Darius smiled pretending yesterday didn't happen as he took the empty seat. Why was John here? He didn't even try to stick to the evening. He looked to his 'friend'. "Better. I hate having to wear a bandage." He gestured to his hand. "But could have been worse. How about you? You look like you're fine. Considering. "He glanced at John and frowned. "Surprised you invited him, Chris." He looked back to Chris, prepared to just pretend John didn't exist.

"Delicate skin, my friend?" Chris laughed, though his shoulder looked unusually stiff.

John let out a snooty breath through his nose.

"A real man has needs," John dismissed. "Besides, I'm not the one that pissed in a room full of drunks."

John's eyes slid accusatively to Darius as he reiterated this.

Darius felt his anger return but just flashed a smile. "Well how else better asserts my dominance over such lesser people? Like a beast, I'd say. And I think being the bravest one as I left last proves it." He glanced towards Chris. "Wouldn't you?"

"Oh! Rich!" Chris barked and shook his head. "That is a fancy way to say 'slow,' my friend!"

John smirked meanly and opened his mouth to say something, but got cut off by Chris.

"You should have seen Zack. Swam halfway to Scotland by the time I caught up to him, I swear."

Darius felt an eye twitch but smiled more. "Be kind, my friend. You would not like me to hold my tongue should someone sneak up on you with a frying pan again." 

He shrugged and was only slightly grateful they weren't already quite drunk. "He was strange. I do not know if he was a fun person or not. " He jerked his thumb towards John, "At least this one I already detest."

Chris smiled that smile that suggested his victim friend was treading thin ice, though merely laughed and turned dismissively back to John.

His brows arched in amusement when Darius took aim at the other friend, for what were friends if not animals fighting to the death in Chris' social gladiatorial rings?

"Zack is far stranger than John," Chris idly mused with a glint in his eye.

His favorite target was one not there to fight back, after all.

John scoffed and smirked, leaning back in his seat.

"Didn't he piss in a room full of people, too?" John jeered.

"I believe he did," Chris answered serenely, confident John would fail to pick up on the common denominator in all this room-pissing. "But my God, hardly the worst thing Zack has done."

Darius rose his brow as he stared at his 'friend' then at the other. "I take it you were our only witness to such a hilarious sight? Such a shame."

He rest his head on the palm of his hand and smiled more. "Really? Why not tell me about it. I love a good story." He turned toward the bartender as he ordered a drink then looked back at the man, keeping his fingers wrapped around his glass.

[CW: NSFW]

"Pete and John were there," Chris answered breezily.

"No I-" John started.

"-Other John," Chris brushed off. "Where do I start?" Chris laughed with a gleam in his eye. "My, he and I have known each other too long. Met him on Cleveland Street, if you know what I mean."

"Thought you met him choking cock in some alley," John said.

"That very alley," Chris said with a lofty look.

Darius arched his brow as he stared at Chris curiously. He became curious as this sounded familiar. Did he meet many men in such an area? It made him wonder more about his dear friend, though the man only ever seemed interested in women. He laughed lightly as he felt it safe to comment on such a thing, "This doesn't sound like the first time you've met such a fellow. It makes me wonder the company you keep in my absence." It was a joke, obviously so, but the moment it left his lips he immediately wondered if he shouldn't have.

"Does it," Chris said with a warning look ... but then laughed. "A mouth is a mouth, and a man's mouth is much cheaper."

John was watching him now, leaning away with a quiet frown.

"God, you can get five women at Whitechapel for a drop in the barrel these days."

This seemed to distract John's initial repulsion, who jumped in comparing various brothel girls after that.