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Who: Anyone!
What: It's a Wine Tasting at the Lux
When: Saturday Evening
Where: The Lux.
Sugarplum Fairies: PLENTY.
Notes: ANYONE is welcome. Prose or brackets. I'm just having Katherine start it off, but feel free to have your very own thread. This is a party-post of sorts. It's at the Lux and there are plenty of wines and platters of small bits of food that are meant to accentuate the flavor of the wine. Cheese, Chocolate, Fruits... etc.

The Lux isn't Katherine's first choice of social locations, but it does have the luxury of being somewhere that has been deemed as off-limits for the Salvatore brothers. She'd put the math together through the journals and from over-hearing conversations of employees and the ghosts. Such gossips. She'd already resolved to go to that Speed Dating thing, just trying to make some effort to figure out just who all was in this place and just how vulnerable some of them were.

For the moment, she's milling through the crowd, glass in hand, and keeping an eye on everyone. She's fully capable of slipping by most of them undetected. Knowing that her speed would easily put her out of anyone's line of sight if she didn't want to be seen. Tonight though, she wasn't planning on shying away from too many of them.

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He offers Lilah a small but genuine smile when he sees her. He knows she's not the most popular person around, but that doesn't stop him from remaining a friend. Even if it's difficult sometimes.

This sort of event is very much her style, so he shouldn't really be surprised that she's here.

"Evening..."

It's still a bizarre notion to Lilah. Being his friend. She's never been anyone's friend. But he considered her such. She tries not to overthink that. It's enough that he hasn't completely cut her out of his life, and that alone is more of a weakness than she'll ever verbalize.

She grins in return.

"Why am I not surprised to find you where they're offering free alcohol?"

It's a playful tease, mostly. He wasn't nearly as much of a lush now as he had been before, when he had been trying to drink away everything.

"Some habits are more difficult to break than others." He shifted to stand closer to her, surveying the rest of the room for a moment. "This is your sort of gathering, isn't it? Fine wine and gourmet foods, sophisticated company. For the most part."

"It is the sort of event I prefer," Lilah said with a nod of her head. "I went to things like this quite often for Wolfram and Hart." Galas, parties, fundraisers. More and more, she missed her life back home. Her power, her status. Her pretty things. Her purpose. It had almost been a year since she first arrived here.

"When I was with Virginia, I went to these sorts of events fairly frequently. Cordelia would get so envious of me, it was really quite amusing." It's a rare moment of sharing, just for no other reason than he's in a mood to reconnect with her a little. It's not really information she can use against him, anyway.
"I'm not sure if it's my scene anymore, but there's a certain nostalgia associated with it."

It wasn't often that they had real conversations like this. Even when they had been together, they rarely offered personal anecdotes. It was strange to hear him do so now, but things had changed between them. Especially after he had rescued her from Damon's hold.

Of course, she had known about his involvement with Virginia Bryce. Even though he had barely been a blip on her meter back then, they had always kept an eye on the activities of anyone involved in Angel Investigations.

"I suppose it's not for everyone," She mused with a shrug of her shoulders. And then, as an after thought, because perhaps tonight she was feeling a little nostalgic herself she added, "I mostly just liked the excuse to dress up, wearing something nice. Show off my newest pair of heals."

That earned her a subtle smile. He remembered how much she liked her creature comforts. And she did often sport deliciously sinful designer heels. Like the ones she had on right now. Catching himself glancing down, he took a sip of wine and pretended that someone across the room had caught his attention. That was when he saw the tiny bright lights buzzing towards them.

He frowned and turned to Lilah, reaching for her elbow.

"We need to leave, now!"

"Agreed," She said when she looked up, seeing the bright lights approaching them. Not that she'd be adverse to kissing Wesley, far from it, but she also liked the idea of it being a choice. She didn't want him kissing her because he had to.

Which was why she was picking up the pace as much as she could in this outfit, letting him lead her away from the approaching fairies. She had already encountered them once before, she'd rather not repeat it.

Wes set his wine glass hastily down on a table and made for the exit with Lilah in tow. Unfortunately, they weren't quite quick enough and golden dust was soon sprinkled all over them both.

"Damn it."

He tried to brush the dust off of himself as quickly as he could, but already he could feel the compulsion to pull Lilah into his arms starting to grip him.

The last thing he wanted to do was to kiss her right now. It would just complicate matters and make things awkward again.

"I'm sorry."

What he was actually apologising for was up for interpretation, however.

Edited 2011-12-12 11:29 (UTC)

There was a twinge of annoyance at the words. Why the hell was he apologizing? It's not like either one of them had much of a choice in this or anything.

"Just shut up so we can get this over with," She muttered, step closer to him now. She couldn't stop herself if she wanted to.

Of course, if she was honest, there was a small part of her that didn't want to stop anyways, but that was hardly the point.

Her hands came up to cup his face, no longer able to resist the urge to press her lips firmly against his. It felt familiar almost immediately, even if they hadn't kissed in any sort of capacity since the night he had tricked her so he could remove her scarves.

It had been a long time since he'd kissed Lilah. Months, even. But as soon as their lips met, that familiar sense of how their bodies and mouths fit together returned. Surely a brief lip-lock would be sufficient for their purposes. The compulsion remained, however and Wes soon found his arms starting to pull her body more tightly against his and his mouth opening to hers, seeking more contact. He could taste the wine on her lips. He'd forgotten how intoxicating it was to kiss Lilah. As much as he loved Fred, he couldn't deny that there was still a spark of passion here. More than he cared to admit to.

She gasped softly into his mouth as he tugged her closer to him now, and without thinking about it at all she found herself parting her lips for him, indulging her self as she allowed her tongue to taste him. After all, who knew when she'd get the chance to do this again? While it wasn't the most ideal circumstances, she would take what she could get.

Lilah had long come to terms with the fact that if she had any sort of weakness here, it was Wesley. And kissing him again, being held by him like this again was only reminding her of the fact.

Wes knew he ought to be pulling away and ending it as soon as he could. But he found himself pressing closer, demanding more than was prudent, perhaps, to take. Was it the fairies' magic doing this, or some remnant of his former desire for Lilah? One hand caressed the nape of her neck while the other splayed against the small of her back and he sighed against her mouth before finally managing to get a grip on his own impulses and breaking off the kiss.

The fact that he was breathing shallowly now and still leaning close was evidence that he was quite shaken by what had just happened.

Her own breath was shallow and stinted, more so than she wanted it to be. She knew she shouldn't linger. Shouldn't do what she longed to, which was kiss again. Any of those things would just result in him apologizing again. Explaining to her how he shouldn't have done this. How it couldn't happen again. How he loved perfect, stupid precious Fred.

So she pulled away first, created distance. It was an old defense mechanism, but one that has suited Lilah well enough. It was upsetting enough to be reminded how much she still wanted him. It'd be worse if he knew it too.

He was grateful that one of them, at least, had the presence of mind to step back and break whatever spell they were under. He dropped his hands, tried to gather his composure and straighten his clothing. He probably had her lipstick smeared on his lips. He reflexively reached up to check with his fingertips.

He was going to have to tell Fred about this. It had happened in public, after all.

Clearing his throat, he checked to see if anyone had been watching.

"I suppose it would be best if we parted ways. No need to tempt fate a second time. You stay, I'll go."

Lilah almost corrected him, telling him she'd leave instead, but she decided against it. After all, she was Lilah Morgan. It would take more than some stupid castle influenced kiss to shake her.

So instead she merely nodded in agreement with him. "Yes, you should probably go."

Because whatever conversation they were having before, it was ruined now. It wasn't like they could continue talking and act like that didn't just happen.

Nodding briskly, Wes left the Lux as quickly as he could, throwing one last chagrined glance over his shoulder at Lilah before he was gone.

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