Lydia felt a little dizzy with all of the commotion going on in the club. It wasn’t a bad dizzy, just kind of distracting. She was sitting quietly at the bar, waiting for Eli to come back from wherever he said he was going. She wasn’t really sure what he had tried to yell over the music and chatter, and had figured that staying put would be the safest thing to do.

She was still surprised he had agreed to go there that evening, especially since he had never shown any inclination towards such establishments before. He had always seemed like more of a rom-com and dinner sort of guy. She was almost more surprised that she had even asked him if they could go. It was kind of silly, but Dia had gotten the idea from her weird memory dreams. Clubs seemed to be a recurring location in them, and she figured it wouldn’t hurt to check one out.

And when she told Eli that, he agreed immediately. He took her out for shopping and dinner before hitting the club, and as soon as they were admitted in, he took off for wherever.

Clad in a form-fitting, simple black dress that she had bought that day, Lydia tapped her stiletto-adorned foot in time with the music, the heavy bass resonating through the ground. Her gaze moved from the dancers, whom she had a large urge to join, to the other patrons at the bar.

Something told her she wouldn’t mind a drink, and she didn’t mean a soda.

He was having a great night, as he danced on the floor with random strangers; no one had really caught his eye in particular, until He noticed a bright eyed brunette tapping her foot alone at the bar, He may have also noticed the impossibly form fitting dress and high heels she was rocking. He broke away from the group and made his way to the Bar.

He raised his voice just enough so she would notice that He was talking to her, but not enough to actually be heard. When she couldn’t hear him it gave him the excuse to get closer. Leaning in close to her ear he spoke. The cologne that he was wearing lingered momentarily.“You look like you’d rather be dancing, let’s Dance.” He nodded toward the dance floor and held out a hand. He stood at an even six feet and pale skin; his green eyes seemed to shine with an energy that wouldn’t quit. His pale skin contrasted with the maroon dress shirt he had on. He had always been described as handsome and he the fact that he worked out was apparent.

He stood back from her for a moment and turned his charm on full, His bright white teeth shined in a what could only be described as a winning smile, he awaited the petite brunettes response. If she was here with a guy, it was too bad for him, Aedus was a perfect example of why not to leave a lady at the bar alone, He didn't mind sweeping a woman off her feet, if she'd let him.

Lydia was on the verge of getting bored, sitting there all by her lonesome. Although it had only been a few minutes since Eli had gone off, the dancing all around her was making her want to get up herself.

>> “You look like you’d rather be dancing, let’s Dance.”

She nearly jumped out of her seat when she heard the breathy whisper reverberate in her ear. The voice was unfamiliar and expectedly, when she turned, its owner was also unfamiliar. Was it polite for a stranger to lean in so close? She didn’t know but she didn’t really mind it. At a longer glance, the stranger was quite good-looking, and he pulled off his maroon shirt well.

Dia found herself grinning, and she backed away slightly, leaning her elbows on the table. “Hm, with you? I think I’d have to get to know you a little better first. Why don’t you take a seat?”

Whoa, where had that response come from? Lydia had absolutely no clue. She hadn’t really been thinking, and out came the answer.

The girl crossed her smooth legs as she waited for the stranger’s answer, thoughts of Eli tossed to the back of her brain.

Aedus leaned on the bar next to her. “ Dancing is one of the most fun ways to get to know someone.” He relented slightly though. He noticed the way she moved, she hooked the leg further from him as the one above, which, at least according to psychology meant she was open to him. He turned to his side and ordered two Khulua mud slides for a nearby bartender.

He had already ordered and she recognized him from earlier, so she didn’t bother carding him, it didn’t hurt that he tipped well. He wasn’t typically assertive enough to not ask what a lady wanted to drink, but he was in a great mood. He had an interview that went amazingly earlier that day.

He slid one of the dark drinks toward the woman near him. “ what would you like to know about me? we should be out there…it's where the fun's at.”

>> “Dancing is one of the most fun ways to get to know someone.”

“Is it now? I’ll have to admit, it’s kind of my first time in a club.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but how else could she explain it? ‘Oh yeah, I have amnesia so I actually don’t know if I’ve ever been to a club before. And if I have, I don’t remember what I did in them.’ Yeah, that would definitely make sense.

Lyd continued to be surprised at the remarks she made, still unsure of where they were coming from. She didn’t know she could be this confident, but she liked it. She decided to allow whatever inside her was talking to keep going.

The girl watched as the stranger ordered drinks, although she could not hear what he told the bartender. Lydia was glad he didn’t ask her what she wanted, because she definitely would not know what to tell him.

She nodded in thanks when he passed her a dark drink, and tentatively took a sip from it. It tasted bitter at first, and she almost recoiled from it, but it started settling on her tongue and a familiar coffee flavor enveloped her mouth. She briefly remembered that she was underage, but let the thought pass as quickly as she took another sip, a longer one this time.

>> “What would you like to know about me? we should be out there…it's where the fun's at.”

Dia smirked at his hastiness. “Can I at least know your name, before you drag me out to the dance floor? Mine’s Lydia.”

Elsewhere, Eli was coming out of the men’s room, drying the remaining moisture on his hands off on his slacks. The line had been ages long, and it had been a struggle to push past all the bodies to even get to it. He braced himself for the rough return trip, hoping that Lydia had stayed put.

“Nice to meet you Lydia, I am Aedus. I won’t drag you out there either, not kicking and screaming anyhow. I’d be happy to escort you out there though.”He took a second drink and the happy warmth settled through him, He was already loose, but he was still happily in a buzzed zone, nowhere near being drunk, that wasn’t what clubs were for at all.

“ You sure there isn’t anything else you’d like to know?” she wanted to ask questions, he would be happy to tell her whatever she liked to know, He wouldn’t take her out there until she was sure he was worth her time? Effort? He wasn’t sure what he was being measured against but today he felt kind of invincible, four years of college were about to pay off and launch him into a career he had been interested since he was a boy.

The club was starting to heat up with the press of bodies everywhere creating ample amounts of heat. He began to roll up his sleeves. He looked again at her intense eyes, The eyeliner wasn’t necessary but brought even more attention to them.

>> “Nice to meet you Lydia, I am Aedus. I won’t drag you out there either, not kicking and screaming anyhow. I’d be happy to escort you out there though.”

Lydia ran the name over her tongue a few times, Aedus, Aedus. It certainly wasn’t one she heard every day. “Hm…that’s an interesting name. Do you know what it means?” She asked between sips of the still-unknown drink. She didn’t know why she cared what it meant; she suspected she was just trying to make small talk. In the beginning, Dia had been all bold and brazen, but self-consciousness was slowly taking a hold of her, the more she thought about the situation.

Did she have a clue what she was doing? Was it normal to converse like that with a nice guy at a club? Was she saying appropriate things? She’d never found herself in that position before, at least not that she could recall, so she had no idea if anything she was doing was correct or not.

>> “You sure there isn’t anything else you’d like to know?”

Lyd downed the rest of her drink before replying, “No, let’s go.” She didn’t think she could continue the conversation charade any longer. She started moving towards the dancing mass, expecting Aedus to follow her.

Nodding he replied. “It means Fire and if I remember correctly, your name means Nobel Kind.” He went to school with a girl with the same name and remembered thinking that it was a tragic Irony, and her name didn’t fit at all, this one however; He could see the name and meaning fitting well.

Aedus didn’t hesitate before mimicking Lydia and tipping his drink to the sky, he followed the sassy young woman to the dance floor. He liked this club because it did some of the work for him; they had to dance closely because there wasn’t space for much else.

His hands found their way to her waist as they began to dance, one because it was a nice place for them to be and two if any one crashed into her then he would be ready to pull her out of harms way.. Compared to some of the people around them Aedus was fairly tame, he tended to let the lady choose how exactly they would dance and follow her lead as far as what would fly or not. The beat thumped around them and the crowd seemed to move with it. It was a good night; the place came to life in the last hour or so.

>> “It means Fire and if I remember correctly, your name means Nobel Kind.”

He knew what her name meant? That was kind of weird. Lydia hadn’t even known what her name meant. Perhaps he was some sort of name specialist…but she made no reply as the duo joined the crowded dance floor. Make that extra crowded.

Wait a second… Do I know how to dance? She stopped for a second, caught like a deer in headlights, and panicked. What am I doing what am I doing what am I doing—

And then two hands found her waist, and things fell into place. She started swaying her hips, looking at the other women in the club for tips and hoping to God that she didn’t look like a complete amateur. She was eighteen. She could do this. The others in the club didn’t look much older than her, her dance partner only looked to be around Eli’s age. And she had mentioned that this was the “first” time she’d ever been to a club. Maybe that would win her some leeway in terms of dance proficiency.

She wondered if it was appropriate to be that close to a stranger, if it was normal for a stranger’s hands to be on her hips. She made no movement to remove Aedus’ fingers, however.

After Dia fell into a rhythm, she began to really enjoy herself and let loose. Self-consciousness was replaced with euphoria (apparently she really liked to dance), and her mind became numb. The beat of the music became her only focus.

-----------------------------

This damn crowd… Eli complained to himself as he continued to squirm and wade through the multitude, I hope she’s not too bored. During the short span in which he was in the restroom, the number of people seemed to have tripled.

Surely Lyd was patiently waiting at the bar for him. If anything, she was probably a little freaked out at the noise and the sheer size of the crowd, never having been to a club post-amnesia. Admittedly, clubs were not really his scene. He preferred quiet evenings at restaurants, to such loud, boisterous discotheques. But she had asked with those sparkling blue eyes, and had cited her memories as a trigger for the sudden desire. He always had difficulty saying no to her, in any case.

At last he was finally making it to the outskirts of the mass, and put on a grin for Lydia. Only, that grin quickly turned into a snarl…when he spotted her some feet away, dancing with some pretty-boy who had his hands all over her.

“What the f—“

It took her a little bit to warm up, but once she got going it was worth the wait. He figured it was the shoes, a sacrifice that looked good on her, but he never understood why women had to take style out on their feet. He meant it to that Dancing was a good way to get to know someone, maybe you might not know a ton of facts about them but you could learn if you had good chemistry and they did and ultimately you would end up more comfortable with them earlier on, I mean how else would it be except able to hold onto someone you just met?

He smiled at her as an LMFAO song came on, those guys were hilarious, and talented, he wasn't too sure about the rock part, but he could tell they knew how to party. The crowd seemed to thrive on the energy and noise and they were just another pair moving to the beat. As they danced he was enjoying himself and the fact that she was just letting herself live, they didn't bother trying to hold a conversation, movement was saying all they needed too.

Someone else however had read the movement as a much less desirable language though and things were about to go from fun to hectic.

Party Rock is in the house to-niiight! Everybody just have good time!

Eli Sullivan was not having a good time. In fact, he was having a horrible, mind-boggling time. As his blood boiled under his skin, he started shoving his way through the crowd, using angry, careless force. He didn’t care at all about those who complained or swore at him, his eyes were on the goal. And his goal entailed someone getting bloodied and broken.

He reached his girlfriend, and the animal groping her, in no time. He marched in between them and gave the guy a nice, hard shove. One that would hopefully send him crashing to the ground and keep him there.

“Eli! What are you doing‽” Lydia demanded, her mouth open in shock. She was just dancing with a new friend! Why was he pushing him! She tried to grab his arm to pull him back but he harshly shook her off.

“Stay out of this Lyd,” he growled, rolling up the sleeves of his pale blue, pinstriped button-up, “And you, stay the hell away from my girlfriend.”

Enter the boyfriend, that was the problem with Pretty women types, they just about always had somebody that thought that they belonged to them. He saw the guy just in time to notice he was about to pushed so when he was propelled backwards he was prepared for it and didn’t slam into the person behind him nearly as hard as he would of, merely stumbled. A male voice exclaimed with surprise. “hey!”

Aedus turned his head over his shoulder. ”Sorry, My fault.” He apologized taking responsibility for the ape before him. he was glad it was a guy behind him and not a skinny little thing in heels. He didn’t need to people angry at him. He turned in time to see Pushy shove Lydia away.

He watched as the man before him rolled up his sleeves, his were already there. Ignoring the man before him he leaned a little bit and addressed Lydia. “You, ok?”

You know one things ladies hated, someone over baring, particularly when in direct comparison with someone that kept their cool.

He looked the man in the eyes directly for the first time. “Eli, you don’t want to do this.” Aedus loosened is stance and turned slightly to the side, this guy was hot headed and it would make it all that much easier. If he kept his calm he could look like he wasn’t enjoying this and still knock him senseless.

>> “You, ok?”

If anything, that’s what Lydia should’ve been asking Aedus, seeing as he was the one who’d been rudely shoved. Before she could answer however, Eli decided to do it for her.

“Don’t talk to her,” he said, scowling, before directing his attention to Dia again, “I said stay out of this. Get out of here while we settle this.” At this, the girl was more than a little indignant. First of all, Eli was being a total jerk, and causing a scene. And he was deciding he could make her decisions for her and tell her what to do? As agreeable as she’d been the past couple of months, she was not his little play-thing, to be ordered around.

>> “Eli, you don’t want to do this.”

That calm tone of voice…he could’ve sworn he heard a smug tinge in it. He clenched his fists. This guy made him so damn angry with that level-headed act of his. “Actually, I do. If you’re having second thoughts, feel free to run away with your tail between your legs…but I think you’re too much of a cocky asshat to do that.”

During this testosterone-crammed exchange, Lyd could only cover her face with her hand in embarrassment, the other dancers and club-goers backing off, expecting a fight. Wasn’t there supposed to be security or something to keep the peace?
“Seriously, stop it. Let’s just get out of he—!”

But before she finished, Eli charged for Aedus, fist in face-punching position.

“No!”

Aedus gave Lydia a look that asked are you kidding me. In response to Eli’s childish territorialism, Eli even went so far as to step in the way of the look…. Aedus’s demeanor went a little bit colder at his dismissive tone.

“If that is how you treat her, no wonder she was dancing with me.” It wasn’t arrogance that made the statement, but simple observation.
He shook his head and looked and lowered his head slightly as he listened to the comment. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Eli Broadcast his move like a bull charging a matador, Aedus had grown up playing soccer, he drilled for agility training for a long time. He got into fist fights all his life, whether it was for taking care of himself or sticking up for someone else. He had honed his abilities over the years, it all boiled down to keeping a clear mind, completely clear, a serene beast stocking prey. That and getting your foe worked up to the point that they were sloppy. This was going to be over fast.

Lydia protested in the background and Aedus had a mount to give her an apologetic glance.
Eli came in with a wide right haymaker, Aedus Jumped hoped and raised his left arm looping it over Eli’s gaining control of it, his hand got a tight grip of Eli’s expensive shirt it was high quality fabric. Aedus then leveraged Eli’s arm upward making it awkward for him to do just about anything else. Aedus had yet to thrown a punch, but as Eli’s left up swung in viciously, Aedus stopped the southpaw blow by delivering a harsh jab into Eli’s upper arm. It wouldn’t disable it, but he wouldn’t be throwing punches full force either. Eli’s Hand connected to the side of Aedus’s head with a lot less force then intended, he would still have a bruise, Maybe Lydia would help with it and now Aedus was in the moral clear to rain a flurry of blows on this punk.

Aedus followed up his first punch on Eli’s arm with two more hammering blows to his upper arm. He was taking control of the fight and finishing it quick before the bouncers managed to get in. He grabbed Eli’s left shoulder at the end of the third blow and then went to work bringing his knee into Eli’s stomach repeatedly.
Eli moaned in pain. Aedus leaned in close to his ear and spoke in guttural whisper. “We are done here?” He had hit him enough and made his point to the man, but Eli Replied with a head butt catching the same side of Aedus Head that he had hit earlier. He wouldn’t lose gracefully, So Aedus had about enough.

He pulled his arm back and slammed elbow into the top of Eli’s Face. Aedus watched carefully to cover the fact he was pleased to watch Eli’s eyes fluttered. He released the man dropping him to flop dizzily to the floor.

Stepping over Eli he closed the Gap to Lydia, “Lydia I’m Sorry, He didn’t leave much option and the way he talked to you , well I can’t say I didn’t want to punch him. “

Oh dear God… Was all that went through Lydia’s head when she saw Eli take off. This was actually going to happen. They were actually going to fight, in a crowded club, with bouncers on their way to break it up. She knew her boyfriend was not a fighter. He was supposed to be a healer, and yet here he was, making a fool of himself and trying to harm another.

Aedus shot her an apologetic look, and she figured it was for the trouble he had inadvertently helped to cause. She didn’t think it would be because he was going to beat the living crap out of his opponent. She gasped when Eli’s fist made contact with Aedus’ head, but quickly the tables were turned, and Aedus made easy work of the medical student, punching him repeatedly and kneeing him in the gut several times. But Eli would not back down.

How the hell could he back down? He knew picking the fight had been stupid, so incredibly stupid, but a jealous rage had overtaken him. Lydia was his. He needed some form of retribution. With those thoughts propelling him, he sent his head into the same spot he had punched Aedus earlier.

…and then he got completely smashed in the face. He flew backwards, landing on his back. He felt something trickle from his nose and groaned in pain. God dammit.

Lydia automatically knelt to his side, part of her wanting to berate him, and the other part wanting to help him. She fished a random napkin out of her clutch and used it to dab his nose whilst helping him up into a sitting position. There was whispering and chattering throughout the crowd, as they made a path for two security guards to walk through.

>> “Lydia I’m Sorry, He didn’t leave much option and the way he talked to you , well I can’t say I didn’t want to punch him.”

“Look,” she replied, standing up, “I’m sorry about all of this, but please don’t make assumptions about our relationship. I mean, thanks for knocking some sense into him. But I wish this had turned out differently, Aedus, I really do. This was just...I think we will be leaving now.”

“…wait for me outside. I’ll go get the car,” Eli muttered after pushing himself up. He walked out with the bouncer right behind him, leaving the skin-shifter on the dance floor.

The other bouncer approached Aedus, “You’re out, buddy.”

Dia sighed. “I’ll walk out with you, I guess..” So much for a fun night…