Soiree

Aurora knew all of the plays in a man's playbook. After spending two years with the epitome of a playboy, she had learned them quickly. Then there was the fact that at every party she planned, someone was there trying to get her attention. They'd often send a drink her way and give up when she didn't respond like all of the floozies did. Or if she wasn't drinking that night, they would try to impress her by talking about how she had planned another fabulous party. She could tell that they didn't have a clue as to whether or not she was actually good, and that infuriated her more than it flattered her. She often found herself complaining to whoever was the bartender that evening about the lack of decent men in the Capitol, and they would simply agree with her. She had a feeling that most of them only said what she wanted to hear in hopes that she would hire them again for another event.

So when Inigo had handed her the drink and she had seen the man at the end of the bar, Aurora knew what to do. She knew that men at these parties were only looking for a one-night fling, someone that they could add to their long list of conquests. That wasn't Aurora, and she would never give a man the time of day when those were his motives. So she did her signature trick, minimal eye contact, a polite smile, and turn. It left the men confused and they generally never approached her again, which was something she greatly appreciated.

She looked back to where the man had sat before, smiling as she noticed that he was gone. She turned back and grabbed the drink he had purchased for her, taking a sip of it with a smug smile. Yet another playboy had been stopped, and she was content to go back to people watching. Her eyes scanned the crowd before landing on the man who had been at the end of the bar, and it appeared as if he was coming towards her. Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Her trick had a one hundred percent success rate in getting men to leave her alone. Why was he approaching her? Why hadn't the trick worked?

She was about to get up and walk away when he arrived at the bar and leaned next to her. She gave a polite smile as he addressed her and her party, forcing her eyes to not roll as he called her 'infamous', as if he honestly knew anything about her or the work that she did. It was another line that every other man in the Capitol had used on her. They didn't know what they were talking about, and he obviously didn't either. But she decided to play along with him, something she normally never did.

"What are you talking about another success? Didn't you know this was my first party?" She gave him a small smile before turning back towards the people. She honestly thought that her comment was enough to shoo him off, but then she heard his voice again. This time, he was asking about the people that she was watching. She turned her head and looked him up and down before turning back to the party. "You don't look like the kind of guy who would be interested in people watching," she said casually before shifting in her seat to look around at the people.

She decided then to put the final nail in the coffin with their interactions. She looked at him with a large smile before saying, "But, if you're actually curious, I can tell you multiple stories I've created for people." She turned back to the crowd and pointed at an older gentleman who was smoking a cigar and talking to some other gentlemen around the same age. "They're making plans to get together to discuss the rebellion and which side they should take because they don't really like the Capitol, other than the parties, but they don't like the Rebels either because they aren't as smart as they are, in their opinions." She then pointed over to two women bickering and said, "They're arguing because the redhead caught her black-haired friend making a move on the man that she was trying to go after. That's totally breaking girl code." She turned to him and gave him a faux solemn look, just to emphasize the importance of girl code. She then turned back to the crowd and pointed at an older couple who were holding hands, and she gave a content smile. "They just celebrated their thirty-seventh anniversary last week and are telling everyone about what they did for it."

She then turned and pointed at the man, whose name she still didn't know. "And right here's a man who is trying so desperately to get a woman to go home with him because he can't stand the thought of attending a party and not getting a nice shag by the end of it. But he doesn't realize that shagging random women is never going to fill the emptiness that's in his heart and soul because, let's face it, meaningless quickies are just that: quick and meaningless." She gave a smirk before taking a sip of the drink that he had bought for her. "How's that?"

The brunette laughed as he suggested they not start off with lies. She turned to face him and cocked her head a bit. "Then let's also not start off under false pretenses." If that didn't get him to shut up, then she didn't know what would. Men were always so easy to give up as soon as the woman didn't show interest back, so the fact that he was even still here was a surprise to her. She wondered what his intentions might be, because she was almost one hundred percent certain that all he wanted was to get laid. There was never any trying anymore, nothing like what her father had described when he courted her mother. He always talked about how she really made him work for her, and that every other guy in town was trying to be with her at the same time. He always ended the story with saying, "But your mother was well worth the fight I put up." And that was what Aurora wanted, someone who would work hard for her and never regret it a single day in the rest of his life.

As she told him all of the stories that she was coming up with, she couldn't wait until he heard the story she came up with about him. Well, not so much a story, but what she was certain he was trying to accomplish. In her past experience with a playboy, he couldn't commit for some reason and decided to try and fill that void with countless women. At the end of the day, Aurora was just one of those many women he was having relations with. The feeling of despair and utter disappointment when she realized that the man she wanted to marry one day would never be marriage material was something that she had vowed to never feel again. Which was exactly why she never payed any attention to the men who approached her at these parties. Whilst her parties were phenomenal and often left people feeling great by the end of the night and introduced other couples, it seemed to be a bad omen for her. She watched the man's face, seeing the offense that he took to her words. She almost felt guilty for everything that she had said. After all, she wasn't really a cruel person in general. People often told her how sweet of a person she was, but obviously this guy wasn't getting the hint that she wasn't going to sleep with him. Sure, he was attractive, but she didn't want what he wanted at the end of the day. She wanted to find someone who was looking for marriage, not someone who was looking for a good time. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction of being another one of his girls.

Aurora turned on her stool to look at him as he spoke,  just sipping on her drink as she listened to him. He sounded defensive, which was her first indication that what she had said to him was correct. After all, why get defensive about something that wasn't true? She didn't even care that he was insulting her observation skills because she was just hoping that he would stop trying, just like all of the other men that had repeatedly hit on her in the past at her parties. But then he pointed to a woman in the crowd, so she shifted her gaze to her and listened to his story. The corners of her mouth turned up a little as he spoke because she knew that he was interested in the game that she had started. Maybe his intentions were different after all. She could go into the night thinking that and maybe have some fun, obviously not fun in the way that she thought he would think. She turned back to him as he waved his hand at her and told her to try again. She took her glass and downed the rest of her drink before setting it down on the bar and looking back to him. "Fine. I see a man who's going to tell me his name in the next five seconds and then proceed to ask me if I would like another drink, to which I will graciously say yes and proceed to thank him." She then extended her hand to him before giving him the first genuine smile that she had even considered giving him for the evening. "Aurora Swiftgold. I know you apparently knew who I was before, but I still feel as if an introduction is necessary. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. ...?" She trailed off so that he could fill in the blank that she was missing, silently hoping that she wasn't making a horrible, horrible mistake by giving him the time of day.

Once upon a time, lines and false flattery had worked on Aurora. The man that had used it on her still hadn't slept with her the night that they met, simply because she was a virgin at the time and was still searching for love over lust, but he had hooked her. Since their end three years before, she knew that she couldn't let her guard down again. Not as easily as she had before, that is. She wasn't getting any younger, and she had no prospects. Her friends would often tell her that she should loosen up, maybe stop turning guys down for their one-night flings because it could possibly turned into something else. She always shot them down because that idea was absurd; people who wanted one-night stands weren't the people who wanted relationships with people they hooked up with. It was always no strings attached, and that's not what Aurora wanted. Aurora wanted all of the strings, even if it meant that the strings would get all tangled up. She knew that love wasn't ever perfect, no matter how perfect it may seem.

The brunette looked at him and continued to think about what his intentions must be. If it wasn't sex he was after, then she couldn't help but wonder what was. If he had just wanted a conversation, why would he have tried so hard as to get her to talk to him? If he just wanted sex, why hadn't he gone after the woman that he had pointed out, who would definitely be an easier lay than Aurora would be? Was he going after her for a one-night stand because she was a challenge? No, that was preposterous. She almost laughed aloud at the idea. The only reason guys went after challenging girls was because they wanted more, and she could tell that just wasn't the case. She could tell that he didn't want anything more. At least, she didn't think that he could want anything more. He just gave off the playboy vibe, but maybe that was all an illusion. Maybe, just like she played hard-to-get, he just pretended to be a playboy. It was unlikely, but it was possible.

She grinned back at him, shaking his hand as it met with hers. His hands were a lot softer than she had anticipated. It wasn't completely absurd for a guy in the Capitol to have soft hands; a lot of them didn't really use their hands all of that often. She ignored the thoughts that were running through her mind to focus on him. She felt as if his face was familiar, though she couldn't place where she had seen his face. When he told her his name, it rang a bell but she wasn't able to place where that name was familiar. Had she planned an event for someone with that last name before? Had she seen him around the Capitol and asked for his name before? She wasn't quite sure, but she knew that she wasn't going to ask. There was no need for him to start getting cocky about her potentially knowing him. "It's nice to meet you as well, Illias." She gave him a smile before watching as he turned back to the party.

Her eyes followed to where his finger led, and she watched them. She smiled as she saw them, seeing the love on their faces and admiring the fact that they were dancing the way the wanted to, even if it didn't necessarily match the song. Her smile slowly fell though as she looked back up at him as he gave his interpretation of what their interactions meant. "That's a little morbid, don't you think?" She looked back to them and smiled again before sighing softly. "I think he has a ring in his pocket. They're dancing slowly, and he's whispering in her ear everything that he loves about her and how he can't imagine spending a day without her. But, he's going to chicken out and not actually propose. He's worried that she'll say no because she's always been less vocal about her love than he has. So, for now, he's content with just holding her in his arms and moving at their own pace to the music." She looked back up at Illias and gave him a small smile and shrug. "I like to think that people have happy endings every now and then. I don't think that they happen enough nowadays." She looked back to the crowd before exhaling sharply. "Wow, talk about being morbid," she said with a laugh before turning back to the man who had bought her a drink. "Give me another story. I promise I won't try and change it. Actually, I can't promise that, but I promise that I'll try my absolute hardest to not change it."

Aurora looked at him as he called it realistic, and she gave a shrug in response. "I think realism depends on your perspective and your experiences. What might seem realistic to you could seem morbid to me. What might seem realistic to me could seem overly optimistic to you. It all just depends on how you see it." She always wanted to see the positive side of the story, especially since so many people had been focusing on the negatives lately. With everything that was taking place throughout Panem, she wanted to focus on the happier things in life. She wanted to give people a reason to look forward to something, and she wanted them all to have happy endings. Regardless of the fact that not everyone gets happy endings, that's what she wanted and that's what she thought about during her story games.

The brunette just let  out a laugh as he told her that she wouldn't ever be called a pessimist before shaking her head. "I think that's one thing we can agree on. I don't think I've ever not seen the positive side of something." She listened to him and nodded before leaning back against the bar a bit. "I think I'm just a little stuck on happy endings because my parents are the definition of romance. My dad fell in love with my mom the day he met her and they've been happily married for twenty-six years now." She smiled upon remembering the anniversary party she had thrown for them and how they had reminisced on their lives together and shared stories with everyone who had come. She wanted that to be her one day, and she had high hopes that it would actually happen for her. She'd just need to work for it.

Though she would never admit it, Aurora found her breath catching as she heard the sound of Illias's laugh. Something about it made her feel warm, welcome even. She looked at him and then raised her brow as he called Inigo 'Frank'. She looked at Inigo and mouthed, "Sorry," before laughing heartily as he called Illias 'John'. The entire night, she had felt as if Illias was trying to impress her, which did nothing for her. But now, it seemed that he was no longer focusing on trying to impress her, but rather just being himself and having fun with the new experience that people watching brought him. It was different for her, and she found herself enjoying his company much more than she had anticipated. She chuckled as he made a comment about finding his next victims before taking a sip of the new drink that he had ordered for her.

Whenever she would throw parties, she never thoroughly enjoyed them. Since she had focused all of her attention on making every little detail perfect, by the time she was told to go and relax, she could only people watch. But then she would notice the slight imperfections of her work, and she would rush back to fix it before anyone noticed. It was something that she wished she could control better, but was happy that her parties all generally went off without a hitch due to her perfectionist nature. This was the first party where she hadn't paid attention to the details after she was told to enjoy herself, and that was primarily thanks to Illias and his company.

Aurora followed his hand as he pointed out the focus of his next story, bringing her drink to her lips as he started on with their story. The idea of them managing to sneak in was absurd, simply because she had hired the best security for the party to make sure no crashers showed up. But she wasn't going to mention that to Illias because he seemed to be enjoying their little game. She laughed softly as he talked about the relationship between the two men, and the unrequited love that the shorter man was experiencing. She covered her mouth as she let out a loud laugh at the 'cousin's' remarks, shaking her head as she bit her lower lip in embarrassment of letting out such a laugh. She was about to correct him about a happy ending before he added in the happy-ish ending. She looked up at him with a large smile and nodded. "Much better. You're getting the hang of it now."

Aurora laughed as he told her that her parents' love story was a tough standard. She shrugged before looking out at the people. "I don't necessarily think they're tough standards. I think they set an example. I don't need the love at first sight or having to pick the right man from a pool of men. I just need the ending." She thought about how it had been love at first sight with her before, and that hadn't worked. Maybe it was something that had managed to work for her parents, but it definitely wasn't something for her. She wanted the trials that came with everything. She wanted the work that came along with making a great relationship last. But, most of all, she just wanted someone who would try for her. She wanted someone to want to try, even when things started to get rough. Someone who would always pick her, even on the days that he didn't like her. She wanted the ending that her parents had. She'd settle for even half of their great love story.

The brunette looked back to Illias and saw his grin, and a smile instantly came on her face. Smiles weren't something Aurora wasn't used to seeing. She saw them frequently with her clients and even more so with her parents. But there was something about his smile that made it feel different. He seemed more... authentic when he smiled. When he had first approached her, she thought that he would be like all of the other men. She assumed that he would be disingenuous, and she thought that she had been right before he started playing her game with her. But when he smiled, she couldn't help but feel as if her assumptions about him were too hastily made. Maybe she should have given him the benefit of the doubt when he first came over, but she couldn't change how she felt in the past. She could, however, change how she treated him from that point on out. So she took a sip of her drink before looking back to the crowd. "You should smile more," she said before looking back at him. "I like it when you smile."

She watched as he angled himself towards her, so she turned on her stool to mirror his action. She grinned at his question before shaking her head. "I'm not going to be snagging it. When the right guy comes around, he'll make an effort. He'll try because he'll know that's what I want him to do. But, hopefully, he'll try mainly because he realizes that he wants to be with me." She shrugged before taking a sip of her drink. "I don't want the one-night flings or the whirlwind romances that end just as quickly as they begin. I want something real. And until I find that something real, I'll just be here waiting and taking my life one day at a time."

Aurora pursed her lips as she listened to what Illias said, genuinely thinking about what he said. She had always been one to focus on the endings and never emphasize the journey, but wasn't that normal? It certainly was when it came to her work. How she managed to throw off some of the biggest events didn't matter, just the fact that she could was the important part. The ending, the party, was what was important. Her parents would tell her the beginning of their story together, the proposal, and then where they were at the end. They never emphasized the middle parts. She had just started to think that the middles were unimportant. She looked back to Illias and shrugged her shoulders. "I can see why you would be. When I think about it, the ending wouldn't happen without the journey. So, perhaps in a sense, we're both right. Maybe the journey is just as important as the ending." She gave him a grin before nudging him with her elbow. "Can we agree on that, or should we just agree to disagree?"

The brunette smirked before laughing softly, shaking her head. "I'll keep laughing as long as you keep making comments that would make me laugh." She looked at him before reaching for her drink, taking a small sip before looking back out at the people who were still enjoying the party she had planned. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she was on her third drink or if it was because she was just in a good mood, but she was more welcoming to the idea of Illias hanging around her for the rest of the evening. Granted, they would go their separate ways, but she could feel herself warming to the idea of maybe actually giving him a phone number in case he wanted to get a hold of her some day. She looked at his profile for a second, smiling softly to herself. She wouldn't give him a number. He'd have to find her if he wanted something more. They were bound to run into each other again at some point.

Aurora looked at him, listening intently. She was about to speak when she felt him take a hold of her hand. She looked down briefly before going back to look him in the eyes. She could feel her breathing get more and more shallow with each passing second, and she bit down on her lower lip gently as he continued to talk. She could barely hear his words over the sound of her pulse in her ears as he brought her hand up so it was almost touching her lips. She looked at him as he lowered her hand, giving him a slightly less bright smile as she looked at him. She looked at him and continued holding onto his hand before turning and looking at the people, taking a deep breath in and then exhaling before she turned back to him.

"Illy, darling," she said, smiling to herself as she shook her head. "I didn't say I wasn't going to put in effort. Relationships all require work from both sides, and I'm willing to put in that work." She turned so that she was actually facing him. She placed her hand on the side of his face, giving him a smile as she looked into his eyes. "I've had the heartbreak before, trust me. I don't want to make the same mistake again, so I'm more cautious now." She slowly stood, keeping the physical contact that she had made with him. "I want the effort for someone to pursue me, and then once I'm sure it's something I want to pursue, I'll put in the fight to keep it." She leaned in so that her lips were right by his ear before whispering, "By the end of it, I will have earned his love just as much as he has earned mine." She then turned her head to press a light kiss on his cheek. "Now, just because I'm curious, how should a girl like myself take a risk in the name of love? Any ideas, Mr. Delos?"

While Aurora placed emphasis on how things would end rather than how things got to where they were, she could see the value in the journey. Illias had made an interesting point to her, and she wasn't one to continue arguing her beliefs when someone else's beliefs were just as plausible. She didn't have to believe that the journey was just as important because she knew that she would always value the endings over the journey. But she was willing to put it aside for an evening to try and get to know somebody better. So when Illias agreed to disagree and gave her a smile, Aurora couldn't help but give him a smile back in return. She knew that she wouldn't change his mind, and that was okay with her. She didn't need to change his mind about anything because he was interesting just the way he was.

The brunette had not expected for her brain and body to react the way they did to the man's touch. She knew that he was trying to get a rise from her, which made everything in her want to fight the reaction, but she just couldn't. And when he hadn't continued through, she knew that the disappointment showed on her face, despite her best efforts to keep it at bay. There was something about him that just pulled her towards him, though she couldn't put a finger on what exactly it was. All she knew was that she wanted to figure out how someone like him could cause her heart to go pitter patter and turn everything hazy just by a simple hand-holding close to his lips.

Aurora watched Illias intently, almost waiting for him to back away and try to get things back to where they had been prior to his game of the evening. She was about to look away when she heard his voice, and she cocked an eyebrow at him as she looked intently into his eyes. She felt his hand on her lower back, and her breath hitched involuntarily as she watched him move slightly closer to him. She let her teeth graze her lower lip and she tilted her head to the side as he stayed silent, wondering what he could possibly say next. When he spoke again to say that he would be a risk, she let out a soft laugh before watching him set down his drink. The laughter stopped almost as quickly as it had started when he moved his hand so that it was resting on her neck, and she looked back into his eyes. She noticed the half smile on his face, and her leg could have turned to jello. But that wasn't who she was, and that was most definitely not the woman that she wanted to show Illias.

She heard his words and let a smirk play on her lips as she moved a step closer to him, letting her leg touch his as she moved the hand she had on his cheek away for a moment so that she could snake her arm around his neck. She leaned in so that her lips were a just a few mere centimeters from his, and she smiled as she let her eyes flutter shut. She whispered softly, her tone hinted with a small portion of seduction, "Show me why I should take a risk on you, Illias. Show me what makes you special," before pulling back slightly to look up at him with her big brown eyes. "Give me a reason to take a risk on you."

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WORD COUNT: 598
TAGS: Illias Delos
NOTES: I LOVE IT SO MUCH THOUGH OMG.

Aurora would have been lying if she had even tried to tell herself that she wasn't feeling the spark between them. While she knew that sparks meant nothing except that there was physical chemistry between them, she knew that it was a start. She knew that it was a start because she had let it happen. She hadn't welcomed a spark like that in two years because of fear: fear that it wouldn't work out, but also fear that it would but that she simply wouldn't be enough again. She wanted the chance to fall in love, to find forever, but she was more scared of it than she had cared to admit to herself. She hadn't been enough in her previous relationship, so why would she be enough for anyone else? She knew that she wanted to be someone's only, but what if she was only destined to be someone's one of many? Those were the thoughts that kept her from welcoming and embracing any form of spark.

But then came Illias, who had worked the entire evening to prove to her that he was something different. A man who was willing to play her happy ending game, a man who wasn't scared to disagree with her, but, most importantly, a man who didn't shy away from a challenge. She didn't have to try to force meaningless small talk and she didn't have to hide her true intentions. He knew what she was looking for and had shown curiosity about how she was going to go about finding that. Then, of course, he disputed her way and told her to take a risk, but more specifically, a risk on him. When those words had left his mouth, she couldn't think straight. If he had been just like all of the other men that had tried picking her up before, he would have left her earlier in the night when she was being her most difficult. They certainly wouldn't have stayed, played a few games, given life advice, and then proceed to tell her to take a risk on them, right? That showed her that Illias had to be different. Whether or not anything would come of their evening together, she would at least have the faith that there was someone out there who wasn't so self-serving as to actually get to know her and ask the meaningful questions. It was crazy to her that a random man at a party could do this to her, but she had hope again: hope that what she was looking for wasn't completely absurd and could even be attainable.

Aurora kept her eyes on Illias before she felt the soft touch of his lips on hers. The kiss was short, sweet even, and she looked into his eyes as she felt his thumb move along her jawline. She could feel the shakiness in her breath before having her breath stop as he kissed her again, only this time with a fervor and intensity that she hadn't experienced in quite a long time. She kissed him back just as deeply, letting him bring her body closer to his. However, the kiss was still short, but no one that had seen it could ever use the word sweet to define the kiss they had shared the second time around. She felt his grip loosen, and a part of her started to worry if the spark she felt in that kiss had all been in her head. Was she simply being deluded in thinking that there was a spark? Had he not felt it in the same sense that she had?

The sound of her pulse flooded through her head, her breath just as shaky as it had been before their kiss. She looked into his eyes, looking for some sense of reassurance that she wasn't sure would actually be given. Then she heard him speak, and she couldn't help the shaky laugh that left her lips. His words and apparent breathlessness were somewhat reassuring. She gave him a small smile, trying to ignore the fact that he was putting distance between them, a distance that she didn't want there to be. While she was still set in her ways of no one-night flings, she didn't want this to be their one and only moment. So when she looked at him and saw his eyebrows raise, she gave him a smile before taking a step towards him and kissing his lips softly, letting the kiss linger on their lips longer than either of the previous ones had. When she pulled away, she looked up at him and gave him a smile. "I was kind of expecting some other reason I should take a risk on you," she teased before chuckling quietly to herself. "But the reasons you provided were still greatly appreciated. I'll take them into consideration."

As Illias' hand made contact with her lower back once again, Aurora could feel the electricity as it jolted through her veins. She wanted to spend more time with him, that was quite evident to her. But she also knew that what she wanted wasn't a one-night thing. She wanted something real, and she saw a potential in Illias. He made her feel things and see things in a way she hadn't thought of before, and she wanted to explore that more. So when the kiss was over and he kept the contact, continuing to hold her close to him, she couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. They had the chemistry that a couple needed, but she wanted to see if there was anything more to Illias Delos. She knew that there was so much she had left to discover about him, but that was something only time could unveil.

The brunette looked into his eyes, biting down on her lower lip as he brushed away a piece of hair that she hadn't even noticed had fallen out of place. She could feel the lingering touch of his fingers on her skin, and she could have melted on the spot. But he had asked her a question, and she had an answer for him. It might not be an answer that he would want to hear, but it was the only answer she would give. She looked at him before moving her hand to hold the hand that had tucked the hair behind her ear. She gave him a small smile before taking a step in and kissing his cheek lightly. "I'll have an answer for you after you offer to buy me dinner and we go out for that dinner." She chuckled before taking a step back, knowing that she needed to create some distance between them. "I told you, Illy dear, I'm not one to enter decisions lightly. Take me to dinner, and I'll have a decision for you by the end of the evening." She then turned to Inigo and gave him a smile before holding her hand up so that she could pay her tab.

As soon as Inigo brought her check, she slid some cash into the wallet before taking the pen and grabbing Illias' hand. She wrote down her number on the back of his hand, emphasizing it with a heart before dropping his hand and setting the pen back onto the bar. She leaned up and pressed another soft kiss to his lips before pulling away and giving him a playful smirk. "I hope I'll hear from you soon, Illias." Then she turned and made her way to the exit so that she could go home and wait.