[H2][Center]☽[color=99004d]Masha [/color]☾[/center][/h2]

She'd been in this hotel for two weeks now. She liked that she didn't have to make her own bed if she didn't want to, she liked that she didn't have to do her own laundry, or housework, she liked that they'd bring her food to her room even at three in the morning. But she was also missing the comforts of not having to put a sign on the door when she wanted to dwell in the dark, soft, cushy comfort of the bed and not get up to see anyone at all while existing in the exquisite bliss of her high. In her own apartment, she could schedule most of those things that she enjoyed about this hotel. But that would mean needing to go out. 

And she needed to anyways, for things aside from finding a place to live. She needed to actually go and see her new place of business that she'd bought a month ago, even before she'd official decided that she was going to be moving here as a more permanent fix to her problems. And she was without Vlad or Sergei and she felt very lonely too. She'd never even so much as travelled without one or both of them with her. And now she was here, where she was planning on living for a while, without either of them. 

At least she knew someone in this city. Sorta. She’d met him only through her father, and while they’d had some fancinstaing conversations, she’d not really call them friends or anything like that. Hopefully though, that would change. Whenever she could get into contact with him and set up a time to meet. Because she was going to need his help to really get things going for her.

So after digging through a few of her suitcases that have been half unpacked to find the things she was looking for, she dressed, took a nice healthy swig of something that burned like alcohol though she wasn’t fully certain what it was exactly, straight from the bottle and headed out to her meeting with a realtor to find herself a place to stay. She looked a hot mess though, her hair in a messy bun, her clothes a tiny bit wrinkled and less put together than she normally was, but just then, she didn’t care. She toured a few places and eventually decided on a nice place that hopefully would be enough space for her and all her books and records and such. Though honestly she’d left a lot of her stuff at home, hoping that her brother would keep things safe for her.

With a tired sigh, she headed down the road to a coffee shop only about a block away from her new place of residence, to get some caffeine in her system and check her email to see if there was anything of importance in there since she'd not bothered to take a look through it in a few days. She was sure she had thousands of things by now that she should reply to. And the nagging guilt was something she didn't want to deal with when she went out that night to find some company. 

Sitting with her feet up under her on a big cushy chair that made her look very tiny in it, she scrolled through her mail on her little tablet, earbuds in and music blasting away. She had been right, there was a thousand emails waiting for her, most of it junk, which she was working on deleting first. Then after work and personal were sorted through she went through what was actually important and what wasn't. As she was finishing up,  there was a little ding as she got a new email with no subject from her brother.

[I] “Hey Little Sparrow, 

Hope you've got a place sorted out by now. Might have some good news for you soon. Or you might already know. Call me at some point please.

Love you,

Vlad.” [/i]

Pushing her glasses up into hair with a sigh, she rubbed at her eyes some. “Not tonight, brother,” she murmured to herself. “Maybe in the morning. Depending on how things go tonight.”

Masha made her way back to her hotel room, bathed and got herself dressed for the night. She dug through her clothes again to find something that she felt suited her mood. Or at least the mood she wanted to be in. The black velvet  [url=https://www.modcloth.com/dw/image/v2/ABAT_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-modcloth-master/default/dwa7aa0a07/images/10086565_BLK_MAIN.jpg?sw=913&sh=1304&sm=fit]dress[/url] clung to the curves she did have, emphasizing them very nicely. Draping her neck with a single deep garnet teardrop on a long chain that hung just through her cleavage, she finished brushing through her mostly dry hair and headed out of the door for the club of the night. Or at least the first one of the night.

The place was dark, a little smoky, and partly filled with middle aged business men. It was her usual preference, businessmen optional, but they weren't always her usual takers. She sauntered up to the bar, perching herself on a stool that overlooked most of the other patrons of the bar, and after a brief argument with the bartender about the validity of her ID, she sipped at her drink. She hadn't been fully sober when she'd walked into the place, but she wasn't totally out of it either. Just enough of a buzz to help with the buzzing in her head that the coffee hadn't cured. 

She twisted the chain of her necklace around her finger some as she watched the people in the bar. There were a few promising men around, looking her way even. One of them got up the nerve to come over to her, sitting down on the stool next to her with an obviously drunk smile on his face. He walked well enough, he just couldn’t school his face well enough. His tie was almost fully untied, but still around his neck and through the collar of his shirt. He was maybe thirty, his clean cut brown hair was a mess from him obviously running his hands through it, making it stick up in odd places.

“Hey,” he said with a little chuckle. “Aren’t you a little young to be in here?”

“Isn’t that a terrible opening line?” she replied with a smirk. 

He flushed a little at being called out like that, but that didn’t really deter him any from his pursuit. “It is, but it usually works for me. Still working now, I mean, you’re talking to me.” His grin grew at that and he laughed again.

Masha pursed her lips a little bit but still smiled. “Touche, sir,” she murmured. “You win that round. Now, lemme see, is the next round you offering to buy me a drink, or you just doing it anyways?”

He laughed and tipped his drink towards her in a toast of sorts. “The latter, I think at this point. Because I doubt you’d turn me down if I ask, so why bother with the asking?” She shrugged some and he gestured for the bartender again and got them both another round of drinks.  

Which turned into another three before they moved from the bar itself to a booth in the back. She hadn’t expected to be this successful so early in the night, but it certainly made the night better to knot have to work so hard. Even if he wasn’t the most attractive man in the room, he wasn’t bad to look at, and he was actually rather interesting to talk to. Hopefully the niceness of him held out for the rest of the evening activities. 

By the time she realized she was out of smokes it was rather late already. His hands had already found their way along her thighs and arms, twisting through her long hair on occasion as well. Leaning in teasingly close, she murmured “yours or mine?” with a soft little laugh.

“Don’t care,” he replied, leaning in to give her a kiss, but she pulled back before he could with a wicked smirk. “Tease.”

She shook her head slightly, sliding back from him and out of the booth. “Not a tease, just want to actually make it out of the bar before you undress me. Not that I mind anyone seeing, but you know.”

He growled in some frustration, but he understood as well. He followed her out of the booth and out of the bar. He waved down a cab and they climbed into the backseat together. Their short walk had given them enough time to figure out who’s was closer, and they headed for her hotel room. They could have walked there, but it wouldn’t have been fast enough for either of their tastes. 

But it was quick enough, and they both managed to keep their clothes on at least, even if they didn’t do so well at keeping their hands to themselves. Things progressed quickly once in her room, and while it was good, it wasn’t as satisfactory as she might have liked to have been.

Since she was used to being up until the sun was up, she was still awake after he’d passed out in an alcohol clouded, physical exhaustion. Climbing out of bed, she pulled on a silk dressing gown from the floor, not because she didn’t want to be seen naked, but because it was a little chilly in the room. She curled herself up in one of the chairs that she’d dragged over to the window after opening up the curtains so she could look out over the night cloaked cityscape. She unlocked her phone and dialed up her brother’s number without thought about what time it was. Vlad was going to be awake, but he might be busy too. 

“Masha,” he said after picking up on the third ring. “Awful late for you to be free.”

She snorted a little and worked a knot out of her hair with her fingers. “Yeah, well, he’s passed out.”

“So is mine,” he said with his own little laugh. “So you finally decided to check your email then?”

“No I just thought I’d call you at like 3 in the morning for shits and giggles,” she said sarcastically. “I got an apartment, by the way,” she went on before he could reply to her sarcasm. “So no need to worry there. Going into the shop tomorrow too.”

“Adulting finally,” he chuckled. “Good, because I think you’ll have to make another stop tomorrow too.” When she hummed questioningly, he went on, “I got you a business meeting. I’ll send you the details.”

“Melding again, are we big brother?” she asked.

“Only because I love you so much, little sister,” he chuckled. “Now I’d love to talk to you more, but I have early morning business to attend to so, I need to sleep. I’ll let Sergei know the news as well. Night, Little Sparrow.”

“Night, Vlad,” she murmured, hanging up and deciding to read a little before passing out in the chair.