Empty Glasses

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Full glass softly circling around its axis in his arms when someone settled down next to him.

Voice known.

He looked on over and made sure Dante didn't have a voice-double. Didn't seem to be the case, unless she had a very convincing twin at the same time. "Mmm, is now, I suppose." Right after she settled down and ordered a glass for herself. It was odd, this. One moment he was alone and the next the woman he was thinking of was there in the moment. Odder still that it seemed they weren't even skipping a beat. Almost as if there hadn't been a week that had passed since their last encounter and the completely... strange departure from her side.

But Morgan wasn't one to complicate something that seemed to be going easy and comfortable.

"Oh, Dan." Mock surprise with a smirk attached to the end of it. "Didn't realize that polite voice was you."

Glass of beer raised half in salute, before clicking it against hers in a cheers, before taking a good solid sip from it. Tasted just as good as it had all those years back when he had first tasted it right after that mission.

"What brings you here to this waterhole of a place?"

 

[Dante Sotari]

"I know. Me plus polite equals-" and she made an over exaggerated shrug, a stupidly puzzles expression on her face.

Accepting the glass of beer from the bartender, she took a sip- unsurprized at his usual fare. She rolled the glass absently between her hands, settling on hitting it a bit harder before attempting further parlay.

"Beer's good here," she said finally. "They clean the taps. That place on Fifth?" She made a face, all wrinkled up and disgusted. "Just, if you order there, make sure you order a bottle or something hard. I don't think they've flushed their taps since the One Sith era."

Still not looking at him, her tone casual, she asked "So where's Dee? Don't see him around leering aggressively at everyone while shooting me dirty looks when he thinks I'm not looking."

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

He took it at face-value.

Coincidence then that they met up tonight at the same time and place. Part of him had been, maybe foolishly, hoping that Dan had come here for him. It was the place he frequented most often and she hadn't been here before during the nights he was in.

But why would Dan obfuscate that? No reason whatsoever, so he simply believed her.

"He isn't scowling at you..." the look she gave him made him chuckle a bit. "Okay, maybe a little bit, he got dumped by some app date of his. So he is grumpy at his place."

A shrug followed as he took another sip from his glass.

Big one too. Strange how the moment she came around Morgan subconsciously immediately started sipping heavier. Almost as if it was a reflex of the memories of their good times always being accompanied with plenty of drinks.

"Rishi?"

 

[Dante Sotari]

"That app is....." she shrugged. She just made an assumption. Didn't know if she was going to say 'kind of useful' or 'a karking menace' so she left it alone.

"Rish? I dunno, probably busy being a planet or somethin'."

She closed her eyes, annoyed. Mostly with herself, but it was easier to be annoyed at him. She didn't know why he made her feel..... like this. It wasn't really annoyed, it wasn't defensive. Well. Yeah, it was a bit defensive. He hadn't *done* anything. Just followed the usual conversational habits that meant he responded in kind to the verbal salvo she offered first. Ugh. Why was he so hard to talk to?

Maybe, some small part of her murmured, if you stopped playing games, with yourself and with him, it'd be easier.

The voice was easy to step on.

"He had a long day," she elaborated. "Said he was going to stay in."

She didn't notice that he was hitting his drink harder. Mostly because it by and large matched her consumption. She never saw how he drank when she wasn't around, after all. Finishing the ale, she raised a finger for another.

"Sooooooo," she said, immediately hating how not at all casual it sounded. "How you been?"

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

A chuckle first followed by a more serious nod next.

Her order was followed by another one of his, but he took it slow with this one. After all... he had already been a few drinks in- would only be fair for Dan to play catch up with him. He looked over to her when she asked him how he was doing. Felt strange. That question. Not the question itself, but the tone. It almost felt like she was trying to sound.... Morgan didn't know. All of this was complicated, a mess, feelings jumbled together and Vance didn't know if he should feel good, bad, sad, shame, something in between?

But the drink was good, so the rest could be washed away in the face of that.

"Oh, you know how it is-" A shrug, before taking another sip. "Go to work, get it done, go home, eat, go out, drink, maybe dance a little and meet some new faces." Vance stayed cryptic about it. But presumably those new faces were of the feminine persuasion.

And presumably meeting them after dancing a little had its own little connotation.

Third sip. A beat.

"You?"

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Same basically."

She resisted the urge to smack her forehead into the bar. Why. Was it. So. Motherkarkingdifficulttojustkarkingtalktohim?

Ugh. This was stupid.

She took a long drink of the ale, downing most of it in one long pull. Closed her eyes. Breathed in deeply. Opened them again. Looked up. Looked back down at the glass.

"Okay, this is dumb. Look. Do you want to grab a six pack or something and just.... I don't know, chill?"

She didn't look at him when she asked it. She was busy 'inspecting' what was left of the glass of beer in her hands, one eye squinting, the other closed as if the secrets to life, the universe and what kind of bug that was in the top corner of the 'fresher at the barracks.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

He was in the middle of a nod while tying up the last bits of his glass, when that last bit came.

Morgan blinked.

That was unexpected. It stayed silent for a little moment, before he nodded again. "Yeah. I'd like that." Part of him had been tempted to play a little bit coy, maybe tease her a bit, but the last time he had tried to tease her... it had taken half an hour in the outside cold to coax her back inside. That wasn't something Morgan was really eager to repeat in the moment.

So honesty was the way to go here.

Knuckles knocked on the bar and that got the 'keep's attention. "Two more to go, yeah?" The question was directed to Dante, who seemed to find it funny and just nodded in agreement.

Ten minutes later they were outside with drinks in hand and trundling through the night. "Ben's open, right on the way to my place?"

 

[Dante Sotari]

Dante wasn't nearly drunk enough for any of this, so she's agreed- grabbing an extra shot as well before heading out. Just enough to even out the edges, that was all. Just enough to make everything a little easier, a little less fraught. No big deal.

"Yeah Ben's is fine," she confirmed, taking a sip of the beer.

The wind was hard and it made talking difficult, but that was fine. Honestly, she wasn't sure she was doing the right thing anyway. There was talk about a rescue mission in deep space floating around, and technically she was on call (he probably was too, she realized), because they could get called up at any time. That didn't stop her from leaving base however, or having a drink or two. Something more, to relax with that hanging over them, right?

It meant that, as she finished her beer, Dante was distracted. The extra couple of drinks already didn't help either.

It took her a minute to figure out just what was going on as they were halfway past the mouth of an alley and suddenly someone had grabbed the back of her jacket and hair in a closed fist and yanked, sending her stumbling back.

"Hey!"

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Morgan was halfway through another long sip from his glass when he was suddenly pushed.

The push almost caused him to land on his face, but he managed just so to regain his footing. The beer was a different story, sliding right out of his hand and dashed against the ground. It shattered there, the rich liquid flowing everywhere except where he wanted it to go. "The feth-" Morgan looked up, first he saw Dan- some big lady holding her by her hair, then he saw the fist looming.

Too fast.

It crashed into his face and send him sprawling towards the ground himself.

Luckily not in the glass, but it still hurt like a fether. It was met with cheers as the guy laughed, but stealthily did rub his hand a bit. Ow. It seemed it had been a hurting experience for both of them. "Marines, 69th, you broke my disarm record." The marine declared, filthy smirk showing too much teeth grinned. "I didn't like that." He cracked his knuckles for punctuation.

Behind them the lady holding Dan piped up.

"Mmm, yes, and you karked my headhunter record."

Mor snorted, climbing back up to his feet and rubbing softly at the blood from his nose. "Sounds like you two need more practice." That went a long way towards wiping those smirks out.

 

[Dante Sotari]

Her hands were already up, snaking in between her skull and the woman's hand, grasping hair into a pony tail to ease the pressure of the hold- the other woman hadn't gone after her hair on purpose really, but it was long and not for the first time, Dante considered just cutting it all off. Stuff like this....

There was probably a way out of this without a real fight. This was a rivalry that neither Dante nor Morgan had even been aware of. If they said some nice stuff, offered to buy them a couple of beers, the whole thing probably could have been resolved without further serious scuffle.

Unfortunately, neither Dante nor Morgan was good at that kind of conflict resolution.

"Hey friends, no reason to fight. Didn't even know about your records. 69th eh? You both have been around twice as long as us then," she said easily. That could have started to ease the situation, but instead she kept talking. "Not our fault you two suck," she chimed in cheerfully. "Sounds like a *you* problem-"

And that was the real beginning of the brawl. Hard to tell if Dante had done it on purpose or not, but it didn't really matter at that point.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Dangerous this.

Morgan mused as he ducked - too close for comfort, reflexes too slow - and hooked his fist into the lad's gut. Doubled over, follow up with a knee in the face and the once he got to the ground finish it with a kick. Head snapped back.

Dangerous.

But effective. He knelt next to the body, felt the vein, thump, thump, thump, still alive. Good. Both of them had training- they knew how to kill people, it was burned into their reflexes and instincts. But usually they had enough inhibition to make sure that was only last resort. But once the drinks were had? You were liable to make a mistake or two or three.

The kind that you couldn't take back.

Dangerous.

But once Morgan looked up and noticed Dan, he knew the truth- 'twas worth the risk.

"How you holding up, Dan?" Mor asked before stretching himself out and groaning softly. Knuckles hurt, nose, side, nothing seemed to be broken, because the stretch would have turned into curled-up huddle then. But it was still not entirely too pleasant. The marine had been hitting like a freight train for sure. 69th wasn't a joke, no matter what both of them were.

 

[Dante Sotari]

The other woman was bigger than Dante. Dante wasn't small precisely, but the other woman was the exact opposite. At least two Dante's in that one and she was pissed. With a jerk of her hand, snapping her hair out of the other woman's grip, she dropped, falling right out of her coat as she tried to wrap an arm around her throat.

This wasn't a fair fight. So Dante didn't bother trying to pretend it was.

The cup was plastic, but it didn't matter- slam anything weird shaped at someone's face and they flinched. By the time she realized that it posed zero threat, Dante fed her fist into her throat. Twice.

Dante wasn't a brawler. In a longer, drag out fight, the larger woman would turn her into paste. So she didn't let it become that, dodging back as she choked and flailed, trying to grab purchase.

"Just peachy Mor butnowweneedtogocomeon-"

Grabbing his hand she started high tailing it down the sidewalk.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

They kept running to the tune of the woman's angry, hoarse screams, but by the end of it as they leaned against the side-wall of Ben's?

All that Morgan could do was laugh.

Just this deep mirth rising up from his stomach up, forcing itself loose, until he ow'ed at the tense feeling of his side. Might not be broken, but it was most definitely bruised. He'd probably need a few bandages for that, maybe an ointment or two. "Gods, did you even know those people?" A soft giggle now as he thought about it and shook his head. "Because I sure as hell didn't- they were so mad." It was kind of hilarious to Morgan to picture those two stewing over it for weeks.

Considering them rivals or mortal enemies.

Working each other up for days, until one day they decided to once and for all settle it. The fact that neither Dan or Mor had any idea that these people existed? That was only the cherry on top for him and he laughed a gain, before wincing.

"Ooph, guy hit like a train-wagon tho." Head shook a bit. "Get something stronger than a six-pack, eh? Think some whiskey would be good right about now."

Besides Morgan was pretty sure he still had a crate in the fridge at home.

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Kaine-Karking-Zambrano they were so mad holy maw."

That had sobered Dante up quite a bit, leaving her way too clear headed for the evening. It was also a reminder. She'd gotten complacent. Spent long enough in one place that felt safe and started letting her guard down. Walking around tipsy, her attention on Morgan rather than the alley those two had come out of. Sure they weren't anything to do with her old life, but that didn't have to be the case. It was only a matter of time before whoever had-

She stopped, forcibly shunting that aside. Be more careful, Dani. That's all.

Thinking about her dead husband when she was about to go kark someone else was not conducive to anything whatsoever.

"Yeah," she agreed, some of the laughter having drained. Suddenly, she just sounded tired. "Something stronger for sure."

If he noticed, he didn't ask her about it, but then, that was one of the things she liked about him (also one of the things that annoyed her about him, depending on the day). They picked up the bottle in question, but she shook her head when he offered it- which was weird until she clarified it with a 'when we get back to your place.' Not *too* weird then, considering.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Vance did notice.

But did not comment.

It wasn't any of his business and he didn't try to pry, it was presumably one of the reasons why they could get along every once in a while. Mor had seen her push people away, servicemen who had gotten too friendly and started giving advice or push for one thing or the other. It made the group of people she allowed in really small, but that wasn't something Morgan would judge about.

After all.

How many friends did he really have compared to that?

The offer was declined and Mor shrugged, taking a sip for himself and coughing immediately after that. Strong. Ben hadn't been joking that this was their strongest, expensive too, but worth it after all of that.

Took 'em about ten more minutes, before the door closed behind them and they were at his place again. "Home sweet home." Morgan eyed her critically for a moment or two before nodding seriously. "Shoes off, I juuuuuust waxed the floor this weekend." The old oak was pretty and it smelled nice too. A real schutta to get right, but it was definitely worth it in the end.

He helped her out of her coat (more out of habit than anything else) and she helped him.

"Gonna get us sum glasses, Dan."

 

[Dante Sotari]

She gave him an arched eyebrow about the floors, but shrugged and complied. She wasn't a complete arsehole after all. But honestly, who the maw actually waxed their floors? Apparently the same guy who folded her clothes after a hook up bender, so, really, she shouldn't be surprised.

With a groan and a flop, Dante deposited herself with a certain boneless quality onto his couch. She sprawled, not really concerning herself with how much room she was taking up, but she'd scoot whenever he decided he wanted a spot too. One arm draped over the back of the couch, she tilted her head backward over the arm rest, long blonde hair trailing over the edge as she looked at him.

"I mean, if you gotta sure. But I think we're beyond the 'cooties' phase so I'm perfectly content to drink right out of the bottle. In fact, stop wasting time and gimme."

She reached out, and he handed it over. Sitting up just enough to take a drink, she pulled on it long and hard, enough so that when she finally came up for air she wheezed a little. It burned raw, sending tendrils of warmth through her and after the initial face she relaxed back against the arm of the couch with a relieved look on her face.

"Or you can get a glass for yourself and I'll keep the rest of this," she said, waving the bottle until the alcohol sloshed, tone teasing. "Not sure if a robot like you can appreciate it after all."

It was becoming a bit of a joke, nothing meant by it, not really.

After all, she didn't know.

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Morgan stopped in the middle of his trajectory.

Looked back over his shoulder and shrugged. "Suppose you right there." Somehow he ended up next to her and it seemed natural when Dan moved to lean against him during the pull of the bottle. Then further once she came up for air and started wheezing just a little bit. Morgan just chuckled, before accepting the bottle back and his arm rested easily on her shoulders. Pulling her closer not by one firm movement, but by half a dozen smaller ones that all ended up with her side against his.

"Oh, my taste module is exc- ex... ception... al? ly... developed, yes." Shake of the head and Morgan took his own bite of the bottle. Enjoying the burn on his tongue, mouths, enough for him to close his eyes and hum softly as the feeling washed over him.

Enough to override most other things.

The bottle was passed over again and this time he leaned in. Nuzzling her neck a touch without pushing too hard- it wouldn't be handy while drinking liquid fire after all.

Soft kiss down the line of her neck, one after another, when she came up again. "Got another six-pack in the fridge, if... if you want a different taste on your tongue." Wasn't easy to just chuck an entire bottle of whiskey, even if there were two of them here. But it was just an offer of options, while she pushed against his neck and his eyes closed. Kissing firmer now. Teasing a reaction out and distracting her attention from the drink to the different flavor of taste.

 

[Dante Sotari]

Each small tug coincided with each new drink from the bottle, and by slow and careful motion, Dante ended up leaning against him- she couldn't have told someone how, exactly, just that it had happened.

Not unlike the rest of them, to be honest.

Halfway through the bottle, she closed her eyes, letting the feeling of the alcohol slowly start to catch up with the speed of consumption, and the feeling of his lips against her neck. She hadn't looked at him since he'd settled down, and it wasn't until she started to tip her head to the side, opening her eyes to find his lips that she stop and blinked.

"Karking maw, man, you're bleeding like a stuck bantha," she muttered. Pushing the bottle into his hands, she got up- the booze hit her fully as she did, and she swayed slightly, his hand coming up to steady her at the small of her back. She shook his off, grumbling something.

"First aid kit's in the 'fresher, yah? No, sit," she said firmly, or as firm as someone well on the road to drunk could be. "Get up and I'll put you down, Vance."

Still grumbling she retrieved the kit. For a moment she looked at him, then at the coffee table, then back at him. And shrugged, parking her butt on the coffee table so she could tend to his face.

"How did you not notice this," she muttered, starting to dab at the blood. "Headwounds bleed like a chutta."

[member="Morgan Vance"]

 

[Kenth Typho]

[member="Dante Sotari"]

Morgan didn't do much to try and dissuade her from the thing.

Because once she put attention on it, he put attention on it and the pain flamed right back up. It was the combination of good booze, company and a little bit of music that had kept him from actually feeling the pain much. First it had been just a dull whine at the edge of his mind. Easily pushed away with another sip and another, until all that mattered was the breezy haze between them.

"Unsure, Dan, think you distracted me a bit." Smirk played up at that as he tipped his head a bit for her. Instinctive, hissing softly every time she rubbed against the wound to clean it out.

Hurt.

But for some reason it felt good too.

Made him feel alive, in the moment and it brought a shiver up and down his spine. Most likely the combination of her proximity and the alcohol that turned pain into something... more. As she worked Morgan pulled the bottle to him, eyeing it with a side-look before humming in satisfaction. Still plenty of liquid in it to squash any residual painy feels.

"Ahhhh, we been through worse." Morgan commented before taking another gulp, as she switched instruments. " 'member Korriban? Sand errywhere."

"Gets into errything."

 

[Dante Sotari]

"Ugh don't remind me. Melted sand. Essh. The scars on my side still make me look vaguely like.... look Idunno what it looks like, but it's kinda hard to ignore."

She focused on the job, her tongue stuck slightly out of the corner of her mouth. She didn't look at anything but the tools and the wound- eyebrow split probably from a punch- concentrating with that pin point attention of the mildly inebriated. Squinting, she finally drew back.

"Can't believe you didn't feel that. Probably would use a stitch or two, but I think that will hold. If it's still gaping tomorrow you should go down.... to.... the....."

She paused, looking down at him slightly perplexed.

"Why..... are you looking at me like that. Forget it. Whatever it is, I don't wanna know."

She pushed off the couch, wavering for a moment and he reached out, steadying her by her hip. Putting everything back away (not as neatly as it had come out of the box if we're being honest), she went to return it to the cabinet. On the way back she made a detour to the kitchen, procuring the six pack from the fridge before calling over her shoulder.

"Save me a little bit of that ya lush, or I'm drinkin' all of these."

[member="Morgan Vance"]