John was relaxing on a day off when he heard a knock on the door. He wasn’t expecting Andressa that day since she was spending it with some friends that were visiting from Hell. He had plans to have dinner with her and them later that day, but he wasn’t expecting to see her until then. He walked over to his front door and looked through the incredibly impractical ‘vision portal’ that acted as a peephole to see Ben standing on the other side. He looked distinctly uncomfortable and was wearing a normal shirt and pants with simple iron caps on his tusks rather than the fancier formalwear that had been his norm recently.
He sighed then opened the door.
“Ben. I wasn’t expecting to see you. You’ve missed your last two months of sessions.”
He frowned. “Yeah, I know… can I come in?”
“Fine,” replied John, stepping to the side to let the man come in. He then closed the door behind him and went back to the table where he had his coffee. He grabbed the mug and took a sip as he looked at Ben.
Ben squirmed a bit under his gaze. “Any chance I could get some of that?” he asked.
John just took a sip, continuing to stare.
Ben sighed. “Dammit dude I’m here to fucking apologize. Can I have some coffee? Please?”
John sighed too and went over to the press, grabbing a mug from the kitchen cabi and filling it. He added heavy cream and sugar as he knew Ben preferred, then handed him the mug.
“Thank you,” he said, sighing yet again before taking a sip.
“So?” asked John.
“I’m sorry man, you were right.”
“About what?”
“What I did to Celeste. It was some evil shit and I shouldn’t have done it.”
“And did you apologize to her?” asked John.
“Yeah. I did. She didn’t listen at first, so I let her be, but eventually she asked to see me and I was able to lay it all out for her… We’re back together actually. Not sure I deserve that.”
“Guess you’ll have to live up to being the man you think she deserves.”
“Yeah.” He took another sip of his coffee. “So. Are we friends again or what?”
John put his own coffee down. “Sure, but friends with a new understanding.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m going to be calling you on your bullshit and you’re going to listen.”
“What about your bullshit?” he asked.
“Yes, if there’s something I do that you think is bullshit then you call me out on it too.”
“Alright then.”
“You going to start showing up to your appointments and the support group again?”
“Yeah, yeah. I missed seeing everyone, and I think I have more shit to work through than I’d thought.”
“That’s alright man, that’s why I’m here. That’s why the group meets.” He paused for a few moments. "I shouldn't have hit you with those papers like that. That was unprofessional."
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He laughed. "I dunno. It was probably overdue."
They stood there quietly for a few moments.
“So… wanna go to that kobold barbecue place up the road and fuck up some ribs?”
“Ben, it’s ten in the morning.”
“Is that a no?”
John sighed. “Let’s go fuck up some ribs.”
John and Ben walked out onto the street and up to Dragonflame, the Kobold barbecue. It was a large building with a smoker in the shape of a massive dragon’s maw that was filled with all manner of meats. They got a table and before long were both stuffing themselves on meats and dipping them in one of the dozens of sauces the kobolds kept on the table. Every once in a while one of the kobolds would walk by and breathe a bit of fire onto their plates to make sure they stayed at a good temperature.
As they sat and ate John told Ben what he’d been up to over the last two months, then Ben did the same. John got to go over the wedding and how things had been going with Andressa earning him an enthusiastic nice
from Ben. Ben on the other hand had been spending a lot of time alone thinking, but he’d also spent some time hanging out with Rene and even visiting the arena with Eric and his dwarven friends.
“You know, we should get together with Rene and some of the other guys from the group and have a Boyz night.”
John wasn’t sure how he could hear the Z in boyz, but he could.
“I don’t know. I don’t want the women in the group to feel excluded.”
“Come on man. It’s just a fun hang. It’s good for groups of guys to hang out every once in a while. I could take care of it. I know we’d all have a good time.”
John hesitated for a moment before nodding. Ben had usually been too focused on his lack of success with women to cultivate any friendships beyond himself and Rene. He didn’t love the idea of leaving it up to him to make it happen, but he hoped it would be a
good.
“Sweet man. I wonder if we could go to the arena and fight each other or something.”
John raised an eyebrow at him. “Ben, you're eight feet tall. I don’t really feel that would be fair to the rest of us.”
“What if it’s three on one?”
…
John wound up being grateful for the early lunch with Ben. Not only because he was happy to have things resolved between them, but also because it took several hours for him to recover from the meat sweats and sleepiness that had come with the meal. By the time he needed to get ready to meet Andressa and her friends he was just starting to overcome that bleariness and exhaustion.
He took a quick shower, threw on the red suit she’d gotten him in order to earn obvious points with both her and her friends, then he had one more cup of coffee. He took a deep breath before he walked out of the apartment. He was feeling a bit shaky. He regularly spoke with Eldritch horrors, vampires, and cultivators that could extinguish plas, but apparently his girlfriend's friends were too much for him.
He laughed at himself a bit and pushed his way out of his apartment. He made his way down to the street and tried to flag down a carriage. Avalon was busy lately, with the mating season being in full swing for so many species. While the sky was swarming with lovers during the morning and afternoon, the streets were full of them at night. He saw the Fey of the Spring court out in droves, their skin blooming with flowers and their eyes glowing soft purple as they gazed longingly at one another smelling like decadent perfume, Gnoll women barked and growled at one another as they competed for the most submissive males that they favored, and treants unashamedly sent waves of pollen at one another in a display that, while beautiful, was basically public copulation. Spring in Avalon could be short or long at a whim, and it seemed that its citizens wanted to take full advantage of what they could.
He eventually managed to call down a wagon made of hard black chitin being drawn by two massive roaches and driven by a child’s worst nightmare version of Jiminy Cricket. He ignored the similarities to an HR Giger painting and stepped inside, finding the cushions made of sacks filled with green fluid to be surprisingly comfortable. He looked out the window that seemed to be made out of a thin insect's wing and watched the city go by as they got closer to Little Hell.
The district was… interesting. It wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as the name would make you believe, but it did have thermal vents that heated it year-round, regularly sold imitation human flesh, and there were a large number of clubs catering specifically to succubi and their victims, most of whom were more than willing to be fed on. He didn’t really have much room to judge, given his current paramour. While most places of the areas heavy in one group usually still had a number of visitors come through, Little Hell was a bit more isolated than most. It wasn’t very difficult to see why.
The carriage came to a stop and John hopped out, grabbing a few coins to hand the cricket driving it. He threw in some extra, since it was clearly uncomfortable in the heat of the Little Hell, and it tipped its hat to him before setting its carriage moving again.
John could feel himself being sized up a dozen different ways as he walked down the brimstone streets. Some of them seemed to be looking at him as if they were hungry, and others were looking at him hungrily. He got a few cat calls in his directions as he walked. He actually found them a little flattering, in the same way he found almost being carried off by harpies flattering, but he ignored them until he finally reached The Last Meal, where he expected to meet Andressa and her friends.
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