A Bar at Fell's Point | Baltimore, MD | Tuesday Evening

[knife_bender]

Danny seemed to think that Diego and Steve couldn't spend any time together without burning something down, but he also encouraged them to go to Baltimore together alone, so if something did burn down whose fault was it really?

Nothing seemed to be on fire so far, they had beer and crabby fries (which was just french fries covered in crab dip). Look at them being adults and not starting fights. They were totally responsible.

"It's kind of cruel to make the bar area of this city the one place with cobblestone streets," Diego said, eyeing the wobbly girls in heels outside the window.

[Eating shit on the cobblestone at Fell's Point is a rite of passage for some of us. For one and NFB due to distance!]

Comments

[knife_bender]

"Right? That's like my nightmare," he said. "Actually the whole thing sounds like my nightmare. She's going to be one of the most famous people in the world if she makes it."

[grenadesandohana]

Steve shuddered. "Sorry," he said, taking a healthy swig of his new beer. "I've spent most of my life in covert ops. Everyone knowing my face would be...bad. Very bad. I've been part of a lot of things pissing off a lot of people with access to a lot of weapons."

[knife_bender]

"Is this why Danny was so worried about us going out here alone?" Diego joked. "He seemed to think we wouldn't get through this without being shot."

[grenadesandohana]

"Oh, that's because I've accidentally pissed off the CIA in Baltimore," Steve said airily. "I didn't know they were working an op and we kind of stepped into it because, and this may be shocking to you, they are super incompetent."

[knife_bender]

Diego laughed. "Can we please avoid that this time? Annie might literally kill me if I get hurt and distract her from getting ready for this audition."

[grenadesandohana]

"Roger that," Steve said, laughing. "It'll drive Danny nuts if I come back and didn't get into a bar fight. He thinks I'm some kind of disaster magnet, even though he has personally witnessed a bunch of happy hours that didn't end in hostage negotiations."

[knife_bender]

"You should give non-answers if he asks," Diego said. "Like we could have been in a fight, or we could have just had a quiet evening with crabby fries, who can say?"

[grenadesandohana]

"I'll tell him it's classified. You'll hear the yelling from your place."

Winding Danny up was Steve's very favorite hobby.

[knife_bender]

"God, that's such a good excuse to give," Diego said. "I wish I had something like that to use on people."

[grenadesandohana]

"It's extremely handy," Steve said. "I use it all the time. You can use it on him too; his face'll get all red. Hilarious."

[knife_bender]

"I do a pretty good job of it on my own, even without that," he admitted. "I mean, I think he was kind of annoyed with me for enjoying last weekend with the weird mood thing."

[grenadesandohana]

"Yeah," Steve said, definitely not hiding behind his beer. "That was definitely a thing. Turns out I have a lot of weapons in the apartment I decided to clean right then."

[knife_bender]

"Aside from Monday I had a pretty good time." Yeah, Diego, that's because Saturday you were pretty much high and Sunday you probably broke some sort of personal record for amount of sex had in one day.

"I'm usually just grateful when I don't get turned into a horse."

[grenadesandohana]

"I had the goddamn Trident tattooed on my ass that weekend," Steve said. "It was a look."

[knife_bender]

"I mean, nothing is stopping you from getting that tattooed to your ass now," Diego pointed out.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve waggled his eyebrows. "Who says I haven't?"

[knife_bender]

“Please don’t ever attempt to prove that to me,” Diego said, laughing.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve laughed. "I promise. The only ink you'll see is what's on my arms."

[knife_bender]

"I can absolutely make you the same promise in return." Because his only tattoo was done under duress and needles now made him pass out.

[grenadesandohana]

"So that's a no on the matching BFFs tats?" Steve teased.

[knife_bender]

"That's a big no," Diego said. "I hate the one tattoo I do have."

[grenadesandohana]

"Yeah?" Steve said, snagging more fries. "How come?"

[knife_bender]

There was a pause as Diego debated whether telling the full truth or some story about a drunken mistake. He came to the conclusion that Steve likely wouldn't give him that annoying, fatherly look that Danny did whenever Diego shared some of his past.

He was also low on friends and figured lying to them wasn't a great way to maintain the relationship. See, he was learning.

"My dad made me get it when I was a kid," Diego said, lifting a hand at the waitress again for another beer.

[grenadesandohana]

Because Steve was a professional, he'd didn't aspirate on his fries because he had definitely been expecting something more along the lines of "it says kung pao pork on my back" than that. "So he wouldn't let you outside and he...got you tattooed," Steve said carefully.

If he came out a little like he meant to say "branded," well. "He sounds like a piece of work."

That was military for "giant asshole."

[knife_bender]

"Oh I'm pretty positive Annie is going to kill him one day." And if Annie hated someone you know it was bad.