Courting A Lady (Anastasia)

It had been about a week since the male had heard anything from the pretty girl at the night club. But no matter how many days had passed, she clogged his mind. Her beauty, her gentle voice among the crowds, and just everything about her. Walking from his bed, to his bathroom, he dropped his pajama pants to the floor. As he stretched, he leaned over and turned on the water in the shower. As he waited for it to heat up, he walked over to the sink and started looking at the facial hairs around his chin and cheeks. It wasn't too much that needed to be shaved, but it did need to be shaved. He needed to look his best for the girl he would hopefully be calling his girlfriend. Grabbing his razor, he slowly went over his face a couple times, getting all the loose hairs and stubs he had missed. Once he felt he had done a great job, he walked to the shower and got in.

His showers were always quick, having done the same routine for a majority of his life. When he originally moved out, he was young and the place he lived in had hot water on the rare chance. So he was always expecting to have a quick shower, to save himself the horror of an ice cold one. He cleaned his body first, lathering his loofah with his body soap and scrubbing every inch of his body. When he was finished, he stood under the sharp waters that attacked his back from the shower head. He then lathered his hear with shampoo and quickly rinsed it out. Finally he turned off the water and shook his head, shaking the excess water from the strands of brilliant hair. He grabbed his towel and dried himself off quickly, wrapping it around his waist. As he walked by his window, he noticed his nosey neighbor peeking in. She always made a habit of doing that, especially after the first time she caught him completely naked. Since then, Damian always made sure to cover himself up.

Going through his closet, he searched for the perfect attire for the evening. They were going to dine at the Griffen, get to know one another in a quieter, less sexually driven place. Picking a solid black button down, a pair of warn blue jeans, and a decent pair of shoes, he got dressed and was ready to go. Walking out of his house, he closed the door behind him and locked it. He never was afraid of people stealing things, he just didn't want people to discover his secret by searching in his fridge. Many would find it appalling that he had portions of cows and other animals in his fridge and freezer. As he made his way to the car, he unlocked it with the remote and got into the driver's seat. Like she had told him, he drove to her hotel she was staying in and waited for her in the lobby.

White. Pretty for a color, but in no way fitting to embellish quite literally everything in a hotel room. Months she sat, alone, in utter white. She had grown to hate it.


It had been an horribly uneventful week since her outing at the Rapture; seven long days starved of excitement, boring to wit's end, but what's a week to an immortal? Nothing, simply, but a memory to be lost, but torturous it was, nonetheless. He, of course, was the source of her demons; the stranger she only just knew. The player she just may have tamed. Damian was different, mysterious, and drew her in like a moth to flame - for lack of a more poetic term. She was curious after all, nearly dangerously so, though she doubted indulging in this fascination would lead her to the same demise as the cat - for she would take care to not let him close enough this night. A peek was all he needed.

She spent a time behind the lock to her room's cherry door bound utterly by the happenings of a ritual; lips painted, just so, skin dusted and polished and lids of petals swept and dressed in midnight's splendor, for even Annie strove for a bit of glamour now and again. In a plume of very familiar vanilla her door was opened, closed, and locked, her figure once upon its threshold tapping away in crimson heels down the labyrinth of a hallway it adorned. Through the sliding mirrors of an elevator's embrace, down the stairs that clung for her soles with a fleeting prance, and she was there; before the man she had waited a very uneventful week to see. She stood awkwardly still in his shadow as she took in her form, impressed, but of course, by his exceptionally dapper appearance, for he looked nothing like the club-goer - cheeks rosy with the flush of drink - that had danced beneath the eclectic flash of the Rapture's light that night. And yet, in every aspect, he looked exactly the same. The warming glow emitted by the lobby's flickering lamps did him much more justice than the dark, and in this new light she stared. He was...breathtaking, and unfortunately, very literally took her breath away.

"Ah, Damian. You found the place alright, then?" Annie walked to him, the fabric that hung tight from her belly swiveling pleasantly across the skin it hugged as she swayed, and traced her palm down his arm. "You clean up very, very nicely. Does the gentleman know where he will be taking his lady this evening?"

And there she was. As he looked over the beautiful woman before him, he almost allowed his jaw to literally drop to the floor. His eyes moved up and down her body, eying how the dress hugged her tight frame, the way her make-up accented her beautiful face, and her scent was divine. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, and he had seen himself in the mirror plenty of times. Of all the women he had encountered in his conquests, she beat them all, putting all of them to shame. The brute began to wonder how he had been so lucky. Of all the men in that club, she chose him. For now, he tucked the idea away from his mind. "Yes, I am rather good at finding my way around, as long as I follow my nose," he joked with a light chuckle. Damian walked to her side, standing shoulder to shoulder as he held out his arm, waiting for her to clasp onto his tight muscles. "Yes, I know exactly where I am taking my lady." When she had, he escorted her to the car. "Would you hold it against me if I told you that you look absolutely ravishing tonight? Of course, I believe you look this way all the time." As he made it to the car, he opened it for her, allowing her to get to her seat. Once she was completely and safely inside, he closed the door slowly. Quickly he ran around the back side of the car and entered on his side. As they drove, he made small talk with her, still in awe that a beautiful lass was in his very own car.


As he stopped the car in front of the valet stand, he opened his door and watched as the valet opened the passenger door for Anastasia. Handing the keys to the valet, he received a ticket. Placing the ticket inside his pocket, he extended his arm to her once again, making sure to open each and every door before them, allowing her to walk through first. As they approached the hostess's stand, she looked to them with a bright smile. "Reservation for Arevallo," he said to her. she looked over him with a smile, obviously checking him out as she grabbed their menus. She escorted them to the table, and still he walked Anastasia the same way. Some may consider him old fashioned, but that was the way to court a lady. When they were brought to their small round table, close to the fireplace as he requested previously, he helped Anastasia in her seat and then sat in his across from her.

The table was garnished with a white cloth, and the center piece a single white rose in a lavender vase. None of the other tables shared the rose, nor the vase. It was a special thing he had reserved as well, purchasing the vase and rose earlier that day. "This is for you," he said as he motioned at the flower. Soon their server was at their table, holding a bottle of champagne and two wine glasses. As she placed them on the table and poured into each one, she took their order for appetizers. When she finished jotting it down on her notepad, she hurried to the kitchen. Damian watched as she darted from their table, then looked to Anastasia. She was even more gorgeous close to the light of the fire dancing upon her tender skin. "So, what do you think?" he asked as he reached for his glass and took a long sip. Placing the glass down, he looked to her with a smile. "How was your week? Eventful, I hope."

She smiled at the first sound of his voice, her eyes crinkling and dancing in some unknown bliss as his own fell, heavy and dark in dangerous want, to play on their crystal edge of blue, her fingertips buzzing in a sensation like an electric shock as they searched the flat of his forearm. She hooked her own with his awaiting arm with a slow and deliberate twist; pivoting on her polished heel to press her shoulder to his, taking her clutch - a little thing, clad in black shine and lined in dainty laces of gold - into her opposite palm in a blur of freckled flesh. She walked with him, the pale to her legs catching slivers of dewy evening light as he lead, lips stark like stains of wine against porcelain curled in a mighty grin as his words carried her spirits high. "I'm to assume you prefer to keep your plan for this evening a secret, so I won't bother asking where it is you'll be taking me. To answer your question, I most certainly will be holding it against you, as once again I catch you attempting to flatter me out of my wits. To which I say," she turned against his chest to face him as his hand hung from his car's open door, her chin hovering above his collar bone as her head hung and their gazes crossed with a hiss of sweet breath and she whispered, "You owe me. Again. Whether its working or not." And slid into her seat.



She smiled to the valet as he opened her door, smoothing the ruffles to her little black dress with a swipe of a hand as her calves slid from the comfort of the car's cooling leather. Happily returning to the familiarity of Damian's arm she drank in the elegance of the building that peered from candlelit eyes above, its tongue of plush crimson luxuriously inviting as it streamed from the glass of the Griffin's broad mouth. Surrounding its walls and doors and majesty were obnoxiously wealthy tuxedos, their ivory cuffs crossed and their tails swinging low as their wearers stilled like icemen against the stares of fleeting curiosity. Back and forth through its double doors pranced the most beautiful creatures, their mortal bodies graced by all their money's worth in an affair to distill the realization of their demises, their faces painted and wrists armored in useless hands of time. The very air about it was exciting, seamed with scents of a cook's seasoned labor and the delicious pang of spiced wine, and for once Annie was met with anticipation for what was to unfold instead of the hell that was waiting for it to end.

Vaguely she noted the roaming eye of the hostess as Damian presented his name, though as grace her victor over audacity whispered pleasantly a 'thank you' as she turned to show them to their table. She lingered by her chair with a finger on its frame as the extent of Damian's reserved corner was revealed with the away of the hostess's presence, the controlled roar of the fireplace's lick washing over her skin and casting shadows upon the walls in lulling waves of soft rhythm as her mouth parted wide. She sat with a cross to her thighs that sliced through the dark and the stowing of her clutch to the side, watching hesitantly as Damian pushed in her seat and took his own across from her, cradling her cheek in the palm of her hand as he gestured to the flower that sat between them both. Once again, her breath was gone as soon as his eyes were in sight, her freckles swimming in a rosy blush that ignited with warmth with every flash of a smile, pull to his shirt, glance her way. "How on earth-" from her lips a stifled laugh, her head shaking side to side, before the waitress introduced their drink for the night. Without taking her eyes from his, she nodded in frank dismissal and took the glass given in hand, drowning her tongue in its bubbly bliss as Damian ordered appetizers to which she compliantly agreed. Annie placed her drink to wood as their company left and he turned to her, tilting her head with the fall of auburn from behind her ear and clasping her hands atop her highest knee.

"I...I'm beyond impressed. It's beautiful. Not exactly what I was expecting from a regular at the Rapture. The champagne is divine, and the rose...thank you. Really; its a nice surprise for someone who's been around as long as I have." She took another sip from her glass, leaving her arm across the table to trace its lip with a mindless finger.. "Oh, no. The opposite, actually. What of yours? I hope you weren't all that lonely."

Damian took int he sights and the smells around them. The fire only added to the beauty of the woman across from him. The smell of burning wood mixed with the scent she carried, which emitted from the beautiful wolf which lied within her. Taking up his glass, he raised it and said, "toast to the us and lives we live." Pushing his glass to his lips, he took a sip of the wine and quietly placed it down. He could not help but to chuckle when she spoke. "I do not always find myself deep within the battlefield of the Rapture. I tend to enjoy the slow life, watching the big wigs and their elegant clothes parade around the fact that they have money. I find human life to be a whole lot different now. Money doesn't really mean much to me anymore, just gives me more things to do." Taking another sip from his drink, his mind raced within his skull. Should he tell her the true feelings which haunted his mind, tell her what he saw every time he closed his eyes? For now he would decide against it. The Warrior knew to follow his heart, but his heart had been beating so quickly he could not control it. His mind would have to take charge for now. His wolf rested calmly within him, taking in the sights of the fae before him, and only her. "You are the most beautiful female in the room tonight, but I suppose that is not a new thing for you."

Damian did not have the perfect words to say to her, jumbling it all in his head. But he would not have to think for too long. The waitress brought back a basket of bread sticks and some other things he had ordered. As she placed them between the seated guests, she looked over Damian, drinking in his handsome looks with her sparkling eyes. Damian paid no mind to this as he stared at Anastasia, completely consumed in her. "May I take your order?" she asked as she looked to Damian. But the male did not return her look, just looking to the female across from him. "Ask the lady what she wishes."

Once She had placed her order, he followed suit and the waitress had finally left them. Looking over the mouth-watering food, he smiled up at Anastasia, "well, ladies first." Waiting for her to grab something, he then grabbed a bread stick, placing it into his mouth. As he bit down into the bread, his taste buds ran in a frenzy throughout his mouth. His stomach growled in welcoming advances of food and he quietly chewed, thinking of a reply to give her. "My week has not been too busy as of late. Had a couple oil changes and little odd jobs here and there. Well, there was one customer, they were driving down the road and hit a deer. The deer had not harmed anyone int he process, surprisingly, but had managed to rip the front bumper off. They came to me for help replacing it and doing a new paint job. The funny thing about it all, they are a cute old couple, been married for ages it seems. I happily helped them, but made sure to ask if they grabbed the deer for venison." He finished his story with a light chuckle, taking another sip from his wine. But even in the lightened mood he had created between them, his mind wished to reveal the truth, how he lied awake at night, thinking about her. How while pressed against the underside of a car, he thought of their first meeting. He wished to tell her as he took a sip of any drink, it flashed an image of her doing the same as she had done so in Rapture. Damian had no idea what love was, what it could do to anyone, but if he had to guess he was somewhere between love at first sight and the initial falling period. It was hard not to love Anastasia, she was perfect. "So what do you do in your human life?"