Night's Omen

"I've had a little bit too mu-uch," Chloe sang, bumping the door of her car shut with her behind. She was still bobbing her head to the Lady Gaga CD she'd just bought. Her customers and other staffers were going to have to put up with her singing Just Dance for the rest of the night - she had no idea, by the way, how she got stuck working a Saturday shift. Something about Darren being miserable so she had to be, too. She was really happy he and that bitchy girl weren't together anymore, though - it meant that she could play kegger kickball with him again.

She ran her hand through her long blonde hair - like she did every time she went into work - as she walked through the door, taking in the crowd of the room. Every day it was different, and this Saturday night, it was a little more packed than usual. She didn't know if any of them were Supers or not (what she called them - and she guessed, she fit into that group, too, somehow), but Ash wasn't in the room so it meant that there must have been nothing pressing going on.

  "Hey," she said, squeezing behind Darren as he did his best to take up the small space between the bar and the back counter. She put her hands on his hips as she moved, trying not to slam directly into him since he was balancing about, oh, seven or eight shots on a wimpy tray. "Put one under the counter for me, please?" she begged, flashing him a bright smile.

 And for once, Mitzi was not at work on a Saturday - and she wasn't at Onyx, either, being their official one-off shifter mascot. Well, there was still Mickey, but Mickey didn't count. She drummed her knuckles on the bar and tapped her foot as she waited for the busy bartender to get to her, not impatiently, but to the beat of the music. It was loud enough to be heard, but not so loud that she had to shout to talk, which was fabulous. She was compulsively checking her phone for the fifth time and wondering if Aimee had gone in to work after all of the strings she pulled to get the night off when she saw the brunette's head bobbing through the crowd.

  Mitzi held up a hand to wave her over, but she didn't sit down, indicating that the bar was not where she wanted to be. "Hey, I didn't think you were coming. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get out tonight, I would have stabbed you if you had ditched me," she said, rolling her eyes with a smile. Yeah, trying to get out on your own with a man some believe was the second coming of Satan convinced that someone was going to kill you and steal your pretty fur pelt was... difficult. And it was getting more that way as time passed. Mitzi was beginning to have an identity crisis.

  "Aimee, please explain to me what that man is wearing at the end of the bar," she said flatly, grabbing her friend's arm and pointing with her head to the far side of the bar. An older man - as in older than the girls - was wearing a - costume? "Is he supposed to be some sort of fantastical royalty?" she asked, confused. She nearly dropped her jaw when a no-less-than-perfect blonde wrapped her arms around him and toasted wineglasses. "I'm a little jealous of Jareth over there," she said openly. "How does that work? Chicks are into costumes? I thought that was just guys."

  If she had just asked instead of being her young, nosy self, the couple would have happily explained the celebration of their first show at the theatre the woman owned. Mitzi wasn't into asking, though, and so she finally got her shooters and paid her tab up front. There was no way she was leaving that shit open. She'd spend an easy eighty or ninety bucks before she had a buzz.

If it was a Saturday, Darren was pretty much guaranteed to be working anymore, and he seriously wanted to know what was up with that.  He was pretty sure that Ash and Dave were combining their efforts to completely eliminate his social life, just to keep him away from scary vampire chicks.  The problem was that it basically kept him away from all chicks, and he was seriously disliking that.  He hadn't even seen Paris in awhile, and the guild chicks that seemed to be the only women he was around outside of work anymore just wanted to beat his ass.  Or at least, he was pretty sure that Connor had told them that's what they should do, so if any of them thought he was cute, they were ignoring it in favor of listening to their boss.  He didn't dig it.

He was actually glad to see Chloe coming behind the bar, and though it wasn't actually intentional on his part that he took up most of the small space available, he made it intentional when he realized she was trying to get through.  That was a good move on his part, since it resulted in her putting her hands on his hips to get around him without smacking into him, and he did appreciate the thought behind the gesture as much as the gesture itself.  He was balancing shots on a tray, and even incredible feline balance only went so far when liquid and a solid impact were involved. 

"Baby, you promise to grab my hips a little harder next time, and I'll put two under the counter for you," he shot over his shoulder at her with a quick, teasing grin before he was off to get the drinks to their new owners.  On his way back, he stopped for the pretty brunette, all smiles and interest.  As soon as he was close to her, he could catch a whiff of feline, which both caught his attention and pleased him about her, but he couldn't peg it.  It had become a habit of his to try to gauge what everyone he waited on was, and how powerful, just for his own safety and safety of other customers, but he didn't know this one.  Definitely feline, though.  He moved to get her drinks quickly, still too busy to inquire further and hoping he'd get a chance, when he returned to take her money and see the new arrival.  Another hot feline, and this one was...a leopard? 

"He happens to be the fae king, I hear," he explained over the music, mostly to draw their attention from 'Jareth' and the beautiful Titania, and he made eye contact with Aimee once she looked over.  Her eyes were normal, which didn't surprise him, but he was very, very curious about this one.  She was fucking hot, too, just like her other feline friend.  What was it with the hot chicks showing up when he was too busy for proper flirting?  He was managing to pour beers while he focused on the girls, but he was going to end up having to multitask more if he tried to have a conversation.

Mitzi wasn't the only one with a ridiculously protective male watching out for her, and Aimee was pretty sure that it was actually partially her fault that Zaine was so aggressive about her protective.  Aimee hadn't exactly had a good time with those vampires, and Marius hadn't helped when he lost his shit with Eden trying to get her back.  Eden had pretty much put all of his people on high alert for their own safety since then, and Aimee also had the NYPD boys to deal with.  She really hoped they all got at those vampires and messed their days up.  She'd like to hear about that.

"I would never intentionally ditch you, and you know it.  I've been looking forward to getting out as much as you."

In any case, it was extremely difficult for her to get out on her own as well, and she wouldn't have been surprised if one or all of the SWAT boys showed up at the Hollow at some point in the night.  The only thing she had going for her in deciding to go there for her socialization was that Leone was extremely territorial and strict about his 'sanctuary' set-up.  She was only safer at All Hallows, so she and Mitzi were going to enjoy the relative safety and fun atmosphere, and they were going to forget that life could really suck outside.  She'd decided this for herself, and she absolutely meant to follow through with it, starting with the conversation that the cute, green-eyed bartender had jumped in on. 

In all honesty, she'd seen who Mitzi was talking about and thought that he was hot, in a very weird, surreal kind of way, but she hadn't really thought much about it other than, 'wow, crazy costume for walking around town' along with Mitzi until the even hotter woman walked up to him.  Actually, watching them interact, 'hot' didn't fit quite right.  Beautiful, ethereal, surreal, fantastic, those were all better words, and it was startling in a place like this.  Who were they and wha--

Oh, fae king.  Of course, why hadn't she thought of it?

"Sorry, fae?  As in, fairies?  Or are you making a gay joke?  I don't think he looks at all gay with a lady like that on his arm," she pointed out, cocking an eyebrow up.  She didn't buy it.

"No, no, no, not gay, although he kind of looks that, too.  Fae, like old Irish legend.  They weren't all supposed to be pixies, and some were supposed to be pretty scary, actually.  If you hear them say it, they're the kind and queen.  Oberon and Titania, like from Shakespeare," he explained, and yes, he actually had an idea what he was talking about.  He wasn't stupid, and never had been. 

"You should wander over and chat them up sometime.  They're really, really friendly.  Oberon's a little strange, but Titania is one of the nicest ladies I've met, short of Elke.  You'd both like Elke, too, I guarantee it."  He didn't know WHY, because he didn't overthink why he absolutely adored Elke, but he assumed that everyone should like her and was absolutely certain that every cat he met must positively adore her.  It was just the way it was.

"Please, if I grab you any harder I'm sure one of your bodyguards will jump me and then we'll really have to party," she countered with a smile. Chloe couldn't get hurt - not in the way that most people came to understand pain - and so she sometimes joked with Darren about it. He was one of the few people who knew, anyways, it made her feel less like a freak.

She swooped down to the end of the bar and was on point with a bottle of wine for the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen in her life - she didn't even think she'd had a chance to respond. The woman spoke softly and with an accent, but Chloe was able to hear her through an act of God, and she just sort of stammered an affirmative response as to the wine of choice and ran out from behind the bar to the wine cellar to find the bottle. She didn't even know what sort of wine the woman had asked for, but when she saw the bottle, she knew that it was the one, and brought it back up dutifully. The blonde didn't even bat an eyelash at the price and purchased the bottle, taking it to a man she'd been sitting with moments before.

Chloe basked in their... whatever it was for a few minutes, generally being useless, until Dave shouted at her from the back to bring him this or that. She began her routine of vanishing into and out of the kitchen repeatedly every five minutes, glasses and plates and silverware coming and going. It wasn't until she stopped by a man at a table on his own nursing a glass of scotch that she had five seconds to herself - not that it hurt any. Chloe was the epitome of bubbly blonde when it came to her looks - all of her - and the flush to her cheeks did not hurt her tips.

  "Need a straw?" she asked, tilting her head with a smile. His hair was almost as long as hers was, and it sort of blew her away that men still did it. When he looked up, though, he wasn't amused, and his hard features twisted into a glare that Chloe'd only seen once or twice from anyone, really, ever. Mostly teachers.

 "How can they even be real fairies?" she demanded. "That's just bullshit," she said, disagreeing and letting the cat know it. "What are they, vampires with a fantasy... fantasy?" She didn't really know how else to phrase that, and made a face as the words settled on the group. "Whatever, nice or not, I go home smelling like a vampire of any fashion and my beastie will be up my ass for a month," she said with a gruff roll of her shoulders. Basically, if Mitzi wanted to talk to them, her "beastie" - what she called Zaine behind his back, because "bestie" was way, way too faggy - would never let her hear the end of it. Ever. "And I'm betting your long-tailed fellow wouldn't, either," she said, of Josh. Mitzi had names for everyone.

  "Speaking of getting out, did you get the third degree? I think if I hear this 'for your own good' shit one more time, I will cut and run," she said, turning to Aimee. She had no idea Darren was in a similar situation, but she didn't go to Crimson, because she really had no business going there. She didn't know him from Adam at the moment, but it's pretty much a guarantee she could put the pieces together if someone gave her an Ad Lib of his situation. Mitzi sounded typical and dense, but she wasn't - at all.

  "I got the super-raised eyebrows and a 'Fine' before I left. It's like... it's like he's my mom. Like he takes it personally that I can't just sit in my room by myself like he can. He's a freaking snake, he's supposed to be social. I think he's broken," she said - in reference to a toy being broken, not a will. Zaine's will, broken? Lolno.

He understood how it worked for Chloe and her little ability, which was exactly why he busted out in a full-throated laugh just for her.  The thought of her and his 'bodyguards', one of which apparently included Ash, throwing down on his behalf was just ridiculous.  It was even more ludicrous if you thought about it being over her grabbing him by the hips.  Like, really?  He sincerely hoped that keeping him alive never depended on totally cockblocking him, even from the girls who weren't ever going to do more than give him a grab here and there.  He and Chloe had been friends forever, so the teasing was just that.  Not that he'd have refused her if she ever showed any interest, but he'd never seen that sort of thing happening with her, and he was content just to be her friend.  With what he knew of her and how much he knew she was keeping secret, she needed one. 

"Hey, if you remember what I said, it was, 'if you ask them'.  They're old, and I'm already on lockdown because of vampires, so I'll take their word for it," he explained easily, and he wasn't bothered by it.  If Titania and Oberon wanted to be fairies, he was cool with it.  Once they hit a certain age and weren't being aggressive, he was okay with just about whatever they wanted to say.  He'd been working at the Hollow for too long not to recognize age when he saw it, and he really did like those two.  Ash was on good terms with them, as well, so Darren was okay with them.  They were actually some of the few vampires that he didn't mind talking to, or leaving Chloe to wait on.  There were others that only Ash waited on, and those were the Triste's rules. 

He was putting out the effort to listen to the conversation that was going on there, but it was a Saturday night, and it was busy.  That meant plenty of room for trouble, which had been made obvious by the fact that Dave had been pulled to the kitchen to help out.  Darren and Chloe had the bar, and he knew better than to just focus on his own customers.  If he was the only non-human employee at the bar, it was his job to watch out for Chloe.  She wasn't vanilla human, but she'd break like one.

It was why, when she ran into Lucas, he cursed under his breath and made it a point to avoid lingering much with any customers.  He was still interested in the pretty feline girls, but Chloe was top priority, and Luke was unpredictable.  Obviously, he had no idea of the connection between the two, and he'd have been the first one to refuse to even let her wait on him.  Darren was one of the few who could wait on that man, Ash included.  Lucas didn't want anything to do with Ash, because apparently the Triste's history was so...something that it leaked through anything Lucas used to block it out.  Ash kept a respectable distance, and he and Luke maintained a friendly level of politeness.  Danielle just didn't bother much with the guy, but Darren was sure that she'd jump his case the instant she felt that he'd be useful to her and whatever she was doing.  Dave didn't have the patience for the man, and they all just kept Chloe away.  Darren hadn't ever told anyone what Chloe could do, but Ash just knew things.  Nobody wanted to see what Chloe and Luke could do to each other if they got into it with each other, and Darren never wanted to be the one to have to try to separate them if their 'things' reacted to each other like someone touching an electric fence.  He figured he'd be horribly traumatized if that were the case, and he'd had enough of that.

He was still prepared to do it for her.

He hated Saturday nights, which was why he wasn't usually in the Hollow on them.  In fact, he was usually locked away in a quiet place on a Saturday night, because that was the night that everyone seemed to flock out for socialization.  He didn't want to be social, and he definitely didn't want to be picking things up from every idiot who bumped past him, but it had been a rough day of 'work', and he needed a drink.  Later on, he might go shoot up, but right now?  Nothing would numb him as well as a couple of glasses of scotch.

Of course, nothing could ever go down as smoothly as the witch's liquor, and the cat with all the vampire troubles wasn't the only one running around behind the bar and on the floor.  The girl who stopped to ask him if he wanted a straw was cute and looked friendly, which might have gotten his attention and caused him to at least try to talk to her if he wasn't in such a foul mood.  As it was, she was bubbly and pretty, and he hated everything nice.  He also didn't appreciate having it suggested that he needed a straw to finish a simple glass of scotch.  He threw back the rest of the drink with his gloved hand, pulled out a handkerchief, and made sure that he offered the glass to her with the cloth presented to her.

"Another, no new glass, and don't fucking touch this one.  Cat boy knows what I'm drinking," he snarled over the sounds of the other customers, and he wanted to be gone, but couldn't bring himself to go, yet.  He had to have his fix, had to but he was starting to dread it more each time.

Chloe just blinked rapidly at Luke as he jumped down her throat. She thought of about fifty different things to say to him in the span of time it took for her to look down at the glass, but instead she just picked it up with the cloth around it. "Sure, okay."

When she turned, she had the most horrible facial expression fixed, though. Big blue eyes framed by mascara did a practical barrel roll as she walked back to the bar, very careful not to turn back around. "You could warn me dude at table twelve was a dick," she whispered to Darren as she passed. She didn't make it a point to badmouth the customers to where the others could hear, but in a room full of vampires and shifters, it didn't ever do much good. Still, she tried.

She didn't know why he didn't want people to touch the glass, but she held it out to Darren with the cloth on it. "He says you know what he's drinking. I wish tipping was mandatory now, I can tell you that. Dude will probably leave me a penny," she snapped, waiting for him to fill the glass. She wondered what was so bad about it being touched, but she didn't say anything - and when she accidentally hit it with the tip of her thumb to steady it on the tray, she didn't say anything then, either.

Mitzi had a point about Aimee's 'long-tailed fellow', and the leopard chuckled just at the nicknames being thrown around.  She liked her 'long-tailed fellow', and that was actually the only reason why she was following 'orders'.  Everyone in that group was former military, and Aimee had found that she didn't so much like the 'chain of command' deal that they all seemed to have going.  She did what she wanted, but there was also the fact that she wasn't going to be stupid about it.  Josh and the others were upset over her run-in, and so was she.  That didn't mean she was swearing off of vampires completely, but she wasn't in a hurry to go draw attention to herself.  She was trying to avoid hating all vampires just because of a single experience, because she knew that was what happened most of the time, but it was hard.  She didn't really blame Bartender Cat for his theory on the vampires and their stories, but his mention of 'lockdown' was interesting.  It sounded like she and Mitzi weren't the only ones.

"Of course I got the third degree!  You're right, it's like being at home with my parents again.  'Who are you going with, where will you be, when are you coming home?'  Oh, and we can't forget the, 'call me every so often so that I know you're still safe and not being tied to a chair and tortured'," she explained, exaggerating the last one.  She'd been asked to call, and she absolutely would, but she wasn't happy about anything in this situation for herself.  She could kick Nero in the head if he hadn't already gotten worse for putting her in this situation with his 'miracle water'.  She was worried about Dez, too, and that wasn't helping.  It sounded like he had some hunter friends, though.  That would do him good.

The subject of Zaine, though?  Aimee would take Josh, Drew, Wes and even Nick LeCroix any day over Zaine.  She figured it was just that he was someone that had to grow on you, but he wasn't very friendly.  At all.  She'd known he was a snake without fail, but he didn't act like any snake she'd ever met.  He and Eden were like night and day, and the only other snake she'd seen like that had been Eden's brother, though Zaine was much more reserved than even he was.  Eden's brother didn't make it a secret that he was pissed off over having to be at the club, and Zaine could appear to be completely composed at any point in time.  It was very, very unusual.

Honestly, Darren was just glad that the Chloe vs. Luke exchange had gone as well as it had, so he wasn't complaining when she came back with a glass wrapped in a handkerchief in her hand.  It could have been worse, for sure.  Chloe just didn't know it.

"Relax, dude's name is Luke, and he's just a crankpot.  He'll tip, so long as you don't touch his glass or him, okay?" he explained, and he kept his tone pleasant and suggesting that it really wasn't a big deal as he filled the glass and smiled for her.  "He's not so bad, I promise.  Just..."

He glanced away as a regular came in and yelled his name, then offered the guy a shout and a wave before grinning back at her.  "Seriously, don't touch the glass, and you're golden."  He'd missed her using her thumb to steady it, but he wasn't likely to miss it when Luke noticed.  Touching Luke's glass, or Luke himself, prompted the kind of response that kept people from ever doing it again.  Fortunately, Darren felt better about the fact that Chloe wasn't a total wreck like that other girl had been.  Even if Luke DID get some of hers, it couldn't possibly be that bad.

He hoped.

If Luke had any warning that she'd actually touched her skin to his glass, he'd have refused it.  That was how he worked.  If he saw it, he wouldn't take it, and that kept him safe most of the time.  Meow Mix knew better than to touch it, and that was one of the reason that Luke liked coming here.  They weren't unused to weirdness, and he could get things to way he needed them.  Until this little brat had to wait on him.  He'd have been fine waiting for Feline Frenzy to get over there.

Couldn't work like that, though.  Fate had an ironic sense of humor, and wouldn't let Luke's niece unknowingly wait on him without making him aware of it.  Great.  She handed the glass to him with the handkerchief, just like she'd taken it, and he nodded her a thanks and reached into his pocket for the drink and tip, putting his lips to the glass as he did.  A second later, he'd dropped the glass to the tabletop and clutched at his skull as more images that that tiny little press of her thumb to glass should have warranted.  He didn't expect this, though.

It was fast, and it was unexpected, but most of the faces weren't unfamiliar like they usually were.  He saw his brother and the woman his brother had been dating when he'd last seen them, his parents, even Bartender Cat, all surrounding this little blonde.  It was all familiar, right down to the distaste in his parents' faces when this little girl rolled up and asked about her father and family.  "Our sons are failures, you don't want to know them."  Failures.  Big surprise there, but it hurt all the same.  It hurt, but there it was, Chloe fixing up Meow Mix after he'd gotten smacked up by someone or something, and that wasn't normal.  Chloe wasn't normal. 

When it started to abate, he didn't know if he wanted to laugh or lash out, so he managed some mix of the two, pulling away from her and grinning in a way that wasn't at all friendly as he shot off a "How fucking ironic!"

Luckily, the glass that Darren used for Luke was a little more durable than most, so it bounced, sending Scotch all over Chloe's apron (and nothing else, thank fuck). She grabbed a rag and wiped at the floor furiously, looking up between wipes. "What is your problem?" she hissed. "Are you allergic to people or something?" She was more angry that he'd spilled something on the floor than anything - that was a damn lawsuit waiting to happen. She'd had enough waitress jobs to know that.

She looked back at Darren with a very angry expression and pointed to the table. "WHAT THE FUCK" was what she wanted to yell, but she only mouthed it, knowing full well that he could very clearly lip read THAT comment. She looked back at Luke as she stood, pulling herself up by way of the table, and threw her rag down. "What the hell is so ironic?"

Initial ironic amusement aside, Luke was totally not digging the headache that was coming along with this.  He needed to leave, and go get high, but he still didn't want to.  It was making his headache worse to hold it off, though Chloe was suddenly interesting enough that he was willing to use her as an excuse to hang around awhile longer.  He flicked his eyes up towards Meow Mix to see the bartender trying to disentangle himself from the bar area to get over there and rescue his little friend, and he was determined to get his shots in before the feline managed it.

"What's so fucking ironic is that they kept you from me, and I'm the only one that you really have anything in common with," he told her, pulling his right glove off as he caught sight of Battlecat pulling away from the bar finally and headed towards them.  Now, or never.

He reached out with a speed that anyone who'd spent any time around him would have never guessed he possessed, snatching up her wrist with his bare hand.  It was something that so rarely happened, him deliberately using his ability, but this was a special case.  He needed to know things, and all he had to do was make skin contact to make it work.  His headache exploded into a migraine that dropped him to his knees with the momentum of his reach, but he focused his attention solely on Chloe, her father and her ability.  He wanted to know more, and he was going to have it.  He just hoped it didn't break him to get it.

 The way he spoke made Chloe scared, because it sounded like he was a crazy stalker or even her biological father (she'd always suspected Philip wasn't her real father, but that wasn't true, alas), and she tried to back away before he reached for her. She had no idea he was going to grab her, he moved so damn fast. She let out a shriek and jumped back, but that was about the time that he fell anyways, so he almost took Chloe down with him.

  He had a good lock on her joint, so she couldn't get loose, but instead of kicking him like she'd thought of doing, she was so scared that she just let go of some of the pain she'd been holding. It came out in a wash, like a burning sensation. It would feel similar to the headaches Luke got now - hell, they were the same ones Chloe got - but it was obviously not the same, and his skin tingling would attest to that. Still, she couldn't get him off of her.

  "Let me go, before I really hurt you," she whispered, one arm on the table as she steadied her balance.

Lucas was going to get a full preview of Chloe's life, from kindergarten up to a few days ago, with random bits highlighted. Mostly various disappointments from her father, she being left to her own devices in high school despite obviously being pretty, her and Darren hanging out and doing nothing important. Chloe's life was measured in dull, but a few of the random slots he could see that had to do with her power sure were interesting - watching her take the pain of a broken leg off of one person only to retain it dutifully until the time came to give it to someone else in very clear detail would give him a better idea of what she did. Luckily she'd just given him a low dose; who the hell knew what Chloe'd picked up by random people she'd been touching. She had such a high pain tolerance that it was safe to say she probably could seriously hurt someone with things that didn't bother her much anymore.