Chapter Text
Volunteers were always coming and going, and if they weren't someone was having a birthday, so there was always something to “celebrate”. Jack didn’t go to half of the nights out, partly because he wanted his liver to last longer than his socks. He was only twenty but he’d seen too many people here who had cirrhosis to want to risk that shit.
When it was time for Robinavitch to leave, though, Jack went to that party. Robinavitch was one of the best volunteers he’d worked with, even if he was a little too confident sometimes. Jack liked him anyway. He was smart, compassionate, creative, had steady hands, and a knack with an airway. Even more importantly, he didn’t treat Jack or any of the other medics like they were stupid because they weren’t in med school. The fact that he was so fucking pretty didn’t hurt either, although Jack generally ignored that as well as ignoring the occasional attempts to flirt. DADT was real and Jack would have to pay back a fuckton of money if he got kicked out two years into his hitch.
The vodka they drank at these things was foul, but Jack probably drank too much of it that night anyway. It had been a rough day in a rough week, full of pulling shrapnel out of grandmas and preschoolers. When Robinavitch finally said he was tapping out (to the howls of him being a lightweight since it was barely 2300), the room was a little wobbly. But there were rules about volunteers not going anywhere alone and Jack had already drawn the short straw to be Robinavitch’s escort, so he hauled his ass off the stool, paid his ridiculously low tab, and walked back from the back alley shack that pretended to be a bar.
They didn’t talk much on the way, maybe because Jack had to focus on possible threats or maybe because Robinavitch was in one of his quiet moods. When they finally got back to the relative safety of the volunteer compound and were in front of the little box that was Robinavitch’s room, Jack clapped the man on the shoulder. Robinavitch’s roommate had already left, so Jack didn’t need to worry about disturbing anyone as he said his goodbyes.
“Safe and sound. You gonna be alright alone?”
He didn’t really want anyone to aspirate, but especially not so close to getting out of a war zone. Jack had another two months and he was already counting the days.
Robinavitch looked away, then looked back at Jack with those pretty brown eyes.
“I don’t think I am. You should come in.”
Jack took a moment to consider what Robinavitch was asking or offering. There was a chance he was wrong about this, but he didn’t really think so.
“Yeah, alright,” he agreed, and stepped with Robinavitch into his hooch, letting the door shut behind them.
This was a bad decision, and he was going to enjoy every fucking second of it.