ICARUS BAR: '72

2

They stood, three days later, at the entrance of Icarus. Ready to face the truth even if it might break them.

Angel, though she only did this for her own amusement, felt as if she had a part after the many hours of planning fused with laughter.

She hadn't expected Elaine Fervena to be as loose as she was in the time Angel had known her and even as Elaine refuted all mentions of difference in personality to the minuscule fact of taking up the role of Eliza Arnold, Angel knew that this was the real Elaine.

As they entered the bar, the man with ember eyes lounged casually on a back couch. He stared at Elaine, eyes playful, wondering if she would come today. Elaine noticed his gaze and whispered to Angel that as Carlin was her duty, Elaine would be introduced as a friend.

Angel nodded but soon recognized the reason that her bright friend walked away was a man. A man with bright bronze eyes, staring at Angel now, wondering if she would be a threat.

Elaine's heart beat fast. Faster than what was healthy, faster than what was normal. She wondered why that was, why was it that this man, with his eyes, made her heart beat like this when she had only seen him once before?

Why, when all the men of the upper class couldn't even bring a smile to her gentle face, was it that this man could?

Elaine's thoughts were the type of thing that her mother would tell her to not think about. She'd always disagreed with Mother and made snide comments whenever she was with a potential suitor that was sure to embarrass her.

Her mother hated the fact that her daughter wouldn't keep a man and raged at most times.

A gentle hand on her forehead pulled her out of her thoughts. And when she instinctively reacted, bronze-shaded eyes stared back, in shock and a multitude of other things. Elaine tried to make an apology but only a weird jumble of words came out. He smiled, a genuine one. One that lit up his whole face. Then he turned his head and mumbled, "a woman has never hit me before."

his eyes turned back to her, bright and all the more consuming. "Why did you have to do that? Wounded my pride!" Elaine gasped, she wondered if this was the same man who stared at her with a reverence that day? That man was much more like a devil in disguise, compared to this childish angel. Her gasps soon turned into a burst of laughter and the man soon started to grin.

"Do you laugh like this in front of everyone?" Her laughing stilled at his tone of voice. "Love."