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[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Lancelot, Will Scarlet, and then morning King Arthur
WHEN: Wednesday evening
WHERE: Diogenes, Lancelot's
WHAT: Lads.
WARNINGS: Smurt

Things had been a bit shitty for Lancelot over the past year. The situation with the changing government had meant he couldn't keep doing his job at the Mexican border anymore, hunting down people who preyed on innocents who were just trying to find other opportunities in the United States. Those disgusting reprobates that were once known as 'coyotes' were now known as 'border agents' and 'Ice agents' and given additional powers with which to operate within the fucking law instead of outside of it. Lancelot couldn't exactly try to make the shitheels face justice when the very people in charge of the country were changing the definition of what justice was. Not that Lance agreed with the new definition one fucking bit. And then, when he had finally figured out a new role in a veteran's hospital - because he had to do something to try to counteract the awful - Morgan Le Fey had shown her fucking face again, and Lancelot had ended up kidnapped for months. Morgan's idea of holding him captive was pretty chill, of course, and it included a lot of delicious dinners and chess matches and way too much angry sex, but even if it was comfortable and calm - as far as kidnappings went - he had still been so relieved when he had managed to escape a week ago, thanks to the incredibly good timing of his best friend. Who now looked like a fucking child, apparently, but whatever worked for him! Now Lancelot had to pick up the pieces of his life and move on. Thankfully his apartment had been paid for - Morgan didn't want to make him homeless, after all - but he didn't have a job any more. And Lancelot wanted to spend as little time as possible inside, even if it was in the home he had missed for months. Being out and feeling the air on his skin, being able to see the sky, being able to smell the city, it was all so incredible. As was the decision to drink a beer at Diogenes. Because he could. Because no one could stop him. Unless Asterion who was guarding the door decided to. Lancelot was pretty sure Asterion could stop him... He was halfway through his second beer, and starting in on a plate of delicious cheese fries when Will walked in, not that Lance noticed him at first. Because cheese fries.

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[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

On the nights that Tuck needed him, Will found it quite easy to stay home and be there for him. He had a duty to uphold, and he did it very well.

On the nights Tuck was feeling alright, direction was a lot harder to find, and more often than not these nights, the direction was to a bar. When he couldn't find anyone to go out with, Will headed out alone, usually to somewhere like Diogenes where he could find an acquaintance to shoot the shit with or get drunk and fuck. It was getting easier to do that. Without Evie to anchor his weeks, without Tuck to be intimate with, without New Day to provide spiritual nourishment, he sought out replacements.

He was already scoping the bar as he walked in, eyes wandering over the patrons as he went over to the bar. No Much tonight, but that was alright because Will would focus on someone else. He smiled at a couple of young women but passed them by, not ready to make a decision yet.

Ordering a drink of bourbon and coke, he looked around again while he waited, and then stopped and paused.

"Lancelot? Oh my god, there's a sight for sore eyes!" He grabbed his drink as soon as it was set down, and made a beeline for his old friend, sliding into the seat opposite. "Lance! You tosser, where the fuck have you been?!"

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lance looked up when he heard his name called, and he lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw it was Will who had spoken it. "Will!" he said, delighted. "Here, have some cheese fries, they're delicious." As for where he'd been, that was more difficult.

"Ah- Morgan le Fay was holding me captive for a few months," he said, running his fingers through his hair so he looked suave while he said it. Couldn't have Will Scarlet thinking he wasn't tough and strong! "She does that sometimes," he waved his hand around a bit. "Apparently she's in such desperate need of a chess partner she decides she needs to keep me there sometimes."

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"Yeeeah, I can relate," Will said with a sympathetic shrug. Lance knew about his some of past run-ins with the Sheriff of course. "Ain't life a bitch? Or Morgan." He grabbed a couple of fries and shoved them in his mouth, leaning back in the chair, giving Lance a half grin. "Been off grid for a while meself, also involuntarily. Did play a bit of chess there too, actually. Could've been worse."

For him, anyway. It certainly had been worse for Tuck, but he didn't want to get into that.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

"Well I hope whomever you were with was as generous to you as Morgan was to me. She does this all the damn time, but she's never cruel these days. Not to me, anyway. It's all red wine and home made dinners. She does tend to walk around in very little, however." Lancelot sighed, as if that was the greatest burden of all. "Just making a pot roast in knickers that make her look like just the evilest cake. It's a trip. Glad to be home. You too? You still with the friar?"

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"Mm-" Will looked thoughtful a moment, and then nodded. Yeah, they'd been pretty generous. "Not so much walking around in knickers though, sadly. Yeah, still with Tuck, he's been through a thing too but we're both on the mend, working through it. No place like home, right?" He knocked back a glug of his drink and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "What's your... situation? Post-Morgan? Must be glad to be a free agent again."

Was he single was of course the question, but Will had just said he wasn't, so was that the right question?

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lancelot blew out a breath and he nodded, "so glad. Sorry to hear Tuck went through something tough too, but glad you're both out of it now. Definitely no place like home." Except he was avoiding home right now, but he wasn't going to say that. "Just enjoying being able to make my own goddamn decisions," he said, pointing to the cheese fries.

Lancelot glanced over towards the door for a moment, then back at Will. "And wondering if Tall, Dark and Handsome over there could kick my arse. I am fairly sure he could, look at him." He was referring to Asterion, of course. "There are other things I'd rather he do to me, of course. But I winked at him when I came in and he asked me if I had something in my eye. Ah, the charm doesn't work on everyone," he lamented.

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"You want to get your arse kicked?" Will glanced over at Asterion looming with his arms folded, arguing with a couple of young guys about why they were not coming in. "Asterion's alright. We're not best mates or anything but he's okay once you get to know his ways. Takes things very literally and has zero rizz." He chuckled. "How he managed to pull Erato I'll never know- although-" He tilted his head, admiring the muscular bulge of Asterion's glutes under his slacks, and smirked. "Maybe I do know."

Will and Lance had been friends for a long time, on and off, the sort of friends who lose touch for a decade and then pick up seamlessly when they reconnect. They'd never done anything sexual together though, since Will's awakening had been fairly recent and they just never had a chance to connect on that level. They could talk about sex pretty easily though, making dirty quips about girls they'd both had. Quipping about men together was new.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lancelot chuckled and he shook his head, "no I don't want my arse kicked! I was just wondering if he could. And yeah, I think you cracked that code there," he grinned.

Lancelot was about to eat another chip when he looked up at Will, "oh my god, you have a kid now, don't you? How's your- It was a daughter, right? Is Robin just the most doting Uncle ever?" Robin was pretty adorable around kids, and Lancelot bet that any child of his actual nephew he would adore so much. "Oh, mate, I feel so disconnected. It's been too long."

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"Yeah! Daughter. Evie. She's one in a million, man. An absolute scream. Her favourite film is Hocus Pocus and she's not even at school yet. I've been jumpscared multiple times because she's sitting in a corner wearing a horror mask and just turns silently to look at me." Will laughed. God, the lengths he'd go to to keep that girl safe. "Everybody loves her. Rob is a great uncle. Were you here when Little John and Elaine came back from her cottage?"

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lance smiled as Will described his daughter. Honestly, considering all he had seen Will go through, it was nice to hear something like this. "She sounds amazing. And hilarious! And I don't think so? I knew they got married because Merlin told me last time I got back to the city. Why?"

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

Lancelot was of course very familiar with the cottage and its strange properties, having been there himself with Marian. "Well they headed there for a while after the wedding, and came back with seven kids. Can you imagine? The oldest two just appeared in our yard out of nowhere one day, they came to the wrong place by mistake. Or not, Elaine's magic is... weird. So if Rob was into being an uncle to one, now he's an uncle to nine. Mine, Johnny's seven, and Stutely's one. No, two, he's basically dad to Clio's older kid too. So pretty much ten. It's putting Rob through his paces, for sure." Will grinned. He could even ignore the mention of Merlin to talk glowingly about his extended family.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lancelot stared at Will for a moment, his eyes wide. "Seven kids?! Oh my- That is so many kids. And there are ten of them all put together? That's really sweet actually," he smiled. "All of you putting down roots. Still, seven is like over-achieving," he laughed.

He leaned back and smiled, taking the last swig of his beer. "I might get another drink. Do you want another as well?" he asked. "Might switch to Jack and Coke actually."

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"Yep!" Will nodded, pointing at his glass to indicate that he wanted the same again as he made a large dent in it, aiming to get it finished. "Sugar free coke though! I'm trying to cut down." He smirked to himself at his little joke, since drinking alcohol and eating cheesy fries were such a healthy choice too.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

"Sugar free Coke? You cretin," he said, amused. He rose from the table to head up and order the drinks. And of course, while he was there he ended up chatting to a gorgeous redhead. Of course by the time he had been handed the drinks she had informed him she was a lesbian, but it was worth a shot!

He carried the drinks back to the table, looking amused. "Here's your Jack and 'might as well be water'. I just tried to chat up a lesbian. I am not doing well tonight," he laughed.

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"Mate, you have to shoot your shot," Will said with a grin, accepting the drink. He glanced over his shoulder at the woman at the bar, and shrugged. She was hot, so, why not? "Tuck and I have an open thing so I come out sometimes to meet people. And sometimes I end up meeting an old friend instead. Cheers." He raised his glass to Lance. He did not mind drinking with a friend instead of fucking a stranger at all.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lance had remembered that Will and Tuck's relationship was open, from when he found out they were together in rather shocking fashion. He hadn't been expecting his dear friends to kiss each other in front of his eyes, but he had recovered quickly.

After all, what were friends for, if you couldn't kiss them every once in awhile. Ah, fuck, he missed Galehaut...

"Cheers," Lance said, clinking his glass against Will's. He took a big sip afterwards and then he smiled at his friend. "Mate, it is so nice to see you. Or speak to anyone who isn't Morgan." He took another fry and chewed it thoughtfully, before saying, "so this...open thing." Will had told Lance he had discovered he was bi recently, and Lancelot was interested in what exactly the boundaries of 'open' meant. For reasons. "Is it because you still want to be with women on occasion, or does open mean open to anyone?" Canonically bisexual and adulterous Lancelot was going to put it down as research.

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"Uhh, well, anyone who catches my eye really." Will shrugged a shoulder. "Seems to have been a lot of guys recently, but maybe I'm just making up for lost time, yanno?" He smirked, glancing around the bar again. There were a lot of beautiful people in Diogenes just as a rule, so many of them being the idealised versions that humanity could come up with. Sometimes beautiful got boring but he always liked to look.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Ah, so it wasn't because he was with a man, but didn't want to give up women too. It was a blanket thing. God, that sounded ideal. "Well cheers to making up for lost time," Lancelot grinned. "It's pretty great, I can't lie! So many beautiful, amazing people, so many choices. You know what's weird? Wondering if your bisexuality is down to belief, or if it was always like that, and it influenced the belief." He shrugged and took another swig of his drink.

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

Will looked at Lance with brows raised, and then laughed. "Shit, that's too high-minded for me. I have no fucking clue where the folklore Will ends and the person Will begins. We live too fucking long to stick to one person forever, in my mind. And since that's not part of my story... well..." He shrugged. He was not tied to anyone the way Robin and Marian were, so he had the choice to experience love and sex the way he wanted to. "Are you talking about anyone in particular?" he asked, wondering if Lance was meaning Arthur or another of the knights.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lancelot drummed the table with his fingers before looking back at Will in surprise. "Wait, what? You mean now? I'm not with anyone now." Or did Will mean he legitimately didn't know about Galehut. Surely Lancelot would have mentioned his beloved ex-boyfriend at some point in their long friendship.

...right?

"It's not that I am shocked you aren't somehow a scholar of other English folklore," he laughed. "It's just that if I haven't mentioned Galehut to you, you might legitimately be the only friend I haven't lamented his absence to in my long life, and I think a lot of my other friends will be extremely jealous. Marian included. She had to listen to me when I got absolutely shitfaced one night and ranted and raved about how the fact that I haven't seen him in so long must mean Morgan was still keeping us apart and my heart would never be whole again. She was very kind about it the next morning when I was extremely embarrassed."

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"I did mean now..." Will grinned and took some fries. Maybe he should do more research on the stories of the other people he knew, but it was so easy to not do that. "Marian is a very forgiving woman. I'd hate for her to relate some of the shit she and I have been through. But no, you have, just there's that other kind of major story about your tumultuous love life and I didn't know which one you meant, since you were talking about folklore and the stories people know you for influencing your choices. So... remind me... have you and Arthur..." He made a questioning sexual gesture.

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lance had, of course, taken just that moment to take a sip of his drink. And at the hand gesture, he snorted, sending a wave of it up and over the glass, cascading down to the table. He emerged, dripping and laughing, reaching frantically for the napkins. "Jesus Christ!" he hissed, mopping up first his face and then the mess.

"Look, sometimes shit happens, but not- No, not really. Honestly, I'm just thankful he still talks to me! And occasionally rescues me from his crazy sister. There's no feelings there. ...okay there are a lot of feelings there, but not like that.

"But you know...huddled up together on the moors in the midst of an unyielding storm, nothing around you but mist and hammering rain and cold. Every fire you light snuffed out by the damp. No food or warmth to speak of, and no break in the weather for days. You seek out other kinds of warmth from whomever might be nearby, even if he is your best friend and you're desperately in love with his wife." Lancelot shrugged like it couldn't be helped.

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"Not a stranger to getting sloppy," Will said as Lance mopped the table. He'd had his times huddled in the wilds, sometimes up a tree for hours or days to escape notice, but so far he had avoided fucking any of the other Merry Men (present day Tuck excluded). But he could understand it. He and Noah had gotten handsy in the forest, although the scene had been slightly less miserable.

"We have our moments, don't we. Choices we make, for better or worse." He took a big swig of his drink, making up his mind there were going to be shots in the next round. "But they're our choices. We're people, right? Fuck the folklore. We're people too."

[itscalledalance.insanejournal.com]

Lance smiled but then he groaned, "I'd love to fuck my folklore. Is it any wonder missing my mad half-giant ex-boyfriend has me eyeing up a mountain of a man guarding the door," he laughed. "Though after months of trying to evade Morgan's advances...honestly? I'm up for anything. Anyone. If you catch my drift." He was actually making a boner joke, and not hitting on Will at all, but hey, if Will took it that way...

[rouge-rogue.insanejournal.com]

"That's the attitude!" Will raised his glass to Lance. Perhaps he could help Lance pull tonight. There was bound to be someone here who'd fuck him, even if it wasn't Asterion. Will wasn't sure Asterion was even into guys, or really anyone aside from his pretty mistress.

Or perhaps he could get a bit drunker and go home with Lance himself. Anyone included himself, right? And since Lance seemed willing to fuck around with his brothers in arms... Will was almost a brother in arms, right? Could be in his arms. Could get drunk and get laid and not go home yet.

"Hey, if I see Erato come in, I'll introduce you. If anyone has the key to the man-mountain, it's her," he said with a wink. "But there are other options too if you're feeling slutty."