The nightlife of Storybrooke was new and exciting to Nadri, the street that occupied the bar and the nightclub already had a few residents gathered outside in the smoking areas, clouds of smoke being mixed within the cool air of the night. The entrance lights were lit up with deep reds, blues and greens and the closer that the women got to the club they could hear the thumping music coming from inside. Nadri was squeezed between Emma and Snow as they made their way towards the doors and she could feel the anxiety sneaking back up into her mind.
Nadri didn't know how more of the townsfolk would react to her being around, the way she was dressed tonight gave her the niggling feeling of wanting to cover up knowing that the scar that was embedded along her chest would be there for the world to see. She didn't know how she would react to being in a place like this, the booming music throughout the building and all of the people squished together on the dancefloor like sardines gave her an unsure, ill feeling.
Would she take to this?
She enjoyed tea, doughnuts in the sheriff's office and the quietness of Killian's ship. This was in a completely bipolar world to that.
"Ladies." A gruff deep voice greeted the three of them as they passed the bouncer, standing by the door of the Puddin' n' Pie. They lined up behind some others in the queue and the customers were carefully weeded into the club, Nadri timid between the girls who were chatting away to each other of how nice the club looked. It was very modern, a smoking area was situated at the front of the club and there were large, sleek pane windows that Nadri could peer into and see people dancing away under the strobe lights and the bar that was further along the back.
They really had to chuck her in the deep end.
Something made Nadri raise her eyebrow.
"Are those poles?" She said loudly over the music that could be heard from where they were outside, looking back at the women. Nadri could see male and female dancers prancing around the pole, something that was completely foreign to her. It intrigued her how a person could have so much upper body strength to perform such stunts.
"Oh! I didn't realise it was that type of club…" Snow's voice was full of embarrassment and Nadri could see the rosy tint over her pale face.
"What type?" Nadri asked again, still curious as she crossed her arms while watching through the window.
"Excuse me, this isn't a strip club is it?" Snow almost shouted over to the bouncer at the door as he let in the group that were in front of them, not before giving a supercilious look towards Nadri.
"The boss likes to have the platforms for the customers, Miss. Any stripping and you'll be out." The bouncer, suited up in all dark clothing, answered Snow as they came up to the rope with a serious tone.
"Stripping?" Nadri felt like an idiot, almost as if she was the girls' personal parrot. Anything they said was completely foreign to her, she didn't understand the concept of 'stripping' on the platforms with a pole. She already felt like it was going to be a long night, she just wished that they could at least dumb it down a little bit so she didn't come across so clueless.
"Is this one deaf?" The bouncer grunted, looking over his shoulder to see that a group were walking towards the exit of the door. Nadri was about to make a snappy remark at his jab but Emma put her hand up with warning eyes as the group exited the club and they were allowed to walk in. "Behave ladies." The bouncer told Emma strictly and Emma nodded, the three of them heading inside.
The music was louder, pulsing through Nadri's ears and the strobe lights darting all over the place enough for her eyes to have the need to adjust. Emma led them towards the bar, having to push past the crowds of bodies on the dancefloor. Nadri exchanged glances with few people around room, mostly men that were looking at her like a stray, wounded gazelle in a lion's den.
"Right, what are we drinking?" Emma asked the group as they finally reached a small space at the bar, sitting at one of the stools as Snow grabbed the other one. Nadri stood between them, shrugging her jacket off to put over Snow's stool and unveiling the revealing chest line of her top. They were greeted with a young barmaid on the other side, her hair in a neat up-do, few strands dangled around the lilac ribbon that was wrapped around her neck in a small bow. "I'll have a beer, thanks Trish."
"Sure thing sweet." The dark-skinned woman behind the bar, Trisha, gave her a flirtatious smile and Emma gave her a soft smile. "What about you, lovelies?"
"I'll have a white wine I think." Snow replied and Trisha looked to Nadri with waiting eyes and a patient smile.
"What would the newbie like?"
"Was it that obvious, yuvongein?" Trisha gave Nadri a warm smile that then stretched into a grin, pearly whites beneath her shaped lips.
"Your eyes. I'd remember eyes like those." Trisha complimented. "I like her. How about a schnapps?"
"Do I look like a bard?" Nadri retorted with an amused tone, her violet eyes lit up by the lights that were spotted along the bar. "What's that?" She pointed to the back of the bar where all of the bottles were decorated and Trisha looked back, seeing the bottle of the dark orangey liquid that Nadri was pointed curiously at.
"Fireball?" Convenient.
"I'll have that."
"Fireball and lemonade for her." Emma handed Trisha her card so she could process the drinks and start making them for the women. A seat became free next to Emma and Nadri sat herself down, observing the chattering in the room through the music thumps. She had a few men in the low lighting looking over their pints at her, like Trisha had said herself, anyone would remember her eyes. They all knew that she didn't belong there.
Nadri cautiously drank from the glass that had been placed in front of her, immediately giving a pleased groan when she tasted the cinnamon-like liquid and knocked the rest back, gulping like a fish. Snow and Emma's eyes were wide at Nadri, mouths a gap when they saw the liquid disappearing down her throat.
"Easy, Nadri! I wasn't planning on going that hard yet." Emma exclaimed, laughing away after she took a mouthful of her beer.
"It was delicious!" Nadri happily put the glass down, grabbing a napkin and gently dabbing her lips without smearing her lipstick.
"How did that not hurt?" Snow paled and Emma couldn't help but stifle a giggle from her seat, knowing that her mother was very much a prude.
"I breathed fire for a long time, I guess you get used to it in any sense."
"There's Regina." Emma lifted her hand, waving out for the sorceress that entered the club. She was in more relaxed clothing, black jeans and a strappy red tank top complimented the smoky make-up she had on. The ends of her short hair were curled and she held onto a red clutch bag. "You took your time." She shouted as Regina slipped past a few people on the dancefloor and joined the ladies at the bar, standing beside Nadri.
"I've had a busy day trying to get Nadri some identification for being in town. Here." Regina opened up her purse and pulled out a small card that happened to be a driving licence and gave it to Nadri. Nadri eyed it suspiciously at first, even after speaking with Regina before she was still cautious around her purely for the previous history that had occurred between them.
Nadri took the card from Regina and looked down at it closely. It was a driving licence with Nadri's blank expression photographed in the corner.
'Nadri Coin'
She had a name.
A real name.
"This is mine?" Nadri was stunned, continuing to eye the card in her hands. "I think you are missing a thousand years off this!" She laughed, showing the girls that her age had been written down as '27' this year. "I don't know what to say."
"Well, it was that pirate of yours that came into my office today." Regina gave Nadri a small, warming twitch of her lips. "He can be…sweet. I imagine he wanted to do something nice for you." She could hear Emma and Snow 'awing' in the background.
"I'm actually a person now." Nadri muttered, completely unheard by the girls as the music drowned her voice out.
From there, more drinks were poured. Snow was taking it easy, struggling to keep up with Emma who was happily drinking her pints and Nadri who was knocking back her glasses of fireball. Killian had already been training up to be able to handle her drinks, it was making her feel warm and fuzzy inside and the confidence began to grow a little bit more.
Nadri was no longer concerned about how she appeared to the other people in the room, or even how exposed she was, she was enjoying this elated high from the alcohol and the buzz that it was giving her.
"Mom, you need to chill. I can't have you trying to stay sober all night." Emma told her mother as she began to order in another round of drinks in.
"Well when there's men in here staring at you I need to stay on guard." Snow defended, shooting a 'momma bear' glare to the man that had been looming over at the group from the otherside of the room, sitting on the couches of the club in the corner.
"I think we all know I can handle myself." Emma scoffed.
"I think he's more interested in this one." Regina pointed down at Nadri as she took a more sensible mouthful from her drink, the curly haired woman looking over her shoulder to see the blonde man flash a charismatic grin at her, as if he was expecting her to fall to his feet begging. "It's the eyes." Regina wiggled her eyebrows at Nadri, receiving a sarcastic eye roll back.
"My heart belongs to one person only." Nadri frowned at Regina suggesting at such a thing. "I can't imagine anyone trying to replace Killian. They'd have a hard fight on their hands."
"He's really besotted with you. What a love story." Snow sighed, dreamily. "Reminds me of David and me."
"He brought a light into my life, it has been long overdue."
"So what next? Marriage, babies?" Nadri choked on her drink as she swallowed, hearing Snow's words resonate through her. Nadri spluttered, trying to clear her throat as Snow regretted the words that left her mouth.
"Mom-"
"Well, I just thought since its true love you'd like to officiate that." Snow shrugged hazily, drinking her white wine.
"I imagine that Nadri has had more pressing things on her mind." Regina came to Nadri's defence. "Like coming back from the dead." She reminded dryly.
"We haven't discussed anything like this." Nadri shook her head. "I don't know if that is possible with this body to have children. I don't know if I am maternal."
"Well marriage then-"
"Mom!"
"I'm sorry ok? I'm just curious." Snow put her hands up.
"I imagine that our souls are bound forever regardless. Do we need to tie hands to make that official?"
"In this realm, yes." Emma shrugged, guzzling the last of her pint. "Do you not want to marry him if he asked you?"
"I feel like you are bundling down on me." Nadri narrowed her eyes and Emma couldn't help but chuckle.
"'Ganging up on you' and no, we're not. We just want to know how you guys have this perfect love and what you want to do with it." Nadri hadn't given a thought to binding herself to Killian for the rest of her life, she assumed that was already a given considering they were the loves of each other's lives.
It shocked her to even think about sharing children with Killian, it was a subject that they had rarely touched on and she was just getting used to this life by herself. She couldn't imagine bringing in a child who would be just as clueless as herself.
"I wonder how he'd do it. Do you think he'd propose in the Jolly Roger?" Snow trailed off thoughtfully and Nadri couldn't help but exchange a fed-up glance with Emma.
"You get used to it." Emma lowered her lips down to Nadri's ear. "Want to go and dance?" Nadri nodded her head, Nadri knocking the drink back and getting up with Emma to leave with her to the dance floor. "Just go with it." Emma yelled over the loud music. The music was vibing through Nadri and she was tipsy enough to move with it, her and Emma dancing beside each other. With every beat, Nadri let it take over her and she swished her hips around. She let her hands up in the air, dancing around and for once in the whole day she felt comfortable enough to let loose.
Nadri was dancing out of her mind, the energy picking up and suddenly she felt a movement against her, foreign hands on her hips that surprised her and she jolted forward, turning around to see the man that had been eyeing her up across the bar earlier.
"Inhon!" Nadri spat in disgust, shoving the man away from her as she still felt the crawling sensation of his hands on her without her consent. "I can only assume that you do not need your hands, Inhon, otherwise you would not have touched me." Nadri threatened loudly, glancing over her shoulder to see that Emma had wondered off towards the DJ booth to request a song from the DJ.
"Whoa! There's no need to be like that, love. Thought I'd come and dance with you." The blonde man shrugged, built bigger than Killer in both height and in muscle. His voice was full of an arrogance that Nadri wanted to stamp on with her high heels. "You're a feisty one aren't you? Let me buy you a drink, it was an innocent mistake." Nadri furrowed her eyebrows together as the man caught her wrist with his hand as she went to turn in Emma's direction and looked up at the towering man.
She raised her knee and slipped it between his legs, catching the back of his leg so he stumbled and forced her shoulder hard into his chest so he fell over on the dancefloor, almost being trampled by the heels of the other woman on the floor. The bouncer inside the club caught the customer's part for the man who had been thudded to the floor, storming over quite quickly.
"I think this one has had too much! Poor guy was stumbling everywhere." Nadri put on an innocently concerned voice, pointing down at the gentlemen whose face was boiling with rage. Nadri moved through the crowd of people and towards Emma as she finished talking to the DJ, and she couldn't help but let the smirk creep back onto her lips.
"Whoa, he's had a bit much." Emma couldn't help but laugh as she saw the bouncer try and pick the man up from the floor, the man getting up in a huff and protesting until he was blue in the face that he wasn't drunk. "You okay? If this is too much for you I can call you a cab." Emma spoke loudly as they stood by the booth.
"No I'm…I'm having a great time. Let's get more drinks in. Let's get those little ones too."
"You want to do shots?"
"Why not? It'll be great."
Nadri, Emma, Snow and Regina kept lining the bar up with shots of a raspberry flavoured liqueur along with their own drinks that they continued to roll up on the tab that Emma opened. They had so much alcohol that Nadri was drunk enough to the point she was now up on one of the dancing platforms, swishing her curls around as she showed off her unexpectedly great dancing skills around the pole, Emma and Regina cheering her on in the crowd of people. More dancing, more drinks and more laughter ensued and soon enough Nadri's vision was starting to deceive her and the way that she was walking around. She began to stumble over the glittery heels that she was wearing and she felt like she was caught in the middle of the waves of the sea.
"You've had enough."
"You've had more enough than I've had enough!" Regina slurred back to Nadri in the same fashion as the dark-haired woman was talking as they sat back up at the bar.
"You've both had enough." Trisha scolded as Nadri could just about pick up her fireball without letting it slip through her fingers. They thought that she would be the first person to drop a glass but it was Snow and now she was huddled in the bathroom with Emma emptying her stomach from the amount of alcohol. "I don't want the guys to have to throw you out."
"Why's it called Puddin' n' Cake again?" Nadri could barely look straight as she spoke in Trisha's direction, her lids barely open. "Because they're the same thing right? They're both food."
"Pie, sweetie." Regina patted Nadri's shoulder, throwing back a shot that was three layers of bright colours and a dollop of whipped cream on top with hundreds and thousands decorating it. "Oh god." She grimaced, feeling the cream mix with the alcohol.
"T-That ones a rainbow shot." Nadri told her with a matter of fact tone, listening to the music change to a bassy dance tune and Nadri immediately began to bump to it. "We should dance again Regina! I like this song!"
"You don't even know this song."
By the Gods, they were plastered out of their minds.
"I'm calling you both a cab." Trisha repeated dryly, having listened to the same conversation for the past 20 minutes.
"Well I'm the mayor of Storybrooke and I demand that we stay an extra 5 minutes for more rainbow shots." Regina attempted to straighten herself out but suddenly slipped off her stool, ending up straight on her butt as she landed on the floor and Nadri broke into howling laughter. "What are you laughing? I'm the same height as you now!"
"Hey!"
"I'm calling-"
"A taxi blah blah, we heard the first time." Regina struggled getting up, Nadri leaning down to help her up from the ground. "I live around the corner, I'll get us home. Leave the girls in the loo, they can't handle their drinks!" Regina yelled towards the bathroom with her fist raised. "C'mon Naddi, let's go." Regina and Nadri were arm in arm, stumbling towards the door of the nightclub.
The fresh air hit them like a slap in the face and they immediately felt their dizziness increase tenfold and Nadri had to let out a sigh, feeling off balance as they stepped forward.
"I was lied to you know." Nadri rambled first as they weaved down the path, the dark night's cold air nipping and biting at Nadri's bare legs. "I was promised food and you know what I didn't get?"
"Clothes that would keep you warm?" Regina asked her as she looked at Nadri's freezing body underneath her jacket.
"Exactly!" Nadri exclaimed in disappointment, a random hand gesture to accompany it. "Where are we going?"
"I'm going to whip us up some apple martinis at mine." Regina told her as if it wasn't the most obvious thing in the world. Nadri shrugged, happily accompanying Regina back to her home to continue drinking.