Playing Cat and Mouse (Kate)

[Kate]

Anything to sour the mood hmm? Kate sighed, turned back around to the bar tender and ordered another round of shots. Mr. Five and Ms. Six slid their way to her as she began to tell her story.

"I met Damien Kross shortly after my fifteenth birthday. We were in the same gang together, and he was assigned to keep me safe because I had been the target of the other gang. We moved into the same apartment as roomies, and he wooed me. I... I loved him..."

She didn't say anything with pain or hate, except for the last part. That was full of waves of pain. The female downed the fifth shot, burning down her throat.

"For a few months, it was perfect. We lived together, we loved, and that was that. At least until he came home and told me that he had raped two girls, one of whom was one of my friends. Said it was another part of him, split personality. I couldn't take it, couldn't trust him... so I told him to leave."

Downing shot number six. The pale girl still had a ways to go before she would be tipsy or drunk or anything of that sort. It was just how it was.

"Then at my last school before this, we run into each other again. He's still the same old Damien that I loved and cared for, or so it seems. And yet every time I try to... every time my hand touches him all I can think of are the two girls. I told him if he wanted me back he'd have to work for me. That it could be done if he just tried hard... so I could forget what he had done. I'll be honest, I've been through a lot in my life... he created a hole in my heart and I... I myself was raped not shortly after it all. I have troubles when I sleep alone at night. And I told him the truth. Apparently, he had a talk with someone I had gone on a date with, flirted with, and well... it pissed him off I guess. The end result was the Weekly Whammy."

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing. The look on his face was that of pure dumbfounded non-belief. Rape!? That's not something you hear someone you know doing every day. He knew Damien was a shady character, but he would have never expected him to rape people. Who knew if this split personality excuse was real or not, but no matter the case, it was a serious offense.

"W-what...? Did I hear correctly? He raped you?"

Nick had forgotten about his half-finished third drink for the moment to await the fateful answer.

"Did you tell somebody?" he said, thinking that the first thing someone should do if that happened to them was to tell a figure of authority.

[Kate]

She sighed. He was getting the facts wrong, but maybe she should be more clear about it. The blonde looked at him, and made such a cold smirk it could have frozen any glasses of booze in her hand.

"No. Every time I slept with him, I did it willingly out of love. Before he came home and confessed he had raped two girls. I transferred to California shortly after that, and a teacher at 259 raped me. Damien I would have been able to fend off. I could fend off the teacher... he was able to toss me around like a rag doll..."

She shuddered, it was not controlled. Not when it came to thinking about Hiroko. Thinking about what that man had done to her. Kate decided something in that moment. She was going to get drunk. Roaring drunk. Drunk off her ass. She needed it. So another two shots came her way and she downed them, one after another.

"I have... nightmares, almost every night of what that teacher did to me. Unless someone is in bed with me, and I can feel like I'm not alone... I can't sleep. Doctors have tried to drug me.... tried to help, but they can't. My problem is emotional, and nothing else."

[Nicolas Constantine]

Oh, it was a teacher... wait, that still means that she got taken advantage of and Damien raped two girls.

Nick got it now, though. He know knew this girl wasn't as dangerous as he thought her to be, but instead she was just protecting herself from what could happen if she let her guard down.

Nick also realized she was drinking a lot.

"Um, Kate, should you be drinking this much, you've already had eight shots..."

Yes, he was counting. But then again, he was counting his own alcohol intake, too. He downed the last bit of his third martini and asked for a fourth. He wouldn't let her get drunk out of sorrow for herself, but that didn't mean he was gonna stop.

[Kate]

Had it been eight shots already? Kate wanted more. She chuckled slightly, and took a deep breath. Her emerald eyes closed and... yes, she felt it. The eight shots of vodka were floating their way through her system. Her muscles were relaxed, and she was beginning to get a little tipsy from it. The nice sort of feeling that made Kate oh so... relaxed and wonderful.

Which is probably why she loved to drink. Really, Kate didn't go out drinking too many times. In fact most of the time Kate drank at her place, with her bodyguards keeping watch. She never had to worry about what would happen to her if she drank too much.

The blonde began to make a pyramid with her empty shot glasses. An interesting sight indeed. The girl flashed a smile at Nick.

"Fine, I'll wait a bit till my next one."

She chuckled just slightly. There were many reasons in Kate's life for her to drink. Nick had just heard about one and a half of them. She lifted an eyebrow at him, and smiled.

"So, do you dance at all?"

[Nicolas Constantine]

"Uh, um, dance?"

Nick had momentarily forgotten he was in a club. He was drinking a lot and was deep in interesting conversation with Kate.

"Oh, I don't really know how to dance..."

He was kind of embarrassed, but it was true. Nick never learned how to dance back home, as he was too occupied with music and boxing. Plus he doubted he could dance now because he was a lightweight when it came to alcohol, and he was already on his fourth drink. On the other hand, Nick did want to impress Kate and not have her think he was a complete loser.

"...but I'd love it if you could teach me!"

[Kate]

Kate's grin grew. She looked at the bartender, who was scowling at her again. A quick wink had him blushing, and looking away. She smiled at Nick.

"I love to dance. My step-mother taught me belly dancing when I was little, and I love to get lost in the sounds of music. It's really just going with the flow of things Nick, and loosing yourself. It doesn't matter if you look silly, or you aren't cool enough for things. Instead, it's about loosing the restrictions you have on yourself, and just being free!"

So Kate grabbed his hand with her own, and began to pull him toward the dance floor. She did a small twirl and swung her hips as she walked. Yeah, she was tipsy. If you thought normal Kate was flirty, you'd be in for a surprise. She was worse with booze.

"So just be free Nick!"

She was dragging them into the heart of the dance floor with the thumping music, and crowded people. Where things wouldn't matter, except to move to the beat.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Just be free, just get lost in the sounds of the music...

That sounded like what Nick did on a daily basis. He would get lost in his own head when he had his headphones pumping a beat into his ears. He guessed that according to Kate, this was the same thing, but just expressing it through body movements. Well, if it had to do with music, Nick would try it out.

He stood there, eyes closed for a few seconds to feel the rhythm of the music that was playing. He opened his eyes and started to move to the beat. He watched Kate and mimicked in a less womanly way, but in accordance to how the beat moved him.

After a minute or so he spoke to Kate.

"Alright, how am I doing!?" he yelled over the music so she could hear him.

[Kate]

He wouldn't be winning any tournaments, but he wasn't stepping on her toes. So in Kate's book, he was doing alright. She just smiled and nodded. The booze was flowing through her system, and she was feeling amazing. It was nice really, right here in the middle of the dance floor. You couldn't move very far without bumping into someone else to be honest. The music was so loud, blasting in everyone's ears and making the floor bump and grind with them.

It was amazing.
It was ecstasy.

She closed her eyes, and just went with it. Not paying attention to what was going on around her. Not the people around them, or Nick himself. Just the way her body moved to the beat.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick could see why people liked to dance. It was fun, even though it wasn't really his style. He much rather be the one to make the music people would dance to. Something that would move the soul, body and mind into a hypnotic state of entrancement.

He looked at Kate who seemed to be lost in the sound, and he had an idea. It was a strange idea for him to usually have, but he was either really relaxed or slightly drunk.

Nick made his way over to the DJ booth and looked at the club's arsenal of equipment. Surprisingly, he didn't have to persuade the DJ to leave the booth, because there was no DJ to be seen. The music was on a playlist, randomizing the songs. Nick stepped up onto the small rise the booth was elevated on and he searched through the library. He found a song that he could fool around with in the DJ program that was running and switched it from what was currently playing.

Kate was near the center of the dance floor, so he waited for her to notice what he had done.

[Kate]

The music changed, and Kate could tell there was a sudden change in the flow as well. It didn't sound like a set list anymore, because the music wasn't flowing from one song into another. Instead someone was up there, doing the DJ job. Which of course, was when Kate noticed that Nick was no longer dancing beside her.

Those emerald eyes began to scan the crowd, and her body stopped dancing. The almost startled blonde was looking for her friend. Did he go to the bathroom or the bar or something without telling her? The pale cheer leader kept peering around, before an idea struck her. She looked up, to the DJ area.

There was Nick, the one messing with the music. Apparently no one really cared what was going on as long as the music was still going because no one was up there to stop him or anything like that. She arched an eyebrow at him, an unspoken question.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Kate had finally noticed he wasn't on the dance floor anymore. She looked around her until finally she looked at the DJ booth, and there was Nick. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he responded with his sly grin. He then motioned for her to continue dancing, as he wanted to see her dance to his music.

Nick was having a blast up in the booth. The club's equipment was not cheap, and he still wondered whey no one had come to stop him. He knew he was good, but he wondered what someone would think of him fooling with their stuff.

But he just smiled and continued to DJ and watch Kate.

[Kate]

Maybe they thought he was one of their employees or something. Kate didn't know, and she didn't care. The blonde was dancing once again, lost in the sounds of the music, in the beat of the crowd. Emerald eyes fluttered shut as she gave way to that basic need to feel free from everything in the world.

It was some time before Kate opened her eyes and stopped dancing. She was thirsty again. So with a smug smirk on those full lips, she worked her way through the crowd and back to the bar. She leaned over the counter and smiled at the bar keep.

"Two more shots of vodka please!"

That's right, more vodka. Never mind that she was thirsty and should probably be drinking some water right about now. Instead the blonde was going to go for more booze. There was going to be one drunk Kate McHallin that night, with the way she was going.

[Nicolas Constantine]

Nick thought of going to join her at the bar for another few drinks, but he was having fun mixing the music in the DJ booth. And then he looked over and saw the bouncer look at him with a strange face, probably finally noticing the change in music.

Uh oh... Better slip out casually.

Nick set the music to switch back to the original playlist after he slipped out of the booth. He ducked and crawled out from the booth just as the real DJ returned. He slid past a few people and wound up right next to Kate at the bar. He smiled embarrassingly as he sat down on the stool next to her.

"Ha ha, miss me?"

[Kate]

Kate was downing the second of her newly ordered shots when Nick showed back up. Apparently he had left his roost in the DJ booth. Maybe they had run him out, and maybe not.

"Of course Nick my darling." She giggled a bit. The girl was not drunk, but she was pleasently buzzed. You could tell by the giggling. She only giggled when drunk and when around the guy she really liked. Since they both knew she had a boyfriend, it was the first. "I'm thinking about buying this place, it's in a good spot n' all."

Kate bought clubs like other girls bought chap stick or lipstick. There was no end to the amount of buildings, coffee shops, clubs, etc that Kate McHallin owned. She loved to buy them, make them better, then find new projects to mess with. Each got a make over created by her, then released to her staff to run. It was loads of fun for the blonde, and she didn't even have to do anything boring like running the place all day. Or she sold them for more than she bought them.

Kate played real life monopoly.