The place was bustling with activity. A concert had recently been played at Keaton and it was the end of a year. Students and parents were all out celebrating but, unfortunately for Joellie, her parents weren't there. And, as always, it was back to work for the naga. There was a small concert that was being given by the community orchestra out in the park and Joellie was hurrying through lunch to get there on time.

She was in khakis and the green community orchestra T-shirt and her outrageaously curly hair was in twin braids today. Her cello sat next to her and part of the reason she was rushing through her meal was so that she could get her cello out of there as soon as possible. There was no telling what these people might accidentally do to it.

After she'd paid for her meal and rushed out of the establishment, she bothered to check her watch. Oh. She still had an hour to get there (keep in mind that when she thinks an hour till due time, the concert doesn't even begin for one and a half). Well now what was she going to do? She didn't want to have to go to the park early...

So now she's standing outside of the restaurant wondering what to do.

If she had something to do, he had nothing to do. He was willing to give anything to actually have something to do. Claire was walking without a purpose. Then again he wasn't walking, he was sauntering. Striding with an ego the size of a small planet, a characteristic smirk on his gorgeous face.

The elf was bored, obviously, cause there was a hint of 'ugh' in his face. Like someone who got frusterated not doing anything and gave up. His long auburn hair was put back in a braid, tied back with a pink ribbon. Speaking of pink, he looked really pink. He was clothed in pink everything. It was the new black after all, and thus he wore it.

'Sticks and Stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me, so throw me down, on the ground, and show me that you like me' was on his hot pink spandex like shirt, in bold white letters. The tank top was tight on his torso, showing of his finely toned body through shadows, it barely reached his pants and every now and then, lightly tanned skin was visible.

It was somewhat warm, but it was also cloudy, a nice thing. The breeze was also very nice, blowing his 'bangs' around. The rather baggy camoflauge pants, made up of different shades of pink and white, were held up by a spiked black belt, leather of course. His pants dragged on the ground, hems getting dirty and covering his hot pink All Stars.

There were several pounds of 'sex bracelets' on each wrist, pinks and whites of course. Two rings, one on each hand, one on the middle finger of his right hand was a simple platinum band while the one on the ring finger of his right hand was a ridiculously large pink topaz on a platinum band. He was stacking up on the bling, yo. A large leather choker was around his neck, black with spikes.

The accesories don't even end there, you haven't forgot about his piercings have you? Two oversized hoop earings dangling from his earlobes, platinum and just blinging with small pink gems decorating them. Lord knows how he can carry all of this on his face. Two simple platinum hooks in his left eyebrow and a small platinum hoop in his bottom lip. He stuck out his tongue, licking his lower lip and a pink stud was visible in the long muscle.

He was passing a resteraunt when he spotted a young woman, she was carrying a case. The case was something he could recognize it anywhere, after his hated ex-lover used to play that all the time. As he was practicaly right next to her he stopped.

"You play the cello?" His tone was simple, his voice was rather deep with honeyed tones. His mahogany eyes looked down at her over pink lensed sun glasses, if she didn't reply he'd just move on. She was cute, but too young, that was for sure.

She had decided to whip out her music and go over it again so it was laying on the top of her cello and the fingers from her left hand were dancing up and down the forearm of her right. She hadn't noticed when someone decided to stop next to her and she got understandably flustered when she heard a voice very near to her ear. When she jerked, her music became unbalanced and she reached out to catch it. She managed, but just barely.

"What?"

For a moment her skin was slightly scaley and one could almost make out the striped patterns of red and grey that made up her snake body. After a moment, however, it was gone and her heart beat a little faster. SHe didn't like it when that happened. Didn't like it at all.

Claire chewed on his gum for a moment, yes, he had popped some gum in his mouth. He blinked, sighed and looked back to her, he didn't mean to startle her. Swallowing some spit that built up in his mouth he shrugged, "Do you play the cello?"

He had caught the slight change in her skin but dissmissed it, she must be some sort of shape shifter or something. Sometimes when you startle them, they change into an animal or something. He lifted up his right hand, the one with the ridiculously sized gem and rubbed his nose. He wanted an orange.

He was having cravings again. Jeez, was he pregnant?

Maybe. Pregnancy would be funny, wouldn't it? Especially if he showed up on Alice's doorstep claiming to have born his child. But that's a different story.

In this story, Joellie gathered her bearings and, after a sip of her pulverized apples, looked up at Claire and answered with a solid yes. She put her music back in her bag and began to gather her cello.

"Do you play an instrument?"

That question always followed the first, for some reason.

That would be funny, and while it is, it is frankly impossible, a real darn, ne? Claire nodded, he was right, that was good. The nod quickly turned into a shake of the head.

"No, but I know someone who did, he also plays the bass."

He cocked his head, straigtening his sunglasses out. Maybe he over did decorating himself today. If he did, he didn't really care, he felt good and he knew he looked good. Meow.

"Really? Me..too..."

Yes, she'd caught sight of his wardrobe. Could anyone really stand that amount of pinkness without throwing up? Apparantly so, but maybe Claire was just special. Anyway, it was rude to stare so she brought her eyes back up to his face. She did feel like she now needed sunglasses, though.

"Ain't that funny? My guy likes to play them, but he rarely does in public..." He rubs his chin sagely, "Despite being the ham he can be, Alice is surprisingly quiet about things like that. Then again I haven't seen him in ten years so I never know."

He shrugged and grinned at her, "I like pink, kinda bright, aren't I?" He grinned lazily and shrugged. Looking down his glasses at her, Joellie might remember Alice's grin, Claire has the same one, mouth isn't as wide but he has the same one. Freaky, hm?

She took another drink from her bottle and almost choked on it. As it was, she almost spilled a good helping of apple juice on herself. Thankfully, it landed on the sidewalk rather than her shirt.

"Alice? No way, I know Alice! Well..I only met him once, but yeah! Wow, what a small world! You know for a second there you looked just like him.." not quite as jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but the expression was the same.

She was grinning from ear to ear now. She'd liked Alice...

Claire raised an eyebrow, "You mean he's here?" His face twisted into some sort of grimace but it quickly fell off his face, the expression wasn't pretty and it didn't look nice on his pretty face.

Claire could tell the girl liked her, once of those instinct things, ya know? It was hard not to like Alice, the guy was gorgeous, he was intelligent, and he was really good at sex. He hated fae but he had a very long affair with Claire, why even Claire didn't know. But he didn't mention that yet.

He simply shrugged, "Ya I know him, but I haven't seen him in ten years...I bet he still looks the same too." He smirked shaking his head, Alice had a gift of eternal beauty but he was still really young too, he had a long ways to go, hopefully his beauty would stay with him.

She noticed his expression, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Yeah, he probably does. I was surprised to hear how old he was though, geez. I've only been around family for different people like that," of course, meaning species, "and we're just, you know, um..nagas..So there's not much to compare to." She hadn't said her species quietly so as not to arouse suspicion, but because, quite frankly, she was frightened by her own race. Yes. She was scared of snakes.

Another hasty drag from her trusty apple juice bottle and she was ready to move back onto a more pleasant topic, namely: Alice.

He shook his head, his long wavy bangs swining back and worth, "For you, no, for me, possibly...he wants to kill me...it's very difficult to understand at this point. We were really close but when our relationship came to an end, shit hit the fan and instead of being going friends (or at least admitting we know eachother) we want to kill eachother. Well, I just want him to be humiliated when I think about it. Much more satisfying."

Claire snorted when she mentioned his age, "That is young when you get out in the Innish world-" He leaned down slightly, he wasn't as tall as Alice, standing at five foot eleven inches, "-I'm 348 years old."

He rubbed his chin, leaning back up, he'd never met a naga actually, in all his life he'd never met this one. She seemed really timid too. He sniffed and shrugged, "I don't know how long Angels live though...hell, the last time I checked I don't even remember how long elves live." He stood there, hand on hip, blinking for a few moments before shaking his head.

"First things first, I'm Claire, what's your name love?" He needed her first name and then they would go on to talk about 'Alice'. I'm sure there are parts about him she doesn't need to hear. Definetley sure.

As long as we're talking 'things she doesn't need to hear,' she would have prefered not to hear the manner in which they left their relationship. If they were all unnish, she could certainly understand. However, knowing that they were, in fact, not human and therefore had different tendencies, Joellie knew that they were probably very serious about killing one another. Or at the very least maiming. And at 348 and 127 years old, they probably knew a thing or two about harm.

...Come to think of it, Joellie didn't even know how long nagas lived...she never asked her parents her age and with how many aunts and uncles and cousins she had, who's to say one of them might not be a grandparent? The thought was a strange and confusing one, so she put it away for now.

She held her hand out so they could shake hands properly, "I'm Joellie, nice to meet you." Appropriate, yes, but not really fitting.

He nodded, taking her hand in a surprisingly firm grip, "Nice to meet you Joellie, very funny too."

He tucked some hair behind his ears, the wind had picked up and nearly blew his gum out of his mouth. He made a face when a group of loud young men went running by, hooting and whistling and making loud noise. Annoying dipshits. He shook his head with a sigh, looking back up to her.

"I take it you want to know at least something about Alice?"

"What's funny?" she cocked her head to the side, "Oh! That we both know Alice? Yes, it is." She was also a little slow on the uptake, sometimes.

As for the annoying boys, she'd pretty much learned to ignore people like them. There was no use in getting herself involved in people who never planned to listen.

Did she really want to know things about Alice? Well, there wasn't much that she could think of at the moment, only having had a brief conversation with Alice once before. On that note, why not start with something easy?

"Umm...alright, fine. What's his favorite color?" She halfway laughed at herself for such a stupid inquiry.

Typical females. Start with something that is so simple, thus making it nearly impossible to remember. Claire pursed his lips, thinking for a moment. He grinned and snapped his fingers.

"He likes blues. Preferably pale ones with a silver hint." He removed his large pink sunglasses for a moment, rubbing his eye before slipping them back on with a shrug, waiting for the next question.

"Wow, I didn't expect such a specific answer. And after ten years you can still remember this?"

That must have been one serious affair. That comment was left unspoken.

Claire shrugged, "It may take a little to remember but I have yet to truly forget anything. Now, any other questions?"

He grinned, the wind was picking up and dying down. Some more juvenile delinquents ran by them hooting and Claire's legs was accidently in the way so oe of the kids went flying.

Claire raised an eyebrow elegantly and shook his head with a snort, "Dipshits." The boy was getting up with help from his heads, none of them tried to get near Claire though. They were seeing something that wasn't there and ended turning and running away.

"Nothing that I can think of. I didn't really get to talk to him for very long, he just walked me home..." then she remembered the wings, "!! Have you ever flown with him before?!"

Because really, she found that soooooo cool.

He smiled, a real smile actually, it went well his face, it was a smashingly beautiful smile. Flying was his favorite memory. He nodded.

"Aye, I did, it was probably my favorite thing about him. He loves flying so much too, especially at night. For a bastard, he could get somewhat sentimental at times."

Claire certainly was pretty, but as far as Joellie was concerned Alice was still by far the most handsome...if he could be called handsome...

She smiled at her own memory. Alice certainly did seem to enjoy it and he was damn beautiful up in the night air.

"Figuratively or literally?"

Because she'd have to defend him if Claire were speaking figuratively.

Claire shrugged, "It depends on when you meet him, considering your aren't terrified of him nor do you hate his guts, you must have met him at night, when he was tired, after he finished his schedule."

He scratched his nose, shrugging. Meh. Alice was gorgeous but even he can't use those looks to get away with things after a while.

"So he's not nice?"

That threw her off--reeeaaally threw her. The first comment about their apparent hatred for each other was bad enough and now Claire's implying that she didn't meet Alice's normal self. He didn't seem like a bad person...she really didn't want to think of him as a bad person. She'd liked him too much before for that to be something she'd accept. It wasn't just his looks. He'd been kind and pleasant to talk to.

Claire shook his head, "No, he can be really nice, but he can be a total bitch too. Then again, I'm an ex of his and everyhting I say about him is horrible simply because of that, right?" His tone was a little sarcastic but he simply sighed and shook his head.

"Sorry about that...Alice can be really nice but he is like a pregnant woman, upset him and he will hurt you, in one way or another...and really moody too. Ugh."

He made a face, that was why he stuck with older women, they were generally easier to understand. He liked young guys though, but he isn't a cradle robber, no younger than 17, he swore that after Kaylee. He rested his hands on his hips, "Anymore questions? Surely there must be something you really want to know."

Well of course there was something that she really wanted to know. However, it was embarrassing enough thinking it why would she have to--

"Is he free?"

--admit it, too? Damn it, did that really leave her mouth? Well, Claire, be prepared for the most interesting shade of red you've ever seen. It's not just one color. Oh no, that'd be too easy. Being a naga, being her time of the month and being 'scared' that she'd just asked that; her blush was in the interesting patten of her snake-like self. There wasn't too much of a difference but it would probably be apparant to Claire seeing as he already knows what to look for.

"Sorry, I mean--you wouldn't--it's not like you'd really know the answer to that anyway..." Oh boy. She really feels like she's up the creek without a paddle. And it's a really embarrassing creek.

Claire couldn't help it, a grin formed over his face and he chuckled. "Is he free?" Phht, depends on what you mean by free.

He pursed his lips, giving a wave of a hand, "I really don't know, he may or may not be. Alice is like me, very fickle, our relationships can last a long time or a few days, he may be in one right now but tommorow he is out of it. I can't say I know."

He shrugged, "Sorry hon, anything else?" He felt like laughing but the poor dear looked mortified enough as it was.

Joellie was one who fled from bad situations. Thus, she was gathering her cello onto her back and preparing to leave. She could be a very open and friendly person when times called for it, just not if she thought there would be some negative--really negative--effect on her side of things. This counted as a very bad thing. Very negative. So she was preparing to run away.

"Um..no, that's ok, um."

Which way was the park again?

"Nice to meet you and all.."

She was speaking hurredly as if that was going to get her out of there any sooner. But it didn't help her remember which way to go so despite having seeminly ended the conversation with Claire, she was still standing there next to him, looking vaguely in any and all directions.

"Nice to meet you too."Claire raised an eyebrow, if this was how all nagas acted he didn't think they'd be very good drinking partners. He rubbed his nose and bent next to her, pointing to her left.

"You can take that way to get to the park..." She was standing still though, he fought off an urge to push her to see if she falls over like a statue.

No. Not all nagas were like her. In fact, she was the very slim minority. None of the rest of her family was this uptight. About anything.

"Yeah thanks, sorry..."

She shook her head and headed off in the direction of the park, her skin still as red as her hair.

And if he had pushed her, she would have hit him because he'd have pushed over her cello case as well. That was the one area she wasn't shy about. Touch her cello and die. Seriously. She had people guard it if she left the room without it.

She dodged traffic across the street and turned and did all this other stuff that got her to the park. The point is that she got there and she was still flushed over her performance outside the diner.

Claire snapped. He was bent over laughing, just laughing his throat out. This little episode had raised his mood slightly, it was a good thing he found out Alice was here. He didn't want to be surprised. But he was quickly surprised when someone smacked his ass. He flung himself back up and whipped around to find himself staring into the eyes of someone very familiar...

"Hello Kaylee." Claire grinned at the other, who was also grinning, and dressed in practically the same outfit, save for the fact the his was white, silver, and grey. He chuckled and shook his head, "Females today, eh Kaylee?"

Kaylee stuck his tongue out, "I know! They are so confusing, ugh, it drives me up the wall sometimes." The younger one wrapped his arm around Claire's shoulder, he was taller than Claire, much to the elder's annoyance, but it suited them fine.

Claire wrapped his arm around the waist of his tall companion, "I'm hungry, let's go eat." Kaylee grinned and nodded, "Yea, I'm like, totally starved. This place is fine."

Claire grinned, "Just what I was thinking." And both of them walked up and into the building, looking like divas. Er, male divas.