bakerstreet | Love at first sight

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[meme] shipping

Love at first sight

The Love at First Sight Meme

"Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

Pretty self-explanatory. Sometimes, chemistry just hits you and you see that special someone for the first time and . . . it's so intense, there's no reasoning behind it other than it has to be love.

How this works:
→ Leave a comment with the usual information in the subject line: character name, fandom. Any preferences, including what you don't want, should be included as well.
→ Congratulations, whoever tags your character is seeing them for the first time and is in love with them. Truly, madly, deeply.
→ Tag around. Play out shenanigans. Serious or cracky or anything.
→ Have fun, and be excellent to each other!

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[If only he was always this lucky.]

[ Modern au also available. ]

Edited 2017-07-04 21:02 (UTC)

[Keiran would be stoked to meet someone with cool powers of you would like to play something modern day?]

[ That sounds good to me! Did you want to start us off? Or I can when I'm home from work? ]

Pub life was all life and so it made sense that Keiran Duran saw the love of his across the hazy distance of bodies, cigarette smoke and boasting lads watching one of the games on the muted television from the bar to the fancy glass and oak door. He wasn't sure what number pint he was on or if his brother ate more chips and therefore owed him the next round. Hell, he even forgot that his brother existed for the next few moments as he left his glass behind and rolled up to the new entry to their little neighborhood water hole.

Well, he tried to at least, but Keiran was not the world's most suave bloke and though he liked to think of himself as graceful, he didn't exactly prove himself to be as he elbows his way between two women without much clothing on complaining of the chill, got turned around by one of his cousins trying to lure him back to the bar for a round on him, and finally had a nice little trip over a stool and right into the person's chest whose eye he had been attempting to catch in a slightly less dramatic way.

At six feet, he was tall and lanky, wavy hair hardly capable of being tamed and full of entirely too much spirit.

"You saved my life," he came right out to say-- well. Shout. He'd never been one to mince words and he'd never been one to have much sense in him. He hadn't even stopped to wonder what might happen if he flirted with another straight guy.

Actually no. He did know. He could well end up punched and his brother and cousins would end up having the cops called on them all since one could not just allow another Durin to suffer a fight alone.

Admittedly, this wasn't the sort of place Gabriel frequented. At all. Too loud, too many people, too much going on to really unwind. That being said, after the day he'd had, anywhere that sold alcohol was better than nothing. Once he'd managed to get himself a drink - but not a seat just yet - he did his best to find a spot to stand in where he'd be out of the way, invisible. Exactly what he was used to. Perhaps not what he wanted, but it was what he knew best.

That plan was going beautifully, until he noticed someone heading (rather determinedly) in his direction. He wasn't someone Gabriel recognised, so he assumed he wasn't the object the guy's attention. Until he tripped and careened straight into him. With only one hand free his attempt to steady the stranger was a little clumsy, but it didn't look like he was sober enough to really care much. Hey, at least cider was cheap; half of Gabriel's had puddled on the floor and splashed the shoes of several people around them.

Either way, he still gave him a small, slightly shy smile and took his hand back once he was sure the guy wouldn't sway into anyone else.

"And I didn't have lift a finger; that's a personal record."

"Ah, but that's not quite true is it?" Kili's grin was wolfish (amusing) and his dark eyes were able to command attention with little trouble. There were quite a few people likely wishing that they were in Gabriel's shoes right now, and the woman behind them to Keiran's left kept glancing their way. As unassuming as Gabriel was, this man who seemed maybe a beat or two behind the conversation destroyed that. "You lifted a whole hand there for a second. Chest helped too."

Kili was rarely successful when it came to chatting someone up. Men or women, as nice as he might be to look at, his childish rambunctiousness usually turned people off fairly quickly. Not that it stopped him. It usually took more than a few unreturned texts or calls to get Keiran to back down.

Speaking of, the loudness of the music and the conversation of those around him caused the curly haired man to lean in towards his new, painfully attractive quarry. For chatting purposes, ostensively. "Name's Keiran but my mates call me Kili. Let me get you another pint!"

His first instinct was to tell Kili that he needn't worry about the drink, but he hadn't really phrased it as a question. So he let him, reminding himself to return the favour later on, or at least before one of them left.

"Gabriel, hi."

At the other end of the spectrum, Gabriel wasn't that adept at the whole concept of flirting, which included noticing if someone else was aiming their attempts at him. He'd never really dated much (at all) and while he didn't necessarily think he was unattractive or boring, he couldn't see how someone could be interested in him when there were thousands of other people out there. Feeling worthy of someone else's time was just a little foreign to him, though he was almost always willing to give his up.

Even now, any minute he was expecting someone behind him to notice Kili and call him over - the person he assumed the other was originally crossing the room for in the first place.

With a bit too much gusto, Kili wrapped an arm around poor Gabriel's shoulders and swept him closer to the bar. It was likely he'd lose a bit more of the liquid in his pint glass because of that not quite sashay through the crowd. Kili acted like people would just move for him, and when they didn't he elbowed them until they did. His personality was large, but that might have been the drink in his system. After clearing a space at the bar for them both, Kili released his hold on the other man and leaned against the scarred wooden surface with one elbow, his hand catching his head as if it might roll off of his own shoulders.

"What'll yah have?" He got the attention of the bartender with.a tenner, folded in half and waved in her direction. He knew he pretty well, given that this was the usual hang out of the Durins and within walking distance of all of his friends and family members, and so she leaned forward, catching his eye. "Beer for me," he told her, and gestured for Gabriel to state his request.

The bartender was light on her feet and in a few moments, two pint glasses arrived and the ten pound note disappeared from the table. "Just so you know, Kili, your brother's got a bet on you. Fifteen minutes tops. I'm doing for twenty. Manage that and I'll split the tip with you."

Kili's dark brown and the woman's bright blue lifted towards Gabriel. He might not know that he was the source of the bet, or that the amount of time Kili was able to keep him around was the means of the wager. Kili scowled ever so slightly. It wasn't fair for his own brother to bet against him!

"So what's it you do, Gabe?" He was going to make this one last. There was just something abou Gabriel-- Kili couldn't put his finger on it, but it was there.

And just like that, he was being led. Well, more like drunkenly-ushered, but either way he did his best to apologise to anyone he might have knocked into, and to anyone Kili definitely knocked into. This was going to be an interesting night, that much he was starting to realise.

Once he'd given his order, he worked on making a bit for room for himself, made easier when the man behind him moved on and no one immediately claimed the space for themselves. He went to speak when their drinks were placed down in front of them, and his sentence was replaced with a word of thanks to the bar tender. Despite how loud the bar was, he had no trouble hearing what she said to Kili, though he was right in assuming that Gabriel didn't know that he was the subject of a wager.

Not that it mattered; he was too polite to excuse himself from Kili's company unless the other went out of his way to irritate or insult him. As far as the bet was concerned, Kili may as well have started celebrating then and there. But Gabriel remained none the wiser, and was content to enjoy the first sip of his second drink of the evening until Kili addressed him once more.

"Private security, I suppose you could call it." Well, it wasn't exactly inaccurate. "This is a rare night off. What about you?"

Bodyguard or bouncer? Kili didn't ask, he just tried to discern the answer from Gabriel by looking him far too closely in the face. The beard he kept hid some of his expression and the dimness in the pub, lit only by the television's broadcast of the Man-U match, masked his eyes but Kili, aided by liquid grains and lack of common sense, thought he could see all of Gabriel's ghosts anyway. He forgot all about stupid Philip and his equally stupid wager. He forgot that his cousins were playing darts somewhere in the background. Gabriel was too enticing to think about anything else right now.

And that was why, hand in the peanut bowl, Kili actually had to tilt his head to clear it of all of the self-induced fuzz inside of it and realise that he'd just been asked a question. A few blinks later to distract himself from his distraction, Kili shrugged.

"I'm the spare," he said, the corners of his lips jerking upwards. "My family owns Durin's-- That's the jewelry place in Belgravia? I'm rubbish at any of it and my brother's the prodigy." Fili was the heir to their uncle's little precious metal and gem empire. Kili? Well, he was Kili. "Mostly I play guitar and wash dishes." Someone that came from money didn't usually find themselves employed as a bus boy in a chip shop, but Keiran lived by his own rules and if he could not bring himself back down to Earth and learn the family business, he'd just have to find something else to do as his mother refused to let her boys grow up with silver spoons anywhere but in the antique case where it would stay nicely polished for holidays. "I'm pretty good at both of those!"

( Inebriated Kili is becoming my favourite thing, bless him. )

Being stared at - or in this case, examined - didn't necessarily bother him. It was only when his question when unanswered a beat too long that he really noticed, and even then there was something more endearing about it than creepy or uncomfortable. He wondered if most of what he was seeing here was just the alcohol talking or if Kili was usually this friendly to complete strangers. Not that he particularly minded.

Slowly turning his pint glass between his hands, he listened as Kili described his family's business, and smirked at the mention of his playing guitar.

"I always wanted to learn, never had the chance though. Guitar, not washing dishes; that I've had more practice at."