Cooper liked making Lucian blush. He couldn’t explain what the draw was to seeing the younger man’s pale skin flush just slightly with his comment about his eyes. He licked his dry lips, his tongue sliding over his lower lip quickly and he tasted the remnants of his drink there. “You don’t believe me, do you,” he asked, though it was really more of a statement than anything else. Compliments obviously seemed to make Lucian nervous, but Cooper didn’t think he wanted to let it slide, so he leaned back in his chair a little and watched the other man carefully. It didn’t take long for her semi-flirtatious joke to deepen the pretty blush on the other man’s cheeks, making Cooper chuckle just a bit. Jesus, the way he blushed and seemed so bashful made the other man seem innocent, like a virgin bride on her wedding night. The idea sent a strange shiver through Cooper. Innocence had never really been a thing for him, instead he usually preferred unshockable, unblinking sexuality with a side of sweetness. A combination that was unbearably hard to find and he’d lost the only person he’d ever found that possessed both qualities in spades. Or maybe she hadn’t ever possessed them, but he was trying very hard not to dwell on that now.
Lucian was, for the most part, doing a pretty damn good job of distracting him from his own dark thoughts, so he turned his attention back to the other man as he grabbed the empty glass from in front of him. At the question, he nodded in the affirmative and let the man work. He glanced around the bar, thankful that it was still fairly empty. The after work crowd, for the most part, was gone, and the evening people hadn’t made their way through yet. The only people around were the truly enthusiastic drunks looking to drown away their respective sorrows with little to no conversation of liveliness, the kinds of patrons that he usually was. Cooper felt bad though, sure that he was pulling Lucian’s attention from other people, and as an unfortunate result, more tips. The other man didn’t seem to mind too much, though, but Cooper made a mental note to tip the hell out of his friendly new acquaintance to make up for it. He liked the man, more than he probably should, especially the way his face seemed to glow as he talked about his artwork. Cooper didn’t understand that kind of passion, though he did love his job it was more about people than about inner talent. Cooper had never felt the kind of singular, solitary joy that someone of a creative bent could get. His joy had always come from being around others, from interaction, and now even that felt like it would grate on him like a mortar. “Eyes have to be hard, there’s a lot in a person’s eyes,” he shrugged, “you can tell a lie by where someone looks as they talk, if you can read eyes you can read people, that’s got to be hard to capture.”
He took in the younger man’s smile, a shy, bashful look, almost as if he were mocking himself without saying a word. Cooper found his eyes settling on Lucian’s full lips as he wet them, fixating on the way the other man’s tongue moved over what he knew must be soft, sensitive skin. He shook himself a little at that thought. What had gotten into him? He dropped his eyes to the bar quickly and concentrated on breathing for a second, the way his breath slipped through his nose and into his lungs. So the bartender was attractive and obviously passionate about something, and it drew him in a strange way, but that didn’t mean that he should be thinking of those things. It only took him a second to push the thoughts back, he was a master at that after all. Cooper pushed things away, it was a simple truth to who he was. He had become overly adept at tamping down and hiding away things he didn’t want to think about, it was almost scary how good he was at it. He smiled as Lucian snorted when he laughed. It was so stereotypically dorky and didn’t fit in with the way the other man looked at all, making it absolutely adorable. His smiles were coming easier now, not forced politeness, and he realized that for the first time in months he felt at ease, thanks to the young man behind the bar. The corners of his eyes crinkled just a little with his smile as he gazed up at the other man. “Shame,” he said softly, “it was cute.” So was the deep red blush on his cheeks. Damn if he wasn’t tempted to say things just to keep Lucian flushed like that.
“God, I hope I haven’t,” he said, tilting his head to the side when Lucian affirmed that he didn’t yet seem soulless. “I missed the day in law school were they suck your soul out through your nostrils,” his voice was steady and almost serious sounding, “if they find out, I’ll be captured and forced to give it up,” he said, his voice low as he leaned in a little bit, as far as he could towards the bar, “so shush, you gotta keep it a secret.” He put his finger to his lips and looked up at Lucian, his eyes wide in a mockery of pleading.
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