Saint Patty's Day 4 [Diamond and AH]

[William Garrett]

Really, William wasn't sure if he was more surprised that Murphy hadn't gone to the strip club earlier in his week-long binge or that he'd decided to go at all, considering how many Irish pubs seemed to be calling his name, but he shouldn't have been surprised.  Murph didn't really seem to have much left in the way of thought processes, so someone probably suggested it and he jumped on the idea.  That sounded more realistic, but William wasn't complaining.  The Saint Patrick's celebrations had afforded him more time in New York City than he usually had, which meant more time he could spend with Brandy.  Diamond didn't like its members starting up relationships and potentially becoming compromised if an enemy used that relationship as a weakness, but by this point, William was starting to think that it was a lost cause.  Irene and Benjamin were married (though that happened before they joined), Aaron had Azhure now (whatever that was, what with the bond), and Gunnar had been seeing that Frost doctor for nearly two months already, so what did it matter if he wanted to see his high school sweetheart (who also pre-dated his joining Diamond)?

Exactly, it didn't.

He actually hadn't been so sure she'd want to meet him there, considering it was a strip club, but the local supernatural population, as well as those who interacted with them, seemed to enjoy the place as though it wasn't about sex and exhibiting people who took off their clothes.  It made him happy that she'd shown up, so he'd decided that he was going to try to keep Murphy the hell away from her to prove how pleased he was that she was there.  With any luck, she'd realize just how difficult that was going to be.  By the time he returned from the bar with their drinks, he had to push Murph back into his own seat so that he could sit by Brandy. 

"Hey, Murph!" he called over the music, gesturing the drunk Irishman closer.  "That guy over there keeps givin' Noelani 'the eye'.  You better watch out for her!"

The warning was totally bogus, but Murphy still shouted, 'What guy?!' and started looking around in the general direction that William had gestured.  That might keep him busy for awhile, and there were other people to peel him out of a fight, if necessary.  With a grin, William turned his attention back to Brandy to see how her drink was.  "Sorry, he's been drunk all week.  He takes this holiday pretty seriously."

[Brandy Wyatt]

God damn. From the moment she'd stepped off of the plane, all she could think of was how glad she was to be out of that god-forsaken city for a while. It wasn't even that she was trying to escape the city life in general (Brandy was no country girl) but she was sick of Dallas for a while. She'd never relocate out of Texas permanently because that "Wild West" sort of attitude wouldn't ever be beaten out of her, but taking a break? She could do that - especially because Billy had pulled strings to get her there for a while. He'd managed to have someone recommend strongly that the NYPD needed her there under some idiotic reason that Brandy'd never heard of before. She was technically on loan to the department there, but since Billy's work buddies were so good in with the police, Brandy basically got to hang out with him and help out around there.

She'd taken a shine to the girls, even if they were a little girly, but then again she supposed she was, too. She lacked the giant bouffant and acrylics of some of the women she knew, but Brandy was pretty and she knew it, and she didn't try to hide her form with burlap and shapeless clothing. Now, she wasn't dressed ultra-chic, either - a black tank top and a pair of jeans and some boots (swanky black cowboy boots, honestly, but since the jeans were flared nobody noticed), but her long legs and nice curves turned heads just the same. She smiled as William came to her side, kicking back with her chair away from the table to align herself more with his.

"Your friend makes drinking look like the lost chapter of the X-Games, Billy," she said to him, her brows raised. She had her own beer (she didn't drink those damn fruity drinks like the other girls did because alcohol was a line she didn't cross) and she took a sip of it as she scanned the room. There were people fucking everywhere. "Oh damn, did you see that? That girl is upside down - look, she's doing it again!" she said, pointing with her Dos Equis at the main stage where a pink-haired girl (Saffron, or Star as she was known) hung upside down on the pole and slid down ever so slowly to a hammering Nine Inch Nails beat.

"Shit man, why didn't you ever take me to a strip club sooner? You know those fucks back home wouldn't ever ask me to go. I guess that's why I love you and not them," she said, a twinkle in her honey-coloured eyes as she smiled at him. The tone of her voice suggested a joke, but there were no secrets among the group that she knew of, and since they all had warmed up to her rather fast she assumed that Billy had told them who she was and what she was. Suffice to say, she wasn't shy about tossing around the "L Word" with him, because it was the truth. Was she going to get all mushy about it? Hell no.

As if her point were needing to be driven home, she put the hand that didn't hold her beer on his knee, thumb rubbing at the demin of his jeans ever so often. "So y'all come here often enough? You seem to know all the people's names, and they know you. I mean, shit, I ain't paid for a beer yet. You must take real good care of 'em here for that sort of consideration," she said with a smirk. "Of course, if your friend always drinks like that, I can understand."

She was referring to Murphy, who had obviously ticked Lani off enough to get her to turn away from her conversation with Marius to yell, "Hey Shamrock Shake, calm the fuck down!" and then turn back around like nothing had happened at all. That was the cue for a slight blonde who was obviously intoxicated to grab him by the arm and yank him into the fray of the crowd. Shit, what was her name? Envy? Enya? Brandy couldn't remember for sure, but she was pretty certain that was the drunk's sister.

"Y'all sure do know how to party," she said, raising her beer before she chugged the rest of it and set it on the table. "I gotta catch up," she informed him before burping loudly. "Whew, glad I didn't eat yet. I'm sure I'd be pukin' by my fifth one. Oh hell Billy don't look at me like that, I haven't had a drink in months. Just been sittin' by my house doin' a lot of nothin' since you left. It's no fun anymore." She only called him Billy because nobody was paying any intense attention to them. Had they been, she probably would have stuck to Will or William - of course, aside from teasing she doubted 'Billy' would stick. It was her name for him, had been since they were young.