“Antiseptic islay loch water.” Doyle almost snorts and waves vaguely at the bartender, who is suddenly there in front of them. “Mitchell’s Green Spot.”
The bartender coughs delicately. “That’s a rather rare pot still, sir,” he whispers in a apologetic tone.
“Don’t you have it?” Doyle looks crestfallen, like a little kid who’s dropped his ice cream cone. Wesley smiles in triumph.
The shot arrives, and it’s Doyle’s turn to gloat. He does so, at length.
“That’s a nice whisky, if you can call that Irish bog water whisky.” Wesley says in his best snide bastard voice.
“That's fighting talk,” Doyle answers and attempts to put up his fists, forgetting that he’s been leaning his chin on them. His head meets the bar, smartly.
A string of fairly inventive invective follows, much of it muttered into the puddle of warm whisky that pools on the bar top. Wesley motions discreetly to the bar tender and points to a nondescript bottle on the top shelf. Two white china cups are produced from below the counter; filled a third full with the tea-coloured brew.
“And you kiss your mother with that mouth?” Wesley observes casually, taking a good mouthful of the liquor.
Doyle peers up at him, and there’s something unreadable in his eyes.
“Not my mother.” He sits up, and slips his hand behind Wesley’s head, pressing his whisky-numbed lips to Wesley’s own. He feels the swish of Doyle’s tongue against his teeth, and lets a little of the warmed liquid trickle into the other man’s mouth.
Doyle breaks the kiss with a gasp of shock. “What the hell was that?”
Wesley grins smugly, and gestures to the teacup. “My Great Aunt Matilda lived in Connemara. Married to a Resident Magistrate,” he explains as he holds out the other cup to Doyle. “She always had a bottle in the cabinet.”
“And they just happen to stock your Great Aunt Matilda’s poteen?”
“She didn’t actually brew it herself, you know,” Wesley chides gently. “And of course they stock it.”
He leans over and continues the kiss that Doyle had broken off so abruptly, and decides that he rather likes the afterlife.