Can't sleep.

[Aodh Wilkes]

Back in one of his hometowns after several months away he couldn't find peace enough to get some sleep. No rest for the weary... Huh. Riddiculus. After twisting and turning a hundred times between his sheets he gave up. Got dressed and then went to his favouriye bar in town. Oh London. He thought. Good times. The picture of his sister together with a ministry official ate him from within. He would need his good share of wine to be able to let go. It's not a good way of getting bad thoughts or feelings away but he did it anyways. More a habit than anything. His sisters angry eyes when he tried to protect her. She'd asked him to look after her, but when he did she... hated him?

He was there. In the wizard block of London. There were a long line outside. No way he would be waiting. He took his usual entrance through the back. He wondered how many times he would be able to do that before he would get caught. The thought made him smile. He then smiled to a girl working there. ''Thought it was a restroom'' he said as he came out from the doors that said. 'Crew only'.

He sat down and ordered the same as usual. Red wine with lime. The bartender didn't look too happy by his appearance, but who cared?

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Altiyan was in the United Kingdom on a somewhat illegitimate business trip. He had been staying there for over a week and now had pretty much wrapped up his dealings in the country and was looking forward to flying back to New Zealand in a few days. He hated the UK, believing it had a far to high muggle population, and to make matters worse for him, most of his work had taken him out of the wizarding centers and in to muggle populated areas. Altiyan was glad to be finally finished with the job and free to do as he wished for his last few days in the UK, and what he wished to do was drink. Altiyan denied having a drinking problem, he had many problems, but drinking wasn't one of them, to him it as the one thing which distracted him from the problems. Essentially it was the cure for his problems. He never drank to get drunk, he had a high tolerance for alcohol and could always function normally after drinking. Only on the rear occasion or when drinking certain drinks did alcohol ever have a negative effect on him, bringing back thoughts he had chosen to ignore and replaying memories he had purposely forgotten as to never dealt with them. It was part of these memories that made him hate the UK, she was born here, and now that the thoughts of her were starting to creep into his mind he knew he had to stop it, cure himself with alcohol.

There was a bar that Altiyan knew of a block from the cheap hotel he was staying in, it was often quite busy and people could spend almost an hour at the door waiting to get in, but Altiyan was on good basis with the man who ran the door security and he knew he would be able to get in without waiting in line. Leaving his room Altiyan pulled on his leather jacket and made his way to the elevator. Riding it down he rolled a cigarette to smoke on his walk to the bar and when the elevator doors opened again on the ground floor of the building he had already lit it up. Distantly the doorman cursed at him for smoking inside but he ignored him and carried on. When Altiyan arrived at the bar the line stretched far and many people were waiting to get let in. Silently he smirked as he made his way around the line and up to the door security,
"Altiyan, I was not expecting to see you here in London. Can't say it's a pleasure to see you though." The man joked in a gruff voice, he knew there was only one reason Altiyan would be there, "Here on 'business' I assume?"
"As usual. A mans got to make a living somehow, right?" Altiyan replied nonchalant, flicking his cigarette bud into the gutter.
"Ain't that the truth," The man smirked as he made way for Altiyan to pass him, "Tell the bartender to put your first drink on my tab" Altiyan tapped him on the shoulder in thanks as he passed into the bar and chuckled quietly to himself as he heard the people in line start to complain loudly at his cutting in line. The bar was quite full and so Altiyan took the only lone stool next to a younger man who seemed to have only recently awoken and was receiving strange looks from the bartender.
"Fire whiskey, make it a double." Altiyan commanded as he took his seat, not caring that the bartender may have been taking the order of the younger man.

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

Aodh looked at the man that sat himself down next to him. Did that guy really have to sit cluttered to him? Where were all of the girls?
The bartender looked happy to get a reason to not hear Aodh. The bartender had just one arm and totally ignored Aodhs request for his drink and seemed to take the newly seateds order. "Hey! What on bloody earth are you doing!? I ordered a redwine with lime, first!"
The bartender raised one eyebrow. "I'll serve you when I'm done here." he said and poured up some firewhisky.
"Hey! One arm! Give me my drink!"
"Calm down, sir."
"No, I want my drink now."
"If you're not calm I need to call the guards."
Aodhs lack of sleep made him not letting it to get any further. Mr one-arm put the glass down in front of the new man. "A double firewhiskey for you sir." then he started to polish some glasses.
Aodh looked mad. "For crying out loud! Can I get my damn drink!"

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Altiyan could feel the eyes of the younger guy on him as she ordered his drink and sat down on the stool, he seemed annoyed that Altiyan had to sit right beside him and that he had commanded his drink ignoring the fact that the bartender was already taking his order. Altiyan didn't care for the mans discontent towards him, his personality was the sort which commanded respect, not out of fear but out of reverence and it made people want to please him. He wasn't surprised when the man began to make a scene after being ignored by the bartender, they seemed to have some sort of animosity between them. An obvious smirk spread on Altiyan's face the moment his fire whiskey was placed in front of him and the young mans anger grew.
"Thank you" Altiyan said ignoring the younger mans complaint. He took a swig from his glass and swirled the liquid and ice around in the glass. The younger mans complaining was beginning to irritate Altiyan although he could understand his anger,
"That's enough" Altiyan said with a fowl tempered growl placing his glass on the bar, looking between the younger man and the bartender, "We get the point already." His eyes lingered on the bartender for a while longer until he nodded and pored the strangers red wine with lime and placed it heavily in front of him with a false smile.

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

Aodh had had it with people, like one-arm, not giving him any respect what so ever. He and Mr Bartender never seemed to get along. But Aodh didn't know if it was just same old same old or that the bartender really was mad with him. He didn't care anyways so he usually just shrugged it off. But today it was different.
Aodh felt agony rising in his chest. Were everyone to turn their backs on him? He felt his insides twist in a sickening knot. First and mainly his father never recognized him for who he was or how well he did. His father not even cared when Aodh began to get himself in trouble with the authorities. The one thing his father had said thou, once, was to keep himself together through school. Otherwise the father he knew was a man who didn't care of his son. Next up was his mother who was afraid of him. He had angry issues occationally, but he would never, -never- hurt his family. And so for Caya, his bigger sister, who'd told him just recently about how a guy used her and then broke her heart. And that he had promised her to protect her and now she was seeing a ministry official. Aodh felt the anger rise and as soon as he had spat the words about getting his damn drink. The man on his right had growled like a bear or some being of unknown standard. The thing was…
… That everything came to an end… The bartender and Aodh stopped. Aodh looked back on the man like a little boy who'd been naughty and tried to play it safe. Surprise on his face. He then shifted his eyes over to the bartender who started to pour some wine up for him, with lime, just as he had ordered fifteen minutes ago. Aodh could feel the tension and looked down onto the bars fine finish. And when the glass was placed in front of him he almost felt it like something stung him in his side and he murmured ''Thank you, sir.''
He quickly took his glass and drank half of it. He didn't know what more to say really. But he made himself ready to leave. He fished up some galleons out of his pocket. Scratched his eyebrow and swallowed when there wasn't anything to swallow. Nervous. His breathing was distinct. He needed to get out. Memories flashed by of Aodh and his old man. Fake memories he'd told in school to impress others from Slytherin. Life was all a charade for him.

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Downing his fire whiskey in one go he flicked his glass towards the bartender who filled it again quickly and moved on down the bar with a last grimace towards Altiyan and the younger man. Altiyan somewhat regretted his decision to choose this bar. A quiet drink is what he wanted, or maybe a few quiet drinks, but not to listen to bitter squabbling between a sad old bartender and some kid. Altiyan turned around to ignore both of them as young stranger drank his drink and he looked out at the room for a moment. It looked most other bars, there wasn't anything special about it and Altiyan wasn't really interested in the view. He thought about the job he was sent to London to do and thought about all that had happened while being in the country, 'Definitely not worth the money' He thought to himself and vowed to demand more for all the issues he had to put up with while on the job. Altiyan could feel himself beginning to feel irritated, he was over the job and over the place, especially the place. Altiyan tuned back to the bar to get his drink and his eyes passed over the stranger Altiyan could sense his nervousness and anxiety. There was something about him that Alityan pitied but at the same time could relate to, he seen a lot of himself in the stranger. There was something that seemed panicky about him, like he on the verge of running from the bar or having a panic attack. This only made him pity him more,
"I'm Altiyan Lee" He introduced himself with a casual smile, still slightly unsure why he was even bothering, "What's your name, kid?"

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

Aodh didn't understand why he still went to this bar when he knew that mr one-arm would upset him. Maybe he just wanted to have someone to get out his anger with. Today it totally backfired and he felt worthless instead. What was happening to him? He saw the man turn away from him in the corner of his eyes.
He needed something to do. He couldn't live like this any longer. He wanted a place of his own. Not that he totally hated to live in appartments and houses where the people owning it was on vacation. Still, it wasn't his place and that bothered him. But in order to have your own place you also needed to have some money and a steady income. Aodh did have no money, no steady income.

Caya had shouted at him to leave. And he felt hurt when she did. She had asked him to keep jerks away from her and when he did he got a look more angry than he'd ever seen his wellbehaved big sister. The ministry officials. He wanted to keep himself and his family away from them as much as possible.

He felt the mans eyes on him. He tried to rise his guard but was too tired and emotionally drained from all that had happened lately. He tried to breathe normally.

The man next to him spoked to him. Aodh looked over with blue eyes, questioned that the man smiled. By the time Aodh got interupted he felt that most of the anxiety lifted from his shoulders. He wasn't invisible. Then he questioned the use of the word kid.
"I'm no kid. I'm 18." Aodh said with his mask of superiority on. "My name is Aodh Wilkes."
Even if he didn't like the mans tone he still felt relieved that someone pulled him out from the darkened inner land. It was still there but the man held him stuck to reality. He better behave and be politr or else the man might drop him.
"I'm no kid..." he said again in a milder tone.
He was nervous in front of this man. The man had something to him that made Aodh not ask any question back.

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Altiyan picked up his drink but paused almost as the glass touched his lips. He couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face at Aodh's defense of not being a kid,
"You're not doing a good job at proving yourself otherwise," Altiyan said with a side long glance at Aodh, his voice coming across somewhat unfriendly. Altiyan sat for a drawn out moment before drinking. Something about the man beside him made him remember what he himself was like five years ago when he was eighteen. That was year he choose not to remember - 2027. Throughout his whole life he had always portrayed himself with a false superiority and confidence and ignored the feelings of loneliness and abandonment that he felt. But then he met her. She was the one woman who brought out the real him and stripped him of his fake personality. Before meeting her Altiyan had never believed in love or in belonging, never believed that he could be a father or love two people so much. But in 2027 that all changed and the two people he loved more than anything were taken from him and he was pushed back into the darkness with his loneliness. It was a year of hatred, anger and instability. Altiyan thought about himself then and now, not much had changed, he was still hateful, angry and unstable but he no longer had to fake his confidence and superiority for truly seeing himself better than others; especially muggles and mudbloods. It was his experiences with loneliness and abandonment that made Altiyan able to see it in others and he could deffinatly see it in Aodh,
"Nonetheless.." Altiyan finally took a swig of his drink after his momentary pause, his voice kinder than it was before when talking to Aodh, "It's nice to met you."

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

Aodh flexed his jaw. "I don't have to prove anything." he answered simply and almost as quiet as a mouse so the man Altiyan couldn't hear him. He felt it like he always needed to be the last one saying something in a conversation. No matter the costs. Mainly he just murmured the last words to himself to not cause any fights or making a scene. This Altiyan he deffinatly was a man Aodh didn't wanna cross. This man looked older, looked like he had some muscles and probably some technicue to use them with full strength. Aodh knew that if he continued being disrespectful this man could easily pull him out of his chair and throw him across the bar. Now, he didn't want that to happen. Aodh had a slim figure but was fast and could do some damage even if he needed to get stronger, get some technicue and calm his temper.
He came thinking of the day again. How the ministry official had tried to disarm him, how the blonde ministry man had been very quick. Aodh needed to work on that, but how? He didn't really have any friends.
Altiyan said something that brought Aodh back from his thoughts. 'Nonetheless..' ? Aodh looked back at Altiyan with his face set in stone, had he heard him replying to his last words to the conversation even if he had whispered them to himself?
Aodh didn't believe his ears at the next ad to the conversation between them. "It's nice meeting me?" Aodh asked surprised. He didn't like the sudden change to the mans tone. It had gone from demanding to almost kind in matter of minutes? That couldn't be a good sign. Aodh didn't want a fight. He was tired and just wanted to sit here have a drink and feel pitty for himself. He swallowed when the shadows came back again. 
"I'm s-sorry if I offended you in any way, sir. I'm just having a hard time right now. I didn't mean to be disrespectful." Aodh kept his eyes down into his drink and had another sipp when he was done talking. He hoped the man wouldn't carry any hard feelings. What did this man do to him?

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Vaguely Altiyan waved off the kids apology and shock his head,
"And I am sure it wont happen again" Altiyan said, accepting his apology but with the statement came an underlying warning that it better not happen again. Altiyan did not particularly care for the Aodh's tone towards him at first, but it was not like people had not been more disrespectful to him in the past. He did not pride himself on his ability to show mercy towards others but that did not say he couldn't shrug off simple grievances. Altiyan often wondered what would happen if things got violent every time someone got in his way or he got in someone else's way, it was a strange thought, but Altiyan knew he would get no peace if that happened, he was far to often at odds with others and only rarely did violence break out, whether with use of magic or not. He raised an eyebrow at the way Aodh had said he was going through a 'hard time', He did not care for the story behind it but felt like giving some, most likely unwanted, advice.
"Hard time?" Altiyan shook his head pessimistically but there was no anger in his words when he spoke, "Listen kid, your whole life is going to be full of 'hard times', in fact it is like one long hard time. You got to get used to it. You just take it on the chin and move the hell on." Altiyan had always felt like that. He had seen his share of hard times and liked to convince himself he had moved on from them. In his not so humble opinion, the things that happened in life where just that, things that happened, and he had long decided to stop weighing them as good or bad and lingering on them. He just ignored the emotions that he did not want to feel.

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

"And I am sure it wont happen again" Altiyan said.
Aodh was split. He didn't know if he could say he wouldn't. In fact he felt rage right now. Suppressed. But he nodded to the warning he was given and glanced up at the man. His blue eyes rather darkened. Inside of him he had a war going on. He hated when people looked down on him. He was trying desperately to hold back the anger that had a dispute with his mind. '-No, it's not a good idea. Keep calm Aodh. Just walk away. -I'm not going to walk away.' At the same time he felt like a kitty under a lion. Altiyan wouldn't let him have a say. He could hiss and spit how much he ever wanted but the big cat would just hold him firmly to the ground. Maybe some harsh words would do it?

"Hard time?" Altiyan continued, "Listen kid, your whole life is going to be full of 'hard times', in fact it is like one long hard time. You got to get used to it. You just take it on the chin and move the hell on." 

That burst it, he stod up. "Firstly, I'm still no kid. And secondly, who are you to tell me what I am or ought to do? You know nothing about anything I've been through. So you don't know a crap..." his glass still held some wine, Aodh pushed the glass onto the floor and it shattered. "...a crap! of what hell I'm living in. Screw you. Screw you, that's what I say." He acted cocky and then turned his back and started heading towards the door. His jaw tight. His eyes sparkly. His hands in fists.

 

[Altiyan Lee]

The somewhat friendly advise Altiyan tried to give had backfired on him and Aodh got angry. 'What is wrong with this kid?' He thought to himself, perplexed at how he erratically changed from being timid and apologizing for his disrespect to being bold and obnoxious in the blink of an eye. The glass Aodh pushed from the bar fell to the floor and shattered at Altiyan's feet, splashing wine onto his shoes and the bottom of his black jeans. The bar had fallen quiet and many looked on at the young mans outburst, some even daring to draw out their wand in defense. One who did so first was the one armed man behind the bar, he looked furious at the purposeful damage and began to open his mouth to protest. Altiyan calmly stood from his stool at the bar and raised his hand to silence the bartender. His acquaintance outside who was working as security had also entered the bar to see what the commotion was. He did not look at all surprised to see that Altiyan had again been causing problems, and if it were anyone else who was causing problems he would have sorted it out, but he knew how Altiyan dealt with such things, so instead he just shook his head and went back outside a faint smile on his lips as he suppressed a laugh. But even as Altiyan stood at the bar with his hand raised towards the bartender he did not know quite what he was going to do. In any normal situation he would beat him black and blue without second guessing himself, but there was something about this kid, Altiyan pitied him and how he seemed to act like a lost lamb, unsure what it is doing and easily startled. It would be like beating a puppy, or a small child, it did not seem right to him, but even puppies and children needed to be disciplined. 'If he insists he is not a kid...' Altiyan though, finally moving from the bar after the kid. A rough push to the shoulder turned the kid around to face him and in an instant Altiyan had him pinned to the wall by the collar of his shirt. A few people behind him gasped and a woman screamed but Altiyan ignored them,
"You have some balls, kid, I will give you that. Not many challenge me so openly." Altiyan spoke, his voice loosing all traces of kindness it once had, he raised a fist and brought down hard toward Aodh's face, but before connecting he stopped, "Give me a reason I shouldn't beat you half to death for your insolence?" Altiyan really did not want to have to physically hurt Aodh, but if that is what it took for him to learn respect then Altiyan would.

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

As soon as Aodh had pushed the glass onto the floor and the bar went dead silent, one arm got his wand out he could see in the corner of his eyes. Aodh felt stupid for acting on his anger. What had he done. But he had already walked past the point of no return. He had to end this now so he finished the sentence. "...screw you I say." And when he turned around to leave muttering to himself the man stood up with his hand raised at the bartender. He hadn't expected that.

Aodh didn't care about the fuzz he'd caused, the silence, the staring eyes or even the wands that people got out ready to point at him. He knew most people weren't such cowards that they would cast a curse at anyone turning their backs on them. So he kept on walking putting his one hand into his unzipped jacket pocket fingering on the twelve cancer-sticks. Desperately longing to calm himself down.

Suddenly he felt a pain spreading from his shoulder down a force so strong that it pushed him around and it took him some seconds to realize what had happened, get the pain under control and finding who was pinning him to the wall. It was Altiyan... Aodh had lost his breath being pushed into the wall. His one hand was stuck in the pocket and the other one grasped around Altiyans wrist to keep him from strangling him. Altiyan keept his collar in a firm grip.

Deep inside he felt scared but he wouldn't show. All he could hear was his own blood running through his veins, his own fight with his breath not to panic and Altiyans voice. The growl was back. The lion and the kitty image slipped through his mind.
"Let go of me." his voice was weak.

Aodh couldn't protect himself in any way when the fist came at his face. He simply shut his eyes and his head turned slightly, his shoulders raised on impulse. He opened his eyes when the fist stopped. Like a dear in headlights he looked into Altiyans eyes.

"Give me a reason I shouldn't beat you half to death for your insolence?"

"I can't... Just get it over with." he said. Leaving it up to Altiyan if he wanted to fight or not. "I have nobody anymore so it doesn't matter. Let go of me!"

 

[Altiyan Lee]

Again Aodh's personality switched from bold back to timid and Altiyan grew angry. His fist stayed frozen above the younger mans face but it was only a small remaining amount of self restraint that keep it there. Never had Altiyan come across a person so strange, it confused him greatly. His normal instinct was to beat him black and blue until he begged forgiveness, however this was different, something inside him stayed his hand but he did not know why. Aodh's stood panic stricken yet barely seemed to flinch and it aggravated Altiyan to see him not care for his own well being. Altiyan pulled back his fist but this time did not falter in connecting, it was placed to catch him on the left side of the jaw, it wasn't a hard enough hit to break anything but would probably have hurt and bleed.
"Have more respect for yourself!" Altiyan growled but then calmed his voice, hiding his anger better, "So what you've got nobody? I don't, but do you see me acting how you are now? Wallowing in my own self pity. No!" He caught Aodh by the collar again, his grip considerably tighter then before. Altiyan could not quite find the words to say what he was trying to convey, he wasn't much of a talker. His eyes bore into Aodh's, he wondered if anything he had said was going through to the man, he wanted to know what he was thinking. Altiyan sharply let go of Aodh, 'What waste your time' he scolded himself still angry and now craving a cigarette.
"I tried to do this differently" Altiyan said quietly, holding his hands up as a sign of peace "But you wouldn't know kindness if it came up and punched you in the mouth" Altiyan made reference to his act of violence. He flicked out a white pocket handkerchief and tossed it at the man so he could clean up the blood from his face and sadly shock his head before exiting the bar.

 

[Aodh Wilkes]

Aodh welcomed the hit, his head followed with the force of the fist and a metallic taste filled his mouth. He put a hand onto his lip when Alityan let go of him. He saw blood on his fingers and then he could barely breathe again by Altiyan grabbing his collar again. He smiled. Actually smiled. Welcomed the pain in his jaw and on his lip. Though his eyes were fixed and somewhat scared.

Aodh didn't answer any of the things the man said. But in his mind he did. His face expression changed from filled with fear to anxious and somewhat peace. He woke up from his state of not doing much restraint and got the hankerchief and started clean the blood from his face. He saw the man exiting the bar and then stood still for awhile before he found mr Onearm looking at him. Aodh saw all other people in the bar studying him aswell, and he said. "What!? What are you looking at?!" The bartender walked up at him and threw him out.

Aodh fell onto the ground outside. Deeply embarrased. Why hadn't he fought back? Whenever he knew himself being a deer in a wolfs jaw he fought like he was a dragon, but not this time. What was different? He damned himself and punched the pavement with his hands. He smelled the smoke of a cigarett.