Chapter Six: An Acquiesce

Authored By: KolaByNikola

She was stunning and she knew it. It was as though a golden aura surrounded her, a softening glow akin to that of a goddess'. Her dark auburn hair fell in gentle waves about her face and shoulders, her eyes gleamed cat's in the smoky light of the bar. Were this a bar in New York City, she would have been surrounded by dozens of young men, attracted by not only her renown in the city but her beauty.

But nightlife in her city was far different than the nightlife here in Domino. Kaede sat alone at the bar, nursing what was at least her seventh drink of the evening.

"I do not sit alone at bars," she muttered angrily as she flagged the bartender down again. "Another drink, please." Her tongue slipped on the last letters of the word, slurring slightly.

"Which one?" he asked, amusement creeping into the question. "You have sampled a fair amount of our top shelf tonight."

"Um, oh," Kaede hemmed and hawed before making a decision. "I guess... another rum and coke."

The bartender left her and Kaede was suddenly struck with wonderment at the brilliant blue of a bottle behind the counter. She jumped when the glass was set down in front of her with a clink.

"Sorry," she giggled, and the bartender left her with a roll of his eyes. She wasn't sure which, but it wasn't clear whether number of drinks in her or the intentions of a well-meaning bartender were responsible for the lack of alcohol in her drink. The Coke bubbles seemed to die flatly on her tongue.

"Not unlike tonight," she said morosely. She looked away from the shelves of alcohol that had been an unlikely source of entertainment for the past few drinks and began to survey the people in the bar.

It was then that she saw him.

It couldn't be who she thought it was, she was sure of it. Simply couldn't be. And yet, she felt as if she knew that profile as intimately as one of her closest friends. It was the man from the plane. He sat clear down at the other end of the crescent shaped bar, nearly behind her. He sat staring into his amber-coloured drink, a slightly defeated air in the slump of his shoulders.

Common sense had taken leave of Kaede a few drinks ago. Perhaps that was why she took her drink and stood up rather unsteadily, unprepared for the sudden rush of liquid courage that flowed through her veins. But she used it to her advantage and sauntered over to the empty seat at the man's right hand.

The man was too absorbed in either his drink or his thoughts. But at Kaede's husky, "Hello," he sat up and turned to face her, surprise written across his features.

"Have we met?" he asked, clearly well on the road to inebriation. He squinted slightly, his sapphire eyes slightly bloodshot.

"We sat next to each other on the flight from NYC to Tokyo," Kaede confirmed, a slightly sinking feeling in her stomach. Had he really been so oblivious to her?

But the man definitely sat up straighter, looking a little more clear-headed. Kaede caught his male glance at her figure, sweeping and quick, but appreciative nonetheless, and her mood lifted just a little. The light landed more on his face and she noted what the shadows of the bar brought out in his face: the hollow of his cheek, the dark shadows beneath his eyes. And his eyes alone... Brighter and glassier than they might have been, but still that frosty shade of blue that chilled Kaede even in the cloying heat of the bar.

"I remember you," he announced, suddenly awkward. "Sit down." It was more a command than an offering or request, but Kaede obeyed despite of it.

"Can I buy you a drink?" the man asked suddenly, and surprised, Kaede polished off the rest of rum and coke, setting the drink on the counter lightly.

"Yes," she replied as graciously as she could. The bartender was summoned again, and Kaede caught the look of barely suppressed amusement flitting across his face. She smirked at him and for quite possibly the umpteenth time that night, rolled his eyes. The man with blue eyes either ignored it or missed it completely, and focused his attention on Kaede instead.

"Thank you," she said almost shyly; timidity seemed to take hold of her now at the worst possible time. For the first time, she noticed what he had been hunched over earlier: a stack of papers, most with dark slashes through the words, thin letters stemmed from the crossed out sentences.

The man waved off her thanks, instead leaning in slightly more than he might have meant to. "What do you do for a living?" he asked.

Kaede seized on the topic, glad he was making conversation. "I'm a Broadway actress," she said with quiet pride, before adding teasingly, "And whatever you do, it seems to be hard to take a break from."

"I am," and here he drew himself up proudly, "a CEO of a major corporation here in Domino."

"Two important people... And yet, here we were, alone in a bar," Kaede slipped without thinking.

"My work is very time-consuming," the man replied stiffly. "Very important."

"Must not leave much time for a social life," Kaede observed wryly. She was quickly gleaning that this was an arrogant and self-assured man, but it was hard to hold onto those thoughts when there were much more interesting things to think about: the thick hair that fell almost to his eyes, the smirk that played about his lips and only increased her attraction to him.

"Who needs company when you're busy running them?" the man argued, finishing the rest of his drink and signaling for a new one.

Kaede nearly snorted, the line infinitely funnier in her drunken mind. "You don't get out too often do you?"

"What's it matter?" A cold undertone began to creep into his words, and Kaede fumbled with a quick line to save the conversation.

"Well, it is important to be around other people... You're human, and all humans need social interaction. Only robots don't, and you're not... Well, you're not a robot, right?" Kaede hated herself for making the question sound legitimate, but she could not help it.

But her question seemed to lighten the mood and the man smirked and threw back the whole of his new drink. "My lips are sealed," he slurred with a grin.

Kaede felt her heart flutter at his true smile, untainted by sarcasm or wit. On impulse, she laid her hand across his; a hush seemed to descend over the bar as Kaede slowly explored the contours of his hand with her fingertips. On the whole they were typical man's hands, but smoother. There was a hard spot on his middle finger from a lifetime of holding his pencil too hard. All of this Kaede discovered while their eyes were locked together, sapphire on emerald.

"You feel pretty human to me," Kaede said softly, breathlessly.

There was a terribly pregnant pause where the man watched her with his unfathomable eyes. Kaede dared not breathe. Had she ruined her evening with this dark stranger? Was she too forward?

"Would you... like to come back to my apartment with me? For a drink?" the man asked in a low tone. They were rushed without coming out quickly: Kaede knew this was not something the man would ask just any woman.

She only hesitated for a second. A second was all she needed to make up her mind, to choose a new path.

"Yes."