Disclaimer: I am not Uncle Rick and I do not own the rights to these characters. I just ship them immensely.

A/N: Sorry for upload delay! I had most of the chapter written by Thanksgiving, but then I just got so busy I couldn't finish it until now! Lots more action in this chapter. Enjoy!

Despite their general distaste of Octavian's character, both Thalia and Zoë had relaxed enough to have a good time. Of course, the alcohol probably had something to do with that as well. After a while, Zoë left the table to dance with the twins, and Silena was attracting attention from quite a few gentlemen who had had too much to drink. Thalia had been left on "Octavian duty", it seemed.

"How about I get you another drink?" Octavian offered Thalia with a smile, noticing that she looked distracted. There was a detectable slur in his voice, as if this next drink should very well be his last for the day. Thalia decided to humor him (mostly to keep an eye on him), and accompanied him to the bar, and he ordered their drinks.

Thalia took a polite first sip, but she consciously drank very little after that. Octavian finished a third of his drink within moments. "You know, your eyes look really blue up close," he noted slowly. She raised an eyebrow. Octavian nodded, as if she had verbally asked for confirmation. "Like sapphires," he slurred. He put his free hand on her arm and gripped it tightly, too tightly. Thalia pulled her arm away reflectively, but Octavian was deceivingly strong when he was drunk.

"Let go, Octavian," Thalia said in a low whisper, obviously attempting to avoid a scene.

"You're cute when you're upset. I like that," he said in response, ignoring her request.

"Let go. Now."

To her absolute horror, the man leaned in even closer and attempted to caress her hair. Thalia reacted instinctively, backhanding him across his cheek. He retaliated by holding her tighter as he rocked back slightly in his seat, forcing her to lean forward with him. Frantically, she attempted to shake his hand off of her, and another figure intervened. Oh God, she thought, I've started a bar fight.

Thalia heard skin collide with skin, a random shout or two, and the skidding of glassware, but everything happened too quickly for her eyes to see in real time. Everything she saw was just a blur of colors that were too bright. Suddenly her arm was free and she jumped out of her seat.

"Come on, come with me." The voice sent a chill down Thalia's spine.

"Luke? What are you even doing here?" Thalia was dumbfounded when she realized that it was Luke who had intervened, and who was currently leading her out of the building via a side door. "Where's Zoë?

"I'm here. God, Thalia, I can't believe Octavian did that! He's really got some issues," Zoë said, fussing over the red marks on her friend's arm. She must have caught up with them at the door. Thalia was still too shocked by the events to process everything.

Their path dropped them off in a very short alley between two buildings. There was a small square of concrete, blocked on two sides by a worn metal railing. The opening that faced the front of the buildings gave way to three stout steps, and the trio took off for the exit.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going, blondie? You got some nerve!" How he'd even made it to the door in one piece, Thalia would never know, but there was Octavian, standing (barely) against the railing. One of his eyes was bright red and beginning to bruise.

Thalia felt Luke's body grow tense beside her even though they weren't even touching. His anger gave the impression of emanating from his body like bass speakers vibrating from amplified sound waves.

"Stay here," he muttered in a low voice. He stomped his way back to the stairs, and Octavian met him with a devilish grin.

"Come to finish what you started?" he taunted to Luke. His fist was clenched, and Thalia felt uneasy about the pose, but couldn't explain why.

"Look man, I'm not searching for a fight. This is a warning. If I ever find you drunk out of your wits and harassing a girl who is clearly not enjoying your company, I will make you very, very sorry. I will make it hurt. And I will make sure that you don't do it a third time. Is that clear?" Luke's words were spoken calmly, but the ice in his tone was dangerous. Thalia hadn't even known that such a sweet guy was capable of sounding so infuriated.

Octavian just grinned stupidly at Luke. "Yeah, sure man. Whatever." Suddenly the smile disappeared and in a blur of limbs, the guys were at each other's throats; Octavian angered and drunkenly aggressive, Luke defensive and simply pissed. Their scuffle didn't last long. Silena and the twins appeared, their faces pale and appalled at what they were witnessing. They began trying to pull Octavian off of Luke as Thalia and Zoë just stood in the alley in pure, embarrassing shock.

Silena gasped and something silver caught the sunlight that flooded into the alley. Luke shouted and recoiled from the group, and suddenly the puzzle pieces clicked into place. The guys were finally disentangled, and Luke's face was visible.

Octavian's clenched fist. The taunting.

A flash of silver. Luke's recoil. His shout.

Red. A line of red from above Luke's eyebrow, reaching to his chin.

"Luke? Luke!" Thalia sprang to action, running into the melee. She wrenched him away from the group. Everybody was suddenly very quiet. Silena's apologies were the only words that anybody heard spoken for the longest ten seconds of any of their lives. Thalia and Luke backed away quickly and joined Zoë, who had already grabbed tissues from her purse to clean the blood away with until better circumstances could be made.

"My car is on the curb," Luke said. His voice was flat, emotionless. He must have been in shock as well. Zoë seemed to be the only emotionally stable person, so she drove his car to Thalia's apartment, and they quickly filed in so that Luke's wound could properly be cleaned and bandaged. As far as Thalia could tell, the blade had missed his eye, so the cut had to be shallow. That was a relief, because Thalia wasn't sure that she would have been in favor of taking him to the hospital and explaining that her boss was to blame for Luke's injury.

"Sit," Zoë instructed Luke, indicating the sofa. Thalia was in the kitchen retrieving her first aid kit, and Zoë joined her and wet a wash cloth with warm water. She returned to the couch and wiped away the drying blood.

"I don't know how it happened. It was stupid. I shouldn't have done that," Luke was muttering when Thalia entered the room.

"Yes, that was stupid of you Luke. What on Earth were you thinking?" she scolded, sitting on his other side and opening the kit. She removed a bottle of alcohol for disinfecting the cut.

"That if I was lucky enough, I'd be fussed over by two pretty ladies?" Luke guessed teasingly.

Zoë smacked him playfully with the cloth and Thalia just made a hmph sound. Luke chuckled in response.

"Now hold still. This will probably hurt," Thalia instructed as she raised a cotton pad soaked with alcohol to his forehead. Luke inhaled sharply and his body tensed, but he remained still as she directed. Thalia cleaned the wound carefully and slowly, not wanting any of it to be infected. She then applied an ointment that would help heal the wound quicker. When she was done, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"What were you really thinking, Luke? Why were you at the bar?"

"Truthfully?"

"That would be nice."

[To be continued!]

Please follow and review! This is my first published fic, so I'd love some feedback! Critiques are welcome, rudeness is not.

A/N 2: Aaaaaannnnndddd now we find out where Luke's scar comes from, at least in my fic haha. I told y'all to watch out for Octavian.