"I'll take another." I tapped the bar top with two fingers after the announcement.

The curly haired bartender nodded and slid me another full glass.

"Can I get you anything else?" He asked.

The drink melting my inhibitions and the way his heavy lashes hooded his eyelids making me bold, "your number?"

He ran his finger around the rim of my glass, "do you one better. I live upstairs. Come find me once I close this shithole down."

I downed my drink, tantalized by his matching my energy. I would absolutely be following him up on his offer.

I left a twenty on the bar and slipped outside to wait for him to shut it down. Soon enough people started to spill out into the night. It was cool, late autumn chill settling in the air, almost Halloween, silly decorations hung in shop windows down the strip. Passing the time on my phone, trying to look casual, I waited for him, kept warm by the arousal burning a hole through me.

Finally he came outside, now clad in a leather jacket, lighting a cigarette. He smiled around it.

"Hey," he nodded to me, "you stuck around."

"Yeah. What'd you say your name was?"

"John."

"Alex."

"How drunk are you?"

"Not drunk enough."

"Come on, I can fix that." He flicked the cigarette to the ground and placed his hand on the small of my back.

My breath exhaled in a shaky cloud around me, helplessly intrigued by his advances. I let him guide me up the metallic stairs to the second floor where he fumbled with his keys to unlock the door. His apartment was small, grungy, exactly what I'd expect. John reached down and plugged in Christmas lights, giving the room a soft glow.

"What's your poison? Rum still?"

"I'm… yeah. Rum."

He moved to get it, leaving me feeling awkward, I usually wasn't sober enough to remember hook ups, and shit, none of them had been with people this attractive.

"Can I help with glasses or something?"

He peered through the breakfast bar, "tonight, we're drinking straight from the bottle."

From another area in the apartment a low, sexual moaning began. I tried to laugh the sounds off, "neighbours?"

John flushed, igniting the freckles across the bridge of his nose, "no, uh, just give me a second."

He handed me the bottle and went down the hall, Doc Martens squeaking on the worn wooden floors. With caution, I took a sip from the bottle, even if he was hiding a gimp tied up in his bedroom, he had good rum, it was worth a gamble.

"You're supposed to be sleeping, you know better." John's voice was musical, playful.

There was a chirping squeak, too low for me to make out, but John responded to it conversationally.

"Your sister is sleeping, why can't you be good like her?"

Sister? What the fuck had I gotten myself into. I contemplated leaving while I could, before I ended up clad in latex and chained to a radiator, but the rum was good and I was painfully curious.

"I suppose you want a snack now, huh?"

A sharp squeak of delight followed.

"Calm down, we have company, be nice."

His footsteps came down the hallway before he did. I braced myself, there was only one set of them. When John appeared, a small blue and grey bird sat on his shoulder, nuzzling his cheek.

"This is Dali." John said, offering his finger to the bird who stepped onto the waiting digit.

He held the animal out towards me. I laughed and took a deep swallow from the bottle in relief.

"You have... birds?"

"Yeah, his sister Kahlo is sleeping like a good girl,but someone's naughty. Hey, don't eat my hair, I'll flick you."

"Ow! Naughty b-ird." Dali responded, bobbing his head.

"That's right, very naughty. Make yourself at home, Alex, give me a second with this little asshole."

"Was he… moaning?" I asked.

John rolled his eyes before he turned to open the refrigerator, getting out some fresh berries, "someone listens to things they shouldn't."

"Ah...ah...ah-ah... ah...oooh! Fu-ck!" The bird mocked from his finger.

John shook his head, "that's naughty."

"Naughty bird!" Dali responded.

"You wanna feed him? He's got a cute tiny little tongue."

"I'm good. Thanks." I backed up a step, wanting nothing to do with it.

"He's sweet." John offered the bird a chunk of strawberry and I watched it bite his finger.

He winced, "don't be an asshole."

"Fucker!" The bird chirped happily.

"He likes to show off for new people. Sorry. I didn't mean to go all 'weird bird guy' that's not a good pre-hookup look."

"I li-ike that! Yeah-yeah yeah!" Dali bobbed his head in succession.

"Don't birds only mimic what they hear a lot?"

John bit his lip and giggled, "I mean… for the most part, yes."

"So he must hear a lot of that?" I took another swig of the astringent liquid, getting buzzed enough to decide that getting off was more of a priority than being freaked out by a self-proclaimed weird bird guy.

"Enough." John shrugged.

"What do you think you're going to teach him tonight?"

"Alex, huh? Yeah. I just might teach him that."

I grinned back at him, this weird bird guy was fucking hot.

"Alright, it's well past someone's bed time, so give me just a minute and then I'm all yours."

He disappeared back down the hall against, quietly chastising his pet the whole way, something about being quiet and not waking his 'sister.' When he came back he was pulling off his jacket, showing off the tight v neck t-shirt he'd been wearing all night.

"Look, I'm really sorry about all that. Hope it wasn't a total mood killer for you."

"I've seen some weird shit, you're sexy enough for me to get past that."

"Good. Godammit you're sexy." His hand found the center of my chest and he pushed me back against his old leather sofa.

My calves found the edge of the furniture and he pressed me down into it, straddling me.

"Give me that bottle." He took it from my hand and gulped an impressive drink from it, before setting it on the ground.

Before I could calculate his next move his mouth was on mine His kisses were frantic, mouth cold from the rum, his tongue working over mine. The feeling of the crotch of his jeans pressing against me was my undoing. Hands in my hair, tearing free the elastic keeping it pulled back. My head being pulled back but the grip at the nape of my neck, our kiss deepened.

He eventually pulled off of me and licked his lips, now swollen and stained red as the berries he'd fed his bird. His hands pulled at the hem of my shirt and I moved to allow him to remove it, he pulled off his own, shadows from the streetlights fell on his abs. I bit my lip and arched my back to feel the warmth of his skin.

"Fucking sexy… all night in my bar." He panted.

"Wanted you to fuck me right there." I agreed, tipping my chin up to graze his nipple with my teeth.

His whole body shuddered at my touch and he moved us to lie down on the couch, him still on top of me.

"You thought downstairs was sexy, just wait for what I'm about to do to you tonight."

My mind swam heavily from the alcohol giving my body the freedom to behave independently of my cognizance. My legs wrapped around his hips, drawing our pelvises closer together. He ground against me, pubic bone tantalizing me. He filled the space between my parted lips with his kiss and I moaned deeply into him.

There was another moan from his bedroom, he reached behind himself and untied his boot, ripped it off and only broke our kiss to shout, "be quiet and go to sleep," while chucking the boot down the hall.

I couldn't stifle my laugh and pulled away from him to properly wheeze with laughter. John rolled his eyes and pulled off his other boot, this time gently setting it down.

"You want me to fuck you?" He asked, curls cascading down around my face.

"Been waiting." I told him.

"Hard?"

I swallowed, sure that in that very moment my pupils had blown, and nodded.

"You want me to make you come, leavie you wilted on my cock?"

"Like the last goddamn bloom on the vine."

I gripped the tendrils looming in my face and pulled him to me again, needed to taste him again. Needed to feel his mouth on mine, those swollen lips. His hands moved between us, fidgeting with my zipper, he pulled my pants off and gripped my ass. I unbuckled his belt and repeated the actions, dropping his pants to his knees, leaving him in loose cotton boxers.

"Are you going to take me or what?" I asked him, licking the shell of his ear.

He got off of me and stepped the rest of the way out of his pants, leaving him down to his socks and underwear, even his thighs were muscular. I was in for one hell of a night. I stood up, the world tilted at an angle by the rum.

"Come on, darlin'," he guided me down the hallway, stumbling over his discarded boot, less sure of himself after drinking, and opened the door.

John's bedroom was small, occupied by his unmade bed in the center, under the window. In the corner sat the birds' cage, covered in a thin blanket.

He was on top of me once more, lips fervently at war with one another. Hands searching, finding, rejoicing. He moved away, returning with lube and condoms.

His hands, he was so gentle, even in our frantic dash to consume and be consumed. There was heat and friction. He cupped my head and kissed me again, our bodies working against each other in tandem.

The bars of light let in by the blinds on the window illuminated him in fragments, his golden eyes, the tip of his nose, those lips. His grunts were those of the bird from earlier. He gasped, around our kisses and stared down at me.

He speech was punctuated by the movement of his body, "so, fucking, perfect."

Loosening a hand from where I'd tangled it in his hair I stroked his cheek, had to touch that beautiful face, had to have that intimacy with him.

"Ah, Alex." His mouth hung open, eyes staring down at me.

"Love how you feel." I gritted my teeth, bracing against the sensations.

One of his hands found my ass again, hitching me up into him even closer. I hissed against the feeling and felt my eyebrows knitting closer to one another.

"Alex, fucking shit, Alex." His breathing was in ragged gasps.

"You feel so fucking good." I nibbled at the skin of his wrist, hand pressing into the bed next to my head.

"Alex," he moaned again, eyes hooding.

His bliss exploded in a string of curses and sharp, staccato movements, still working to throw me off the cliff after him.

I ground against his actions, needing him more than ever. I chased euphoria, running after it, breathing hard, and dove over the ledge, my body wracked with shivers not from cold, but rather from heat.

"That was fucking incredible." I sighed, waiting for blood to start flowing to my extremities again.

He lit a cigarette, "pretty fucking incredible."

I started to look over the edge of the bed for my discarded undergarments but felt his warm hand pulling me back. His arms wrapped around me and pulled me tightly to his chest.

"Stay here, even just for a little bit."

"Oh... yeah? You're sure?"

His legs threaded through mine and he took another drag, "positive, and, hey, I'm not saying I make the best scrambled eggs and hot sauce in the world in the morning, but I am offering for you to judge them for yourself."

"Is there toast?" I asked, trying to stay playful.

"Sourdough."

"Alright you got me."

He stubbed his cigarette out in the ashtray beside his bed and found the comforter to wrap us in.

"I think this was the best birthday I've ever had." He sighed contentedly.

"It's your birthday? Shit, happy birthday, John."

"Thanks," he nuzzled into the crook of my shoulder, heavy with sleep.

From under the blanket in the corner of the room came a squawk of, "A-a? A-a-a. A-ah. Alex!" Followed by delighted chirps.

"Godammit, go to sleep, Dali!" John groaned in my ear, halfway sleeping.