Welcome to Gaia! ::

Everything was all just a little much at the moment, a little overwhelming. To be fair, that feeling had settled on Cassie's shoulders the morning after she'd been attacked by Gavuden and lingered in varying stages of intensity over the course of her stay in the hospital and then after her release. Never mind the ******** s**t show that had occurred there just before she'd been discharged.

She didn't want to think about it. Or anything, honestly. What she wanted, what she really wanted was to just turn her brain off for a little while. Try to regain the scattered fragments of her life. Her freedom and her independence. Her confidence.

A frat party on the outskirts of the DCU campus was probably not the best place for for that. It was a breeding ground for poor choices and regrets, but it also had the promise of free booze and the press of warm bodies and to Cassie that sounded perfect right about now.

Here, in the low light of the party house, any lingering bruises wouldn't be immediately recognizable. Nor the bandage half hidden under the edge of a scoop-neck tee shirt.

The party was in full swing when Cassie came strolling up the front path and up the old concrete steps to the old house. Music spilled out the open front door, the bass beating against her like a pulse. A couple of fraternity boys grinned at her as she passed, and she smiled back through a veil of dark bangs before sweeping ombre hair back off her face and slipping into the undulating mass of bodies dancing in the living room, aiming to weave her way through to the kitchen. That's where the beer would be. That's where it always was.

It was quieter here by virtue of having less people around trying to shout over the music that still pounded through the walls and open door. Only a few were lingering. Two at the corner of the counter near the fridge looked like they were trying to figure out how to carry more shots than they had hands for. One sitting against a wall beside the open back door, he looked a little green. And one leaning against the counter near the keg, solo cup in hand, bright eyes focused on her.

Cassie looked back up at him as he lifted the cup at her and waggled a brow, and it was such an unexpectedly odd greeting that it startled a laugh from her, had her shaking her head before lifting a hand to tuck a bit of faded ombre back behind her ear.

The point of the being here was to get her mind off every terrible thing that'd happened in the last month, and that s**t eating grin promised, at the very least, a temporary distraction. Her lips twitched up in the corners as she crossed the room towards him, pausing only to pluck a solo cup of her own off the stack beside the keg so she could fill it.

Beer now in hand, she turned to claim the bit of counter behind him, holding her cup up in a salute before taking a long drink from it. The sooner she was buzzed, she thought, the better.

From where he stood he probably had quite the view straight down the low plunge of the grey t-shirt, she had loosely tucked into dark cut offs. There were a few old scraps on her legs, mostly at the knees, fading into pale pink of new scars. She'd considered going with jeans for all of a minute before deciding it was still too damn hot for it. Especially in a party.

She tipped her head to look up at him when he spoke, and the little smile she wore broadened, almost a match for the one he'd directed at her when she'd first arrived. "None of them." She doubted she knew anyone here. "I saw a party flyer, thought I'd check it out." Which was risky behavior, all things considered.

Her cup came up for another long drink, and as the bubbles tickled her throat on the way down she thought maybe she could feel the first tingling hints of a buzz starting in her legs. It didn't take much anymore, not after the sober year she'd spent out of town.

"You?" Dark brows lifted, the plastic rim of the cup resting against the full bud of her lower lip.

It wasn't brave, it was incredibly reckless. But as much as a risk as she might have been taking being there on her own, it felt like nothing to the risk of powering up again. The fear of that was almost choking.

But she made an amused sound at his observation, rolling her shoulder in a casual shrug as she took another drink. Nothing that could happen here compared to what she'd already been through.

"Who'd wanna say no to that?" She chuckled, resting her elbows back on the counter with her cup cradled in both hands in front of her stomach, nails tapping along the thin plastic. "Sounds like a great time to me." Well, girls or boys in her case, she wasn't picky on gender.

"Do you go to class here, or just crashing?" Like me, remained unsaid, but the subtext was clear.

So he was a student, but didn't seem to be a very dutiful one. For whatever reason Cassie liked him better for that lack of academic motivation, if only because it made her feel better about her own. Extended education had just never been in the cards for her. There was nothing she'd ever felt passionately enough to purse, as far as college went.

So his answer made her smile into her cup as she brought it up to her lips again, chuckling softly to herself before his nod towards the living room had her glancing in that direction.

"You're not wrong," she agreed with a soft snort as whatever the frat boys had been doing dissolved into what appeared to be an all out wrestling match. Cassie rolled her eyes, looking back up at the mystery man.

"Someone'll have to call 911 before the night's over." Not that she sounded too terribly concerned by that. This wasn't the first house party she'd attended, and these things had a way of falling apart at a certain point when the level of intoxication reached a critical tipping point.

Fun until then, though.

She smiled wryly before flickling her tongue along her lips. "I'm Cassie."

That made her laugh, gaze flicking to the wrestling match she could see sort of see through the doorway, then back. "You're probably right." Anyone with the capacity to make that proper judgement call and act on it would probably be gone by the time the need arose.

Baby blues flicked back up as he introduced himself and she reached to take the hand he offered to her, her own disappearing within large, dark fingers before he was drawing her closer.

The first step was a little unsteady, but only because she hadn't been expecting it. The second was more sure, her hand rising with her beer to keep what remained of it safely in her cup. "Not often, no." This wasn't her first, but she certainly wasn't a regular on the scene.

"But I might have to start." She made a point of looking him over, slow and deliberate. Lips tugging up in an approving, suggestive sort of smile.

Not a shy boy, that was for sure. Lynch had an easy confidence about him that was obvious even before he'd settled a big hand against the small of her back. And either he he was reading the situation exceptionally well, or he was that sort of recklessly shameless that just went for it rather than beating around the bush. Maybe both.

Honestly it didn't really matter to Cass, the results were the same regardless. He'd gotten her attention, shown interest, and was now doing spectacular work in bringing all her focus narrowly onto him.

"More an observation that there might be people worth meeting in these places, but," she trailed off as he leaned in to murmur beside her ear, stiffening at his astute observation of the situation. Was she that obvious? Apparently so.

Did she actually care that he'd figured her out that quickly? No, not after the implication that he could fill the need. She licked her lips again, head tipping enough for her to be able to whisper back. "Prove it."

His hands slid to the back of her thighs fingers pressing, and she had about half a second to curl slender fingers around one muscled arm before he was picking her up to set her on the edge of the counter. It made her chuckle, hand smoothing down his forearm as he slid in between her knees.

It was fast, a little aggressive, and it left the petite surfer practically purring into the kiss, legs coming around to to tuck converse behind thick thighs.

Was she ready for this? The question almost made her laugh. This was a pallet cleanser. Something that felt good to chase away everything else she'd been through in the last month. Something to remind her that she hadn't died in that park, and that life was worth living. Even if she couldn't bring herself to power up again, she could do this.

Teeth nipped at his lip as she set her beer down beside them and leaned forward, tipping her head as she parted her lips for him, hands snaking under his arms to curl around his torso.