I'll be Watching You! (Zander, Casual)

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

"Oh, shut up! You're confusing me and I don't like it! I didn't push you, I didn't!"

The look on the other man’s face was so reminiscent of his nephew that Zander couldn’t help but frown a bit. Oh, this full grown man was giving him the same head-strong look as his nephew. He was a six year old in a man’s body. ...working towards a tantrum. Now, how did Sidda handle these things? Well, she passed it off to Mama. Mamma would have put him in a time out by now.

Where was Mamma when he needed her...

"Idiot.”

“Now, that’s quite enough,” Zander said, channelling his best Milly Devereux look – one that he hoped made the other man take notice the way he had as a child. “Take a breath and mind your behavior.”

How many times had the woman said that to him as he’d grown up? It always worked on him, at least.

“Now, you and I aren’t getting along. That’s fine, people don’t have to get along, but there’s no call for name calling.”

Yes, handling things like his mother would was a much better way to approach this. At least this Victor seemed much less irritating now.

“Let’s being again, shall we? I’m Zander, you’re Victor. You have your wall propping and I have my work out. We should both resume doing those things as adults, no?”

There. Now that was easy. He’d have to send Mama some flowers.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

Zander's speech suddenly became different, and it confused Victor a lot. “Now, that’s quite enough - Take a breath and mind your behavior.”

Victor blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked, confused. He could tell that Zander wasn't speaking the same as he had been before, maybe he was impersonating someone or had been impersonating someone, or this was a quote.

“Now, you and I aren’t getting along. That’s fine, people don’t have to get along, but there’s no call for name calling. Let’s being again, shall we? I’m Zander, you’re Victor. You have your wall propping and I have my work out. We should both resume doing those things as adults, no?”

Adults? Hmm. He never really though of himself as an adult. This man was considerable older. If Victor was an adult, was Zander and old man? No, he couldn't be, he still had a young man's build, the muscles that an inevitably wasted past the prime of one's life.

He didn't really get it, but he said, "Okay," anyways, because he tended not to understand things until later, when James explained them to him. "So I shouldn't look at you because we're adults."[/b]

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

"What do you mean?"

Victor looked confused. Well, clearly his mother had never had this conversation with him. That was alright – Zander could educate him. He had so few people who actually took him seriously, after all, and he did have good thoughts. His thoughts were better than good – they were amazing, just like the mother who had drilled them into his head. Yes, he was really going to have to send her flowers now. Maybe brunch was even in order. He’d have to tell Jeffry to schedule something.

"Okay. So I shouldn't look at you because we're adults."

Zander nodded. “Exactly. Adults don’t stare at each other,” he reasoned. “They do more adult things, like talk and work out and what not.”

Not that he was particularly interested in conversation with this nutter, but it was the point ht was making rather than the actions he was willing to take. Besides, it wasn’t completely true. Adults did stare at each other, but they were of the opposite sex and had aesthetic appeal. He was not going to explain that to the man. No, he liked his sanity exactly the way it was.

“Understand?” he asked, hoping that he had made some progress with this man. If not, he was wasting his perfectly minty breath.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

Zander seemed pleased with his realization. “Exactly. Adults don’t stare at each other. They do more adult things, like talk and work out and what not. Understand?”

Victor made a face. The man was still talking to him like he was dumb. And talking and working things out... "How terribly dull. How do adults stand themselves?" Victor didn't really consider himself an adult after all - more a grown up, really. Saying grown up and adult seemed so much different; adult was so pretentious and admitting to the sad reality of a continued life.

Well, some adults didn't stand themselves, he knew. Victor didn't actually condone suicide, of course, but he was sympathetic to the cause. After all, how many times had he wondered if being dead was more interesting than being alive?

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

"How terribly dull. How do adults stand themselves?"

Zander couldn’t help the sudden bark of laughter. Oh, this Victor truly was confused.

“Alcohol, and lots of it,” he replied, thinking of his friend Claudius who was so terribly dull when he wasn’t plastered. “Believe me, it makes all things better.”

Dead fathers, strange bedfellows, long lost brothers who turned out to be the mayor and some smelly sailor...

“Have you never tried it? I highly recommend that you do.”

A small part of him thought that it might not be a good thing to suggest to this man that he should be drinking, but it was a small part, after all. And with how this man tried to trip him, well, it was warranted.

“In fact, you should start keeping a bottle of bourbon on you to appease the people you anger. Starting now.”

And if he got a bottle of bourbon out of it, then he would be happy enough.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

Zander actually laughed, then. Victor had no idea why, but he liked it much better than the angry. “Alcohol, and lots of it. Believe me, it makes all things better.” Well, that was true. “Have you never tried it? I highly recommend that you do. In fact, you should start keeping a bottle of bourbon on you to appease the people you anger. Starting now.”

Huh, that was actually a good idea. He did seem to anger people too much, more than he was sure was normal, but he never quite knew why. Maybe if he gave them a gift they'd be okay with it, more. "I should," he agreed, his tone considerably brightened from before.

"And of course I've tried alcohol," he added, "I love beer." He was just stating an opinion. Even if James didn't agree. Said it was too cheap. But he liked cheap thing. "So you like bourbon? Or what? Do you want one now?" He would very well go out and get one for Zander - after all, he really didn't like the previous hostility. He didn't want it to creep back up when he wasn't paying attention. Perhaps Zander was the one who needed alcohol to be nice, so he'd do that.

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

"I should. And of course I've tried alcohol. I love beer."

Zander snorted. Oh, he most definitely did not love alcohol. He loved beer. There was so much of a difference that it was hardly funny. However, for the sake of keeping things civil, he was willing to not point that out.

"So you like bourbon? Or what? Do you want one now?"

“I do like Bourbon. It’s a great drink – true alcohol at its finest, and all American,” he replied, thinking fondly of the amber liquid. “However, now I am supposed to be working out. You’ll find that you can’t do both at the same time.”

At least not in public. There had been many nights where he had drank himself into a stupor, running on the treadmill, overlooking the city from his perch on the top of the world. It was easier to get drunk when you were running, getting alcohol into the blood faster. It was a rush of all kinds of endorphins that generally weren’t worth it the next day, but it was something.

“However, I’m not opposed to drinking afterwards,” he replied, thinking that this could be an opportunity. “How about you buy?”

There. He wasn’t a business genius for nothing. This was how he got the Chinese investors on board with most of his ideas, after all.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

Zander seemed much more friendly now. Maybe he was Good. Victor liked him better now that he wasn't too close. “I do like Bourbon," he agreed, "It’s a great drink – true alcohol at its finest, and all American. However, now I am supposed to be working out. You’ll find that you can’t do both at the same time.” But can't you? Victor thought. He was sure he'd seen James do it before. But James was rather special. Perhaps Zander didn't quite have the same advanced physical coordination as James. Though, Zander was spectacularly fit regardless, as Victor had observed.

He might have said something to that regards, but Zander beat with, “However, I’m not opposed to drinking afterwards. How about you buy?”

Victor paused, trying to figure out what that meant. Buy - buy what? They were talking about drinking. Oh, maybe he was supposed to buy the drinking. Whatever it was, he was sure he had the money for it. "Okay," he said. "When are you done?"

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

"Okay."

Ah, yes. He was the master. Look at how well he had managed to get himself a drink. Well, of course he had tricked this Victor character, which probably was easy enough to do, but that was neither here nor there. The fact of the matter was that he was going to be getting a drink.

"When are you done?"

Honestly, he was only part way through his workout, having been interrupted several times by this man. It had put him out of the mindset of having any want to work out. He just couldn’t find the want or the need to be at the gym and actually work on his magnificent physique.

“I don’t think that there is a point.”

Really, even if he were to try and go back to his workout, it was likely that Victor would stand there and watch him until he left. And it was likely that after he left, he would end up drinking anyway, so it was better just to skip the frustration and go with this stranger for the intended purpose of the apology – a drink. Honestly, he wasn’t too worried. With his physical prowess compared to Victor’s, he didn’t think there was any way that this could turn into an incident.

“So, I believe I’m done now. Lead the way to your favorite drinking establishment,” he replied, grabbing his towel off of the bench he'd left it on.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

“I don’t think that there is a point.” Victor nodded. So... Zander was done now? He waited for Zander to do something. He didn't know where they were going, after all. “So, I believe I’m done now. Lead the way to your favorite drinking establishment."

Oh. Well then. He tried to think of places he liked to drink. Usually he just bought the stuff and brought it home, but... he didn't really want to bring Zander into his house. "Okay,"[/color] he said slowly, remembering some bar he'd been to once or twice with James.

He brought Zander to a dinky, cheap but rather homey little place that he'd never been to. It was just the first place he saw. "Here," he said. This would work. Alcohol was alcohol, no matter where you drank it.

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

Zander had to admit that he was a bit surprised that this Vincent person was taking him up on the drinking offer. He was used to most people taking him out to drink, seeing as how he normally picked up the tab. But his gym stalker was a different story. He wasn’t sure what would happen. Perhaps the man would try to kidnap him or attempt to do something else shady to him.

However, he was surprised when he was taken to a small dive bar. It was a block from the gym and Zander highly doubted that Victor had ever been inside, let alone enjoyed drinking there. However, seeing as how Zander was accompanying the other man to an unknown establishment – no matter if Victor had ever been there or not – he wasn’t about to point that out, nor was he going to complain.

“Well, this is...quaint,” he commented looking around the small space. “I can see why you drink here.”
Another concession that wasn’t true, but it was making conversation that mattered, after all.

“Come, Vito. Let’s drink. What’s your poison?”

Vittorio may have told him what he was drinking, but that was minutes ago. Who remembered things that long ago? As long as he got his Bourbon, he’d be his eternally pleasant self and it wouldn’t matter who he was drinking with or what the other man preferred.

[VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN]

Victor looked at Zander looking around the place, because watching Zander was a thing today. His expression was one Victor couldn't really categorize except maybe as neutral. “Well, this is...quaint.I can see why you drink here.”

"I don't,"[/color] Victor said seriously.

Zander looked neither surprised nor like he cared, or perhaps he hadn't actually heard because there were a bunch of guys in the corner laughing over something really loudly that Victor was imagining falling down a well at a velocity based on the pitch of their booming voices. “Come, Vito. Let’s drink. What’s your poison?”

"Beer," he repeated. "I like beer." He made no move to order one for himself, or a bourbon for Zander, because when they actually drank out James always ordered and Victor had kind of forgotten the concept of ordering for himself. He always zoned out when James went to order for them, and so things like food at restaurants kind of just appeared after a while.

The thought occupying his mind, however, was... Vito? He'd never been called Vito before. He kind of liked it though. It kind of sounded like vital, which would mean he was important and mattered and he liked the idea of himself being necessary.

[ZANDER “ZEUS” DEVEREUX]

Vinny didn’t seem to be very helpful in this endeavor. He apparently didn’t drink at this particular bar, even though he picked it based off of some random thing, like he just liked the place or was interested in being there or some other unhelpful thought. How did he know if the drink was any good? Zander ignored it, willing to go along with things. He was a bit surprised that the other man just drank....beer. He was a European, and from his experiences, they were a bit pretentious about their drink. Beer was so layman, so common. And then there was Vinny who was anything but common. Common people didn’t stare at him at the gym or follow him to a bar of perhaps ill repute. Well, that was what he got for expecting things to go a certain way, he supposed.

“Do you have some preference?” Zander asked, knowing there were many varieties and brands of beer. He wasn’t a fan of it personally, but on the odd occasion that he’d ordered beer, he’d had to peruse the lists. “Or should I just have the barkeep bring over a surprise beer?”

Vinny had brought them into an unfamiliar place, so perhaps he didn’t care what he drank. Oh, it made Zander want Bourbon something awful. The familiarity of the drink in this uncomfortable situation would be just what the doctor ordered. He supposed in the grand scheme of things, this could be worse. After all, this was the kind of place where he was likely to go on his own. In fact, he may have been there before. He’d soon figure it out. Leaning on the bar, he ordered a glass of Bourbon and looked to Villie and waited to see what the other man would do.