[Open] Accidents Do Happen

[Tahrro Gao Zhai]

It had been a blur of a month filled with work, trouble and more work. The mellow warmth of the evening found Tahrro travelling the distance between his small rented dwelling and a nightclub famous for scandal. With each step he took he reconsidered the journey, his eyes keen with apprehension. The Orchid Lounge was a place he was in no hurry to know, but business attracted him to it like an otter-penguin to fish. Everything seemed wrong about how the offer had come, the memory of the sweet smile with mischievous undertone that offered it did nothing to lift his suspicion.

It wasn’t long before the receptionist was taking his money with a mask of enthusiasm that didn’t successfully cover the exhaustion underneath. Tahrro took a moment to note the irony of needing to pay to have a meeting about a job before turning to the festive crowd within. The moment of doubt he experienced about finding his desired company in the mass of bodies expired quicker than a drop of water in the scorching desert. An arm was already twined with his, an all to unwelcome proximity to a female with jet black hair and bright golden eyes. “You kept me waiting,” she informed sweetly and he frowned slightly. “You were early,” he said.

Her giggles were inappropriately affectionate as she led him to the table reserved for their meeting. Ranrai was his co-worker at Cabbage Corp, his supervisor, an insipid wisp of a female with unusual habits and playful eyes. It had come as a surprise to him when she spoke to him of other possibilities of employment, much more profitable, she had said. Despite his reluctance and distrust of her whimsical ways, he was hard pressed to refuse the encounter, unsure of how it would affect his position and partially genuinely interested.

Now that he was pulled down beside her on a lush lounge couch and quickly offered a drink that smelled of poison, all purple swirls, all of his instincts told him to bolt. “So, what is this offer you have for me?” he asked instead, retrieving his arm from her hold in the politest of fashions available and pretending to consider the liquid in his glass. “So eager. I love that in a man,” she cooed, sweeping up her own glass and touching it to her lips softly. The look in his eyes hardened. She displayed her trademark sweet smile. “Don’t be so tense, honey. Even at work…” she returned her drink to the table, turned to him and leaned closer, the tips of her fingers pressing against his chest “…you’re always so tense.”

A dangerous look darkened in his gaze as he grabbed her by the wrist and stared hard into her honey eyes. “I’m not here to play your games. Speak your business or the evening ends.” His tone held an edge. He released her wrist and she took it back, elegantly wounded. “Difficult boy.” Taking back her glass, she lent into the plush of the couch to observe him. “Do you never have fun? Well, I’m sorry, but there was never a business proposition in my invitation, you only assumed it was that kind of business. What I’m interested in offering is the pleasure of my company.” She grinned.

Tahrro was tired, irritable and overall sensing he had wasted his time and money. “Good night, Ranrai,” he said with finality and looked at her long enough to see her shrug as he turned around to go. Not careful, he ran straight into someone and successfully spilled their drink on both himself and the person. Ranrai had the discourtesy of laughing and disappearing into the crowd in search of new entertainment as Tahrro lifted his gaze to see whom he had bumped into. “I’m sorry…”

[Jia-Li Koh]

Jia-Li was honestly starting to feel hopeless.

What was supposed to have been a day or two of searching had turned into an entire week of absolutely no results. She was worn and tired. Her body language was that of a weary traveler, which, she was. The only work she had been able to find was an acrobatics show that had been out hiring for earth benders. Apparently they needed someone to fill in for their last earth bender, who had had an unfortunate accident and ended up with a broken leg. Though she felt sorry for the other girl, Jia was relieved to have found a part time job that paid enough so that she could at least eat two meals a day. Sure, she’d resorted to sleeping in less-than-presentable places (in other words, park benches and the like), but there wasn’t anything wrong with that, right? You just had to deal with the punches in life and Jia-Li intended to do just that.

Her black hair was tied in a long ponytail as usual, bangs hiding her worried and sleepless eyes. She clothes were clean, though torn and patched in some places, and she felt absolutely exhausted. Why was it this hard to find someone who looked exactly like her? She was definitely going to give her sister a piece of her mind when she found her. Well, something equivalent to that at least. Jia sighed and hung her head even lower, pushing her way into the night club that she wished she didn’t have to enter.

Her sister might be in here. Her sister… the rowdy, hyper type. There was no way Jia-Li’s twin would pass up a place like this if she thought it’d be fun to check out. People gave the sixteen year old curious stares as she passed, some a bit more ‘curious’ than others (these, Jia-Li promptly ignored). The room smelled of alcohol and smoke and all the sounds around her were much too loud for her taste. Jia winced whenever someone nudged her to get past, still just a little (a lot) paranoid that she’d somehow wind up in trouble without even doing anything. Somewhere along the way, she'd gotten a drink pushed into her hands by... who was it? She couldn't even see through the haze of... well, everything, really. The girl looked down at the drink with disgust, planning on throwing it away soon enough.

She hadn't been inside for more than five minutes when suddenly someone bumped into her small body, sending her careening back a step or two– yet, she still managed to keep her balance. The drink she held in her hand splashed onto part of her face and the upper half of her yellow and brown top, dripping its way down to ruin her skirt. Apparently it had also gotten the man somewhat. No… please… I just cleaned these! Jia-Li thought miserably. She probably would’ve marched right out of there at that very second, thinking it really wasn’t worth it after all, if the man in front of her (apparently he’d been the one to make her spill her drink. The one she wasn't going to actually drink in the first place) hadn’t started apologizing.

Being from some of the more remote lands of the Earth Kingdom, it would’ve been rude for Jia to just walk off without acknowledging his apology and the one she knew she should also be giving.

”Quite… quite alright,” she answered (with some difficulty, she had to admit). The man really didn’t seem to have meant it, at least, Jia hoped he hadn’t. That would have been simply awful after all the things she already had going badly at the moment. ”Please do not apologize. I should have been watching where I was going. It's... actually my fault.”

Jia set the drink down gingerly on the nearest table and turned to him once more, giving him a polite bow. She wasn't smiling and her eyelids were drooping from lack of rest, but that wasn't going to be an excuse for her. She would be polite until the very end, even if it killed her.

[Tahrro Gao Zhai]

The tired harshness in Tahrro’s blue eyes mellowed as they rose to greet the girl before him. Whatever had been in that drink was now all smeared purple across her warm colored top. Her voice sounded quiet, hesitant, and she looked just as haggard and exhausted as he felt, but what caught his attention most were her eyes, the color of deep sea. Something about those careful eyes made him pause where he would have walked past, especially considering what a bad day he was having. “Allow me a moment,” he told her, his tone a mixture of calm and hard reassurance. His gaze caught the drip, literally, his hand jerking up into a fluid gesture, his other quickly accompanying it, eyes narrowing with the focus of extracting the fluid from the yellow and brown fabric and sending it back into the glass that now sat on a near-by table.

Eyes again on her pale face, he swept what was left of the drink from her cheek, which promptly felt like an inappropriately familiar gesture even if he had not come into contact with her skin directly. He should have let her handle that, he reflected, but so besieged was he by weariness that his brain functioned on faulty resources. “Sorry,” he apologized again, eyes on her clothes. Although the wetness had been dealt with, that violent stain would remain. It crossed his mind to pay for the damage caused but with the yuans in his pocket he could barely afford a couple of drinks. All of this was Ranrai’s fault and he would not forget it.

The smoke in the club bothered his lungs and stung his sleepy eyes. His body was eager to leave but his mind considered the female he had barreled into. She seemed altogether too skinny, too young, - he glanced about briefly-, too alone. “You shouldn’t be in here by yourself,” he stated, even in his weakened state keenly aware of the predatory eyes feasting upon her and plotting who knew what. “The streets aren’t safe at this hour either.” What was he? Her keeper? It didn’t make sense why he should care what happened to her either. Perhaps it was a side-effect of his remorsefulness. However, everyone knew about the criminal activity that plagued the urban streets and he didn’t want to see her in a related article in the newspaper.

His eyes locked on hers, unless she chose to avert them. “You look tired,” he observed, a remark that could be tossed right back at him. Part of him wanted to leave, turn a blind eye on the world until he crawled back to the relative comfort of his small rented dwelling and onto the hard bed therein, but a different side of him just stared at his fortuitous company. She looked so shelled up, so out of place, especially in here where people wore grins of pleasure and mirth with wild eyes. “My name is Tahrro,” he offered, something deep and thoughtful in his eyes as he tried to pry information about her from her very eyes. He must have seemed queer. It was the warmth, the smoke and the fumes of alcohol pressing through into his weariness.