An attractive entrance...

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

Thomas Raith, formerly of the leading House of the White Court, scrounges around in the ice box for a minute before looking up with a grumble.

"Harry, we're out of beer ag--"

Blink.

Stare.

"Okay, no shortage of beer, I'm thinking, but sudden shortage of apartment."

He winces.

"Harry's going to kill me."

Comments

[wizard_dresden]

I shake my head.

"Actually, blame this one on Bob."

I point to the annoying little skull sitting on the bar counter across the room.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He looks at Bob for a minute before smirking at the skull.

"I can't blame anything on Bob. I get laid way more often than he does, so I guess it all evens up."

[wizard_dresden]

I glare at Thomas. He gets laid way more often then half of Chicago.

"Sure it does."

I just roll my eyes.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He peers at Harry curiously.

"You all right, Harry? Seem a little, I dunno, crabby? Tense? I'll spot you a beer if you like. Got my last paycheck from that last job of mine. No better way to spend it."

[wizard_dresden]

You mean he's actually offering to pay for something?

Okay, really, Thomas isn't that bad. He would pay for more if he could, he just has a 'job' problem. As in, he can't exactly keep one - for a number of reasons, but that's not exactly his fault.

"Fine. Beer sounds good."

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He nods, flashes Harry a smile, and puts his arm around Harry's...um, well, beneath the shoulders because Harry's a bit taller than him, but pretty close. He disengages to sit on one of the stools and leans on the bar in the sort of way that would probably be used for a Calvin Klein ad, and looks to Harry.

"Oh, man, I'm not going to get in trouble for, uh, my state of undress? I mean, I was in the icebox and then I'm here. I didn't exactly have time to pull on a shirt."

[wizard_dresden]

The bar provides a shirt... a loud, Hawaiian print number... and I almost laugh. Almost because Thomas will make it look like the Calvin Klein ad he's trying to be leaning against the bar.

I wave at the shirt and say nothing.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He stares at the shirt.

"Harry...I can work at MacDonald's, I can live on your couch, but...there are some things that I just can't do. That shirt? Is one of them."

[wizard_dresden]

I shrug.

"I didn't pick it. The Bar did. Obviously, she thinks you should wear it."

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He looks at the shirt again.

"Then, uh, no offense, but she has the taste of a colorblind Puerto Rican woman with a grudge against the epileptic."

He taps the counter before turning to Harry.

"So I just ask for something and it'll pop up?"

[wizard_dresden]

"After that comment? Maybe."

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He looks down at the bar.

"Unless you were just playing a joke on me. Was that it? Cause if that's so...that's..."

He looks at the shirt.

"That's pretty funny."

[wizard_dresden]

I just shake my head.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He grins and holds it up to Harry.

"Might look dashing on you though, Harry. Brings out the, uh...tall in your tall."

[wizard_dresden]

I narrow my eyes.

"Do you want to keep having a roof over your head and free beer?"

Speaking of the roof and the beer and...

"What did you do with Mouse?"

Mister can take care of himself.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He shrugs.

"Just got back from walking him, actually. He's in the apartment. Where I was."

[wizard_dresden]

Great, I hope he doesn't eat the couch again.

I abandon the bar in favor of sitting in a booth, slouching actually. I'm quite good at it.

Thomas can... do what he likes.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

What Thomas would like is to know a little bit about the place that he randomly appeared in. Thus does he follow Harry.

"What am I, the plague? What the hell is this place, man? I'm a little lost still, other than the fact that it's Bob's fault."

[wizard_dresden]

"It's a bar, Thomas."

Hence the presence of one... that I don't point to.

"Don't fuck anything in the bar itself is probably the only rule you need to know."

My life sucks.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He rolls his eyes at Harry.

"Well, obviously. I don't really like getting arrested and I'm not really an exihibitionist in the first place, Harry."

[wizard_dresden]

"Good to know. Actually, for you, that covers two rules - no sex and no business. The other is, as far as I know, no violence. However, there's apparently another that applies to me..."

I just grumble. This really shouldn't be that big a deal and it wasn't... until he showed up.

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

"Which is..."

He makes the 'come on now, spill' hand gesture.

[wizard_dresden]

"Same rule that seems to apply to me everywhere else... the No happiness for Harry rule."

[always-thirsty.livejournal.com]

He sighs and pats Harry on the shoulder.

"Come on, man. It's not like my life is a boquet of roses or anything."

He plops down on the other side of the table and leans on his elbows, putting his chin in his hands.

"What happened?"

[wizard_dresden]

"The one thing that doesn't seem to ever happen to you."


This is not a conversation I was wanting to have with him... or anyone else really.