Ain´t thinkin bout Thursday or Friday cuz tonight´s a Saturday night

[gotbottle]

It's Saturday night, and as befits a good old Saturday night, the Luna bar is hopping. The bar's near capacity, and it seems anyone and everyone has turned up, whether to just enjoy a drink or three or for more secretive purposes.

Jack Malone is seated at the far end of the bar, his body half-turned toward the crowd. It's force of habit; seated

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[archangelet]

For some reason, Tay has decided that the best place to take her awkward self when she's nervous and jumpy and a little overwhelmed and a little bit confused because she almost kissed Buffy when they were sparring earlier is into the city, for booze. She can't find a liquor store that feels like not carding her, and the first couple bars she tried laughed her out, so she's giving the Luna a try.

Or... she will once she finishes making it to the bar. There are so many non-mundanes here, it's a bit unsettling. Sure, she's used to that in the Conrad or the Gauche, even that damn coffee shop she and Buffy tend to hang out in when Mattie comes in to see his girlfriend. But in a random bar in Chicago, it's... odd.

And almost comforting.

But she's going to just stand here for a moment, towering over a good chunk of the patronage, feeling a little lost and looking a little bemused.

[why_dowefall]

The bodies are congregated a bit more heavily through here, and Bruce turns his body sideways to edge between two groups. One girl stumbles into another, sending her reeling back a couple of steps, and it's only Bruce's exceptionally quick reflexes that keep him from tripping himself, and from dumping his beer all over the very tall blonde on the other side of the narrow pass he was trying to navigate.

"Ah, sorry," he murmurs with an apologetic smile. "Didn't mean to almost flatten you there."

[archangelet]

Tay jumps a little, startled, then smirks a bit at him. "I think it'd take a lot more than a clumsy dude with a beer to flatten me, but I appreciate the concern."

She also smoothly eases her hand away from the knife she's got strapped under the back waistband of her pants. She's not jumpy at all.

[why_dowefall]

Bruce may be playing the clumsy innocent, but he knows enough to know when someone's reached for a weapon. And this girl? Started to reach for a weapon. It interests him enough to make him ignore the fact that she looks a bit young to be in here; he supposes that's really hard to tell, for certain, between his changed eyesight, the dim light, and her height. She certainly doesn't carry herself like a teenager.

"Glad to hear it," he responds. "Seems like you've got to be made of tougher stuff to make your way around in here. Headed for the bar?"

[archangelet]

"Yeah, trying to get a beer," Tay says with a bit of a laugh. "Harder than it looks. This place is really packed."

She says it not with the fake casualness that usually identifies the underaged in their attempts to get alcohol, but with the careless disregard of someone who doesn't have to pretend to be old enough. Part of it's just habit she's picked up hanging out too much with Malek - she orders booze, and if they won't give it to her, he orders it and hands it to her while they watch.

Also it's an off-shoot of when she used to be out at all hours and driving when she was 14 and 15 in Boston. Like her cousins taught her - to be believed when you have no ID, you have to make them believe you don't care if they believe you or not. When you're 21, you don't care if they ask to see your ID when you order alcohol, because you can back it up, and that's what trips up most underaged kids who might otherwise be able to pass.

"Is it usually this busy?" Tay asks, assuming that he's probably actually at least from this area, unlike

[why_dowefall]

Bruce remembers that fake casualness. Bruce was the embodiment of that fake casualness, back in his day. That probably contributed to his being bounced from Princeton, in fact.

But this girl's fake casualness is neither too practiced nor too fake to tip him off for sure; after a moment he shrugs, and cants his head toward the bar. "It's easier to just sort of dive through the crowd," he explains, stepping forward. "I'm Bruce, by the way."

[archangelet]

"Maybe I could go crowd surfing," Tay eyes the crowd as if she's actually calculating whether or not that would work. ...She might be. You never know with Barnams.

She shakes her head after a moment and, after only the most brief of hesitations, offers her hand.

She's not nervous. So there.

"I'm Tay. Pleasure."

[why_dowefall]

"I'm sure there are worse ways."

Bruce shakes Tay's hand--he hadn't offered first, because he wanted it to be clear he wasn't trying to hit on her or be pushy. "Likewise. Or, you know. We could just clear a path."

[archangelet]

The not-hitting-on is appreciated, if only because Tay wouldn't know what to do with it, and it might give her flashbacks to Mirror!Mat and his skeeze.

Among other things.

Though she is impressed by Bruce's handshake - nice, firm, capable. Definitely a strong guy, can probably handle himself. "Yeah, it's not too hard, but I try not to bowl people over. Unlike some of us."

Griiiiin.

[why_dowefall]

Bruce chuckles. "Sometimes you've got to. And sometimes you don't mean to. But sometimes? You can use that to your advantage."

He straightens up to his full height, and then raises his voice a bit. "Excuse us!" he calls out. "Coming through!" And then he presses forward into the crowd, which starts parting before them.

"One of the advantages of being so tall, right?" he asks over his shoulder, as they move through the crowd toward the bar.

[archangelet]

"Yeah, that and hitting my head on ceiling fans and being unable to find pants outside of army surplus!" she says with a laugh, and just strolls along behind him.

She's going to score booze in this bar. She can feel it. It comes from having a clearly of-age man chatting with you.

They reach the bar, and she orders a beer before turning back to Bruce, not really giving the bartender a chance to ask for her ID. It works this time - thank god for having someone to chat with. "So, what brings you out this fine Saturday night?"

[why_dowefall]

"Don't forget always being asked to help petite older ladies stow their luggage in the overhead bins on planes," Bruce notes with a smile, leaning against the bar and setting an empty glass on it. Not his empty glass--as he walked over, he left his beer on a table and plucked an empty glass from it in return, to keep up appearances. He orders another beer he's not going to drink, and then goes on, "I used to feel like I needed to hurry up and get on the plane, and sit down before anybody realized how tall I was."

He shrugs, glancing out over the crowd again. "Just needed to get out for a while," he says. "You?"

[archangelet]

"Can't say I've ever been on a plane except for one trip, and I was in first class with my w-- my boss." Why bother explaining the whole Guardian thing if she can just pass it off as employment? "So no little old ladies."

Tay stretches and takes her beer gratefully when the bartender sets it in front of her. Thank god for busy bartenders who don't want to bother asking for ID. "Same. Had a fun-filled morning of stress and more stress, and I think I might need to completely re-do the security in my boss' building, if only to shake things up a bit, so people can't exploit the old system. Which will be so fun."

[why_dowefall]

Bruce picks up his glass, too, repeating his just-wetting-his-lips trick. They're near enough to one of the work areas that he can probably dump a bit off now and then down a drain, if he's careful.

"That sounds like fun. Except for the part where it isn't, not really," he offers sympathetically. "So you work in security?"

[archangelet]

"Yeah," Tay says, and there's no twinge in her chest because technically it's not a lie. "Private security for a businessman."

Mmmm, beer. Tay's going to just... suck a good portion of that down now. Unlike you, Bruce, she's actually here to get drunk. Mmmm, booze.

[why_dowefall]

"Private security," Bruce repeats. She looks a bit young for that... but he can see how that would be an advantage, too. It's always the ones you don't expect who turn out to be the best at their job.

He should know.

She starts downing her beer, and he takes the opportunity to get rid of some of his down the nearby drain, quickly, before raising his glass to his lips again. It looks like he's had rather a healthy swig by the time he sets his glass down again, too.

"You been at it long? The security business."