THIRD PERSON POV

‘He’s handsome.’ The petite man admitted to himself, body completely on autopilot as he reached out to place his smaller hand into the other man’s calloused palm. 

“I’m Aria…” He whispered out, still taken aback and feeling flustered by both the looks and kindness of the man before him. 

“It’s such a pleasure to meet you. Thaddeus told everyone to call you Bug, but for some reason, that doesn’t quite fit you now that I have witnessed how cute you are first-hand.” Uriah brought Aria’s hand up a few inches, bending down at the same time. Keeping his smoldering gaze locked on the smaller man, Uriah didn’t hesitate to press a soft kiss to the spot just above Aria’s knuckles. “May I call you… peaches? You smell just like one.” 

Aria could feel the smile behind the larger man’s lips as he pressed them to his soft skin. Aria’s heart was beating at an alarming speed, and he let out a tiny squeak at the enforcer’s unexpected action. 

“You can call me anything you want.” Aria breathed out, smacking his free hand over his mouth as he immediately recognized the flirty tone in his voice. He cursed himself in his head for how stupid he was being, unconsciously flirting with a man who definitely also had a Soul Mate. “I-I mean… I didn’t -, I-” He stuttered, and Uriah just chuckled at the small man’s poor recovery. 

“I’m honored. Thank you, peaches.” The enforcer finally released Aria’s hand and shifted his gaze over to Andrea, but not without before shooting a wink in his direction. “I came here to party, let’s not dwell on things we can’t fix right now.” His gaze then shifted to Andrea. “I can promise you no one will be mean to peaches tonight, not with me here.”

Andrea huffed in defeat, blowing air out of her mouth and causing a wavy strand of hair to fly up before landing on another spot on her face. “Fineee. Let’s just go take a shot before I launch myself across the room and end his entire bloodline.”

“Andrea! Be nice.” Aria scolded, but his words held little weight due to the smile and giddy feeling that had yet to leave after Uriah’s kiss. 

“Well, while you guys go shoot whatever it is you are planning to shoot, I’m going to go get a glass of water. So if you’ll just excuse me…” Bug tried to escape, to use a water break as an excuse to get lost in the crowd and hide in the bedroom for an hour… or twelve. 

“Uhh, I think not!” Andrea immediately looped her arm into Aria’s, grinning at her best friend. “If there’s one person that needs a shot, it's you!” She explained, leading her friend toward the coffee table in the middle of the living area which held various glass bottles filled with Elder-Approved alcohol. 

“But… but I’m scared of needles!” Aria tried to pull his arm from Andrea’s tight grip in the crook of her elbow. 

Andrea paused in her pursuit of the table of alcohol, an amused expression breaking out on her face as she looked at her friend with wide eyes. Aria looked around, confused by the chuckles that suddenly left both Uriah and Mitty, who had been following close behind. 

“What are you laughing at?” Bug pouted, scrubbing his front teeth with his tongue as he wondered if maybe they were laughing at him because he had left some food stuck between them or something. Uriah reached out, placing a gentle hand on Aria’s cheek. The enforcer thought that Aria was absolutely adorable, his innocence refreshing to the man who typically dealt with people who broke Society rules all day. 

“We are not talking about a shot with a needle, peaches. We mean a shot of alcohol. We use tiny cups and those are called shot glasses.” He explained patiently, rubbing his thumb across the warm expanse of Aria’s cheek as he gazed back up at the man with a look of surmounting confusion.

“But… that’s confusing! They should have named it something that people can't mix up. Why can’t they just call it a tiny cup of alcohol? That would make more sense to everyone, I think.” Aria rambled, and Uriah trained his ears to every adorable word. 

“I agree. Let me teach you how to drink a ‘tiny cup of alcohol’ then, hm?” He smiled, and Aria lost his breath. 

“O-okay.”

Uriah, Mitty and Andrea wasted no time in towing the petite man over to the table. Grabbing one of the clean shot glasses that someone had brought, Uriah first demonstrated how to kick one back before filling it to the brim with whatever grain alcohol was in the bottle and handing it to Aria. By the time he did this, everyone else had already poured their own. 

Aria didn’t have the heart to tell them that it was his first time drinking anything alcoholic at all, a little concerned with what his new friend might think of him. So, after counting down from three, Aria squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back.

It burned harshly down his throat, and he couldn't help the cough that bubbled up from inside of him as his body tried to reject the toxic taste. 

“Why would you -” he coughed, “ - Drink this?!” Ari exclaimed, his eyes still squinted together as he waited for it to dissipate on his tongue. 

“Ohh, just you wait, bestie!” Andrea threw an arm around Ari’s shoulder, winking at him. “You’ll understand aaany minute now.”

It was at that moment that Aria began to feel his body get a little bit warmer, and Andrea’s arm began to feel even more soft and comfortable than usual. 

“Alright, round two!” Mitty exclaimed, bumping fists with Uriah as he used his free one to fill all of their shot glasses once again.

Aria knew that he shouldn’t take another shot. He had absolutely zero desire to taste that foul stuff again, and it smelled really bad too. But the haze that began to overtake his brain made those things seem completely irrelevant.

‘Just one more can’t hurt, right?’ He finally decided, giggling as he reached down to grab his refilled glass. Before he could hesitate, he threw his head back for the second time, this time only wincing a little as the alcohol made its way down his virgin throat. 

“Wow, peaches, you’re a natural!” Uriah praised, switching spots with Andrea as he slung his arm around the smaller male’s shoulders and pulled him into his side. Aria found himself leaning into the touch, giggling and covering his mouth as he let out a tiny burp afterward.

“You’re so nice to me, Urie… And you have a nice face.” Aria sighed as he wrapped his own arms around Uriah’s waist. Keeping his thoughts bottled up in his brain suddenly was feeling a lot less important as the fog in front of his brain began to settle into place, and he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. 

He felt so happy. So, very happy. 

“Told ya so.” Andrea whispered under her breath, laughing to herself as she poured one last shot for herself. 

Across the room, Thaddeus’ nose twitched. But this time, for the opposite reason than before. 

That horrible, metallic scent was gone, replaced with the overwhelming scent of… peaches. 

It was much stronger this time, lifting his own alcohol-induced fog just a little bit as he suddenly disengaged from a very… titillating conversation he was having with a girl who had really big boobs. 

It only took a few seconds for his eyes to find Bug, and what he saw made his jaw tic.

Aria was entirely too close to that one, annoying ass enforcer that Mitty was friends with. One of the larger man’s arms was wrapped snugly around Bug’s thin waist as he used the other to pour a shot of alcohol into the smaller man’s mouth. 

“Peaches, this should probably be your last one. I think you might be a lightweight.” Uriah chuckled with a wide smile, setting the shot glass back down on the table before using thumb to brush away a drop of alcohol that had escaped Bug’s mouth and dripped onto his chin. 

It was that last, gentle touch that made Thaddeus snap.

He stalked over to his Soul Mate with a purpose in his heavy step, the big-tittied girl immediately purged from his brain as if she never existed. 

“Nooo, I’m just fine!” Aria objected, although his eyelids fluttered, speech slurred slightly, and he had hiccupped a few times through his happy giggle as he gazed up at Uriah. 

“I know you feel good right now peaches, but if you drink any more you will regret it tomorr-”

“What the fuck did you just call him?” Thaddeus practically growled as he grabbed onto Aria’s wrist in an attempt to pull him away from the enforcer. 

He didn’t know why he felt like this, but he honestly couldn’t really think past the alcohol in his bloodstream and the sweet scent of peaches that he greedily gulped down. It was making him feel delirious and furious and… and… 

“Don’t touch him like that.” Uriah immediately growled back, grabbing Thad’s wrist in his own hand to yank it off of Aria’s. 

The men were approximately the same height, which was in the lower six-foot range, and they both had a similar set of muscles to match. 

Thad sneered back at Uriah, his anger flaring to new heights as he sensed a challenge from the other man. “Listen here, motherfucker. I’m his Soul Mate, I can touch him however I want. Just because your mate doesn’t want you doesn’t mean you can go creeping on everyone else’s!”

Uriah narrowed his eyes at the accusation, head tilting dangerously and biceps tensing as he readied himself for a potential fight. “What makes you think you can talk to me like that? You don’t know shit about me.” 

“I can talk to whoever I want, whenever I want, however the fuck I want to.” Thad retorted, stepping even closer into Uriah’s personal space with wild eyes. “But seeing how you were over here shoving alcohol down Aria’s throat - who, by the way, has never drank before in his life - tells me everything I need to know about your fucked up intentions.” He hissed, body burning up with the need to sock his dude right in his ugly, smug face. 

But - despite his muscles twitching with raw desire - he forced himself not to, reminding his stubbornly foggy brain that this dude was an enforcer and doing that would undoubtedly get him a first-class ticket to a second strike. 

Uriah leaned back as he looked back at Thad, huffing as he shook his head with a look of pity. “I really hope you’re only this dense because you’re drunk, for your own sake. You call yourself Aria’s Soul Mate, but you can’t even pull your head out of your ass long enough to realize that he’s scared of you right now?” 

Thaddeus’ throat hitched as he finally turned his head, taking in the shaking form of Aria who stood behind the enforcer, clutching the man’s shirt in a hand.

The entire room was quiet to Thad’s ears for a moment as Bug’s eyes bored into his own, the smaller man’s eyebrows pushing together. Thaddeus’ nose scrunched with distaste as that nasty, metallic-y scent suddenly overtook the wonderful, peachy one that he loved so much.

“Thank you Urie… But I’m not scared.” Aria finally spoke, glancing up at his new friend before taking a step forward. Once he was standing directly in front of Thad he finally spoke, trying to keep his voice strong despite Thad’s looming form that was - admittedly - still slightly intimidating to him. 

“I drank the alcohol on my own. Urie didn’t make me do anything, in fact he’s the one who told me that a shot isn’t always a needle!” Aria started, cheeks and face a blush red with frustration and the glow of alcohol. Thad wasn’t sure what he meant by that last part, but he honestly didn’t care to ask. “...And I know it might be hard to believe, but I can make decisions for myself, you know!”

With the influence of the alcohol dissolving all forms of a filter in his brain, there were no inhibitions holding him back from saying exactly what he felt about the situation. Granted, he was also just a little bit impassioned by the alcohol as well, but it felt good to just let it out.  

Voice steadily rising and stepping closer, Aria continued, not allowing Thad to get a word in edgewise.

Continued in Next Episode