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Nasir was in between shifts, having worked earlier in the day and agreed to do a split shift. His hair had a rainbow assortment of flowers in it as well as colorful barrettes and a shirt on that may not have necessarily been true.

(It was absolutely true.)

He was bringing out his last order of Darlene's Special Wings with Kissing Cook wing sauce (specially made by him just for today) and looked exceedingly happy and cheerful. Mostly because of the environment and because somewhere, in the crowd, there was a Wil who was glittery.

Or it was because Dhan and Nasir had totally gotten sparkles into Borr's beard and otherwise made sure that he was dressed for the occasion in a possibly too tight shirt. It was only too tight because, you know, they had not counted on just how large he was.

In the span of exactly forty-five minutes, Thorne had pulled off an elite heist involving jail-breaking Aleksy and an absurd amount of oreos in the process, lost his shirt, angered an ancient looking lady down the street, and nearly lost his left shoe as well.

But he was finally at Darlene's, Aleksy in tow, and he was determined to eat something outrageously sweet and dangerously rainbow-colored to match his conspicuously DIY-by-accident rainbow flecked skinny jeans, the paint stains about as permanent as his tattoos, one arm thrown across Aleksy's shoulders.

It was just a good thing at least that there was no "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" sign, considering he couldn't honestly remember where his had gone.

"Hey," he called over to Nasir, a smile immediately lighting his face at the sight of the guy with glasses, "Long time no see."

To Aleksy, he added, "Shirt first or drinks?" And then, "Or something outrageously sweet. I don't think I'm going to find anything that fits around here."

"Hey ~ Hi!" Nasir was smiling as he caught sight of Thorne and it got a little wider when he saw Aleksy. "You two are doing better? I'm glad!" After all, the last time he had seen Aleksy or Thorne ...

Well, there had been a lot more blood involved.

"Lemme know if you two want anything to eat, okay? My treat!" Then he kind of realized that Thorne was not wearing a shirt. Not the weirdest thing but ...

Catching sight of a familiar unicorn backpack, Nasir was there with Wil in a moment. The plate of wings was set down in front of the blonde and the cook was, of course, having to steal a seat in his lap because the other stools were full up.

It was occurring to Nazriya as she loitered outside Darlene's that she was probably a bit overdressed. Actually, make that really ******** overdressed by the looks of it; she'd even seen one guy go in without a shirt on. Christ, and she'd showed up in one of her better saree - wonderful, just wonderful. She took a puff of her smoke and lamented her choices.

But to be fair she'd never been to any sort of Pride thing before and she'd figured since it was a special event you dressed up, right?

Wrong.

Sighing, she put out her cigarette and squared her shoulders. New country, new people, new events; she could do this, definitely. And Nasir had invited her, so at least she already knew someone there.

Actually... make that two someones. Lo and behold if it wasn't Mister Grumpy passing by, sans cute dog. He didn't seem to be veering off towards Darlene's though - well, that could be fixed. Better two familiar faces than one, right? Even a sour one.

She waited until he was as close as he was going to get before sidling the rest of the way over to him and putting on a charming smile, "well, fancy meeting you here!"

"We're not in the grave, and I think that counts for something, right?" Thorne retorted with a grin at Nasir. "It's nice to see you again, Nasir." He tapped the corner of his eye with two fingers and saluted to the other. "Nice glasses."

As for Aleksy...

"That's unfortunate," Thorne deadpanned in return as Nasir went to another man he hadn't ever met before, but his smile was warm and wicked when he looked back at Aleksy, eyes lit up beneath the dark bangs that had started growing out. "How much does it pain you to say you're going to have soda?"

The Rainbow Ice, at least, sounded good. And as much as it killed Thorne, alcohol wasn't exactly the smartest thing to drink just yet, even though he desperately wanted to. (The fair wine being, of course, an exception.)

Letting Aleksy find them a booth, Thorne went to the bar to set their orders straight before tailing the redhead. He didn't approach the two old gays at their corner with their fries, but when he caught their eye he did do a very flashy pair of finger guns at them by way of hello before turning and relocating the redhead in the booth.

"It looks like even your jailers are here to celebrate," Thorne said, sitting down next to him with a sigh, "And I still haven't found a shirt."

Finn, who'd been trying to text his boyfriend for like an hour to no avail, made his way through the crowd at Darlene's, a basket of fries balanced precariously in one hand as he tried to avoid bumping into anyone who really should have been wearing a shirt. The usual establishment dress code seemed to have been suspended for the day - as if his very tiny shorts would have flown on any other day of the year.

(He happened to know for a fact that he had a very nice butt, but that was besides the point.)

He scanned the crowd, looking for somewhere to sit or a familiar face or anything, really. He'd seen Lieutenant Mercer and his partner over at the bar, but they were distinctly not Finn's demographic - he wanted someone younger and hipper to talk shop with.

For example.

Aleksy.

Who was not supposed to be here.

Finn ducked between a pair of short-haired women and helped himself to the opposite bench of the booth. He dropped the fries unceremoniously onto the table.

"I thought you weren't coming," he said, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice. He'd figured Aleksy was asleep or something! Pride wasn't really his idea of a good time. "Wait. WAIT. Is this - is this how you're breaking up with me? You can't break up with me. It's Pride."

He nudged the basket of fries towards Thorne. "Hi. Sorry. Help yourself."

Finn was a surprise.

Thorne supposed that anything was possible at Pride, and Finn was still a surprise. A nice one, because he brought french fries, but still a surprise. And he didn't have a shirt the size that Thorne needed. Damn. The accusation flew over Thorne's head and straight to Aleksy, so Thorne spent the extra three seconds stealing a flying french fry that had nearly landed in his lap and snorting at the concept of a break up between these two.

"Hey, what's up? It's been awhile." Thorne retorted, a cat's smile on his face. "I'm just here for the food. And as many free drinks as being shirtless can get me."

Aleksy's explanation made Thorne's expression turn into a vague expression of attempted guilt at being named jail-breaker, and he shot Aleksy before giving the legs pinning him down (by complete acceptance of his place in life, and in Aleksy's life) a pat.

"I don't think that was the worst conclusion he could have come to," Thorne retorted, half a tease, and grinned over at Finn. "Yell at me before I eat all of your fries, or I just might." To emphasize this, he bit into the end of a second one, still scanning the crowd for something to help his shirtless problem. Or not.

"There's only one gay Russian in my life that I know of, sorry to disappoint," Thorne retorted, derailing to the prior conversation and glancing back at Aleksy, "Maybe it's just straight up vodka. Or they're secretly raffling you off at the end of the night. That would be interesting."

He grinned over at Finn. "Can I buy you a drink to make up for jail-breaking your boyfriend?"

After all, it was Pride. Why not buy drinks for everyone?