Of All The Gin Joints, You Had To Pick Mine

I haven't the slightest clue if they were on the East Coast last New Year's Eve, if they know a club owner named Mark, or of any of A7x is gay. Nor am I in anyway affiliated with them. If I was, you wouldn't know. Because they'd be in my basement... I do own the other characters in here, especially Scarlet and David. I love them. Steal and die.

First A7x fic ever, and real first attempt at a one-shot bit of fluff.
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In the center of the city was a club, just like any other club. Nothing special, no hidden secrets, no forgotten deaths. It had a bar, some booths and tables, a dance floor, a rather good DJ and an owner who loved his work. His name was David, a single twenty something who had been made co-owner as soon as he graduated with his business degree, then given the rest of the painful job when Mark, the previous owner had retired. His life was his work, and no one could persuade him otherwise. Even at his first job, helping to serve food in the lunch line in elementary school for a free lunch, he was the hardest worker. If one of his employees called off, and he had no replacements, he did their job. He knew everything there was to know about running a club and could mix drinks one minute, then wait tables the next.

So it was that on New Year's Eve, David was manning his club's bar with one of the girls, Scarlet. This of course wasn't her real name, it was really Emily, but he had dubbed her Scarlet on her first night because of the deep red she turned whenever one of the customers hit on her. Scarlet was one of his favorites, not that he would admit to anyone. She was open-minded, talkative and mildly aggressive, but one of the easiest people ever to embarrass or poke fun at, a trait David took every opportunity to exploit. In return of course, she'd flaunt whoever she was dating that week in his face; they both had the same taste in men. It was all in good fun though, they'd argue over the more attractive men who came into the club, invariably they'd determine the winner based on who the man danced with. They'd been doing this for a year and a half, ever since they'd had a stand off over the drummer in a band David had allowed to do a show in his club. So far that night, David had Scarlet beat, at 5 out of 8 men they'd fought over dancing with other males.

"David!" Scarlet shouted in his ear, mere inches away to be heard over the loud music. He looked up from the beer he was refilling. "Check out the new meat!"

He looked up at the man, or rather group of men, she was pointing at. There were five of them, and they'd just entered the club's smoky, hot, sweaty interior. They had an air of importance about them, and he was sure he knew their faces from somewhere. Maybe a band or something, lord knew that it wouldn't be the first time someone famous had shown up and created an uproar. But they didn't seem like the type to attract attention. All five were tattooed. The one who caught his attention though was large, muscular, and despite the cold northern winter outside, had on a thin leather vest over a tight black t-shirt and torn up jeans. His bottom lip was pierced on the right, he had a pair of huge aviator sunglasses perched on his nose, slid down a bit so he could see over them and his hair was slicked back. It reminded him vaguely of early punk rock ala the 50s biker gangs. God was he hot though.

"Nice, I like the one in the shades." He shouted, "But what about them?"

"I want to see you have a New Year's kiss this year. And it's going to be one of them."

"Really? How do you even know that one of them is gay?"

Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Dave, look at them. They practically ooze sex, if one of them isn't gay, or at least bi, I'll give you all my tips for the next week."

He laughed, "I'll try, but only if they approach me. I am not leaving running this bar to just you unless something really promising comes up."

Scarlet leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Well here's you chance, look behind you. Try not to do anything I would." She patted his shoulder and turned back to the server who'd just appeared with an order.

David turned around, blushing slightly, to face the man he'd been admiring before and his gang who'd taken seats along the bar beside him. "Can I help you?" He shouted over the music.

One of them, a very tall, very skinny man with impressive forearms that he automatically identified as being a drummer's, leaned forward,

"Can we get five shots of whiskey? These guys need a little to loosen up some more."

David grinned, "Sure thing." In a matter of seconds, the shots were in their hands and downed simultaneously.

The one who'd spoken before slid the shot glass back to David and stood, grabbing the significantly shorter guy next to him by the arm. "Come on Johnny, you are going to dance with me whether you like it or not."

"Jimmy?" Johnny whined, though it was more for show than actual protest.

David turned back to the bar, trying to ignore the eyes he could feel on him from the shaded man at the bar. Ten minutes passed at least before David reached another lull in the never-ending stream of orders. When he turned, the other two had abandoned the bar and he could see them grinding off on the dance floor with two very fake blondes. Whatever.

"Your friends leave you?" David asked, grabbing the glasses left behind. He held up the man's, silent asking if he wanted a refill. He nodded and smiled slightly.

"You could say that. They are the reason I'm here in the first place. Think I need to get out more often." He replied, his voice rough and low, sending chills up David's spine.

"I see." He set the now full glass in front of the man, who quickly tossed it back. The man pulled his sunglasses off, and slid them into a pocket in his vest. David was instantly hit with a wave of recognition when he saw the man's hazel eyes.

"Um?" David stared at him, he could feel his face draining of color, and heating at the same time. The man, who he now knew as M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold cocked an eyebrow at his star-struck expression. This man was one of his idols, how had he not recognized him before?

"I take it you know who I am, no?" David's face was now in a full-on blush.

"Uh... yeah. S-sorry, it's just... wow. This is the first time someone I've liked has come here. Normally it's someone stupid like Paris Hilton."

Shadows laughed and David found its rough sound going straight to places it shouldn't have. "I think that's a compliment."

David grinned, his face returning to a slightly normal color. "It is, I swear. So, Shadows, what brings you to my club?"

"Call me Matt. Shadows lives on stage and in front of the camera. Your club? What happened to Mark?" He trailed off, he hadn't introduced himself.

"I'm David. And yeah, I run it, and co-own it with Mark. He wanted to retire before working here killed him. I believe his words were 'Younger people can put up with more shit than I.'"

Matt smirked, "That'd be Mark. He gave me my first taste of alcohol. He's a friend of my Dad's from before he moved out East."

David opened his mouth to say something when Scarlet called his name, and he had to rush down the bar to give her a hand mixing drinks. He knew Matt was watching him, and after he looked up once to look straight into his eyes, he almost dropped a bottle of vodka onto the floor. Glancing at the clock, it was almost 11 and Jack would be in soon so David could leave the bar and play owner for an hour or so.

Scarlet stood by him as they fixed drinks and spoke under her breath to him, "You do realize that is M. Shadows at the end of the bar, correct. And that was the rest of the band in here."

"Yes." David grinned, "He knows Mark."

"Oh, My, God, it's Synyster Fucking Gates," she said breathlessly, staring at the one in a fedora who'd sat back down by Matt lustfully.

David started laughing again, "Scarlet, get back to work. You can mind fuck him when Jack gets here and the rush dies."

She turned her name sake color and finished loading glasses onto a tray for one of the servers. "You had better get their numbers for me. Cause if you don't get Matt, I sure as hell want him," she grumbled threateningly to him before he left to go back to the other end of the bar.

He helped a few of the other customers sitting at the bar around Matt and Synyster. He could vaguely hear snippets of their conversation, but nothing he could get much use out of. 'Fucking hot' came across a couple times, but Synyster was most likely talking about a girl he'd had his eyes locked on for a few minutes, down at the other end of the bar. He took a breathe, it was time to check on them again.

"Need anything?" He said, mentally hitting himself for being so stupid.

"Naw, we're good I think," the one in the hat said, looking up an smiling. "Though you may be able to give us some advice, seeing as you work here. See those two girls down there," he pointed to Scarlet and David's replacement, Jack, a leggy brunette who tended to show off a little too much skin.

David nodded and he continued, "Matt and I were debating which one would be more likely to like Iron Maiden. Now, I said the brunette, cause I can see she's got some tattoos and they don't look that girly. But Matt says the chick with black hair, because she seems tougher. And he has informed me that you run this joint, so in your professional opinion, who is right?"

David laughed, grinning. "Well, that is certainly an interesting question. Now Jack, the one you favor, does have quite a few tattoos, but I would definitely classify them as girly. Flowers and shit like that." Matt laughed and hit his friend, "And Scarlet is a pretty tough chick. However, neither of you were close." He smiled even wider at their looks. "Jack would be more likely to grow a dick than to even think about metal and Scarlet is a hard-core punk rocker. She's got a band and everything." Synyster groaned and hit his hand to his forehead and Matt just laughed at him.

"So are you basically saying I have no chance with either of them?" he asked, looking David straight in the eyes. God, he was way too pretty for a guy.

David shook his head, "Normally, I don't support customers hitting on my girls. However, I have been threatened with death if I don't get a phone number off of one of you. So, I'll say this. Scarlet is also a hardcore fan of your band. Ask to see her tattoo, she'll be thrilled."

Synyster grinned at Matt, leaned over and whispered in his ear and slid off the stool he was perched on, grabbing his hat in the process. Matt looked over at David,

"You realize that he's now going to bug her for the rest of the night and she's going to get nothing done, right?"

David shrugged, and looked at the clock, "Well, it is almost 11:45 and in about a half hour, most of these people will be gone. So, it's not that bad. Jack needs the experience anyway, she's never worked alone." He busied himself with pouring two beers.

"Oh? You're not going to help her?" Matt raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly.

David grinned, "No, I'm done serving for the night. I've found something far more interesting anyway." He winked, handing one of the glasses to Matt. "It's on the house. Tell me what you think, it's new, never served it before."

He set his glass down and slid under the portion of the bar that separated the workers from the customers. David sat down next to Matt and took a sip of his drink.

"It's not bad." Matt said, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "What is it?"

"I don't know," David smiled, "Haven't come up with a name yet for it. It's mine, I have a micro-brewery in the basement."

Matt laughed, and continued to drink. They sat in relative silence for a few minutes. David stared intently at the other end of the bar, where Jack was working furiously to mix drinks while Scarlet was nowhere to be found.

"Well, that didn't take long." Matt said quietly, close to his ear.

David flushed slightly at his closeness. "No, but then again, Scarlet's tattoo isn't exactly in a public place."

Matt chuckled, "How would you know?"

He turned to look at him. "I was there when she got it. We've got matching ones, even in the same place."

Matt leaned in close, "Can I see yours?" his breath ghosted over his ear and David couldn't help but shiver slightly.

"Maybe." David mumbled, "It depends."

He stood up, it was 11:55 and Ian the DJ was about to start the countdown. But for now, the music was pounding.

"What does it depend on?" Matt followed him up. Standing next to him, David felt tiny. He was only an inch shorter than him, but his muscles were leaner, less obvious.

David smirked up at him, "On how well you kiss."

With that, he moved swiftly away from Matt, towards Ian and the small stage at the back of the club. Time to do his job for the last time this year. David stepped up to the microphone set up on stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It's almost midnight, and you know what that means. Grab your date, or whoever the fuck is closest to you, and get ready for 2006!"

He grinned at the hollers from the audience, and saw Matt watching him from just to the right of the stage. He was smirking and leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest. David sent him a small smile, then turned to talk to Ian.

Three minutes later, Ian began the count-down, his finger poised over the button that would loose glitter, confetti and streamers on the unsuspecting crowd below.

"10" The crowd shouted, David began walking across the stage, towards Matt.

"9" Matt was off the wall, watching him.

"8" He could see Matt's band-mates along the wall beyond him, Scarlet firmly attached to Synyster's lips.

"7" He was at the step onto the floor.

"6" Matt was right there, David could feel his own heart beating faster.

"5" David began to walk past Matt, hoping at least play hard to get, but was stopped short by Matt's arm shooting out and catching Dave's wrist.

"4" David turned to face Matt, a fake scowl across his face. Matt simply smirked once more, a predatory look that nearly made David turn into a 13 year-old girl.

"3" Matt pulled David towards him, his lean frame colliding softly with Matt's muscular one.

"2" "Did you honesty think you could make an offer like that and expect me not to take you up on it?" Matt growled slightly in his ear, before moving so their lips were mere millimeters apart.

"1" "No," David breathed, "In fact, I was planning on you doing just that."

"Happy New Year!" The containers attached to trusses in the ceiling let loose, dropping tons of paper confetti and streamers onto the crowd, who laughed and cheered in the New Year.

David closed the short distance between their lips, slipping one of his hands to the back of Matt's neck. He felt Matt's tongue brush against his lips, and he opened his mouth, sucking the muscle in and pushing against it with his own. As the kiss deepened, Matt's arms snaked around his waist and pulled him to his body. David couldn't help but let out a small groan when his forming erection was crushed against Matt's leg.

Matt broke the kiss with a chuckle, breathing heavily. "Does this mean I get to see that tattoo?" He asked, brushing a stray chunk of David's shaggy brown hair out of his face.

David laughed slightly, kissing him again.

"Depends," he mumbled between kisses, "How good are you in bed?"

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~Finis~

xo
Quill