Make sure to keep my distance...

[scotlandthebrave]

Who: England & Scotland
When: November 27th
Where: The pub.
What: Drinking. Lots of drinking. And bros being bros.
Warnings: Er. Language? Probably violence too.

---

Once he'd got over the name of the place and actually ventured inside, it wasn't a bad place. William had situated himself at a table, one with a good view of both the bar and the door, and had obtained a bottle of whiskey. He'd learned his lesson from his previous escapades and was taking this one slowly, not wanting to get close to killing himself again.

Aah, the thought of that being a possibility.. it was enough to unnerve him all over again as he thought of it, and he knocked back the half-shot still remaining in his glass, before pouring another. A low cough escaped him as the alcohol burned a path down the centre of his chest to his stomach, the sound catching around his already damaged lungs. He really needed to quit smoking.

Then, in walked his little brother. William watched him with eyes just a shade darker green than the younger man, and when he was noticed, there was a moment's pause before he shifted and nudged the chair across from him out in silent invitation, imagining up a second glass and setting it down.

Comments

[unionjackass]

Arthur barely noticed William out of the corner of his eye, until the movement and scrape of the chair really caught his attention. He already smelled of booze and smoke, but he intended to continue using his chosen poisons for a while longer. After all, he felt stripped bare and rubbed painfully raw. Arthur wanted to drink until he could no longer feel the gaping, torn wound the island has given him. Better that he drank with his brother--William was familiar, a grudging lifeline--than some nosy stranger, or one of the spiteful idiots he knew from home.

The chair was his main focus for the moment. Arthur wasn't too far gone yet, but he had an empty look in his eyes and a hollow expression that dampened his features. He shuffled to the offered seat and plunks himself into an awkwardly perched position atop it.

With a sigh, he folded his hands on the tabletop and focused on them and only them, fingers curled around one another tightly. The vast loneliness that weighed on his shoulders was so painful that opening up to his brother just by having sat with him didn't really register as a blow against his pride.

"S'been hell, last few days," he offered, mumbling the words with a light slur. "Hate this mortal body. Hate this island."

Arthur abruptly scrubbed at his eyes, wrinkled his nose, but still kept his gaze from his brother's face.

[scotlandthebrave]

The glass he'd set down was filled with a more than generous shot of whiskey and pushed across towards his brother. He could see that Arthur was well on the way to inebriation already, but so was he, and judgement suffered under such conditions. Not that he'd care even if he was sober. It was cruel to separate a man from his drink, even if said man wasn't as able to handle it as he used to be.

Not that Arthur had ever had much of a tolerance for alcohol to begin with.

"Aye," he responded, a small amount of tension dropping from his shoulders. He had to pull his mind away from wandering. It had been doing that a lot lately, and he was convinced it was linked to the headache he'd had several days earlier.

"Ah'm nae sae keen oan it either." Understatement of the century, but wasn't that the way for the British? "Drink up, lad."

[unionjackass]

And drink up he does. The shot burns unexpectedly and he spluttered clumsily, coughing.

"Confound this--body--" Rubbed his throat, swallowed, shook his head until he could speak again.

"--'ve you got a smoke?"

He still won't look up at his brother.

[scotlandthebrave]

William snorted, but gave no other comment on his brother's inability to take a shot of whiskey. He would, the Scot thought, have struggled in the same way even back home.

"Aye."

Of course he had a smoke, who did England think he was talking to? William pulled a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed them across to the other man, neglecting to mention that he could have just thought up his own. He didn't object to sharing. Not right now.

"Knock yerself it."