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"So drink your drink." He forced himself to relax, sitting back and rolling his shoulders down. Even now, on his off-day, when he was here for fun and not for any kind of work, Ever couldn't help but think about just how much energy whirled around them to be collected. Enthusiastic dancers. Heavy flirters. Boisterous laughter. He smiled absently across at Ashley.

"I met your brother, by the way. Out and about, a bit ago." It was a dig. He had no proof that Alunite was her brother, but he could add two and two to get four easily enough.

"I showed him around a little bit." Ever worked fingers into his hair, attention caught by something over her shoulder. His eyes wandered and his head tipped, but his mouth stayed on track, at the very least. It worked on its own. An independent entity, it hardly needed his input, much of the time.

"Seemed a little bit serious, to me...but that'll do just fine, I guess. I mean, there's nothing implicitly wrong with that, I just tend to prefer people with more of a sense of humor." And then he paused, blinked back into focus, and flashed her a sudden smile as something clicked into place.

"...well, people with a sense of humor or people who you can tease into blushing nine times out of ten, like Zac."

"He just takes it a bit too dramatically, I guess." Which one of them were they talking about, exactly? Alunite, probably; Ever shrugged and waved it off. He did understand, to a degree, yes. He felt awkward in his own uniform sometimes, though at least it was better now that he was Captain. Now that his shoes were flat, his pants were comfortable. Now that he had a weapon beyond a roll of duct tape. Strange how much difference that made...

"Maybe we should have invited him, too." This came with a wiggle of eyebrows over his glass again. Hopefully Ever was teasing, but it really was hard to tell, sometimes. "Next time."

"I'm down. He's pretty hot, if you're into purple hair." That came with a bit of a shrug, at least, apologetic -- no offense to Ashley intended, certainly. It just wasn't Ever's cup of tea that much. He looked at his drink, up into the crowd, and then polished off the rest of what was in his gulp in several quick swallows. Tonic made that difficult and uncomfortable; he came up wincing.shaking his head just a bit.

"Drink your candy, so we can go dance." He rolled a hand in her direction, nudging his empty glass toward the edge of the table. "It'll be good."

That got him to brighten, reaching out to grab her hand as he stood as well, hauling her away toward the dance floor with far too much enthusiasm. Ever wasn't athletic; in general, he probably didn't seem the type to throw himself into any kind of physical activity. Here, though, he'd prove most people wrong, catching her around the waist on the dance floor and wiggling his eyebrows at her in a teasing way.

No bump and grind. He wasn't interested in her that way and, well, it was a bit tacky anyway. Not drunk enough. Instead, he tossed just enough ballroom dancing in to show he'd at some point learned a proper swing, a proper tango and waltz. He spun her. "...More of us need to get out, I think. I mean. Other people never seem to get out..."

Ever would have been a really decent dancer if he'd had a proper sense of rhythm, if he'd been musical: but the fact of the matter was that he didn't. He knew the moves. If he went slow enough, he could fake it. If he was drunk enough, he could relax into it.

He probably twisted her out into the poor woman. He didn't look apologetic. Instead he snorted at Ashley's faux pas, eyes dropping to their feet and then rising back to sort through the crowd. Maybe he was pretending he was with her, except that his attention came back. Eventually.

They'd talked about people who were interested in purple hair. Ever wasn't one of them, but they had to be out there somewhere. Maybe this woman was one of them; she didn't seem to put off by the bump or the nearness, offering nothing but a wicked smile and a shrug in reply.

Ever leaned in a little closer to speak in Ashley's ear, but at least he kept his voice down. "...you look like you got hit by a train, honey."

And those hips were moving away again as she turned back to her own date. A window of opportunity lost, perhaps. Ever made a faint noise as he caught Ashley's elbows and it was unclear for a moment if he was going to draw her back or push her forward into the crowd. His voice still rattled, too loud but still lost in the sound of the music, frustrating.

"You need to sit down?" At least, at this volume, it was impossible to tell if he was concerned or teasing. Unless she turned around and got a good look at his bright eyes and grin.