The absence of a glass next to the familiar sketchpad hadn’t gone unnoticed. Jude hadn’t seen Kieran earlier in the day, and didn’t know if this was necessarily intentional, part of anything, but – Kieran hadn’t had a drink through the meeting. Even that was rare and new.

Jude hadn’t been sure if he should confess to noticing or just let it lie (would it help, or only add undue pressure?), but Kieran spared him the internal debate by bringing it up. And not just one meeting sober, but two days? (Jude wasn’t sure he had ever known Kieran to be consciously two days’ sober, not in the whole time he had known him.)

He stopped in his tracks, returning the crooked smile with a beam. “Congratulations,” he said, which still felt like an understatement – he could have kissed him on the spot for managing it. He studied his face intently. “How do you feel?” Kieran must be pleased with his successes, surely; although at the same time Jude could only imagine going cold turkey wouldn’t exactly be an enjoyable process.

---

Kieran was making light of it, he was sure; but Jude laughed in turn, happy to play along. If Kieran could make light of it, this was good; this news in itself was far too good to ignore.

If Jude had had other plans, he would have dropped them at once. And if that was the kind of encouragement Kieran wanted to keep it up – Jude was hardly about to deny him. “Well,” he said, mock-serious, “if that’s how you feel...” He raised an eyebrow back, and leant in a little closer. “You’d better let me give you one.”

Providing Kieran with an easy distraction probably wouldn’t hurt either, Jude thought, as he considered where they could go. (It was probably wise to be out of the Augurey, away from the lure of any bars or inns – and as he thought of that, he wasn’t particularly keen to get back to Kieran’s flat and watch him wrestling with the temptation of breaking out a bottle of whiskey from his stash. Any other night he would have taken Kieran back to his flat instead, only Kingsley’s sister had the gall to be visiting, which might put a damper on those plans.) But they could find somewhere nearby that was private enough; undeterred, he hooked an arm around Kieran’s waist, faux-casual and a little familiar, to say come on then.

---

“I suppose you’ll find out,” Jude said playfully, trying for mystery – although he wasn’t sure yet, either. Still, he was confident they could find somewhere, anywhere. He took a first turn mostly at random, but once he had decided on a direction, he clasped Kieran’s wrist to keep up the pace as he pulled him down a narrow alleyway, familiar with where it came out. To a quiet square, enclosed by buildings; there was a small public garden in the middle of it, which at this time of year was decently shielded from the streets outside the railing by the trees and bushes that lined it. The lamps had already been lit on the street when dusk had fallen, which meant the park was technically closed for the night – but it didn’t take more than a moment’s effort to loosen the chain on the iron gates wide enough to slip through the gap and make the most of the park’s privacy.

“Will this do?” Jude asked, his own heart rate a little high as he shot Kieran another look. It was meant to be his reward, after all, and so it ought to be a little memorable; and though they had maybe been together too much already to achieve that, and Kieran had more history than he did, Jude did always want to try and impress him, if he could.

---