'Never have I ever eaten anything that lives on land and has more than four legs.' Anne said and everyone watched as John and Flint drank their shots and then refilled them from the rapidly diminishing bottle.
'That is disgusting.' Verity exclaimed, crinkling her nose. She was quite tipsy now and sprawled across Andrew's lap.
'We were in Thailand.' John protested. 'And you know what they say. When in Rome, eat the crawly things.'
'In our defense they were drunk and we were quite tasty.' Flint said, and then realised there was an error somewhere. 'Fuck, that stuff is ridiculous.'
'It's Sourz, James.' Anne said. 'It's not that strong.'
'That's only because you haven't been the one doing most of the drinking.' Flint said, starting a slow slide from John's shoulder to the ground. When his head got to John's lap he looked up and smiled beatifically at him. 'Hey you.'
'Hey yourself.' John said, returning the smile. 'I think Flint's out.'
'No, I'm fine.' Flint said and then promptly closed his eyes and passed out.
'He's such a fucking lightweight.' Jim said and gave Ross a sidelong smile. Ross returned it.
'I don't care how tasty they were, it's still gross.' Verity declared. She held out her shot glass to be filled and screwed up her face in thought for her turn. 'Never have I ever been so drunk that I have thrown up in my girlfriend's shoes.' She gave Andrew a meaningful look.
'For fuck's sake, Vee.' he groaned. 'It was one fucking time.' He drank and refilled, looking a little cross eyed at that point. Then he noticed that it had just been him and looked confused. That made Ross smile. It had been relatively clean up to that point and that had made Ross relax a little. Jim was also going out of his way to make him feel at ease and they'd chatted a bit. He'd turned out to be sweet and funny and Ross now was pretty sure that he really did like him. Quite a bit in fact.
Jim was leaning back against the van, Billy's head now transferred back to him. He was running his fingers through Billy's thick fur and toying with his ears and Ross was mesmerised by them, his now somewhat drunk brain whispering that those hands would probably feel really good if they were doing that to him.
'You should have seen him when he was a puppy.' Jim said to him and Ross suddenly remembered that they were talking about how Flint had got him. 'He was just a ball of fur, so fucking cute.' He looked up at Ross, his eyes darkened to almost teal by the firelight.
'I'll bet.' He managed to reply, although he was still smitten with just looking at Jim's profile, backlit by the fire. He wasn't really paying attention to the others anymore and it was only when he realised that no-one was speaking that Ross noticed they were all looking at him expectantly.
'Ross,' Demelza said. 'It's your go.'
'Is it?' Ross racked his brain for something to say. Then something jumped into his head and he went with it. In hindsight it was probably the worst thing he could have done. 'Never have I ever been caught eating someone out in the bathroom at school.' He was a little shocked at himself even as the words left his mouth, and realised that he was probably a little drunker than was safe. Demelza's reaction was immediate. She went as pink as her hair and glared at him in a way that would probably have made him go up in flames if she'd had the power. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
'I'm going to get you for that, Ross Poldark.' She hissed and drank her shot. 'Just you fucking wait.' Ross tried to bluff her out and then realised that Jim was doing the same thing next to him, only in his case he was looking at his three friends who were all grinning at him.
