May 26. 5:58 PM.
"... And so, I totally ended up as the obvious winner," Sharrkan finished, slamming his mug down on the table to emphasize his point. "And the guy admitted it, so I bought the whole tavern another round -" he paused to take another swig - "since I'm such an awesome guy."
"Modest, too," snorted Yamuraiha from the edge of the table, leaning against her propped-up arms. "And I'm sure you guys became life-long buddies and so forth. We're not stupid."
Sharrkan waved his arms, nearly clocking a disgruntled Masrur with his tankard as he earnestly backed up his claim. Sinbad, leaning back with his feet propped up against the table, hid a smirk. Masrur had gotten sandwiched in between Sharrkan and Yamuraiha at the start of their impromptu party - which had snowballed because of Sharrkan, by the way, this was not his doing - and, patient as he was, Sin was pretty sure Masrur was starting to regret it. Beside him, Drakon snorted slightly into his mug as Sharrkan stood up and leaned over Masrur to further illustrate his claim.
"Some party, eh?" Sin muttered to Drakon. "Bet you in less than five minutes he's standing on the table or trying to get us to play truth or dare again."
"Are you actually betting money, or just musing?" Drakon replied mildly. "Because my money's on him giving you the third-degree about our newest acquaintance. He's wanted to for the past few days."
Sin raised his eyebrow - and Drakon actually laughed at him. "Come now, do you think we haven't noticed how you look at Ja'far?"
Sin hastily took a swig from his tankard to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks. These guys were all too smart for their own good, and they weren't afraid to pick on him for it. When his cheeks felt a little less like they were going to melt off from embarrassment, he cleared his throat and whispered back, "What, how am I looking at -"
"So, Sin!" Sinbad ended up frantically juggling his jug for a few seconds as Sharrkan slammed his hands on the table in front of him. "What's the dealio with you and Ja'far, huh?"
... What.
"Hey, no," Sin objected, placing his mug back on the table where it was in less danger of flying off, "You were just listening to Drakon and I, weren't you? Spit it out, go on. Don't you lie to me."
"What? No. Nooooo. No, no, no. Sinbad. Sin. Dude." Yep, looked like Sharrkan was starting to get a little loopy. "I wasn't. My point was proven. But this is something totally unrelated!" He pointed his index finger at Sin like he was a naughty child. "So go on. What's going on between you 'n' Ja'far?"
"I wanna know, too," volunteered Yamuraiha, grinning. "You've been out of it, and even worse than usual."
Sin looked to his right for support, but Drakon was smirking at him, and he wasn't going to be any help at all. "Masrur, man, help me out. A man's allowed to have his secrets, right?" he implored.
Masrur looked at him.
Then, "I'm curious too."
Sin felt slightly betrayed.
"Don't dodge the question. Sin. Siiiiiinnnnbad." Sharrkan patted the table in front of Sin to get his attention. "You run off after that speech, we're attacked by ninjas, then a few days later you show up with a hot dude with freckles who you obviously adore and who obviously likes you. So spill." He suddenly plopped down in his chair and stretched his arms across the table. "C'mon, man, please? We don't judge, we like Ja'far." The others nodded in agreement.
Sin looked around at them all - then he leaned back and covered his face with his hands. Yeah, he was blushing. "Is it really that obvious?"
A resounding "YES!" was his reply. He groaned.
"Don't worry, we won't tease you... much." Drakon patted his back.
Sin huffed then looked at Sharrkan. "Okay, fine. What do you want to know?"
"Everything!" Sharrkan cracked his knuckles with a smirk. "Or are we playing twenty questions? Guys. We gotta ask some good stuff."
Yamuraiha interrupted the impeding rant. "How did you guys meet? I'm assuming you didn't just randomly see him in the plaza and decide, 'Oh, I'm going to go chase this random guy just for fun.'"
"Even though that's something you'd do anyway," interjected Sharrkan, who seemed determined to lead this conversation. "Go on, man."
"We met in a long dark alley," Sin deadpanned. They all stared at him. Well, that was technically true... "Okay, I snuck out of the palace and met him on a midnight wandering, satisfied?"
"Sneaking out? You sly dog." Sharrkan leaned back and smirked. "Recent, or for a while?"
"Recent."
"And a kickass guy like him didn't punch you in the face? I'm a little surprised."
"Urm. Well, he did boot me in the back." Sin rubbed his head. "But I didn't really mind."
"Because he's hot?"
"Partly." And because he intrigued me. From the start, he had my attention...
"You trust him a lot." Yamuraiha had a knowing look on her face. Sin blinked at her.
"Yeah. I do. I just - I felt right away I could trust him, you know? And I know he trusts me, and it's awesome." Sin tried to refrain from babbling, but he could feel amusement radiating from the rest. Yeah, he was obvious, wasn't he?
"Did you kiss him?" Before Sin could reply, Sharrkan continued. "No, that's a dumb question, I already know the answer to that. Did you -"
"I'm not answering that," cut in Sin like the smooth guy he was, ignoring Yamuraiha's giggles. "And how do you know we kissed?"
"First of all, I'm awesome and just know; second, it's intuitively obvious, and third, you guys kissed in front of a lot of people the other night, I know there was a crisis going on, but I saw it, so don't deny it." Sharrkan crossed his arms. Sin was starting to think he'd developed a permanent blush.
Then Masrur spoke up. "You're in love with him." Sin's eyes shot up to meet his, but his face was completely serious. Then he looked around - the others were grinning at him, partly amused, but Sin could see glimmers of happiness and pride in their eyes.
Sin cleared his throat. "Yeah," he said softly. Then, louder, "Yeah, I am. A lot."
Drakon clapped him on the back. Sharrkan gestured grandly at him. "Look at this guy. Conqueror of dungeons, lord of Sindria, now you're in love with a guy who is head over heels with you - and he's got freckles and is all mysterious and snarky and awesome - you're one lucky guy, ya know that?"
Sin just grinned back.
Yeah. He really was.
He wouldn't have it any other way.
