[ there isn't much that can fluster david, but that sure does it. it's not much, a cough when his surprise makes a little whiskey go down wrong, a momentary freeze with a brief wide-eyed look. the sort of thing it'd be easy to brush over and recover from if this were a group conversation and not one-on-one. ]

[ he coughs again, thumps his chest with a fist, and gives evan a withering look like he did that on purpose. ]

That-- [ voice a little raw, he points with one of the fingers curled around his whiskey jar for emphasis. ] you would've heard a lot from me about.

[ it's an... interesting mental image, and if it pops into david's head later nobody needs to know about it, but there's just no way he wouldn't raise hell about it. there's a lot to be said for the illusion of privacy afforded by just a few rickety walls. ]

Just didn't wanna bottle it. I mean no offence but I wasn't entirely convinced I weren't gonna come away bleedin' out my backside.