[center]Loom[/center]
[center]Night[/center]
[center]Themerlinhawk & Grin[/center]

Ian took a sip from the beer sitting on the piano next to him as he changed sets. The night had been a great change of pace since he’d spent so much time at the academy lately. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and winced it strung still. While he didn’t have black eye his left cheek still bore a mark. He switched over to more of the classic Irish tunes as most of the band had dipped so he lacked the backing for more of the Irish rock.

“Um...Excuse me?” The familiar sweet voice bore recognition in Ian. “I’m looking for Ian..Snyder?” Someone pointed to the direction of the boy, a familiar lass in a simple ivory crop top and skinny jeans beaming when she achieved of his location. “I found you--” Iris paused when she heard him playing a nice tune, and, out of the dearest respect she took a nearby seat next to a rather grumpy man who isn’t holding his whiskey well. Her wide-eyed expression remained locked on Ian. She then squirmed around in her seat, trying to get comfortable with the unusual formalities of the bar. 
 
Ian almost lost the tune as he recognized Iris entering the bar. What the hell was she doing here? why was he looking for him? His fingers flashed along the flute as he continued through Raggle Taggle Gypsy. Maybe she would leave if he ignored her. He kept going and then switched into step it out Mary without stopping. The bartender gave him a weird look. Normally he stopped and took requests. His arms and knuckles sported new bruises. Not from the fight. He’d destroyed another wooden dummy recently. 

Iris just waited patiently, her eyes not leaving him. Aww the bar works him so hard!! it must be tough being in a band! She rested her chin against the table, getting sleepier and sleepier. Suddenly a waitress came to her table, causing Iris to jolt upright again. 
“Good evening! what’d you like?” The waitress looked down at Iris with a practiced smile and cheery tone. “..um..OH! water please!” Iris gave the waitress a simple grin, then it was back to her staring habit. The tunes that escaped Ian’s instrument sent Iris to a blissful trance, for she appreciated the way the notes danced all around the scale. I’ll stay all night if I have to, to make sure that he hears me out. 

Ian narrowed his eyes, there was no way he was going to make it out of the star of the county down without a break. He finished it out quickly and snatched a shot glass off the piano downing the contents. He licked his split lip which had been a real bitch to play flute with. Flexing his hands and sheathing Fidrieon he stood up off the barstool and stepped off the stage walking to one of the corners of the room where his backpack was sitting on a table. He sat down and watched Iris to see what she’d do.

Iris’s eyes grew really wide and she stood up, wiggling through the tables and chairs to get to him. during her efforts she hummed a few notes, the vibrations in the air transmitting a message to Ian’s ear. “Stay right there, don’t move please! I’ll be there in a second--” “Hey! watch it!” a low voice sneered as Iris bumped into a teenage boy twice her size. Her eyes traveled up to the man’s face, which was marred by an ugly diagonal scar down the majority of it. “I’m sorry--” The boy shoved her back, causing her bruised hip to hit a nearby table. She winced in pain. “ow..”
The boy grinned at his roughhousing, glancing around to make sure his scandalous deeds were noticed and praised properly.

Ian frowned and rolled his eyes. “Hey, the fuck is wrong with you?” The boy turned and Ian used a tricked he’d learned from Lazarus. Turning his will into a physical force, he slammed it into the boys solar plexus doubling him over. Gripping Fidrieon he went from sitting at the table to slamming his fist into the back of the boys head. Flooring him. He sniffed. Wrinkling his nose. Using Fidrieon to do that was probably a bad idea given his current condition. Looking up at Iris “Are you alright?”

Iris paused, then smiled weakly, her hand leaving her bruise. “That should be my line.” She gestured Ian to follow her back to the table he was at before. Her crystal green eyes shone in the dim lighting as they looked at the floor, then up at Ian. “I’m truly sorry for the arena yesterday,” She exhaled, nervous about his response. “I didn’t mean any harm towards you, no, towards anyone. I need to learn to control my abilities more, which is why I came to the academy in the first place.” Her worried look turned to one of intensity. “your cheek--” without thinking her hand lifted to the mark, then drew back, as if she accidentally broke a wanted barrier. A smile played at Iris’s lips. “I can fix that.” Before Ian could complain Iris’s voice entered the air around them, the notes long and strong, the vibrations reaching his mark, and sealing it shut, dissolving any trace of pain and replacing it with a warm, comforting sensation, similar to drinking something hot after being nipped by the cold.

Ian opened his mouth to protest but she didn’t let him speak. Great, another injury to his pride, not only had she kicked his ass but now she was fixing him up like a child who’d fallen and scraped his knee. Part of him wanted to thank her while the rest of him told him to rabbit. *Run little coward* Koshmar’s whispers resounded in his head. A look half way between rage and pain crossed his face. Koshmar hadn’t said a word in the last twenty four hours and now he was speaking up. Suddenly Ian realized he hadn’t responded and the only thing she’d seen was the look he’d gotten at Koshmar’s reappearance. 

Iris’s smile dropped completely to one of shock and she cupped her hand over her mouth, her voice muffled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do something you wouldn’t like,” she bit her lip, attempting her boundaries. “unless...something’s on your mind?” She stared at him intensely still.

Ian half looked at the door still processing what she’d said and still trying to deal with the fact that Koshmar was back and at the worst time ever. Finally he made a decisions after long seconds ticked by. Seizing Koshmar he crammed him back into Hazumi’s cage for him in the depths of his conscious. It was only a stopgap but he doubted Iris would appreciate him using Namshiel to contain Koshmar. “No it’s fine, I’m sorry that had nothing to do with you” It was mostly true. ‘why am I being nice to her?’ The thought forced its way to the front of his mind. He took in her look for a moment “Would you like to sit? or are you planning on giving me that look for the rest of the night?” his lip twitched towards a smile and he winced as the cut on it twinged. 

A frown found Iris, then again a low hum left her lips, the warm sensation filling up more contours in his face. Iris planted in the seat next to him, grinning. “Now that time I healed you for myself, so I can see that smile of yours at its best.” She paused. “Sorry, that sounded a bit like a creepy dentist, huh?”

A chuckle warred with the sudden urge to smack her with his ASP. After he pictured the second option he snorted and then broke into a laugh. “You know, you wouldn’t have to be doing that if you hadn’t hit me to begin with” His laughter pulled at the edges of his eyes. “What the hell do you want Iris? I thought you made it pretty clear how you felt about me yesterday.” His smile fell away but it haunted the corners of his eyes and the edges of his mouth. He took a sip from a glass of water sitting on the table.

“Well first I wanted to apologize, then I saw you had cuts on your face and wanted to heal them.” Iris didn’t feel convincing enough. “Besides, if I was the cause of your pain I’d want to fix it.” 
the two of them fell quiet before she spoke again with a hollow tone.
“I want to be friends with you.”

Ian blinked and opened his mouth to respond *Kick this bitch to the curb Ian, Sam is way more fun* Ian’s eyes bulged and he clamped his mouth closed. Seizing a hold of Koshmar once more he hurled him back into his cell again. He caught Iris’ look “Sorry, its…” He trailed off “Okay, but you certainly have a funny way of making friends” the smile played at the edges of his mouth again. 

Iris curled her lip in a pout. “is that such a bad thing? I got my point across…” Her eyes found the glass of water and stayed there. She just realized how long she stared at Ian this whole time and it brought red to her peachy cheeks. “I’ll admit I’m not very good at being...convincing. So..what can I do to convince you I’m not trying to cut you up like a carrot for soup?” 

Ian shook his head in laughter “Look, I haven’t had my ass kicked in a long time. And you did a fairly thorough job of it too. And now you’re here asking me if I’d like to be friends? Can you understand why I might be a little wary of your intentions?” Ian reached out and pushed the glass of water with his finger to break her gaze on it, he’d seen the red creep into her cheeks. “There isn’t a darn thing you can do other than not as you put it ‘cut me up’. Course” Ian chuckled again “You’re already a little behind aren’t you?” He realized he was still talking in circles a bit “If you want to be friends we can if you’d like. I have no objections, I’m just a little surprised is all.”

Iris looked up at him. “are you sure?”

Ian grinned at her “Not at all, but I seriously doubt our relationship could get any worse at this point.” He hoped she took the comment as a joke the way it was meant. He hesitated for a moment he didn’t want to send the wrong message even though he might have some reservations about this whole thing “Yes. Iris I’m sure, I’m just being a bit of a brat. You’ll have to give me that much” 

As soon as the words left Ian’s lips Iris beamed an 1000-watt smile. “Next time if I kick your butt I’ll just use my healing powers to make it all better.” Iris narrowed her eyes, her smile still present. “besides it feels good after being healed, huh? all tingly and warm. I heal myself quite a bit for practice.” She frowned. “By the way, I’ve read of alcohol in books and know it makes someone all tingly as well...how?”

Ian gave her a bemused look and considered addressing her statement of the possibility that she could repeat her earlier “success”. “It does feel good, although to be honest I’ve always been partial to letting things heal on their own.” To illustrate his point Ian extended his hands, palms down. Scars and calluses criss crossed his hands. He turned them over so she could see the swordsman calluses on the inside of the hands. His knuckles had bruises on them which he’d given himself earlier in the day taking apart another of the wooden dummies. 

“As for the alcohol its more of an experience thing. I’m sure Lazarus could tell you the science behind it but the feelings is certainly an interesting experience” Ian folded his hands on the table in front of him.   

“Oooh! battle scars so you can show off!!” Iris stared at him with amazement. “wait, those bruises on your hands look new..I don’t recall you using your fists against me that much during the fight,” She gave Ian a somewhat gloomy look.  

Ian took his hands off the table and didn’t respond to the comment. The fight had been a little one sided for that but he didn’t bother to say anything. 

Iris didn’t seem to care so much, for she was already onto the next topic. That, or she didn’t want to pry for information not wanting to be shared. “I like your flute by the way, it has a very crisp sound. The music you play with it goes together fairly well. It almost lulled me to sleep," Iris stopped and clenched her teeth in panic. “OH! not like, it was bad kind of sleep!! but like, the music was soothing and really calming and stuff!! I really appreciated it!!” Ian’s lack of response made Iris plant her face on the table, her scarlet hair sprawled all across the dark furniture. “Srrny..” (sorry..)

Ian stuck his tongue out at her while she had her head down. And grinned a little. ‘Okay maybe you should stop being a brat’ Ian thought to himself. “Hey” He gently put his hand on her back “Why are you sorry? You already apologized for beating me up” Ian stuck his tongue out at her again. “It’s one of the only beautiful things Fidrieon does, so I appreciate that.” Ian shook her gently “Hey as much as I might like the color of your hair you have a halfway decent smile too” 

Iris slowly lifted her head up at him, her eyes searching his for some kind of hint of a joke. She cocked up an eyebrow. 


Ian grinned at her “Okay maybe a little better than halfway decent” He raised an eyebrow back at her continuing to smile.

Iris grinned and her eyes lit up. “Oh, by the way, I have a gift for you. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

Ian looked at her warily. “You aren’t going to punch me again are you?” with a sarcastic grin he closed his eyes and extended his hands. He mumbled under his breath “Seriously don’t punch me”

With the speed of the wind she grabbed his wrists and hummed a series of staccato beats, the notes quickly finding his bruises on his knuckles, causing the purple on them to vanish. She let go of her grip and stood up from her chair, taking a giant swig of the glass of water, finishing it’s contents. “There. Now I hope you don’t take offense to me getting rid of a few of your prized possessions, I just don't want people to think you got into a fight with a sack of blueberries." she gave him a quick wink, spinning on her heel in the direction of the door. “See you later, Ian.” The warm intimate voice reached his ears as her body glided towards the doorway.

Ian opened his eyes to see her leaving, to his surprise he felt a twinge at her leaving. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ He pushed the thought aside “I look forward to it” he said as he sat back enjoying the last tingles of her magic.