drear | i will sail to the far shore

[Ugh this guy.

Eames accepted the beer, making sure to keep his face carefully neutral since it was clear Magato was doing this to try to get a rise out of him. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.]

Miracles never cease. So then you've cleaned up your act since I last saw you?

Oh, yeah. Totally. I'm a new man now.

[ When the beer comes, Magato picks it up and holds it out, still grinning the same shit-eating grin. ]

What about you? Moving on?

[What a lying sack of shit. Eames accepted the beer with a small inclination of his head of thanks, taking a sip grudgingly. He only mirrored Magato's grin as he turned to him.]

It almost sounds like you care. I'm very touched, and doing well thank you.

[Hopefully this guy didn't give a shit enough to follow his channel or else he might have to sing a different song, but from what everyone had told him, his interests were limited to drugs, sex, and Naoto.]

[ Eames can smile back, but Magato sees through it. He always does. ]

Of course I care. I care about all my friends, and a friend of a friend is my friend too.

[ 'Friends', heh. He and Heine are far more than friends. ]

Cheers to that, huh?

[ Magato holds his drink up to clink together. ]

[Ugh this guy was so full of sit and they both knew it. Eames made a face, but clinked their bottles together.]

So do you get all your friends addicted to illegal substances or are addicts just the only people who can stand you?

[ Eames is really going there already, is he? Magato takes his time drinking, keeping his eyes on Eames the whole time as he swallows deeply. ]

What about you? Are the people who want a piece of you the only ones who give you the time of day?

Are you talking about people who enjoy my company without having to be bribed?

[He looked at Magato as innocently as possible, taking another swig of beer. Because he will go there, buy a house there, and be buried there. Don't think he won't.]

I'm not sure what you'd bribe 'em with, but sure.

[ If Eames thinks Magato is "bribing" his friends, well, he doesn't really care. He doesn't care for relationships he doesn't need. ]

My great company of course.

[Eames raised his glass as if to cheers again, before downing it all and setting the bottle down heavily.]

Thanks for the drink. I'll get going.

[ Great company, prepare to meet even better company. Magato has a better view of the bar door, and he lifts his head at the sight of it opening and a familiar head of white hair coming through it.

Heine himself nearly stops. Eames is here? Seriously? Just his luck. But since they've all seen each other now, he has to move. He walks forward, letting Magato pull him into his side with a hand on his wrist that ends up moving higher to his elbow. ]

...hey.

[When it rained, it poured. Eames was sure the way he kept his face carefully neutral was just as telling as if he had let out a wounded noise, but after seeing Heine the whole gambit of emotions he had been trying to avoid came rushing for him mercilessly. He could still remember their easy banter, the lazy jam sessions, waking up and reaching for him. Just as easily he could remember their ugly fights, how deep he realized he was and that he was alone in it, and the terrible hollowness that had settled in his chest as he had flown away from this city.

'Hey' indeed.

Eames' gaze flickered from Magato's hold on Heine to the man's face in question, finally settling on a quaint smile.]

No need for pleasantries, I was just leaving. Good to see you.

Hey... [ Magato draws the word out, and with the arm not over Heine, he gestures for Eames to stay. ]

Don't go running off just yet. You two didn't even say hello to each other.

[ With a glance back at the bartender, he orders them another round of drinks. ]

Let's find a place to sit all together, yeah? Come on, somewhere cozy where we can talk.

[ Seeing Eames sends his heart right down into the pit of his stomach. Magato's hand on his arm, then his arm over his shoulder, isn't as easy to ignore as it usually is.

He doesn't like Magato. He likes fucking him, likes what Magato can give him in terms of pleasure and taking his mind off of things, but Magato is nothing at all like Eames.

But he did this to himself. Looking away, he doesn't say anything while Magato begins trying to drag them towards a booth to the side. ]

[The biggest part of Eames wanted to walk out of the door without acknowledging the two of them, to forget about either of them for as long as humanly possible. Heine had made his choice, had made it clear in the radio silence that followed, and Eames wasn't so much of a masochist that he wanted to spend any amount of time with him and his drug dealer.

However, there always was a petty part of him that thought, fuck it. If Heine couldn't meet his eyes, he'd stay until he could and rub it in his nose how well he was doing without him.]

As long as you keep buying.

[Eames slid into the booth, smiling mock sweetly, before turning to Heine.]

Hello. [Pointedly, for Magato's benefit.] You look like shit. Still letting him talk you into doing the hard stuff?

[ Keep buying, sure. Magato's enjoyment of the tension between Heine and his ex... whatever is too good to give up. He grins and passes out the drinks he bought earlier.

And hey, they're saying hello to each other. That's good. While taking a slug of his own mixed drink, Magato leans back and slings an arm over Heine's shoulders again, just to watch it all unfold. ]

[ Magato and Eames are both going to do this to him.

Well. He can't say he doesn't deserve it. He was unfair to Eames when he gave up their relationship, whatever it was, in favor of what seemed easier at the time. ]

Are you trying to start an argument with me right now?

[ Rather than argue back, right at this moment Heine is more interested in not looking at him, drinking, and jiggling his knee restlessly under the table. ]

[Eames was playing straight into Magato's greasy, garbage stained hands, he knew it without Magato slinging an arm over Heine's shoulders and watching the two of them smugly. He didn't want to give him any satisfaction, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't angry. If he didn't think Heine could put up with a bit of discomfort considering the stupid choices he was making. And not all of them had to do with choosing Magato over him.]

Who knows, maybe you'll listen to me for once because it doesn't seem like you're listening to anyone else. They're all worried about you, you know. His dick can't be that great, for you to want to cut everyone else out of your life.

[Because it sure wasn't the personality. Eames knocked back a bit more of his drink, smiling sweetly at Magato since it seemed like Heine couldn't meet his gaze.]

[ Maybe not all of the Eames' antagonism comes from Heine getting with Magato rather than himself, but at least some of it does, and that's enough for him. And the argument itself—yeah, that's good. Especially the talk about his dick.

He'll let Heine respond. He'll grant him that much, while smiling back at Eames with just as much sweetness. ]

[ Antsy and feeling worse by the second in the noisy bar, Heine bounces his foot a few more times. Exhaling harshly through his teeth, he looks at Eames once.

It's not about Magato's dick. Or at least it isn't all about his dick. It's just Magato gives him the escape he needs so badly. ]

I'm not cutting everyone out of my life. I'm not—I'm fine.

[ Anger from Eames is met, finally, by a flat look from Heine when he turns to face him head-on. ]

If you want to tell me something then just say it.

[Usually, Eames made it a point not to get wrapped up in people's drama. Watch it from the sidelines, throw in a witty retort or two, but he'd learned his lesson about being sucked into situations where there was no winning. And yet here he was, being buffeted by a storm of it, just taking it. He could get up and walk away at any time, and yet he was rooted to the spot, eyes narrowing.

He could be more delicate, sure, but if Heine wanted him to say his piece, he would.]

You're an a fucking idiot and a poor liar. If you don't want whatever we had, fine. But you could at least talk to Nill more. She's worried about you.

[He drained the last of his drink, getting up, disgusted. He felt his hands shaking with anger, and slowly, he exhaled, forcing himself to unclench them.]

It was nice seeing the two of you again. Hope you have a wonderfully fantastic life together.

[ This time Magato makes no move to stop Eames from leaving. He's had his fun—Heine is sitting under his arm with obvious discomfort on his face.

Poor Eames, really. Magato figures he misses Heine a lot, and he doesn't blame him. Heine's fun. Bit of a drag sometimes, but fun enough to fuck around with. ]

We will, babe, don't worry. Later.

[ He waves lazy fingers at him as he leaves. ]

[ They're not going to have a wonderfully fantastic life together. They don't even have a life together, in the first place, not anything like the relationship he at least had with Eames.

Struck more than anything by how stupid this is, Heine keeps his mouth shut as Eames slams his glass back down and leaves.

He doesn't want to think about this. He doesn't want to imagine what could have been.

When Magato chuckles and whispers into his ear that they should get out of there, Heine just nods. ]

[The last meeting in LA, had in Eames mind, been the last of it. Even if Heine wasn't happy, had looked like a strung out doll, quiet and sunken in next to Magato, he had made his choice. Eames could only watch or care for so long, so he had forced it from his mind. If even Nill couldn't reach him, what could he do?

He had been steeling himself for the next time he saw Heine being on some remembrance slideshow splashed across the news, so when he had gotten a message from Heine that he was in his neck of the woods and wanted to meet up, he was surprised. He had been half tempted to ignore it entirely, and had done so up until the last day Heine was there, struggling with how he felt. But in the end, he wanted to see him, even if Magato was there. Because one of his biggest regrets of the last meeting was not punching Magato in the face.

So, he replied back to say he'd be at the chosen bar at seven, not sure what to expect as he slid into the booth opposite of Heine.]

Hey.

[ That night hadn't been the last one Heine spent with Magato. Far from it. He'd slept at his place for a week straight, only pulling himself up to get work done. He'd been so exhausted after the sex and drugs that he missed parts of his schedule, leading to arguments, leading to worse.

Naoto corners him, finally. She tells him what he admittedly already knows: that he's fucking himself over and all his friends over, including Nill, by staying with Magato. He doesn't even make you happy, Naoto told him straight up. He's just making you more miserable.

Bishop helps him out. Nill talks to him again, because she's an angel, and Heine is a couple of weeks clean when he flies to the east coast with a backpack with his laptop and a few changes of clothes to repair work relationships and non-work relationships as well.

Even if he might not be able to get back to where he was with Eames, Heine can confidently say that he's done with Magato and his lifestyle. If this doesn't work out, it doesn't. At least he'll have tried, which is more than he could say before.

Heine's at the bar ahead of time. He's having a drink, having eaten actual food recently and feeling better because of it. When Eames appears he sits up straighter, hands squeezing on his glass. ]

Hey. [ Ugh. This is hard. ] ...how are you?

[It was strange how different Heine looked since the last time he'd seen him. Like he'd actually gotten sleep and eaten a good meal sometime in the past week. So then it must be true what Badou had told him, that Heine had finally gotten help and out from under Magato's thumb.

The attempt at small talk was so awkward Eames had to shake his head, turning instead to order a drink with the helpful server before turning back to him.]

Not as you I'm guess. Badou told me that you were getting better. I'm glad to see that's true.

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TIME SKIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

:^)

/insert andrew garfield shaking his head eating ice cream emote here