"Happy St. Patrick's Day!"
The unanimous shout of the crowded bar hurt my sensitive ears. Stupid drunks. Some people want to have quiet while they try to futilely drink themselves into oblivion.
Of course I was bitter about being alone for this holiday. Just like all the others I was alone for.
One thing I would not drink was wine since I was a light weight on the stuff. I only drank it when I wanted to drown my sorrows or think "I should end my pitiful existence."
I had yet to do it. Stupid survival instincts always making me hesitate.
"Mind if I sit here?" I turned at the deep, cultured voice to see a silver inuyoukai.
"Go ahead. I have no use for it." I didn't have a use for much anymore. I had grown tired of living and couldn't be bothered with it anymore.
"If I may ask, why are you so down on a holiday that others celebrate?" His voice sounded like it had a hint of Scottish brogue mixed with an accent that was distinctly Japanese.
"I've no reason to be happy. My reason for living died a long time ago." I missed her so much. Why did I have to live without my mother? "All I do is drink and train."
"Hm. That sounds pretty sad." he gestured for the bartender to bring him a whiskey on the rocks. He came here often.
"It is indeed." I chugged the rest of my drink and called to the bartender. "Refill!"
"That's quite the impressive number." he said as he gestured to the glasses stacked in front of me.
"What can I say? I'm a budding architect." I added the glass to the pyramid I was building. "It's something fun to do while I wait for the next drink."
"A life like that is no life at all."
"Profound words from a being centuries old." Words I had no use for. Words I already knew were true.
"So you knew." He was referring to the fact that most supernatural beings were put off as myths in the modern day.
"Of course. I'd be a fool to not know an inuyoukai when I saw one." I might be a drinker, a fighter, an otaku and many other things, but the one thing I was not was a fool.
"Since you know what I am, my name is Touga."
"Morticia." I glanced to the clock above the bar. Not even thirty minutes after midnight and everybody in the bar was getting hammered. Idiots. "Why did you come to a back alley bar when it's obvious you have a great amount of wealth?"
"I could ask you the same thing." He gestured to my clothes, one of my rarely worn, expensive dresses. "I started coming here to get away from my responsibilities, even if only for a few hours. Tonight I followed the scent of my mate and am currently sitting next to her."
"You're quite subtle. Nice." It was true that he was attractive, as all taiyoukai were, but I couldn't see why I would be his mate. "You sure it's not some other girl that was here and left? I'm not the first female to sit at this spot tonight."
"I'm quite positive." Touga reached out and grasped a lock of my hair, pulling it to his lips, and sniffed it. "The alluring scent of Tahitian Orchid and the spiciness of untouched woman. This is the scent that I followed and I'm positive that my mate is you, Morticia."
"I'm still not going to believe that. Takahashi-san, I don't think that you even know who I am."
"How do you know my last name?" Touga was deeply surprised but I just continued to stare forward.
"You do business with three of my companies, it's not unusual that I would know your whole name." I grabbed the drink the bartender placed in front of me. "A bottle of wine, please, mister bartender."
"Why a bottle of wine?" Touga asked me.
"It's the only thing that can get me drunk." I stared bitterly into my gin and tonic. "I don't feel like remembering tonight. Or any other night for that matter."
Too many painful memories. Too many wasted opportunities. My life had gone to shit and I didn't want to remember a damn thing about it. It just broke my soul more with every second it lived.
"I could help you with that." he said gently, placing a just as gentle hand on my shoulder. I didn't shake him off but I didn't welcome it either. "There are plenty of reasons to want to remember your life. I could help you find them, if you will let me."
"Touga, I've been through too much to want to remember. The memories worth remembering are few and far between." Long withheld tears filled my voice and fell from my eyes. "I don't even want to live anymore. I hate my very existence."
"Why do you not want to live? What makes you feel this way?" Touga's sympathy just made it harder to speak so I grabbed the bottle of red wine from the bartender and took a long drink from it.
"All of my family is dead. My one friend killed herself." The tears kept coming, annoying things, and I was having a deep conversation with a guy I had never met before. "And I have no reason to keep existing. My companies can run themselves."
"A beautiful woman such as yourself always has something to look forward to! I mean, even if it's something simple like a song or television show." He almost seemed to be grasping at straws. "You could start dating! Or, um . . . something!"
"I'm far from innocent, Touga." Another swig of wine, and a tired sigh. "I've tortured people for information, and fun. I don't exactly deserve to be with someone when I'm this tainted!"
I was in shambles at this point. I was leaning completely on the bar with the tears coming hard as I tried to breathe through them.
Why was I such a terrible person?! This was why I didn't deserve anything! Because I'm a fuck up that's blacker than black from all the blood I've spilled. I've never . . . ever been able to do things the right way. That's why . . . that is why everyone has left me.
"You're not tainted! I-I've done those same things!" Touga pulled me into an awkward bear hug, I just embraced him and continued to cry. "If you think that no one would take you as you are now then I will. I've done what you've done and I'm your mate. I can except everything that you've done!"
"Really? That'sh so nishe!" Shit! The wine must have hit my system already. "Shorry for the slurrin'."
"Wow. You weren't kidding, you're flat drunk right now." I giggled loudly at his facial expression.
"Yep!"
.0.0.0.
Touga didn't know how she could have drank almost twenty glasses of alcohol and not gotten drunk but then got drunk on two swigs of wine.
A glance at the bottle told him that it wasn't even strong. How the hell does wine do this when the strong stuff in her glass couldn't?!
"You are the strangest mate I have ever had." Of course the other hadn't actually been his mate, she was close enough to be acceptable. He hadn't known until after he had a child with her that she wasn't his true mate.
"Well I was born and raised a Southern Bell!" she giggled again. "But I'm alsho a Yamato Nadeshiko, sho I'm a cross breed?"
Touga couldn't help it.
He face palmed.
.0.0.0.
Ugh. My head. I put my hand on my forehead as the throbbing started to intensify. I must have gotten shit faced last night. And survived.
Damn it.
"You're finally awake, my mate." I turned sharply at that voice and instantly regretted it. I fought the nausea and pain to flip out of the bed to land in a sloppy crouch. "No need for that."
"Who are you?" I growled out the question, not in the mood for any of this bullshit.
"I'm your mate, Touga Takahashi." I didn't sense a lie from him but that was just too hard to believe. He must have sensed my hesitation because he pulled down his shirt collar. "This is the mark you put on me and my mark is on your neck."
I felt my neck and stilled at the bumpy flesh there. Puncture marks and, if it was like his, a crescent moon with a howling wolf.
"Shit." That didn't even cover this.