[FIN] Not Looking for a Rebound

[Suudonym]

Nate wasn't too keen on regret either, he mused vaguely, but his regrets could wait until later. "Now's about the now, if you ask me," he countered simply, lending voice to his thoughts.

"Another place around Camph," he clarified in brief terms. "Higher end, but not exclusive. They do some great bourbon." He shrugged to dismiss it, though. There wasn't really any point in talking about other clubs this time of night.

Something about her phrasing irked him, and he inclined his bright eyes towards her, leaning slightly forward. "Maybe you'll go, maybe you'll wait for something interesting to come along. Still exploring, and avoiding regret. Sounds to me like you gotta take a dive, Dove." The roguish tone inhabiting his words took on a physical form as he moved to steal a kiss, reaching a hand to grasp her wrist under the intent of preventing her immediate flight if she attempted. Chick needed to learn a little spontaneity.  

[Tori Honoo]

"Sounds promising..." she sighed, mentally trying to evaluate the difference between his idea of 'higher end, not exclusive' and her own. Maybe she would try it, just for kicks.

She watched him absently, as he spoke, his words stinging in a way she couldn't quite place. Maybe she did need to just dive into things...Maybe she should explore taking chances...Maybe he was right...

...maybe he was kissing her right now.

She blinked as his lips met hers, unsure of how to react immediately. After a few moments, however, she drew back, her voice timid. "Um... I-I'm not..  

[Suudonym]

"Not living in the moment?" he said with a breath of a laugh, maintaining an intent gaze in contact with hers, his expression unchanging. "Tell me about it." He had kind of been expecting her to hit him, though, so when she failed to do so, he took it as a green light to go in for another, pulling her forward against his lips once more.  

[Tori Honoo]

At his comment of 'not living in the moment', the model's brows furrowed, meeting his eyes with a flicker of hesitant determination, unsure if his actions and words made her angry or simply more curious. When he pulled her close and kissed her again, however, she rolled her eyes, allowing it for a moment before breaking away again.

"..."  

[Suudonym]

He didn't retaliate this time, and when he leaned forward again it was not to close the distance once more but to give her an appropriate proximity to hear the words he softly spoke, "Picking up some resolution, huh? Starting to get an idea of what it is you want." He removed himself from her immediate vicinity, releasing her wrist from his hand to shrug dramatically, "'Not this creep, that's for sure.' Well, that's okay. Stings a bit, but I can't blame you."  

[Tori Honoo]

Dove regarded him carefully, tilting her head a bit in confusion as he backed away, a soft frown settled across her lips.

"If I'm going to be incredibly honest with you, Nate, I'm really not sure of what I want, anymore," she confessed, tucking her hair back as she looked around them, her mind wandering. "Looks to me like you don't either..."

Well, she certainly wasn't going to deny the fact that his advances had been a bit...forward, but he didn't seem to be a bad person, overall. She hadn't had to resort to any physical means to get him off of her, at least. Her edginess had faded away to a soft numbness, her body tired from their dancing and mind exhausted from her grieving process over her ex. Not that he deserved to be mourned.

At this point, Dove couldn't have really cared less about what was happening... She had only enough sense to realize that her actions would still have consequence after the fact.

She shook her head at Nate again, sliding her water toward him. "I can't really blame you, either."  

[Suudonym]

He leaned against the counter of the bar, a sudden and peculiar severity settling over his features. "Pro tip: gotta know what you want at least in a place like this." He placed a hand on the bottle that was pushed in his direction, decided as he lifted it only slightly that its appearance in his hand was more interesting than the effects of its contents. "Or else you gotta be ready to risk giving up everything you are." Though his inebriated state was intended to dull such thoughts, his mind wandered to his sister. The focus of his gaze faded into the distance, a quiet perturbation taking his features momentarily. He let it pass, though, replacing it with a flash of a smile, "And now you know, when they say guys get all philosophical when they're drunk, what they actually mean is they spout a bunch of bullshit that sounds deep to other drunk people."  

[Tori Honoo]

She watched him quietly under the flashing of lights and beat of the music. Though his reaction's seemed...off, she found his conversation interesting, the words he spoke striking more deeply than he probably gathered. Everything she had thought she wanted had evaporated when she severed her relationship with her boyfriend. Especially since she hadn't even been home when it had happened. Now she wasn't even sure if she would ever want to go home...

When he flashed his smile and spoke of philosophy, she laughed mirthlessly, letting her eyes fall to her feet and her fingers brush over her own shoulder. "Trust me, I've heard worse. My ex was full of it."  

[Suudonym]

"Hey!" he said suddenly, spreading his arms in bravado, "Mine too!" He returned to a normal posture, recovering the beer had he left on the counter. "All exes are, pretty sure. Though I guess we're someone's exes too." A pause for a drink. "…Dunno if that necessarily disproves my point though."

He spared a few moments in contemplative silence, tapping a finger lightly against the ebbing glass to the rhythm that spread throughout the broad room. He then said, offhandedly, "You know, I'm really surprised you didn't hit me or scream or something. I was kinda counting on that." Or so he said, but if she had done either he probably would have simply called her a rude name and belligerently moved on to someone else.  

[Tori Honoo]

The model laughed, shaking her head at him. "Maybe we're the crazy ones then, hm?" she asked, shrugging absently. "Everyone has a different view of things, right?"

When he again spoke, she tilted her head at him, then leaned against the counter beside him, watching the dancers. "It's... not the first time that's happened," she admitted, rubbing her arm. "I meet a lot of bold people in my career, and some of them are...really too outgoing."

It hadn't happened often, but...it had happened.

"I can handle myself, most of the time."  

[Suudonym]

"True story," he affirmed. "For every person in the world playing like they're hot s**t, there's someone else out there thinking they're just normal s**t, like the kind in a bag on a doorstep."

He laughed briefly at her words. "Lot of guys in here would take that as a challenge," he said, raising a finger smartly. "Me too, if I weren't so sober." His intent in coming to a club hadn't been to talk about stuff he had to think about until his buzz started to wear off, but that seemed to be how things were going.  

[Tori Honoo]

Though he was only reaffirming what she had said, she frowned at his crude language, though she blamed it naively on the alcoholic drink in his hand.

She shook her head, her frown giving way as she found herself stifling another laugh. "A challenge. Hm. Again, not a first time for me. I've heard it before," she said casually, waving a hand. "For the record, I'm glad you're...at least mostly sober...I guess."  

[Suudonym]

He stuck out his tongue briefly. "Yeah well that makes one of us. Let me tell you something, ain't a soul on this earth that goes out to a nightclub to get sober."  

[Tori Honoo]

"No, I don't suppose so, though I've heard the dancing is worth the effort," she shrugged playfully, hoping her weak attempt might draw him away from the bar.  

[Suudonym]

"Oh, sometimes," he said, leaning away from the counter long enough to stretch his arms and lock his hands behind his head. The hour was starting to catch up with him from just standing around. "Depends on the DJ and the crowd, you know?" The look on his face was daring, teasing; her implications weren't being missed, but he didn't feel like being kind and obedient.