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"Dinner and a movie?" She couldn't recall ever having been on such an excursion, but then she did all her romancing on the fly.... never bothering to prepare anything beyond her outfit for the day.

"Maxi, darling... you should know that I rarely pay for anything." She smiled sweetly, staying seated in John's lap although she did wiggle around a bit so she could reach her glass without having to twist all around.

"To the new day, and whatever it may bring!" She sipped at her fruity drink, glad once again that it was mostly ice.. if the boys were getting drunk, they would need someone still standing to make sure they made it to bed before the sun rose tomorrow xp

Gods... couldn't the two of them manage one frelling night without going all tense and growly every few minutes? What did she have to do to get them to relax a little, strip? sweatdrop

The thought crossed her mind, and Raven took a moment to ponder the possibilities... losing her clothes had diffused a couple of bad situations in the past, but with this pair she wasn't sure it would work at all xp Maxi had that noble, gentlemanly streak to him... it was one of the reasons that she always felt the need to limit herself to polite little innuendos when she was hitting on him... and Morrow, well, he had implied that he had gone without a few of the simple comforts of life in the last few years and tempting him in a public place wasn't really such a good idea...Rae wasn't an exhibitionist after all, she just wasn't body shy was all! whee

"Ah a plan at last, food!... and a good one too Maxi dear, after all, I would hate to offend you both by managing to get inebriated enough to start singing again... many is the Karaoke bar that I have been banned from for just such an offense!" Or it could have been the fact that she alternately hit on everything that moved and tried to get into fights with the biggest guys in the bar at the time blaugh rofl Drunk was not really a good idea with her, she was tone deaf and completely without morals!

Max was tense, in the same way that trickling water is tense. He was exactly as tense as a calm breeze rolling by the beach at night. And he carried with his smile an demeanor exactly the same amount of raw combat presence, as either of the above two things.

Maximos laughed at Raven's comment. "I would pay good money to see you step on that stage and proclaim 'Nevermore'. But first our meals!"

He held out his hands as if ready to scoop up a set of menu's, and found his fingers slipping effortlessly through the empty air. There were no menus! How could one order! The Shadow laughed again, knocked back a second shot with only the slightest wince and said, "Oh my, I really have been a silly idiot. I hope I havent scared that lad into denying us proper service."

And yet the way Maximos phrased that second sentence sounded much less like he was afraid he had, and more like in some small way he hoped he had. There was something just a hair askew in the way he grinned as he spun around, leaning his back against the bar and took in the crowd behind him. People talking, laughing, joking, drinking, eating, living. He had a certain way about himself, as he was not looking across the crowd for someone to bring him a menu, but as if the crowd was the menu. His left hand rose to meet his right hand somewhere in front of his chest, rubbing his right palm as his hand opened and closed in an almost breath-like motion.

Raven had seen the look before. It wasnt that Maximos was being confrontational, or taunting, or even threatening. It was Max being...a Maximos, himself in true form before two true friends. He hid nothing, even the questional and other-than-human bits. After a few seconds, Maximos' eyes locked on some one, he chuckled at seemingly nothing, nodded to himself and then turned to Tomorrow and Raven and said, "I'll be right back with our menus. I trust you two will stay decent until we can get a proper meal, yes?"

He didnt wait for an answer, Maximos just gave the two a wide smile and stepped off into the crowd, and after a few steps was lost somewhere in the sea of moving bodies leaving the two to their machinations for the time being.

Entranced, John watched as Maximos' demeanour and attitude ebbed and flowed in minute quantities, fleeting glimpses of something unearthly. He noticed that look in his eye as he looked to the crowd - he wasn't looking for the menu in the crowd, the crowd was the menu. He sized them up like calves brought to be slaughtered, and John recognized the look. He'd seen it once, in a broken mirror from some disgusting bathroom in the bowels of Durem, after tearing some drug dealer apart with his bare hands...

...To Maximos, the crowd was meat.

The pain was beginning to get excruciating, and John now took Raven's cool hand and pressed the back of it against his forehead, her smooth touch soothing to his aching brain.

I'm paranoid paranoid paranoid...but what if its true? What what you told yourself in the cave was true? You've always had a thought, but now its confirmed. No, he's not like that, it would be more obvious....but Darkness is everywhere, and he is a charming monster...but he's not a monster, he's your brother, he's a part of you as you are a part of him....but you've got darkness inside of you now, dont you? That animal part that you lost yourself to in the Plains, when you skulked to the mountains with your tail between your legs, the part that tore animals to shreds and drank their blood and snarled at the blackness, the part that wants the woman before you...

John's mind argued with itself as he leaned forward to kiss Raven's neck, nuzzling it a little as his other hand strayed to her thigh, gripping it in his calloused palm before pushing against it, rubbing it in long, slow motions....before pulling away slowly. She oozed seduction, and his fractured psyche was beginning to wane, distracted by the contradictions floating in his head. He was in many pieces, John Tomorrow - the fractured replica that Maximos and Raven saw now was simply a mosaic of a man, not the whole picture. His mind had been torn to shreds, then hastily cobbled back together in some haphazard shape of a mind, the clumsy stitching tugging against one another as he sat before his greatest enemy and the loving contradictions he felt for him.

Indeed, the only thing that wasn't turning him into a gibbering, sparking wreck was the fresh memory of the atrocity he had done....and the woman who pressed against him. If Maximos had found him first....John would probably be dead.

The liquor had done it's magic on Johns empty stomach. Exhausted from the trip, the delight of Raven, the shock of Maximos and the splitting headache, John's shaky defences were easily penetrated by Ravens probing mind.

Within his head she would see a whirlwind of emotion, covering the entire color spectrum. Sorrow, regret, hate, love, happiness, indifference, repugnence, fear - everything flew, slashing into her like rain, soaking her to the bone.

She would see his endless sorrow at the death of a family that helped him after such struggle...

She would see his unmitigated fear of the darkness, and the understanding that he would never escape it...

She would see his need for physical contact, and the love he represses through fear, and mistakes for weakness...

And then she would be pulled out by him, his hand resting tenderly at the back off her hair as he passionately kissed her, his tearful eyes shut tight as he tried in vain to keep his defences up...

A snap of electricity flew off them as he pulled away from her, emitting an anguished groan as he did. He pressed her head into his shoulder to give her a moment and to not see the depressed frustration registering on his face. Lifting his left hand up, he slammed it into the table once, punching a neat hole into its edge.

His right hand stroked her hair softy, shaking his head in a mix of regret and disappointment. "How can you fix something when you don't even know what it is?" He asked her sadly.

He was disappointed in himself, lifting his hand to touch his lips, feeling the cool steel mixing with her warmth. She tasted like her fruity drink, sweet with a hidden zing. Was his self-control so weak? He wanted to blame the drink, but he knew it wasn't the case. She was a warm body, and he couldn't help responding...it sickened him that he wanted it so badly.

"Sorry for...that." He muttered dumbly, not really knowing what to say.

This reunion was going great. He was alienating a man he called brother in every sense of the word, and he was coming onto one off his oldest friends. Brilliant.

"You think I don't know that, Hono?" John growled back, meeting her kaleidoscopic gaze with eyes that crackled blue sparks off anger. "I've already tried to fix it myself, and it didn't work, which is why I came back - I thought I could push myself into it. It's just harder then I thought!"

He tried to keep his voice down, even though the hubbub of the tavern masked their voices. He had discovered he had power to his words more them just mental cognizance, and hadn't quite figured the kinks out yet.

He let out a long sigh, looking down at his hands. At least she's not pissed about that kiss...

"Look...my problem is complicated and it mainly involves...Maxi. I thought if I eased myself back into civilisation, I'd eventually find the courage to track him down. But, he beat me to it, which I knew was a possibility..."

Which had been a big gamble for him. In his weakened state, he was no match for a one-on-one with Maxi - he'd I hoping to at least arm himself properly before confronting the Reaper. Now he was buying time and trying to figure whether it was an elaborate ruse to squeeze a bit of fun out of the hunt, or the real deal - John hoped it was thee later, but Maxi was full of surprises.

"Look, all I can do is... tell you my story. Then you'll understand why....but I think I want Max to hear it too. It will give me closure...and you'll understand more."

He grasped her hands tightly, looking her dead in the eye, the otherworldly blue softer now. "Thank you for trying...it means a lot to me that you care that much....and I'm really, really sorry I kissed you. I think I'm getting drunk."

John smiled as she kissed him, fighting the urges that churned inside him and drawing her close into a tender embrace.

"Cheers Raven...I'm so confused at the moment, i don't know whats going on..."

He pulled back, frowning. "...What request did you make of him?"