Party time in Doucheville! [TALLY!]

[Rhi-Rhi]

The venue was nice!

The local children's hospital had rented out the Harriet Hotel for the charity's benefit dinner, which had gone smoothly. Good food, good people, and Gabriel had even wore a suit for it (a suit! And he looked pretty danged dapper if he did say so himself, which he did). He'd also had to give an impromptu speech, as one of the Pilots that had come to the event, and he thanked the gods that public speaking no longer fazed him, though doing a speech for a fancy and prestigious charity was a lot different than making an appearance at a gaming panel at a convention. He hoped people laughed because he was funny and not because he was awkward.

After dinner, the party moved down into the bar and lounge--probably to get people liquored up before the raffle, and before the donation box was passed around. It was while Gabriel was heading over to purchase tickets that he saw, right as a woman moved out of the way and cleared a path for him.

Aydan.

Aydan was fucking here?!

And he was right in front of him, practically face to face.

Gabriel froze in mid-step and just stared, because it was too late to slip back into the crowd. No. Freakin' Way.

[Tally]

Aydan thanked the clerk and pocketed his raffled tickets.  When he turned to head back to his table he found himself face to face with Gabriel.

"Pilot Tierney," he said, nodding.  He clasped his hands behind his back, in no mood frankly to deal with one of the Pilot's fits.  "Your speech was inspiring.  I believe everyone found it very moving."

Meaningless and obligatory pleasantry out of the way, he returned to his assigned table where his date lounged, a tall boy with black hair, purple eyes, and skin of an appropriate shade.

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Uh. Yeah," Gabriel said, and because there were people around, added on a quick, "Thanks."

Then he moved past Aydan and over to the lady selling the tickets, eager to have that be the end of it, because just the sight of that man put him in a sour mood. He could never forget the things he'd said. About Roman. About Temple. About him. But he needed to be on his A game tonight, and they could exist in the same room as long as they gave each other a wide berth.

Tickets purchased, he headed to his assigned table and...

And just knew someone, somewhere, was fucking with him.

There was his name. And there was Aydan, sitting opposite his name placard.

Don't make a scene, don't make a scene... But he couldn't not say anything, either. With a deep breath, Gabriel pulled out his chair, flopped down into it, and started to angle his chair so he could face more toward the stage.

"You've got an uncanny knack for showing up where I don't want you to be," he said under his breath, then stopped, because the person with Aydan caught his eye and made his breath catch.

For the split second it took him to glimpse the boy out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn it was Temple.

[Tally]

"Said the psychic."  Aydan flashed a wan smile then let it drop, gaze traveling back to the stage.

The boy—Aydan actually forgot his name...Eion?—scooted his chair closer to Aydan.  He eyes shown, starstruck by Gabriel.

"Pilot Tierney," he said, leaning forward.  "It's so wonderful to meet you in person!"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Creepy. This was so, so creepy. The resemblance was uncanny, and he was...with Aydan?

Gabriel stared at the Temple lookalike long enough for it to be uncomfortable before he realized that he had spoken. "Oh! Yeah! Thanks! Nice to meetcha too, ah...I'm not sure I caught your name?"

[Tally]

"Eden," the boy said.  "Thank you so much for your service, Pilot Tierney."

Aydan's hand landed on the back of the boy's neck and he squeezed it lightly, an unmistakably possessive gesture that the boy seemed to enjoy--he leaned back into it and lay a hand on Aydan's leg.
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"Your work with the jump drive nav computers inspired so many people in my tech club, sir," Eden continued.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Euuuugh...

Gabriel managed, just barely, to repress the full body shudder that went through him at that creepy little PDA. With any other couple, it would have been cute. But knowing what he did about Aydan, it was just squicktastic. Did Eden really like the guy? Because why? Couldn't he smell the sleaze?

Because seriously, the kid had a tech club! He knew about the jump drive nav computers! He was a geek! A precious cinnamon roll! Whyyy was he with creepo here?!

He swallowed down the impulse to vomit. Either word vomit or actual vomit, he wasn't sure. He wanted to warn him, but he had nothing concrete except "this guy is an asshole way too interested in his son's sex life and also you look like his other son isn't that weird?" Wasn't exactly something you just thrust on a guy you just met at a public gala.

Instead, he just grinned and said, "You've got a tech club? Dude! That's awesome! What kinda stuff do you do?"

Just, you know, maybe freeze Aydan out. Hopefully asshole didn't understand techie speak.

[Tally]

"Well," Eden began, clearly over-excited to be talking up his experience and just as clearly trying to suppress it.  "We presented a theory on eventual jump/DM engine integration to a board of scholarship and intern directors.  That's how I met Aydan--I'm sorry!  Mr. Rosales."

Aydan chuckled, his hand stroking the back of the boy's neck.  "That's all right, my dear.  You may use my first name tonight."

Eden flushed bright, his eyes on Aydan shining with adoration and lust both.  "Oh...thank you, sir!"

[Rhi-Rhi]

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it! Difficult as it was to ignore the implied kink thing those two had going on, holy dear gods...

Gabriel loudly cleared his throat. Leeeet's just steer this back to the unsexy tech talk. He kept his eyes somewhere on Eden's forehead, just between his eyes, where he could ignore Aydan's stroking and the way the kid had total doe-eyes for Fuckhead.

"Really?" he said, beaming with genuine interest. "Dude, that sounds awesome! I haven't heard that theory yet! Got time to explain it?"