“Well, that was a lot of fun!” Vick beamed as he went around, checking over his bar, getting it ready to be opened. He had left a sign saying he was closed, but that didn’t mean someone couldn’t have broken in or something. Admittedly, it was rare that Vick closed his pub completely, but he’d been invited to a wedding alongside Letharus, his new girlfriend, and they’d had a lovely time. They’d also made some arrangements with the Thantir, ensuring that a member would stop by once an ev to check in on things and make sure everyone was alright.
“It was!” Letharus wasn’t really doing much. He was mostly just lounging around in the bedroom, lying on the bed and telekinetically going through his and Vick’s luggage, seeing what needed washing. It all needed washing, really, which was why Vick was doing his pub chores semi-nude, and Letharus was trying not to pay Vick too much attention because Vick wandering around semi-nude always turned him on. “I would like to spend more time with Litvir and Kuta though. They are so nice. I somewhat regret leaving my trip to see Litvir for so long.”
“It’s alright, now we know for next time… Also, place seems to be fine, mind if I flip the sign?”
“Of course not!” Letharus exclaimed, climbing out of bed and realising he should put some clothes on. He wasn’t wearing enough to be seen by customers. “Is anyone waiting for you?”
Vick made his way to the front door and peered through the glass. He flipped the sign from closed to open, then checked again, this time opening the door completely, not really seeing much the first time. “Huh, not really. I did somewhat expect to see Vekeus, but I think he’s been bumming around that Pink Paradise place. Not sure why.”
Letharus shrugged. He considered making himself useful, but there wasn’t really much for him to do. Vick had already done everything and they were mostly just waiting for customers. “I think Vekeus is visiting the Pink Paradise a lot because his half-sibling essentially lives there.”
“I… I thought Arkay lived at Savepoint?”
“Vekeus has a lot of half-siblings. One of them is a Life Goddess. That Elkay-En fellow we spoke to. The short green-plated being who recognised you and you did not recognise at all.”
“Huh…” Vick trailed off. “I’ll be honest, that Elkay-En guy… wait, did you say he was a Life Goddess?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he’s a fucking weird-looking Life Goddess. I also thought they all had to be female or something?”
“I guess not. After all, I thought most Voidborns were male, then we met Phovoula, and she is very clearly female.”
Vick tutted. “Well, to you, she was. You can read minds. That furry Ksithan thing was wearing so much padding that I couldn’t tell.”
“Fair…” Letharus trailed off, then thought to himself. “Vick, when you were mortal, did you have any end-of-year festivals?”
“Uh… I don’t really remember. I assume we did, I assume we did something, just to celebrate surviving the year, but I’m going to assume it just involved lots of drinking.”
Letharus smiled. “Us Astravok were normally rather strict beings, but we did have an end of year festival which involved drinking and setting things on fire, to light up the darkness. I was wondering, would you like to do something here? We could… invite a few vok over too, perhaps?”
“Like who?”
“I want to invite Litvir here, since Litvir has not visited your pub before. And Kuta and Ret too, since they are adorable. That does mean inviting Retvik though, and I…”
Vick smiled. “I am honestly not bothered by Retvik any more. He’s fine. Sure, same names and shit, but we’re different people, and I’ve settled down with my life. Plus, I got you. And you’re amazing… Hang on, I think I’m being slow, are you somewhat suggesting some kind of triple date?”
Letharus paused, then grunted. “No, that was not my intention, but that does sound fun. I was more thinking of lighting a fire, sitting around it and telling stories while we get drunk and burn things, to celebrate things being good.”
“Well, that sounds…”
Vick also paused, then turned around and headed to the entrance again. A ship had arrived, and Vick immediately recognised it. He was almost concerned as a slender Beh’evok stepped out of the ship and made their way over.
“Ah, you’re open!”
Vick bowed somewhat nervously. “Uh, hello, my Ventra Lord… what are you doing here?”
Thyel smiled, then glanced into the pub. “I had a bunch of reports that this place was shut for the last few evs, and I wanted to come by and see if everything was alright! Oh…”
The psionic member of the Ventra Gales immediately noticed Letharus, who had shied away somewhat.
“Uh… hi?” Letharus waved from behind the bar.
“Hello! You’re a cute one! Vick, who’s your lovely little friend?”
Vick bowed some more. “My Lord, this is my girlfriend, Letharus. Letharus, this is Lord Thyel, one of the Ventra Gales, the old leaders of the Ventra Decay Lord sect.”
“Nice to meet you, Letharus! Glad to have you around and keeping little Vick company! Little guy’s been on his own for a while!” Thyel smiled. “Anyway, Vick, the second reason I’m here… I’m on a beer run and fucking nowhere else is open. Do you sell packs of beer I can just buy and take back home, or do I need to call Zephyr and Kahlos and get them to come here?”
Vick shrugged, then headed to the bar and reached underneath it. “I don’t normally just sell the cans as a pack, I but I suppose you could just buy some and take them with you?”
“How many you got?” Thyel asked as he made his way over, stealing the odd glance at Letharus.
“Haven’t fully restocked, but I guess I can give you ten beers? I need to keep some though for customers, there’s always a few guys who prefer a can rather than on draught.”
“Ten is plenty!” Thyel grinned. He slammed down a massive, heavy sack on the bar as Vick bagged up the cans of beer. “Is that enough?”
“Um, let me-”
Before Vick could finish his sentence, Thyel grabbed the bag and disappeared.
“He seems nice!” Letharus eventually muttered after a long silence. “Also, he massively overpaid, did he not?”
Vick opened the sack. It was full of solid gold coins.
“Yep.”
“Does that mean we do not need to work today?”
“Heh, maybe…”
Letharus wrapped his arms around Vick. “Wonderful.”