maybe heaven right now is a devil or angel away

And then of course, came the clattering from the kitchen. Marley jumped at first, thought she couldn’t have been the only one, before letting out a slight groan. It wasn’t that hard to just stay in a kitchen, was it? Since she was assuming that noise had come from Jake. Of course, it wasn’t exactly like she had given him anything to do, and he would probably rather be anywhere but there, but she was doing him a favor, wasn’t she? But because he was sort of her responsibility, she went back into the kitchen area and put a hand on her hip, clearing her throat to get Jake’s attention. It wasn’t exactly the easiest for Marley to be stern with someone, nevermind Jake, with that face… No, she needed to stop thinking of that. “I-I’m doing you a favor, you know,” she said, her confidence wavering a bit. “The least you could do is try and stay on the down low.”

He raised his head to look at her, his heart skipping a beat briefly as he caught her eyes, but he looked away quickly. Fuck. Why did he have to mess it up so badly? More than anything, Jake couldn’t help but just wish they could at least talk together, be friends and joke around like they used to do, once upon a time. “She was uhm, sort of insane,” He said, unsure of what exactly to fill the brief silence with, other than an explanation of why he’d been running into the café in the first place, “So I ran. Not a… uh, proud moment but, you know… I’ll be quiet now,” he said hurriedly, making a bit show out of showing her his hands and stuffing them in his pockets, leaning up against the counter. “Just uh, come get me when she’s all gone? I’m honestly kinda scared that she’ll jump me and force me to have her children or something if I see her again.” Jake said with a small shrug, trying to sound a bit cavalier about it, although even he couldn’t hide the small amount of fear in his voice. He really didn’t want the crazy woman to find him again. 

After Jake had gotten into the kitchen, she backed into it, closing the door behind her. When she turned around to say something to him next, Marley ended up bumping right into him. “Oh, um, sorry.” She swallowed and looked up at him for only a moment before having to avert her gaze. Yep, that awkward tension was still there, and it didn’t exactly help that they were that close to each other. “So uh…” She cleared her throat and started again. “I’m not actually sure if she’s left or not? So… you can hang out in here if you want, I guess. If anyone asks just say that I said it was cool if you were in here. I mean, I don’t think there will be any problems as long as you don’t touch anything and the boss doesn’t see you. But I don’t think he’s actually here right now, I don’t know…” She stopped before letting out a breath. “I should uh,” she looked at Jake and put her hand on the door. “You know, probably… work.” She nodded before ducking out of the door.

It had gone way quick though, which made Jake frown a little bit. He hadn’t even gotten to thank her yet or anything, which he was determined to do. Besides, she wasn’t even sure whether the girl had left or anything yet, so he was alright about being out in the kitchen, practically by his lonesome, even if it did feel a bit odd. Absentmindedly, he started playing with a couple of pots, swinging them in his hands as he thought about this weird night. He really hoped the crazy girl had buggered off and wasn’t, like, standing outside waiting for him to leave or something. He probably had to get her number blocked or something as well. Jake couldn’t exactly help but think about Marley too, however. All sorts of thoughts, where he knew some of them were totally inappropriate, but also wondering whether she’d come back for him and get him, or she’d leave him out here all night until they closed or something? As Jake got a little lost thinking about her, he dropped one of the pots suddenly, the loud clang ripping him from his thoughts back to the present, "Shit!" He muttered, quickly scooping up the pot and putting it back in place, trying to look as innocent as possible and hoping his ears didn’t burn too much.

Just then some girl frantically came into the restaurant and Marley hissed, “get down,” while gently pushing him, assuming that this was the girl that he had been running away from. She tried to look causal as she stood there, her hands on the counter. The girl seemed a bit frazzled, and Marley tried to understand what she was saying in the rush of words that had come out. “I-I’m sorry, are you sure he came in here?” Right, if there was any time to use her acting skills, now would be it.

As it turned out, Marley didn’t hand him over and proved to be an excellent liar – even when the girl persisted and said she was so sure she’d seen him come in here, but Marley was handling it smoothly. Jake let out a small breath of relief (quietly), wondering how exactly he could repay Marley for this. He was sort of face to face with her legs, the way he was sitting and he was reminded of how lovely those legs actually were. Her whole figure, in fact. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head – he wasn’t supposed to think like that, at all. Marley had a cool boyfriend (Jake had to grudgingly admit he sort of liked Ryder, despite everything) and with everything that had happened, she would be utterly unobtainable by him. There was just no way. Jake willed the ache in his chest to go away, before he glanced up at her, tugging at her legs – he couldn’t hear the girl anymore, so surely she was gone? Jake hoped so, anyway.  

He turned his head as Jake was called, nodding a little as he made himself comfortable while he waited for his friend, putting his feet up casually up on the chair next to him, before he was quickly told off by the woman behind the desk. Rude. Whatever, Mike rolled his eyes and placed his feet firmly back on the ground, picking up a nearby magazine and flicking through it, but after one too many articles about women’s troubles, he tossed it aside. He didn’t want to get into that now. He glanced up at the clock on the wall, huffing quietly to himself as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. It probably wasn’t a good idea to leave him to his own devices, since Mike got bored far too easily for a normal person. He checked through his messages, scrolling through his messages, until Jake finally came back into the waiting room. “Dude, that’s awesome!” Mike grinned, standing up and raising his hand for a high five, though he did start laughing as he spotted the nose guard, “Good look for you dude, the ladies are going to love that,” he laughed, giving Jake a slight nudge.

“Dude, today was pretty awesome. Thanks for coming with me and everything, man,” Jake said with genuine gratitude – not only had the hockey been loads of fun, but he’d gotten a trip to the ER and everything. That was at least story-worthy, if nothing else. And besides, he’d had a good time – Mike was a pretty decent friend, actually and damn funny too. Despite the fact his nose was probably going to be pretty sore for a while, he’d had a great day. 

He was somewhat relieved when Jake interrupted them though, at least he didn’t have to explain this himself. He didn’t want Sebastian getting the wrong idea, just because he was dancing with some girl, who for the record, he didn’t even like. “Think of me as the wingman,” Blaine chuckled, nuzzling his nose affectionately against Sebastian’s, “This is Jake,” he grinned, nodding slightly in Jake’s direction, hoping that Sebastian would understand now. As if he’d ever be tempted by anyone else, even the thought was ridiculous.

He blinked when they were suddenly addressed by someone else, his arms tightening around Blaine instinctively. He couldn’t help that he always felt so possessive, like he had to protect Blaine all the time. It was something that had come naturally to him, much to his disbelief. The guy seemed harmless enough though and by the look on Blaine’s face he obviously knew him. He made a small noise of understanding as the situation was explained to him, moving to bury his nose in Blaine’s hair. He took a moment to breath in his scent, craving that anchor after a long day. “That’s understandable,” he told them both. He knew how important a good wingman was. He wasn’t stupid. “Didn’t realize you were such a good friend though.” He winked at Blaine playfully before pressing another soft kiss to his lips, though he didn’t let this one linger. He had an introduction to make, after all. If this guy was Blaine’s friend then he needed to be polite. “Nice to meet you, Jake,” he said, smiling at the other man. “I’m Sebastian, though you probably already know that.” He figured Blaine had mentioned it at least once. He knew how his boyfriend liked to brag about him.

Getting a bit of greeting and such done, Jake turned down to glance at the girl, who seemed very intent to keep on dancing, which… wasn’t all that bad, not really. Although he wasn’t supposed to pick up anyone tonight or anything the like, he wasn’t exactly gonna turn it down, so… He glanced at Blaine and mouthed a ‘thanks man’, before actually saying something, “So I reckon we’re gonna dance for a bit, you two behave, yeah? Nice to meet you too, Sebastian.” We should do this again sometime, Blaine!” He finished, discreetly giving Blaine two thumbs up and grinning widely. 

The song changed, and Blaine looked around him, watching as everyone immediately started coupling off, and he thought about taking this as his cue to leave, but the moment he turned to move, the girl - he still didn’t even know here name! - pulled him back to her, wrapping her arms around her tightly. Blaine sighed defeatedly, deciding that this would be the last dance, then he would’ve totally fulfilled his wingman duties, and turned back to face the girl, battling with himself where to place his hands, so that she wouldn’t read too much into this. Why did he have to be so awkward all the time? 

He casually strolled over to them, coming up behind Blaine so his boyfriend couldn’t see him. “Thanks for saving my spot,” he told the girl, easily pulling Blaine away from her grip and into his chest. “But I think I’ll take it from here.” He narrowed his eyes just a little, warning her to not get any ideas. Blaine was his and he was going to stay that way no matter what weird moves she decided to put on him. He turned his attention to Blaine, smiling down at him. “Hey, babe,” he greeted, leaning down and catching his lips in a deep, open mouthed kiss. He didn’t want the strange girl to get the wrong impression of what they were to each other. He rested his forehead against Blaine’s, swaying his hips lightly to the music as he just enjoyed being closer to him. “Should I even ask what that was about?” he asked with an arched brow, pulling away just enough to look at him.

Trying to be smooth about it, he maneuvered them a little closer so he could hear what the boyfriend was saying. When he asked what it was about, Jake figured he had to step in so Blaine wouldn’t get into any sort of trouble. “That would be partially my fault,” Jake said, making the girl, Natascha, look up at him confusedly before she realized he was speaking to Blaine and this Bas. “This lovely woman,” He looked down at her and shot her a bright, charming smile, “and her friend asked us to dance and I… sort of persuaded Blaine to join us.” Jake said, quirking an eyebrow at the boyfriend in a rather meaningful way – or at least, he hoped he was conveying that he had totally used his boyfriend as a wingman so he could chat up the girl he was dancing with. 

He wrote down the necessary information quickly enough, handing the forms back to Jake and leaning back in his seat as Jake handed them back over to the desk. “They say how long you got to wait?” he asked as Jake came back to sit down next to him. He turned his head a little, grinning as Jake still seemed to up for playing hockey again, which fair play to him, most dudes would never want to hit the ice again after that blow to the face. “Totally dude,” he nodded, “Next time though, we should take some friends with us, you know, like normal sized dudes. I mean seriously dudes, they looked like rejects from the last Hulk movie!” he laughed, punching Jake’s shoulder, then quickly remembering that fuck yeah, the dude was injured. Oops.

The waiting room at the ER didn’t seem all that  busy to be honest, so Jake wasn’t super surprised when a doctor came out and called his name. He tried to give Mike a thumbs up without wincing too much, before following the dude to get his nose checked out. It didn’t take all that long, it appeared to be a sort of clean break or something (Jake celebrated internally, his nose wouldn’t get crooked or anything, thank god), so he just had to wear a ridiculous nose guard thing and get a bunch of rest and all that usual stuff. They got him all cleaned up and stopped the bleeding and sent him back to Mike, who was still waiting for him. Once again, Jake gave him a thumbs up, “Should be all good and nose ain’t gonna be crooked or some shit. I don’t know about you  but I’m like, so ready to go home.” 

Blaine stepped to the side as the brunette approached, he was the wingman, a very happily taken wingman, this was all about Jake. He didn’t want to get in the way. He lifted his beer bottle as Jake introduced him, giving the girl a bright smile in response. He turned himself at an angle to that he was facing Jake and the girl, but also not seeming super imposing or anything like that. As he spoke, Blaine took a moment to really look her over, and he had to admit that Jake had good taste. She really was gorgeous, and he was tiniest bit smug that it was his plan that had brought her over here. He was definitely a better wingman than he thought, who knew? His eyes widened a little as she asked whether they wanted to dance with her and her friend, and Blaine pursed his lips together for a moment. Dancing was okay, right? And he was supposed to be a good wingman after all, and it was better than waiting by the bar for Sebastian to finally turn up from work. So, he placed his empty bottle on top of the counter and nodded, giving Jake a slight nudge. He was doing this for him after all. “Sure, sure,”

Nataschas friend was a blonde and thankfully, she went straight for Blaine – leaving Jake with his gorgeous brunette. He couldn't help but glance over at Blaine and the blonde though, she seemed to be rather aggressive in her attempted courting of Blaine. Poor girl had no idea it really wouldn’t work, but Jake couldn’t help but be ever so slightly amused anyway. The brunette, however, seemed to be ever so slightly shy, a trait that Jake had grown to sort of adore. She wasn’t a bad dancer though, which, admittedly, just made her a bit more attractive to Jake. They seemed to really hit it off to a couple of songs with good beats, when a really slow song came on. In no time at all, the chick was practically buried in his chest and, well, score. Jake glanced over her shoulder to find Blaine, giving him a wicked grin and a sort of discreet thumbs up. 

"I got a dude here with a smashed face," Mike announced as he dumped his bag on the counter, staring at the woman sitting behind the desk, "He needs a doctor, there’s like, blood everywhere!"

Returning the papers to the lady at the desk, he got told that someone would be with him ‘as soon as possible’ which in hospital speak usually meant he had to wait for quite a while. Plopping himself back down on the seat, he let out a small groan. “Okay so, how about, before we go play hockey again, you take me somewhere good and cheap where I can get a proper hockey mask and stuff? And skates too, the ones I had were wobbly as hell.” He flashed Mike a grin, before adding, “and you know, thanks for coming with me here and all. Appreciate it, dude.” 

He turned away again, glancing towards the group and smiling brightly as the bartender pointed towards them both, this was definitely going well. He shot them a wink, before turning his attention back to Jake again, “But I mean, you’re straight, so you can’t tell me that all the girls you’ve been with have been crazy?” Blaine asked, raising an eyebrow as he spoke, catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He glanced away, smiling as the brunette Jake has pointed out earlier was approaching them. He nudged Jake as subtly as he could, before turning around properly and flashing the girl one of his brightest smiles. “Hey!”

“I’m Natascha,” the girl said with a bright smile, before gesturing towards the table with her friends, “I just wanted to come over and say thank you for the drinks, and…” She smiled a little shyly and Jake could practically feel his heart skipping a beat, seeing a smile like that, “My friend Irene and I were sort of… hoping you two would want to maybe… dance, or something?” Jake could practically have blurted out a ‘yes’ right there and then, although he figured he couldn’t exactly answer on Blaine’s behalf, so instead he glanced at his friend with a quirked eyebrow. 

When he was done, he helped Jake to his feet again and led him out of the rink, looking around him, seeing if anyone was going to offer to help. But duh, this was New York, everyone was all rushing about their business to even notice anyone else. He wasn’t all that surprised, so whatever. He turned to look at Jake, raising an eyebrow at him, “No shit dude, you probably even get to the ER on your bike when you’re like this,” Mike laughed, flagging down a cab and opening the door when it pulled up at the curb, “You uh, you want me to come with you dude, help you fill out the paper work and stuff?” he suggested, knowing that Jake probably wouldn’t be able to do it on his own if he was this messed up, and then if he did have some of those painkillers, well…yeah he probably wouldn’t be filling out any forms tonight.

When Mike suggested that he come along, Jake nodded slowly – it was probably a really good idea. Although he was fairly confident he didn’t have a bad concussion or anything like that, having someone along who knew his name and stuff in case he passed out, was probably a really good idea. “Yeah please dude, if you don’t mind that’d be kinda cool,” he grinned, before turning towards the cab driver, “Get me to the ER man, I promise not to bleed out on your seats.” He said thickly, smirking a little as he held up a cloth to his nose, which was still bleeding a fair bit. As Mike got in, Jake turned towards him with a cocky grin, “Dude, ice-hockey was a totally awesome idea. We should do it again, although a little less puck-in-the-face next time would be good.” 

"Right, right," Blaine grinned, looking back at Jake and nodded quickly, placing his beer back onto the bar. He’d never really played wingman before, he’d never really had to, but it really couldn’t be that hard could it. He was usually good with people, well people that he wasn’t trying to pick up himself, because then he was just awkward. Luckily he didn’t have to worry about that anymore, hopefully he wouldn’t have to worry about that for a while. "Okay, so there’s one thing I’ve learnt from working in bar for the last three years…" Blaine started, leaning back against the bar, turning his head slightly, "Send them a round of drinks over, it’ll get their attention, but you’re not imposing too much on the group. Let them come to you," Blaine suggested, it sounded like a good plan, and not something that could lead to the two of them getting eaten alive by this girl’s friends.

“Dude, this is gonna be super blunt but I’m kinda curious about something…” Jake said a little slowy, figuring that Blaine wouldn’t be offended or anything, but it was still a slightly strange question. It was just something he had been wondering, especially after last time the two of them had gone out together. “Is it like, easier being into dudes and stuff? I mean, you don’t have to put up with crazy women or anything, although if that dude, Michael, is anything to go by, I’m sure there’s crazy dudes out there as well…” He glanced at Blaine, flashing him a bright smile – mostly he was just curious, he liked chicks way too much to switch teams. Speaking of, the bartender brought the girls their drinks and sure enough, when they asked where they came from, the bartender pointed in the direction of Blaine and Jake – and Jake made sure to flash them one of those halfway shy smiles, raising his own bottle to them. That usually won over some girls, he just hoped it would work this time. And that it would draw the right chick over to them – but if not, he had his wingman, right? 

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