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“Stupid, shitty, selfish, sociopathic asshole.” You muttered, stabbing away at a block of ice with an ice pick. It was around 3pm on a Wednesday in the middle of October, and you were the only patron at the club, Masquerade. Isa, your friend, was the owner of the rather popular and respectable nightclub. You didn’t often visit Masquerade, as some of the people here were very arrogant, but Isa often made things better. You’d asked for a drink initially, but Isa had scolded afternoon drinking and given you the ice pick and ice block instead. Granted it was a very questionable alternative to what you had in mind, but Isa was never quite that right in the head to begin with.
So, yes, there you were, sitting at the bar in Masquerade, taking your anger and frustrations out of the icy block. You’d broken up with your boyfriend of three years early that day on account of diminishing feelings and his infidelity. He was a douche, plain and simple, though it explained why his first name sounded like the word. Yes, your ex-boyfriend was Dušan Nemec, CTO of Blume Corporation.
But for now, you didn’t want to talk about your ex-boyfriend. You just wanted to stab the block of ice.
From her position behind the bar, Isa prepared herself a Tanqueray and Tonic, adding some extra lime, and sipped gently. You continued to stab at the ice block, which now looked more like a small rectangular prism, but raised an eyebrow at the petite woman in question. “I thought you said that it wasn’t good to drink in the afternoon?”
“Hmm?” Isa took a deep sip from the glass and placed it down, licking her lips as they curled into a grin, “But I’m not drinking my feelings away. Besides,” your friend pointed at the windows, “it’s not the afternoon anymore.”
It seemed that while concentrated on your murderous thoughts toward your ex-boyfriend, the sun had begun its descent in the sky, and the sky was now dark, bringing with it, the influx of Masquerade’s customers, allowed in by the bouncers at the front entrance. You’d only just realized that the club DJ had started playing music in the background, and that the bar was starting to run out of seats.
The club serviced a variation of clientele, from what you had observed in your previous experiences. Sure, there were regular people who came in small groups together, then there were the wealthy, but then there were these people that came in and had an unsettling feel to them. They looked like normal humans, except they didn’t feel like humans. These people only came to Masquerade seemingly for Isa’s company or to be let into the very exclusive VIP lounge in the club’s basement. You didn’t know who these people were, so you ignored them for the most part. And then, one took a seat right next to you.
Isa smirked in welcome at the arrival, “Sven! What a delight!”
He’s tall. That’s the one thing you notice about the man that sat next to you. He looked to be a man in his late twenties to early thirties, and was dressed like a European gentleman right out of the stories, so perhaps he wasn’t from here. “Ms. Lachance, I’ve come to introduce a friend.” The gentlemanly man, Sven, apparently, raised a finely manicured hand to gesture towards his companion, who sat on the other side of him. His friend seemed much more normal than he, what being dark skinned of the normal variety, sporting a Twitch hoodie and stylish purple glasses to match.
The friend stood from the bar stool to shake Isa’s offered hand, an easy smile stretching across his face, “Marcus Holloway, nice to meet you.”
Isa grinned, one that looked predatory to those who have never met her. It was a grin that exposed her unusually long and sharp canines, something she often did to intimidate someone into seeing if they had a pair of balls on them. “Isa Lachance, owner of Masquerade. Nice to meet you, Marcus. So what brings the two of you to my bar?”
Sven licked his lips lightly before leaning forward in his seat, his blue eyes squinted in mirth, “How about you and I go on a date, Ms. Lachance?”
“Don’t think that’s a good idea.” You chimed in with a final stab at the remaining piece of ice, sending bits of cold at everyone within a five foot radius of you. “Chikage isn’t going to like you flirting with Isa.” True enough, while Isa was quite friendly towards any of her patrons, she was engaged.
“Oh, and the murderous human speaks.” No, Sven was definitely not what he presented himself as, though he was certainly oily. “And what’s your name, dear?”
You twisted the ice pick in your hand almost threateningly, then directed a glare at Sven and a smile at Marcus, “Y/N L/N. Not sure if it’s a pleasure or not.”
There was a tension in the air that Marcus seemed to grow uneasy by, and he spared Sven from your wrath by asking Isa, “We’re here for some information on Dušan Nemec. ‘Heard that you’ve been fighting against Blume for a while.”
Your eyes narrowed at the mention of your ex-boyfriend. Had his company been harassing Isa again? “What the hell has Douchen done, Isa?” You demanded, your face promising revenge on your ex.
“Dušan Nemec has been attempting to coerce my beloved into using their security network for Masquerade.” a husky voice responded from behind you, sending shivers up your spine.
The next thing everyone involved in the conversation knew, Isa had thrown herself over the bar to lovingly latch onto her fiance, “Chikage!” Chikage, always careful with Isa, immediately caught the petite woman and held her gently. The man in question was of European and Asian descent, though not nearly as tall as Sven, but stood at a graceful 184cm with an arrogant yet dangerous air about him. He had styled blonde hair, a defined face, and piercing red eyes (he insists that they’re contacts, but you don’t think they were). Without a doubt, Isa’s fiance was intimidating.
You nodded at your friend’s fiance in greeting, “Good to see you again, Chikage.”
“Wait, a minute. So this place doesn’t run on ctOS 2.0?” Marcus seemed pretty interested, sitting up in his seat some more. “Why’s that? I’m Marcus by the way.”
From her place in Chikage’s arms, Isa answered, “We serve a variety of patrons here at Masquerade. And it is within my duty to keep any activities within this club confidential. If I allow Blume to come in and install their cameras and systems, then my clients will be compromised, and we can’t have that.”
“The douchebag hasn’t sent anyone after you guys right?” you sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. From the corner of your eyes, you could see Marcus raise his brow at your behavior in interest. “Dušan Nemec’s my ex-boyfriend.” you elaborated with a wry smile, “True to his name though, he is a fucking douche.”
Chikage’s red eyes narrowed dangerously, his hold tightening on Isa, and you could see Isa’s hand gently run through his hair, calming her fiance. “Indeed. Though there is no legal proof, several groups of armed men and women have tried to ambush us at my apartment a few weeks ago.”
Your eyes widened in shock, as did Marcus. Sven, however, merely smirked, “How bold of them to attack the Prince and his beloved.” Prince? You didn’t quite know what Sven meant. It probably had something to do with what Isa referred to as “dirty business.”
Chikage clicked his tongue in annoyance, “How foolish and annoying. If you do not require my beloved’s attention for much longer, we have a few visitors from Los Angeles to greet.” And with that, the strange red-eyed man escorted his fiance away to the downstairs lounge.
Sven chuckled, his eyes wandering after a particularly shapely brunette, “The Prince was always so territorial, now if you would excuse me, Y/N, Marcus, that beauty is calling for me.” And with that, another of your strange group stalked away and into the crowd of patrons, leaving you and Marcus at the bar with a seat in between.
You heard more than saw Marcus switch seats as you played with the ice pick. “So what’s your interest in my ex?” you inquired, eyes shifting over to look at your newly made acquaintance.
“He’s fucked over a ton of people with what he’s been doing at Blume.” Marcus reasoned, before calling the bartender over, “You want anything, Y/N? I’m buying.”
Normally, you don’t accept drinks from people you just met, but in this case you would make an exception, “I’ll have a TNT.”
“And I’ll have a beer, no preference on the brand.” Marcus ordered before spinning in his seat to face you, “So why did you break up with him? I mean, besides the obvious douche qualities.”
The bartender quickly came back with your drinks, and you quickly took a sip, “Well… he just wasn’t into relationships, I guess. He was too focused on his work to give a flying fuck about me unless he needed his libido satisfied.” You face scrunched up and you took another quick sip, “Wonder why I even fell for such an asshole. He’s not even my type.”
“I mean, he’s got a pretty face, right?” Marcus raised his brow. “There had to be something that attracted you to him.”
“Eh.” your head tilted from side to side in thought before sticking your tongue out in disgust, “He wasn’t that good looking. Exotic, probably, you don’t see many Yugoslavian descendants around here, after all, but I’m less about the looks and more about the personality.”
A smirk graced itself onto Marcus’s face, “Oh? And what about a personality do you like?”
“Hahaha, interested, Marcus?” you teased with a light blush, wondering if the world was so nice as to give you someone who could distract you. Marcus wasn’t bad looking either, the more you looked at him, the more you noticed that there was this attractiveness that Dušan didn’t have.
“And if I am?” Marcus leaned in closer, “So, what about a guy do you like?”
“Hmm… they’ve gotta be romantic.” A grin lit up your face, “i’m not talking about the suave and princely romantic from fairy tales, I mean the dorky romantic. Like he has to be able to use pick up lines.”
“Pick up lines?” your companion seemed surprised at that.
You blushed a deep red, “They’re kind of funny and I adore them.” Marcus had a deeply contemplative expression on his face, and you smiled hopefully. “Why? You know any?”
The man next to you thought for a moment before looking at you seriously, “Tonight, this Han doesn’t wanna fly Solo.”
Your face twisted up in bemusement before you broke out into a snicker. “Holy shit, that was terrible, Marcus.”
“If I had to rate you from 1-10, I’d rate you a 9 because I’m the one you’re missing.” He wiggled his eyebrows teasingly as he fired off another pick up line without hesitation.
This time, you nearly choke on your drink, “Marcus… how many do you even know?”
Instead of answering, a smug grin and another pick up line left his lips, “I lost my teddy bear, will you sleep with me instead?”
“You’re starting to sound like a horny frat boy, it’s ridiculous.” Marcus had successfully gotten you to forget about Dušan, “Are you religious? ‘Cause you’re the answer to my prayers.”
That got a laugh out of him. Yup. You had a feeling that you and Marcus were going to hit it off just fine.