Awwww... I'm gonna be nice and give you guys a two for one deal today! I already had these chapters typed out so I figured that today I would post not only chapter 2 but also chapter 3! But here is the deal though... can I pleeease ask that I get at least 5 more reviews? If you do I promise to update again :-D Thanks and hope you enjoy!

landis icelilly

Discl: Blah Blah Blah Blah... I own nothing except the little creations that go on in my head :-)

(rev: 9/5/07)

Vice looked around at the crowded loft for a moment and noticed that one of the pool tables was not in use. He then quickly turned to Amalia, grabbing her free hand and pulled her over to the table.

"How about we play this?" he said as he gestured toward the table, still grinning

She knew that this was going to happen. She really didn't want to play a game but only because she knew it could cause trouble. "Umm… well… I don't know Vice."

"Come now," he replied trying to convince her to a match. "One little game isn't going to do anything. Do you know how to play?"

"But-" he cut her off before she could finish.

"Its all right if you don't, I'll teach you, " he continued.

Becoming slightly agitated with him, she held up the glass to her mouth and threw back the remainder of its contents, finishing the drink off. She, almost slamming it, put the empty glass down on the table and turned to the wall and grabbed a pool stick from the holder.

Turning back to face Vice she looked at him straight in the eyes. He could see the fury growing in them and was startled by her reaction.

With a calm but challenging voice Amalia replied, "Yes, I do know how to play." She shoved the base of the pool stick into the floor and took a step closer to Vice, still staring him in the eyes. "No, I don't need you to teach me." She then slightly cocked her head to the right, "And yes, I will challenge you to a game but not before you, my dear friend, get me another one of those drinks." With an evil glare in her eyes now, she reached to the table and grabbed the empty glass thrusting it into the man's hand, not once breaking eye contact with him.

Quite shocked at her attitude, Vice took the glass from her and gave her an uneasy smirk. "Another Bhujerban rita coming up. I'll be right back." He quickly turned and headed toward the bar for refills not wanting to find out the fury she would unleash if he had said no.

Amalia watched him disappear into the crowd quickly and then started laughing to herself, shaking her head slowly. She turned to the pool table, gathered all the pool balls and prepared them for the first break to start the game. After that was done she looked in the direction of the bar trying to see if Vice was on his way back but she couldn't see him for the large horde that hung around the bar counter. Sighing, she leaned against the edge of the table, crossed her ankles while still holding her pool stick and waited for the soldier to come back. She continued to stare into the crowd until she finally caught sight of his face and saw that he was talking to his three friends that had came with them and the dark-haired man that had greeted them at the door. She hadn't been able to get a look at his face when they had came into the tavern earlier, but now she could at least see a glimpse of the masculine face though she still couldn't make out his features. She felt a sense of déjà vu and tried to rack her brain to remember where she had seen that man before. As she watched she saw Vice say something to the four men and then they only nodded their heads back in return. Then they went their separate ways and Vice quickly walked back to the table where he had left Amalia earlier.

He saw her leaning against the table with her legs crossed at the ankles and pool stick in hand. He couldn't help but to let his eyes scan over her gorgeous figure, wondering if it was just as seducing without the clothing as it was with it. She had that same fire burning in her eyes still and had an evil smirk adorning her face when he came to focus on it. He noticed how her flaxen hair, just barely shoulder length, was parted slightly to the side and was layered just right so that each strand gently encompassed her petite, but nicely toned, jaw line and neck. When he looked back up to her eyes, she caught his gaze and held it for a few seconds longer than should have been. She gave him a look as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar but let her lips curve back into a very seductive grin. Vice knew he had been condemned by her and he quickly glanced away to look at the wall, the floor, the pool table behind her, the man next to him, anything so that he wouldn't look at her and let her see his embarrassment written on his face.

'Why, of all the women in Ivalice, does she have to be my superior?! If only she wasn't then I could… We could… Wait why am I thinking like this?'

Vice shook his head and mentally berated himself for thinking of her in that manner. He knew better. Finally, when he knew he had made it obvious to her that he was trying to avoid her seeing his indiscretion, he gave up and looked down to his mug full of golden ale in one hand and to the frozen pink alcoholic slush he held in the other. He wasn't usually like this and came to the conclusion that it was the ale he was consuming that made his mind go into the gutters. When he reached the place where she was standing he finally looked back up and smiled at her to break the awkwardness of her scrutiny as he handed Ashe her refilled glass and she immediately took a big gulp of the frozen slush looking away only momentarily.

"Wow, I wasn't gone that long!" he claimed as he watched her take the rather large gulp and then set the glass aside.

Amalia gave him a sly grin at his remark and replied back in a sarcastic tone, "Ha, very funny. Now are you ready to 'teach me' to play?"

"But I thought—" she quickly cut him off.

"I am joking with you! Now lets play. You can break first," she said as she gestured toward the readied table.

"Alright then," Vice replied as he sat his mug of ale next to where Amalia's drink sat and grabbed a pool stick out of the holder on the back wall. He then picked up the cube of blue chalk, applied it to the tips of both their sticks and set it back down into the tray it had came from.

'Hmm, she is acting pretty sure of herself. I will have to raise the stakes when I see what she has hidden up that red little skirt of hers… Damn it! Here I go again, (sigh) this is going to be a long night.' He thought to himself as he examined her body… language and attitude to determine whether she was bluffing him or not.

"We will see just how well you do against me," Vice said giving her a bit of a ruse of his own.

He walked around the table to position himself so that he got the best angle to break the triangle of balls apart, hoping to pocket at least one of them. But just as he past by Amalia, he heard her let out a low and cocky chuckle which let him know that she caught his bluff and was calling him on it.

Five Games and Five Drinks Each Later…

As Amalia made the final strike and the black eight ball propelled into the corner pocket, she looked up victoriously at Vice and his three buddies who had appear around the table sometime at the start of their last game. Looking rather unsettled at the fact that he had been beaten at his own game five times in a row by a woman and even worse, all his friends had watched him in his humiliation.

"That makes it five to… zero! It doesn't look like you are doing very well against me now does it?" Amalia triumphantly stated as she walked to where Vice and his friends stood at the other end of the table. She saw the look of his ego being crushed right before her and she loved every minute of it. She stopped directly in front of Vice with only but an inch or two between them and gave him another one of her malicious smiles.

With her so close to his body, he was unable to think and therefore all he could do was stare back at her with awe. He knew that he had drank one mug of ale too many and too fast because all the thoughts that ran through his head at that moment were of the sexually inclined and was making him dizzy.

"Care to challenge me to another?" she asked tilting her head to the side innocently, not realizing she was so close to him or the effect she was putting on him.

"I don't think so Amalia, I'm going to sit down for a bit," he replied as he set the pool stick down on the table and began to head toward an empty table trying to maintain his composure.

Disappointment showed on her face as she followed him to the bar table and tried to plead with him, " I'm sorry Vice, I didn't mean to be arrogant. I just was enjoying winning that's all. I'll let you win this one, please. I promise." She gave him an innocent three-year-old smile and batted her eyelashes at him.

Vice let out an amused sigh and replied, " Don't be sorry, I'm not mad at all. I was just starting to feel dizzy from all the ale I have been drinking and needed to take a break. I'll take you up on your offer in a bit when I feel a bit better."

"Oh," she felt a little bit cynical but shrugged it off. "I'm going to get another one of those drinks, want anything?" she asked the four men around her.

"No thanks, I'm done for a little bit," Vice answered.

"Can you handle getting three more mugs of ale?" one of the friends piped up.

Nodding her head, she replied giving a seductive smile but not knowing that she had, " Not a problem, be right back." And walked toward the bar, disappearing into the massive crowd that had grown around the bar and was overtaking the upper floor.

When she finally reached the bar top, she gave the rather young looking bartender her order and stood to the side as she waited for it to be prepared. Looking down to the first floor she noted that it was almost bare of people and the tables and chairs. She saw that they had cleared the floor and was making room so that some musicians could set up their instruments. Quite intrigued, she continued to watch the employees of the tavern set up and was startled when the bartender threw down the mugs and then her glass with a loud 'thud' sound, onto the bar top.

Looking quite agitated, she picked up her glass in one hand and in the other she grabbed the handles of the three mugs. Then while she started to walk away, she looked back to the bartender, " How rude," she muttered more to herself than to the bartender.

She pushed her way through the crowded loft being shoved this way and that trying to get back to the table where she had left Vice and his friends at. Upon getting closer she could barely make out their conversation but already knew what his friends were teasing him about. She smiled to herself and actually concluded that she was having a great time. She thought about how this was the first time, ever really, that she had actually enjoyed a social event.

Amalia walked up to the table of four men and set their drinks down on the wooden table top, causing them to halt their conversation and she raised an eyebrow in question. All of them just ignored the awkward moment and took their designated mugs. They thanked her quickly and began to gulp down the liquid so as to avoid answering any questions about their conversation. Amalia knowing full well what the topic of their exchange had been and wasn't going to let them off the hook so easily. But just as she was beginning to open her mouth to speak, a very familiar strong and deep voice interrupted her from behind.

"Hey now, it looks like you have seen one too many drinks my friends. You know, the four of you are the biggest bunch of fairies that I know," laughed the masculine voice. "And who, may I ask, is this beautiful young lady that you have somehow managed to find?" he said as he noticed the young female that stood at the table with her backside facing him, which he promptly began to look her over.

'I know that voice.' Amalia thought to herself as she quickly closed her mouth and her eyes had gone wide with a slight bit of fear and shock that shown in them. If it was who she thought it to be then… well she really didn't want to find out the result. She slowly closed her eyes and took deep breaths to still her nerves and calm herself for the confrontation that was surely to happen.

Vice looked up to Amalia's face slightly embarrassed at his friend's outward ness and saw the shocked look that had graced her features.

Raising a brow in confusion to her reaction, he turned to the new comer giving him a cocky smirk and replied, " Well now I'm sorry Capitan to disappoint you but I'm merely taking a break from my ale intake. But those three on the other hand," pointing his thumb in the direction of his three friends on the other side of the table that were trying to 'woo' the women when one of them fell out of his chair, " are about as fairy as you can get. That is only their second round and they are almost smashed!"

"We are not… (hiccup)… smashed!" the one retorted from the floor as he grabbed the chair and his friends arm next to him. He tried to pull himself back up on to the chair and instead brought his buddy and the chair tumbling back to the floor with him.

Vice rolled his eyes and shook his head at the two men on the floor and the other still sitting in his chair, laughing hysterically.

" Now that is just plain sad. And I let them in as soldiers? I must be slipping." The man replied back.

Vice glanced back at Amalia and saw that she had her eyes closed and looked a bit paler than before. He wondered why she was acting that way so suddenly and tried to grab her hand to comfort her when the Captain asked him again, " So are you going to introduce me to this beautiful young lady here?"

Retracting his hand he quickly stood up next to Amalia and answered, " Forgive me, Capitan Azales. This is Amalia."

Amalia felt her heart rate increase and the blood in her body burn as the alcohol in her system intensified the effect. Slowly she turned her body to face the Capitan with an arrogant but knowing smile adorning her lips and found his face to be paling from shock. She knew that she wasn't suppose to be gallivanting outside of the hideout or with any of the other members after sunset because of the risk that someone would recognize her and bring her harm. Ashe just knew that when she got back to her room tonight, she was going to get the lecture of a lifetime. Just by looking at him, she knew that she had caused his blood to boil and he didn't look pleased at all.

"Hello, Capitan Azelas," Amalia replied calmly.

"Hello, Amalia. Can I have a word with you… in private." He said coolly through gritted teeth as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the crowd to a side hallway that was unoccupied.

By now his two friends on the floor had finally returned upright at the table and all three had stopped laughing and was looking between Vice and the two that were quickly disappearing into an empty corridor of the loft. When they looked to Vice they asked confused, " What just happened?"

"I'm just as clueless as you," he replied equally confused.

"Do they know each other?"

The taller of the friends took his left hand and slapped him up the backside of his head at the stupid question and answered, " Gee, what ever made you think that genius!"

Vice laughed at the exchange and then turned his head toward the archway that Captain Azelas had taken Amalia to. He barely could see them in the dim lighting but was able to make out a not so happy Captain and a very arrogant Amalia in a heated argument.