Author's Note: Hello everyone out there in reader land! I was listening to Panic! At The Disco earlier and got swept up in inspiration so you'll recognize plot elements from a couple of their songs. This is where the disclaimer comes in: I do not own anything you recognize as P!ATD's or Queen Rowling's. Anywho, I've never written a Ginny/Theo before, so wish me luck and I hope you enjoy it!
The smell of cheap wine and sweat permeated the air while the lurid costumes stood as a lure behind hazy, smoke filled air. Music meant to ensnare the listeners came pounding out of the speakers in every direction as girls clung to poles and danced enticingly as the men fairly panted in anticipation. Theo hated it. He had never liked strip clubs and was less than thrilled that his friends had chosen to hold his stag party here. He had not even wanted to have the party and Blaise knew how much he hated these places, though he suspected it was Draco's planning. His suspicions were confirmed later in the evening after Draco had had a few too many and let slip that he would convert his friend if it was the last thing he did.
Theo was getting married the next morning and this was the last place he wanted to be. Truth be told, he would love to be in bed with Stella celebrating privately. She was being old fashioned about the whole ordeal though and insisted they keep to the old traditions which included not seeing each other before the wedding. Stella had decided that extended for the entire day before, which had proved a bit hassling while trying to arrange the final details of the ceremony, but it was what she had wanted. Everything had come together, so she had known what she was doing. Now though, he had no excuse to bow out early and decided to make his friends think it was a good night.
A few rounds in and Theo knew it had been a bad idea, but he was already this far down the path of idiocy, there was no turning back.
"I knew you'd come around eventually mate," Draco punched him in the shoulder and Blaise shot him a sympathetic glance. Blaise always saw right through his pretenses, though he rarely called him out on them.
"Oh Draco, you have no idea," Theo drawled and Blaise almost choked on his drink, but covered it with a cough.
After seeing Greg and Vince receive lap dances, Theo was fairly certain his evening could not get worse, but that was before Draco ushered a dancer over and paid for Theo to have a stag night lap dance as he called it. The woman was pretty, but in a forced, cosmetic way that Theo found unappealing. To be fair though, he thought most of it was that he did not want anyone but Stella and this woman was the opposite of his fiancé. Stella was tall and serene with long blond hair that she kept in loose curls that swept down to the middle of her back. Her blue eyes were nearly crystalline with their intensity and her lips were always the shade of pink that begged for another kiss. This woman had short raven hair and shocking red lips that Theo knew would leave marks on any glass unfortunate enough to meet them.
"No, really that's alright. Draco, mate, you should take the dance for me," Theo tried to dissuade his friend, but he was not having it. So, Blaise was stuck in a chair with a lapful of woman who was not Stella on the eve before his wedding. The dance seemed to last forever and he could not even put a smile on his face. Luckily Theo's face was covered from sight by the woman's ample chest, so his friends would never know how very uncomfortable he had been.
"I think I should get Theo home now, I'm not going to be on the bad end of Stella's list tomorrow when her groom is still drunk during the wedding," Blaise hauled Theo out of his chair as if the groom-to-be was trashed and needed the help and whispered, "You owe me."
"Aww, the night was just starting!" Draco argued with Greg and Vince backing him up.
"We can always come back again another time, but for now, I'd rather not be cursed," Blaise said before walking Theo out of the establishment.
They were back out onto the street before anything else could be said and any more fuss could be made. The two were not taking any chances though and sped down the street before finding an empty alley they could apparate back to Blaise's flat from. Neither were inebriated as Theo was waiting for his chance to escape all night and Blaise assumed he would have to save his friend before Draco did something overly ridiculous. It was his duty as the best man to save the day and he intended to keep his head on the off chance anything needed to be saved. They landed safely in Blaise's living area not two seconds after they were standing on dirty pavement.
"I hate apparating," Theo poured himself a scotch from Blaise's personal collection and made sure to include one for his best man in the process.
"Yes, we all know," Blaise replied with a chuckle. No one was surprised when Theo was one of the first in their year to achieve apparating, though him throwing up after appearing had caused a stir in the gossip pool for some time.
"Oh let it go! That was years ago and I haven't thrown up after apparating in forever," Theo insisted.
"So last month after the ministry ball was what, a fluke?" Blaise could not help but needle Theo, it had been his source of entertainment for twenty-three years and was unlikely to change any time soon.
"That shouldn't count because I was hammered and Stella wanted to get home without getting dust on her new dress. It was the alcohol and not the apparating that made it happen," Theo would not let Blaise win this argument.
"I still say that you should have gone through the queue for the floo. I even tried warning Stella, but she seemed rather unconcerned," Blaise took a sip of his scotch before putting his feet up on the coffee table in front of their chairs.
"She was very concerned about getting me home and into bed that night as I recall," Theo smirked devilishly at his friend.
"And did she still feel that way after your alcohol induced vomit got all over her shoes?" Blaise asked triumphantly. He knew how this story ended and it was not with a couple kisses and goodnight.
"I still say the couch was my idea that night so that I did not accidentally vomit on her in my sleep," Theo stuck to his story as he had through all the teasing his friends had given him over the past few weeks for it.
"You can say what you will, I heard Stella's side from Arista last week," Blaise's cousin happened to be Stella's best friend which had come in handy at the beginning of Theo's relationship. Having the inside scoop always made things easier.
"So what did Arista have to say?" Theo asked dismissively.
"That Stella did a bit of shrieking before condemning you to the couch and a rather sexless week," Blaise laughed at his friend's discomfort and refilled his glass in lieu of an apology.
"I was holding out on her so she would realize what she was missing out on," Blaise let Theo's rather thin excuse hold and they toasted Theo's coming nuptials until early in the morning when they decided they really should not show up to the ceremony hung over.