Cold Night's Intake • •

[chuck rushton snow]

Missy had wanted a night out, some end of school year to-do since so many of WD-40’s staff were college kids. Chuck wasn’t in those ranks, but the night out didn’t exclude him. After they had cashed up the till and wiped down the kitchen, they had all quickly changed out of their work clothes and into their glad rags and began to ‘paint the town red’ as someone had said. Chuck wasn’t usually one for such things, but he had been told he wasn’t allowed to skip out on the plans. Six Feet Under was their second stop of the night after someone had complained about the music on offer in The Marquee. He couldn’t remember who. Chuck hadn’t really been paying too much attention to who had said what and when. He was secretly waiting for the point when they were too drunk, or having too much fun so that he could slip away and go home.

He wasn’t miserable, so much that he just didn’t like attention. At all, really. Chuck’s past had made him more comfortable in the shadows, or the back of a room where people didn’t look his way so much. In the kitchens no one ever really saw him, apart from those he worked with. He just made the dishes, but never mingled with the customers. It was how he liked it. When he did come out, he came alone, chose a place people wouldn’t know him. It might be New York, a huge city, but he was forever convinced that someone would recognise him, blow up the years of running and lies that he had put in place. It was paranoia at its best. He knew that much, but Chuck was just so used to being careful and having his ways. It had always been for the best. He watched his co-workers laughing as they all knocked back another round of shots. Chuck hesitated, sighed, and then downed his own. He scrunched his eyes tight shut at the burning in his throat, but then let out the held breath and smirked at them, going along with what was deemed normal.

They went off to dance, some dragged, but Chuck went to the bathroom before finding a spot to hide at the bar. He knew it was too early to just vanish, but he didn’t want to go and dance. It wasn’t really his cup of tea to be in a crowd and lose himself. He felt that was how trouble could happen. He knew it was ridiculous, but he’d feel better holding a drink at the bar than he would lost in a crowd on the dance floor where rock music hurt his ears and dancers threatened to knock him off balance. No, instead he paid for his drink and curled his fingers around the bottle, not raising it to his lips just yet. Chuck was content to wait there, just wait. He was good at being patient, if nothing else.

• • •

TAGGED! Pandora Wylde Hunt
WORDS! 500!
OUTFIT! Refined & Reserved!
LYRICS! Polaroid - - - Imagine Dragons
NOTES! <3

[Pandora Wylde Hunt]

Pan spent too many nights on a dance floor at some club or bar in the city to actually keep count of them. She loved the nightlife, always had and always would. She didn't see the point in being young and sitting at home when there was so much to do and see, so many people to flirt with, men to seduce and say goodbye to in the morning. She didn't know where the wild and free mentality came from, one night stands being completely normal and acceptable. Her parents were the happiest couple Pan had ever seen and maybe one day she would like that but right now, she was young and wanted to have fun before she woke up at forty and wondered what happened. Besides, how was she supposed to find "the one" without getting out there in the world and meeting people? She wouldn't find him in a text book or under the hood of a car. No, those were the places she would find the things she already knew and the parts her family built.

She was chasing a degree she didn't need, just so she could show the board she had it. They only needed it because it made her look better to the automotive world. Pan thought it would be more impressive if she knew all she did, designed and built all that she had so far, without the degree. It showed, to her mind, that she was beyond capable and had an innate skill in the industry. She loved the family business but Pan loved getting her hands dirty, crawling under a hood and finding that little tear or problem that no one else could spot. She liked the designing well enough to get the engineering degree but she was happiest with grease on her cheek and those blue mechanics overalls tied around her waist. Or dressed up in the least amount of clothing acceptable at the clubs she frequented with her brother to catch the eye of a potential date for the night.

Pan knew she was a bit of an anomaly. She was one of the guys but wasn't at the same time. And she was probably a little weird, going out with her brother to the clubs. But they were twins and they liked to play their games. Pulling numbers was an easy one, something they usually started their nights out wagering how many they'd get before a specific time. Rating was another though that would was dependent on lighting. The games were definitely amusing and helped ease the pain on those rare nights that ended with ice cream and not bedroom romps. Six Feet Under was the club of the night and in the few short hours they'd been there, Pan had yet to be disappointed. Feeling the heat from the dance floor, she gave up on the flirt currently clinging to her hip like a monkey in search of the bar. She needed a drink, and an escape. Smiling, she slipped away in the crowd and stopped at the bar. "Jade! When you get the chance, babe!" She hollered at the delectable bartender who knew exactly what she wanted from the shelves behind him without her having to ask anymore. It was nice. As she waited, she ran her fingers through her long hair, shaking it as she went through it. With that done, she spun around to check out the scene again and her brown eyes stopped on the man leaning on the bar next to her. "Come here often?" She asked with a smirk, knowing it was a terrible line but liked using it anyway.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || chuck rushton snow
Words || 610
Clothes || Sexy Vixen
Music || Carrying Your Love With Me --George Strait
Notes || <3

[chuck rushton snow]

Chuck didn’t mean to come across as cold-hearted and mean. He had just been playing defensive since he was twelve. It was hard to switch that off after so many years, and he was still unsure of who could be trusted in the big bad world. So much of his life had been filled with doubt and pain. The only place he had ever felt remotely safe was inside the walls of the home he shared with his cousin, Rushton. Even then there was always that shiver of fear when there was an unplanned knock at the door. Both of them had carried their secrets with the terror of getting caught and the worry of what the consequences might be if they were ever found living in Montreal. Their lies were to keep Chuck safe, and there wasn’t a single part of him that regretted fleeing Texas and turning his back on the horror story that had been his childhood. He would do it all over again if given the chance. He just never wanted harm to come to his cousin for saving him from the suffering and the abuse that had come from those two who were supposed to look after him better than no other.

Chuck was still unable to shake that distrust. He knew he had good people in his life now, but there was still a barrier between himself and the rest of the world. It was as though he expected to wake up one morning to the smells and sounds of San Antonio, Texas. He was sane enough to know that New York wasn’t some dream or illusion. He had done enough work in the city of bright lights and concrete skyscrapers to know that, and yet the fear still lingered somewhere deep down. He imagined it would always be there, shaking him to his core even in old age and long after his mother and step-father were six feet under or dead and rotting in a ditch something; whichever had the displeasure of claiming their corpses when the time finally came. Chuck had very little of pleasant feelings for them, and he hated them even more for how they left him with such distrust of the world.

He was still brooding with his hand wrapped around his bottle of beer. He felt uncomfortably out of place, but then he was more of the loner kind. He kept fit with wall climbing, but then the rest of the time he was a sports watching, horror game playing, quiet mouse of a man. Sure, he looked like he could handle himself in a bar brawl, and Chuck had every confidence that he could, but the point was that he was very unlikely to be in a bar brawl because he rarely frequented them. He went to the comedy club if a show caught his attention, but even then he often went alone just because he didn’t like being asked too many questions in case he didn’t have the right answers. His life, after all, had been built on a foundation of lies to keep him safe. At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, he slowly and uninterestingly turned his gaze. Chuck did not make small talk, and he wasn’t one for flirting randomly with girls in nightclubs, because again, he never knew who he could trust in the world. “Never.” He said simply before lifting his bottle to his lips. Chuck only ever said enough and not a bit more. Habits like that did not help him when it came to appearing cold to the rest of the world.

• • •

TAGGED! Pandora Wylde Hunt
WORDS! 605!
OUTFIT! Refined & Reserved!
LYRICS! Polaroid - - - Imagine Dragons
NOTES! <3

[Pandora Wylde Hunt]

Nights on the town were how Pan coped with her dull days at school. She spent so much of her days sitting in classrooms listening to professors and "experts in their fields" sound more like the teacher in Charlie Brown than she'd care to do. She knew most, if not all, of whatever their lectures were about so it wasn't new and exciting for her. She'd been building things since she was a small child. Hell, she'd built a car from the ground up in its entirety before she'd been ten. She knew what she was doing, helped with the specs for the latest updated engine running through their factories. Sitting in this classroom for Pan, meant that at the end of it, she would have a degree and make her parents proud. She loved cars, would happily spend the rest of her day's elbow deep in the grease and oil, not care if some smudged on her face when she pushed her hair out of her eyes. Fixing up a car was her happy place and while nothing would change that, she was starting to wonder if there was anything else in the world she might like just as much.

It had always been cars and engines for so long that Pan didn't really know anything else. She wasn't so academically gifted as her mother or older brothers and she's wasn't so skilled with brushes as her twin. She really only had a head for engineering and had run with it. As it was looking, she was the only one of the four children who would end up right in the thick of the business. So, while she was away from it and pretending to be someone else, she was going to live her life the way she wanted before her parents call her up and surprise her with an arranged marriage; not something she wouldn't put past them. They were an odd pair but also a bit too traditional in some ways. While neither of them expected her to be a Stepford mother and wife, they did want to see her settled down and married with kids sooner rather than later. It was one of only two things they wanted for their only daughter; to get married and start a family and get herself a degree so that no matter what she did with her life, she had something to fall back on. It sounded simple enough and if she ever found the man who got beyond her walls, she wouldn't say no because that would be a job in itself and she doesn't pity the man who tries.

Pan hid behind her charming smile and clever words because the truth was, she was actually a little scared of the day she realised someone finally got past those defences she had so carefully put in place. So, instead of thinking about it too much, she got dressed up, let Vex work his magic with his paints and brushes and she went out to find some fun for the night. Six Feet Under was always a good place to find a temporary distraction, which was a big reason they ended up there more often than not. Pan liked that while she blended in well with the crowd, she also stood out just enough to have eyes following her whenever she walked around. She might have talked a lot but she did enjoy a bit of attention. "Man of few words and less interest. Got it." She said with a nod before turning back towards the bar and seeing where Jayden was with her drink. She knew there were some people ahead of her order and expected nothing less than to be put in a queue but she did want to know where she stood in that line all the same.

♦ ♦ ♦

Tag || chuck rushton snow
Words || 641
Music || Carrying Your Love With Me --George Strait
Notes || <3