in the morning, but it's not stopping him from going out. Besides, this is hardly going out. One of his coworkers put him up on a blind date, and so he's out for that--but the other guy was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago, so Neil doesn't think he's showing up at all. So here's Neil, standing outside of a bar, smoking and feeling a bit like an idiot for being stood up.

He should probably just go. If the guy wasn't here twenty minutes ago, or even five minutes ago, it's reasonable to say that he's not coming and Neil should just give up. He pulls out his phone and checks the texts. There's the one from his coworker, describing the guy he's supposed to be meeting, and there's the one from the guy, confirming that he has Neil's number.

Maybe he'll go to a club. Maybe he'll just go home so he can smoke in a heated room rather than shivering outside. Maybe he'll get this fucking meal and send a picture to the guy; his loss. Neil's an entirely pleasant date.

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"Beauty is wasted on the young," Harry quotes. "Friend of mine used to say that. Actor. Used to be real pretty in his youth. 'They don't know what they have.' He was an ugly old sod when I knew him. Good drinker, though. Good for business."

“Oh good to know I have cynical ugliness to look forward to in my old age,” Neil teases smartly. It’s easy to smile around Harry, to find the good humor in it. It’s nice to smile, with some space between the heartache of losing Goodnight and Billy Rocks and this evening, better than he expected.

Their food comes and Neil, who’s been sipping his drink steadily, orders a second one—heavy on the scotch.

Harry lets him, but orders a bottle of wine and two glasses just in case Neil wants to join him. "Sounds like tie start of a promising career in radio," he teases back.

The bottle of wine is something new. Neil drinks beer and liquor, mostly, and hasn't had much of an excuse to drink wine. He's seen it wine bottles at Guy and Anthony's, the couple times he's stayed over, but there's never been much of an excuse to have any of it.

"Did you do much else, back in London? Or did the club take up most of your time?"

Wine goes with a fancy dinner, or at least with dinner that you want to turn a little more fancy. It doesn't cross Harry's mind the kid has never had wine.

"I ran some businesses on the side," Harry says."Investments abroad, import and export, that sort of thing."

"A regular entrepreneur," Neil says with a rather charmed smile. He digs into his food, and smiles when the wine and his second drink show up. Possibly, mixing a scotch and soda and wine isn't his best plan.

Then again, it feels a bit like liquid courage. Not that he needs it so much. He's already said he's thinking about Harry's cock, and anything else that might happen after dinner and drinks feels spectacularly extra.

"Well, I grew up owning nothing, so I made money where I could find it. And if you're resourceful, money can be found anywhere."

He pours himself a glass. "Will you join me? It'll go better with your food than scotch and soda. Let's do it properly." he suggests with a pleasant smile.

Neil nods, nudging his wine glass closer so that Harry can pour him some. He’ll keep his scotch, but maybe wait until he’s enjoyed the wine. He’s got a little smile on as he watches Harry pour for him.

“I’d say you were trying to seduce me,” he says softly, “but that hardly takes a bottle of wine.”

Harry huffs a little laugh. "That too," he admits with a lopsided smile. "But for now I just think a nice dinner deserves a drink that doesn't come with a straw."

It is a rather nice dinner, if only because it's with good company, and far better than he was expecting with this blind date he had. He wouldn't call whatever it is Harry and he are doing just now a date--a coincidence, maybe, and a happy chance, but not a date.

He lifts his glass in a little toast. "I hope you're not thinking this gets you out of coming back to the cafe some time," he says, and then sips his wine. He's not sure he likes it. He's sure it will grow on him.

"You sure?" Harry teases. "Your friends were quite unforgiving." They kept giggling about Neil's interest - and the bruise on the nape of his neck. Perhaps he shouldn't think of the nape of Neil's neck too much in public.

But he likes knowing Neil likes his company. He's certainly enjoying Neil's company.

"I should give them something to gossip about," Neil says without shame. He shrugs a bit. They're no worse than his friends at Welton had ever been, and so Neil isn't bothered by their giggling and teasing. And, as with teasing Rosie about her friends, sometimes it's nice to give them a little fuel for the fire.

"They're all natives, so they're awfully boring, anyway. I can afford to be the interesting one."

"Yeah, I get that that," Harry understands. "I've been talking to people all day but the - natives," he says, copying Neil's word. "Are a strange bunch. Don't know if that'll make it easier or more difficult to start a business, but we'll see."

"They can be alright, they're just very...flat sometimes." He's gone out with some, slept with a few others. He's been rather charmed, a time or two, by the young man that keeps up after Guy and Anthony; they've chatted a number of times, now that he's been in and out of the apartment. It's different than trying to gauge their interest in a new business. He's got no insight on that at all.

"And there's plenty of us to keep most businesses going, I'd think."

"Yeah, but you wanna be inclusive. At least at first. They don't seem to take it very kindly to us taking over their jobs." Harry speaks easily, quite at ease with this kid. "So you don't want to give off the impression you're imposing on them, or that you're better than them. If Nigeria taught me anything it's that."

Neil listens attentively, because Harry's clearly thought on it in his brief time in Darrow. It's not things that Neil has necessarily had to consider because he isn't a businessman of any sort, but listening to Harry is really quite pleasant.

"Nigeria?" he inquires. "Do you mean the country, or was that a person you know? I only ask because I know someone who goes by Poison, so I try to not guess anymore."

Neil looks like he enjoys hearing Harry talk and that stokes his ego pleasantly.

He smiles. "No, the country. I invested a lot of money in a project there, but... Well, it turned out to.be one big scam. Quite a clever one, actually, but it ain't that funny when you've put in for it."

Neil nods, now that it's cleared up. He's heard, a few times, his parents fighting about money and investments and schemes. Most of it had flown over his head, and he thinks that was deliberate on his own part, not wanting to listen when they fight.

"No, I imagine not," he agrees sympathetically. "I hope things are simpler, at least, to get started and to keep going."

Then he smiles a little flirtatiously. "You did offer me a job once it's off the ground, after all. I think I have to hope for the best now."

It's a very pretty smile and it makes Harry want to forget dinner (well, it's been a while since a pretty boy smiled at him quite like that). But he's always been proper, so it's dinner first. "If you can tear yourself away from your current job, of course," he jokes lightly. "I'll make sure it's a deal you can't refuse."

"I'm a little torn on the music," he admits. "I don't think I understand most of it, or maybe I'm just not on what they're on. I've come across some very strange stuff... But I don't want be too old-fashioned about it either."

"I think it depends more on if I get into my program," Neil admits. He likes the cafe--the people are kind and friendly with him, he likes the customers and the drinks. But if he's in school, he's not sure how he'll balance things. "When you would need me, that sort of thing."

But he thinks on the music. He loves music in Darrow--less the Darrow music than the things that have come in from other places over the years--because he gets to listen to so much variety. "It might depend on the sort of atmosphere you're going for. Not like the dance clubs I go to sometimes, I think."

"We'll make it work," Harry promises. Yeah, well... It's not a job Harry's interest in giving Neil anyway, but it's nice and flirty to pretend it is.

Music is evidently a good subject, because Neil's face lights up. "Not like those, no. I ain't much of a dancer," he says, gesturing himself vaguely. It should be obvious to anyone that he isn't made for dancing. He thinks he'd like to watch Neil dance, but that's a different matter. "Not that I mind dancing in my club. As long as I don't have to participate."

Neil doesn't argue on if Harry is a dancer or not, but he does look him over as he gestures at him, sipping his wine. The dancing here in Darrow isn't exactly formal. It's more fucking with clothes on. He thinks Harry looks like a great dancer, in that regard.

"What about jazz?" He thinks of movies set in the twenties, the speakeasies and dance halls and all that. It's an awfully romantic idea, silly and young of him. But he'd go to a club like that. Not just because of the man across the table from him.

"I like jazz," Harry says. "I put on jazz acts whenever I could at the Stardust. I had Judy Garland perform at my club once." He speaks proudly. It had been a disastrous night for her, but Harry remembered the good bits. It was Judy. At his club.

Neil is, understandably, impressed by the name. He loves Judy Garland, and he can tell that it's a bright spot for Harry, too. There's no one like that here in Darrow, that sort of drawing star power, even if there are a couple up-start musical acts that do well.

"But you could do something awfully smart with a sort of Cabaret theme, I think, couldn't you? Good music and lots of acts and show tunes. People can dance and drink." Neil blushes a little, because he does imagine that all this has already occurred to Harry. "Sorry."

Harry smiles. It occurs to him he's been doing a lot of smiling tonight. More than he's done in a long while. Genuine and easy. And it's all thanks to the boy in front of him.

"Don't be. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who likes that sort of thing. It's a good idea." He's thought of it, but never thought it could work here.

He takes his glass and sips his wine. "And worth the investment if it gets you smiling like that."