Chapter 17
Fate Brings Us Together

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. It had been two days since…the incident. Chris was still with me, sitting on the couch watching TV. Yesterday, he drug me to the police station where I sat for an hour being interrogated. I was really horrified of Thomas finding out and beating me up, or killing me. Though, death almost would be better than this torture. I couldn’t sleep well at night, the feeling of loneliness permeating everything. I had finally gotten some sleep last night, though only through crying myself to exhaustion for a few hours.

I felt a pressure on my bed next to me and looked up to see Chris smiling softly down at me, holding out his pad.

“Would you like to go out, have some fun to try and get your mind elsewhere?”

The thought did sound nice, and I hadn’t been out of the house in two days; or my bed much for that matter. I returned his easy smile and nodded.

“Sure, that sounds nice. Did you have some place in mind?”

He scribbled another note down, showing me. “Well, there’s this relatively new bar in the city that I’ve been meaning to go to. It’s a dance club sort of thing. How about we go there?”

I gave him a small smile and nod, “Sure, I guess I could use some time away. Let’s get ready.”

He smiled broadly and gave me a small hug before following me to my dresser where we sifted through my clothes, picking out some fun outfits and hopping in Chris’s car, headed towards the city.

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Bankuro jumped on the couch next to Steven, making him jump.

“Hehe, hey there hun. You and I are going out. I’ve got to work tonight and you’re coming with me.”

Steven looked up at Ban, the dragon had helped him cheer up a bit since he’d been with them. And the idea of going out to work with Ban did sound nice. He’d heard of the club that Ban worked at a few times, but had never gone. He even considered taking Nick with him one time. But that would probably never happen. Nick had probably moved on by now, Steven thought to himself.

“Alright, that does sound kinda fun,” he said, pulling himself up off the couch.

“Here, I bought you some clothes to wear,” Ban said leaning over the couch and grabbing a bag and handing it to Steven.

“Thanks Ban,” he said pulling out a tight looking fishnet shirt and a pair of pleather pants grinning as he went to the bedroom to change. He emerged again, looking very hot by any standards, his thick muscles very well accented by the tight clothes.

“You look great,” Ban said, “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

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Chris and I entered the club, loud thumping techno music playing, and glowing lights flashing to the beat greeted us. Bodies of every sort cluttered the dance floor, swaying back and forth moving with the tempo of the song. It seemed like it had been forever since I was last out enjoying myself. The whole world just seemed a bit less bright without my light. I sighed and looked around, trying to find someplace where I could sit down.

Chris handed me his pad of paper, “I’m going to go get us something to drink; help lighten your mood.”

I nodded at him as he disappeared into crowd. I wasn’t really interested in drinking, but maybe I should try to enjoy myself a little bit. Steven wouldn’t have wanted me to be so sad. I found a comfy looking chair that would accommodate my wings and sat down, watching the furres around me dancing and enjoying their night without a care in the world it seemed.

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Ban and Steven had arrived at Ban’s work about half an hour ago. Steven was sitting at the bar, sipping on a drink and listening to the music as Ban worked, endlessly mixing and pouring drinks for all the furres. The way he worked was actually amazing, he had such skill, spinning the mixers and bottles around, tossing them around with the grace of a dancer and never once spilling a single drop.

Ban turned and smiled at the newest customer, a cute looking hyena, probably not much older than him. “What can I get for you sir?” he asked.

The hyena signed out “Two of your specials,” out of habit really, not meaning to.

“Sure thing cutie,” Ban said, looking at the perplexed hyena with a smile, working with more finesse than before making the ‘yena’s drinks.

The hyena signed again at him, “You understand sign language?”

Ban nodded, “Yea, I had a friend in highschool who was a mute and learned it for him so that he wouldn’t always have to write things down for me.”

“Oh, that’s nice of you,” the hyena signed, looking at Ban with a strange sort of expression.

“Something wrong hun?” Ban asked, as he set the drinks down, noticing the look on the hyena’s face.

“No, just something about you seems familiar. But I can’t place it.”

“Oh, well I’m not sure where you could know me fro-,” Ban stopped mid-sentence, looking at the hyena closely, “Chris?” he asked in an almost whisper, well as much of one as he could manage with the music. “Chris is that you? It’s Ban.”

“Ban!” Chris signed excited, “Oh my god, Ban it’s been so long. I can’t believe it!” he jumped up and hugged Ban across the bar.

“My god, Chris!” Ban said, hugging the hyena, “I’ve missed you so much, how have you been?”

“I’ve been good, just here with my friend, he’s over there,” Chris signed, pointing over to the area Nick was sitting at, “Just trying to cheer him up a little bit, he lost his boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Ban said looking a bit sad, “Well, why not introduce him to my friend? Maybe they can help get each other’s mind’s off their boyfriends. My friend had to move away from his.”

“Oh, sure. That sounds nice, I’ll go get him and bring him back here,” Chris signed, waving and running back quickly to Nick.

“Hey Nick,” he wrote down quickly on his paper, “I’ve got a friend that works at the bar, and he’s here with his friend. Why not come up here and talk with us, maybe help get your mind off Steven?”

Nick thought about it for a moment but decided Chris would probably go up there with his friend anyways, and he didn’t want to be left alone, so even though he didn’t really feel like talking to anyone else right now he went with him, sitting at the bar.

“Ban, this is Nick,” Chris signed out to his dragon friend.

“Pleased to meet you Nick, as Chris pointed out I’m Ban,” he said with a small chuckle, figuring that the other dragon didn’t understand sign language by the perplexed look on his face. “And this over here is,” he said pointing to an empty seat, looking at it, “Oh, well that was my friend. He must have gone to the bathroom or something. He’ll be back hun, don’t worry. He’s nice, you’d probably like him. So, how did you and Chris meet?”

“Well…sort of a painful story. But, he practically saved my life.”

Ban nodded, with a sort of knowing look on his face and flashed a small smile, turning to someone who came up the bar, and starting fixing his order. I watched him, his perfect skill, like a dancer, as he spun the bottles and mixers around in a flashy style.

I sighed softly, this trip wasn’t really helping. And seeing Chris and Ban talk and laugh as old friends made me even lonelier. I stood and leaned close to Chris, “I’m going to go get some air, I’ll be back in a minute.”

He nodded to me and went back to talking to the dragon as I slipped through all the people and out a back door to an alley, looking up at the small sliver of night sky I could see through the buildings.

“It’s a nice night, isn’t it?” a voice said from the darkness, ripping me from my stargazing. I looked around, trying to see who was there in my fright.

“Wh-who’s there?”

“No one of consequence,” the voice said.

Most of me screamed to run away, back inside, anywhere else but here, but some small part of me told me to stay, it recognized something familiar about that voice. I peered harder into the darkness, trying vainly to find out who the voice was.

“Come into the light so I can see you,” I called out.

The ember from a cigarette lit up for a moment before being tossed into the darkness. Slowly the figure stepped up from the wall and into the light.