A shoulder to lean on if truly needed {Declan}

Yvette looked at Declan as he tried to gather his thoughts. "That's understandable not being able to explain without getting worked up. I used to do the same thing after my boyfriend left after we graduated. I used to get worked up just talking about how everything then I finally got it all off my chest one night. I was with my best friend and I was extremely drunk, I spilled everything to her trying to figure out what happened. I remembered everything from that night and I felt better for getting it off my chest." She slapped her hand over her mouth and looked down in embarrassment.

"It may not be the greatest story sir, but you shouldn't keep everything bottled up inside like you do." She said honestly looking at him. "It's probably better than my own story, considering." She took a long sip from her glass emptying it before placing it back on the counter.

"Sometimes sir, you have to have faith in the ones close to your heart." She said softly remembering everything from her heartbreak. "Sometimes the thing we fear the worst about it never what it truly is and then we feel bad in the first place for thinking it."

Declan didn't realize he was disappointed in the fact that she had reverted back to addressing him as 'sir' until she did it a second time. Before that, he was more concerned about offering his condolences. "I'm sorry," he told her, "that something happened to make you so upset. Not that ending a relationship is ever easy."

He frowned a bit as she continued, and all the more when she finished what seemed to be partly her own musings as well as a warning for him. Very suddenly, just as he had in his flat when it came to Dom, Declan made a rash decision.

"Well," he replied, standing and making his way behind the bar again. "It sounds like we'll both need a couple drinks if we're going to get these stories out, hmm? I'll tell you what happened to me if you explain your own story. And if you call me sir again," he warned half-teasingly, "I will keep all the drinks for myself."

Yvette smiled wryly at his apology, "It's ok. Sometimes it happens when we least expect it to." She said fiddling with the glass in front of her. "True ending a relationship is never easy though some people make it seem that way."

"Yeah I do believe having a couple of drinks will help." She paused then started giggling at his words. "I'm sorry it's out of habit to call someone that. I promise however that I won't call you sir. Though if I slip up you can't fault me, it would probably be because of the alcohol." She grinned as she sat on the stool a little better. "Well if you will Declan, serve us up another drink and we'll talk some more."

Declan laughed at her response, almost surprised at himself for doing so. But he felt oddly at ease around Yvette, and that made it easier. Convincing himself that it, obviously, it must be because of the drink and because they worked together and had done so for a while, he grinned at her and did as she asked.

"I've got an idea," he said, setting down two different bottles of alcohol in case she decided she preferred one over the other. Then he lifted himself up onto the bar and swiveled, dropping his feet into the chair. He couldn't help but feel oddly young in doing so, and though he wasn't exactly old, it wasn't at all like him to do something like that.

"How about, each time we tell part of the story, we get to take a drink? We can sort of take turns so it's less like just chucking down this massive and sad story." He lifted his glass, holding it in front of him and added, "Because I really want this rum, I'll go first," Declan offered.

The glass in one hand and the rum bottle in the other, he poured himself another drink as he began. "About three years ago now, I met a woman named Danica, and it took me all of two minutes to fall in love with her. I think it was the smile, though the wit also helped. Anyway, I asked her to dinner, and she agreed."

Calling that a good enough introduction, Declan took a drink from his glass and looked her way expectantly.

Yvette waited until he put the two bottles on the counter and grinned. "Ok I so far I'm liking this idea." She said grinning as she looked at the other bottle before returning her attention to him. She was curious as to what it was that they would be doing but was happy that it was with someone she trusted.

"That sounds like a good plan, though I think we might both get really drunk. I still am in favor of this though." She said as she looked at him then laughed when he said he really wanted the rum.

Hearing his first part and knew that it was a good introduction to his story. Seeing him waiting on her she poured herself some whiskey. She looked towards the empty bar, her eyes unfocused as though she was seeing the memory playing in her head. "I was in my second year when I met Hugo, I thought he was so handsome. For me it was his smile that made me fall so deeply in love with him. He asked me out on a date that weekend and I said yes."

She took a deep drink from her glass and looked back at him waiting for his next part.

His eyebrows lifted as though they might meet his hairline. "You were only twelve? Merlin, what a bastard up and leaving after five years," Declan muttered, not even thinking about it before it escaped his lips. He shook his head, not even feeling like taking it back once he realized what he said. "Listen, I'll tell you something right now. As long as you don't regret it, it wasn't a bad thing. But that doesn't mean he is worth staying stuck on. It doesn't mean he isn't worth it. I obviously don't know the whole story yet. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that if someone can hurt you that badly, they are entirely likely to do it again."

Declan sighed, and shook his head again. "I know it isn't my place, but you should know that if anything ever happens with him or anyone else, I don't mind giving them a talking to." He did give her a rather cheeky smile after that, but knew he was avoiding telling his own next section.

"Smiles have a way of doing people in, it seems. I didn't think anything was off or strange at first, though I see the signs now when I look back. We would meet the same day every week. Thursday nights. I was working here already, which I guess you might know given I've gone and bought the place now. But Danica..." He paused, trying to find the words. "She found a way to convince me that things I once hated were actually fun. And it was good. For a while, anyway."

"Yeah at first I didn't know what it was I was feeling but I knew it was something special. Funny thing is even though he left, I'm still in love with him." Yvette said softly downing the rest of her drink in one gulp. "I understand where your coming from entirely but sometimes your first love is the one that still has your heart."

She giggled and said, "What you'd play protective big brother?" She was starting to feel fuzzy in her head but she could still talk and think normally.

She looked at him trying to figure out what to say to last part of his words. She knew that sometimes people can make life fun for a little while. "I know for one thing when it comes to life. When it feels like it pouring, you need to learn to dance in the rain." She said as she poured some more whiskey in her glass. "Just like you everything was going amazing for a while. Then he started becoming more and more distant each day, he would say he was fine but I knew he wasn't. I was losing him to something and I had no idea what it was I was losing him to."

"I think that's fair," Declan conceded with a nod as he put his glass down once more. "Danica definitely held onto mine for a long time. But it made me irritable and rude to anyone who reminded me of her. I'd like to think that it's no longer true, but now with Dom..." He looked to the ceiling and exhaled, trying to fathom why, after he had expressly told himself not to, Declan had fallen into the trap again.

The look he gave her at her question was an odd one, though Declan couldn't have known that. Protective big brother? Something about that didn't sound quite right. He didn't know if it was because he had, before Dom had agreed to anything, he had wondered now and again if things with Dom were the exception to the rule. Yvette had never been someone he ignored, but before being reminded of the possibility he had no chance of considering her. And not that it was clear she had been hurt, a bigger part of him was wondering what the other decision he could have made would've led to. Surely he wouldn't have done something like what this Hugo fellow had, right? Not like Danica had, either.

"I'm not sure that's what I would call it," he informed her slowly, starting to feel the odd circles in which his brain was running. He could tell that their drinking was starting to get to him, but obviously the intention wasn't to stop at the edge of hitting tipsy, or even at tipsy itself.

Still, he looked at her with a sort of questioning expression until she went on, at which point he looked down at his glass again, feeling quite sure that, no matter what either he or Yvette had done, they would have both ended up here. Neither of them were the bad guys or the troublesome ones. But neither of them could help who they loved.

"That definitely would make it harder," he agreed, tilting the glass in his hands so the liquid ran in circles around the inside of it. "That's about as cruel as someone just suddenly leaving, isn't it? Because you wonder why they would treat you so badly when you aren't sure you've done anything wrong. Merlin, I cannot honestly say I can imagine that. I mean, the same can happen in friendships, I suppose, but that's entirely unfair.But the idea that someone would just leave you wondering and hurting and afraid of making them upset... I'm not saying you shouldn't care about him, but is it okay if I hate him a little?"

Declan almost chuckled, knowing she probably wouldn't be too angry with him for it, even though he figured she had a right to be. After all, he had admitted to knowing next to nothing about Hugo, but he couldn't help that his prejudice against people like that was obvious.

"Well, I definitely didn't expect to lose Danica. I, uh, I proposed," he explained, pausing to take another drink just so he could manage to get the words out. "I've still got the ring, though I have no idea what to do with it. It isn't like I can offer it to someone else, eh? But selling it before I've found someone feels wrong too. It's been sat on my dresser going on two years now, because it only took a year for me to think I knew. So I keep it as a reminder to not be so foolish anymore."

Yvette listened and knew that she reacted differently than how he did. "Sometimes being in love with someone then losing them causes us to act differently when someone else is around." She smiled when he sighed and looked towards the ceiling. "Sometimes the heart does things that not even the head can stop it from." 
She smiled when he said that's not what he'd call it. "What would you call it?" She said with a tilt to her head as she drank some more from her glass. She thought long and hard but couldn't come up with a logical explanation. "Yeah I don't know what else to call it." She said with a giggle.

"Yeah and I can't help but still love the boy I knew. I don't even know if he'll remember me if we ever bump into each other on the street. I'm different than who I was back in school." She said downing the rest of the whiskey in her glass. "Yeah it is just as cruel as someone leaving. Merlin beard feeling like that hurts and no matter what you do, you always ask yourself what you did wrong. Yeah it hurts when they just up and leave or even how they leave because you find yourself wondering and hurting." She smiled at his question and nodded, "Yeah it's ok. I even have things I would say to him if I ever found him again. It's pathetic on my part really," She sighed softly thinking of the things she would say to him. 

She laid her hand on his forearm and said, "I'm sorry Declan. I don't know what else to say in this situation but I know it must hurt. "Maybe one day you'll find the one person who is worth all of that and be able to trust with your heart again. I hope one day that you'll find someone who appreciates the man you are." She poured some more whiskey in her glass and smiled wistfully. "I think that's why I started taking in cats that were in shelters. So I wouldn't be so alone anymore. I have two cats, one I rescued in a snow storm, poor thing was half frozen but I saved her all the same. Maybe I save them because I don't have anyone that's willing to be around me long enough to be anything to me besides my friend."

Yvette definitely had a few curiously wise replies that Declan had not expected. But he found that they were rather endearing, where it would have bothered him if coming from someone else, instead of her. Her question threw him off guard, however, and he quickly realized he would have to backtrack a bit. "Well," he started, pausing to take a drink from his glass to give himself time to think. "I guess I just thought it was more than that, in some ways. What big brother sits around and gets drunk with his sister when he's meant to be helping? By all acounts, I would be a terrible brother, apparently."

Where was he going with this, anyway? Declan wasn't even sure. "My point is that I think that we could be friends, foremost. After that, I'm not sure." He shrugged, but offered her a smile nonetheless.

"You have questions, I'm sure," he replied, nodding when she said she had a few things she could think of to tell this Hugo guy. Declan himself had no idea what he would do if Danica ever walked through the door. Of course, he couldn't have known that he would find out the answer to that sudden silent question sooner than he really wanted to.

When her hand fell to his arm, Declan glanced down, hesitating only a moment before settling his own hand atop hers. As she spoke, his thumb brushed absentmindedly over the back of her fingers. He released her when she went to pour herself another round, and chose to follow suit with his own glass. He didn't know what to say to her compliment, this time, so he waited and let her finish speaking.

Suddenly, he was all the more furious at the guy who broke her heart, because she was talking as though saving those animals who needed her made her pathetic. Sure, people made fun of cat ladies, but Yvette had a perfectly good reason for doing so, and he found it to be a far better outlet than what he had done. And he had thought he was a good guy? Maybe not. Maybe Yvette was wrong about him, too. Declan frowned and reached out, gently taking her chin between his forefinger and thumb, turning her head so she would look at him.

“You listen to me,” he began, his tone firm despite his obvious concern for her, “I’ve learned more about who you are in the past five minutes than I ever have before and that doesn’t make me some sort of expert or anything, but if I know one thing, it’s this: You deserve far better than someone who can’t see how genuine and caring you are. If that guy could even stand treating you like that, he didn’t know you very well. Not back then, anyway. So if you do run into him, remember that. He’s the one who messed up, not you. And the next guy who cares about you damn well better work for it, or I’ll have something to say about it.”