Bad Karma - - - *

[Ember Thistle Grant]

The heavy bassline shook the club with intensity and the bodies grinding and twirling on the dance floor only added to the modern haven of the Marquee Nightclub on a Friday night. Classes were over for the week, but that didn’t bother Ember, who had still been partying hard each and every night for the last two weeks, not caring about her other responsibilities to herself and her family right now. She needed an escape and if alcohol, strangers and loud music were what provided her with that, then so be it. There was nothing wrong with such a choice and Ember was drinking more than normal because of Andrew’s opinion on the matter. Even at twenty one years of age, if someone told her that she shouldn’t do something, then she’d do the opposite and do it with more gusto and determination than anyone else; even if that was putting her life on the line.

Ember moved her hips to the beat, running her hands through the long, golden waves of her hair as she rocked to the music, her hair falling back into her face as she closed her eyes and allowed the alcohol and the rhythm to guide her as she moved around the dance floor, dancing with no one in particular. She didn’t need anyone to have a good time and right now she couldn’t care less who she was with or who was even in the club; friend or foe. The alcohol was still flowing good at the bar, there were hours until the place closed and there was even longer until Ember would return to the penthouse apartment she shared with her older, and currently pain in the ass, brother. The daily grind had been wearing her down for long enough and it was high time that she finally remembered who she was away from the office.

She wasn’t cut out for a nine to five job and she wasn’t the All American Girl people imagined her to be when they saw her luscious blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Ember was sick of the stereotypes and she was even sicker of being forced into a square when she was a circle. She couldn’t cope anymore with people and things controlling her life; the college, the office, hell even her meds put her on a schedule that made her insides turn and her blood boil. For that reason, they lay untouched on her nightstand, covered by a discarded shirt from the night before. It was reckless, irresponsible and foolish of her, but she didn’t care. Her HCM, her health and everything that followed in its shadow was something she had spent her whole life trying to escape from and if for a few nights she could find that escape at the bottom of the shot glass, the middle of the dance floor, or tangled in the sheets of a strangers bed then she damn well would.

Breaking free from the crowds, she made her way to the bar, her hips swaying still to the music as she tried to keep her balance in the six inch heels that she had picked out for the evening to match her skin tight dress that hugged her slender figure perfectly. She propped herself up on the bar top and smiled flirtatiously at the bartender as she ordered another shot of Sambuca and a double vodka and orange juice, downing them both as soon as they were in front of her. There was no point in savouring the burning taste and she just wanted it to hit her faster and harder. The pain in her chest came once and then vanished, leaving the blonde uncaring about the first of the warning signs and she’d probably do the same for the next five, or even twenty.

Right now, she was living like most twenty one year olds did and nothing was going to stop her; not even her heart.

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• • •

TAGGED! Open <3
WORDS! 696
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

For Brandon, 2am was an early finish. As a nightclub bouncer, the hours were hardly sociable, but the pay was good and it was the closest he could be to remaining a cop as he dared. After leaving the door in the capable hands of a burly guy who had shown him the ropes a little under a year ago now, the scruffy looking blonde man made his way inside, his senses used to the strobe lighting and the heavy music by now.
He weaved through the crowds of bodies, most of them girls who looked far too young for the outfits they were wearing and the guys they were with. His light eyes flicked across the club for any suspicious activity or any signs of illegal behaviour. The most common problem in a place like this was drugs, but his stint in narcotics left him a lot more aware than the other bouncers for the signs and he was often the one who would do this sweep of the club every hour, just to be on the safe side.

With only five minutes left on his shift, he wondered what to do with this early night. Brandon didn’t usually crawl into bed until five or six in the morning and he didn’t feel in the slightest bit sleepy right now. Maybe he’d see if Gotham had any late shows on, or head home and clean up for a bit. His neighbours didn’t really appreciate his nocturnal hours, but then he had to put up with them when they vacuumed at 9am and he was deep in the clutches of sleep.
There was no point in heading back to man the doors right now, so he lingered by the bar, his eyes still keeping an eye on the patrons. Sometimes, an underage freshman with a sparkling new fake ID drank too much and couldn’t stop yelling about it and it was really his job to drag them out when he found them, especially since he should have been more perceptive and not let them in to start off with!

He was about to call an end to his final sweep, when his eyes fell on a familiar figure with never-ending legs in a cling-film tight dress. A smirk tugged at his lips and he let out an amused sigh as he noticed the drunken haze on her made up face. Casually, he moved around the bar until he was leaning in the space next to her. “Well, if it isn’t my favourite gunslinger.” He teased, leaning in to speak with her over the deafening sound of a bass.

Ember Thistle Grant was a hard face to forget, especially for him. They had had encounters before, both in the Marquee and elsewhere. Back before he had his shield, he knew the teenage version of the twenty one year old before him. She had never been officially arrested, but he knew for a fact that there was a caution to her name for a driving offence and she had been questioned a few times in regards to an old gang that used to wander the streets five or six years ago. Since then, he had broken up a fight or two that she had probably started in the Marquee as well as acknowledging each other in the gym they must both have been members of. It really was a small world in which they lived.
They were hardly what you could call friends, but they did exchange small talk whenever they crossed paths and she usually threw a harmless flirtatious comment at him whenever she slinked through the door, which he had noticed was more often than usual as of late.
She wasn’t quite what he was used to and he knew that they probably had more in common than either of them cared to share. That was one of the reasons why he always kept a more careful eye on her than on some of the other girls in there. He knew she was capable of landing herself in and getting herself out of trouble; he just worried about what kind of trouble a girl of her kind could reel in.

Clearly, she was drunk, but she wasn’t in a state where he had to escort her out and put her in a taxi. There was one thing he had learnt from the nights when she was inside and that was that she had a high control level, despite chugging down a lot of the bar. He had only ever seen her stumble once in those skyscraper heels of hers and she always seemed to know what she was doing, even if he thought the guys she sometimes left with would probably shatter her dignity, but it seemed as though she didn’t even care about that at times, which often worried him more. “So, what’s the occasion this week, exactly? Or can you just not keep away?” Often he struggled to lose the cop tone, especially around a girl he knew was so familiar with the interrogation room, though there was a slight hint of flirting hidden in his words that he knew she of all people would pick up on.

[/justify]

Word count of 854
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

Ember was no stranger to trouble. It was in her nature to rebel even when she was behaving like her brother and dad liked her to. It ranged from little things, like changing meeting plans to the big things, like skipping her meds - which was her current idea of troublemaking. In the past, her face had been known by a decent handful of the NYPD officers and whilst she had been able to charm her way out of most situations, they were the only ones who rarely saw through the guise, especially when she had been covering for her friends back in the days when the cops were working hard to get the gangs off the street and her sixteen year old ass had been dragged in repeatedly for questioning. Brandon was one cop who never seemed to look down at her and there had always been something about him that sparked her curiosity. It wasn’t that she was enthralled by him, but there was something in his eyes whenever she did reveal information that seemed to say that he understood everything about her and it not only unnerved her, but it freaked her out too. Her upbringing had been unpleasant for the majority of it and there were few who could look her in the eye today and make her remember every dark memory of it, but Brandon was one of them.
However, since he had opted for a career change Ember had pried into before, he did seem a little les intrusive in her life which made it easier to talk to him, though they barely held lasting conversations.

There was still something familiar about his presence though and she knew it was him leaning next to her the split second before he spoke to her. A smirk crossed her lips and she shifted the weight at her hips, turning to meet his gaze. “And if it isn’t my favourite ex-detective. Emphasis on the ‘ex’.”

[/color] She said, the alcohol in her system making this conversation a little more relaxed than the ones they shared at the gym when they both had better things to be doing. It had been a while since she had stepped foot in his old precinct, but their paths crossed more than ever before now he was the bouncer at her favourite night spot. “What’s the problem tonight? I’m causing no trouble so far.”[/color] She asked, curious about why he was hanging with her at the bar when she thought he was supposed to be working.

She pushed her blonde hair back from her face and glanced over Brandon’s body. She had seen him at the gym and underneath that dark ‘STAFF’ jacket was a muscular and toned body that most girls would swoon over at first glance. It was the alcohol talking now, but that didn’t bother her. If there was one thing she hadn’t had in her bed before it was an ex-cop and Brandon was an almost perfect candidate to tick that box on her bucket list. He had been all business back in his narcotics days and she doubted things would have changed now, so she would probably never get the chance whilst he was on the clock, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t try.
“Does a girl need a reason to celebrate life? Especially when she could be in the company of one of New York’s finest?”[/color] Her blue eyes flicked up and down his body again and came to settle on his lips for a second before meeting his eyes again with a charming twinkle in her own.
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• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 627
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

He had seen women like Ember before in a place like this and the charm had been turned on him before. He wasn’t like some of the other guys, those who tended the bar and often left with a drunken college girl on their arms. This was his work place and he never mixed business with pleasure, even if the lines did cross dangerously close when there was a leggy blonde leaning up near him, close enough for him to catch the scent of her perfume and shampoo. His self-control was strong though; strong enough to ignore the not-so-subtle look in Ember’s sapphire eyes and her body language as she turned to face him.

What Brandon couldn’t ignore though was the fact that Ember was an attractive girl, whether she was in the club or at the gym or anywhere in-between. He had caught his eyes wandering to her whenever they were in the same kickboxing session or when he was running on the treadmill and her long legs were exposed in front of him on the cross trainer. It was human instinct and basic psychology, but Brandon didn’t like how thin the line was between them, despite hardly knowing each other.

She certainly wasn’t the same girl he had encountered all those years ago, but she also hasn’t lost that basic street smart that could only come with growing up like she did. He hadn’t been with the NYPD for long when they first met, but other officers had met Ember before and they knew a little more about her than he did. When he heard about the drunken mother and the absent father, things made a little more sense about the young blonde at the time but as the years progressed and the lanky young thing bloomed into a beautiful young woman, Brandon realised she was more of a mystery than they gave her credit for at the old precinct. To him, it didn’t seem that she was purposely evasive, but like him, she had aspects of her life she wanted to keep private and he never felt the need to question them, unlike his ex-partner had tried to do once. He had never seen the young blonde so riled up before and unable to do anything about it. Ember had a temper, but she knew better than to lash out at an officer. That time, Brandon had stepped in and calmed her down and it had proved a useful practice for the times at the Marquee when Ember’s temper had gotten the better of her. Despite her all-American looks, Ember could pack one hell of a punch and he was still shocked today whenever he pulled her out of a bar brawl almost entirely unscathed.

He chuckled deeply at her slightly slurred response and then nodded his head in understanding. “I think you may be the only person to be so excited by my resignation.” Whilst it had been a while now since the day he handed back his badge, it was still the one thing Ember often brought up when they spoke. Still, he didn’t mind it, considering it had been how they had met, sort of. “Do you only associate me with trouble, or is that a guilty conscience talking?“ He asked, leaning back a little and propping his head on his hand as he rested his weight against the bar.

And there it was; the tone he was so used to hearing with the amazonian blonde. That dangerous flirting, the challenging glint in her eyes. He glanced at the neon clock over the bar and looked down at the stained countertop as he thought about what was happening. His shift finished five minutes ago and he knew if he left alone now and pushed her away then it would only be some other drunken punk who she’d take home tonight, not that he had any intention of keeping that bed warm this evening, but offering her more sensible company than she usually went for couldn’t bring either of them any harm, surely? Looking back across at her, he smirked and then nodded, standing upright again. “Fine, you win my company for this evening, but not here.” He said, laying down the conditions of this agreement.

[/justify]

Word count of 709
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

Brandon had caused a sudden halt to her downward spiral for tonight. At his arrival, Ember lost all desire to drink herself into a semi-comatose state and was now more interested in what he had to offer and why he had approached her. She was used to only really seeing him in coincidental passing or when he was wrapping his arms around her waist and dragging her away from a physical confrontation with some sleazy guy or fake bimbo who had decided to piss her off.
Now, she was intrigued and if curiosity was going to kill this cat then tonight would be a prime time to get to her. Her interest was sparked, the silent questions running through her hazy mind at almost a hundred miles an hour. Ember, in her wild mind, knew that this could be one of the most interesting nights of her young life to date, if she played her cards correctly and called him on his bluffs.

She moved a little closer to him, not as predatory as she usually did. In fact, mostly it was to hear him a little better. Good guys had a way of mumbling far too much for a place like this and luckily Ember was a little on the wrong side of tipsy to blow a fuse over it right now. The aroma of his cologne hit her pierced nose and she breathed him in, liking whatever it was he wore; something a little musky, but at the same time, enticing to the senses and Ember stepped that tiny bit closer to him again. “I’m sure there were a lot of guys who felt the heat cool a little, too, when you hung up the badge and gun.”

[/color] She reminded him, unfortunately reminding herself that she probably knew a small handful of them herself from around her old streets where she called home a long time ago.

Laughing warmly she finally felt relaxed for the first time in a while now, though the pain in her chest had yet to subside and she doubted it would do it anytime soon. “It’s the only time you really show up.”[/color] She shook her head at him, that shameless flirting returning again. “Guilty conscience? All I’m guilty of is having a good time. Maybe it’s just you who thinks I’m a bad girl 24/7.”[/color] She was definitely getting out of control, not just with Brandon, but in general. It had been a long time since she had been so obvious with a guy, but Ember craved an adrenaline rush and there was something inside that told her Brandon was it for tonight; even if he was playing it cool or acting uninterested right now.

She studied his changing expression and saw the deep thought take over his features. He had never really been one for idle chit-chat, but then neither was she usually. It was why their conversations never seemed strained, regardless of how brief they might be. It was just how they both were - normally. Ember had yet to figure out why he was with her at the bar socialising with her, but she was too busy not caring about a lot of things right now to worry about something like that. What she had said before was true; she was only guilty of having a good time. She hadn’t touched anything other than alcohol and had spent most of the night circulating with those she knew from the nightly scene. There had been no threats, no fights and for once her gun was at home, tucked in her dresser for a rare change.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure him out, but the smirk on her face grew slowly as she nodded in agreement with his offer. The Marquee wasn’t the only place to have fun in New York and she was feeling game for whatever he might have to offer now. “Okay, but where do you have in mind?”[/color] She didn’t know what he was thinking about; he wasn’t the easiest guy to read. What she did feel certain about was that he wasn’t whisking her away right now for some lust fuelled tryst. No, he definitely didn’t seem to be thinking about that, but she was struggling to see what else he might want to do with her given the fact that she wasn’t entirely sober.
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• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 745
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

There was no logical explanation in his mind as to why he was suddenly so keen to spend time with the blonde girl eight years his junior. Sure, they had never crossed swords in the past, so they were on civil terms even with the fights he had dragged Ember from, but there was still no real answer for him to understand. She had always been an enigma to him. She’d stay away from the club for weeks at a time and then suddenly it was like she was celebrating being twenty one all over again. It was unusual behaviour and his cop senses told him that there was a lot more to it than she let on with her supposedly carefree attitude. He wasn’t one to pry, though his curiosity was spiked by her recent presence at the club.
Brandon also disliked the nature in which she left with strange men. Sure, he had had flings and one night stands before, but never as frequent as she seemed to as of late. She was young, in college and with all the freedom in the world it seemed, but that still didn’t give him a reasonable excuse for her to put more notches in the bedposts.

Maybe it was the cop in him resurfacing when he saw someone in trouble. He could sense there was something different about her, a desperation he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Maybe this was his way of protecting her, making sure she didn’t come to any harm. She might have been tough on the outside, but all it would take would be one mistake and she might be another body in an alley if she wasn’t careful. Brandon didn’t want that to happen to her, not when he could see how she did seem to be losing control of that perfect mask she wore daily. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Ember was mainly an act; a good one, but nevertheless, an act all the same. She was always far too put together, too defensive and too vague for him to believe that was her natural attitude. Though, he often did the same, so he couldn’t call her out on it without coming across as somewhat of a hypocrite and he knew for sure that the fiery blonde would throw those dice into the game if he challenged her. If he didn’t want to share than he couldn’t expect her to.

“It’s not like there won’t be anyone breathing down their necks anymore.” This talk of crime was not what he really liked to hear, but with Ember it was the one thing they vocalised that they had in common. He never figured out how deep she had been at some point in her life, but he knew she was far from drowning in it these days and it seemed like that was thanks to her own choices; something he silently was proud of - not many people were able to turn around like she had done. He felt like he had seen her mature, though the show she was putting on now hardly reflected the strong and independent woman he knew she had grown into since being the feisty and defiant teenager in the ripped jeans.

She had made a fair point. Clearly intoxication didn’t harm her wit as much as it did others. Then again, she wasn’t as drunk as he had first thought, though she was definitely over the legal limit for most tasks. He leaned a little closer to her, a knowing twinkle in his blue eyes. “I‘m sure there are plenty of people who think that, but I happen to know that if there‘s trouble in here, I‘m using pulling you from the middle of it.” He reminded her, only too familiar with the long limbed struggles she put up whenever he did intervene. She was lucky that he could usually diffuse the situation before the cops were involved, but he never mentioned that to her when her temper was so easily sparked. He knew it would only push her more and that was the last thing he wanted. For as long as he had known Ember, she had been capable of keeping herself out of serious trouble and he didn’t want that to change now.

Now, he was caught out. He hadn’t planned on approaching her at the bar or taking her up on this talk of company. It had all been impulsive, which was something he rarely acted upon. However, he was sober, sensible and perfectly capable of dealing with whatever Ember Grant might throw at him once they left this place. At least, that was what he thought, despite knowing so little about her. “I haven’t thought that far yet.” He confessed, trying to think of where they might go. To take her back to his place might give her the wrong idea, as would following her to her own apartment. They needed some form of neutral ground and he was wracking his brain for a place they could go. “ C’mon. I’m sure I’ll think of something on the way.” Gently, he reached for her elbow to get her to follow him and he moved through the dispersing crowds to the door, saying goodnight to his colleague before taking a right up the street and walking towards the harbour, still unsure of where their destination would be.

[/justify]

Word count of 924
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

Strangers were the people Ember appreciated the most. They didn’t ask invasive questions and they usually made it clear from the start what they wanted from you. There was none of this ‘lost in translation’ nonsense that came from dating or friendships that were more give than take.
Unfortunately, Brandon didn’t fall under that category, but he still seemed to know where the line was. He knew more about her than she would like, but she also had her darkest secrets still tucked away and he seemed to have no inclination to ask her about them or try to detect what they were. She liked that and suddenly he was seeming like dry land in the ocean of her own downfall.
No. He wasn’t. He was simply going to be another challenge, another chance to prove that nothing was out of her determined reach. She was going to go along with him and then eventually win him around to her way of thinking, just to cross another thing off her bucket list, however unnecessary that tick could be.

She could hear Andrew’s voice in her head, warning her about how reckless she was planning on being. He had been shaking his head a lot at her lately and the tall blonde knew that he was dying to say something to her, but just didn’t want the fight. It was none of his business, as far as Ember was concerned and now that her eyes were fixed on Brandon, there was nothing he could do about it. Another fling, or whatever this would be, was nothing new for any twenty-one year old, but the risk that came with this one were enough to satisfy that danger level she longed to hit.

He wasn’t a cop anymore, but he still knew some and Ember had plenty of secrets that she had kept hidden from the NYPD for many years now and all it would take would be one slip of her tongue or one moment in which Brandon’s sky blue eyes fell on something that wouldn’t make sense and that could be it; he could call in some of his buddies and Ember would probably find herself in a cell, fighting with some other criminal until her heart gave way. It was daring, potentially dangerous with the way she was thinking about it, but she was so far gone that she simply didn’t care anymore. If jail was in her future than so be it. It would just be another adventure to add to her list and another disappointed to show Andrew that she was capable of it.

She tilted her head and looked at him with a curious expression in her eyes and a lopsided smirk that reflected her tipsiness. “Did you only come over to reminisce about the good old days? ‘Cause, I hate to break it to you, but I’m not in the mood to discuss crimes I didn’t commit.”

[/color] She teased, gesturing to the bartender to bring her another shot, raising the clear liquid this time to her lips, her eyes never leaving Brandon’s as she knocked it back as though it was only water in the tiny glass.

Laughing, she threw her head back, entertained by his words before nodding her head in agreement. “I guess a girl like me is attracted to danger.”[/color] She breathed out, that flirtatious charm switching itself back on. Shaking her head, she looked around the club and then back to the off-duty bouncer. “You‘re not going to be pulling me out of a fight tonight, scout‘s honour.”[/color] She smirked, holding her hand up in solemn promise as she clicked her heel on the floor in time with the music. The temptation, the challenge, the idea of winning Brandon was far too compelling for anything else around her to entertain her now that the thought was in her mind.

Her eyes twinkled and she bit her lip, clicking her fingers at the ex-detective as she cottoned onto what he was saying. “Ah, spontaneity. Exactly what I like in a man.”[/color] The flirtatious charm was back on as though it had never left her body for a second with Brandon. It was strange how comfortable it seemed to be flirting with him when he wasn’t a total stranger or a friend with added benefits. She didn’t dwell on it, but it lingered at the back of her mind and that little voice she was desperately trying to block out like Pinnochio ignored Jiminy Cricket, reminded her that it would be still there come the morning, taking her one step closer to hitting her own self destruct button.
Her eyes flicked to where he touched her elbow and her eyebrow raised in a challenging manner. She was torn between wanting to push him away and pull him closer. Ember wasn’t the kind of girl who liked to follow orders and Brandon was a guy who seemed almost permanently authoritative. “Okay, but you better think fast, Larkin.”[/color] She told him, feeling the colder air as it hit her body, cooling her down after the heat of the club. It took her a few moments to realise in which direction they were heading but she nudged his side and folded her arms in a fashion that was both defensive and daring; the sudden themes of the evening. “I’m sure the last time a girl followed a strange guy down to the harbour she found herself floating in it come sunrise.”[/color]
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• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 922
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

A few years ago and Ember would be the kind of girl he only willingly encountered when she was on the opposite side of an interrogation table. She was fiery, a magnet for trouble and knew the dark streets only too well for someone to be entirely innocent of any crime. The fact that she was trained with firearms and had permits to carry and conceal her own little gun was another reason why the alarm bells should have been ringing in his head. He had been a cop and his instincts were still sharp when it came to such things and Ember, whilst now far away from living on those streets, was certainly not free of everything that came with them. He knew how it was, he had walked those same concrete sidewalks for years before he had found his own freedom from those dangers and temptations. They were things you simply couldn’t forget or leave behind entirely, especially not when a person had been as knee deep in it as Ember had been.

She had appeared to change her life around, but the danger still lingered and he could still see in it her sapphire eyes. She wasn’t a girl who had allowed the money of her father to change who she was entirely and though her rebellious nature seemed to have calmed down over recent years, she was still the girl from the streets who had first been dragged into the precinct kicking and screaming her innocence, a mass of blonde tangles and knots concealing the teenage face with a speckling of dirt across her skin and a nose stud that still sat pretty today. That was the first image of Ember that Brandon had in his memory bank and it was almost impossible to forget. She had been much shorter then too and he didn’t expect to be standing here with her seven years later without reprimanding her for something.

Smirking, he met her eyes with a look that could almost see right through her, if she was so easy to read. He knew as well as she did that she had gotten away with stuff in her youth by being fast and smart and there was nothing he could do about it, not back then and not now. Though, he didn’t want to. He wasn’t trying to use Ember as an informant for a cop buddy or trip her up on old crimes and alibis. In fact, those possibilities were the furthest from his mind as he watched her down her shot with scary ease. “It’s alright, I‘m not planning on reminiscing much tonight.” It wasn’t nostalgia that had made him approach her and stay in her company. He didn’t know what it was.

Raising his thick eyebrow at her flirtatious ways, he had to fight hard to hide the smile that made his lips twitch. It was easy to see how a guy could be drawn in by her. She certainly knew how to charm a person and where she learnt that from he didn’t wish to know. The look in her eye was hard to ignore as it was without wondering whatever tricks she might have up her sleeve. “And a guy like me must be destined to keep you out of it, one way or another, then.” He joked before his shoulders bobbed with a silent chuckle. “Good, because I’m off-duty now and I think pulling you out of trouble without getting paid for it is more hassle that it’s probably worth.” He said, only partially making a joke out of the matter. He almost didn’t want to imagine the mischief she stirred up in every other area of her life after this clubbing scene ended each morning.

He was never the most humorous of guys, but even Brandon couldn’t resist making a small jibe at the blonde woman’s expense. He knew that she was strong enough to handle much more than one measly joke and the words had crossed his lips before he could stop them. “Oh, so you do have a type then? I was starting the think the only requirement was a pulse.” He looked across at her with a smile to show that he meant no harm by his comment. She was young, beautiful and had the world in her hands at times, but Brandon was afraid that she was might toss everything away if she didn’t slow down to think right now.

Ah, he should have known that Ember wasn’t the patient sort. She was far too feisty to sit back and allow someone else to hold the reigns for too long. Outside, he looked at her and his eyes flicked down to her skyscraper heels and instantly he thought that she wouldn’t last long walking in them, so he certainly would have to think fast before her feet blistered or she broke a heel in those things. He’d never understand how women could walk in them or why they even chose to wear such murderous shoes. “I work best under time pressure. All those years as a cop.” He said, part serious, part joking, though he didn’t know what Ember would pick up on.
Laughing he turned back to look at her and he placed his hands on her forearms. “I’m hardly a ‘strange guy’, but if you don’t trust me then you’re perfectly capable of turning around and getting a cab home.” He knew she wouldn’t do that, but he was throwing out there as an option. Ember was hardly the girl to back down from any potential danger, but he didn’t know what he blindly stumbling into or dragging her along to. The water was in sight and Brandon was feeling so less tense right now. He was relaxed, up for enjoying the conversation Ember might bring before she grew bored and left for something better. She was smart, but she was also impulsive and Brandon didn’t usually cope so well with impulsive.

[/justify]

Word count of 1,011
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

Ember and cops rarely crossed paths when they were walking on the same side of the street. Usually, she was running in the opposite direction and even on a normal day her guard would be up around the likes of Brandon; an ex-detective who still had plenty of friends within the NYPD. There were aspects of her past that crossed dangerously close to the wrong side of the law and Ember had played the game cautiously to avoid those stories being uncovered by anyone with a badge. A bit of alcohol and a downward spiral wouldn’t destroy that, no matter how hard Brandon pushed. She didn’t think that was what this was about though. As of late, her nose was relatively clean and she hadn’t so much as breathed the same air as some of her old, reckless friends in the last year or so, so she really hadn’t done anything to arouse police suspicion anyway.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t about to have a heart to heart with the scruffy but handsome twenty-nine year old who had decided to make her his early morning friend all of a sudden. They didn’t know each other that well and she wasn’t the kind of girl to have bonding moments just before the sun came up for another long day in a city that never seemed to rest. The single Grant daughter was the kind of girl who only ever revealed the necessary detailed and never ventured into personal questions. She was secretive out of old habit and it was the one defensive skill that could never fail her. It kept her safe from letting people get too close for comfort and it stopped anyone from using it against her. She struggled with her own thoughts and guilt over past issues that she didn’t need anyone else giving her grief over everything she purposely kept to herself.

The look he gave her was one she knew well. He had thrown the same look her way back in the days when there was a badge attached almost permanently to his hip. It was how he would look at her when he knew there was more to her tale than she was letting on. She had grown accustomed to it and even now, her expression didn’t flicker. “Good, because it’s not healthy to dwell on the past.”

[/color] It was definitely a piece of advice she needed to learn to take herself, but Ember was stubborn, not just to those around her, but to her own thoughts too. She was her own worst enemy and she pushed herself to every brink imaginable if someone didn’t help reel her in before the fall.

Narrowing her eyes and studying him with a curious expression on her youthful, intoxicated features, she took a moment before laughing a disbelieving laugh. “Like you believe in destiny. Come on, Brandon, you and me know there’s no such thing.”[/color] He must have seen things as a cop to change that view and Ember didn’t believe in it from the day she heard the very concept of the idea. If someone was so sit back and laze though their life then why would anything happen to them? Choices had to be made, mistakes lived through and rewards earned by nothing more than waking up each day and staring those problems directly in the eye. Ember didn’t believe she was destined to have the life she lived; it was what she had earned along with the genetic lottery of having a successful father. He didn’t have to take her in though, and at first, he didn’t. Ember had worked hard to earn the relationship she had with him now and it was only after that hard work that he had provided her with a bank account and a position at the company; a position she worked hard for normally, when she wasn’t allowing her regrets and rebellious nature to get the better of her.

Brandon Larkin actually made a joke? In all the time Ember had been acquainted with him, she had always known him to be quite the serious guy, always to the point and never wasting his time with people who would waste his. It was just another reason why she was so intrigued by his sudden interest in her tonight. However, his ‘joke‘ was a game she could play and was willing to. “My type just so happens to be tall, athletic and blonde with a devil-may-care look about him. He‘s also gotta be able to handle a little danger.”[/color] She looked up at him with an obvious sparkle in her blue eyes. It was everything Robert hadn’t been and that was exactly what she looked for nowadays. Anything that reminded her off him was just another reason that unleashed her uncontrollable desire to act like she was going to drop dead in the morning. Living recklessly seemed to go hand in hand with remembering that night and combined they posed a threat to Ember that she was too broken to see.

The oxygen was mixing with the alcohol in her body, the statuesque blonde struggling to walk in a straight line, though her balance was perfectly in tact for now. The city was tilting back and forth and everything seemed hazy as the ringing in her ears increased, the only real sound breaking through now was Brandon’s deep velvety voice. She rolled her eyes, less in an annoyed way and more in an impatient way as she pushed her blonde curls back from her face. “Is there anything being a cop didn’t prepare you for?”[/color] She asked, her words slurring slightly as she focused her gaze on him with slight difficulty.
She looked up at him as his hands rested on her arms and shuffled a little closer to him, reaching up to wrap her fingers around the collar of his jacket to hold him close to her still. “You don’t get rid of me that easily. You should know that by now.”[/color] Her eyes met his again and she smirked. “Are you scared you can’t fight me off?”[/color] There was a double meaning to her question and the breathy tone to her voice just emphasised that, though she was certain that he was clever enough to figure out what she meant.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 1,059
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

He had never been a guy to be attracted to danger. In fact, he longed to put an end to it most of the time, so he couldn’t work out why he was spending time with one of New York’s biggest trouble magnets. If there was a bar fight in the city, there was usually quite a good chance that the tall blonde was hovering around nearby, screaming profanities at whoever had pissed her off that evening. It was a little intriguing and amusing. She could definitely hold her own in any fight, that was for sure, but there was something else there and it was almost like it was her reason to keep going. Was she testing her mortality for something greater? It was a ridiculous ideal but it was also what Brandon’s cop mind could keep going back to.

He had still to figure out why Ember was at his side right now. Well, he knew why she might have followed him, but he didn’t know why he had invited her along to start with. Maybe he missed the life of being a cop and maybe Ember was his only immediately connection to those days again, but the idea made no sense. It was hardly like they had shared the same experiences; Brandon had locked away the people Ember had grown up around. In theory, they should be arch enemies, but there had never been any tension or lingering aggression between the pair for some reason. They had always been civil to each other, even when Ember had struggled to hold her tongue from some sarcastic reply in the interrogation room.

It wasn’t like tonight would be a deep and meaningful discussion. He didn’t talk much with anyone unless there was a reason to and he sensed that Ember had the same sort of personal mantra. She definitely had never revealed any information about herself that wasn’t vague and unprecedented with anymore facts. If he asked her how she was, he received a “fine” and if he mentioned school or the business, it was “going good, thanks”. It wasn’t so much that she was a girl of few words, but it seemed to be more in the general idea that she played her cards close to her chest out of fear of something, but he didn’t know what that fear might be. The fact that she was willingly accompanying him outside of the nightclub made him fairly certain that it wasn’t him who she feared.

Her advice rung true in his ears. His past didn’t hold an awful lot of fond memories. Sure, there were the same highlights that everyone had; prom, graduation, first love and all those rights of passage to adulthood, but Brandon had seen a lot more too and street fights, drug raids and gun fights were all reasons for him to try and keep busy before the thoughts could drag him back to places he didn’t want to go again. He had been shot once in his life and that was more than enough. He had been on the brink of a black hole before and it was a place where there were few friendly faces and even less chance of being understood.
He took a moment to think about what the alcohol was making her say. This may have been the longest conversation they had ever shared. “I didn’t realise the thought made you so cynical.” He commented, looking over at the pretty student. It didn’t seem right to see someone so young with such strict views of the world that clearly had come from everything she had lived through. He didn’t know her life story, but the glimpses of the chapters he had slipped into made him wonder just how bad things had gotten for the young blonde when she was still running around in hand-me down clothes and scuffed up sneakers. She was right though; he didn’t believe in destiny and he hadn’t in a long time. It was something he heard too much of when he was growing up and it was always from the dreamers and the ones who believed they lived in some false utopian world. “Still, how about you and me keep that a secret for those who do still believe?” He didn’t like the idea of forcing his opinion on others, but he had a strange feeling that Ember was the kind of girl to tell it how she saw it without thinking of the feelings or the people she might hurt.

And joking with a confident and semi-drunk blonde like Ember Grant may not have been the best of moves if he wished to keep in control of this little game they seemed to be stumbling into. He should have been able to see it coming; the quick response, the way she would flip his question on it’s head and leave him feeling a little less confident about his self-control. He stared down at her for a few moments and he scrambled through his mind to find a response for a comment he wasn’t so used to hearing. It wasn’t that no one ever hit on him, but no girl was ever so to-the-point and obvious as Ember deliberately was. He was used to coy and subtle; two words he didn’t believe were ever in Ember’s vocabulary. “You should know better than anyone that if you play with fire you’re going to get burnt.” He whispered huskily, his words almost a pathetic warning to them both. He was merely a man after all, and Ember was a very attractive young woman with a perfect way of singing her siren’s song.

Swallowing and looking out over the water, Brandon suddenly realised how potentially exposed he was. There was no music, no one to share the joke of being hit on with and no one to help him fight off the blonde who he knew was far more capable than he had usually given her credit for. He knew she was a strong girl, he knew she had seen her skeletons dance and faced them, but he didn’t know how persistent she could be, or how much he would be attracted to that element of her personality, even if she was swaying and struggling to walk in a sober line. “You, I think.” He whispered the answer to himself, hoping the intoxicated blonde wouldn’t overhear them. It had been a long time since he head been on a date and even longer since he spent the night with a woman. He was a red blooded man underneath his tough shell, though and whilst he usually held a long more self-control than other, younger, males in NYC, he could feel it crumbling bit by bit at Ember’s relentless flirting.
The strong aroma of her perfume floated to his senses as she held him close by his collar. His fingers brushed her bare skin and he looked down at her. Who was he kidding? Ember had been in control of this situation since he had approached her at the bar. “You always come back, like some cursed boomerang.” He said, his wit running low now that he was trying to fight her off and suddenly, it was like she could read the worry in his eyes. “I have a feeling that fighting you would be a losing battle from the start.” He confessed, his eyes meeting hers in an almost silent surrender. He wasn’t prepared for this to happen, but he knew that now she was there and he was there it was almost useless to try and run from it. She was drunk though, and he ought to know better.

[/justify]

Word count of 1,289
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

Ember was the kind of girl who often radiated trouble. An accidental nudge in a hallway or on a street had her shooting a killer glare and yelling at some innocent person. If you asked too many questions then she immediately jumped on the defensive, even if it was just someone trying to get to know her a bit better. Then, nightclubs, catty girls and ‘hands on’ guys left her with more than a few words to say and whatever ornate ring decorated one of her polished fingers soon found itself leaving a pretty bruise in it’s wake on some poor person’s face. Yeah, Brandon had more than a fair point to assume there was trouble lingering over her shoulder.

It was one of those things that she could try and blame on everyone but herself, although she knew better than that and Ember wasn’t the kind of girl who would point the finger at someone else when she could try and kick and argue her way out of whatever she was being accused of now. She knew how to fend for herself and she was used to the concept of ‘every man for himself’ and that was why she rarely revealed her personal information to the world around her. The more people knew about her, the more they could use against her to make her break and Ember liked to think she was indestructible at times, which was why the stabbing pains in her chest rarely made her panic, unlike any other human who would probably call for an ambulance and suspect the worst whenever the first pain hit. No, Ember was going to live fast or live forever as far as her hazy mind was concerned. What she needed was a wake up call and something to cement it into place this time. The quicker she realised just how mortal she was and just how terrifying that fact to be to those around her who cared about her but had no control when she was spiralling out of it.

Right now though, she was with Brandon and whilst she knew what she wanted, the little voice was asking ‘why him?’. He was a guy who knew her better than some of her friends did thanks to the manila file that was locked in some records room somewhere and usually that was a sign that Ember would run from. He knew what she could be capable of and he knew that she wasn’t just another young girl in a nightclub with daddy’s cash to flash. It was something she avoided anyone else finding out about, but right now, she wasn’t thinking straight or clearly she would have pushed him away at the nightclub with a crude remark and downright rejection to his offer and she was fairly certain that he wouldn’t have chased her like some of the desperate Casanova’s in there might have done.
Still, this was just intoxicated lust, nothing more and nothing less. It would be gone once she had what she wanted or once the alcohol wore off - whatever came first.

Ember looked up at him, surprised that he sounded a little shocked by what she had said. Maybe she still had a few tricks up her sleeve that he wouldn’t expect. Usually, with cops, they thought they had seen everything after a handful on cons and the presumption that they were all going to be exactly the same was one that annoyed Ember to no end. Everyone was different, even if they did commit the same crimes. Shrugging, she shook her head and focused on the damp stains in front of her. “I’m not cynical. I just understand what’s real in this world and what isn’t.”

[/color] She answered, foolishly revealing another little tid-bit about herself that might allow Brandon to piece together the puzzle that she was.
She did have quite a habit of mouthing off her opinions and thoughts when the dreamers slipped into her path. Clearly, Brandon knew of that, judging by the tone he spoke to her in. Her blue eyes glanced across at the couples in the place and she sighed. They wouldn’t last; “love” never did. “They’ll realise sooner or later, I guess.”[/color] She mumbled to herself, shifting her weight again.

The silence spoke louder than he could imagine and Ember’s heart rate increased, though this time it wasn’t through health issues alone. The look in his usually steel eyes was very telling and she suddenly realised what this night might turn into. Through the harmless flirting at the bar, Ember had her challenge in sight, but she never believed it might actually happen. It was something to keep the night going, a game to play to quell the boredom and the fear of what her own sober thoughts might talk her into. Now, it was borderline on something more; something she wanted, but also feared. Usually, she didn’t hook up with guys she knew fairly well. Usually, she got to know them after a drunken encounter led to a regular friends-with-benefits arrangement, but the last of them had graduated and left the city a while ago now. This was almost new territory for her, but for some reason, she didn’t want to back down from it. “Are you telling me that, or whispering it to yourself?”[/color] Her name held connotations of fire and she knew that it suited her well for that reason. Though, she did know what he was implying. If this did happen and something did occur between them then it would change things and usually Ember avoided all situations where sex could do that. It was supposed to be her way of finding freedom from her problems, not making more of them.

She leaned against the railing, looking across at him as her ears continued to ring from the loud music of the nightclub. She saw his lips move briefly, but what he said didn’t reach her ears and she rolled her eyes, remembering just how much this man mumbled. It was a strain to hear him during the daylight when they were passing at the gym. “Why do the hot men always mumble?”[/color] She queried, not expecting an answer. It annoyed her a little that she didn’t hear what he had said, but at the same time, she didn’t care. Not when he made no effort to move away when she held him closer to her and not when his eyes looked into hers with almost a breaking look. Neither of them had planned this, she could tell, but now they were both here, neither of them knew what to do, either. “Doesn’t mean I don’t like a man to try.”[/color] Was she offering him an out?! Seriously? She never did that and it just made her feel more confused about why she was here with him of all men. She was more out of control than she thought. She wrapped her fingers tighter around the fabric and shuffled closer, closing the space between their bodies, but making no move to bring her lips closer to his. This was unfamiliar to her and suddenly she felt nervous, or nauseated, she couldn’t quite decide.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 1,207
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

Brandon really didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He knew Ember had had some problems and issues in the past, but he didn’t even know the half of it and for the first time in his life, he didn’t stop to think about the endless possibilities that could play a role in her life. Hell, if he spent the rest of the year trying to work it all out alone, he doubted that he would be able to figure out the enigma that Ember was to him. She had been evasive for years in the interrogation room and it suddenly seemed like that was only the tip of the ice berg. As the bouncer for most of the week, he knew Ember came in frequently to the club, but lately she was practically living there and it shouldn’t really take a genius to work out that there had to be some real reason behind it that wasn’t a long winded celebration; no one did that, not even Ember Thistle Grant.

He had never really seen her out partying for a friend’s birthday or to celebrate a passed exam, like most of the people her age usually did. He was used to seeing gangs of them arriving in full giggling force, but Ember always seemed so cool and collected when she arrived at the club, no longer flashing her ID at the door, since it was usually always Brandon who let her in, even if he did know that there was a chance of a fight breaking out or some guy getting the wrong end of the stick and being confronted by a leggy blonde with a temper that could raise the roof.

The tone of her voice gave something away that Brandon had never stopped to consider before; the idea that Ember had been through something to make her this way. There was something more to a rough upbringing that had made her the way she was now. It was almost as though there was something sorrowful in the way she spoke and the look that crossed her pretty face. She was looking at the couples in the club in a manner that suggested they were stupid for getting together in the first place. He had never seen Ember with a boyfriend of sorts, but he’d never really stopped to consider that there was something more to it than just her attitude and tough exterior. Before now, he simply thought that she was probably the kind of girl who didn’t care for settling down just yet and didn’t want to lead some guy on when all she wanted was a few nights together and a casual, no-strings-attached deal. For the first time, he was wondering if there had been a time when Ember had been stabbed by the harsh hand of cupid. “Then you have a talent many people are lacking.” He said, mainly to avoid an argument with the only person he felt might be able to yell him into the ground without breaking a sweat.

This was not where things were supposed to be going, but Brandon couldn’t seem to pull himself away. Despite the cool air of the evening, the ex-detective found himself feeling very hot under the heavy gaze of Ember’s deep oceanic eyes. How was it that this simple girl could see through him easier than anyone else on the planet? He normally had so much more control over his emotions, knowing that it was far safer to mask them with logic and common sense in order to save himself from drowning in situations like this one. He wasn’t the kind of guy who made a habit of one night stands and meaningless flings. Brandon hadn’t dated anyone in a long time either, but that was the usual way in which he liked to feel like this. Meaningless encounters never came to anything good and he had seen the extreme ends some could end up in from stories from friends in homicide when scorned lovers sought out revenge. Swallowing hard, his adam’s apple quivering, Brandon let out a shaky sigh and stepped a little closer to Ember, his feet unable to move away. “I haven’t decided, yet.” He confessed, his nerves shaking for the first time in the longest of times. “What are you doing, Ember?”

His lips twitched upwards into a small smirk at her rhetorical question. That was the Ember he knew well; the girl who asked questions in an exasperated tone and if you dared to answer there was usually a deathly glare in store for you. He glanced over at her and took in how she looked now that she didn’t seem to be looking directly at him. Despite her outfit screaming that she belonged in a night club, Ember looked totally as ease in the short skirt and killer heels. There was none of the shivering or complaining that he was used to hearing outside of the Marquee, and she didn’t tug at her clothes or try to cover herself up. He couldn’t decide if she was confident about how she looked or simply didn’t care what others thought. Past encounters made him decide on the latter, but that didn’t mean it was always going to be that reasoning behind all of Ember’s actions.
His hands moved down her arms to her waist and held her closely. His decision seem to have been made before he had a chance to speak the words that would make the young blonde certain of where this was going. She wanted him to fight? Brandon didn’t want to and didn’t think he was capable of it when the fiery young woman was so close to him that he could feel her cool skin against his clothes. “Well, I surrender, so what happens then?” He asked, his voice still barely above a whisper and his body as stone as a statue, not moving closer nor further away.

[/justify]

Word count of 997
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

[/size]

[Ember Thistle Grant]

There was a lot about Brandon that Ember didn’t know, but she wasn’t interested right now either. He was a fairly decent guy and he’d always treated her with respect despite the varying situations he had seen her in. She had hardly revealed many of her good qualities to him when she only saw him when she was being questioned or when she was drunk and flirting with a guy she didn’t know the name of or fighting with a girl she didn’t care for.
However, she knew more about him than any of the guys she would usually act like this around and that alone was new territory for her. Brandon was one of the few guys she saw regularly and this night could make their meetings much more awkward or open up doors to something she was by no means prepared for. The little voice of her conscience was trying to explain all of this too her, but the stubborn nature of Ember combined with her heart racing beneath her sternum made her block out the logic in this madness that she was about to step through the archway to.

It was something else she could rebel against and bend the rules for. Andrew was already angry at her for the reckless way in which she was behaving as of late, but it wasn’t like Ember cared what he thought about her. She loved Andrew; he was the only constant in her life, but when it came to his opinion about what she was doing, it was him who she tried to rebel against most of all. If it was him, she would go to the end of the world to knock sense into him, but she wouldn’t let him stop her when the roles were as they were. If it made her something of a hypocrite, then she didn’t worry about it right now. It wasn’t as though Andrew’s survival rested on her shoulders; the man had coped for over fifteen years before he even knew of a blonde girl caked in dirt who held a similar DNA pattern to him.

Her glossed lips moved into a lopsided smirk and she flipped her hair back over her shoulder, the golden locks tickling her skin in more of an irritating way than she cared for. Brandon didn’t seem to want to fight with her tonight, which was a strange occurrence considering he had approached her in Marquee. Normally when that happened there was a yelling match in the street with him telling her to go home and sleep it off and Ember yelling back at him that she had done nothing wrong or that the guy or girl had been asking for her to throw the first punch. “Hardly. I just don’t wear rose-tinted glasses like the rest of these sorry souls.”

[/color] She said, scoffing and letting her walls down for a quick second.

It seemed as though Brandon was fighting an inward struggle. His eyes were clouded at moments and then clear the next, his body tense and awkward as he stood before her. Ember’s smirk grew this time, her own mantra of simply ignoring common sense and rebelling against logical thinking proving itself to be the best way forward right now as she watched him fight between sense and desire. His eyes met hers and this time her breath hitched in her throat, her heart dangerously skipping a beat it couldn’t afford to miss. It was the first time she felt as though she had been caught off guard and it took a few long seconds for her to remember what they were doing, talking about and silently asking each other. “Isn’t it obvious what I’m doing?”[/color] She said, almost asking herself that question as she pulled herself together. “You don’t seem to be running away, Brandon.”[/color] She didn’t know if she was surprised by this or not, but she did feel as though this was a weird place for both of them to be.

What was she doing? His question seemed to remind her where they were and how long they had been standing around for, both with one foot out of the door when it came to going someplace together. There was no space between them and yet they were still dancing around what might happen like two school kids who had never even shared their first kiss yet. This wasn’t like her at all and she found herself growing angry at herself for giving him so many chances to leave. It was almost as though she was letting him have control over the situation and that was the very thing she hated. Ember needed to control her own life and not have people dictate what she did or when she did it and here she was allowing Brandon the chance to leave her alone, put her in a cab home or tell her ‘no’. When had Ember been that kind of girl?!
She heard the words he spoke, but made no effort to process them fully or think up a witty response. She had had enough of this dance and now it was time to do something about it. Her heels pushed her close enough to his height that she didn’t need to reach much to press her lips to his.

She kissed him hard and hungrily, making her intentions perfectly clear now and wasting no more time for idle chit chat and casual flirting. Her hands moved from the fabric of his collar to slide around his neck, her fingers nestling in the messy locks of dirty blonde hair as she deepened the kiss.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 947
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3

[brandon emmett larkin]

He had pushed her and it seemed that Ember had reached her limit. There was no way that he could have expected her to spend most of the night talking with him, the pair of them flirting with the idea of what could happen. If there was only one thing he was certain of about Ember, it was that she wasn’t the kind of girl who would hang around and wait for any guy. She knew what she wanted and she seemed to realise how short life could be and he had an incline of an idea that she wasn’t the kind of girl to leave things until the last minute. There was a rare confidence in the young blonde and it was almost as though she wouldn’t waste a minute of her life when she had something she wanted within her reach.

And Brandon was well within her reach now. He didn’t have chance to pull away or think this whole thing through before her lips were pressed against his, the faint taste of cherry lipgloss the only thing he could think of right then. There was a strange moment when it seemed as though nothing else existed and then Brandon came back to his senses, his hands tightening around her slender waist as he pulled her closer and returned the kiss without hesitation. He felt her hands move too, her fingers brushing through his messy hair which was in need of a good trim.

He felt as though he should’ve known better and been more prepared for Ember to eventually try something like this, but he couldn’t think straight anymore and hadn’t been able to now since their conversation at the bar. He knew how bad this could be and he could practically hear the jibes and comments that would be made if his cop buddies ever discovered that he was standing down by the harbour kissing Ember Grant; one of the few people who had spent so much time in the precinct without being arrested or employed by the NYPD. He’d never live it down, that was for sure, but even the thought of that wasn’t enough to make him pull away from an intoxicating kiss that left his lips with a tingling sensation and a craving for more.

Brandon adopted Ember’s sense of thinking for a temporary moment and decided to ignore logic and just ‘go with it’. He pulled her as close as was possible, making no attempt to break their kiss as he guided her back to lean against the railings separating them from an icy plunge into the harbour’s ebbing waves.

Ember was not the kind of girl he would usually throw caution to the wind for, yet it was almost as though Brandon had stopped caring about that now. If this was what danger truly felt like then he was happy to keep living like this. The adrenaline rush, the realisation that he was doing something wrong filled him with an indescribable sense of bliss that he couldn’t fight off or ignore anymore. It was a contentment that he had only ever felt after solving a case, but now it was heightened, raw and powerful and driving him forward. He didn’t know if it would last or if he would regret all of this in a few hours, but he didn’t care and didn’t want to worry about something like that either, not when he had Ember in his arms, her lips against his as she kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

Brandon pulled away from the kiss, breathless and knowing what he wanted now. He reached up to push some of her windswept golden waves back from her face and made his decision, knowing there was no turning back from what he was about to say. “Your place or mine?”

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Word count of 598
Written for Ember
Listening to Rest in Peace by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Outfit to come later.

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[Ember Thistle Grant]

Ember didn’t stop to think about repercussions anymore. The fact that Brandon barely wasted a moment before kissing her back was enough of a sign for her to move forward with this. There were no doubts, no panic about what this might result in and now it was far too late for her to stop. She was losing herself in a fashion that meant she didn’t care now and if this did lead to something strained and awkward then so be it. That was something she could deal with much later, after the sun had risen and another new day had dawned on the restless city that had been her home for twenty one long years of heartbreak and anger. There were few good memories and feelings that this place held for her and the dark definitely outweighed the light, as much as she hated to admit it. Tonight, she could forget about that though and focus purely on instincts and selfish desires, even if it was something a lot of people would frown upon.

The cold railing against her back sent more shivers shooting through her body and the strange idea that this was the first time a man’s kiss had left her entirely undone in a long time was unnerving, but Ember couldn’t pull herself away from the lips of a certain ex-detective whose hands pulled her closer. She suddenly realised how cold the night air was when she felt the warmth radiating from his body and the STAFF jacket he still wore over his normal clothes.
If the old gang could see her now they would have the heart attack she was waiting for. The idea that Ember Grant was going home with a cop was a stomach turning thought and it brought a smirk to her glossed lips as she kissed Brandon harder. There was a time when the idea would make her angry enough to fight someone, but now it was a very appealing idea that spurred her on more as the seconds ticked by and she remained in his embrace. People would laugh if they saw this and knew all about her past and she figured that if Andrew discovered this she might think that she had finally snapped and crossed that line from reckless into stupid.

She had never imagined that Brandon would be the kind of guy who would take her home. She always figured that he had his head screwed on securely and had a strict set of morals and ethics that he lived by and would never allow some random girl to break them. That didn’t seem to be the reality at all though, at least not now and Ember almost laughed at the very idea that it was so easily to bend him to her way of thinking. He had never shown interest in her before, but then she hadn’t really looked twice at him and made him her target, but here they were and it certainly was no alcohol induced dream that was playing with her mind.

Ember pulled him closer, her hands crossing his upper back to hold him closer to her than she thought possible. She sighed softly as he pulled away and wondered what he was doing. She was about to pull him back and crash her lips against his again when the words he uttered sent another shiver down her spine. Well, he certainly didn’t seem to want to waste any time and Ember wasn’t about to drag this out much longer either. She leaned in, brushing her lips against his once more as a smirk crept onto her face and as she exhaled she breathed out her answer. “Yours.” She pulled back and looked in his eyes before waiting for him to lead her home, wherever it was that he called it. She just hoped that the journey that didn’t leave him with enough time to bottle it and change his mind on her. It was too late for her to return to the club now and scour the place for a second option.

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• • •

TAGGED! Brandon <3
WORDS! 682
OUTFIT! Rhythm over Rhyme
LYRICS! Bad Karma- - - Ida Maria
NOTES! <3 <3 <3