So I got bored and decided to make another chapter. Unlike Red and Cutlass (my other stories) I am leaning to a 'whenever I feel like it' updating policy rather than clockwork once a week. This is my new baby and Red and Cutlass are my toddlers. I hope you like this chapter I have another well-known character and we find out a little of why Daine's a rebel. Review and enjoy!

Chapter Two

A week went by before Daine saw Numair again.

She spent her time alternating between skipping school and partying with Miri and Evin. On Sunday afternoons, she worked for minimum wage in a café owned by a friend of her parents. Something Jon assured her was teaching her the value of hard work.

Daine didn't care much. Onua was cool, so was her café. 'K'mir' named after an ancient race of people Onua was allegedly descended from and hence obsessed with. Usually the place was filled with people enjoying the day and the food and Daine had something to do, but today there were hardly any customers and the day was dragging on.

Daine leant against the counter and picked at one black-painted fingernail. She heard the tinkle of the bell and straightened up. Finally, a customer. "Welcome to K'mir. My name is Daine and I will be your waitress for this afternoon. May I take your order?" She rattled off hardly thinking.

Onua was chill about most things, but she didn't put up with any shit from anyone. Not even Daine. Daine respected that and decided to forgo being her normal bitchy self to the customers.

"So your name's Daine?" A familiar voice asked.

Daine looked up grinning. "Hey Numair. I knew you couldn't resist me." She fluttered her eyelashes.

Numair laughed; a rich sound that made heads turn. "Of course. I scoured the city for every pink-eyed brunettes I could find until I came here. It wasn't too difficult; I mean, how many pink eyed brunettes are there?"

"A surprising amount. But my eyes aren't really pink." Daine informed him solemly.

Numair raised his eyebrow. "Oh really? I never would have guessed." he said dryly.

"They are usually blue-grey. But they go grey when I'm depressed and blue when I'm pissed off. By the way you shouldn't be so cynical about unnatural eye colour. I know a chick with purple eyes."

Numair looked surprised. "Is her name perchance Alanna Cooper?"

"Short with red hair and a temper to match? Yeah she's friends with my foster parents."

"And they are?" Numair prodded. Daine opened her mouth to answer by was interrupted by Onua who came out of the kitchens wiping her hands on a tea towel.

"Numair." She greeted. "Great to see you again. Do you two know each other?" She asked, noticing the casual way they were talking.

"Of course." Daine grinned at her employer. "Numair is my boo."

Numair spluttered and Onua narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you aware that she is only sixteen?" she asked coldly.

"For shame Numair, taking advantage of a poor naive me." Daine added.

Numair turned red. "We're not dating" he told Onua ignoring Daine's mutters of "Yet." "We met a week ago in the park when Daine found my wallet."

Onua rounded on Daine. "What were you doing in the park, girl? Were you skipping out on your education again?"

Daine gave an innocent smile that fooled nobody. "That depends on your definition of 'education'. My sitting in a classroom, listening yet not hearing, a droning teacher talk about subjects of which I have no interest is hardly educational. Yet if I had been sitting in said mind numbing classroom, I would never had found my soul mate and rescued his wallet from a less favourable being. By forcing me to stay in school you would have been letting your friend get robbed."

Onua sighed defeated. "You can finish for the day, Daine. Now go away brat." she commanded.

"Sure thing Aunty O." Daine skipped out the door in a mockingly cheery way. She sat on the fence that surrounded the Café, pulled out a packet of cigarettes and lit one. She inhaled deeply and started to practise the art of blowing smoke rings. A cough startled her and only an arm around her waist stopped her from falling backwards off the fence.

"Sorry about that." Numair said as he pulled her back up.

"No prob. I do that all the time." Daine smiled weakly at him.

"Fall off fences?" Numair asked, grinning. It was a rather nice grin, Daine noticed.

"It's a favourite past time of mine." Daine answered, blowing a ring of smoke in his face. "You will know all my little quirks once we're officially dating, of course."

Numair waved the smoke away. "Not if you keep sucking the cancer stick we won't." He frowned. "I don't date girls that smoke."

Daine immediately stubbed out her cigarette and tossed it away. "Right, so no more smoking from now on. May I ask why?"

Numair sat down on the fence beside her. "I was a smoker and I gave up two years ago. If I date someone who smokes then I will start to crave again and two years of discipline will go down the drain."

"Wow how ironic. I started two years ago. That's a sure sign that we should play tonsil hockey right about now."

Numair snorted. "Nice try. Why did you start?"

Daine shrugged obviously uncomfortable with the change of subject. "It was a better alternative than some other methods of coping." She said cryptically, subconsciously rubbing her wrist.

Numair frowned, reached over and grabbed her wrist. Daine didn't even try to fight him, instead she found something interesting to stare at on the ground. Numair pulled up her sleeve to reveal a barbed wire bracelet tattooed on her wrist. He gently turned her arm over and studied the other side intently. Barely visible beneath the ink of the tattoo were several small white scars. He traced them with his finger.

"When my ma died, I went into a period of depression. Miri and Evin saved me. They taught me how to express my grief through partying."

"So they replaced one deadly habit with another and you call them your saviours." Numair remarked bitterly.

Daine's head snapped around. "Hey, my partying isn't a deadly habit. I control it completely."

"Like people 'control' their life through eating disorders?' He demanded. "Compulsive partying is not the way to deal with sorrow. Getting on the piss every night won't stop the pain and neither will any assortment of drugs you've taken. They may numb it for a while but it will always come back unless you confront it directly. Trust me, I know."

Daine was silent. "I'm not comfortable with this subject." she finally said quietly taking back her arm from Numair's grasp.

He sighed. "Fine but know that it bleeds off the poison to talk. Even if it's with a complete stranger."

Daine smiled softly. "You stole that off Onua. And you're not a stranger. You're my soon-to-be fiancé."

Numair chuckled quietly. "If we're going to be married, then I should know a few things about you."

"Such as...?" Daine prompted.

"Favourite colour, food, band and what do you want to be when you leave school?"

Daine closed her eyes and thought for a minute. "Black, lasagne, Porcelain and the Tramps, and I wanted to be a vet but I don't have the grades, intelligence or aspiration. And DON'T tell me that I can do anything if I put my mind to it." She snapped as he opened his mouth. "I hear enough of that from my foster-mother."

Numair held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender. "I was only going to offer to tutor you."

Daine blinked at him. "Why would you want to?" She asked perplexed. "I'm a total juvenile delinquent. Everyone says so" She added with a slight air of smugness.

Numair threw back his head and laughed again. "If I didn't know better, Daine, I would say that you're proud of that." He teased.

"Of course. Everyone wants to be a hooligan like me. But sadly for them, I'm a one-in-a-kind model. Ain't any other one like me."

"I'm not sure that's a bad thing." Numair gave her an affectionate hug round the shoulders. As they sat on the fence and talked about random things, time flew by and soon Onua came out from locking up for the night.

"What in the hell are you two still doing here?" She cried out as soon as she saw them.

Numair looked at his watch. "God, it's half-past five already. Daine we've been talking for over two hours."

"You spent two hours talking?" Onua asked incredulously.

"Well I do have some sort of charm around me that makes people want to spend all afternoon sitting on a fence talking with me." Daine said dismissively.

Numair looked at her. "A charm you say? Well I did sense a witch-like aura upon you."

"Not witch-like. Witches are ugly with warts and ride along on broomsticks. I'm too gorgeous to have warts and if I tried to ride a broomstick…well let's just say there's no way in hell I'm going to ride a broomstick. Mage is the way to go. Rhymes with sage which is my favourite herb."

Numair snorted. "You're not old enough to be a mage. More like a magelet."

Daine gave him a beaming smile. "See? We have pet names for each other already!"

"What's his pet name?" Onua asked curiously.

"Numy-pie." Daine said with a completely straight face. Numair choked and Onua stuffed her hand in her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

"Come on, Daine. I'll take you home." Onua said after she recovered.

"Wait a tic." Daine said, ferreting around in her pocket. She pulled out a napkin from K'mir and a pen, wrote her number and name on it and handed it to Numair.

"Why?" He replied suspiciously.

Daine rolled her pink eyes. "You said you'd tutor me…" She reminded him.

Comprehension dawned on his face and he folded it carefully and put it in his pocket.

"Groovy." She said and giving Numair a kiss on the cheek climbed down the fence. She made a 'call me' sign by putting her pinkie and index fingers to her ear and mouth and followed Onua, ignoring her friend's raised eyebrows.

Numair watched her go and gingerly touched the still tingling spot on his cheek.

And here is the next chapter and I must say I'm very disappointed with the amount of reviews. Come on people! I added some D/N fluff in there as well so tell me what you thought!

To infinity, and beyond!

Love Queen Cocaine

XXX