At the pool table, it seemed Owen had gotten over his jealousy because he and Markus were pretty close together. Markus was “teaching Owen how to play,” and by that I mean Markus is standing directly behind Owen with his crotch pressed into Owen’s ass and leaning over him slightly while Owen was bent over the table, blushing profusely, feigning ignorance on how to play pool. I smirked and shook my head at them.

“You get to see Vinny?” Ryan asked in his sweet southern accent, waggling his eyebrows at me.

“I did.” I couldn’t stop the goofball grin that spread across my face.

Ryan and I talked for a couple minutes about random things. While we were talking, I noticed his eyes wondering occasionally as some of the cute “bar maidens”, who were actually cute femboy types, walked past. This sparked my curiosity just a bit, considering he was probably the only straight male I knew.

“Hey, just curious, why do you come with us on Friday’s if you aren’t even gay?” I finally asked. Friday’s and Saturday’s were the only two nights that had all male staff (aside from the bar tender, Molly, of course), the rest of the week this club was a female staff based club.

“Because Sebastian works here too. I like supporting my friends, I don’t have to be gay for that do I?” He countered, looking away from me with dodgy eyes.

“No, you don’t. I’m sure he’s happy to have support from a good friend like you.” I smiled at him. I really meant it too. Sebastian was a sweet kid, small and slim like Vincent, and he seemed like a decent guy. I honestly didn’t know much about him, so I couldn’t really judge his character. I knew Vincent was pretty close to him too, and that he was pretty quiet most of the time.

“Hey, does anybody else smell that?” Owen asked, pulling himself away from Markus.

“Smell what, Tesoro Mio?” Markus asked, pulling Owen back into in arms and nuzzling his face into Owen’s neck like some creepy pervert.

“Oh, yeah I smell it too, smells like gas.”

“Oh Molly said the show tonight is a firefighter themed show, so maybe they’ve got something using gasoline?” I suggested. But before anyone could reply, Mama was walking on stage.

“Good evening everybody! Welcome to the Blackpearl, I’m the Captain of this joint, but you can call me your Siren.” Mama winked at the crowd, and the whole room vibrated with a soft chuckle, “Our sexy little Pearls are getting ready to give you quite the show tonight, and it’s a new theme! Sadly, they won’t be my sweet little crew mates tonight, but I think it’s okay because this show tonight is going to be EXTRA hot. So sit back, and enjoy this steamy show!” Mama finished his opening speech.

The stage curtain rose to reveal the backs of five men standing in varying outfits all making them look like stripper firefighters or flames of a fire. Hoops and aerial silks lowered from the ceiling between the dancers. Loud firetruck sirens sounded off in the surround sound speakers as bass music started pumping in the front stage speakers. All five men moved in unison. A couple grabbed the hoops and were risen up to twirl around and do aerial stunts, while the others moved to the silks and pulled themselves up and twirled their own aerial stunts. The aerial stunts were very captivating to watch. After a few minutes of that, they were all back on the ground, and walking out into the crowd.

I took a seat in the nearest open chair, mostly to hide from Dominic when he started in our direction. I didn’t want to be rude to him during the show and ruin the atmosphere to any of the other patrons here, so I knew if he saw me, I would be his target. Luckily for me, Vincent found me first. Up close, I could take in the sexy outfit he had on. The only bit of his body that wasn’t exposed was his crotch, the rest was in mesh, or completely exposed. Parts of the outfit was beaded or sparkly. He was by far the sexiest flame I have ever seen. He straddled my lap facing me and began shaking his… everything on me. He used my shoulders to keep himself balanced at some points. This was the most glorious treat I could have ever gotten from him. At least in public anyway. By the end of the dance, which felt far too soon, Vincent wrapped his arms around my neck, leaned into me, and gave me a passionate, heated kiss. The way he kissed me made me almost forget we were still in public. When he got off of me, real fire bursts surrounded the stage as the dancers all made their way back to the stage.

“Wow. That was hot to watch.” Owen, surprisingly, said, fanning his face with his hand.

“You ain’t lyin’ kid. That little show got me all kinds of hot and bothered.” Markus added. When I looked over at them, they were both giving me knowing smirks.

“It got me all hot and bothered too.” I replied.

Mama came on the stage to announce the end of the show and everybody clapped and cheered loudly. It was definitely a hot and steamy show. The men on stage all left and the curtain dropped back down. Honestly, the fire should have been put out before that because those flames could have set the curtain on fire.

Unfortunately, as I predicted, the curtains started smoking and the smoke filled the entire club quickly. Flames erupted on the curtain, and people started panicking, screaming, and rushing out the entrance. The fire spread across the back wall of the stage, moving fast up to the ceiling. Shreds of curtain, and other decorations started falling to the ground.

“Shit! Let’s help get everybody out!” Ryan shouted, jumping into action.

I started running to the back where the dressing rooms were and found only Mama rushing out. “Where is Vincent?!” I asked in a rushed panicking voice.

“I don’t know. When everyone started rushing out, I lost track of all my boys! Help me find them!” He was just as worried.

“You need to get out to safety. I’ll look for everyone.” I ordered. He begrudgingly nodded and ran to the front door.

“ROY!” I heard Vincent’s panicked voice shouting from back stage. With all the noise, I was surprised I managed to make out his screams over everyone else’s.

Just as I made my way toward where I heard him shouting, Dominic ran into my arms as if I were there to protect him. He started trying to push me toward the door to get me out of the building, “There’s too much fire back there! You’ll get yourself killed trying to save everyone!” He shouted at me.

“Dominic. It’s literally my job to run into fire to save everyone I can. Let go of me, and go outside, now, before you get hurt in here.” I ordered him, beyond angry that he’d have the audacity to try to prevent me from saving literally anyone.

I shoved Dominic toward the direction of safety, then rushed toward where I heard Vincent’s voice calling for me. I finally made it to the dressing room where I could hear several voices panicking and crying. I stupidly grabbed the door handle and immediately regretted it when it burned my hand.

“Ah, fuck that hurt! Vincent?! You in there?” I shouted

“Roy? The door won’t open. We can’t get out.” He shouted back in a panic.

“I’m gonna get you all out. Back away from the door, and hang in there just a sec.” I shouted through the door.

Smoke started to fill the back hall way fast. I began trying to ram the door open with my shoulder, but I couldn’t get it open. I wasn’t sure why the door was jammed shut. I started to kicked the door in, finally managing to bust the framing of the door and making the door open.

“Oh thank the gods!” A random voice shouted as everyone rushed out of the room.

“Why was the door so hard to open? Was there something blocking it on that side?” I pulled Vincent into my arms after making sure everyone else had made it out.

“I don’t know! We don’t have time to be worried about that right now. We need to get out of here.” Just as he said that, a roof beam collapsed, I pushed Vincent out of the way just in time for the beam to fall right on my leg.

“Vincent, go get Ryan and Markus. Right now.” I ordered as calmly as could.

Vincent quickly ran off to do as I told him. While he was gone, I tried my best to use my free leg to kick the beam off, but it was no use, the beam was too heavy for me to just kick with only one leg. It felt like ages before Markus and Ryan finally showed up, though I’m sure it was only seconds. They both worked together to lift the beam off my ankle just enough for me to slide out of the way.

“Can you walk?” Ryan asked me in his ‘this is what I’m trained to do’ type of voice.

“No, I think my ankle is fucked. I can’t actually feel my toes right now.” I answered as calmly as I could in this situation.

“I’ll carry him out, you just make sure we have a clear path. Let’s get out of here quickly.” Markus ordered, picking me up bridal style, “Don’t worry Piccolo, I’ll take good care of you once we’re safe.” I wrapped my arms around his neck to feel more secure, and he carried me out of the burning building.

“You know, you’d make a really good, really sexy, fireman. Ever consider it?” I asked him, trying to joke to get my mind off the pain, as he managed to get me to the safest place outside the building to set me down.

“Nah, I’ll let you be my sexy fireman, I’ll keep making those EMT cargo pants look real nice.” Markus smirked as he winked at me. Even with his playful banter, I could see that he was very worried about my well-being. He started looking over my entire body any injuries, aside from the obvious leg injury. He bandaged up the minor scratches I got when the beam hit me, and the burn on the palm of my hand from the door knob, but otherwise I had no other major injuries. When the ambulance finally arrived, Markus went into the back and grabbed the things he needed to wrap up my leg to transport me to the hospital. It was a good thing he was an EMT Lieutenant, otherwise those kids on the clock right now would have thought he was insane for trying to do their job for them.

“I’ll get this one, you guys go through the crowd and see if anyone else needs attention. I suggest bringing the O2 bags with you as you walk through the crowd. A few of the employees might have inhaled a lot of smoke.” Markus guided. They all knew and respected him well enough to not question his guidance, so they did as they were told.

He turned his attention back to me “How’s your pain level Piccolo?”

“I’d say on a scale of one to ten, it’s most definitely a one-hundred.” I grunted out as he gently lifted my leg.

Markus began wrapping my leg up in a splint, making me cringe and try my best not to yank my leg away. “Oh come on Piccolo, I know you like pain, it can’t be that bad.” Markus joked, also trying to lighten the mood.

“Sure, but this is not the enjoyable type of pain, Papà. The pain you trained me with, that’s the enjoyable kind.” I tried to chuckle, but I just couldn’t get it out.

“Don’t worry Piccolo, I’ll have you feeling real good in no time.” He patted my cheek sweetly. I forced my smile.

“Thanks Papà. That’s why you’re my favorite.”

“And here I was thinking I was your favorite.” Vincent’s voice made me jump. “Didn’t realize you already had yourself an owner here.” He said in a displeased tone.

“Oh cutie, I’m not his. Don’t fret your sweet little ass. He’s all yours.” Markus countered, with a chuckle. “I’ve got my eyes on another hottie.”

“See Markus? This, right here, is why you need to stop with all that flirty nonsense with Roy. It gives the wrong impression to his crush, and to yours.” Owen scolded Markus. Markus gave Owen a strange look, like he was conflicted about how to handle being scolded like this, especially in front of people.

Vincent crouched down next to me, “If you’re going to pursue me to be your partner, this flirtationship needs to end. I won’t be with someone who’s hung up on the past. I’m strictly monogamous.” He looked me straight in the eyes. The look he was giving me was daring me to say something to argue, but I couldn’t do it. I simply nodded my head in agreement. Look at me. A dom being ordered around like a child. This was so confusing for me. When Vincent and Owen walked away, both still irritated with Markus and I, I looked at Markus, lost for words. Markus seemed just as lost as I felt. But they had a point. As harmless as we think it is, it probably doesn’t make the guys we want to be with feel good to see us act like this around each other.

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A/N: Fun fact, tomorrow is my 27th birthday!