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Maybe he should have been drinking wine; he'd been long enough in France that he should have acquired a taste for the stuff. And yet, sidled up to the bar in the best clean clothes he could find, arms folded over the counter, offering a bright flash of a grin to the bartender [someone new since he'd left, and attractive, and that was always nice] it was vodka that he wanted. And vodka he ordered.

The boot was off, now, even if the doctor had suggested a few more days, which meant he had no in to catch a little flirting, no story to weave to weasel a free drink out of the man. With a puff of a sigh, Ever let him go, dropping cash on the counter and tipping his glass back.

He was quieter than usual, pondering the problem of finding someone you know virtually nothing about, when a commotion started up around the corner, and he straightened in his seat to have a look.

Definitely, definitely back in the states. Ever blinked at him, surprised maybe, in a way that faded rapidly to amusement instead of anything else. He sipped his vodka and then slid over just a step to get in the bartender's range of hearing, his head cocked to the side and leaning, just a bit, over the bar. He was tall enough to do it; tall enough, in fact, that he probably could have reached over while the man was distracted to steal a whole bottle of something. Once upon a time, he definitely had.

This time, though, instead he tipped his head and rolled his shoulders in a shrug, companionable enough.

"He's twenty-one." He had to raise his voice over the noise of the bar around them. "Stupid, but twenty-one. He's in my Environmental Ethics class at DCU."

Ever's own ID had, in fact, been legal. Legally decently over twenty-one. And he raised his glass to drink to the bartender as he said it. "For now, anyway. I suspect failure's in his near future."

Not that Ever hadn't thought about a little good-natured flirting, of course -- and, of course, the moment Dustin said 'a**' his eyes dropped in an instinctive way to check out what, exactly, he'd been covering. Something that was better than his own, certainly, but when he found himself speculating as to if it was better than Zac's, he cut off that line of thinking and hauled his attention back up to Dustin's face.

"You have blue hair that goes like this -- " He gestured, a hand up and then back, and raised pale eyebrows in a serious sort of way. Tipped his drink. The ice rattled against the glass. "And you seem kind of like a mouthy sonofabitch."

Ever could do a pretty good Zac impression. This wasn't it. Instead, it was dry and faintly amused, as he leaned in against the bar. "I think maybe I'm looking for you."

Tempting. For a pause -- just a hiccup -- Ever went still, honestly considering at least two of those options. The problem was, there was little that Dustin could give him that he couldn't get himself, right now, and that was a strange place to be in. A place he'd rarely ever been. It set his heart to hammering a bit.

At least it meant he felt some empathy for the poor newbie.

"I'm not going to kick your a**." Didn't looked like he could, anyway. Not out of uniform, anyway. He waved the thought away, slowly coming back into focus, and polished off his drink. Ever had, at least once in his life, been exactly there.

"You ran off, and no-one knew where you'd gone, and I guess I'm more approachable than most of the higher-ranking types." Hopefully Dustin had at least enough wits to put ranks together with Negaverse, since Ever certainly wasn't going to use the word. "If you're Dustin, all I really know is that you're new, and apparently not handling things well."

Ever blinked slowly at that, because -- well, he could definitely identify with both of those sentiments. And, after a moment, he shot Dustin a smile, digging into one of his pockets to pull out a pack of battered cigarettes and turn it between his fingers.

"I steal all the time. Usually in uniform." He tipped the pack just a little so that a cigarette slid halfway out, and held it in offering toward Dustin. "...I do watch where I smoke, though. I lean out the window. When your b-- when you're living with someone who can kick your a**, it's probably smart to do what he says."

No smoking in here, either, but hopefully it at least made his point. And maybe it'd put Dustin less on edge.

Dustin was young -- and the thought startled Ever. Not something he'd ever really considered before. Usually he was the young one, the one who was doing stupid things, and when the hell had he started considering his actions? He pried out a second cigarette and settled it firmly between his lips, unlit, as he pondered how to reply.

"...kind of the boss, I guess. Though I hear there's been a bit of a...I hear things are changing, right now." He shook his head, serious as he flicked Dustin a look. "He'll always be the boss to me, though, I think."

The softest sound at that, and Ever neither confirmed nor denied -- considering his empty glass and then looking up over Dustin's head in search of the bartender. He could go for another. It'd take a lot more than that to wash him out any. Barely even felt the first one, if at all --

"I don't know. Where are you living?" He shrugged, attention resettling onto Dustin, considering what he was wearing. Ever was looking for signs of disuse, of inattention: rumpled clothing like he'd slept on a bench or, worse, the subway, or the kind of dirty lanky hair that meant no access to a real shower. An expert's eye, in its way.

Labyrinthite didn't ring a bell; it made Ever's expression go thoughtful, confused, trying to place the name in his head. They had met. Once. Wandering in the Rift. He might have recognized the description, but not the name, and his impression certainly hadn't been a good one. Maybe it was better not to know.

"...I had a place. Then it turned into crazy General central." A pause, thinking, his eyes narrowed. "He's taken it over now, I think it's safe to say. Doesn't matter, though."

His drink was settled at his elbow, and Ever nabbed it, turning it against the counter, and with a grimace carefully plucking the lime out to leave it behind. "What do you need a mansion for, anyway?"