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The kid at the bar looked very cute, and very uncomfortable.
Josh guessed he couldn’t blame him--the creep flirting with him had settled a hand on the kid’s thigh and Josh could tell the kid was fighting not to physically remove it from his leg. The creep was also probably well into his thirties, too, while the kid looked like he could barely passed for twenty-one, and that--that’s just creepy. Josh felt very unsettled just by that fact alone.
He was keeping a close eye on them, hoping that maybe the kid had come here with a friend that was going to come rescue him any second, but when the kid sent one more pleading look to the rest of the bar Josh stood up from his booth and marched on over. The guy’s hand was creeping up the kid’s leg and he was not about to let this happen while he just stood by and did nothing.
“Hey, babe!” he greeted loudly as he approached them, both turning to him in surprise as Josh knocked into the kid’s side and threw an arm around his shoulder. “Um, who’s your friend? You haven’t been flirting behind my back, have you?” His voice was loud and overly friendly, but he made sure to pin the creep with a sharp glare that had him retracting his hand from the kid’s leg in a heartbeat.
Once the kid realized what Josh was doing, he relaxed under Josh’s arm and leaned into him. “Not at all, I was actually just saying goodbye?”
The creep--who was pinning Josh with the filthiest glare he could muster--only said, slowly, “Yeah, was just leaving. Had a nice chat with your boyfriend,” and honestly, Josh could care less if the dude saw right through them, the point was Josh knew what he was doing and could totally take this guy if need be. He curled the hand that wasn’t wrapped around the kid’s shoulder into a fist as if to prove his point.
The guy took one last swig of his drink and threw some cash on the counter before standing up and brushing past Josh, but not before pausing to mutter in his ear, “Someone should be taking that jailbait home at the end of the night, even if it’s not me,” winking, and quickly walking out the door.
Josh shuddered. Wow. That was a certain level of creepy he’d only seen in crime dramas.
He pulled away from the kid now that the immediate threat was out of sight and smiled warmly. “Hey, sorry for barging in like that, but you kind of looked like you were screaming on the inside and that guy was giving me all kinds of bad vibes.”
The kid was even cuter up close, all pretty brown eyes and an adorable pixie nose, and Josh’s stomach suddenly turned into a butterfly enclosure when his mouth broke into a smile full of crooked teeth.
“I was screaming on the inside,” the kid said, “and thank God you noticed, because I was about to fall on my last resort and try to punch that guy in the face, which, well.”
Josh laughed, glad he stepped in when he did. He can imagine how that fight would’ve ended.
He held out his hand, and the kid reached out to grasp it. “I’m Josh,” he greeted, and more butterflies burst from his abdomen when the kid shyly introduced himself with, “”Tyler,” and wow, creepy as that other fuck was, he had good taste, because this kid was astronomical levels of adorable and Josh was about to have stomach cramps from the sheer amount of metaphorical butterflies that were fluttering around inside of him.
“So, um,” the kid--Tyler--started awkwardly, retracting his hand. “Care to be my date for the night? My friends sort of ditched me and I don’t exactly feel up to going home to my roommate getting frisky with some cuter than me in our apartment.” He frowned, as if reliving a memory where that had happened before. Josh sympathized; he’d been there.
“Sure,” he grinned back in reply, and wow, he couldn’t believe his luck. “Although, if I start to cross any boundaries feel free to punch me in the face. I probably need it.”
Tyler fucking giggled, and wow, Josh was so fucked. Hopefully literally, though. “I’ll let you know,” and there was a flirty edge to his voice this time, and Josh was very, very gay.
x
Later that night, when Josh had Tyler pressed against his mattress and moaning wantonly into his mouth, legs bracketing Josh’s hips, he mentally congratulated himself on not getting himself punched once.