Chapter Text
...............one night in mid-May...............
"Thank fucking God it's Saturday!" Sasha groaned in relief as she entered the club behind Mikasa and Armin, tuckering her ID into bra then giving her bust a little push to straighten things out. "I am getting hammered tonight and no one can stop me. I've been dealing with casting directors all day and I need to forget all their bullshit."
"Let's hope your liver can keep up with your enthusiasm Sash," Armin chuckled as they navigated the growing crowd inside The Abbey. It was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Saturday--the most popular night of the week and, same as last week, it was packed to the gills with patrons and performers done up in their elaborate costumes as they waited for their turn on the stage.
"You're down for shots right Mika," Sasha asked Mikasa as she ignored every word Armin had said while slinging herself onto the shoulders of her classmate; her heft causing the unsuspecting woman to wobble on her heels as they pulled up to the bar.
Much to Sasha's dismay, Mikasa wasn't in the same mindset that night. "Sorry but I have an early shift tomorrow. I shouldn't even be out tonight but Eren wouldn't forgive me if I missed tonight."
"Boo, you suck. You're just like Connie, abandoning me when I need you most."
"Connie's at a launch tonight Sasha. It's not like he did it on purpose," Armin noted before placing their order. They went out so often now that he had memorized everyone's drink and any little changes they made like Mika preferring her White Russian with extra cream and Connie's revolting take on a gin and tonic with pickle juice whenever he accompanied them out. "He also said he would facetime you later so don't be a brat about it."
Pouting as she leaned against the bar--accepting her drink when the muscled bartender set it down, she sipped at it through the straw. "Traitors," she muttered.
Ignoring her, Mika and Armin slid in close together with his arm around her slim waist and her free hand combing through his long blonde hair as they surveyed the space for their friend. The club was alive with a kind of vibrancy that was iconic and isolated to West Hollywood. A place where there was zero judgement and anything flew, the people packing the club that spilled out onto the sidewalk and the garden lounges was distinctly different from the crowd anywhere else. Mingling together were furries, kink queens and kings, people in tight leather harnesses over their netted tops and black jeans, and the occasional straight man and woman. It was the hottest place to be for three years in a row after The Palm closed four blocks down. Now it was all about The Abbey, Mickey's, and Flamin' Saddles.
"I don't see him anywhere," Armin said to Mikasa; leaning in close so she could hear him over the music blasting through the stereos. "Maybe he's backstage."
"Probably. He did say he was the third performer. Who's on stage right now?"
Glancing over his shoulder, he took a long look at the queen on the stage strutting down the catwalk in neon orange fishnets and white go-go boots, destroyed white short shorts, and hair picked into the most voluminous fro that swished every so often to expose her massive hoop earrings. After attending nearly every show for the past year, they had all become familiar with the performers though it took them a while to remember the new faces.
"I think that's Kiki Mombasa," Armin answered though he wasn't sure until he got a good look at her face. "Yeah that's Kiki. So he's next."
"Okay, good. Should we move closer so he can see us?"
"I think we're fine here unless there's a table closer to the stage."
"I don't think there is."
"Then let's just stay here. He can see us from here. He's tall enough," Armin joked with a playful smirk.
Before Mikasa could respond, the crowd cheered as Kiki Mombasa took a final bow before blowing a kiss and exiting the stage. Lights changing to a combination of pink, white, and royal purple as the patrons went wild with their cheers, the MC of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang took the stage. Her Majesty, Glorimama was a amazonian blonde that was all legs with devastating allure, wit sharper than her embellished black stiletto nails, and more charisma than a Kennedy. Dressed to the nines in a body hugging glittering white strapless gown with a silt that extended far past her thighs, a trailing cape much like the one's worn by British royals at their coronations, and a crown atop her wavy platinum blonde hair, Glorimama relished the applause as she stood at center stage--mic in hand as she looked about.
Smokey blue eyes darting about the club as she scanned the crowd, her plump dark violet lips curled into a wicked little smile. Everyone loved when she made her appearances. After all, it was her that took what RuPaul and Todrick Hall had started and streamlined it into something that was easily integratable with mainstream media. An international sensation in the fashion world and one of the first drag queens to be signed as a model to a major fashion house, no one knew who she was beyond the makeup and wigs. She was a paradox of mystery and extroversion which made her all the more intriguing. And tonight, much to everyone's excitement, was the night she introduced the newest edition to West Hollywood's most glamorous line-up.
"Hello my freaky darlings," Glorimama called out to the sea of bodies as the cheered in response. Eyes glinting in the light, she flashed a brilliant smile. "I hope you're all having a fabulous evening. If not, bitch you may want to loosen up that weave because honey the night's just getting started." Pausing as a man shouted to her from the crowd--Glorimama leaning in a little to hear his request, her eyes flew wide open and her jaw dropped. "Oh darling, I'm flattered but this gorgeous piece is already spoken for and my hubby never did learn how to share."
The club erupted into laughter and more cheering with wolf whistles as Glorimama stuttered down the catwalk with a satisfied almost cocky smile on her face. She was in complete control of the audience and she knew it. Revelled in it in fact as she basked in the light illuminating the stage. She was there queen and she loved it. Lived for it even as she lifted a hand in quiet command--everyone responding with their silence.
"Tonight is a very special night. Performing tonight is a new queen and darlings, this bitch can werk," Glorimama said, her words emphasized with a snap of her fingers. "I've watched her backstage and baby can drop it low in her daisy dukes. Watch out for her high kicks or you might getcha wig snatched. Taking center stage for the first time--Freddie Mercury's wet dream, it's Venus Lamarr."
Lights dimming to dark blue and purple with the outline of the stage glowing fuschia, the room went wild when the tall slim figure of the highly anticipated queen took center stage--their cheers growing louder when "Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels" by Todrick Hall began to play. Long lean arms draped in a boxy studded denim jacket cuffed at the elbows stretched out to either side--moving in serpentine waves as the strobes picked up in the back before stilling to highlight the queen commanding the room.
When the lights lit up the stage in full, standing at a cool six-two in her black patent leather booties was Venus Lamarr. Tan with deep wide emerald eyes, pillowy lips coated in a sheer gloss, and silken chocolate brown hair down past her shoulders, she every bit the dream they had fantasied her to be. Perfect legs wrapped in black fishnets that turned and snapped to the music, her leather clad hips swayed and her chest popped with the beat of the bass. Dropping down into a spread eagle before slipping down even further to grind against the stage, Venus flipped over with her back arched and a leg stretched to the sky before swinging it around to bounce back up to her feet with a mischievous smile appling her cheeks.
But midway through her performance, Armin, who'd been cheering her on, caught the shift in her gaze toward the other end of the bar opposite of him and his group. Chancing a glance, he looked to the side to see what had stolen his friend's attention.
Snorting a laugh, he shook his head. "Figures."
---x---x---x---x---x---
"Levi!" Glorimama called as she rushed her old friend at the bar just before the music started. Bending down to hug him--their height difference exaggerated by the five inch pumps Glori was sporting--she kissed both of his cheeks; her smudge-proof lipstick not leaving so much as a spec on his fair skin. "I didn't think you'd make it. Sugar told me you had an appointment that was going to go past closing tonight."
Smiling--dimples punctuating the simple joy of seeing his friend in their element, he leaned back against the bar with the pony neck of his bottle pinched between his slender fingers. "I did but it took only an hour more to finish the outlining for their piece than I expected."
"That's convenient."
"Mmm," Levi hummed as he took a sig from his bottle. "So who's the new girl on stage? I thought you had slated Baby Mama to debut third tonight."
"She was supposed to be third but she came down with food poisoning at the last minute. So I shifted things around."
Gaze following the green-eyed enchantress as she worked the stage, leaving the audience panting for more, Levi found himself mesmerized; lost in not the movement of her hips or the roll of her chest but the fluttering of her lashes, the quirk of her brows when she spotted him, and the fire in those gemstone eyes. Like a snake hypnotizing their prey, he fell into her gaze. Felt a shiver roll down his spine--shooting through his fingers, legs, toes, and back to the top of his head.
Levi knew Glorimama had an eye for talent, beauty, and attitude, but rarely could even she find someone that possessed all three. Well, naturally at least. Most of her girls had to be taught one thing or another but Venus Lamarr seemed to have been born with it all. The lovechild of punk rock and high glamour, she was a beautiful contradiction. A blend of posh sophistication and raw sex appeal with an air of challenge as her eyes found his again. Breaking the trance when he heard Glori chuckling off to the side, Levi rolled his eyes; ready for whatever snarky comment was coming his way.
"I can introduce you if you want."
Levi shook his head. "I'm too old for her. She belongs with someone younger who'll look good next to her."
"God, not this again," Glorimama groaned. Pivoting to the side, she ordered herself a brandy--neat and tidy--then turned back to glare at her friend with a single brow arched in stern protest. "If I hear you talk down about yourself one more time I'll have to slap it out of you. You'll sour my liquer you know with that kind of attitude."
Again, Levi could only laugh. Glorimama had always been this way since they met in his freshman year of college. Him the calm collected introvert and she the charismatic smooth talker that could sell a trash bag to the Queen of England and have her wearing it as a dress. They were perfect mirrored opposites which was why they got along so well. They balanced each other and gave one another what the other was missing. Now, thirteen years later and a world of change between them, they had remained the same to one another.
"Well," Glorimama sighed as she lifted the crystal lowball glass to her lips, "even if you don't ask her for a drink you should at least introduce yourself since she's now officially part of the shows line-up. And maybe hang up that self-deprecating attitude. Just a suggestion," she winked before sauntering off toward the backstage entrance that led to the dressing rooms. "Night Levi."
---x---x---x---x---x---
After greeting his friends and knocking back a few shots in between drags from the cigarette he shared with Mikasa, Eren navigated his way through the lively crowd--still done up in his makeup though wearing more comfortable heels, ripped up boyfriend jeans and a his favorite netted crop top the showed of his Honey Birdette leather bralette. Smiling as he was praised by men and women alike, some getting a little too friendly with him as he passed them by, a sigh of relief escaped him as he finally reached the bar.
Swallowing back the nerves as they came rolling back in from where they'd been buried for the first half of the evening, he pressed his palms into the solid oak of the bar counter, closed his eyes, and counted to fifteen, then ten, five, then three before exhaling. He could handle the attention when he was on stage. Could take the feverish calls and the lusting howls, the reaching and grabbing and longing to touch him. When he was on stage he could take being in the spotlight--something that, at any other given point in the day would have him hanging on the walls like a shrinking violet. He could take it because the stage was a world separated from reality. When he was up there nothing else existed. Nothing else mattered except for the music and floor as it lit up beneath his feet.
Yet once he stepped down from the high gloss platform and wandered back into the dressing room, he was no longer Venus Lamarr the vixen. He was just his same awkward self that actively sought out the least lively spot in a party and hid there until the gathering came to its close. But Glorimama wanted him to try breaking past his boundaries. To open up a little--bit by bit--and try socializing more. Eren was an official addition to the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang line-up which meant he had to get more acquainted with the people around him--especially the big wigs in the crowd--and become more extroverted since his new title meant he'd be joining the other Babydolls as Glori called them on tour to Vegas and New York.
"You know I could be wrong," said a smooth voice with a strange gentleness to it, "but you look like death warmed up."
Frozen in place with eyes fixed on the counter, Eren turned, the breath quietly catching in his throat when he saw the handsome man he had spotted while on stage. Skin milky and luminous with eyes the color of starlight and features both delicate and angular, he felt his stomach knot and his hands clam up.
"You okay?"
Swallowing again, this time so that he didn't throw up, or worse, say something ridiculous to embarrass himself, Eren smiled. "Yeah," he breathed out; his voice a little rough from the exertion of the performance coupled with his crippling anxiety. "Just coming down from the performance."
"Ahh," was all the man said. Eren knew he could see right through him but was too polite to say anything.
Gnawing on his lip, his gaze darted between the wall of liquor bottles and his fingers as they fidgeted with the tips of his acrylic nails. "I'm not good with handling crowds," he admitted. Didn't know why he was disclosing this to a perfect stranger especially when Glorimama told him to try to be more outgoing. But he felt compelled to tell the truth. "It's hard being around this many people when they only know one side of you and all want a piece of you. They talk as if they know me and say things that... I don't know. I just...I just feel so out of place I guess."
There was silence between them as the words settled in. Oddly enough, it was a comfortable peace that Eren hadn't expected to find when speaking with someone he didn't know from Adam. But there they stood, both awkwardly yet comfortably as he waited for his drink and the stranger sipped his beer. When the bartender brought over his cocktail--a Sazerac with a candied slice of orange peel--he heard a soft chuckle as he brought the glass to his lips.
Sipping the spicy sweet cocktail, Eren looked to the stranger. "What?"
"Nothing," the man smiled to himself. "It's just that drink suits you."
Heart pounding and skin alight as he felt the liquid courage work its way through his veins, Eren licked his lips then bit the corner of his lip as he hesitated for a brief moment. "What's your name?" Damn it, why did my voice have to crack? Now I sound like an idiot! he thought to himself.
"Levi. You?" There wasn't a hint of snark or teasing in his voice as he answered. Just an honest reply with a gentle expression.
God, he's so my type. Fuck, I'm in trouble. "Which name?" he asked, trying to shake his nerves with a playful response. It didn't work thought. It never did when Eren tried to flirt. It just made him cringe at his own awkwardness more. "Sorry, I was ju--"
"Why are you apologizing?" Levi chuckled. Again, the sound was smooth and soft; not mocking or assaulting in its insensitivity to the atmosphere. Looking more closely at the brunette as he shied away from eye contact--likely to hide his embarrassment--Levi offered him a reprieve. "Well, on stage I know you're Venus Lamarr who's one hell of a performer and knows her way around a pair of heels. But you," he said as the young man looked up at him with eyes so deep he could fall into them. "You're a mystery."
Staring at him a moment longer as he found the will to speak, Eren found himself smiling back. "Eren," he said, extending a hand to Levi--his heart soaring when the man took it and gave it a shake. "I saw you talking to Mama," he continued, their hands still touching as their fingers mindlessly wove together. "You know each other?"
"Mhmm," he nodded; gaze dancing to their hands--smirking when Eren smoothed the pad of his thumb of the knuckle of Levi's. "We're old college friends."
"Was she the same back then as she is now?"
"Pretty much. A little bit more feisty and calculating but pretty much the same. The only thing that's really changed with time is her taste in jewelry."
"Really?"
Levi nodded. "She used to be way more outlandish and gaudy."
"What?" Eren gawked with a humored expression of disbelief. "I don't believe it."
"I've got the pictures to prove it. She'd probably skin me alive if I showed you though."
"Probably," Eren laughed; the sound dying off though not the smile it left burning on his cheeks as he looked at the liquor bottles stacked on the wall in front of them.
The pleasant silence came again. It settling around them easily without struggle as they slid closer still to each other. What was this? Was it the alcohol that made it easier to talk to him? Or maybe it was the safety the seclusion offered them as they sat hidden away on the far end of the bar--in the corner where the light was dimmer and the music was less jarring. Perhaps it was both or maybe neither of the two. Maybe Levi was an alien sent to save him from the frightening crowd that had gathered around him that night. He certainly looked otherworldly. Features sharp yet elegant with hair as dark as spilled ink framing his face and intricate geometric tattoos of animals and forests and celestial skies decorating his arms, collarbone, and likely more than what the eye could see, he didn't fit into this mixture of people. Of all the groups and cliches and subgroups that were represented at The Abbey that night, none could be applied to him. He was truly without label.
Eyes fearlessly lingering in their admiration even when Levi turned and caught him staring, Eren felt little shame. Rather yet, he was spurred on. Bewitched by the music and the powerful tidal force of his gaze pulling him in. Shoulders touching with breath mingling, Eren wanted so badly to kiss him. Would have as their noses brushed with the gentle ghosting of lips skimming over his set off a fire within him. But just as he tilted his head to the side Levi pulled away a fraction of an inch; lifting a hand to cup the side of Eren's face--his thumb tenderly smoothing the line of his jaw. It was so sweet; so familiar and gentle. Eren hardly knew this man yet he was already melting. Falling to pieces without a care, he could have stayed that way all night.
"Kiss me," he whispered. "Please?"
Watching his lips as they spoke, Levi quietly took in a breath; his thumb moving to gently toy with the brunette's bottom lip. "I can't."
"Are you taken?"
Levi snorted a laugh. "Hardly."
"Then why?"
He could only smile when he saw the look of disappointment paint Eren's beautiful face. "You're out of my league brat."
"Says the ten."
"I'm not a ten."
Moving closer until he was in Levi's space and their breath was mingling once more, Eren whispered, "Kiss me Levi."
Shocked by the sudden display of boldness as if they'd known each other longer than the short time they'd been talking, Levi's lips curled into a lopsided grin that conjured his dimples into existence. Bumping noses with the plucky brunette as their gazes locked, he smoothed a hand up the nape of Eren's neck while the other looped around his slim toned waist. He really was beautiful beyond words. Eyes like gemstones with pops of gold flickering in the depths of untamed green lined with thick feathery lashes and a mouth that could enchant even the most hardened of hearts, he was disarming and engaging. Destructive and commanding yet in a way more subtle than his alter-ego Venus Lamarr. Boyish charm melded with feminine wit and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on, there was far more to Eren than what could be seen.
"Levi..."
The words were silenced by the press of lips and tangling of fingers in his long soft chestnut hair as Levi gave into temptation and Eren along with him. It was soft at first--sweet and pensive as they tested the feeling of their lips together. Mouth opening in silent invitation, Eren felt his knees buckle slightly when he felt Levi's tongue slid over his--it warm, slick, and tasting of sour apples and vodka. Drinking in the shared warmth while simultaneously casting his cares to the wind, the brunette let his hands wander freely over the tantalizing form beneath them wrapped in lean muscle and skin soft to the touch. He moaned into the embrace as Levi bit and suckled his bottom lip; their bodies pressing closer together as if they melt and become one complete person.
This wasn't who he was. Eren didn't make a habit of kissing strangers at bars or jumping into bed with them. But there was something about Levi that he couldn't wrestle himself free from. Call it magic. Call it chemistry. Eren didn't care what its name was. Only cared about the molding of their bodies as they fitted together with Levi shifting so that Eren was pressed against the wall with both arms looped around his neck--his fingers twisting and toying with his silky jet black hair. Didn't think as he rolled his hips into Levi's; loving the guttural growl it earned him in return. Eren could feel him getting hard. Was on his way there himself.
Kissing a trail from Levi's lips, up his jaw to his pierced ear, Eren flicked the earlobe with the tip of his tongue before pressing a sweet almost innocent kiss to the shell of his ear. "Take me home."
"We can't Eren."
"Why?" he whined in protest. He was so deep in his lust he couldn't think straight. "You think I just sleep around with anyone?"
"I didn't say that."
"Then why?"
"You're drunk."
"No I'm not," Eren insisted as he brought Levi in closer, their lips coming together once more. Despite his rebuttal, he had to acknowledge the slight dizziness he felt as well as the tingling throughout his arms and legs. "I only had a few drinks. I promise."
"I'm not having sex when we've both been drinking. That's my final answer." Placing a soft peck on his lips, Levi gave him a weak smile as he brought both hands up to frames Eren's lovely countenance as if his own words had wounded him too. "I'm sorry. You deserve better than a drunk fuck."
As much as Eren wanted to be angry at him, he couldn't; not when Levi was looking at him with adoration. They hardly knew each other and yet the way he was looking at him made him feel as if he was the only one in Levi's world. As if he truly were something beautiful; something precious and treasured.
"Can I still kiss you?" the brunette asked more meekly now. He didn't want to let go. Didn't want to separate from him. "I like kissing you."
Levi just smiled and leaned back in for another kiss; them both laughing into the embrace.