Toeing the Line

“That’s… enough!” Remy shouted as she finally pried apart the two women that had been attempting to tear out each other’s hair extensions for the past 10 minutes. At first, it had been amusing to watch the women clawing at each other, but when it got to the point of drawing blood – and Remy had been impressed that the two of them were even capable of doing that, with their fighting tactics – Remy knew she had to intervene. The bouncer was busy at the door dealing with some men who were on Vito’s ‘do-not-admit’ list, which elevated Remy’s already lofty bartender status to one of secondary security. It had taken her almost a full minute to find an opening that wouldn’t get her covered in glitter or bodily fluids, and she was now holding two panting, screeching women apart at arm’s length.

“Would you two give it a rest?” Remy said loudly, through clenched teeth. The men around them were jeering for the fight to continue, and one woman belatedly realized she was having a slight wardrobe malfunction and readjusted herself accordingly, though her lack of blush at having been exposed was almost more embarrassing.

“She started i-“ the woman on the right began.

“I don’t give a flying monkey who started it. I’m ending it. Comprende?” Remy snapped, looking back and forth between the two women, who were still glaring at one another.

“Whatever,” the woman on the left muttered, in the oh-so-witty word that seems to end all female arguments, “I don’t want to hang around trash like her anyway. Come on, Tony, let’s dance,” she said, finally removing the full force of her weight – and that was no small value – from Remy’s outstretched arm as she grabbed a greasy looking guy and dragged him to the crowded dance floor.

With her enemy out of the immediate vicinity, the remaining woman huffed and pushed Remy’s arm away, returning to the group of equally trashy women she had been sitting with earlier. Rolling her eyes heavily, Remy threw back her hair and stomped back to her place behind the bar, where she was now overwhelmed with orders from those who had previously been preoccupied with the catfight.

This is why I should work at a strip club… Remy thought as she pulled a pint for a man with more chest hair than should be allowed on any one individual, …less women.

((Cue Aaron))

He hated places like this. So many ignorant and drunken fools running around. This was the exact reason why he avoided alcohol at all costs. He was a lightweight to begin with and whenever he drank, he lost control of himself at an unreasonable rate. Put that with having a crazy obsession with being in control and the two things did not mesh well together.

He was there for a reason though so he put up with everything going on around him. He did enjoy watching the males in the place try, with all their might, to hook up with random females and get rejected over and over again. The more he sat there, the more he wondered why women even came to these places. They stuck their nose up at the men who came after them, and he understood why, but he did not understand why they even came if they were not interested. It was like covering ones self in blood, swimming in the ocean, and then being surprised when a shark came.

A struggle broke out and his eyes darted to two females fighting. He smirked broadly and took a sip of the water he had ordered and turned to watch. Then, he spotted the woman he was here for in the first place, Remy Devaul. He watched closely as she broke the two apart and took control of the situation. She only further strengthened the reason Aaron had come in the first place.

She stopped the fight and then returned behind the bar. Aaron casually made his way up to the bar and waited patiently. He did not want to get into it with any of the men there, who were even more prone to violence than usual. Making a scene was definitely not what he had come there for. When the bar began to settle down, and a few seats began to open up, he sat down at the bar and waited.

She would recognize him from the meetings at Malfoy Manor. He usually tried to blend in, not wanting himself to be known, but with so few Death Eaters running amok it was hard to blend in. "Busy night," He said with a smirk when she passed by him. "You handled those two girls quite easily. Do you do this often?"

The primary request after such a visceral encounter was, unsurprisingly, for beer. The men were feeling the rush of testosterone that comes from watching anything violent, and the only thing that could quench that type of ‘manly’ thirst was a good dark lager. Luckily, beer was an easy request, and after pulling nearly a dozen pints and taking in the jeering and tips that came along with the orders, Remy was able to pocket the coin and grab a rag to wipe down the bar, still feeling slightly annoyed by her necessary involvement in the fight.

As she was mid-wipe, she came across a set of hands on the bar, and looked up to ask their owner to kindly get the hell out of her way so she could do her job, but when she looked up, she found that these extremities belonged to someone she knew. As she looked up through her curtain of dark hair, Aaron Marcheti greeted her with a smirk and a statement of the obvious, which only made Remy smirk in return.

“Aaron,” Remy purred, pulling out one of her smiles that made people feel as though Remy were taking in the entire room, but reserving her most valuable attention particularly on you, “You always were an observant one,” Remy joked, referring to the fact that he had opened the conversation with something the both of them were perfectly aware of.

Aaron was someone Remy was still trying to pin down, but she had gotten a fairly good read on him from what she had seen at the Death Eater conventions every now and again. Aaron had a kind of quiet power, and he was gaining influence in several of the circles Remy currently ran with, so she knew playing nice with him would be a survival skill. That he was also rather attractive just made it all that much easier for Remy to find reason to attend to Mr. Marcheti’s wishes.

“’This’ being bartending, or ‘this’ being restraining two raving lunatics from clawing each other’s eyes out? Though I suppose working here, the answers would be pretty close to the same. I do my fair share of both, but it pays the bills, so I can’t complain. What brings you in tonight?” Remy inquired, allowing her curiosity to take the wheel and be direct about what Aaron wanted tonight. He was drinking water, which meant he wasn’t here to forget, and he didn’t have a date. The only person he was talking to at the moment was Remy. So what was Aaron’s game tonight, and how did Remy figure into it?