>>“I am almost— Six years older than you! AND of legal drinking age. Of course I’ve been to a strip club. Ever been to Museful Inspirations down on 66th? Definitely one of the best I know of.”

Well. Apparently AkshayHawk was less of a nerd he gave him credit for. Or maybe more. Strip clubbing was kind of a grey area. Gawain had personally never done it (he had frequented pubs and clubs, but never the stripping kind), so he was more than willing to leave this up to the grown-ups.

"Lead the way, master." he smirked, putting his glass down on the counter.

>> "Lead the way, master."

Akshay grinned.

This way, my young apprentice.”

Since Akshay didn’t have the fantabulous power of walking through mirrors and cutting corners, Akshay would lead Gawain there by foot. Obviously he was too drunk to ride his ducati, and since Mirror didn’t believe in cars it seemed, Akshay was only too happy to take in the night air with a friend. At least that is how it seemed this night was going. Maybe without the notion of dating a certain sister, there was actually room for these two of grow.

After taking a moment to switch out of his costume and into regular street clothes (since he didn’t want to hog all the ladies with his awesome superhero gear), Akshay was ready to go. Down to just a jeans, his Spectacular Man t-shirt, and leather jacket, he closed and locked the shop door behind them and moved on towards 66th.

Thankfully it wasn’t too far of a walk. It seemed that it only took moments since, after they rounded a couple of corners, the blare of neonlights struck their eyes. Just down the street, Akshay could make out the hot reds and pinks lights that spelled out “Museful Inspirations” and the posters on the walls that displayed featured girls. This place was always just the best.

Akshay grinned as he nudged Gawain.

“See? Classy, isn’t it?” he chuckled.

While Akshay was switching from his costume to his regular nerdy clothes, Gawain took some time to clean up his own face. Now he looked less like a murder victim and more like a very badass person who got into a barfight. He also borrowed a clean t-shirt from the shop, he was going to pay for it later, obviously.

They walked. He would have offered a mirror-hop, but just like driving, mirrorwalking also got trickier when drunk, and ending up safely in a strip club sounded like a lot better prosepct than ending up in the bedroom of some disgusting old man.

Fortunately the "place" was close enough to walk. Cool night air seemed to clear their heads a little as well.

>>“See? Classy, isn’t it?”

"Classy" Gawain muttered the last word he would have described a strip club as. "Let's go in."

Offering a hand he looked around for a reflective surface to hop through.

>> "Classy…Let's go in."

Akshay smirked and nodded. Damn right was this place a classy joint! The finest drinks, the prettiest ladies, and the absolute best music he had ever heard. And, on top of all that, they kept the place very clean (by stripclub standards!). Hell, Akshay was not the discriminating type! He’d been to clubs like this before that were far dirtier, and far more expensive. So he liked to think he was a bit knowledgeable about this subject.

Um, not that he would out right TELL[/b] someone that. Yeah.

“Then let’s go!” he cheered. God, he hoped that Sasha was working tonight. If anyone knew how to command that club, it was that raven-haired beauty.

as he made steps for the entrance, he released that Gawain was holding his hand out. What? Did he need someone to escort him through the door? He would have commented on that if it were not for the fact that he had a good idea of Gawain’s powers. And, considering the fact that he was underage, meant that he wanted to try a different way in.

He shrugged. Why not?

“Well, all right!” he said with a grin as he gripped Gawain’s hand. “Let’s go!” he said, leaning against a shiny glass of a storefront window.

One minute they were out in the chill night air, leaning against a stroefront window... and the next they were inside the nightclub surrounded by neoun lights, shadows, booming music, and... well, strippers.

That was a first, which probably would have had a bigger impact on Gawain had he been sober. Drunk as he was, it was more amusing than anything else, and he promptly let go of Akshay's hand as he turned around and smirked.

"Neat. Now what?"

It was pretty wild! Akshay had never…”mirror walked?” before! One second he was outside, letting to cool night air attempt to sting his skin and the next he could feel the heat and warmth of the strip club around him. They were standing in the back of the main room, the neon lights all around and music blaring out at all corners of the club. Smaller, individual tables were set up around smaller stages for side performances with girls, and the biggest stage was lined on all sides with chairs and a small counter for drinks and food.

One the stage not was a very well endowed blonde who was hanging upside from a pole, smiling and winking to all the men gathered around who leered at her. She was apparently only the warm up act for the evening. They had arrived just in time.

>> "Neat. Now what?"

Akshay rolled his eyes and he smirked at the kid.

“You never been to one of these before and yet it was your idea,” He chuckled as he nudged Gawain to a seat. “Have a seat and enjoy the show! Make sure you have singles and no change! Girls here don’t like change.”

He smirked as he left Gawain to his devices and headed for the bar. As he did he shouted out the names of the girls he knew and waved to those he didn’t. In turn they all giggled and waved at him as if he was one of their favorite customers. Nerds tended to be since they didn’t get grabby nor did they haggle with prices.

And Akshay was definitely the king of nerds.

He chuckled as he passed by a rather wonderful, dark-haired beauty who wore an outfit that left little to the imagination. He smirked as he hugged the woman as if she were an old friend and whispered something into her ear, pointing over to Gawain. The woman laughed and nodded as she sauntered up to him. Akshay only asked that she treat him right and she would, he trusted that.

With that taken care of, Akshay continued off to the bar to get drinks.

>>“You never been to one of these before and yet it was your idea. Have a seat and enjoy the show! Make sure you have singles and no change! Girls here don’t like change.”

Well, Gawain had to admit that the tables were turned now; he might have been superior in fighting skills, but as far as manlyness went he had to catch up on some experiences. Granted, he was a man half the time, but that was no excuse.
Sitting down (or rather being pushed down by Akshay) he briefly wondered if Sam would kill him for this, or grant him a pat on the had (he had done a few similar things recently, and he was starting to worry he was going to eventually turn into Sam).

The train of thought was derailed when the black haired beauty that seemed to be on very good terms with Akshay walked over to him. Gawain suddenly found out that punching a man's face in could have been easier.

"Um.... hi?..."

The dark-haired, busty, well curved woman smirked as she continued her trek towards the young man at the table. It was obvious from the look in her eyes that the boy was the intended target and that no hooting, calling or looks from other people in the establishment were going to distract her. All of 23 years old, the young woman had no qualms about her body, and absolutely no problem showing off her rather…persistent demeanor. This was only a job, of course, but she had her favorites, and Akshay’s description of this younger man was definitely on par with being her favorites.

She grinned as she leaned down to him, her rather ample chest straining against the minuscule cloth that attempted to hold them back

>> "Um.... hi?..."

The first timers were always so damn cute.

“Hey baby,” she grinned. “Akshay tells me your some prodigy archery champion. That is soo interesting…”

***

Yeah, Akshay was a good friend. Standing far away from the incident going on, he couldn’t exactly hear what the woman was telling Gawain, but from the look in her eyes it was clearly evident that she was after him. Not really for his body or anything like that, but she knew how to work her customers and get them to keep those wallets open. Buying drinks for pretty woman you would never have a chance with was a privilege, wasn’t it? Akshay wasn’t sure how much money Gawain had on him, but hey, at least he would get a couple of minutes talking with someone who was extremely hot, right?

“I’m a good guy,” he grinned as he turned to the bartender, a saucy little blonde who left little to the imagination with her outfit. “Brandi! One beer and one whiskey shot, please.”

“Come right up, Honey,” the woman said with a grin as she set out to complete the order.

Akshay nodded as he turned his back to the bar and began to survey the rest of the scene around him. The lights…the sounds…the gyrations…it was all just so wonderful and definitely a stark contrast to how he was planning to spend his evening. Maybe it was a good thing that Gawain had come in an attempt to kick his face in. Heh, who knew?

>>“Hey baby. Akshay tells me your some prodigy archery champion. That is soo interesting…”

Gawain swallowed again. To be fair, he had only ever been this... close with girls his age (and, um, experience level), and this lady, if not much older, definitely knew what he wanted more than he did at this moment.

"Yeah" he answered finally, the alcohol still buzzing in his system "You... look beautiful."

I'm gonna regret this in the morning.

The rest of the night was kind of a colorful blur.

***Beginning of the Night***

…Drinking…

…Dancing…

…Drinking…

…Girls…

…Drinking…

…Drinking…

…Drinking…

…Drinking…

…Drinking…

…Tassels…

…Drinking…

…Black out…

***End of the Night

[/u]***[/center]

Ashay coughed and winced as he saw the rays of the sun glaring at him across his closed eyelids. It was such an ungodly and unwanted sensation. He would have shun the sun away if he could but it seemed that no matter how hard he batted away the sunlight, it just didn’t go anywhere. Where the hell was he anyway? For a moment he had the fear that he was drugged and carried back to that witch’s penthouse, but as he sat up, he quickly realized that he need not fear. He was not bound in any way and he wasn’t drugged.

Just completely and utterly hungover. He groaned and sat up, holding his head and wishing that the headache would just simply go away. But as he did so, he opened his eyes and saw the familiar glare of his glossy comic book covers, his glass cases, even the packaged action figures hanging on his walls. He was…back at the comic shop?

Shaking his head, he glanced down to his hands and wondered momentarily why there was glitter, before he shakily moved onto his two feet. … his shoes were also gone. Eyebrow raised he turned towards the front of his shop where he paused.

“G-Gawain?” he muttered. The boy was covered in glitter, lipstick, and had a woman’s lacy underwear half tucked into his jeans. “So…not good…”

Waking up after a fight was never a good experience. One usually did not notice all the hits because of the adrenaline, and when it wore off, pain bloomed everywhere in nasty little throbs and pangs.
Waking up hung over, obviously, was similarly not fun.
Waking up hung over after a fight, well...

Gawain groaned and rolled onto his side. On the floor. Why was he on the floor? He should have been in a bed. Alone or not was optional, but still.

"Bed."

Someone was talking to him. It hurt.

"Akshay?..." he blinked, peering in the general direction of the voice "Where are the girls?..."

>> "Bed."

Akshay raised a brow. Where the hell did the kid think he was now? Sure he was probably utterly hung over but that was no excuse to think that the pair of them were in bed. Besides, he doubted that the floor of his comic shop made the most comfortable of sleeping surfaces.

But that didn’t matter. The simple fact was that Gawain looked completely tossled the hell up, covered in lipstick and body glitter, as well as reeked of alcohol. All of that only added up to one thing…last night was a plethora of bad decisions.

>> "Akshay?...Where are the girls?..."

He blinked and looked down to Mirror again. Though he was horrified at the idea of how far this kid may have gotten with those strippers, he had to admit that he was just slightly proud of him. Though he himself couldn’t remember much of what happened once they really got down to partying at the strip club, it seemed that Gawain had certainly gotten fun night out of everything.

Chuckling at the boy’s question, Akshay shook his head and pointed down at various spots on the young X-Man’s body.

“Um…there…there…possible there,” he said pointing at the smudged of lipstick and glittered. He smirked wide as he nodded to the lacy underwear. “Definitely there. Congrats, my friend. Seems like you had a more successful night than me.”

>>“Um…there…there…possible there. Definitely there. Congrats, my friend. Seems like you had a more successful night than me.”

That was... one kind of an answer. Gawain rolled onto his back and curled up like a bug to see his own.... state of being. Akshay was not completely wrong. There was... stuff all over him.

"Glitter." he muttered, running a hand through his hair, then inspecting said hand. "More glitter."

With a grunt he sat up and for a long moment stared at the lacy underwear.

"Um... damn" he blinked "I need a telepath or I'm never gettin' those memories back..."

And from what he could tell, that would have been a terrible waste.

"Does it always... end like this?"

Akshay was the expert, after all.

>> "Glitter…More glitter… Um... damn. I need a telepath or I'm never gettin' those memories back..."

Akshay had to laugh a bit heartily. The kid looked like a weekend in Tijauna! If he wasn’t a man before, then he most definitely was now! Drinking, fighting, women, body glitter, all of it just screamed “I AM MAN!” Akshay was a little pleased with himself. Though he would have loved it if such an event had befallen him, it seemed as if maybe Gawain just needed it a little more. He was young and freshly broken up and risked his life everyday!

Priorities, man…priorities!

Still chuckling, he offered his hand to help Gawain up onto his feet. The kid was going to have to write down last night in a diary or something.

>> "Does it always... end like this?"

“Only to the lucky ones, my friend,” he said as he clapped Gawain brotherly on the shoulder. “Only to the lucky ones. Come on! Let’s, ugh, get cleaned up. I’ll treat you to some victory pancakes. A night like we had…we definitely deserve them.”

>>“Only to the lucky ones, my friend. Only to the lucky ones. Come on! Let’s, ugh, get cleaned up. I’ll treat you to some victory pancakes. A night like we had…we definitely deserve them.”

He might have passed out as a teenage boy, but he woke up as a man.
...
Nah, that sounded horrible.

Shaking his head Gawain accepted the helping hand and stood with a pat on the back. It did feel like a rite of passage even if he did not remember the most important part. Parts.

"All right, that sounds good" he agreed, looking around. Last place he expected to wake up was a comic book shop... but life is like that sometimes.

"Before I clean up, um..." he said, peering over his shoulder and down his arms "Do ya see any numbers written anywhere?..."

((Annnd... that's a wrap ))