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It had been a long day dealing with nonsense that she didn't understand or have the capacity to care about so, on her first break, Sana had simply plopped herself down at the bar and committed to taking the edge off. It wasn't usually in her to let things affect her so much but such was the toll for actually caring about someone's well being.

Ignoring a greasy bar patron that had beelined for her the moment her boots left the dais, she shifted honey brown eyes out across the dance floor, looking for anything interesting enough to distract her from his babbling.

"My brother and I have a yacht", and on and on.

It was taking everything in her power not to tell him to outright ******** off but the image of her manager's face hung heavy in the back of her mind. This might not have been a regular employer but bitchy dancers made a business look bad. She doused the fire on her tongue by taking another sip of her whiskey and ginger - and that's when her excuse landed right in her lap.

Or, well, next to her at the bar.

Without so much as a second glance, Sana swiveled on the creaky old bar stool until her knees nearly brushed the finely pressed pants of the business man stretched over the bar top. He was, rather ineffectively, trying to get the bartender's attention.

"You're out of luck unless you sprout a pair of jugs, dear." A clean, well defined brow rose and her pouty lips settled in a half smile - charming, despite the guy hovering awkwardly behind her shoulder as if he wasn't sure if he should leave. She didn't seem to notice. "Maybe I can help you instead?"

The man hovering behind Sana turned back into the crowd with an eyeroll as the stranger responded to her words. A small, unheard sigh of relief escaped her and she drew another sip of her drink to disguise it. Some men didn't know the difference between strippers and dancers - or strippers and prostitutes, apparently.

Then the blonde stranger admitted what he was doing there and she nearly choked on the burn of her whiskey. Blue eyes, white hair, named Elzo. She patted her chest lightly and cleared her throat before she could speak.

"Marlo Xanis." By the time the words passed her lips, there was a confident note to her tone and an honest smile - not even the vaguest hint that she had almost swallowed her drink wrong. She had seen Elzo - of course she had. He was a well known patron of seedy bars and night clubs as well as one of the most notoriously wealthy men in the city. Despite her appearance, Sana actually read the news - old-fashioned style, even. If his brother was Elzo, this man could be no one but the ever studious business man, Marlo.

It explained why he looked so uncomfortable next to her... and in the bar in general.

"I'm pretty sure I saw him slinking off toward the bathrooms a bit before my break. Considering he had some busty blonde hanging off of his arm, though, he could be anywhere by now." The terminology wasn't lost on her, as a busty blonde herself.

"Have a drink with me. Let's see if he comes out on his own." She patted the empty stool next to her very gently with a raised brow - will you take the bait, Mr. Xanis?

A breathy laugh escaped her, almost unheard beneath the drum of music from the dance floor. She set her drink down on the bar and trailed her eyes after it in a way that was almost shy, hiding her gaze beneath the splay of her long, fake lashes.

"Oh, no. We haven't met." She brought a single finger up and trailed it around the rim of her glass, an excuse to look at something that wasn't him. Considering she was sitting next to him in an outfit made more of straps than actual fabric, the idea of anything making her shy seemed bizarre. Then again, it also made her seem a lot more approachable - a fact that she wasn't completely unaware of. "I'm actually a bit of a fan, if I'm being honest. I saw the bio piece in the Destiny City Oracle last month."

Her eyes flickered up to his as he tried, in vain, to get the bartender's attention again. With a sigh that was half amused, she pushed herself up onto the bottom rung of her bar stool and leaned forward over the edge of the bar until she was sure she stood out past the line of patrons waving hands. Not just her, but every ounce of overflow from her wonderbra too. It took no time at all for the pair of dark brown eyes to find hers, after enough wandering, and she waved him over with a polite smile. She sank back into her chair as he nodded and started to cross over to them.

"You're not intruding at all," her hand closed back around her drink as she turned her attention onto him again, "most of these men are already drunk and obnoxious, they're not really worth talking to." Not to say Sana wasn't a fan of partying until she dropped, but when she was working she was working. That was that.

"Oh, the hotels." She laughed a little as she realized it must seem like a great joke, but she tilted her head and considered him as the sound died off. "It's impressive how quickly you've expanded the brand already, and at your age?" There was a small roll of her shoulders as she shrugged and her attention turned back to her drink - nearly empty. She drained it and pushed it easily across the countertop and out of her 'space'. Assuming that was her limit for being able to perform on her platforms convincingly, she opened the small case attached to her wrist and plucked free a cigarette.

"Although I do love fashion, when I'm not required to wear costumes." Although it was hard to call so little of anything a costume. This one she found to be particularly awful, with its ripped layers and bright, neon colors. The toned body beneath the clingy material saved it from being garish, but the saturation was hardly her style. Her fingers settled the cigarette delicately between her lips, though her eyes cut up to his to prove that she was listening. A flick of her thumb set light to the tip and she puffed until she felt the first plume stick to her throat.

"Your brother is drunk and obnoxious," her bright pink lipstick left a print on the butt of her cigarette as she withdrew it from her lips long enough to blow a pillar of smoke away from them, "I'm not the busty blonde in the bathroom with him."

Despite the tease, there was a smile on her lips as she leaned back into the short support of her bar stool. He was easy on the eyes and more reserved than what she knew of his brother, something that seemed appealing when she was surrounded by drooling dogs. But there was also very little she knew of him compared to the other Xanis - he did do a great job at going unnoticed. That was the answer. That was why she put effort into talking to him and not the brother she had recognized earlier.

"What stood out was the fact that you're driven and successful and yet, for some reason, not the subject of tabloids and magazines all over our little city like your brother." She smiled around the butt of her cigarette and cross one long leg over the other. "That's intriguing to me. Elzo lives in the spotlight and you manage to avoid it completely."

The pride in his words and the look in his eyes as she spoke them sent a shiver crawling up the spine of the dancer that had nothing to do with the chill or her lack of clothing. A man passionate about what he did, especially with such accomplishments to boast, was a bigger turn on than any free drink.

"I would normally accept the offer but I have to go dance on a tiny dais soon," the edge of her thumb traced lightly against the butt of her cigarette and the foot dangling in the air tapped out the beat of the song pulsing somewhere in the background, "but my shift is only an hour if you're still waiting around when I'm off."

The way his eyes flickered to her body at times instead of her eyes made her think she had a good chance he'd stick around but then, what did she know? There was probably a damn good reason he was so successful and he made it clear it wasn't by sitting around in seedy bars. She drew another deep breath of smoke into her lungs and expelled it, letting it swirl through the dark, hazy club before she answered him.

"I'm Sana Zharkov," she put a slight accent on it, saying the syllables with a different inflection, "second generation Russian-American. My father inherited several casinos on the west coast and I've never wanted for a thing, but I'm defiantly working as a dancer in a late rebellious streak." She smiled and held out her hand, as if it were the most natural introduction in the world. She, at least, found the humor in it. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Xanis."

The way he carefully chose his words made her smile and she leaned into the bar slightly as she listened to him work through his excuse, bracing one elbow against the top while she puffed gently on her cigarette again.

"Do you think I'm a lamb, Marlo?"

The way her honey brown eyes narrowed suggested she was both amused and curious, as if she might make some important judgement based on his answer. A single, well-sculpted brow raised with her query, only lowering as she turned her head to expel the smoke in her lungs. Her bright eyes dropped to the cigarette as she held it over the ashtray, her fingers flicking the end with a practiced ease so the line of ash fell into the plastic.

Then she laughed, even before she looked up.

"No, it's not, although I could see why you might be confused." She shook her head as she spoke, sending the tumbling blonde curls bouncing around her shoulders. "Elzo could be anywhere at this time of night." She'd encountered the man on a few occasions, passed him in clubs where she performing. He was incredibly interesting to watch from afar, with different women on his arm almost constantly.

One last puff of her cigarette and she mashed it out on the black tray, rubbing her fingers together as she left the butt behind. When her eyes finally found his again, she was more serious, straightening up in her seat to address him.

"Thank me by taking me for coffee after I get off? I'll even put on real clothes if it makes you feel better."

It was hard not to seem pleased with herself. Watching him as he spoke, listening as he told her his observations, she could tell that Marlo Xanis was an intelligent man. All the other women spent their time chasing after the play boy brother when Marlo, reserved and powerful Marlo, was left completely untouched.

Sana wanted to know if it was because no one ever tried - or because he never let himself get hooked. She did love a good challenge.

His face turned scarlet the moment she heard the music shift to the warning beat - a small, almost unheard lull in complexity that meant shift change for the women that danced on raised dais' and bartops around the club. As he looked her over, she slid slowly off of her barstool and let both feet plant firmly into the floor beneath her. She knew the image she created - she crafted it perfectly every night, job or no job.

"Then I'll see you back here in an hour, hm?" A man, hulky and large and what one could only assume was a bouncer, paused to take her personal effects - then wandered off to a back room where they were no doubt stored with the rest of her things. She paused one last time before she headed for the busier part of the club, and pointed for him. "You can see me over there, though."

It was only a laugh that she left him with, playful and most certainly that of a vixen.