FOTD, Cranberry, and Kiwi-Strawberry with Sprinkles, Malt, Pineapple, and Peaches
Author: Nikki
Beta: Bookblather
Challenge: Cranberry #15 (Temperance; reverse: discord, conflict, disunion), Kiwi-Strawberry #2 (My Treat from Bookblather; ensemble - family dinners can get interesting fast.), FOTD (deadpan)
Toppings/Extras: Malt ("Not only do I not like him, I can't stand him. He's rude, he's rebellious, and he's totally annoying... and I'm gonna go check on him.") + ("The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” - Carl Jung), Pineapple (My heart's gone away, take it now.), Peaches (Don't feel like you need to make sense of it all. In fact, that may be impossible.)
Word Count: 2,711
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in January 2072. This would have been posted on 7/28, but LJ was being difficult. Lots of new characters in this piece! Nate is Aaron and Chastity's son, Tish is his SO, Danica and Tara are Penn and Jessica's daughters, and Alicia is Faith and Piper's (a character I have yet to write about) daughter. I think that's everyone.
Story: Third Account; the title of this is "Rolling in the Deep."
Summary: It's Chloe's 56 birthday. Of course, Ira and Aiden have to cause a scene.
Really, all of them should have been expecting this - if Ria remembered correctly (which he did), he had told more than a few people that this was going to happen - but more than a few people seemed surprised that an argument had started between Ira and Aiden (again, he thought. Ria was getting tired of watching them toe around an obvious relationship.) They had only full out screamed at each other for a moment, and it was 'they' in the lightest sense. Ira first, some sharp tongued insult about Aiden's mother that Ria didn't really want to think about too much, and Aiden had only smiled. He always did that when she insulted him at the beginning of an argument, and Ria imagined it always had the desired effect of pissing her off even more.
It was only a moment before Mom had rushed over to them, shooing them into one of the hallways off of the main hall. Judging by how Ira's expression darkened even more when, Ria imagined that their mother had taken Aiden's side without exactly saying so, which wasn't much of a surprise. The fact that Mom seemed to approve of Aiden only made Ira that more determined to hate him. Why she didn't tell them to go outside instead, Ria didn't really know, but their mother had long ago decided to just ignore when Ira acted like this and let her embarrass herself.
"Are they still fighting?" he heard a familiar, quiet voice ask, and Ria turned to find Vanessa behind him. It was complete habit to smile when he saw her.
"I think they're just getting started." There was a burst of noise from where Ira and Aiden were - raised voices again, but nothing distinguishable - and Vanessa moved away from it. Ria thought it must have been habit, because the small smile she had didn't fade any, but he still led her away from it.
"I just feel b-b-b-bad," Vanessa stuttered, her brow furrowing as she got past the block, "I invited him a-a-a-and it's your mom's b-b-b," she ducked her head, snapping the fingers of her right hand, "b-birthday party."
"And with my family, this is still relatively calm." He reached down to take her left hand, squeezing it comfortingly before he let go. "Besides, Ira is the one who started it, and she seems to have a knack for embarrassing herself in ways that can be printed in tabloids. Why would anyone blame you?"
She smiled up at him in response.
*
"What do you think they're fighting about, cousin?"
Alicia glanced up from her phone at the question, though Nate sat down next to her before she could really answer. "Well, I'm only going by what I heard earlier, but I'm going to guess that it has something to do with how Aiden's mother does not actually own goats, much less does any of those things to them." He laughed, but it was short. They sat in an odd silence after that, with Nate acting like he wanted to say something, and Alicia doing her best to ignore him until she finally lost what patience she had. "If you don't say whatever the hell you have to say, I'm going to punch you."
He gave her a look that said he would love to see her try, and she was tempted to punch him anyway. Both of them had grown up learning how to fight - her from various martial arts instructors, and Nate from Uncle Aaron and a few of his Marine buddies - but like Aunt Chloe needed another fight at her birthday party right now. "Tish said she overheard them arguing about you," he said after a moment. To his credit, he didn't sound accusatory.
"Tish needs to not be nosy."
"It's not nosy when people are half-shouting at each other a few feet from you," he retorted. "So. Why would they be arguing about you?"
Alicia shrunk back in her seat, displeased with the interrogation. "I don't fucking know, cousin. Why would they be arguing about me?"
He shrugged, annoyingly aloof. "You tell me."
Her lips thinned in aggravation. Before she could answer, an outraged shriek that was definitely recognizable as Ira's echoed across the decorated room. "Well, whatever it is they're fighting about," Alicia answered, taking the subject change when it came up, "it looks like they'll be in there a while."
"Think if we lock 'em up somewhere, they'll fuck and get it over with?" Nate asked, sounding serious. She was tempted to take him up on that, because she was so fucking tired of watching them toe around each other. Alicia was tempted to try and distract Aiden for a while - he had been good, and she'd be fucking stupid to turn him down again if the chance rose - but apparently, that's what had started this in the first place.
Whatever. They had fought just as much before she had ever thought about undressing Aiden.
*
Tish edged around another group of people, trying to make her way towards the main tables near the front of the hall. Nate had told her that the party would be small, and she supposed it was - for a fifty-six-year-old that Time had called 'one of the twenty five most powerful women of the century', she guessed there weren't as many guests here as there nearly could be - but it was still more people than she was used to seeing in one room (and she figured that's what she got for falling in love with someone who had more aunts and uncles than he had fingers). She thought that she might stick to Nate from now on. He at least could navigate the crowds better than she could.
Spinning around when she felt someone grab her arm, Tish relaxed when she saw only Danica. "You really shouldn't just grab people like that."
"Well, you looked like you were in a hurry. Have you seen Tara anywhere? Unless I find some way to distract her, all she's going to care about is sneaking up on Ira and Aiden to figure out what they're fighting about."
"They're fighting about Alicia," Tish answered, before she really thought about it. Quickly, she tried to fix it. "I think, at least. I maybe heard her name, but I didn't even hear what she did, so I might be wrong."
Danica snorted in amusement. "Oh, that wouldn't surprise me at all."
"What do you mean?"
"Alicia has a habit of wanting things that aren't really hers. When we were little, she tried to steal my Gameboy."
"So..." Tish blinked, not really sure of how to answer that. "Aiden is Ira's Gameboy?"
"Pretty much. Anyway, have you seen Tara?" Danica stood on her tippy-toes, peering over the crowd. "You'd think, with her hair, she'd be easy to spot. Mom is really pissed about her hair, by the way. Can you believe the color red she chose?"
Tish had an overbearing feeling that this would be the beginning of a very long rant if she didn't find a way to escape now. "I actually haven't seen her. I was just about to go talk to Nate, though. I'll ask him." Before she could really start to make her way through the crowd again, there was a loud crash of a noise, and the room seemed to focus on the double doors that led to the hallway where Ira and Aiden were again. She gladly took the moment to break out of the conversation, and fled while most of the crowd was staying still.
By the time she found Nate, Ira and Aiden had started screaming again. She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying (idly, she wondered if anyone could. She'd have to ask around later) but decided that, at the moment, it wasn't that important.
"D'you think they'll wind down soon?" Nate asked her in greeting, after he kissed her.
"Probably depends on how much battery life the Gameboy has."
He frowned, confused. "What?"
"Something Danica - nothing."
*
Glancing over her shoulder, Tara edged even closer to the double doors that led to the hallway that led to she didn't really care where. As much as she loved Chloe (because how can you not love the rich superstar friend of your parents) this party was sort of boring. It had started to get interesting when Ira and her latest boytoy had started fighting, but that had been swept under the rug. Sort of. It's not exactly out of sight, out of mind when people can sort of hear some things. Frankly, she was surprised no one had rushed in to make sure that Ira hadn't killed him yet.
"I think that door is supposed to be marked private, just so you know."
Tara jumped where she standing, sheepishly turning around to be met with an older blonde female that was vaguely familiar. When a name didn't immediately come to mind, she frowned, confused. "Do I know you?"
"Nicole Morrison," she answered, sticking a hand out. Tara returned the handshake, but the name didn't ring a bell. Considering Nicole had said it like it should, that might be a problem. Slowly, she shook her head, and Nicole's smile faded a bit. "Bestselling author? Young adult novels? I wrote the Seven Deadly Sins series?" Well, at least this wasn't being made more awkward. After a moment, Tara shook her head again, and Nicole's shoulders slumped. "I'm one of Vanessa's moms?" she tried again.
"Oh!" That had clicked, at least. "Emma's wife, right? You run that awesome café."
"Emma runs that awesome café," Nicole corrected her, dryly continuing. "I write books that supposedly sell well and have an ego bigger than my fame."
Tara quickly reassured her. "Oh, I'm sure it's not - I don't read much. If you find my sister, I'm sure she'd turn into a thirteen year old fangirl. If you want, I can point you in her direction..."
"And then you can sneak off to eavesdrop." Smiling after she finished her sentence, Nicole oddly didn't look annoyed. "I don't think that'll be necessary at this point."
"Why do you say that?" she asked, before the doors opened behind her. Spinning around, Tara shrank back when she realized that Ira, still looking decidedly very unhappy, was right behind her. Ira glanced between the both of them, a bit of an embarrassed blush coloring her cheeks before she held her head high and walked back into the room like nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. "Oh," Tara murmured, embarrassed. "Well. It was nice to meet you," she finished, before scurrying off.
*
Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face, glaring at Ira between his fingers, answering the look she had been giving him for the duration of what he supposed could be considered a conversation. "You know, I'm curious 'bout something," he growled. "You're awful pissed 'bout me sleeping with your cousin."
"If I don't want you near me, why the hell would I want you anywhere near my family?" Ira snarled in return, and he smiled. It was done completely with the intention to piss her off, and it worked. She was beautiful when she was angry, and he saw plenty of irony in how fury was his downfall after all.
He took a step forward, managing to talk in the cocky tone he knew she couldn't stand. "Are you pissed that I slept with your cousin, girl, or are you pissed that I slept with someone other than you?" Ira let out a shriek of outrage that made him jerk back, though his smile widened. Aiden knew that would be the right button to push. "Shoulda known you'd be the jealous type."
Color rose in her face, and her voice rose with her next words. "I fucking hate you!"
That wiped the smile off of his face, and he raised his own voice to talk over her as Ira started to throw insults at him again. "Well, that's too fucking bad for you, ain't it?" He moved forward again until they were practically face to face and she had quieted, glaring at him with enough anger that he was sure she would melt him with a thought if she could. "Too fucking bad for you, girl," he continued, voice low and serious. "You gonna be pissed at me for something that ain't your concern? It isn't any skin off my nose. But don't you fucking dare look me in the eye and lie to me."
She grabbed him by the shoulders and stepped forward, pressing against him. He thought she was going to kiss him and leaned down towards her. Instead, she took another step forward and pushed him away with a surprising amount of force. Aiden hadn't been expecting that. He stumbled and practically fell backwards, hissing in pain when he collided with the doors behind him.
"Does it hurt?" Ira asked, stalking forward.
"What d'you think?" he snapped, straightening and brushing himself off. "I ask you a question, and you lie to me. I tell you not to lie to me, and you throw a tantrum. You really aren't nothing more spoiled rotten."
That had her voice rising again, and this time, she was the one to get in his face. "And you're a fucking stupid swamp rat that apparently can't tell when nobody wants him around."
"Alicia seems to want me 'round plenty." It was a calm retort, but Ira drew back like he had slapped her, her eyes practically blazing in fury. "At least, that was the impression I got." She dove at him, but he managed to catch both of her arms before she could hit him. He spun them and pinned her against the wall, restraining her. "Why is that always your reaction to things, huh?" he asked her, raising his voice to get her attention. "You do that to everyone, hurt them and push them away? That ain't gonna work on me!"
"And what makes you think you're so fucking special?" Ira yelled back at him, struggling to get out of his grasp. Aiden just dodged a well placed kick before he pressed against her completely, holding her legs in place.
"Because I can take it!" That made her stop thrashing, and she met his gaze. "You want to hurt me? Fine!" Letting her go, he stepped back and let his arms drop to his sides. "But it's gonna take more than that to make me run," he continued, his voice normal now, "and you don't have that in you. You don't scare me, girl."
"Stop acting like you know me," she hissed in return, pushing away from the wall. She turned away from him, straightening her clothes as she headed back towards the party.
"Then stop acting so fucking predictable," he told her, following after. She only shot him a glare over her shoulder before walking back through the double doors. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and deciding that making use of the open bar until it was time to leave sounded like a good idea. He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his own clothes - for how much fun that wasn't he couldn't help but feel like he was trying to sneak back in from kind of tryst - Aiden walked back into the mail hall, stopping short when he saw Aunt Nicole just a few feet away.
"She didn't kill you," she said in greeting. "That's good. I think some of us were starting to worry."
"She wanted to," he answered, before frowning. "Probably still does. I'm not sure."
"Is this going to happen again?" He glanced over to his aunt, a bit surprised to find her trademark 'I'm not pleased about this situation' expression staring back at him. "Because considering where we are, and who all is here, it really wasn't the time and place."
Aiden knew she was right, but he only shrugged. "And it wasn't me who started it. I'll see you 'round later, auntie." Before she could answer, he ducked into the crowd and headed towards the bar.
Beta: Bookblather
Challenge: Cranberry #15 (Temperance; reverse: discord, conflict, disunion), Kiwi-Strawberry #2 (My Treat from Bookblather; ensemble - family dinners can get interesting fast.), FOTD (deadpan)
Toppings/Extras: Malt ("Not only do I not like him, I can't stand him. He's rude, he's rebellious, and he's totally annoying... and I'm gonna go check on him.") + ("The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” - Carl Jung), Pineapple (My heart's gone away, take it now.), Peaches (Don't feel like you need to make sense of it all. In fact, that may be impossible.)
Word Count: 2,711
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in January 2072. This would have been posted on 7/28, but LJ was being difficult. Lots of new characters in this piece! Nate is Aaron and Chastity's son, Tish is his SO, Danica and Tara are Penn and Jessica's daughters, and Alicia is Faith and Piper's (a character I have yet to write about) daughter. I think that's everyone.
Story: Third Account; the title of this is "Rolling in the Deep."
Summary: It's Chloe's 56 birthday. Of course, Ira and Aiden have to cause a scene.
Really, all of them should have been expecting this - if Ria remembered correctly (which he did), he had told more than a few people that this was going to happen - but more than a few people seemed surprised that an argument had started between Ira and Aiden (again, he thought. Ria was getting tired of watching them toe around an obvious relationship.) They had only full out screamed at each other for a moment, and it was 'they' in the lightest sense. Ira first, some sharp tongued insult about Aiden's mother that Ria didn't really want to think about too much, and Aiden had only smiled. He always did that when she insulted him at the beginning of an argument, and Ria imagined it always had the desired effect of pissing her off even more.
It was only a moment before Mom had rushed over to them, shooing them into one of the hallways off of the main hall. Judging by how Ira's expression darkened even more when, Ria imagined that their mother had taken Aiden's side without exactly saying so, which wasn't much of a surprise. The fact that Mom seemed to approve of Aiden only made Ira that more determined to hate him. Why she didn't tell them to go outside instead, Ria didn't really know, but their mother had long ago decided to just ignore when Ira acted like this and let her embarrass herself.
"Are they still fighting?" he heard a familiar, quiet voice ask, and Ria turned to find Vanessa behind him. It was complete habit to smile when he saw her.
"I think they're just getting started." There was a burst of noise from where Ira and Aiden were - raised voices again, but nothing distinguishable - and Vanessa moved away from it. Ria thought it must have been habit, because the small smile she had didn't fade any, but he still led her away from it.
"I just feel b-b-b-bad," Vanessa stuttered, her brow furrowing as she got past the block, "I invited him a-a-a-and it's your mom's b-b-b," she ducked her head, snapping the fingers of her right hand, "b-birthday party."
"And with my family, this is still relatively calm." He reached down to take her left hand, squeezing it comfortingly before he let go. "Besides, Ira is the one who started it, and she seems to have a knack for embarrassing herself in ways that can be printed in tabloids. Why would anyone blame you?"
She smiled up at him in response.
*
"What do you think they're fighting about, cousin?"
Alicia glanced up from her phone at the question, though Nate sat down next to her before she could really answer. "Well, I'm only going by what I heard earlier, but I'm going to guess that it has something to do with how Aiden's mother does not actually own goats, much less does any of those things to them." He laughed, but it was short. They sat in an odd silence after that, with Nate acting like he wanted to say something, and Alicia doing her best to ignore him until she finally lost what patience she had. "If you don't say whatever the hell you have to say, I'm going to punch you."
He gave her a look that said he would love to see her try, and she was tempted to punch him anyway. Both of them had grown up learning how to fight - her from various martial arts instructors, and Nate from Uncle Aaron and a few of his Marine buddies - but like Aunt Chloe needed another fight at her birthday party right now. "Tish said she overheard them arguing about you," he said after a moment. To his credit, he didn't sound accusatory.
"Tish needs to not be nosy."
"It's not nosy when people are half-shouting at each other a few feet from you," he retorted. "So. Why would they be arguing about you?"
Alicia shrunk back in her seat, displeased with the interrogation. "I don't fucking know, cousin. Why would they be arguing about me?"
He shrugged, annoyingly aloof. "You tell me."
Her lips thinned in aggravation. Before she could answer, an outraged shriek that was definitely recognizable as Ira's echoed across the decorated room. "Well, whatever it is they're fighting about," Alicia answered, taking the subject change when it came up, "it looks like they'll be in there a while."
"Think if we lock 'em up somewhere, they'll fuck and get it over with?" Nate asked, sounding serious. She was tempted to take him up on that, because she was so fucking tired of watching them toe around each other. Alicia was tempted to try and distract Aiden for a while - he had been good, and she'd be fucking stupid to turn him down again if the chance rose - but apparently, that's what had started this in the first place.
Whatever. They had fought just as much before she had ever thought about undressing Aiden.
*
Tish edged around another group of people, trying to make her way towards the main tables near the front of the hall. Nate had told her that the party would be small, and she supposed it was - for a fifty-six-year-old that Time had called 'one of the twenty five most powerful women of the century', she guessed there weren't as many guests here as there nearly could be - but it was still more people than she was used to seeing in one room (and she figured that's what she got for falling in love with someone who had more aunts and uncles than he had fingers). She thought that she might stick to Nate from now on. He at least could navigate the crowds better than she could.
Spinning around when she felt someone grab her arm, Tish relaxed when she saw only Danica. "You really shouldn't just grab people like that."
"Well, you looked like you were in a hurry. Have you seen Tara anywhere? Unless I find some way to distract her, all she's going to care about is sneaking up on Ira and Aiden to figure out what they're fighting about."
"They're fighting about Alicia," Tish answered, before she really thought about it. Quickly, she tried to fix it. "I think, at least. I maybe heard her name, but I didn't even hear what she did, so I might be wrong."
Danica snorted in amusement. "Oh, that wouldn't surprise me at all."
"What do you mean?"
"Alicia has a habit of wanting things that aren't really hers. When we were little, she tried to steal my Gameboy."
"So..." Tish blinked, not really sure of how to answer that. "Aiden is Ira's Gameboy?"
"Pretty much. Anyway, have you seen Tara?" Danica stood on her tippy-toes, peering over the crowd. "You'd think, with her hair, she'd be easy to spot. Mom is really pissed about her hair, by the way. Can you believe the color red she chose?"
Tish had an overbearing feeling that this would be the beginning of a very long rant if she didn't find a way to escape now. "I actually haven't seen her. I was just about to go talk to Nate, though. I'll ask him." Before she could really start to make her way through the crowd again, there was a loud crash of a noise, and the room seemed to focus on the double doors that led to the hallway where Ira and Aiden were again. She gladly took the moment to break out of the conversation, and fled while most of the crowd was staying still.
By the time she found Nate, Ira and Aiden had started screaming again. She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying (idly, she wondered if anyone could. She'd have to ask around later) but decided that, at the moment, it wasn't that important.
"D'you think they'll wind down soon?" Nate asked her in greeting, after he kissed her.
"Probably depends on how much battery life the Gameboy has."
He frowned, confused. "What?"
"Something Danica - nothing."
*
Glancing over her shoulder, Tara edged even closer to the double doors that led to the hallway that led to she didn't really care where. As much as she loved Chloe (because how can you not love the rich superstar friend of your parents) this party was sort of boring. It had started to get interesting when Ira and her latest boytoy had started fighting, but that had been swept under the rug. Sort of. It's not exactly out of sight, out of mind when people can sort of hear some things. Frankly, she was surprised no one had rushed in to make sure that Ira hadn't killed him yet.
"I think that door is supposed to be marked private, just so you know."
Tara jumped where she standing, sheepishly turning around to be met with an older blonde female that was vaguely familiar. When a name didn't immediately come to mind, she frowned, confused. "Do I know you?"
"Nicole Morrison," she answered, sticking a hand out. Tara returned the handshake, but the name didn't ring a bell. Considering Nicole had said it like it should, that might be a problem. Slowly, she shook her head, and Nicole's smile faded a bit. "Bestselling author? Young adult novels? I wrote the Seven Deadly Sins series?" Well, at least this wasn't being made more awkward. After a moment, Tara shook her head again, and Nicole's shoulders slumped. "I'm one of Vanessa's moms?" she tried again.
"Oh!" That had clicked, at least. "Emma's wife, right? You run that awesome café."
"Emma runs that awesome café," Nicole corrected her, dryly continuing. "I write books that supposedly sell well and have an ego bigger than my fame."
Tara quickly reassured her. "Oh, I'm sure it's not - I don't read much. If you find my sister, I'm sure she'd turn into a thirteen year old fangirl. If you want, I can point you in her direction..."
"And then you can sneak off to eavesdrop." Smiling after she finished her sentence, Nicole oddly didn't look annoyed. "I don't think that'll be necessary at this point."
"Why do you say that?" she asked, before the doors opened behind her. Spinning around, Tara shrank back when she realized that Ira, still looking decidedly very unhappy, was right behind her. Ira glanced between the both of them, a bit of an embarrassed blush coloring her cheeks before she held her head high and walked back into the room like nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all. "Oh," Tara murmured, embarrassed. "Well. It was nice to meet you," she finished, before scurrying off.
*
Aiden scrubbed a hand over his face, glaring at Ira between his fingers, answering the look she had been giving him for the duration of what he supposed could be considered a conversation. "You know, I'm curious 'bout something," he growled. "You're awful pissed 'bout me sleeping with your cousin."
"If I don't want you near me, why the hell would I want you anywhere near my family?" Ira snarled in return, and he smiled. It was done completely with the intention to piss her off, and it worked. She was beautiful when she was angry, and he saw plenty of irony in how fury was his downfall after all.
He took a step forward, managing to talk in the cocky tone he knew she couldn't stand. "Are you pissed that I slept with your cousin, girl, or are you pissed that I slept with someone other than you?" Ira let out a shriek of outrage that made him jerk back, though his smile widened. Aiden knew that would be the right button to push. "Shoulda known you'd be the jealous type."
Color rose in her face, and her voice rose with her next words. "I fucking hate you!"
That wiped the smile off of his face, and he raised his own voice to talk over her as Ira started to throw insults at him again. "Well, that's too fucking bad for you, ain't it?" He moved forward again until they were practically face to face and she had quieted, glaring at him with enough anger that he was sure she would melt him with a thought if she could. "Too fucking bad for you, girl," he continued, voice low and serious. "You gonna be pissed at me for something that ain't your concern? It isn't any skin off my nose. But don't you fucking dare look me in the eye and lie to me."
She grabbed him by the shoulders and stepped forward, pressing against him. He thought she was going to kiss him and leaned down towards her. Instead, she took another step forward and pushed him away with a surprising amount of force. Aiden hadn't been expecting that. He stumbled and practically fell backwards, hissing in pain when he collided with the doors behind him.
"Does it hurt?" Ira asked, stalking forward.
"What d'you think?" he snapped, straightening and brushing himself off. "I ask you a question, and you lie to me. I tell you not to lie to me, and you throw a tantrum. You really aren't nothing more spoiled rotten."
That had her voice rising again, and this time, she was the one to get in his face. "And you're a fucking stupid swamp rat that apparently can't tell when nobody wants him around."
"Alicia seems to want me 'round plenty." It was a calm retort, but Ira drew back like he had slapped her, her eyes practically blazing in fury. "At least, that was the impression I got." She dove at him, but he managed to catch both of her arms before she could hit him. He spun them and pinned her against the wall, restraining her. "Why is that always your reaction to things, huh?" he asked her, raising his voice to get her attention. "You do that to everyone, hurt them and push them away? That ain't gonna work on me!"
"And what makes you think you're so fucking special?" Ira yelled back at him, struggling to get out of his grasp. Aiden just dodged a well placed kick before he pressed against her completely, holding her legs in place.
"Because I can take it!" That made her stop thrashing, and she met his gaze. "You want to hurt me? Fine!" Letting her go, he stepped back and let his arms drop to his sides. "But it's gonna take more than that to make me run," he continued, his voice normal now, "and you don't have that in you. You don't scare me, girl."
"Stop acting like you know me," she hissed in return, pushing away from the wall. She turned away from him, straightening her clothes as she headed back towards the party.
"Then stop acting so fucking predictable," he told her, following after. She only shot him a glare over her shoulder before walking back through the double doors. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and deciding that making use of the open bar until it was time to leave sounded like a good idea. He ran a hand through his hair and straightened his own clothes - for how much fun that wasn't he couldn't help but feel like he was trying to sneak back in from kind of tryst - Aiden walked back into the mail hall, stopping short when he saw Aunt Nicole just a few feet away.
"She didn't kill you," she said in greeting. "That's good. I think some of us were starting to worry."
"She wanted to," he answered, before frowning. "Probably still does. I'm not sure."
"Is this going to happen again?" He glanced over to his aunt, a bit surprised to find her trademark 'I'm not pleased about this situation' expression staring back at him. "Because considering where we are, and who all is here, it really wasn't the time and place."
Aiden knew she was right, but he only shrugged. "And it wasn't me who started it. I'll see you 'round later, auntie." Before she could answer, he ducked into the crowd and headed towards the bar.