Archive of Our Own

It started off as a normal day for Violet — her body was aching, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. She could hear her best friend off somewhere in the apartment they cohabited in, and Violet desperately needed water to clear her throat.

All in all, a fairly standard day, except for the raging hangover. 

Her head was pounding, which was not part of her normal morning, but at least that had a reason that consisted of her vaguely remembering taking several tequila shots with her friends the night before. 

She pushed herself up with a hand, running the other one through the mess that she called her hair before getting out of bed. The first steps were always painful, her legs readjusting after not bearing her weight all night and her joints aching with the added tension of simply standing, but she stumbled her way into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. She definitely needed a shower, but first, she needed to feel a bit more like a human. 

Violet stumbled out of the bathroom and found Rhiannon sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in her hands, another one on the coffee table in the center.

“Oh my dear lord and savior,” Violet breathed at the coffee as she beelined towards the mug, muttering thanks to her roommate in the meantime. She plopped down on the floor, between the couch and the coffee table and rested her back against the couch. She held the mug underneath her nose and breathed in the scent of the coffee, letting it permeate her senses. She almost wished she could get this coffee right into her bloodstream through osmosis. 

“Good morning to you too.” Violet simply took a long sip of her coffee, sighing as she felt it go down her throat, a comforting warmth settling into her. 

“How are you not hungover like crazy?” Violet asked around a groan. 

Rhiannon snorted. “I didn’t do three tequila shots, for starters. I really thought you were going to pass out from how much you drank. It honestly seemed like you were hallucinating too.” Violet was startled at that information, whipping her head to look at her, and then immediately winced at the pain that was exacerbated from the quick movement. 

“I drank what now?!”

Rhi took a sip of her own coffee. “Yup.”

“No,” Violet insisted, the shock clear in her voice even to herself. “I never drink that much!”

“I don’t know what the hell happened last night, but you definitely did. I slowed down when you seemed to really want to get drunk, so I could keep an eye on you to get home. At some point I lost track of you in the club because Sawyer dragged me away, but when I found you were talking my head off about some guy who was stupidly hot and you got his picture. That was when you started drinking all the tequila shots, and ended up getting wasted.”

Violet tried to express a question mark with her face, and instead got her forehead lightly flicked. 

“Stop making faces at me and use your words.”

“Do I need words to express my confusion?”

“Yes.”

“Fine, what the hell?”

“I don’t know, Vi! I’m just as confused now as I was last night. You kept talking my ear off about this mystery hot man that I never even saw. We left the club not too long afterwards, and you passed out in bed once I got you to drink some water and take a Tylenol.”

“Wait,” Violet started, holding up a hand and putting the mug back on the coffee table. “I said I took a photo?” 

She nodded in confirmation. 

“Okay, hold on.” Violet got up and went to the kitchen first, downing an Advil (or two) with some water before running back to her room to grab her phone. As she made her way back to Rhi, she unlocked it with her thumb. She sat back down on the floor and started thumbing through her gallery app. Most of the photos from the previous night were of their friend group — the four of them, or any combination, smiling or making goofy expressions towards the camera. It was a night to remember…until she didn’t because her friend wasn’t kidding.

There were the photos, time stamped from the night before that she definitely did not remember taking, probably before she went crazy with the drinking but close enough that the alcohol muddled with those memories. There were a few selfies where she seemed to be in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by people. There were also a couple of photos of just random blurry lights and food, but there was one photo in particular that had her heart stuttering.

“No way,” Rhiannon breathed from over her shoulder, having watched Violet go through the gallery. “You weren’t hallucinating.”

Violet’s brain had effectively shut down for a minute, until it started itself at the sight of the photo of herself with a man.

The photo was taken in selfie mode by the man, his hand far up in the air to make sure both of them were caught in the frame. Violet’s eyes were open, her lips tilted up as he pressed his lips against her, and from the angle, his lips were tilted upwards too. For the most part only the back of his head and a part of his jawline was visible with the way he was angled in the photo, along with the collar of what looked like a black button up shirt. Violet could see a hint of a black tattoo sneaking up his neck, but the design was completely hidden. There was nothing else identifying the man, but she could tell that he was mid-laugh as his lips were basically on top of hers. Even now, just looking at the man and seeing how close he was to her was really doing things to her. 

Violet wasn’t even a tattoo girl…at least she thought she wasn't? Maybe this man was her tattoo-sexual awakening at the very ripe age of 26. 

He was quite possibly the most attractive man she had ever met, much less kissed, and he was a complete and utter stranger. 

“How dare my brain do this to me?” Violet whined, letting her body fall back onto the floor in starfish form, the phone falling out of her hand and landing beside her with a soft bounce. She closed her eyes and groaned, slapping her hands onto her face. “How did I forget all of that ?!”

“To be fair,” Rhiannon laughed, “you did also drink a shit ton.” The sound of her best friend’s laugh exacerbated her headache, and Violet groaned again. She opened her eyes at the feeling of the sofa behind her shifting, only to find Rhiannon holding Violet’s phone, turning it in different angles as her thumbs moved across the screen. Despite Violet doing the same action just minutes prior, zooming in every which way, it was clear that Rhi thought that maybe she should try instead. 

Making an executive decision to try to take a shower to see if time and space would trigger any memories, Violet got up, but not before she stole a few glances of the photo again over her friend’s shoulder. The man was unfairly hot even from the side, and she was pissed at her brain.

Twenty minutes later and a few mental slaps towards herself for everything, Violet was back to sitting on the floor, nursing a fresh coffee and watching Rhi go at it again with Violet’s phone. At least her head wasn’t pounding terribly, anymore. 

Small mercies, but who gave a shit about the headache?

She had bigger issues. 

“Oh stop that,” Violet snapped, taking the phone back and staring at the photo again. She lost count of how many times she’d seen that photo in the last hour. 

It was criminal, honestly. 

She could not believe that she had, not only, managed to kiss a guy, but also take a picture and then forget the entire encounter.

Rhiannon groaned as she stared at the picture again. “Okay, but it was Ridoc’s birthday celebration so he has to know this guy!”

“The club wasn’t booked for his birthday, Rhi,” Violet responded from her position on the floor, staring at the ceiling blankly. 

“And? That doesn’t mean shit when you think about how Ridoc knows everyone. Even if they aren’t friends, he knows them anyway.”

Violet simply groaned.

“Maybe we should just get the boys involved,” Rhiannon lamented, exhaustion clear in her voice. “They could help out with the investigation.”

Violet snorted, “You make it sound like we’re on a missing person’s case.”

“That’s because we are. We’re looking for the missing person from your memory that you so kindly erased.”

“Wow, rude.”

“Let me call the boys.”

“And risk hearing the drama queens whine about getting up early?”

“It’s, like, ten in the morning.”

“Which is basically six in the morning for them, Rhi. You know that.”

“I’m calling them,” Rhi announced, and then next thing Violet heard was the ringer, counting down to the last few minutes of peace in her life.

“Why the fuck are you calling me at the ass crack of dawn,” Ridoc mumbled, his voice muffled as though he were speaking through a pillow.

Violet just shot her best friend a look, silently communicated a ‘told you .’

“Because we have a problem. Do you remember any tattooed men at the club last night?” Rhi asked, getting straight to the point.

“I mean, sure, there were a bunch that I noticed. You know that I have a thing for tattoos.”

Violet rolled her eyes as she listened into the conversation. “Okay, yes but any that went up their necks?”

There was some rustling coming from Ridoc’s side before his voice came through much clearer than before. “That is a weirdly specific question, Matthias. What’s going on?”

Rhi sent her a nervous glance, the panic showing in her eyes. Violet didn’t know what her best friend was thinking calling Ridoc. Just because he was the goofiest of the four of them didn’t really mean anything. He was insanely quick at picking up on things. Then again, Rhi was very much sometimes in the mood to do first, think later. This was one of those situations. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Violet muttered, grabbing the phone to speak. “Ridoc, did you see me kiss a guy?”

“What?! You kissed a stranger?” It was kind of impressive how there wasn’t even a pause to let the information marinate in his brain before he started to freak out. 

Violet winced at the octave of Ridoc’s voice and pulled the phone farther away from her face to attempt to somehow lower his volume. “Why is that so startling for you?”

“You’ve been obsessing over Dain for years until you weren’t into anyone, so excuse me for being happy for your sex life.” Violet wanted to throttle him for mentioning Dain in that sense. They’d attempted dating after years of having a childhood crush on him, and they were not romantically compatible. 

“I kissed a man, Ridoc. I did not have sex with him.”

“ Yet. ”

“Ridoc,” Rhi cut in, “she doesn’t even know the man. She doesn’t remember kissing him, but there’s a photo of him kissing her.”

There was pure silence for a moment before Ridoc answered. “Sawyer and I are coming over.”

Violet desperately tried to convince him otherwise by telling them that the girls weren’t decent and they had no food, but Ridoc denied all attempts. 

“I don’t give a shit if you’re decent or not, I need to see that photo. I’m bringing bagels, too.”

“I can send you the photo!”

“I need to see your expression as I look at this photo. No negotiations. We’ll be there in forty.” Ridoc hung up unceremoniously, and Violet looked up at Rhiannon in desperation.

“I hate you,” Violet miserably muttered as she fell back onto the floor.

Sure enough, though, Ridoc and Sawyer showed up at her place within forty minutes, holding toasted bagels with cream cheese in brown paper bags. 

Violet reluctantly opened the door. “You better have brought me a jalapeno bagel,” she threatened, holding up an index finger at her friends’ faces.

Sawyer rolled his eyes at her before walking right by her. Ridoc patted her head on his way into the apartment. “Of course we did, Vi. That’s just stupid. Like forgetting you kissed a dude,” Sawyer retorted.

“Wow,” Violet reared her head back to look at him with betrayal.  “You were supposed to be the nice one!”

Sawyer grinned at her from the couch as he settled in beside Rhiannon and set the bagels onto the coffee table. “Nope, that’s just me pretending.” 

“I hate all of you,” Violet sighed. 

Rhiannon pulled out the set of bagels, handing them out as Violet took her spot on the floor again. Ridoc watched her as she sat down, and just from the look in his eyes, sometimes she wished that he wasn’t so observant. Other times, she greatly appreciated that as part of their friendship. 

“Are your joints hurting again?” he asked casually, biting into a bagel. 

Violet did the same before she answered. “A little. It’s probably because I drank so much last night.”

“Ah yes, the cause of the elusive man that you cannot remember,” Rhiannon mused. “The kiss that is just out of reach.”

Before the boys could even mention anything, she opened up the photo on her phone and held it out. Sawyer grabbed a hold of her phone before Ridoc could, and Violet watched as Ridoc shifted to look over Sawyer’s shoulders. 

“Damn, he’s hot,” Ridoc said, grinning towards Violet.

“I know.”

“That tattoo is insane.”

“I know.”

“Is no one finding it strange that Violet kissed a stranger while she was drunk?” Sawyer piped up. Violet lifted her neck up from her supine position to throw a smile at her friend. She really should’ve gotten up from the floor and moved to the sofa because her joints were already fairly achy. Too much floor time might just cause her joints to become extra stiff, and she had no interest in that. 

“Rhiannon was watching out for me and apparently I wasn’t drunk at the time, and I look happy enough in the photo,” Violet tried to shrug, and it was definitely time for her to move. Violet shifted, getting up and stretching her arms up high to loosen her body up a bit before plopping down onto the sofa between Ridoc and Sawyer. Ridoc’s arm immediately came around her shoulders. 

Rhi piped up with her agreement. “I can confirm that at the time of the photo, she had only had a few drinks to be tipsy. She definitely got drunk when she downed those tequila shots.”

The boys’ heads swiveled to look at Violet with their eyebrows raised. Living together had definitely led to them sharing habits, and she tamped down a hysterical giggle at the idea. The whole missing memory bullshit was getting to her, apparently. 

“Okay, but circling back to the issue at hand,” she said as drew a little circle with her index finger in the air, “I have no fucking clue who this man is. I would really like to have one, though.”

“Well, what about doing a reverse google image search on the photo?” Ridoc offers. “Maybe he’ll pop up in the search.”

Rhi hums. “I doubt it. The photo isn’t clear enough on his face, and instead we’ll just end up with a search on Vi with articles about her mom and her military achievements.”

“Or about Mira and her military achievements,” Sawyer added.

Violet couldn’t help but add to the round of statements about her family. “Or about Brennan and his medical achievements.”

“Damn you guys have no faith in Violet. Even Violet doesn’t have faith in Violet.”

“Not right now, I don’t. What if I just wait till I remember? It has to come back to me eventually? Right?” 

No one answered Violet at first, and she was almost tempted to ask if crickets were going to start chirping at the eerie silence that followed her question.

“And have you suffering, and by extension have me suffering?” Rhiannon asked, poking Violet in the arm lightly. 

Ridoc couldn’t help himself to also insert himself into that situation by saying, “And by extension have us suffering?”

Violet rolled her eyes. “Jesus, fine.”

“What if we just went back to the bar?” questioned Sawyer. “Wouldn’t that be easier than whatever the fuck we’re sitting here doing?”

Silence followed Sawyer’s question, and Violet blinked at the ceiling. 

“Damn. He’s right,” Rhi acknowledged, and Violet blamed the hangover on missing the absolute easiest solution to her problems. 

Half an hour later, the four of them entered The Blue Daggertail, and Violet was surprised to see that people were actually inside at noon on a Sunday. They’d only ever been to the bar at night, so it made sense to Violet that the atmosphere would be different based on the time of day, but by principle, she expected that no one would be in a bar while the sun was still out. 

Except day drinkers, she figured. 

The tables that were usually pushed to the sides of the room, to make space for people to mingle and dance, were set up in the middle of the open area. Senior citizens sat at a few of those tables, some eating and drinking while others chatted. One older woman stood in the front of the tables with a little cage holding several balls and a crank attached to the side, and with a little squinting, Violet could see the big red letters that read BINGO on all the sheets of paper that were in front of the senior citizens. 

“That’s adorable,” she heard Ridoc say. “They’re playing bingo at a bar in the middle of the day!”

“Okay, yes, that is really fucking cool,” Rhi agreed. Violet nodded. This place was wildly throwing her off, and she was sort of enjoying the feeling of seeing a new side to one of their favorite hang-out spots. 

They all turned to go to the bar where Violet saw their usual bartender, Liam, standing with a bunch of people she did not recognize. He was animatedly talking to them, however, picking up different things behind the bar and pointing to other things periodically. If Violet had to make a guess, she’d think that Liam was teaching a bartending session, and from the few conversations she had with Liam, she knew that he’d be a great teacher. He was definitely passionate about concocting new drinks and explaining the thought process behind them, so she wasn’t surprised that he actually was teaching people. 

As far as she knew, he was the one in charge of the drink menu at the bar with new drinks appearing on the menu as the seasons changed and based on customer preferences. 

It was a really smart business plan,  and adding the bar also being used as a recreational center, it made sure that the bar had a reason to be open at all times. 

Violet broke away from her friends first, going up to Liam and waiting until he saw her and let the class go on a break.

“Hey Violet,” he greeted with a bright smile. “You’re back here earlier than I expected after last night. You guys were here pretty late. I think I left before you guys did.”

She smiled at him sheepishly. “Yeah, well there were certain circumstances that brought us here.”

“More like a question,” Sawyer clarified. Liam’s eyes played ping pong between the four of them, and Violet could only imagine what he was thinking. Probably something along of the lines of the fact that the four of them were either about to do something really fucking stupid or were about ask for some bizarre favor, like naming drinks after themselves. Although, Ridoc would probably push for that, anyway.

“What’s the question?” Liam hesitantly asked, somewhat proving that Violet’s train of thought was in the right direction. 

Just deciding to bite the bullet, Violet said, “I kissed a guy here last night and don’t remember it. He was, like, super tall, black tattoo going up the neck?”

“She has a photo!” Ridoc helpfully added. 

“Wait," Liam started, something shifting in his expression. “Hold on.” He squinted at Violet, and then turned around quickly, looking at something behind him. He turned back around, looked at her again, and then turned around yet again.

“Are you broken?” Violet asked, utterly confused at the sight of him going back and forth as though he were a broken swivel. 

“Shit, you’re the girl!”

“What?”

“The girl!” he exclaimed again.

“I don’t—”

Liam held up a printed grainy security photo at Violet’s face, and all four of them leaned in at once to look at the photo up close. She recognized the bar taken from up high, almost a bird’s eye view shot. It looked as though the camera shot was up high in one of the corners of the bar where the ceiling met the walls, but she wasn’t exactly sure which corner. She scanned the photo, looking for anything that she may recognize, and it was clear that the lights that were dimmed to create the classic bar atmosphere was the cause for the grainy texture of the photo. It wasn’t until her second look through that her eyes caught the tall figure she’d been staring at for most of her waking day in the black button up. He was one of the only people holding a phone up that high, and then she saw herself standing next to him. 

Just from the fact that Liam had the photo and knew of Violet as “the girl”, one thing became very clear to her.

The mystery man was apparently very close to Liam.

There was a sudden chorus of acknowledging sounds, everyone else recognizing what Violet saw.

“Who is that?” Violet demanded, poking her index finger at his little head in the photo. 

“Are you sure you want to know? He’s broody as fuck.”

“Liam.” Her voice said everything she wanted it to say with just his name. 

“I’m just saying!” he protested. “I wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into.”

“I already kissed the man, it’s a little too late for that.”

Liam looked like he was contemplating her statement for a bit. “Fair. Let me grab him, one second.”

He walked back through the employees only door behind him, and Violet vaguely heard some screaming before Liam walked back out.

“He’ll be here soon, if you guys just want to sit down at the bar? Do you want to order anything?”

Rhi answered for the group, “No, thank you. We had bagels and coffee a bit ago because we felt like dying.”

“Ah, yes. I’m well acquainted with the hangover.” The conversation continued around her, but Violet’s eyes were glued to the door. With every breath she hoped that they would swing open and bring her tattooed man through them. She fiddled with her thumbs, scratching her nails across one another, just to do something to take her mind off the fact that the mystical, magical man was about to be right in front of her. Violet also knew that she was most definitely blowing this out of proportion since, for all she knew, he was aiming for a one night stand and didn’t particularly care about her. 

That thought flew out her head the second the doors flung open, though, because the man that stepped through the doors immediately found her eyes.

And he smiled softly, lips barely moving but the effect was the same as though he were brightly grinning at her. She just knew that his big smiles would be breathtaking.

He was beautiful.

Violet let herself blatantly gaze all over his body. He was taller than he seemed in the photo, and much more muscular. With his dark hair and eyes that reminded her of coffee, he could’ve very easily stepped out of a magazine, even with the scar bisecting his eyebrow, through his cheek. 

She also studied the tattoo, tracing over each line and swirl that she could see from his neck, down to where it disappeared under his black t-shirt and reappeared on his bicep before it continued to his wrist. She felt as though she could keep staring at his neck and his arm, and she’d still miss details to the design. 

Logically, Violet was aware that this was not the first time she’d seen his tattoo, but she couldn’t remember the first time, so this was essentially her first chance to appreciate the artwork. Preferably up close, but she was getting way ahead of herself.  

Violet was definitely sure that she was really into tattoos. Or maybe she was just into tattoos on this man, specifically, and for fuck’s sake, she still didn’t know his name. 

“Oh there you are, Violence,” he said to her in a smooth voice. Violet startled a little at the name implication that she was ‘Violence.’  

“Violence?” she asked, becoming aware that the conversation that her friends were having had died down and their eyes were on her and the man.

“You introduced yourself as Violence last night, but I’m pretty sure that was just a combination of me mishearing and you mispronouncing around the drinks. It didn’t help that your friends kept calling you Vi, so I never really got your full name.”

“Violet,” she corrected. “My name is Violet.” This was one of the most embarrassing interactions she'd ever had, and she had an inkling it was only about to get worse. 

He smirked. “I like Violence too, but it’s very nice to meet you, Violet.”

“And you are?”

“Xaden. Would you like to speak outside, away from the prying eyes and ears?” he asked, jerking his head towards their audience. His eyes had never once strayed from hers, so she was a little amazed that he had such spatial awareness to know that her friends were being nosey little pieces of shit. Violet refused to look at them and nodded. He circled around the bar and held a hand out to indicate that she should go first and he’d follow. 

They exited the bar together into the bright sunlight, and Violet blinked a few times to let her eyes adjust to the lighting change before walking to the side of the building and leaning against the wall. 

“So this is a little weird,” she admitted when Xaden joined her in leaning against the wall and turned to face her.

“It is, but I’m not mad about what happened.”

“I’m not either, I guess. I’m just more curious about how and why. And maybe just everything in general,” she admitted, a little nervous to look at him.

“You don’t remember?” Xaden asked, the surprise clear in his voice that she did take a quick peek. A divot formed in between his eyebrows as he frowned, and Violet wondered how a man could be that gruff and yet that pretty. 

She licked her lips before responding, “No. I, uh, drank a lot after we kissed, and it seems to have messed with my ability to form memories from before that too. I only knew what happened because I told my friend about it last night. And the photo on my phone.”

“The photo,” he repeated, sounding a little dazed. He looked at her with sincerity blazing in his eyes. “Did I take advantage of you?”

“Huh? No! Oh no, absolutely not. I got confirmation from my roommate — the one I told about the photo and the kiss — that I was at most tipsy when we kissed and took all those photos. Really, I blame the tequila shots I downed afterwards. I felt like absolute shit this morning. It’s not your fault, and besides, my friends were keeping an eye on me and they’re…really protective with everything in my life so if they really did think something was going on, they’d say something,” Violet rambled out, face flaming as she tried to get herself to wrap up the run-on sentence she’d decided to blurt out. Her hands had started flailing around as she talked, a nervous tick that she was trying to get rid of, so really this first meeting was going absolutely fantastic in the worst possible way. 

She was a little worried that he was going to just turn around and avoid her, but instead his face relaxed. “I’m glad. It’s unfortunate that you don’t remember last night, though. I had a good time talking to you and spending time with you.”

“What did we talk about?” she asked, on her way to getting lost in his eyes that seemed to reflect the sunlight. 

“I just told you about my job. I co-own the bar with Liam, my cousin, and another one of our friends. Your friend wanted to see if he could get a drink named after him, and you just had all these questions about my life, and then I had questions about yours. You didn’t give up a lot of information. I did tell you several times, though, that I loved your hair.”

Violet bit down on her bottom lip, hiding her smile. She was totally spot on about Ridoc, and entirely trying to not blush over the compliment for her hair. It was tied up in a bun, but the night before she had left it out, the silver ends to her (otherwise) brown hair were on full display.

“Sounds about right,” she acknowledged. “I’m sorry I can’t remember it.”

“What if we do this — let me take you out on a date,” he suddenly said, holding his hand out for her to take. “We don’t even need to tell anyone, and they can figure it out themselves. We can go get coffee or lunch or whatever, pretend this is our first time meeting and go through everything we talked about last night. And more. If you’re okay with that. ”

“What if you’re a serial killer?”

Xaden shrugged. “You know where I work and who I work with. Plus your friends saw me leave with you.” She couldn’t really argue with that logic.

“And you want to go now?” she asked, looking down at her simple shirt and jeans. “I’m not dressed for a date.”

“Neither am I. Who cares?”

“I kind of do.” It wasn’t fair that she’d be seen out and about with a man she wanted to climb like a tree. 

Then again, if she did go out with him, then climbing him like a tree would become a valid option.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be a date. What about a casual meeting between two people who’ve already kissed?”

“That makes it worse.”

“It should make it better because now we know what it feels like to kiss each other, we have no expectations to build upon. We already know.”

“I still can’t remember it.”

“Wait,” Xaden said, a mischievous look in his eyes that made Violet’s heart race.  “Then you’d kiss me for the first time twice . What an honor for you.”

She scoffed. “Wow, the asshole started to come out already.”

“Get used to it, Violence. I’m not going to change my personality, but I feel like we’d fit well. Besides, you’re getting the full story beforehand.” 

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing,” she laughed as she finally took his outstretched hand. “But I guess it’s worth a shot.”

Years later, Violet never deleted that photo off her phone; it even served as her phone’s wallpaper for a few months. Sure, she and Xaden had created many more memories together, filling up their phones’ gallery, but even though she still couldn’t remember the night, it was still a picture perfect moment.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t even her that snuck that photo into their wedding slideshow.

It was Liam, and that piece of shit snuck the terrible grainy security photo in.