all_inclusive | Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

The annual Nexus New Year's Eve gala began at 8 in the evening. Too grand to be contained by the lobby or dining hall, the gardens at the front of the hotel were employed, with long strings of white lights forming a twinkling canopy from the front doors all the way to the hedge maze. The weather was temperate and calm, and the night perfectly clear.

Drinks were served at various bars set up throughout the gardens and lobby, with champagne cocktails being the specialty of the night. Wheeling through the crowd was a bartender with golden cart providing warm drinks on the go: Tom and Jerrys, rum punch, negus, and Irish coffee.

Crisply-dressed wait staff wove through the collected guests with an abundance of hors d'oeuvres for all different tastes. The Bistro remained open with a limited selection of items for those who were wanting something more substantial.

Above the front doors was hung a large, gold-rimmed clock counting down the last hours, minutes, and seconds of the current year.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You're pretty young to me," Chase says, an echo of what he'd said before and he means it now just as much as he'd meant it, then. After all, it's hardly like Ben is old or anything, so when he keeps talking about being younger, Chase has to wonder how young is young. "And I like to think of that as figuring out the world isn't all black and white. Gray's a great colour," he deadpans.

"My Master would have agreed with you," Obi-Wan said, chuckling lightly with the memory of Qui-Gon. "But he always delighted in making me think outside my carefully-drawn lines and I think it would please Qui-Gon to see me debating philosophy with someone at a party. Anyway, I may look young but I am not, in fact, all that young. I have had a hard few years."

Chase raises his brow and lets out a wary laugh, wondering how much of a red flag 'Master' ought to be. "Your Master?" he echoes. "Is there something about you in the bedroom that we didn't talk about that I should know?" He doesn't think about the age thing, not really minding it.

Obi-Wan colored slightly. "I was a Jedi Knight on Coruscant," he explained. "Qui-Gon was my Master, though he has been dead for almost fifteen years now. I took an apprentice myself, after that."

Obi-Wan did not speak of Anakin, if he could help it, and this party didn't seem the appropriate place even if he did feel an intimacy with Chase.

He quiets a touch, given that they've gone from potentially weird sex situations to 'dead for almost fifteen years', which gives him a bit of whiplash. "I'm sorry," he offers, because he probably stepped over the line a touch. "And your apprentice? Is he here?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. "No, he's dead too - or so I suspect. I believe I'm the last of the Order still around and kicking." It was impossibly awkward and Obi-Wan wanted to do something to change the subject, if he could. He decided that drinking was the best course of action.

"You? Do you have any family about?"

Chase shakes his head, drinking the last of his wine to ease the immediate knee-jerk reaction when it comes to wanting to be defensive about this. It's not something he's meant to be angry about anymore, he knows that. "Nah, parents are both dead. Sister's half a world away and we're pretty estranged, by now," he admits, given that she'd been pissed when he hadn't gone to Rowan's funeral.

"It's just me and my job back home, couple coworkers that might count as friends."

"More or less the same for me," Obi-Wan admitted. "I focus solely on my work. Without the work...I'm more than a bit aimless. Dalliances with present company excluded, of course," he said, grinning at Chase.

"Even if it was...unusual, I enjoyed it."

Dalliances is a funny way to put it. Obviously, it's not like either of them had known what they were living had been false, but there'd been a whole history in his brain that had made so much sense. Now, it's just a weird one night thing. Right? He's not sure how this works. "I did, too," he says, a bit cautious because of the not knowing how it's supposed to go.

"Actually, it was the most fun I've had in ages." Fun that hadn't been attached to guilt or issues or pain. Ever since he'd been stabbed, it's been hard to find easy fun.

"We could...resume the relationship, such as it was," Obi-Wan said mildly. If Chase did not wish to explore it, he wouldn't push, but if he were open to it then he wanted him to know that it was mutual.

"Should you be interested."

Chase licks his lower lip to give himself a second to process what Obi-Wan is saying, mostly so he doesn't rush to a conclusion and stick his foot in his mouth. "The friendship part of the relationship? Or do you mean the screwing part?" he clarifies, wanting to be clear on it.

Both seem strange and exciting to him, even if it feels a bit like cheating and jumping ahead thanks to time in an alternate life.

"Well, I wouldn't refer to it quite so crudely but, yes, the screwing part," Obi-Wan said, grinning at him.

"I like to think of it as something more enjoyable than that implies."

Chase's lips quirk up with something resembling amusement and pleasure, unable to stop himself from being on board with the idea. "Just to be clear," he says, because he doesn't want to start this (for the second time) wrong. "You want to be with me and sleep with me? Or you want to sleep with me and maybe go on the occasional date or two?"

"I want to sleep with you and see where it goes," Obi-Wan said, thinking that was a comfortable enough compromise between two extremes. Too much too quickly and they might both shy away from it but too little and Obi-Wan felt he might be missing out on something special.

"How does that sound to you?"

Chase nods, thinking that's probably the best thing. After all, it's not like he's ready to rush into anything but the sex had been really good, the sort of thing that he's not ready to forget. "I mean," he says warmly, "you'd think it'd be nice to try at least once with the right memories in the right place."

"Yes, exactly," Obi-Wan said, relaxing a little more. It had been a while since he had been with anyone he felt as comfortable with as Chase and it was certainly something he wanted to pursue, if possible.

Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

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