As the drunk alpha stumbled because of the missed punch, Arthur could only widen his eyes.
"Why are you picking a fight out of nowhere, huh?"
That smooth baritone, now accompanied by a wisp of smoke, entered Arthur's senses. Honestly, Arthur had half-forgotten this man's existence while talking to his cousin earlier. When he glanced at the source, he saw the green eyes were looking through the bar's glass window, as nonchalant as he had been while talking to Arthur earlier.
"Look, I don't think the staff want you there, so why don't you buzz off to another bar, huh?"
Arthur blinked slowly. His small social adventuring never brought him into this kind of situation before. Was it really all right to talk like that to a group of violent people? He could only stare in bewilderment when the drunkards rejected any reason or suggestion to cease their inappropriate behavior, and instead attacked them--well, Gin--again.
"Well, well..." Gin stepped away from the punch and hooked the drunkard's leg, prompting the guy to fall flat on his stomach.
Arthur was dumbfounded. That was not listed in the way of socializing that Allen had written for him.
And it was even more bewildering when Gin gave Arthur his cigarette before manhandling three drunk adults and dragging them to the alley beside the bar. With a lit cigarette in hand, Arthur followed the sound of non-gentle persuasion and watched in a daze as Gin beat three guys into submission.
Allen would have said he had become corrupted, but at that moment, Arthur couldn't tear his gaze away from the spectacle.
Was it because he had only been surrounded by fairly well-behaved adults? Watching someone beat other people in a dark alleyway felt...exhilarating. It should be wrong, violence was wrong, but...it was done for him...right?
Was it so wrong?
His heart beat loudly. The agitation from his cousin's situation, the frustration from being useless, and the sudden spike of adrenaline--all piled up within a sheltered alpha who rarely met the real face of the world.
His heart beat loudly, and he didn't want it to stop anytime soon.
While Gin was busy taking pictures of the drunkards' identity cards--probably to make sure they didn't retaliate, Arthur shifted his gaze toward the lit cigarette in his hand. He never smoked, but...
He put the filter between his lips, tasting a mild sweetness at the edge of his tongue. Was it the filter, or was it the taste of someone else's lips there? He took a deep breath as if he could taste it better that way, unintentionally taking the smoke into his lungs.
He coughed at the foreign sensation, and it brought Gin's attention back to him. The man, who looked strangely refreshed, even chuckled at him.
"What are you doing?" he walked back to Arthur, patting the wheezing alpha's back before taking the culprit in his hand. "Thanks for keeping it safe."
Was it keeping it safe when Arthur put his saliva there already?
Gin didn't seem to mind, however. He put his cigarette back between his lips and inhaled deeply, turning his gaze back toward the groaning drunkards. All Arthur could think at that time was whether it could be counted as an indirect kiss.
And whether or not he could have more.
"Hey..." stepping forward with a dry throat, Arthur stood behind the dark-haired man.
Closed enough to see the top of the man's gelled hair, slightly tousled after the action.
Closed enough to see the fair nape behind the white shirt, and a few drops of unscented sweat from the earlier exertion.
Closed enough to convey his desire, and to do something he had never done before.
"Do you have anything to do after this?" he asked quietly, almost like a whisper.
The man glanced back, green eyes peering through long lashes. Smoke billowed in silence, and Arthur held the gaze in bated breath. The gaze lowered; the thin lips curled in amusement, exposing him.
"Did you get excited watching people get beaten?" the man asked mockingly.
"Watching you," Arthur corrected him.
The man laughed. Low, quiet, and suppressed--but a laughter nonetheless. He played with the cigarette between his fingers, as if in contemplation, and leaned back.
Against an alpha who was busy calming his drumming chest.
Certainly, the effort was for naught when their body collided. The man pressed his back against Arthur's solid chest, curling his lips into a smirk when he felt the excitement in Arthur's pants.
"Got a place for tonight?"
* * *
Arthur wasn't a virgin, but he never initiated things before. He never asked. It was the other people who brought him into motion, telling him what to do.
This time too, despite asking for it first, he was quite in a daze. If he were sober enough, he would have taken Gin to somewhere better instead of the nearest love hotel.
"Why bother?" the man said, pulling him into the room. "It's just sex."
It rather stung, since Arthur genuinely liked the guy. He certainly wanted to ask for Gin's number and perhaps...perhaps a possibility of a date. But any form of protest in his mind got buried within the kiss, which was no longer indirect.
And which was even tastier than the sweet filter.
The kiss started from the sound of the door closing, as if they were a pair of lovers who hadn't seen each other for months. Kisses of lust and impatience, although one of them was filled with curiosity, and one of them was of amusement.
Nevertheless, they were attracted to each other enough to start exchanging saliva while stripping disturbing clothes on the way to the bed. Arthur kept stumbling in a daze, but Gin kept on laughing softly against his lips because of it, as if he found the bumbling alpha endearing.
Or perhaps because he was drunk, who knows.
Arthur felt like his heart and stomach kept flipping around. There was embarrassment at the back of his mind, screaming about how pathetic he was acting. He didn't even feel this pathetic and clueless during his first time!
If there was a saving grace...well, Gin didn't seem to hate it. The man looked perfectly content guiding the alpha, slipping his hands beneath Arthur's shirt and yanking it off his head. Gin's clearly more experienced hands traced Arthur's chest and toned stomach, green eyes gleaming under the motel's insufficient light.
"This is nice," the man licked his lips, sending goosebumps over Arthur's spine. "Feels like a birthday gift."
That felt objectifying--Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly. But he was the one who got turned on by someone throwing punches in his stead, so who was he to criticize?
After all, he was also busy looking at Gin's body, the ripple of the other man's muscles as they were used to strip him. Slender, lean muscles that seemed to be carved out of running and manual labor. Somehow, it fit perfectly with the subtle smoke scent clinging after all those cigarettes.
Arthur frowned at that. He wanted to smell Gin's natural scent, the smell of his skin. Before he knew it, he had buried his nose in Gin's neck, inhaling deeply.
"You won't smell anything," the man laughed, fingers moving to unbuckle Arthur's belt.
Right. There was no immediate smell, just a lingering powdery soap scent. Arthur didn't see any scent blocker patch either. So...he really was a beta?
Arthur felt a bit disheartened. It was so hard recognising beta in the crowd. They had no scent, and Gin didn't have a very striking characteristic either. Dark hair and green eyes were unbearably common, no matter how pretty they were. Arthur had hoped to see a tattoo, but the fair skin was unblemished. There was no scar--not that he wished for it--nor was there a beauty mark in sight. Not even a prick of piercing in his ears.
What kind of high-level challenge was this?
"What are you looking for, huh?" Gin yanked the hem of Arthur's pants, prompting the alpha to gasp slightly. Their faces were close, close enough for Arthur to see the violet tint around the green irises.
It was mesmerizing. So mesmerizing he didn't even realize Gin had unzipped his pants and pulled the hem to free his excited dick.
"Well, well..."
Arthur peered at the gleaming green eyes, gulping at the appraising stare. He was pretty confident in his size, and some said the shape was pretty--whatever that meant. But he also knew that people had different preferences, and since betas couldn't produce slick, maybe Gin didn't like it big...
"...a problem?" Arthur asked nervously.
The green eyes moved up in a flick, the movement of his dark lashes cast an alluring shadow on his fair cheek. A beta could be this pretty? Arthur thought perhaps he should see more of the world, after all.
"Not particularly. I just think my condom won't fit," Gin said, almost ridiculously nonchalant. "You bring some?"
"No...?"
He didn't come out that night for a hook-up after all. Did people usually bring a condom in their person all the time? Arthur, who kept getting bewildered, watched the other man walk toward the nightstand. Gin opened one of the drawers and rummaged through the contents.
"This is why this kind of place is better for sex," he fished out a string of large-sized condoms, even with several sachets of lube as a bonus. He stood up with his harvest and tilted his head up. "Sit down like a good boy."
It was a good thing that Arthur was good at being manhandled.