Last Friday Night, tag: drez

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

So...maybe she shouldn't have taken that last shot of distilled whatever the hell it was-- something foreign sounding, though given the present state she was in, everything sounded like it was in a foreign tongue to her booze soaked ears. And, in turn, every man she came across was at least ten times hotter than they would have been while she was sober. Oooh, ale goggles were great for lowering personal standards.

Yeah.

Yohana was wasted.

So what?

It was her first night off from working in her tavern in about a month since she'd begun her employment there. Naturally, she had to spend that free evening scoping out the competition on a pub crawl with the girls she shared a little house with. Was it smart? No. Was it safe, considering some psychopath was prowling the city streets? Absolutely not. But was it fun? Yes. And that's all that mattered when she'd gone out earlier.

Unfortunately for her, the pack of young women she'd left with had summarily ditched her during the course of the night, whether it was in favor of the company of a gentleman caller, or simply to turn in earlier because they had work in the morning, or blah, blah, some excuse for being a lightweight wimp. Hana, on the other hand, was determined to keep going, until she simply couldn't.

That was the point she'd reached about five minutes ago. Which left her stumbling down the street, shitfaced, and pretty much alone in the dark streets of Maristheum. Except she wasn't, because as she reached the end of the block while heading in the direction she guessed was home, there was a man-shaped...man, standing in the pool of light cast by a nearby lamp.

"Hellooooo?" she called out, staggering toward him. Maybe he could help her find her way back. Yes. That was a great plan.

[Andrezi Damask]

Jaraei had taken Drez drinking, because apparently he figured it would be entertaining.

He left disappointed.

You see, Drez could physically get drunk, but he just never did. He had a strong tolerance for alcohol, and therefore didn't bother drinking most of the time because it didn't do as much as he would have liked. He'd had two drinks and then told Zaman that he was done. There was protest, but eventually he gave up trying to get him down another drink.

Then Drez left.

He was walking casually (which for Damasks was the same as their formal, or offical walk) before he stopped in the light of a streetlamp, mostly to decide what exactly he would be doing with himself, since he wasn't tir3d enough to go to bed, and he certainly wasn't going to waste any more time drinking.

That was when he heard the voice of a woman, clearly drunk, calling to him.

Yeah, that was smart. Call to the strange man in the middle of the street, at night, with no one else around.

He rolled his eyes and turned to her. "Hello. Are you all right?" He called back, moving toward her.

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

"I...am...great," she said as loud as she could manage, though breathing and walking (staggering) all at the same time took a lot of concentration. "Thaaanks for asking!"

Oh, good, he was heading in her direction. They could meet halfway, though at this rate he'd go three-quarters of the length at his own much steadier pace before she actually managed to catch up. And then, if he was a gentleman, and she assumed he was, because he'd inquired about her well-being, he would behave appropriately and be a human crutch the rest of the way. Or just freakin' carry her. That would be sweet.

He looked like he had the arms to manage it, now that she could see him better. He wasn't some beanpole. And he was tall. And dark. And...handsome. Maybe? He was backlit, obscuring his features, but she assumed he was good looking. Yes. Striking. Even with those ears. Or maybe those were the best part. Yohana grinned, even more motivated to get to him.

And then, not seeing the patch of black ice on the dirt ahead of her, because it was black, she slipped.

[Andrezi Damask]

He was walking slowly, carefully. Drunk girls were... well. They weren't exactly shy. And, although Drez didn't mind attractive women, he did not much appreciate wandering hands.

They were annoying.

He was getting closer when suddenly she slipped. He lurched forward and caught her by the wrist, inadvertently pulling her toward him in the process. Right up against him, as a matter of fact.

He cleared his throat. "Are you... all right?" He acknowledged the fact that probably he was going to be asking her that a lot.

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

She was already about to mourn the loss of her perfect face, as it was surely going to smash against the frozen ground hard, when she found her fall suspended and redirected. Instead of landing on dirt, her cheek came to rest against something less hard, but still relatively firm -- the man's chest. She wondered what he did for a living to be so ripped. He smelled clean enough, still manly, but not like animals, like the shepherds she knew.

Hana was still marveling at his strength, and the ease with which he'd caught her, when she heard his voice again. Didn't he just ask her that? Was he stuck on a loop or something?

She tilted her head up, slowly, because moving any quicker might have made her terribly dizzy, bracing her free palm against his shoulder. There were still a few inches between them, but they were face to face now. His features weren't exactly symmetrical, and his nose was a little broad, but he wasn't sore on the eyes and had good bone structure.

"You are a life saver," she gasped in awe, beaming at her new personal hero.

[Andrezi Damask]

This woman was a nutcase.

That is what Drez had decided.

"Right, then," he said, making sure she was steady. "I take it I'm walking you home, then, too?" Because obviously he wouldn't be able to get away that easily. Nothing for Drez was that easy. Nothing in Escova was that easy.

Thus, he assumed he would be walking her home.

It was usually how these things went.

Besides all of that, though, this woman was not going to make it home on her own. It was the right thing to do.

Ugh.

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

Hana straightened as best she could, one arm still slung over his shoulder, though she couldn't quite reach all the way.

She heard the words 'walk', 'you', and 'home', and was even more delighted to have come across him. It didn't even occur to her that he could possibly be less than the upstanding citizen he appeared to be, and secretly planning to rob her house (or worse) once she led him straight to her door. Man, she was lucky he was not that kind of guy.

"Ooooh yessss..." she crooned, "Take me home! Please? Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank. You." She lifted her index finger and gave him a tap on the nose with the last word.

[Andrezi Damask]

Yes.

Nutcase.

Or just incredibly drunk. See, Drez had a buzz from the small amount that he drank, but he certainly wasn't... well, he wasn't anywhere near as bad as she was, anyway.

For a minute, he stood, holding the majority of her weight because gods forbid she hold herself up. "You're going to have to tell me tell me the way," he pointed out. It was odd. He was sort of looking forward to this walk to her home, even though she was out of her mind. She was amusing, even by his standards.

Which were high, by the way. Drez did not amuse easily.

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

Hana stared at him, into the inky pools of his dark eyes, puzzled. Tell him the way?

Why would he offer to walk her when he didn't even know where they were going? He should have known these things! What kind of escort was he? Then she remembered: she wasn't on Ilia, and she wasn't a Baron's daughter anymore. It was like her sister said, before she was set to sail to the big island: you can't expect people to wait on you hand and foot anymore, Hana. You'll have to learn to take charge and do things yourself.

Okay. She could try that. She tried to turn to gather her bearings, which, on her clumsy feet (about as coordinated as a newborn lamb), forced her to lean against the man even harder. She swung, and he would have to compensate for the shift in her weight.

Surveying the buildings, she pursed her lips together in thought. "Hmmm..." Hana turned again, back the other way, hair whipping in the wind. "So. Uhhh... Is it just me, orrr...does every street in this city look exactly the same?"

[Andrezi Damask]

He waited for her to understand. When she did, then she started flailing and he braced himself on his leg to compensate. Then she whipped her head and he got a face full of hair.

It smelled nice, though, if that counted for anything.

"I think that's just you," he said, unapologetic. "Do you know what you live near?" He knew the city rather well, and he might be able to find it based on landmarks or shops or something that she lived near.

Yeah, like it would be that easy.

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

Hana's expression fell. Well, lower than it had already sunk. She was distinctly frowning, brow drawn together. "Nothing. At all. Well, there's trees. Lots and lots of trees. And a garden. And bees. But that's why I left, 'cause there was nothin' there, and everyone was so quiet, and it was boooor-ing..."

A monastery. They made her go to a monastery! What a stupid place!

She blinked. Because, oh, that's right, she didn't live there anymore. "Oh. You mean 'round here?"

Yes, duh. In this city. Where she lived. For almost two months now. If she could blush, she would have, but it was hard to see in the dark, and her cheeks were already rosy from being bitten by the cold. And now, under pressure to think, it was practically impossible to recall what was even in her neighborhood.

"I. Um." She shook her head.

[Andrezi Damask]

The corner of his lips twitched a little, which was typically as close to a smile as he came. She was really drunk. It was entertaining, he had to admit.

"It's cold, so let's walk," he suggested, starting to do so, arm around her waist to hold her up, in case she decided to collapse from sheer drunkenness. He hoped she wouldn't, because then he would probably be carrying her. And he would have absolutely no direction to go. "Maybe you'll recognize something."

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

She hadn't even noticed it was cold out until he mentioned it, a shiver running through her, head to toe. But he was warm, and that was nice. She pressed even closer, conforming her slimmer figure to his, head on his shoulder.

"Okay, good idea," she agreed amicably, though it wasn't as if she had much of a choice. He'd already taken the first step. Then another. Looking at his feet helped her figure out where to place her own. They were walking. "Let's do that, Sir—" she paused, "Uh. Sir...whassyername?"

He had to be a Sir, of course. He was her knight in...perfectly average clothing. They didn't even look like they were made of fine materials. She reached up to feel the fabric, and, incidentally, caressed the place below his collarbone.

[Andrezi Damask]

OOC: God I love this woman.

"Andrezi," he said, as he always did when asked to introduce himself. He never introduced himself as Drez, mostly because it didn't sound like a name. If ever someone wanted something shorter to call him, and tried something like Andy, then he told them to call him Drez. "And I'm not a knight. Just a soldier."

Then she was... touching him. He wasn't normally rude, so he wouldn't say anything unless it got out of hand. Instead he just raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her.

"And your name?" he asked, because that was the polite thing to do when meeting new people, even if he had no desire to know their name. In this case, though, he cared at least a little bit.

Listen she was pretty, alright?

[Yohana zu Heltzer]

It was some sort of rougher spun material. Wool? Not high grade, like the kind from home. But then, as he said he wasn't a knight, that made perfect sense. A knight would have silk or some fine leather. And, well, he probably wouldn't be out here, with the peasants. He'd be up in a fancy gentleman's establishment in High Town, with all the hoity-toity girls, the kind she used to be, the ones who didn't know how to have a good time.

He was a soldier, though, and that was good, too. A man of honor! Or...close enough. At least he-- Andrezi, she could remember that, could protect her. Andrezi. What a fantastic name! He wanted hers, next. Fair enough.

"Yo--" she started to say, and then remembered the promise she made to herself. Even absolutely hammered, she knew she wasn't supposed to tell anyone about her secret. She finished, "Hana. Just...Hana."