[Club Gambit] So The Devil Will Know Who Sent You

It had taken Samael more than three weeks of being together with Draven, and about three days of gentle, but constant, coaxing to get his job out of a reluctant hell-hound. Samael couldn't understand why it had taken him so long though. Well, technically, he could, for something like that wasn't generally wildly accepted, but the boy had thought that his boyfriend knew him good enough by now to know that he would find it interesting rather than disgusting. Having grown up dealing with troubled people because of his power, Samael had long learned to accept things much worse than a bit of stripping, but this wasn't just about that. This was about Draven and was egzotic, and he wanted to see it, see him move with the music, trying to charm a room full of people, which was why he was now sitting where he was sitting, waiting for the show to start. He thought that he would be content with seeing what he could with his way of observing the world, however as the music started, he felt something he didn't often feel: irritation at his lack of true sight. He could see Draven's figure at the stage, moving and dancing, ripping his shirt off, but he couldn't differentiate much more, the other man being too far to enhance his power like he usually did. Gritting his teeth a bit, Samael sighed, trying to calm down his irritation so he could at least enjoy the part of the show that he could see. And to do that, he instinctively, without much thought, reached for Draven through the Connection, as concentrating on the other man always made him forget his own emotions for a bit.

And as he did that, a huge smile immediately found its way to his face, for the only emotion he could currently feel from the other man was happy, something he, unfortunately, didn't get to feel that often. Draven obviously loved his job, and passionately at that, so for a moment, instead of concentrating at the show he couldn't see anyway and was irritating him, he concentrated on the flow of happiness that he could feel from the other man, which was more than enough of a reason for coming here for him.

It was ‘Animal Day’ for the servers at Club Gambit, which meant cute little animal ears and fluffy tails abound. A lot of the women opted for the classy ‘cat girl’ look or other cutesy animals while the guys usually leaned toward wilder animals like wolves and…more wolves. A lot of the guys were into the wolf thing for some reason.

Bunny, unsurprisingly was…a bunny! And she was quite the bunny: She had on her classic bunny ears, her long pink hair pulled into two cute fluffy ponytails, and her body was clad in nothing but a little white furry bikini. Needless to say she was pretty popular that night. For the time being, however, she was temporarily working the bar and thus unavailable to sit and chat with clients.

Yura was also at the bar, sipping a glass of water as she watched Draven’s performance.

“I’m still not sure how I feel about his routine…should I really allow burlesque performances?” Yura murmured. She wanted her club to be ‘sexy’, but a classy sexy. Was this ‘too much’?

“You’re just not feeling it because he’s a boy,” Bunny said with a giggle as she mixed a fruity drink. “If that were a girl up there, you’d be thrilled.”

Yura let out a sigh because she knew Bunny was right. If Draven was a woman up there on stage, Yura wouldn’t be questioning it. Besides, Draven was drawing attention to the club—and really that was more important than her personal preferences. One look around her club showed that he had an audience—and anyone who didn’t really want to watch a guy strip could easily enjoy the company of the female servers instead. The balance of male and females was a good choice—even if Yura originally just wanted her club filled with beautiful women.

Soon one of the servers came over to switch shifts with Bunny, meaning she was back to waiting tables. She came around the bar and quickly hugged Yura from behind.

“Oh Yura, I know you wanted to make a big ol’ lady harem all for yourself,” she said, as if reading the other’s mind, “but the way the club is now is perfect!”

“Yeah yeah,” Yura murmured nonchalantly, patting Bunny on the head. “Go wait some tables. Someone was just seated at table 9.”
With a nod, Bunny let go and hopped off to grab a menu and give whoever was at table 9 a big enthusiastic welcome.

“Welcome to Club Gambit! I’ll be your server, Bu-“

Or at least that was the plan until she got there and froze. Was that Wong? That was Wong. Why was Wong in Club Gambit?! Wong was the LAST person she’d expect to see in the club!

“…nny. Ahaha…Wong! Hello…” she said with a big, embarrassed grin. No, seriously, why?! There was just something so terribly awkward about seeing someone she knew at the club that wasn’t aware that she worked there. And of all outfits she could have been wearing, she was in the fur bikini…!

“Fancy seeing you here, ahahaha!” Bunny tried to keep the tone light, but she could not stop with that damn awkward laugh. Somehow this seemed more awkward then usually—maybe because Wong knew her as Lydia AND Bunny? Somehow that made her more nervous than if he only knew her as one identity…

Ania crept slowly into the club. She had asked to become a performer there, and only recently got the job. She still felt a little timid in the new environment, unused to being in such a setting. A man was already dancing up on stage, and she thought she could recognise him a little.

Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she slid discreetly into a small corner booth, close to where a woman in a furry suit was talking to a man. Huddling up in her little seat, Ania was drawn to the way the man on stage danced, the way he seemed to naturally flow along with the music. It was an odd song, one she didn't expect to see someone dance along to. He made it work, though, and slowly her mind connected the face to a name. Draven, she had met him when he first came here. That was an awkward meeting, to say the least. He did look good up there, though...
Trying to catch the eye of a server, Ania wriggled up in her seat a little, wanting to ask a few more questions before throwing herself completely into the club scene.

Well aware of the fact that as somebody who was still just eighteen, and as such, under age, he wasn't really supposed to be in the Club, Samael flinched a little every time one of the servers would pass him by, moving a step to the side to avoid them, as he was still standing up, refusing to sit down as then he wouldn't really be able to avoid anybody. The girl who hat let him into the club so he could watch Draven perform tonight had been incredibly nice and he didn't want to get her, or himself really, because he could only imagine what his father would say, into trouble. If that meant avoiding people who worked here at all cost for the rest of the night, that was what he was going to do. However, he didn't really want to waste the chance that he had been given, as he was pretty sure he wouldn't manage to sneak into the club again, not until he was twenty-one at least, which was far too long to wait to see Draven move as he was moving now, so for a moment, he stopped and tried focusing on what his boyfriend was doing at the stage more properly.

He knew that he couldn't see all of it, not the way that it was meant to be seen with his eyes not working and all, the world nothing but a blur of messy lines for him, especially in the club where there was so many people moving around, and that still irritated him to no end, however what he could see as he was now still gave him a sense of thrill and enjoyment, though at the moment, he wasn't sure if that were his own feelings or the echo of Draven's own happiness. In the end, he didn't really care though as, whichever it was, it didn't change the fact that he really couldn't help a huge smile on his face as he focused on Draven spinning around on the stage, his...he guessed it was a cape...floating around him, a sound of music strong in his ears along with the sound effect of a simulated swordplay, the clothes falling, the sword (he had to guess again, but he was pretty sure it was a sword) flying through the air and...

He tried to follow all of it. He wanted with burning passion to follow the routine to the end as he was really more than enjoying it, the sound, the feel, the way Draven was feeling, everything. However, at some point, it all turned to be a bit too much for him. The sound, the movements, the atmosphere in the club, it was overwhelming him, and he couldn't really focus on anything any more, feeling more dizzy than he could ever remember feeling. He tried staying up on his feet and ignoring the feeling, thinking it would go away if he took a few deep breaths so he could watch the rest of the Draven's dance, but that wasn't the case. His dizziness got worse by the second no matter how hard he tried to push it away, and soon, he was falling back onto something and pressing a hand to his eyes in reflex, though he knew it wouldn't really help. Everything was still there, and was just as overwhelming.

The wood under his hand felt familiar, though, even in the mist of all that confusion, and as he turned around for a bit, he saw that he was standing in front of the bar, despite all the promises, and the attempts to stay away from it. He must have in his moving around to avoid the servers ended up closer to it than he thought. This wasn't good.

One look at Wong and Bunny knew that he was really not okay. How did he even end up here? She knew this was not the kind of place he would want to be. Maybe he wandered in by accident and felt too awkward to leave? Certainly wouldn’t be the first time that happened to someone—but usually she could turn those situations around and make the experience fun for the other person pretty easily.

She realized it wasn’t going to be so easy with Wong when he suddenly burst into tears.

“Oh…oh dear…” Bunny said as Wong suddenly started apologizing to her as if he had done something horribly wrong. Wong was in a total panic, but she couldn’t let herself do the same. She had to help! There was no way she could just leave him there in that state, so she suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled him from the table.

“Come with me!” she said to him as she quickly rushed him through the club. When she passed by the bar, she noticed Samual out of the corner of her eye and oh crap why was he at the bar?! She told him to not go to the bar! And Yura was right there! But Wong was her priority right now, so she could only hope that Samuel didn’t get himself in trouble.

Bunny quickly brought Wong into the servers’ dressing room, which luckily was empty. She led him to a chair to sit down and let out a small sigh of relief.

“Alright, we’re out of the crowd and away from everyone—that’s better, right?” she asking him, giving him a small reassuring smile.

“Do you need anything?” she asked, leaning over to get eye level with him. “Water? Something cold to put on your forehead?”

Then she glanced down briefly and realized just how much cleavage was right in front of Wong’s face—which was probably not helping matters. Woops.

“…Do you need me to put on a shirt?” she said as she bolted up with an awkward laugh. “Let me go put something on…”

She hurried over to a rack of various clothes and costumes, and pulled on a lab coat that she typically worse for Sexy Nurses and Doctors Day. But today, she would use it to un-sexy herself a little as she buttoned the coat up completely.

“Alright, well, looks like I’m Doctor Bunny~” she said as she went back over to Wong and knelt in front of him. She gently placed one of her hands on his.

“You’ll be okay, hun. Just try to take some deep breaths…”

((just skip me ok)) ill delete when voodoo replies

With a nod, Bunny went over to fill up a cup of water from the water cooler kept in the dressing room. Gosh, poor Wong—she felt really bad for him. She wondered if he’d recover more easily if she were ‘Lydia’ instead of ‘Bunny’—but it’s not like she could just change in the club. It would cause too much confusion for ‘Bunny’ to just disappear, and for Wong to learn that Lydia and Bunny were one in the same would just…probably make things a whole lot worse. So, she would have to make do as Bunny.

In a furry bikini no less she thought to herself with a sigh. But, she would just have to do her best to help calm Wong down.

Bunny put a sweet smile back on her face as she brought the cup of water over to Wong and handed it to him.

“Here you go. You just stay in here as long as you need to! And when you’re feeling better, I can sneak you out a back way so you don’t have to go through the crowd again, alright?” she said, gesturing to a door which led to backstage, which in turn would lead to an exit behind the building.

It seemed as if on cue that, as soon as Bunny mentioned the back way, the door suddenly slammed open. Bunny nearly jumped out of her skin as she whirled around. Standing in the doorway was a very tall woman with an intimidating look on her face. She wore a silky black dress, with a large animal pelt wrapped around her waist.

“J-Jin! Was that really necessary?” Bunny said with a sigh of relief when she realized who it was. Though it wasn’t a complete relief…Jin wasn’t exactly the ideal person to be around while she was trying to calm Wong down.

“Sorry, Bun-Bun,” Jin said, her expression immediately lightening up as she closed the door behind her. Right away, Jin’s curiosity prompted her to approach Bunny and glance over her at Wong.

“Ahaha…what brings you here, Jin?” Bunny asked, trying to keep the mood light while Wong was still trying to calm himself down--but Jin was basically staring the guy down and it was NOT helping. Even when she tried to block Jin’s view of Wong a little, Jin would just shift to continue staring at Wong.

“I’m going to get into Yura’s pants—what else?” Jin replied before gesturing to Wong. “Who’s the pink-haired guy? You guys have matching hair. Is he your boyfriend?”

Bunny let out a nervous laugh. “What? I uh um…we are friends…” Her cheeks started to flush nearly as bright as her hair. She glanced over at Wong and mouthed a quick little ‘sorry’. As she briefly turned away, Jin suddenly wrapped her arms around Bunny’s shoulders and basically draped herself on top of the slightly shorter girl to get a better look at Wong. Jin peered at him as if deep in thought.

“Well, you should consider it. Or at least consider sex,” Jin said with a sage nod—as if she had just said something really important and profound. Bunny, of course, only felt embarrassment and buried her burning red cheeks into her hands.

“Jin, stoooop—you’re so embarrassing…” Bunny whimpered.

“I love watching you get all flustered,” Jin said in a sultry voice as she tilted her head and suddenly gave Bunny’s ear a little bite. Jin laughed as Bunny let out a yelp and she finally let the pink-haired girl out of her grasp.

“Anyway, I’m going to go find Yura. Later babe,” Jin said with a wave of her hand before she headed out into the club.

Bunny let out a huge sigh of relief as Jin left, before turning around to Wong. Poor Wong—she brought him into the dressing room to get him away from people, only to have someone like Jin barge in and make everything even more awkward.

“Um, that was one of the owner’s friends. She is…interesting…” Bunny squeaked out. God she could only hope Jin wouldn’t come back in to ‘inspect’ Wong some more. At least the Selkie usually had a fairly short attention span…

“Um, yeah, I’m sorry about her…is there anything else I can do to help you feel better?”


-
As Yura took a sip of water at the bar, she noticed the young man approach the bar beside her. He seemed kind of dazed—Yura assumed maybe he had been drinking. She had no idea that Bunny had allowed Samuel, who was underage, to sneak in and watch Draven perform for a while. She had noticed him before though…

“Hey, excuse me,” Yura spoke up, trying to get Samuel’s attention. “I noticed you watching Draven’s performance earlier. Do you enjoy performances like this?”

Yura was still not entirely confident about hiring male burlesque dancers, so maybe an outside opinion would help enlighten her on the appeal of a performance such as Draven’s. Before she could explain why she was questioning Samuel, however, she suddenly felt a weight on her back that practically pressed her down into the bar.

“Jin,” Yura growled under her breath. She didn’t have to see to know it was Jin. Only Jin was ballsy enough to just suddenly grab her out of nowhere.

“Mhmm,” Jin replied with a big, mischievous grin as she wrapped her arms around Yura’s waist. “Can I carry you into your office for sex?”

“Of course not,” Yura said as she pulled Jin’s arms away from her and sat back up. “I’m working.”

Jin let out a loud, annoyed sigh. “Boring. Not even for a little bit?”

Yura ignored Jin’s plea. She was about to turn back to Samual, but out of the corner of her eye, she happened to spot Ania seated a few tables away. She pulled an envelope from her coat pocket and handed it to Jin.

“Do me a favor—give this paycheck to the girl sitting over there.”

“Why should I?” Jin asked with a huff.

“Because if you want to come home with me tonight—you’ll do what I ask.”

Jin scowled, but took the envelope and headed Ania’s way.

“Like a trained dog,” Yura said to herself before turning back to Samuel. That would hopefully keep Jin away and not begging for sex for a little while, at least.

“Anyway, as I was saying…” Yura continued, as if Jin had never even interrupted them, “I don’t feel I am the best judge when it comes to male performers. Would you say Draven is good at what he does?“

Jin wasn’t happy about being sent on Yura’s little ‘duties’, but she could manage to at least be somewhat cooperative if it meant going home with Yura later that night. So, she headed right over to the girl Yura had pointed out to her.

“Heeeey babe,” Jin said as she approached Ania’s table. She realized in that moment that was really into calling people ‘babe’ for some reason and she wasn’t exactly sure why…

She placed the envelope containing Ania’s paycheck down on the table and slid it toward the girl.

“Yura wanted me to give this to you, so there you go.”

Once she slid the envelope as close as she could, Jin leaned her body down and rested her elbows on the table. She kept her head propped up on her fists as she took a long, curious look at the girl.

“I think I’ve seen you perform before. You smell familiar. What was the name—Ana? No, Ania?”