A bright haired women in black dress walked into the Club, a dusky, dingy, dank little nightclub off the beaten path. The head was illuminating in the darkness of night, the cool looking lights around the words 'Black Diamond' gave off a aura of mystery about the club.
On her way to inside of the club, she showed the guards her ID card for security purposes and walked past the taller male while ignoring the apprehensive look he was giving her.
"Is she really 23 as she claims to be?" She heard him mutter to the someone but she ignored it with a shake of head.
From around the corner, the women could hear the somnolent buzz of the jazz music out in the front, providing a backdrop for the clinking of glasses and drone-out chatter of hundred best friends and one-night strand artists.
As she entered the joint, the intermingled smells of smoke and sweat of too many people instantly assaulted her nostrils when she inhaled deeply.
'Hmm...this homey feeling, how I missed it' She thought and pushed her body through the pulsating horde.
Finally finding her way to an empty barstool in the corner, she motioned to the handsome bartender.
"I'd like a cocktail...um...gin and tonic?" She tells him with a dubious smile. He nodded curtly and melted away to lend a ear to the cries of other thirsty patrons.
By now, her aurous eyes were adjusting to the imminent darkness, tomblike but at the same time not quite. Brightness of neon beer signs on the wall stood out, illuminating the faces, cleavage and mohawks of the crowd, while others disappeared into the contrasting blackness.
How many of these people had she met before? 'Not many, but few' She anchored her attention on the petite, child-like female who was dancing across the room like a princess. Her amber colored hair looking silver in the dim room, was styled in pigtails. 'Yuiki Yaya, if I remember right?' She has talked to the younger girl once and she was being a very interesting company to say at least.
"Here you go, Miss Amu" A voice said, and her gin and tonic slid in to her side, but the bartender was gone before she could even look up to mouth the words 'Thanks'.
"As if it matters..." The women, Amu, shrugged with a keen smile as it is clearly understood that one speaks of gratitude with money, not words. Everyone's your best friend when you're soaring high, it is only step away from being called a universal truth.
She took her first sip of the simple mixture, feeling cold and icy, slightly sweet and tangy against her lips. She held the drink in her mouth for just a moment and let the ice, gin and slip of lime pulp wallow against her tongue, and she felt like a man in solitary kissing his first woman in ten years.
She fluttered her eyes close and savored the taste of her favorite drink. She heaved a sigh of satisfaction after she gulped down a few mouthfuls.
"Gin and tonic..." A rich, raspy voice said, reaching her ears. Lashes swept up and she blinked. Her gaze flickered to her side and she could have sworn that she felt her heart picking the pace.
Tousled mahogany hair that fell over the eyes that rivaled the beauty of the stone emerald, and the gaze that they behold left her spellbound. The world fell away, drained of all color but him, standing in the sunlight...or in the drawing allure of darkness.
By now her 'favorite' drink was long forgotten and she was unheeding in eying him in the most demure way she could pull. Then his gaze dipped to meet her dazed looking ones.
"What?" He sounded so snappish and loud that it managed to bring Amu back to face reality. His glare traveled to her with unnerving thoroughness that it silenced the rose haired women.
"Uh...sorry. I didn't mean to...stare at you..." Amu managed to voice her apology and pried her eyes off the handsome - angry looking - male.
She didn't speak or glanced at him for good minutes to avoid another misleading conversation with the stranger. She wasn't wanting to act offensively to him. It wasn't like it was her fault that he was so godlike that any person of opposite sex would want to check him out. She was no exception.
Though she wasn't looking at him this time, she could feel him staring fixedly at her. Did he want to say something to her? If so, then he should say it quick. The small hairs on her arms raised, despite the heat.
"Uh...look I'm sorry. I wasn't meaning to sound so harsh" He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. He has been looking like he was in sour mood for quite sometime. "I'm just...uh...not in right mood? yea"
Amu didn't say anything and only sighted him out the corner of her eye.
"...hey?" He tried to call her but she only remained silent. She didn't know what she should be saying, it was partly her fault too for ogling a stranger like him. She should be saying sorry too...
"Look I know I-" He was growing impatient and there was an edge in his tone which signalled that he was going to get angry again...but she cut him short.
"I'm sorry, I was at fault too" She said it. The grip of her hands on the small glassware tightened for a brief moment.
He blinked owlishly at her and his shoulders relaxed at her words. He offered her a small smile when her strange tawny eyes darted up to meet his pine colored ones. What followed was another unrelenting stare from her end. He should learn to stop surprising her like that...
"You should stop doing that..." He pressed his back against the edge of the counter and upon noticing her questioning look, a mirthful smile plays on his lips. "You know...when you stare at someone like that...they would only want to-"
"Here" The bartender pipes in and hands him over his gin and tonic with a nod. He leaves the two drinkers after that.
"Thanks!" The brunette shouts after the ignorant bartender anyway.
Amu watches silently as he raises the glass to his lips. She focused her gaze on his lips and absentmindedly, she licks her lips when few drops of the drink trailed down from the edge of his lips. Abruptly she looks down at her drink and devours it in one go, ignoring the burning taste on her lips that it left. She crosses her leg and faced away from him, again.
'What is this sudden heat in the air?' Amu's heart was acting weird. Hammering so hard against her chest that she was able to hear the racing of her heart echoing in her ears? She wasn't in love with this guy, she knows the feeling of love too well to feel it now.
'I shouldn't be feeling like this...I mustn't' The blaring of the music drowned out in the background and the only sound she was able hear so loud and clear was that of her heartbeat.
"You were staring at me, or should I say...my lips" It wasn't a question. He knew that just as well as she did. Amu find it rather wise to remain unresponsive so she did just that.
"Say...do you want to kiss?" When the words left his lips Amu could have sworn he felt her heart stop. This guy was not good for her heart, she decided.
"W-what? No way!" The way she said it must have sounded like she was really against the idea of kissing him because his body sunk in disappointment. Did he really expected that she'd readily agree to him? Maybe she miscalculated him for a good person, and in reality he was only a arrogant jerk.
"You don't look like you are inexperienced with matters like this...so why not?"
She didn't say anything for a few long seconds, and they appear to pass with the inaudible ticking of the Jazz beat that was breathing inside the bar like a heartbeat. Always beating and without a break. He studies her, his gaze cruising her smaller figure. Another second and she might burst from all the tension that was growing between them second by second. She entertains the idea of pouring the glass of water (which was resting in the counter for anyone who'd want to have a drink) in his face, but decides against doing that.
"I don't know you. Isn't that good enough reason?" She has to get away from this place. Fast, before things get out of her hand. He, obviously, was younger than her (he was wearing what appeared like a school uniform) and she can't take advantage of that...and she'd hate let him have his way with her either. Plus, she was already...
"Yes, exactly." The jade eyed stranger takes her hand in his and kisses it, softly. "I don't know who you are, and you don't need to know who I am either"
He leans in close to her and she, despite herself, uncrosses her legs. A smile full of mirth dances on his lips as he pushes closer. When he draws his face close to hers, she was able to faintly smell the flavour of her favorite cocktail on his breath until finally, she tastes it herself. Much to her surprise it tasted more good in his lips. Her eyes lowered in haze until her mind abandons her entirely and his lips take her over. She feels his hand taking a stroll down her back, it felt so familiar to her but at the same time very different. He pushed her against him by her small back that she nearly slipped off her barstool. She was forgetting something really important...then it hit her, like tons of brick on her head.
He pulled away, looking as breathless as she was. Amu didn't say anything to him, after all, what would she say? They already did what was not to be done.
The stranger with the eyes that rivaled the beauty of the stone emerald was gone. He left her wanting.
• • •
The certain rose haired women walked alone into the darkness of night, looking distraught at what had happened at the bar.
She stopped, feeling insuppressible about of guilt, when she was right where she has been wanting to come.
'My home'
Silently she made her way to the front porch and pressed on the switch. A soft melody of violin rang loud in the dead silence of the place. Amu braced herself for the moment to come.
'Click!'
The door opened. She quickly masks her fear and wears a homey smile because she was greeted with the familiar face of her lover...
"Really now, at near 12? You worry me, Amu-koi"
"Sorry for the wait. I'm back, Ikuto"...and her husband.
'Our home'
• ♣ • ♥ • ♠ •
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