troublemaker [natalie]

[JAYNE LANCEL ASTOR]

For some reason, humans seemed to be drawn to Michael's Castle. Jayne had been here a few times before, less for the pub food and more for the human food, but it really wasn't that bad of an environment, if one preferred the nightlife. Usually, it wasn't like him to be overly social or spend his night in bars, but tonight he was positively starving which meant that he'd have to forgo his normal plans of quiet reading in his room followed by some light writing in his journal – just the basics of his day, because for some reason, writing his thoughts down had always been a cathartic exercise that he took a simplistic sort of pleasure in since he was a boy. Lately, some of his nights were spent texting Jyli, the feisty faerie he'd met on his last outing to a bar. That night had ended very well indeed, with the two of them going back to his place for a nightcap that turned into a lot more than just a simple goodnight. Jayne smiled at the memory, then looked at the bartender and ordered another drink: gin and tonic, his 'poison' of choice. The bartender was quick with his drink, and they came strong enough, which was something that Jayne could appreciate. Also, people were less likely to think he was strange for looking around when he had a drink in his hand, for some reason or another. Maybe they were all well on their way to intoxication – if only he was so lucky.

The faerie found that bars were a good place to 'pick up' someone for a quick snack because they were pliable. Alcohol made them a little less inhibited and a little more trusting, and even though Jayne was rather cold on the inside, he could fake being charming with the best of him. Some women had even compared him to a prince, which made him laugh because technically... he was. Except now that his father died, he'd taken up lead command of his entire family. The Astors didn't have a king, and they weren't a monarchy, but his particular branch of the family had always been on top of the heap, so to speak. Since he was born, Jayne had been groomed to one day lead them all, and he had been looking forward to it, but now that he actually had the reigns, he was really starting to despise the whole leadership business. Not because he wasn't cut out for it or anything, but because his father had left a lot of things in shambles because he was one of those men who convinced himself that he had everything handled and could put the important matters at hand on hold indefinitely. Jayne didn't inherit that trait from his father, thankfully, and all the affairs that had been left unsorted were slowly starting to become manageable again.

All of the family matters except Malcolm Astor's murder. Which Jayne was incredibly thankful for, since he was one of the key players in his father's demise. He had done well by choosing his sister Daphne to carry out the brunt of the work, but it had been his masterminding genius that had brought everything to fruition and allowed them to cover their tracks so well. Jayne took a long sip of his drink – thank the heavens for small favors, even though he doubted anyone in the heavens favored him or his little family.

His eyes scanned the bar again and fell on a lovely young woman – red hair, a lovely smile, whose emotions nearly reeked of positive energy and a restless spirit that needed to be fed. That would make a fine meal, so the faerie left his bar stool and took his drink with him, then made his way over to the woman that was now firmly in his sights. When he approached, Jayne made sure to flash his winning smile that so frequently made women weak in the knees, and hoped that she would accept his company so he could 'accidentally' come into contact with her and influence her with his powers, just to make sure there wouldn't be too much trouble. ”I hate to be so forward and assume that such a lovely young woman is alone or in need of company, but... would you mind terribly if I joined you?” There. The opening line was set, the curtain was opening, and it was showtime.

OUTFIT: Here!

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[NATALIE MARIE HAWTHORNE]

The girl really had tried to be better about her weekend plans. She definitely wasn’t the type who liked to stay home and watch movies in her pjs, though there were nights that that was an appealing option. No, she was much too social for something like that to happen too often. Natalie liked to be out, liked to be around people who were having a good time so she could have one as well. And to be quite honest, Nat was a gigantic flirt. Honest to god, if she found you even the slightest bit attractive, she was by your side and talking to you the rest of the night. Show some interest in her and the girl was sold.

That was what she had been trying to slow down with. Natalie had gotten into the awful habit of going to one of the local clubs, drinking enough to the point where she could hardly remember her name and dancing with any number of guys. A majority of the time, she ended up going home with one by the end of the night. She couldn’t help it. Nat could fall in love with someone in the blink of an eye – well, infatuated was more like it – and always felt the need to follow through with the feeling. The girl might’ve been very into the idea that there was one true love out there for everyone and she was within the school of thought that if you didn’t put yourself out there, then you’d never find them.

But that was exactly the thing. Natalie thought she might’ve found that soulmate someone. Of course, they weren’t dating so Nat really wasn’t sure if he was but she was running on pure intuition. Holden was a great guy. No, perfect, in all honesty. He was one of those guys who was sweet without expecting anything in return, who walked around without any sort of pretenses and was just genuine as all get out. Not to mention, he was literally a walking, talking sex god, which scored points with Natalie for sure. He made her want to be a better person, which meant not getting drunk enough to forget most of her weekend every weekend. It was embarrassing enough that he had first met her when she was crazy hung over.

Last time she had tried to go out and not follow her usual pattern of drinking, dancing, and finding a guy to go home with, Natalie had landed her ass in serious trouble. She was lucky her brother had been there to save her, or things could’ve been disastrous. So Nat learned her lesson; no more clubs unless she was with someone who she could trust to take her home. She just couldn’t help it in that environment. Once she walked in, she went straight to the bar and then the dance floor, everything going downhill after that. It didn’t mean she wanted to stop drinking and socializing though.

For a change of pace, Natalie had decided to try the pub, Michael’s Castle. She had figured there’d be less grabby, gross guys there than at the club. Most of the single guys there went to pick someone up. Here, Natalie figured most people came just to drink and be with people of a similar mindset. Drinking and socializing? She thought she could handle that without too much trouble, as long as she didn’t start to drink too much and flirt with everything that happened to move. Nat was a grown girl, at least most of the time.

She thought she had a pretty good chance of following the night as she planned too. So far, the girl had really only casually chatted with people who happened to end up next to her at the bar. Every so often, she changed the stool she was sitting at to talk to someone else, but that was about it. Natalie jumped around enough to feel like she was still socializing without getting too close to anyone there and that was a good thing. She was carefully monitoring how many drinks she bought, which was a first. It was probably helping that she had to pay for them on her own too, considering most of the time she could bat her eyelashes and convince someone else to pay for them.

The girl was getting ready to leave when her plan started to derail. Natalie had decided to finish her current drink and then start her walk home. She was just tipsy enough that she felt good but not bad enough that she wouldn’t be able to manage the short walk back to her apartment. Of course, all thoughts of that went out the window the moment a handsome man started to make his way towards her with a smile on his face that made Natalie’s heart pick up it’s pace. “Oh, please do!” She said, angling her body so she’d be facing the guy once he sat down. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to one more person, would it?

WEARING THIS!

[JAYNE LANCEL ASTOR]

Even though Jayne really didn't like clubs or bars, they were the perfect environment for finding a quick snack. That's really the only reason why he went out unless he had company or the occasional business meeting that needed to be discreet – if you hid within the midst of drunken, dancing, sweating bodies, you were less likely to stand out if you were, well, sitting down. While he did have some activities that he enjoyed, Jayne found that he was far too stuffy and stoic for the kind of atmosphere that he was currently placed within. Oh, if his sisters saw him trolling the dance floor like this with his eyes that were only dark from his glamour, they'd probably laugh at him. Well, Karson might understand, but Karson was a far more social individual than he. Neely went out to bars to pick up men for other reasons that he didn't like to think about, but even though Manuka was still a city, he had contacts everywhere, spies and whispers in the dark that told him everything he needed to know, and even a few things that he had never wanted to know, as was the case with his youngest sister.

Jayne had never been one for 'picking up' a woman in a bar or taking her home with him. That had happened a few times, in chance encounters, but mostly he liked to keep things professional and not mix his business (or his food) with his pleasure. Also, he did his best to stick with women who were also fae, like himself, because it would be a horrible shame on his family if he diluted the powerful Astor bloodline with some bastard hybrid child that he never wanted. No, Jayne was more the traditional sort, wanting to be married and then have children with a gorgeous fae woman, and he would do his best to maintain that image proudly, embracing his new position as the head of the family. Before, his wife would have been carefully chosen by his mother and father, but now he had more autonomy and could choose for himself. And he wouldn't be looking for a wife in this sort of place, anyway.

There had been once, an isolated incident, when he'd actually had a genuine connection with someone. Jyli. Oh, he couldn't stop thinking about her, and now she was with some other man, and the idea just... it frustrated him more than he wanted to admit, and occupied more of his thoughts more than he'd ever say because that encounter had been so rare, so real, that he'd wanted a chance to try to cultivate something and get things off the ground. Give a relationship a genuinely good start, but now she was spoken for, and he wasn't the kind of man to pursue a woman who was involved with someone else. He had his propriety and his professionalism, so tonight he was trying to find other emotions that would be more... satisfying, more reasonably appealing than his own.

It hadn't taken him long to pick the lovely redhead out of the crowd, flitting from person to person in a friendly, open manner like a butterfly. She even seemed to float, which Jayne sometimes found obnoxious, and sometimes... sometimes he found that it made for an interesting dinner. The emotion of happiness mixed with a contentment and the simple satisfaction with life seemed to radiate off of this girl, and that was when he knew that the combination of what she was already feeling, maybe with a sprinkle of lust mixed in – if he was lucky – would be exactly what he needed for the evening. After waiting a little bit longer, he finally approached her near the bar, making sure that she was aware that he wasn't going to be pushy if she didn't want his company. Some faeries would have just influenced their prey's emotions to bend them to their will, but Jayne never did that. He preferred to use his charm until they initiated something more dangerous, like reaching out to touch him and dosing themselves with whatever emotion he chose to send them. But Jayne was one to thoroughly enjoy a challenge. When she accepted, he took a seat next to her, and waited for her to join him before speaking again. ”My name is Jayne, what's yours?” Not the most original opening, but introductions were never a bad thing, and he wasn't about to give out his last name – too well known.

”I wouldn't want to keep you any longer than you wanted to stay, of course, but could I buy you another drink?” He smiled at her again, locking his brown eyes onto hers and ordering another glass of red wine for himself, waiting to see if she'd add along a drink of her own to the order as well. While he didn't really like when people got drunk and obnoxious, he could tell that she was trying to pace herself, and he wanted her to be just a little less inhibited for his purposes with her. ”What brings a beautiful woman like yourself out tonight, anyway? Friends, or just trying to have a good time?”

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