[FIN] Not Looking for a Rebound

[Tori Honoo]

Dove sighed, following the directions on her phone silently as the soft echoes of her heels patterned the night atmosphere around her. As she approached her destination, she tucked her phone away, assuming that the soft thumping of a base and swell of music each time the door opened meant she had found the right location. With little hesitation, she strutted through the door, immediately scanning the club.

She grinned dangerously as the long lost feeling flooded her, the lights making the fabric of her dress glitter with each of their movements. Pushing her hair from her face, and shrugging off her jacket to reveal her dress, she moved to a table, unsure of tackling the dance floor just yet, even with the extra bolt of cold-confidence her breakup had given her. After the few days of heart wrenching tears she had cried for that idiot, she deserved a night out and some fresh faces. Especially, she reasoned, when she looked this good.

Not that the extremely flattering dress was anything special. She always looked this good.

In sharp silence, she watched the pulsing of the crowd on the dance floor, standing in the models' pose she had been molded to since birth, waiting for the opportune moment.

((....or it might be this dress.))  

[Suudonym]

Nate had been enjoying the atmosphere for a while now, the drinks especially - someone must have chosen the venue for some kind of celebration, because the phrase "house round on me" had already been uttered at least three times, making this a great place to hang around for the night. By now it was about the time of night that he began to exude that disposition his friends were always telling him he was copying the one person in the world he disliked the most: enshrouded in arrogance, entitlement, and bullheadedness.

And so it was easily that he decided, when the girl entered, that she was intruding upon his territory and thus making herself his mark. He wasn't as familiar with the menu here as he was at Dragon Dance, so he made a vague request from the bartender for "something girly" and wound up with something brightly colored, fizzy, and contained in one of those slender, showy glasses. His boon in hand, he sidled up to the recent arrival and raised the beverage in offer, regarding her with bright eyes in a sidelong glance and a brazen smile, "Hey wallflower, you just gonna stand there all night?"  

[Tori Honoo]

As the stranger approached her, she cut her eyes to him before turning to face him completely, though what she saw nearly made her jump out of her skin. She relaxed almost immediately after though; it had just been the lights playing with his hair... the young man she had mistaken him for wasn't nearly as tall, nor did he have the same build...plus, it wasn't likely that she would find him so easily here... It would be far too simple after the months of searching she had done already to simply stumble upon him at a nightclub.

Shaking it off, she tilted her head up at the stranger's approach and question, offering a playful smile in return as she accepted the drink he offered. "I wasn't planning on it, no. I was just waiting for something interesting to catch my eye," she said, holding the glass delicately and making no move to drink from it. "And I only just arrived."

In the back of her mind, a warning flag shot up, though she ignored it completely. This was exactly how she had met her first ex boyfriend; he had been just as straightforward and smooth as this young man was now.  

[Suudonym]

A breathy laugh. "Something interesting, huh?" He placed a hand on his hip and tilted his head slightly askance in a skillful contrapposto, "Well you're in the right place for that. You must have just gotten here if you haven't found something yet." Somewhere in his mind reared a sarcastic comment that of course she had just arrived or else he would have been talking to her sooner. He also mentally berated her for not being more grateful that the first person to have spoken to her had been him and not some creep skulking around with a pocket full of roofies.  

[Tori Honoo]

"Hm." she hummed lowly neither in agreement or disagreement, flicking her eyes to his shoes and back up for a once-over. With a grin to him, she turned away, silently wondering if he would follow.

Swaying off to another table, she addressed him over her shoulder. "I take it you come here often then, since you seem to be so at ease," she called over the music, turning half way back to him as she sat the drink down and looked out to the dance floor again. Her eyes flicked to his, the color of them making her stomach sink again for a moment. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

No. She was here and he was talking with her. It was only polite to talk back. And besides, the interaction was fun~

So far.  

[Suudonym]

Though his practiced charming smile never faltered, a bemused frown formed in his thoughts. He wasn't about to be led around like a Lilipup wagging its tail, if that was what she was trying to do. That coy dominance s**t was not attractive. He folded his arms, meeting her partial gaze with an expression that spoke with a hint of a dare, "Maybe I'm just an easy-going kinda guy, huh? Life's too short stay in your comfort zone, if you ask me." Get on my level.  

[Tori Honoo]

She laughed genuinely at his comment. "If that's true, I'd say I'm certainly living life to it's fullest here..."

Her real comfort level consisted of balls and galas, not reckless nights of dancing and 'partying' like this, though she had indeed found herself in this atmosphere multiple times before now. It had just been so long ago....

Turning back to him at his devilishly handsome/charming daring smile, she smiled back, though this time much more calm, setting her hand high on her waist and playing with her hair in another absent minded model pose. "I'm Dove, by the way. And you are...?"  

[Suudonym]

Not used to this kind of scene then, eh? Interesting, given her apparent interest in having some control over the direction of their interactions. With her returning to face him, he took the opportunity to evaluate her more thoroughly. In a dress like that he would have expected more out of her tits, but he wasn't particularly adverse to that kind of figure either. "Nate," he answered, keeping his gaze partially askance. "I'm guessing you don't typically come around these parts either, huh?"  

[Tori Honoo]

She frowned a little at his expression, moving her eyes again to the dance floor as the DJ changed music. "I just moved to the region," she told him, pushing her hair from her face again. "I'm still exploring, as it is."

Exploring... right. More like trying to take her mind off of a bad breakup and putting herself into situations she wouldn't casually undertake on a normal day, if only for the adrenaline rush. To some extent, though, she was exploring, she reasoned with herself. She certainly hadn't been here before, nor had she met anyone quite like this boy... Nate.  

[Suudonym]

"Exploring, huh," he repeated the words delicately, injecting a sensuality that hadn't been present in their original tone. He moved to approach her, nearly leaning into her space and lowering his voice, "Something tells me there's a lot I could show you." He raised a hand to take hold of her wrist and pull her towards the dance floor, taking a cue from the recent shift in the music and from the earlier movement of her eyes.  

[Tori Honoo]

--tiny skip--

Though at first his abrupt way of tugging her to the dance floor had put her on edge, his dancing had made up for it in little to no time. Soon enough, she found herself moving smoothly with him, glad her prior experience seemed not to have faded at all.

After a few long dances--quite a few, her body would later make her glaringly aware-- she turned to him, freeing her arms to lift her hair from her neck as she spoke. "I need a break..." she again called over the music, fanning herself as she spoke. Turning to head back toward the still crowded bar for a bottle of water, she worked her hair into a beautifully loose ponytail, the curve of her body more detailed now in this new 'pose,' her arms above her head and her neck clearly exposed.  

[Suudonym]

Another reason Nate was always appreciative of his gender when he visited clubs: Not only could he wear comfortable clothes, but he didn't have to fuss with long, hot hair either. Not that she seemed too put off by it, easily accommodating by tying it into a ponytail, but still. At any rate, the thought crossed his mind that he could use a break as well, in more ways than one - was she only planning to dance? Who came to a club dressed like that just to dance?

"Not feeling too adventurous though, huh?" he said offhandedly, referencing her early claims of exploration and her request for a bottle of water - a bottle of water! At a bar? Was this chick some kind of health nut or something? He countered her by requesting a beer for himself. She was being intentionally difficult, he was sure of it.  

[Tori Honoo]

"Hey, I didn't say I was trying to experience everything all in one night," she laughed, thanking the bartender shortly after receiving her bottle of water. Snapping the lid open after checking to make sure its seal had been previously unbroken, she sipped at the drink, turning to look first at Nate, then out at the crowd once more.

"I'm surprised that there isn't more energy, tonight, considering it's a weekend..." she remarked, tucking away the tendrils that had escaped her hairstyle and had now framed her face. "The music isn't bad..."  

[Suudonym]

"Well hey, that's the way to do it, you know?" he said, raising the amber glass in a toast with no one in particular. "Take a night for yourself and go all out, hate yourself in the morning, then do it again next week." And find time, somewhere in between, to loathe yourself as a human being, but at this point such thoughts wouldn't even be on Nate's radar until at least the next afternoon.

He watched her movements in his peripheral vision, evaluating her body language - or so he would allege, through thoughts motivated by alcohol. "Dunno much about this scene," he replied with a shrug. "You oughta come out to Dragon Dance next time. There's a crowd that knows how to have a good night." The smile he wore was devilish, perhaps opportunistic.  

[Tori Honoo]

"Hm..." she hummed, smile fading. "I'm not so keen on regret..." Well, her new friend did seem to be the type to play hard, she guessed; he probably had more than a full case of interesting stories of experience he could share.

When he mentioned the other club, she turned to him, leaning against the counter. "Dragon Dance...?" she repeated, noting his new grin. Again, a flag shot up in the back of her mind, though she did her best to dismiss it; dangerously charming he might be, but foolish she was not.

"Maybe one of these days I'll find my way there."