NYC clubbing RP with _freaksrus and others.

[likestofight]

Buffy had been in New York for just a day now The trip had been unexpected. Then again, the circumstances had been pretty unexpected. Lauren's mom had died in a plane crash coming back from Greece that was still making headlines. And then there'd been some war over her remains between Lauren's dad and Lauren's mom's family. The Hoffmans eventually

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[wolfwithaguitar]

How Randy Bosch had ended up there, on the other hand, was somewhat of a mystery. Actually, it wasn't. He had a twenty-three-year-old sister. That was the reason for everything. And although this wasn't his scene or his people, he would do anything to make his baby sister happy.

Even if it meant he was keeping a very close eye on her from the bar. Hale could handle herself, and she had a very serious boyfriend, but that didn't mean some punk wouldn't try something. And he wasn't about to send her back to Purdue or go back to L.A. on that note.

Randy had a plan. Keep his eyes squarely on his sister, take a couple of aspirin for the loud music, and keep his butt firmly planted to his barstool while nursing about eight billion Pepsis. If he wasn't with the band in a club, which he wasn't here -- this was not the place where you would find a live band that could do 70's rock with the best of them -- he was going to stay in one place and not move.

Of course, things -- and people -- had a way of finding him...

[likestofight]

Awhile after Buffy and Gwen had been drinking, and drinking, and then doing some more drinking, they decided to separate for a bit, do their own kind of thing, and then meet back up in a bit and compare notes. And possibly phone numbers. For her part, Buffy was just checking out the scenery, realizing how much she really sucked at the whole meeting guys thing when she noticed someone sitting alone at the bar. Which, was technically where she was headed anyway. 'Cause you know, Slayer constitution and all. She clearly hadn't had enough yet.

The guy, for his part, had his eyes peeled on some girl. And appeared to be drinking soda. So he was like... a stalker or something? Perfect. Just Buffy's type.

"Hi." Buffy said, sliding up to the bar and resting her albows and forearms on it, her hands upturned as she waited for the bartender to notice her. Her or her cleavage, she really didn't care at this point, as long as it got her a drink.

"Stalk here often?"

[wolfwithaguitar]

That made Randy laugh. And blush, just a little, but in the club lighting it would be thankfully difficult to tell.

"Um, no," he said. "I'm here keeping an eye on my kid sister. I mean, I know she can handle herself, but I just don't want anything bad to happen to her, you know? And she really wanted me to go with her and I can't say no to her."

Haley, on the other hand, waved, and he waved back. As long as she was having fun, Randy was happy.

He turned back to Buffy.

"So, um, no, not a stalker, just a big brother."

[likestofight]

"I know exactly what that's like." Buffy replied, giving him a smile before glancing over at the kid sister in question and then to him again. "Have one of those myself. She's back in L.A. which is where we live, so I'm not really getting to keep an eye on her tonight. Hopefully she's at home making it a Blockbuster night with my cookie dough ice cream." Visions of Dawnie, in a halter top that only tied in one little string at the back of her neck and the middle of her back were sooo not the thing she needed dancing in her head while she was 3,000 miles away and not around to pry boys off.

She leaned forward on the bartop, her feet coming just a little off the ground as she called her order to the bartender over the loud cacophony of music and talking: an appletini.

Hopping back down, she turned her back to the bar to wait for it.

"You're too cute to be a stalker anyway."

[wolfwithaguitar]

Randy smiled slightly at her, glad that he didn't come off as too protective or too cloying. Haley had never seen it that way but sometimes some people did, usually ones who didn't understand that he had spent most of his adult life trying to fill both the roles of big brother and father figure.

"Thanks," he said honestly, tugging at the collar of his dress shirt. He felt overdressed, but that was because he was. All he had packed in his suitcase were dress shirts and slacks, being that he had been in the city for the awards ceremony and that had been slightly formal. "Yeah, she's great," he confided. "I'm just happy there's no karaoke or she'd make me sing." He made a face at the thought, though secretly he didn't mind that much.

He chuckled, and then said, "What a coincidence, I'm from L.A. myself. Just out here for some awards thing and I figured, she flew all the way out here with me, let her have some fun you know?"

[likestofight]

"Anytime," Buffy replied with another smile as she was handed her appletini, which was about her seventh mixed drink of the night and she was still on her feet and moving. Taking a sip, she made a tiny face at the instant taste of the bitterness as it hit her tongue, but as she took a longer one, the slight sweetness followed.

"Thank God there's no karaoke. I have friends here who'd sign me up for some crap like the Spice Girls or something even more embarassing and I can't even sing to save my life, let alone make myself look ridiculous in front of all these important New York people who probably can't stand Californians anyway." She reasoned.

"What kind of awards ceremony, if you don't my asking?" Buffy asked. "Oh, by the way, my name's Buffy." She said, offering him the hand that wasn't holding the drink.

[wolfwithaguitar]

"Randy," he replied, taking her offered hand and giving it a firm handshake. Years of the guitar would give you good hands. "And it was the Tammy Awards. Radio City? I got nominated for some award...only thing that made it bearable was they let me bring the band and play a set at the after-party."

He realized that probably needed an explanation.

"I, um, I'm in a band. Obviously. We don't play that often anymore, but I can't pass up a chance when one gets offered to me. Music is kind of my gift. Which is why Haley will make me sing any chance she gets."

[likestofight]

"You're in a band?" Buffy asked, rather rhetorically. "That's really awesome. I've never dated a musician." Her face flushed. "Not that I'm hitting on you or saying that we're dating or anything." She added quickly, realizing how that sounded compared to how she'd meant it. "Uh, you'll have to forgive me. I sometimes say the wrong thing. A lot."

She flashed him a warm smile and took a long sip of her drink until the blush went away.

"I was actually at the Tammys. Nomminated for a couple of things." She explained. "I actually won one too. Favorite Good Girl. So, you probably should keep me drinking just our little secret." She teased, with a wink. "Your name does sound familiar." She added. "I'm pretty sure I voted for you. Though I'm not sure I'm supposed to tell you, and it was a pretty late patrol night when I did my voting."

[wolfwithaguitar]

That made Randy chuckle and he shook his head. "It's okay. I have a tendency to be in the wrong place at the right time, so...not exactly suave myself either."

He nodded a little. "I was up for two. I was really shocked that I got nominated for the big one. Then my mom and my sister made it a big deal and insisted on coming out. My mom hit me upside the head for not mentioning I was nominated for Sexually Vanilla." He blushed, and then rolled his eyes a little. "Glad I didn't win that. Didn't win anything, but to know people are thinking of me? That's kind of neat. You know?"

He laughed a little. "Mom just wants to know why I don't have a girlfriend. I want to know why people are thinking about my sex life that much to nominate me in the first place. It's not like I'm Brad Pitt or anything." He scoffed.

[likestofight]

"Me? I'm always in the right place at the right time. Kinda my job. Actually, you could say I'm in the right place, but it's definitely the wrong time for the bad guys who get totally busted." She smiles, a little hint of bittersweetness creeping into the corners of it. Kind of like people who talk about their glory days, i.e. high school.

Buffy choked a little when he mentioned the sexually vanilla category, and had to let her mouth dry for a minute. While she was far from vanilla herself, thanks to a little period of post-resurrection insanity fueled by loneliness and Spike, it was still interesting that there was anyone left in her life or that she would cross paths with that would even be considered for the term. Though, for all she knew, it could have been a joke.

"Moms always want to know why you're unattached." Buffy replied with a sad smile. "If mine was still around, she'd be all over my case about why I'm 25 and still not married, let alone still single." She shook her head. "Then again, it's not like I'm Angelina Jolie

[wolfwithaguitar]

"Well, I'm the only male child she has, so...yeah. I'm used to her bugging me about it." He shrugged. "Thankfully she only does it once in a while and not every time I see her."

He offered her a smile.

"See, you're doing something good with your life. I'm just the guy that my friends call when they've crushed somebody's car with a tractor. Which is not as bad as it sounds." He laughed, a little. He could laugh in retrospect. "I'm that guy."

[likestofight]

Buffy laughed a little too. "Hey, that's actually very much on the good side of things." She said. "Everyone needs a 'that guy'. I mean, I have one in my life. His name's Xander, and he's a construction guy. Back in Sunnydale, there was this one particular window pane that got crashed through by a... anyway, it just got destroyed like every other night. Along with most of the furniture. And he'd forever be fixing it. He probably could have built us a new house with the amount of material he used to fix everything he did by the time we left." She shook her head slightly, finishing her drink.

"Though, a crushed car and a tractor? Sounds like a story I've probably gotta hear." She said, placing her hands on the bar tiop as she pulled herself up on to the bar stool next to his and signalled for another appletini. She was really starting to feel warm.

[wolfwithaguitar]

Randy chuckled dryly. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he teased, but then he nodded. "My friend Brendan is an architect. He designs all these big projects and then he goes out onto the construction sites to help finish them. So one night he decided he would help move the equipment for the night. They told him they cleared all the stuff out of the way so he could back the tractor up, but he took the turn a little, um, wide, and he ran over one of his colleagues' cars with a tractor. Next thing I know both me and his girlfriend are getting phone calls so we could come out and see what he had done."

He laughed softly. "He's crazy, but he's a really good friend. Always been there for me no matter how busy he is."

[likestofight]

"Can't really say I've ever heard a story like that," Buffy said. And it was weird, because in some stupid way, she wished she had. It seemed almost... normal. Even though it was totally not normal. It was a freak accident. The kind of thing that doesn't happen every day and definitely isn't normal. But hearing him tell it, it just sounded so normal. Like he was just your average person, who'd had this extraordinary thing happen that made for a great story to tell. She was kinda jealous.

"I'm really lucky." She added. "I've actually got a few friends like that. No matter how hard or weird something is or gets, they never back down or never back out. They're just there for me. People like that are hard to find. And yet there they are. I'm grateful." She wished Xander and Willow could have been there. It would have been a fun night for them all.

"So, what's your band's name?" She asked.

[wolfwithaguitar]

"Binary," he replied. "We don't play often anymore. All sort of went our separate ways when we went off to college, you know?"

He leaned back against the bar and looked over at her. She was cute. He wasn't really looking for anybody, but he had to admit it was better company than being stuck in an elevator with Brendan hopped up on Girl Scout cookies.

"Our friends make us who we are," he admitted. "Without Bren and Tara I'd just be a guy moving boxes in the Parker Center basement."

[likestofight]

"Not really." Buffy admitted, a sad smile creeping in. "College didn't really work out for me. Or my friends. Life kinda got in the way and we got stuck. Doing the life thing. On the plus side, we got stuck together doing the life thing. Biut no college is still a huge mark in the negative column of life. Especially when it comes to finding a decent job."

"My friend Oz was in a band, though. During high school slash pre-college dropping out. Their name was Dingoes Ate My Baby." She added. "Not really sure what happened to them." She knew Oz was around here and there, couch-crashing in L.A. The band? Not so much.

"Our friends are definitely part of it," Buffy agreed. "But I like to think the bulk of it is experience, you know? What we've been through. So that there's never a time that we look back on something and say that it was all for nothing. That it wasn't worth it, or it didn't shape us in same way or form. Without those things, I'd just be Willow and Xander's friend." She said, pointedly.