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[victormakesart]

Vic's bachelor party is broken into three parts, one for each bachelor, although Vic's third has Cole in it, too, and James' third is mostly... reverse-dressing entertainers. Who keep finding their way accidentally in Victor's section (perhaps because James sends them, perhaps because she gives each one a trenchcoat to borrow and a mug of cocoa

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[backnthesaddle]

Cole is indeed hanging out with his future bride and trying to ignore all the strippers in his part of the room. "I think he hired an entire club for you, Vic," he says, punch in one hand and Victor's in the other.

[victormakesart]

It's okay, these... anti-dressing adults are covered as long as they're on Victor's side of the room, because oh, what if they're cold, those nice people them. Also: naked people make her nervous. "I think so," she says, giving his hand a squeeze. "I think that's a legitimate possibility."

[backnthesaddle]

Cole is torn between being embarrassed and peeking curiously because you can use one hand to count the number of people Cole's seen that naked. "They can dance well, though," he muses, taking a sip of his punch.

[victormakesart]

"Oh, gosh, you mean the folks who like to defrock?" she asks, with this look of distressed innocence, like he just told her that gummybears have secret lives and when you eat them you're destroying their bright gummy futures.

[backnthesaddle]

"That's.. that's who we were talking about. Yes. Um." More punch! Punch solves everything.

One friendly stripper in a Princess Leia outfit - hey, James is surrounded by geeks, after all - comes over towards Victor's side of the room. Cole blushes and says "Oh my god she's looking at me what do I do."

[victormakesart]

"Yeah, totally," she says, too embarrassed to admit that when he said 'club' she thought 'chess,' and then didn't really think beyond that to how it would make sense.

"Wave and say hello," Victor whispers, letting go of his hand to procure yet another trenchcoat and one more mug of cocoa, the manliest bachelor party drink in history.

[backnthesaddle]

Cole gives a small little wave and gulps, blushing, as the stripper smiles and waves back. She accepts the trenchcoat and cocoa gracefully, leaning in to compliment Victor on her fiance.

[victormakesart]

"He's a really good fellow," Victor says, smiling warmly at her, significantly less shy since the gold bikini is now hidden behind pretty much the most conspicuous jacket since the dawn of man. No one is up to any good in a trenchcoat.

[backnthesaddle]

Some of the other strippers looked confused when Victor handed them their coats, but Leia stripper just looks relieved. It is pretty cold in there, after all, and she's wearing a metal bikini. "I was just spending some time with your other fellow. He's awfully nice, too."

[victormakesart]

"Yeah, he's great. Gosh, I hope you're having a good time and that folks aren't pervin' on you too bad. Can I get you anything?"

[backnthesaddle]

The stripper smiles wide. "Darling, it's what I'm here for. Don't you worry about a thing. Now, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

Cole immediately hides behind the buffet table. Girls are scary under normal conditions.

[victormakesart]

"This is Cole. He's one of my fiances, and he's a little shy," she says, walking behind the buffet table and grabbing his wrist and tug-tug-tugging with her meager strength.

[backnthesaddle]

The woman follows Victor and smiles brightly at Cole, extending her hand. "It's nice to meet you, honey." Cole blushes and shakes her hand. His fiancee is introducing him to a stripper.

[victormakesart]

Victor's done worse than that, and you know it, Cole. Like the time she encouraged you to get flirty with the cashier via text message, and now they maybe have a future sidekick.

She is just beaming her face off.

Yeah. She's proud of herself, the little twerp.

[backnthesaddle]

Things like that just sort of happen around Victor.

Five minutes later, the three of them are seated around a table drinking mugs of cocoa. "Yeah, I just do party gigs like this on the weekend. Helping to pay my way through medical school and all that. What about you guys?"

[victormakesart]

"Hey, you're really pretty," Victor says, hands curled around her mug. "So more power to you. We're just, you know, that classically romantic story of meeting after a terrible accident, becoming heroing partners, and then falling in love. We're like all of the romantic comedies except de-lamed, given an extra infusion of geek, and squashed into one. I just graduated school with a fine arts degree, and he's still going." A little nudge to Cole, a super subtle prompting for him to talk about his school stuff, in case he gets distracted by Pretty.