Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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"Is there any reason why I shouldn't be asking a fabulous young gentleman like yourself on a date?" Kisoku flashed his pearly whites at the young Mexican next to him. Flirting was a game to the young businessman, and if he wasn't the reigning champion, he had at least made it to the finals.

He eyed Dante once more from head to toe, savoring each inch of the boy's body as if it were a puzzle piece to be unlocked. His lips slowly curled into the slightest of grins. "I'm very sure. So... are you game?"

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Lukas pondered the dilemma for a moment, then smiled at the other three. "Okay... how 'bout this, then? You three chip in what you can, and I'll make up the difference, okay?" Although his family wasn't anywhere near Kisoku's income bracket, money hadn't been a problem for the Cajun for quite some time-- one of the few things he could thank his parents for, he thought bitterly. They'd certainly done their parts as providers... if nothing else. And although he'd never been overly concerned about worldly wealth, even he had to admit that it did have its uses.

The talk of setting fires, however, did cause the older boy some concern, "Uhh... maybe that not such a great idea, guys..." On second thought, perhaps Estelle had good reason for not considering Jeremy as potential 'date' material...

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Lucia couldn't help but smile. There was something about Sam's smile that made all the doubt wash right out of her body. She stood on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss onto Sam's lips before grasping his hand. "Thank you, Sam..."

A dull pain in the back of her head suggested to her that she should change the subject from matters of the past. With her free hand, she rubbed at the spot behind her right ear which throbbed with the faint memory of a former pain. "Well... we're almost at the corner store. Just tell me what you want. The candy's on me. No arguements."

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"Well, the fact that I'm hardly a gentleman," Dante replied with a familiar smirk which only seemed to grow as the man eyed him. It was a familiar look, but it was a bit surprising coming from this one, much as the flirting had been. Pushing this away, though, he decided, after a moment's thought to be honest about it.

"I would be game," He began slowly as he let his smirk grow. Really, it was only fair and if it could help him to avoid another session of being forced to beg for his damn money, then it could well be worth it. "as long as you're rich enough, old man."

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"No way! I'm not going to let some lovely young lady pay for me!" Sam objected with mock-stridance as he shook his head firmly. Letting the seriousness wash away, he once again took to ignoring the odd-- and seemingly meaningless-- feelings that had been stirred within him in favor of thinking about candy. "That just wouldn't be gentlemanly at all, now would it?"

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"As long as you're rich enough, old man."

...

Kisoku burst out laughing. It would be just his luck to find a good looking, well spoken young man and then have him wind up being a whore. Suuuper. His laughter subsided to the occasional chuckle as he opened his mouth to address the kid, who must-- no doubt-- have been offended by his unexplained laughter up until that point.

"Wow, that was unexpected. Listen, I haven't had to pay for the company of a man in all the years of my life, and I'm not about to start now while I'm still in my prime." He gave the other an apologetic smile. "You just seem to be a really great guy. I hope that wasn't just some ploy to get into my wallet..."

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"Oh come off it, you chauvanistic bastard. I'm the one who knocked your candy to the ground, it's only fair that I should pay for the replacement." Lucia rolled her eyes, and she let the other into the store. There was a light hum of ambient corner store muzak playing from an unseen speaker and heavy flourescent lighting overhead. She almost shivered at the oppressiveness of human creation. So flawed and vile... it was a torture unparalleled.

"C'mon. Now tell me what you want. The sooner we're out of here the better."

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Dante merely crossed his arms and watched as Kisoku dissolved into helpless laughter. Though he could imagine what was so funny, he didn't think he could share in the amusement; really, it was funny how differently people responded to such things. At least the guy hadn't gone violent.

j "Yea, whatever. Good for you that you're too hot for a whore," He shrugged to Kisoku's latter comments, then smirked just slightly. "No, I'm not one much for putting on masks, even for clients. It's more what you see is what you get."

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"Oh fine," Sammy sighed mock-heavily as he shook his head. Honestly, he couldn't think of much reason to agrue and, for his own part, he found the store overcrowded, even for the few other customers wandering about. It was that odd feeling again, but it was strong enough not to be ignored. "I guess I'll just take some sour apple lollipops, if they have them."

"Still, I can think of a way for you to repay me," He smirked a bit as he cocked his head at her.

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'Fabulous, just fabulous... I bet I totally wounded his pride there. Way to go jackass' Kisoku chided himself mentally. Still, it wasn't to late to make it up to the other boy. "Well, that's not exactly what I meant. I just mean that, yeah, you're cute, but I don't want to fuck you. Well no, shit. That's not what I mean either! Err..."

He took in a deep breath to calm his fumbling nerves and settled himself before speaking. "Let me start again. I didn't mean that I'm too hot for a whore because you're quite hot yourself, but if anything were to ever come of this encounter, the last thing I would want it to be is sex for money. I'd rather just a get together with coffee or a meal involved for friendship, y'know?"

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"Sour apple? Fine. Good. Wait here." Lucia left Sam in that spot and dashed to the location of the candy, grabbing as many sour apple lollipops as she could and going to the register to pay. She shoved money at the boy at the register, tapped her fingers impatiently as he slowly counted her change, finally got her change and returned to Sam with candy in hand.

"Here you go... and by the way, if that last comment was anything sexual, you can forget about it. This crappy muzak is really killing the mood."

She grabbed the boy's arm and led him out of the store. She was not ten feet out the door when she focused her energy and willed a can of pringles to light aflame. That'd show those humans for creating the profane evils of fast food, flourescent lighting and elevator music.

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"Listen, I don't really care about that. I can understand that you don't want to fuck me," Dante shrugged easily as he continued to watch the other. It was a bit of a shame, really. "It isn't a big deal and you don't have to force out apologies or whatever."

"Yea, that's a nice idea, that we could get together for something casual, but it doesn't work like that, usually." He shook his head as he tipped his head back. Watching the sky, he sighed softly. "It would not be good if I were caught out with someone who wasn't a client, regardless of what we were doing."

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"No, nothing sexual," Sammy shook his head as he very gratefully took the offered lollipops. Shoving all but one into the pocket of his coat, he quickly unwrapped the spared one, then shoved this same in his mouth. Ah, sugar. Pure bliss. Still, he did have to blink as he heard a few startled sounds as they left the store, but he also found a rather satisfied chuckle leaving his lips; he hoped that, whatever it was, it had hurt.

"I was just thinking about that upcoming dance," He continued as he breathed deep of the fresh air outside the store. Much nicer. Shaking his head slightly, he turned his attention to said event as well as to the fact that he hadn't, yet, secured a date. He had been meaning to ask around, but he was probably procrastinating in hopes that Sempai or Lukie'd ask him. Not that either was very likely, but there you go. Still, he could do worse than asking Lucia. Much worse. "You wouldn't happen to have a date for that yet, would you?"

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"Oh... I see." Hearing the boy's situation depressed Kisoku quite a bit. He would've loved to get together with the boy something, but it seemed quite impossible unless Kisoku was willing to fork over cash, which he refused to do. If it was one thing the young man knew, it was that money always got in the way of relationships on any level. There was simply no way around that fact... his parents-- well, his father and biological mother-- had tried that, and they had failed miserably and fucked up Kisoku's life in the process. And then there was Kein and the fact that he could barely find time to see Sam and Lukas because of the family business... He wouldn't let his life get fucked over by money one more time. If that meant giving up on a potentially good thing, then so be it.

But that didn't mean that this would just give up completely. He took out a crumpled up deli receipt from his pocket and scribbled his name and cellphone on it. "It's a shame that we probably can't get together something. Look, if you find someway to get around your situation or you just wanna talk, gimme a ring. It was my sincerest pleasure meeting you."

He grabbed the other boy's hand and slipped the paper inside of it before curling his fingers to secure it in place. He then lifted Dante's hand and tapped a kiss to it. "I hate to cut our conversation short, but I really ought to be going. Strict scheduele to adhere to and all... bye, Dante..."

And with that said, he turned around and walked away. Opportunities cut down right from the start, constant compromise and one failed romance after another... he was starting to really believe that this was his curse for dumping Sam... and in these moments when he really felt like beating himself up, he found himself dialing the one person who could probably thoroughly make him feel like the jackass that he was. *ring ring* "Jesus Christ Lukas, pick up your fucking cellphone."

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Lucia found that her face was unnaturally hot. Was she actually blushing? BLUSHING? All because some boy had asked her to a dance... well, then again, Sam wasn't just some boy. He was Sam and, therefore, wonderful in so many ways.

"I'd love to go with you!" She blurted out before realizing that in all of Sam's roundabout chitter chatter, he hadn't actually asked her out. For all he knew, Sam was just asking her some arbitrary question to fill up the dead air. "Umm... that is, if _you_ don't already have a date, which you probably do..."

Part of her had turned into a nervous wreck of a self-conscious teenager. Another part of her was assuring the other part that she was the great and powerful Lucifer Morningstar and that no other girl or boy could ever be as important to Samael's life as she.

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Dante stared after the blond for a few moments before muttering the very worst Spanish curse his mind could offer. That... really could have gone so much better, but he had to be honest about it. He couldn't put the guy's life on the line-- even if he was a businessman- - just for the chance for maybe one or two fun nights out. It wouldn't be fair on any level.

Sighing tiredly, he glanced down to the hand still curled around the slip of paper and, curling this tight enough to cut bloody crescents in his palm, he moved as if to throw the paper into the gutter. Then stopped himself. He knew that it would be terrible if Barano found the number on him, but he couldn't bring himself to toss it into the gutter where it belonged.

'This is stupid,' He chided himself even as he stuffed the paper into a small hidden pocket on the inside of his coat. What he hoped to do with it, even he couldn't guess, but it was obvious that he couldn't just toss it. Christ, he must be going mad.

'I'm just keeping it since the guy was sincere about being sorry,' He tried to convince himself as he moved to continue walking down the street. Digging a cigarette from the pack in his pocket, he quickly lifted this to his lips, then paused as he caught the red spots on it from his hand. Now that was just lovely. Shaking his head, he decided to smoke it, anyway. 'or as a reminder that I can't do shit like that. It's not like I'd call him or anything.'

'Really.' He stated firmly as he leaned languidly against a light pole. Did he have somewhere to be? Maybe. He didn't care. He just wanted to smoke. He just wanted to listen to the deafening strains of the music filling his ears. He just wanted not to think.

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"No, I hadn't asked anyone, yet," Sammy chuckled. Really, he was rather surprised-- and not a little charmed-- but the tone of Lucia's voice when she replied as he had fully been expecting that she had been asked by any number of people from the student body. After all, she was a lovely, charming, sweet young woman. Not to mention damn hot. Yet, on the other hand, some part of him seemed dead certain that Lucia would go with no one but him. That she couldn't go with anyone but him. That was how it was supposed to be. They belonged together. Forever. Of course, that was the same odd part of his mind that seemed to serve up the nightmares, the misanthropic thoughts, and the odd reassurances that Lucia's words were true; he wasn't sure he trusted that part, to be honest.

"I was hoping you'd go with me." He continued steadily even as his common sense railed at him. Really, it was convinced that this was beyond bad and that asking Lucia could mean very extremely bad things in the near future; as always, he firmly ignored this. "If you don't mind, of course. I mean, since it's Sadie Hawkins and all, I guess I really shouldn't be doing the asking..."

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"Well of course, I want to ask you to go with me! I wouldn't go to that dance with one but you!" Lucia grinned, snuggling a bit against Sam's arm. "I'm really happy that you mentioned it. I mean, I was getting so caught up in everything, and I would've felt like a complete heel if the Sadie Hawkins went by and I never asked you to go with me."

She couldn't help but be overjoyed. In a way, she was having her cake and eating it too. She could enjoy a night of dancing with a man that she felt a sincere attraction too, and at the same time, she was pulling her ally away from his friends. Slowly but surely, she was securing her place next to Sam... the spot right in between the boy and his right hand man, Lukas. She grinned, her teeth flashing in a feral, hyena-like manner. "I'm really glad that we can go to the dance together. Really, really glad..."

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Somewhere in the midst of discussing limousines and arson with his three companions, Lukas became aware of his cell phone once again assaulting his ears with the strains of "Holly Jolly Christmas." Damn... he'd either forgotten to change the ring setting on the damn thing... or Sam had somehow gotten hold of it again and was now somewhere, laughing his ass off...

With an apologetic smile at his three companions, he fished the offending phone out of his coat pocket and flipped it open. "Sam..." he growled into the receiver, "If you touch my cell phone again, I swear I'll tie you down, spread tofu all over you, and throw you in a dark place with no access to make-up or hair dye... and make you listen to Burl Ives' Greatest Hits til you lose what little mind you got left!"

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"I'm..." Sammy paused for a long moment as the word 'glad' seemed to stall out on his lips. He _was_ glad that Lucia had agreed to go with him! He really, really was! It was going to a wonderful time to dance with her tightly in his arms and to have her body close to his. It would be heaven.

A sharp pain twisted through him at that thought and, giving a sharply pained moan, he crossed his arms over the front of himself in an unconcious mimic of how Samael had tried to protect himself from the burst of Lucifer's power. Heaven. Hell. Which was it? Those exquisite moments of incorporeal blending followed by the pain, the torment, the blazing end. It was longing. It was fierce love. It was deep friendship so rare. It was hatred. It was anger. It was betrayal. It was love spurned and trampled. It was the longing for vengence and comeuppance.

All this stormed through Sam, unbidden, and, gasping desperately for air, he tried desperately to make sense of it. There _had_ to be sense! There _had_ to be! He _wasn't_ going crazy! He wouldn't be like her! He couldn't! He just couldn't! He only had to find the thread of sense in this madness and he'd be fine!

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