Summary: My name's Riley and I'm a human slave. I come from this little planet called Earth, never take a vacation there, and slavery was my only way off. Anyway, let me tell you about how I met Seamus Harper and how my life changed.

Rating: T to be on the safe side

Pairing: Eventual kind of Harper/OC

Disclaimer: All I own is Riley and the other OC's, everything else does not belong to me.

A/N: This story will be written in the first person from Riley's point of view, so the style may be different to normal.

Sparky and Vodka

There's some truth to the reputation these back water drifts gain. For example, take the two Nightsiders at the end of the bar. Right now, they're squabbling about the worth of an abandoned smugglers ship and who had claims to it. In one corner of this small and busy bar is a group of Nietzscheans. They were too loud and drank far too much. Anybody could see the murderous looks growing in the Kalderans eyes the next table over.

If a fist fight started, again, I was out of here. Everybody somehow got pulled into them unless you knew how to duck and weave. All I wanted to do was drink my beer in peace, enjoy my night off and forget about life for a little while.

"So tell me," I lifted my brown eyes to the mirrored panels behind the bar. The guy who had sat down in the vacant seat next to me and started to talk was a human with spiky blonde hair. Was that a dataport or a smudge on the mirror? "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

I couldn't help the curve to the corner of my mouth and I turned in my seat to face him. He wasn't half bad to look at, a little on the small and scrawny side, but who was I to judge? I made everybody look tall. "Drinking." I took a sip and eyed the odd quirk of his mouth. It was a sly smile if ever I saw one and I let my own sly smile begin to grow. "Isn't that obvious?"

He waved a dismissive hand at me and took a gulp from his drink. "Yeah, but in this place?"

I arched one brow and glanced over my shoulder at the room. "What's wrong with this place?"

He pointed a finger at me. "You look as if you don't belong here."

I let out a laugh. I could see where this was going. Worse men had tried worse lines. The guy really needed to work on his lines. I gave him another look and noticed the side of his mouth smirking, his brows together, curious to what my response meant. If anybody didn't fit in here if was him, but, I dropped my eyes down his almost clean red t-shirt. What that a grease stain? "Well," I started and I no longer could contain my grin. I knew just how to play along. "Where would you say I do belong then?"

His brows jumped and I managed to contain my laughter by taking a gulp of my drink. I would need another one soon and I eyed this blonde haired stranger with curiosity. "Oh I could think of a few places."

I wondered how much success, if any, he had with that kind of line and I shook my head with a wide smile, my eyes focused on the froth in my drink. "You need to work on your lines."

"What?" His smile dropped away. "There is nothing wrong with my lines."

"They're corny."

"Everybody likes corny."

I raised my brows at that and shook my head, my grin still in place. I had to admit, there was a certain charm about him. "Sometimes it's best to just start with your name."

He stuck his hand out, big smile back in place. "Seamus Zelazny Harper."

I took his hand and contained any questioning looks from my face. That was a mouthful and certainly not a common name, although, I could've sworn it sounded familiar. Earthly familiar. Seamus looked proud and I smiled politely, "Riley. Just Riley."

"Well," he said, smirk coming back into place, "Riley, Just Riley." I grinned and the almost chuckle that left me made his smile grow. It was a smile of a confident man. He finished off his drink and said, "How about I buy you a drink? What'll it be?"

I eyed my almost empty drink and nodded. There was no harm to letting him buy me a drink right? It was my night off to do whatever I wanted. "Sure thing Seamus," he scrunched his face up ever so slightly that I was impressed I caught the look, but I ignored it. "Surprise me."

That returned the smile to his face and he jumped off his seat. "One surprise, fantastic drink coming up."

I laughed as he walked to the end of the bar where the Chichin bartender stood. Maybe having company wasn't such a bad idea and he seemed innocent enough. I watched him make an order and lean on the bar top as he waited for the drinks. And I couldn't help but to let my eyes trail down. Hey, I know how to admire a man's assets and if Seamus just had to lean over the bar in such a way… I bit down on the inside of my cheek as thoughts began to stir. I lifted my eyes away from his behind and almost jumped in my seat. He'd caught me checking him out. I turned to face the mirrored wall and pushed my drink into my face, finishing it off in three quick gulps.

When he came back there was a knowing smirk on his face and that smirk? It was cute. In Seamus' own way. Everybody had their own cute smile. "Enjoying the view?" he said.

He put a dark, bubbly substance down in front of me and I stared at it. My expression was caught somewhere between a smirk and curiosity as I answered him, "Yeah, I suppose. What is that?"

He sat back down and took a large helping of his own drink. "A surprise. Trust me, you'll like it." And he took another large helping of his drink.

I turned sceptical eyes down to my drink and chewed on the inside of my cheek. It did not look inviting but it was a free drink and I never turned down a free drink. I grabbed the glass and decided to hell with it and took a sip. It was sweet, sticky, it burnt the back of my throat and marked a fiery path down to my stomach and there certainly was some kind of kick to it. I took another sip, to test my taste buds. A warmth had been started in the pits of my stomach and I found myself smiling. "Okay, I'll bite. What is it?"

He laughed. "Told ya' you'd like it. Sparky cola with a hint of vodka, or whatever passes for that around here."

I smiled and took a gulp of the concoction. I'd heard of sparky cola, had even tried it as an alternative to coffee now and then, but I couldn't stomach it the same way I could pure caffeine. But with vodka? Bring on the drinks! "Alright, Seamus," I said.

He made another 'almost face' and held his hand up. "Okay, usually I ask people to call me Harper."

"Usually?"

He grinned. "Usually, but you?" An awkward chuckle escaped him and I frowned. "I don't know. It's the way you say it."

"Seamus?" He made another face and I grinned. At least that cleared that up. It wasn't exactly a look of distaste, but it was certainly something. "As I was saying, I have to ask, where are you from? You don't live here I can tell you that and that dataport," I pointed a finger at his neck, "you do know how to use it right?" Some of the people I'd met got one installed because of the *idea* of what they could do. But those that could navigate the virtual reality matrix without any backfires, or with minimum damage, were few and far between.

He waved a dismissive hand at me, "Of course I know how to use it."

I grinned. Just a touch of arrogance and a little offended I'd consider such a possibility. Seamus was fun to mess around with. I gave him a shrug and took another sip of my drink. I set the glass down and said, "I'm just saying, some people can't navigate VRM to save their life."

"Well I can," he took a helping of his drink, his brows furrowed and I waited for him to speak. It didn't take a genius to know that something was on his mind. "Why the interest?"

I let my smile remain as I tapped my fingers against the side of the glass. Because VRM's are so much better with two? Because I don't want you to be an idiot? A schmuck? "Just curious I guess." The vodka that was mixed into the Sparky was hitting the edges of my vision and I tried to eye the bottles behind the bar. Some of these drifts made their own, or bought the 'good stuff' that most people didn't know about. Had Seamus bought said drink? I grabbed my drink and turned to face this guy with spiky blonde hair. "Would you rather I called you Harper or Seamus?"

He smiled and said, "Harper."

I nodded and took a sip of my drink. "Tell me Harper," I grinned and turned to face him, "what's a guy like you doing in a place like this?"

He laughed and damn, I liked his laugh. "I got a couple days leave before we're gone again."

I raised my brows. I was only interested in one night and Harper was checking a lot of boxes it was usually hard for me to find. Smart? Check, at least, I hoped that that was what the dataport meant. Funny? Check. He did make me laugh. Cute? Yeah, my kind of cute. Human? Check, check, check. Not wholly interested in me for my body? Err. Okay, that one didn't necessarily *need* to be ticked. But he ticked enough and I threw back a good few mouthfuls. "Well, what do you say we ditch this place and go somewhere a little more... private?"

That got his attention and I grinned as he seemed flustered. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that didn't happen often to him. I laughed and took another sip of my drink. "Sure," he said, "I'd, I'd love to." His smile returned and I grinned. I did like his quirky, cute little smile.