tampered | Log; [In Progress]

Log; [In Progress]

When; June 15th, evening
Rating; PG-13? [subject to possible change]
Characters; Luck Gandor [

fortuna_eterna] & Shizuka Hiou [

madly_blooming]
Summary; An innocent offer for a drink of the alcoholic kind may turn in to an encounter of the more bloody variety- If his blood would stay out of his body, that is.
Log;

He had dimmed the lights after closing because he was efficient, and having them all on at this hour was a waste. Luck was a business man, but here even more so. Because here Luck did not have a legacy, he was not the third and youngest son of the Gandor family, destined from birth to inherit from his father's hard labor and to rule the Gandor territory with his quick wits, Berga's strength, and Keith's sense of right and wrong. No, here he was simply a business man from the year 1933, New York, the United States of America. There was nothing supernatural or special about his world, and that was how it would remain reflected, as long as Luck had his way.

Idly his hands plucked a glass from the bar, examining the surface in the soft light. This was simply one of the many business fronts they'd run back home, the Gandor family, and Luck was a smart man. He knew how to run it, how to operate and manage, and best of all, how to smile, humble and obedient servant to the people. The people that would slowly begin to see him as a pillar in their community. He'd already taken the steps to open the doors for expansion in the future, but for now, he would take it slow.

For now, he had to see a beautiful woman about a drink. A dangerous one, at that.

But you could never profit if you never took risks. And Luck had a certain newfound benefit at risk-taking.

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While borrowing Maria's body had its share of benefits, there was simply nothing better than her own form. Shizuka had forgotten the restrictions of youth and stepping lightly, so to speak. Without her powers at limited capacity, she had played with a weaker set, drank from children, and asserted herself as innocent, unassuming. How liberating to be able to go to an adult establishment and indulge in riveting conversation.

At least, she assumed it would be riveting. Mr. Luck Gandor intrigued her. Like herself, he was from a different time.

Needlessly straightening her kimono, she entered Cassagioso, cooing appreciatively at the dimmed lights and decor.

"Am I too late? I do hope I'm not keeping you from sleep."

Prim and proper. She clasped her hands before her, shrugging a curtain of hair over her shoulder.

Luck's smile was charming, for he was a man who led, and power, whether it be physical, mental, or over others, was a charming thing when directed best.

"No, no, Miss Hiou." He took the cigarette from his mouth and placed it in the ash tray, moved from behind the bar to greet her properly, to take her smaller hand and press a kiss to the back of her palm, looking at her over her wrist, an admiring glance.

"In this business, one becomes somewhat accustomed to the night, and I would be a poor host to be seen yawning before a guest, would I not?"

She accepted his kiss as if it were the most natural thing in the world. In truth, it was - in her world. In fact, she was accustomed to more extravagant greetings; idol worship. Luck was charming, even for a human. Especially for a human. Daintily, she withdrew her hand and sat herself on a barstool.

"I'm sure your business doesn't leave much time for sleep. I wouldn't be bothered by a yawn. You're only mortal after all." A pause and a slight upward quirk of the lip. "Aren't you?"

"Miss Hiou, I'm afraid my world is most dull in comparison to the others I hear about, and of those I am told of, that exist outside this place." He followed her, gentleman, waited until she was seated to move behind the bar once more and peruse the bottles lined up behind him, judging her as he judged a patron, to match them with their drinks. He, whiskey, plucked and set on the bar beside two glasses, one of which belonged to her.

"I hear tale of monsters, of magic, of all these things... and with some chagrin I admit to the most horrifying things in New York being humans themselves." He chuckled a rich noise that smoothed over the lie. Not a a large lie, perhaps. For Luck Gandor knew of only one thing unexplainable in his world, and he was a part of that existance. Immortals, those who would never die.

Oh, he had become fond of the idea.

"I daresay that would be true in most worlds."

Not hers. In her world, she would have been - had been - considered one of the most horrifying creatures in Japan, if not the world, together with her brethren. And even her brethren had been uneasy around her, gifted as she was with powers as unpredictable as her sanity. Enough time and enough events had passed to bring Shizuka closer to who she had been, though. Whoever that was.

His laughter was enough to make her smile, if only sparingly and for a brief moment. She really wasn't one for smiling; instead, she chose to stare at her glass, tracing its rim with her forefinger.

"Humans can be monsters too. You know that just as well as anyone, don't you?"

"I do." He finally selected a bottle, fine red wine. She was an exquisite woman, and it seemed too course to hand her vodka, to give her whiskey or hard liquors. The cork was removed with finesse, moving to pour the wine in to her cup skillfully, not spilling one drop of the crimson on to her circling fingers.

"Humans, on their own, can be kind people. But just as easily, they can be cruel, unnecessarily so." For it could have been said that Luck was cruel, but he would be inclined to argue that he on;y moved at necessity. For business. For survival. Not his own amusement, his sport.

"So, yes." He poured his own drink, raising it to her. "I do."

She offered him a tiny hum of approval as he poured the wine. He knew his way around women, that much was certain. Shizuka wasn't particularly one for aperitifs - what was the point? - but she had always enjoyed a glass of wine. A good bottle would have flavors just as complex as even royal blood. Though of course, wine was nowhere near as nourishing. Not that it would matter to a living corpse.

"Humans are entirely too unpredictable," she began, lifting her glass as well, "At least there's security in knowing that my kind is almost exclusively cruel."

Shizuka smiled at him over the rim of her glass, baring the smallest hint of fang.

"Human nature, so they say." Luck nodded over his glass, moving to clink his with hers gently before he tipped his head back to take a drink, not even showing apprehension or fear at the idea of baring his throat, clean-shaven over the starched white collar of his suit, to a vampire, to a woman who had just bared her fangs to him.

"I am blessed to know kind individuals. But I am also acquainted with those less kind, and those I find utterly despicable." He stood casually behind the bar in front of her, ice chinking in his glass.

"And I would rather know someone to be cruel, than to mistake and risk thinking them kind, no, Miss Hiou?"

Shizuka made no pretense of watching his throat, mapping the veins beneath his skin. And what a nice throat it was. She even reached out, her hand hovering a foot or so away, an instinctual desire rising within. She wanted, but for no other reason than to simply take. Her body no longer required sustenance, but it had known the act of feeding for so long. It wasn't quite a necessity; it was now an addiction.

Her hand dropped and she took another sip from her glass.

"I agree. And I prefer the cruel. They are far more honest than the kind."

Odd, that he seemed completely unafraid. There was not even a twitch or flinch at the hand of someone he was well aware was a monster reaching for his flesh.

"Ah, but to prefer the cruel... ?" He smiled, turned his wrist to pick up his set aside cigarette and pick it up, tap the ash away and take a slow drag.

"Is that not a little masochistic, Miss Hiou?"

Though Shizuka had never been a smoker herself, she rather enjoyed watching those who were. The way a person smoked a cigarette spoke volumes of his character. He was unafraid, unmoved. Both an annoyance and an endearment.

"What's life without a little pain?"

She watched his lips and the smoke coiling from them.

"You are not afraid of me."

"No." The answer was simple, smiled humbly over the edge of a smoke haze he waved away when he adjusted the plain black jet cuff link.

"I am not a foolish man, so it is not because I do not know enough to fear you, Miss Hiou." His eyes were more than guarded. Luck Gandor was the brains of the family operation, he was not the morals, those belonged to the eldest, Keith. He was not the muscle, that was solely Berga's. No, he was the intellect. Were he not born the son of the Gandors Luck would have easily made a killing, so to speak, as an attorney, a stockbroker. But he was born the son of a mafia boss, and he had taken on the mantle with aplomb.

"I am not foolish, and yet, I am also not ignorant. Perhaps it is merely that I am too confidant to fear death?"

There was an ace up the man's sleeve. Perhaps two aces. She leaned forward, perching her chin on the heel of her palm, regarding him with equal parts curiosity and amusement. Shizuka had seen men much greater than Luck Gandor fall to their knees when confronted with death.

"Tell me your secret or I will be forced to find out myself." Her tone was teasing, light, but her faint smile did not reach her eyes.

"My secret, Miss Hiou?" He mulled over his glass, taking a calm moment to sip. One had already found out his secret. In this place, he knew it would be hard to keep it for long. But he was not a man inclined to giving up his secrets, under any circumstance. Not a one.

"My secret is simple." A card trick, his ace that came to him in such an odd way. Such a silly way.

"My secret is simply that I have no fear of death."

But why? If Shizuka were in her younger form, she might have been moved to tantrum. Instead, she reached forward and took his wrist without invitation or comment. It wasn't that she assumed permission - more that she simply did not care. She turned his hand over in both of hers, eyes immediately taken by the pronounced vein drawn along the underside of his arm and the smell and warmth that rose from it.

Intoxicating.

Peering at him from beneath lowered lashes, she pressed her lips to the vein in the gentlest of kisses - and then sank her teeth into his skin. Blood spilled into her mouth, hot and salty, coating her tongue and her throat.... And then it receded, the flavor disappearing almost immediately. With a gasp, she jerked backward to see the puncture wounds she had made - neat, round little holes - sealing.

"What...?"

He had known this would be inevitable.

A wince, when her fangs pierced skin, and his suit jacket moving back, the gun holstered there, in the case that she chose not to let go. But she did, withdrew when his blood shrunk back from the lap of her tongue, back in to his body like all Immortals' did.

"... How brazen, Miss Hidou, to not ask." He withdrew his wrist, rubbed it gingerly, idly pulling his jacket back over his gun, smoothing back his hair. "You've caught me in a compromising situation."

She regained her senses almost immediately. Shizuka had stranger things than this in her long life, but admittedly not much stranger. A child chastised, she pulled her hands back immediately, pressing the fingers of one to her lips. Though the flavor had gone, the memory of it remained. Her gaze dropped to the table.

"I was so curious and you were being so enigmatic. I couldn't help myself. Do forgive me, Mr. Gandor. I didn't mean to be so forward." She accented her soft-spoken apology with shy glances and a tiny pout.

His sharp, disapproving, glance remained for a moment, mulling over his glass, cigarette crumpling slightly as his fingers tightened. She did not seem the type to spread secrets wantonly, but hold them hostage... perhaps. How troublesome.

"Such soft words and meek apologies do not suit such a lady as Miss Hiou." His hand reached, tipped her chin up briefly before returning to his glass, refilling in a smooth gesture.

"She sees, of course, that I do not make a reliable blood donor. No?" He would just have to tip this to his advantage. He always did.

Her teeth grazed her bottom lip for a moment, deciding. She had his secret now. And seeing as how she was a woman of discretion herself, she would guard it carefully, preciously...until the right situation arose. With a man as well-connected as Luck Gandor had to be, those situations might turn up faster than expected.

"She does see. But perhaps Mr. Gandor could sate her in other ways?" Of course, her tone remained innocent, despite the innuendo that laced her words.

"Oh?"

His gaze remained guarded, sharp, intelligent. He was a man of morals, in some ways, and a man without, in others. However, his secret was indeed a valuable one. Here, one could not kill those who crossed you, those who discovered pertinent information. You had to reason, to bargain, and thankfully, those were skills Luck Gandor possessed in excess.

"Do tell, Miss Hiou. Is there something I can do, to facilitate your contentment?" He bent ever so slightly as he retrieved another cigarette from his pocket, just enough that it could be mistaken for an almost bow.

Humble. Subservient. Those were only the surface.

Just as Gandor knew her, she knew him. It would be a battle of wits, though not altogether a deplorable one at that. Fun, light-hearted. Perhaps with prearranged, pleasurable truces? There were many ways she could be satisfied now that she was free of her liquid diet.

"This is a lucrative business you own. And my income is extremely poor, as I am ill-fitted to do any hard labor and my servant brings in a very small salary. I wonder, since you are such a gentleman, if you could supplement this pitiful woman's revenue?" She straightened, taking her glass by the stem. "Of course, I will assist you in any way I am able."

Ah, there it was. What she wanted from him. Rather, what she wanted from him at the moment. But he was no stranger to this game. Mafia, was it? Money was all important.

"That sounds almost like extortion." It was followed by a light chuckle, laugh it off, not a serious comment.

"But, I would not be able to call myself a gentleman, were I to refuse a lady in need." For now, he would, at any rate. For now, her price was not too high. He made more than enough for his bachelor living, and it would not interfere with his future business plans.

"It would be my pleasure to assist you." Until he can find a way to assure your silence permanently, that is.

At last, real business. No mischievous magicians, no empty contracts, no angry teenage boys. Shizuka finished her wine and set the glass down, thumb and forefinger tracing the stem and cup. Honestly, she hadn't much need for money - she took what she wanted when she wanted it and usually, the things she wanted could not be bought. This would be temporary until she could think of something she wanted more.

A wicked little smile curved her lips. Just for a moment, she eyed him as a tiger might eye a gazelle and then the expression was gone, returned to perfect serenity.

"Even monsters can be civilized, hm?"

She stood, straightening her kimono which, once again, did not need straightening.

"I had no doubt of that, Miss Hiou." He was no prey, however, no easy prey. He was willing to accommodate, when it was easier and more profitable to accommodate than to got to arms. And for now, this was one such situation.

"It seems our time for tonight is drawing to a close." He took one last sip, moving behind the bar to extend his arm to her and escort.

"Shall I see you out?"

"Please."

She rested her arm in his, conscious of her strength despite the apparent frailty. If she were to flex just enough, his bones would snap. Shizuka considered doing it for fun, seeing his flesh mend and mold back to form, but she restrained herself. They were in business now, after all. Pleasure would come later.

In business indeed.

He saw her to the door, holding it open and staring fleetingly at the street, as if ascertaining it's safety for her, before turning to her and bowing his head.

"Until we meet again, Miss Hiou."

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Log; [In Progress]

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