Dark. Calmness. Breathing. Warmth. The pillow's soft embrace.
The raven-haired was sleeping peacefully. His senses slowly came to him, gently carrying him away from his sleeping bliss. His thoughts drifted between sleep's embrace and the facts that took place after that lingering kiss with Elvira, at the fountain.

They parted slowly, catching their breaths. Sergei rested his forehead on Elvira's one, just like before. He stood still for a moment, cupping her face in his hands, keeping his gaze low. Elvira cupped his face as well, in a more possessive way than Sergei did. She made him look her in the eyes, pinning him with that rich glowing red colour, then her lips curled into a smirk, and then into a grin. She gently pulled him closer, bringing his body onto hers, causing him to slightly push her against the fountain's edge that was behind her.

Sergei was momentarily filled with a reserving intention, then he relaxed. He enjoyed staying like this for a while, as he put his hands on her waist and stroked her upwards on her back, his hands openly exploring her figure on the way, till his thumbs extended to her sides. She leaned in and kissed him again. They enjoyed each other's warm company for some more minutes, then their lips parted and Elvira whispered in a seductive voice.

"Shall we carry on with our little party in privacy?"

Sergei was surprised with how fast and plainly he accepted. For such a reserved and introverted person, his body responded like a spoiled child that was going to get what he wanted, no matter what. They headed to her car, kissing on the way, and they paused only to drive to her place as quickly as it gets. When they entered her building, Elvira kept her distance but still held his hand, leading him to the elevator. Once the doors closed, she pinned him on the wall, leaning her body on his and teasing his lips with hers, without actually kissing him. Sergei gladly accepted it all, without really advancing on any other moves. Shortly, they reached the floor her apartment was on, and she led him to her place.

As they entered her apartment, Sergei eyed the place with wonder. It was finely designed, the decoration was mostly in dark and red tones, with bloody-themed works of art on the walls, the furniture was obviously expensive, and everything provided a taste of dark design with gothic and classic hints. It was dark and beautiful. "Like a soothing hell," as Sergei thought.

The moment the door closed, the young man was interrupted from his exploring thoughts, as Elvira brought him close and locked lips with him again. As they kissed, she removed his coat and threw it on a table, then she slowly guided him to the couch while kissing him, as Sergei kept his eyes closed and let her do so. They sat together side by side, but still facing each other, with Elvira slightly leaning on him. Their lips parted once again and she caressed his face with her fingers as she whispered.

"Would you like to drink something?"

Still dazed by her intoxicating presence, Sergei didn't respond right away. He didn't really feel like having a drink, and he didn't want her to leave her current place either. However, he thought some booze might help him get rid of the tension, as he would get more familiar with the place and the whole thing. He had not been like that with a woman for more than a year, and Elvira was only the second person he ever got that intimate with. He finally responded.

"Uhm... some scotch would be nice. If there is any."
He thought it was a silly way to ask so, right after he finished his sentence.

Elvira smirked and whispered "of course," then she slowly got up and headed to the bar, as Sergei eyed her shape and drank in her sight once more.
After a while, she was back with two glasses of scotch. She handed him the glass and elegantly sat beside him. He smiled at her and took a sip. The flavor was strong for him but he kept a calm expression on his face. Then, he remembered the nights that he and his best friend had, back in Bucharest. They used to have a glass of scotch now and then, especially on those poker nights. It had been so long since the last time he tasted it. Now the flavor became familiar again. He enjoyed the aftertaste in his mouth.

He raised his gaze and his eyes met hers. Her face bore a devilish smirk, as she pinned him with that possessive gaze once again. With slow moves she took a sip of her glass, and the moment the glass touched her lips, the raven-haired swallowed nervously. When she lowered her glass, she took in the taste of scotch that remained on her lips, then slightly licked the upper one. Sergei approached gently, stopping just one breath away from her face. They stared each other in the eyes, as she grinned, then he started a gentle kiss as they pleasantly shared some of the remaining scotch flavor.

Time passed by as they enjoyed each other's kisses, caresses, soft words and seductive looks. At some point, Elvira pushed him gently and they lied on the couch, making out and caressing each other. Her hands wandered from his face to his chest, then they slowly caressed lower, ending up inside his shirt and stroking his abdomen. Sergei liked the sensation on his body, but his mind wouldn't let him have it. This was all too familiar, not in a good way. He had been there before. The company of a certain woman that made that December night, a night to remember. It was almost the same scenery, the start of what seemed to be a journey in the fields of insatiable passion and love, only to lead in lasting pain and betrayal. He wouldn't make the same mistake. He wanted to make things right this time, he wouldn't rush into the deceitful ways of lust and hope for the best. He wanted to feel whole again, to feel good with himself, and rushing into having sex with a woman he only knew for some days was not going to give him that, and he knew that well. If he wanted something like that, he would have done so before, probably with some random girl he would meet at any bar. But being with her was something precious to him, and he wanted to build up that thing they had into something real.

He felt the burning sensations in him cool down, as his mind had its way again. He reached for Elvira's hand that stroked his abs and gently removed it, still holding it and interlocking fingers with her. Elvira stopped kissing him and looked at him with a surprised expression. He smiled at her and spoke, while caressing her face with his other hand.

"You know... I do enjoy your company."
"So do I," responded Elvira, her face questioning Sergei for the need of the obvious statement.
"Thing is... I enjoy it too much to spoil it now."

Elvira was still for a moment, then broke in chuckles to cover her obvious confusion. Sergei gently brought himself and her to the sitting position they had before, then continued caressing her face as he spoke.

"I know it seems... weird. Or even stupid. I died to be with you the moment I laid my eyes on you, and now I act like this... I don't want you to take it the wrong way. But I don't want to rush things. I said I wanted to know you, that meant to discover every inch of... the wonderful you. But I want to do this right. For my own reasons."

Elvira smiled and stroked his chin, while softly speaking.

"Of course. But we are here and we both want this. Who's to say it's wrong?"

Sergei cupped her face and leaned in for a soft kiss. His thumbs caressed her cheekbones as he did so. Then they parted and he answered softly.

"I just... I need to do things this way. I know I probably seem messed up with all this, maybe too insecure or scared or... whatever. And it's funny that I don't open up like this, and here you are, barely knowing me for... days, and we are in your place, and..."

He paused for a moment, slightly feeling awkward as Elvira's expression had turned serious. Her face warmed up a bit and she attempted to speak but Sergei indicated he wanted to say more.

"Look... this is me now. At this current time of my life, this is how I deal with everything. If you... expected something different, something more exciting and stuff, I will totally understand. But let me just say that... if you are interested in making something special out of... this..." his hand indicated them both, going back and forth the distance between them, "...then I am more than eager to discover this with you. And if you are not interested in something like that... well... I am just glad I had the chance to tell you."

Elvira's expression turned into a half smile. Then she cupped his face with both hands and gave him a deep, lingering kiss. Without completely parting their lips, she whispered "this should be interesting," then continued the kiss.

They kissed and kissed, as time passed by. Eventually, Sergei said he needed to leave, as "his friend the fool" got stuck outside a club in the other side of the city and was too drunk to safely go home by himself (fortunately not too drunk to text Sergei about it).

He opened his eyes. His gaze wandered in the reach of his sight, as he was too bored to move his head for a better view. The room was so quiet and peaceful. He looked at the few sunrays that entered through the not-completely-shut window blinds. He watched the room's dust dance in the sunlight. He smiled at the memories and emotions that filled him. "This is worth living for," he thought. It was the first time in god-knows-how-long that he felt that content.
Time passed slowly but pleasantly, as he was half asleep, not sure if his memories turned into dreams or just remained simple thoughts. Eventually, he got up and walked out of the room, heading to the bathroom. His blonde roommate was still in his room, sleeping like a baby, as always. Sergei had a shower and as he looked at himself in the mirror, he was surprised by how refreshed he looked. It was the first night in a long time that he slept that good. He smiled and washed his face.

He made coffee and a sandwich. He sat comfortably on the couch, with his breakfast placed on the low table and his laptop on his lap. He browsed his e-mails and his eye caught one particular mail from an unfamiliar adress. He raised his brow and opened it. As he read it, his eyes grew wide. It was sent by a musician who was at Eugi's during the night of their first paid performance. He wrote that he liked the two friends' playing skills and was interested in a collaboration of the three. He was a drummer and he suggested a meeting and discussing about the possibility of writing music together, or even forming a band. At the end of the mail, he had written his full name and phone number.

"Oh... my... GOD!"

Sergei couldn't help but cheer like a child. He jumped off the couch, nearly dropping his laptop on the floor, he rushed into Logan's room where he found the blond sleeping peacefully and totally unaware of his friend's intentions. Finally, he jumped on the bed shouting and cheering up, grabbing and shaking his terrified friend maniacally. When he eventually explained the situation, Logan's nervous voice took a sarcastic tone and he commented.

"Gosh... and you had to start jumping on my bed and screaming like a girl? That hangover is already too bad..."
"I made coffee. This is a great opportunity! We can get some recognition and... well, more doors open that way. This might be the first step to something big!"

Logan unwillingly got up and headed to the kitchen, as Sergei followed.

"But we don't know this guy. How can you be so sure that he's who he says he is?"
"Uhm... that's why he said we should meet him first and have a talk," said the raven-haired in a sarcastic tone.
"But why didn't he say so earlier? Like, at the end of the music programme that night... don't get me wrong, I love such opportunities but I have seen so much going on in this business and..."
"We should at least meet him and hear what he says."
"But..."
"Nope."
"But-"
"Nah!"
"B-but-"

Sergei stuffed Logan's mouth with a muffin.

"The e-mail was sent to me, so we shall do as I say." He gave Logan an innocent look.

Logan took the muffin and after some chewing, he spoke.

"What's with you today? You look so full of energy and..." his eyes grew wide. "Did you...?" Sergei looked at him with wonder.
"What?"
Logan almost chocked on the effort to quickly swallow the muffin and exclaimed with enthusiasm.
"DID YOU BANG THE CHICK?"

Before Sergei had the chance to reply, Logan was shouting with excitement as he followed his usual cheering comical moves, repeatedly using phrases like "that's my man" or "get 'em, Sergio."

Sergei rolled his eyes and said in a low tone "you really can't be helped." Then, he took another muffin and stuffed his friend's mouth again, more fiercely this time.

"I didn't bang her. We... had a moment. At her place. On her couch. But nothing like that happened. Actually, why don't you wash that muffin down with some coffee and let me tell you all about last night...?"

They talked and time passed by pleasantly, as Logan's usual spicy comments were followed by Sergei's usual sarcastic reactions. Despite all the teasing and mocking, Logan was happy that his friend seemed to truly cheer up in such a long time. Of course he held his concerns about the whole thing. Before Sergei arrived in Bridgeport, Elvira kind of held a reputation about the way she handled her men. She had been discreet most of the times. Maybe too discreet. No one had kept any contact with her past relationships and these men seemed to disappear from the neighbourhood as plainly as they appeared before. The blond had heard Morrigan teasingly calling Elvira "man-eater" before. He didn't really pay any attention to that but now that things were about to get on with his friend and Elvira, he felt that he needed to be cautious for him, just in case.

"What about you?"

Logan was shaken from his thoughts and was caught bearing a serious and puzzled expression, something he rarely did.

"Huh?"
"What happened with Alice? Last night you were too drunk to explain why you needed me to come and pick you up."
"Oh... yeah."

Logan's expression became even more puzzled and indicated that he had some trouble recalling what exactly happened that night. Some seconds passed and Sergei touched his friend on the shoulder.

"Logan...? Is everything alright?"
"Yeah... I just... Well, the weirdest thing happened last night. It was all going smooth, me and Alice went to the Grind, had a couple of drinks, shook it a bit... everything went fine and then I... I can't really remember. It must have been the booze... something was in it, or it was too strong, I don't know. It gets fuzzy at some point." Sergei's face bore a surprised expression at first, then a shocked one.
"Are you alright? What do you remember?"

Logan adjusted his position on his chair, with his elbows on the table, and dropped his gaze low as he spoke.

"Well... I am okay and stuff, nothing bad happened. I am just kinda confused. I wasn't confused yesterday and everything seemed normal and stuff, but now I am kinda puzzled with Alice... at some point, we run into some friends of her and we joined them. They had brought other friends with them and, as you can imagine, the final group was huge. I just introduced myself to them and then carried on with Alice... then, at some point, she joined the conversation of some friends that were sitting on the other side of the table, then I went to dance... and then it is fuzzy and I don't remember the details. I just remember that, somehow... at some point, Alice went into the crowd with a guy she was talking to, then I searched for her but she was nowhere to be found. I tried calling her but her phone was off. I asked the rest of the group if they saw her, but no one did. I spent the next 10 minutes looking for her all over the place, I even got out and she was nowhere, and I still couldn't reach her by phone. Then I felt pretty messed up and I just told her friends to let her know that I left, should they see her later."

Sergei remained silent for half a minute. Then, he reached out for his friend's shoulder again.

"Do you want to go to the hospital or something? Are you sure you feel okay?"
"Gosh, no... I am fine. I just have a headache... I don't know if I will be able to perform tonight."
"Don't worry. We will figure something out until then."

Logan raised his gaze on his smiling friend and found himself surprised at the raven-haired's sudden turning into an optimist. He smiled back and the two friends finished their meal. Then, the blond headed back to his bedroom and Sergei cleaned up. The rest of the day passed quickly and in the evening, the two friends got to perform together.