The boy came back, and it wasn't even 10 yet. He checked. Gareth – or Gary, who was actually a sweet guy beneath his creepy, flirting self – had eventually gotten around to serving customers who weren't female after he reminded his boss that he would demand extra pay if he was going to let him do everything.

It was just him and the boss from 6 30 to 11 30, then the morning shift crew took over, Robert and Catrina. Just the two of them. It was a small pub, but it had quite the name or itself, seeing as it was the only pub in the neighbourhood.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as the ginger slid into a booth at a corner of the pub and tried not to look out of place all alone.

He returned his focus to the pair of chuckling twins at the counter, who just asked for a Mojito. Going to share, it looked like. They were laughing about something their little sister had done to their younger brother for looking into her dairy.

He tapped in two teaspoon of sugar into the cocktail shaker before adding in white rum. With a few hard shakes, he poured it into a cocktail glass, "Here you go, guys."

"Bit young, aren't you?" one of them asked as the other peered cautiously into the drink.

"I'm 18, boys. Legal age to be working."

"This isn't bad for us, is it?" the other one piped up, looking up from his cocktail at him.

"First time at a pub?" he quirked an eyebrow, uncorking a bottle of beer and grabbing a clean glass quickly as his ears caught an order for one.

The red-headed twins exchanged glances before grinning cheekily at him, "Yeah, you could say that." They said in unison.

His eyebrows rose slightly, a smirk toying at his lips, "I'm impressed," he slid the glass of beer to the man at the end of the counter, then turned back to the two, "You practice that?"

"Do we?" the one on the left asked his brother.

"Should we tell him?"

He laughed, shaking his head, "Alright then. Keep your little secret."

He turned to Gary, "I'm taking orders, take over for me, yeah?" and didn't wait before he left the counter, heading straight for the ginger, who had seen him coming and was looking down at the menu as if totally engrossed in it.

It was kinda cute, in a way; how shy he was.

"Can I get you anything?"

The boy looked up at him, as if surprised he was there, "Oh. It's you."

He smiled, spinning the pen in his fingers, "Back for more whiskey?"

"You know, I was thinking," the ginger started, eyes cast on the wooden table before him, a finger jabbing lightly at a crack, "I don't even know your name, and we're thinking about a relationship."

He smirked amusedly and spring green eyes turned to him interestedly, waiting for his answers, "I'm John."

"Ah. Rory."

He shook the offered hand, meeting Rory's budding smile with his own, visibly trying hard not to over-react despite his nervousness being almost tangible. Straight guys were so adorable sometimes.

"John! Stop flirting with the customer!"

He blushed a light pink, barely visible in this lighting, but Rory obviously caught it, if the small smirk was any indication. He cleared his throat, "Well, what would you like to order?"

"Um…" Rory looked down at the menu, "The Blue Lagoon looks… nice."

"That all?"

"Yeah, unless you recommend anything else."

He smiled, pleasantly surprised at the sudden boost of confidence Rory seemed to have had, "You don't look very hungry, a snack, maybe?" he bent over the table to trail his finger down the list of snacks, "The salt and vinegar potato chips is a favourite."

"I'll have that too then."

"And I'll be right back with your order."

"It's 11 30."

Robert had arrived, the boss had turned in for the night, having no intention of coming out until late in the day, and Catrina had called to inform she would be late. That was okay though – the customers had thinned, and at 1, most would have gone home; there wouldn't be a mass until 4 in the morning.

It was like this every day.

He slid into the booth Rory was at, sitting opposite him, "Made your decision?"

Rory had locked his fingers together when he saw him approach and was probably pleasantly buzzed enough for this conversation.

"You already know that my girlfriend recently broke up with me."

He inclined his head politely, "Yes."

"Though I want to… give this, us, a go, I don't want my emotions about my ex-girlfriend to get in the way of what we could be. It would be… selfish of me, to hurry this along. She hasn't even officially broken up with me. It's just that she keeps banging my brother."

Rory's eyebrows creased and his lips twisted into angrily, emotions exaggerated by the alcohol in his blood, probably, and his fingers curled into fists. He ducked his head down, as if hiding his face, lips pursed.

He pressed his lips together sympathetically, "Yeah?" he encouraged softly, ignoring the way the music dipped, ignoring Robert, basically, who was a bloody romantic.

"He flaunts it, taunts me with it," Rory's shoulders rose tensely, "In the middle of having sex with Laura, he called me. He called me and left the bloody phone on."

Jeez. He winced, because though Harry does occasionally steal his girlfriends, at least she never taunted him so openly.

He placed his hand gently against Rory's right fist, curling his fingers around the other boy's hand.

"Just after me and Laura had a row." Rory squeezed his hand, shoulders slumping as all rage left him, "And Daniel has a girlfriend, who is in Thailand, and is Laura's sister. How can he do that?"

He had no idea. The idea that someone could was inconceivable to him.

"I'm sorry."

A sudden quiet understanding dawned on him. Rory wasn't all that ready, so he pulled his hand back, but the ginger grabbed onto it, both hands clasped warmly around it.

Rory looked at him, looking as if he had something he wanted to say, and after all his contemplating, he would say it, "You really mean that, don't you?"

"Of course." He said, offering a careful smile as his eyes strayed to their hands, "I understand. You're not sure. I suppose it was too soon-"

Rory leaned over the table and pressed his lips to his in a hesitant awkward kiss.

His eyes widened in surprise, pleasant surprise, mind, because he didn't object, at all.

"That alright?" Rory asked after he pulled away, clearing his throat abashedly, looking at him with an expectant expression, a light blush at his cheeks.

He smiled, "Yeah. That's alright. You made your decision then. Not too wasted, are you?"

"I have high tolerance for alcohol." Rory told him, then looked uncertain for a moment, humming lightly, "We're boyfriends now?"

"That's what the kiss meant, didn't it?"

"Yup." The word rolled off Rory's tongue in a way that made him give a small laugh of delight, or perhaps that was because he just found a new boyfriend after the last one, the other one, a year ago.

He stood up from his seat, "Need help getting back?"

"Not really."

He shrugged, just as Rory stood up from his own seat, hands snaking into his jacket.

Rory stalled at the door, lingering there uncertainly, in a way that told him that he wanted to say something. So he threw his coat over his shoulders, but made no move to walk out the door, waiting for Rory to say whatever he wanted to say.

"There's… a party at my place." Rory finally did.

"What?" it came out like a sort of disbelieving laugh, raising his eyebrows.

"My parent's anniversary, a wedding party, and… a friend of my father's apparently just keeled over." Rory said awkwardly, slowly, halting after a few words as he looked out the window, "They're having a really loud party. Everyone from the neighbourhood is at our house. We can go to my bedroom."

He raised an eyebrow, just as what Rory said caught up with him and he flushed.

"Moving a bit too fast, don't you think?" he questioned.

"Not- we're not doing anything yet," Rory coughed, embarrassedly, "I just thought- urgh, never mind, just- forget I said anything,"

"Going over to my boyfriend's house so early is rather unusual for me." He admitted, hands clasped behind his back as he rocked back on his heels, "But, if it's a party…"

Rory turned to him in surprise, "Really?" as a smile started to creep across his lips.

He gave the pretence of thinking it for a few seconds longer, humming lightly, before he turned to the ginger, "Yeah. Not a fan of loud noises though, so."

"We're not doing anything."

"We're not doing anything." He repeated.