Ev'rywhere I hear the sound
Of marching charging feet, boy
'Cause summer's here and the time is right For fighting in the street, boy

Sasha Violet Augustine
9-8-18 | Bacchea

Freedom from Pyxis had been really good for Devin. He and Miss Mary Jane had picked up their relationship right where they had left it--- and she made the noise in his head fade away. That leafy beauty wasn't the only one of his old flames the ruffian had fallen back in with. Hitting up some old connects had clued him into a new spot: Bacchea. He had swung by on Friday, put some money down on a couple bouts, and managed to get himself on the fight card for Saturday night when another fighter got fucked up too bad to handle his fight the next day. It wasn't a great time slot-- which would limit what he could do gambling on himself, but it would at least be a chance for him to show what he could do.

He was in his element here. The rowdy crowd welcomed him as one of their own--- and Devin truly was. Whether it was a good idea or not, he'd had a shot or two before the bout. Not enough to get a buzz, just enough to really give him that Gryffindor bravado. His body was still fit and bore a farmer's fan from months of pushing a heavy broom along miles and miles of cobblestone-- and Quidditch before that. His bare chest and back had more scars now, faint reminders of damage done to him by his father, the streets and most recently Rabastan Lestrange. But unlike during the spring and summer months, his eyes finally had their old spark back. He felt like himself.

The bout was set to go til knockout or surrender--- and would be bare knuckled. Devin would have had it any other way. The boy had a lot of rage to release and he needed to be able to feel the crunch of bone and flesh under his fists. Devin had fought plenty on the streets of Hackney-- sometimes for fun, sometimes for his life. So, he didn't know much about how to put on a show, but he knew how to beat a bloke down.

Dev was showing that, too. He and the beaten mess across from him had gone four rounds so far. The breaks had thrown him off a bit a first, but he was falling into a rhythm when the fifth round started. His opponent was a plodder, always trying to push in on him. Dev let him get in close enough to swing a big ole haymaker his way, but the wizard was ready. A grin flashed over his face as he delivered a well-timed counter-punch. His left hand swung up catching right on the bloke's chin. He had come at just the right angle for the assault to go undetected until it was too late. He had caught his opponent by surprise, and the force of the hit sent the older man stumbling back.

It was Devin on the chase now. He did not let up. His next punch was aimed lower. Swinging with his dominant hand, right at his opponent’s right side, just beneath the ribcage, that vulnerable patch devoid of bone just where the liver is located. The reaction of the other man's body to the strike was instantaneous. The blood vessels around the organ dilated, his heart slowed, and his blood pressure dramatically dropped. His brain desperate for oxygen commanded the bloke's body to the ground. That was the technicality of what had happened. But to the onlookers, it just looked like the bloke dropped like a sack of potatoes. Dev didn't know the inner workings of why the combo worked, but experience on both ends of it had told him it did.

street fightin' man

❧

She didn’t know why she was here, really.

The Bacchae was absolutely not her scene. In fact, she was a walking cliché just taking one step into this place. She was the rich girl on the wrong side of the tracks--she looked like she was itching for some danger or something like that. It wasn’t a place she would have been caught dead two years ago, but here she was.

She was just going to blame it on being curious--and she was. She had just wanted to see what the fuss was all about, because she’d heard people talking about it a little bit. Maybe she was just bored to death back in her parents’ house, she didn’t know. Pyxis being shut down had been the surprise of the century, but it hadn’t been back to Hogwarts for them. She didn’t know if that was even a bad thing at that point. After being cooped up in Pyxis without getting off of the grounds once, she didn’t know if she could deal with being shipped over to Hogwarts to be stuck there.

It was strange, though, being back in her parents’ house. In her house. It was strange that she kept having to correct herself on that front. Of course, she had been relieved at first. To know that they were still alive, that they hadn’t had their memories wiped, that they still knew who she was. It brought up why they hadn’t come looking for her, but she knew that was… difficult. How were they supposed to find her in the magical world when they couldn’t find it?

Sasha had continued to tell herself that was the only reason that they hadn’t looked. It was easier than considering the alternative and her parents loved her. Her parents loved her. Another reminder that she had found herself giving more often than not these days. They did. Yes, maybe they would have preferred a normal daughter and not a witch, but they still loved her. Still, she had needed a break from that house. It was somehow stifling, which made no sense when she had complete freedom again. She had been able to go shopping, to go to the salon--and Merlin, she had spent nearly a whole day at the salon. That had been the best day that she’d had since she had come back home.

She certainly felt a lot more like herself after that, but she still had needed out of the house tonight. She had still ended up here, a place that she had never thought that she would be. But, at the very least, she had attempted to blend in. Sort of. Sasha wouldn’t say that her style had changed over the past years, necessarily, but… well, just like she wouldn’t have been caught dead at Bacchae in the past, she never would have worn something like this either. Whatever that meant.

The first thing that she noticed when she made it anywhere near the fight was how loud it was. Did people really enjoy standing around watching people beat someone unconscious? Apparently. Sasha couldn’t decide if she even wanted to look, or if she’d prefer just getting a drink and avoiding this area altogether. In the end, the determination was made for her, as jostling crowds let her closer to the fight and farther from the bar. It took her a surprisingly long time to focus in on the fight enough to realize just who was there.

Devin.

And from that moment on, going to the bar for a drink completely left her mind.

601 ● @ devin ● Outfit

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It was awesome to be in the ring--To have the crowd cheering for him...he felt like something more than just a piece of rubbish from the wrong side of the tracks. A few of faces in the crowd carried him back to his formative years in Hackney. These were men who had made money on him fighting in back alleys. These were men who had paid money to his mother to do things he tried to block out from his mind. These were the blue collar folks who had been worked to the bone, but came here with dreams of taking their meager earnings and turning them into fortunes.

Others in the crowd already had their fortunes. These types wore fine dresses and slick suits. Their coin purses hung heavy with Galleons that meant nothing to them. They threw coin into gambling pots simply for sport. They were here, because they enjoyed watching the ruffians make a bloody spectacle for them. Time had passed, but man had not. The bloodthirst of the rich turned out gladiators to fight for entertainment in centuries--this was just a modern version of the Coliseum. Not quite so grand, but still serving the same purpose. 

Devin did not mind playing gladiator for this rich fucks. His fighting was not for them. It was for him. It was for men like him. It was so that he could feel in control of himself and his life after months of being imprisoned in his own head. Rabastan had rattled all the cages in the boy's mind. The Death Eater had let loose all his demons... but now, Devin was beginning to conquer them. He was burying back down the pain that could never be truly overcome, but to have a proper life had to be ignored. 

Each strike at his opponent was a step towards being himself again. The pain of the blows landed against him grounded him in this moment, letting him detach from the memories that had caused him such strife and agony during his days and nights at Pyxis. The bud and the booze--they helped, too, of course. And winning this bout--that was a statement of his strength. He was still capable of taking down a man bigger than himself. He was scrappy and relentless. He fought with heart and courage and recklessness that spoke to his youth. He was truly a Gryffindor in that ring.

The body shot had been enough to keep the other bloke down on the ground. The fighter did not even try to struggle back to his feet. He just lay there, trying to draw a steady breath as the referee counted out the seconds. The number ten rang out of the ref's mouth and Devin's hands went up in the air. He had won. A little jump and pump of his fist was his celebration, before the referee moved him to the center of the ring to make the victory official. The announcement was short and the ref lifted Devin's hand into the air. 

Devin rotated around grinning at the crowd from every side. Until one face stilled him---What the fuck was Sasha doing in a place like this? And what the hell was she wearing?! He took a double take at the witch. She looked so different from any way he had ever seen her. Sure, the bird was sexy as hell, but he was not thrilled that she had come to a place like this in an outfit like that. She was not his to claim, but he would still be one to step up and protect her if someone tried to get handsy. Devin was not the type to believe that a way a girl dressed was enough to lay blame on her for indecent approaches from men...but Merlin's saggy balls, dressing like that was still some kind of invitation. She, at least, wanted people looking.

Maybe that was what she wanted... Blokes to buy her drinks, give her attention, take her home... A swirl of jealousy rushed up in him--pairing with the adrenaline of victory--it was all the stronger. The urge to go out there and snog her straight away hit him. That'd show everyone present to keep hands and eyes off her.  After the show he had just put on, that would dissuade most... But Sasha being Sasha, would probably give him so lip and attitude that might undermine the spectacle all together. 

So, he just stared at her... Even as the crowd cheered for him, she was what he saw. 

STREET FIGHTIN' MAN

❧

For nearly the entire time she had been in that apartment--that horrible, filthy, overcrowded apartment, she had wanted to be home. It was all she thought about for a while. How she wanted to be home, how she didn’t deserve to be stuck somewhere that didn’t even have hot water and had rats living in the walls. She had never seen anything like that before. There was no way to come to terms with the fact that that was her life.

Over time, it had somehow gotten easier.

She wouldn’t have thought that was even possible, but it had been. Sasha knew that a lot of that had to do with Devin, even if she hadn’t wanted to admit it at the time. Even if she didn’t want to admit it now. It figured that the first time she actually cared about someone had to get ruined by situations… entirely out of her control. But that night had changed everything. In ways that she could have never anticipated.

Sasha thought that a night like that, after everything that they had been through, could either bring people together or tear them apart. She thought it had managed to do just that, really. Not obviously, not right away anyway. Being dragged to Pyxis hadn’t helped either. It had them apart night after night, thinking about everything that had happened. She knew that he had probably been thinking a lot about what she had done, even if she hadn’t been in control of it. How was he supposed to get over that? She had tortured him, she had told him that he’d forced himself on her. She had worried that night that he would want nothing to do with her after that, and with Pyxis separating them further, she thought it had happened.

She had tried. She had tried to be there more than she had ever tried to be there for… anyone in her life, really. It wasn’t something that she was good at, or something that she knew how to do. But she had tried, and… it had been hard.

It wasn’t fair to say that she missed how he had been before, but she had. He had been opposite to her in so many ways that it had somehow drawn her in, but she hadn’t known how to deal with him being broken. She didn’t know how to deal with her own problems, let alone anyone else’s. But she would have kept trying… she just hadn’t gotten the chance.

Not when this illness going around had Pyxis shutting down and everyone going home. She hadn’t known where Devin was going--she didn’t know where he had gone, and she thought that might have been the final nail in the coffin. They were out of Kolna, they were out of Pyxis, and now he could go back to his normal life and she was supposed to go back to hers. And she had tried to, obviously. Shopping had helped, her spa day had helped--that had made her feel more like herself, but being back in her parents’ home was more difficult than she had thought, after everything that she had been through.

Her parents didn’t know how to deal with a witch for a daughter--let alone a witch that had pretty much been put into slave labor and also tortured. They were treating her like she was going to break, like she was some stranger that they didn’t know what to do with, and she didn’t know how long that was going to last.

She had just known that she needed out of the house for a while and curiosity had led her here. Sasha had known there was a chance she’d see people that she knew--the only reason she was aware of this place’s existence was because of people talking about it after all. But what she had not expected was Devin--and not in the ring. She’d had to pay to get in here, so she was sure they’d said who was fighting or something, and she just hadn’t been listening. It wasn’t as if she cared who was fighting.

He didn’t see her until the fight was over, and he had won. She wasn’t sure that he would see her at all, in this madness, but there was no question just who he was looking at. And she couldn’t bring herself to look away, even though she knew she probably should, in light of… well, everything. He had probably brought some girl here with him to cheer him on, and she was not ever the one that was last to move on. Really, she should find one of the many guys that had been staring at her since she’d walked in and put Devin out of her mind. But still, she didn’t move. There was little room to anyway, with the amount of people around her.

822 ● @ devin ● Outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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Street Fightin' Man

It was utterly bizarre to see Sasha here. If Devin had listed fifty people that he might thought show up inside these walls, she would not have ever made that list. This was not the kind of place she went. She was made for spas and shoppes. She was not the type of rich aristocrat to come to a place like this to watch the blood sport. Or so he would have believed. But there she was--standing out there in the crowd. 

Devin had not thought he would ever see her again. He had not said goodbye when they left Pyxis. He had seen no reason for it. He had a purpose in her life back at Kolna. He had not been needed at Pyxis--and he definitely was not necessary once they were released. She could go back to her rich muggle parents and their perfect mansion and just pretend none of the last few years ever happened. That was exactly what Devin expected the girl to do. 

Why wouldn't she?

He had not had anything to go back to. His mum had OD'd during his last year at Hogwarts--and the plan had been before he had been shipped off to Pyxis had been to go spend the summer months at Octavian's. He'd visited the Aubreys a few times over different holidays. They were nothing like anything he had ever known. He had not expected them to be a Pyxis--but they had been. The pair of them standing at the gate just waiting for him to walk out. It'd struck deep inside of him to have been shown such a kindness. 

He tried to do right by them now. Isla was in the hospital and so Jude spent most of his time there. It made it easy enough for Devin to come and go without any fuss. He cleaned up after himself--left meals for Jude to eat when the man came home for a few hours now and again. He tended to the plants outside the house. He did what he could---but he was restless...and while he appreciated their kindness, did not want to overstay his welcome or take advantage of their charity. Fighting was a good way for him to make sure that would not happen. He wasn't going to a bloody orphanage, but if he earned enough coin in the ring and his other less legal habits, he could get a flat in Knockturn and have a place of his own. 

Some part of his was very disappointed to not have a place of his own right at that moment. With the rush of victory, the adrenaline of the fight, and the possessive desire for Sasha, he deeply wished he could take her somewhere and have her be his for a few hours. Not that she would necessarily want that. He assumed she would rather shed her skirt for someone with a white collar and a bank account able to care for all her luxurious wants. He'd gotten to have her once--there was no reason to believe that he would ever get a repeat of that. Not with everything that had happened. 

He could not just stand there in the ring staring at her forever though. The referee had gotten his opponent up off the mat and both were expected to clear the ring to prepare for the next bout. He slipped between the ropes, his eyes still on her. A few observers clapped him on the back and the crowd parted ever so slightly to let him through towards her. He needed to go back to the locker room--wipe down, put on a shirt...but he was unwilling to take the chance that she would disappear while he was gone. 

Sweat gave his skin a glossy sheen--and his knuckles were bruised and bleeding. He'd let the Bacchae healer episkey them up later. There were some bruises beginning to take shape along his left eye, but all and all, he did not look too badly beaten. The other guy definitely looked a hell of a lot worse. Despite the damage, Devin looked more himself than Sasha would have seen in ages. His eyes twinkled with mirth and mischief. He had that confident swagger back--and he was smirking. 

Even though he knew it probably was a bad idea...he just could not help himself. She could tell him to sod off if she wanted to, but he was going to snog her. The wizard caught the blonde around the waist and laid one on her. It was a hot and fast kiss--filled with lust and passion. A few in the crown wolf-whistled as he broke away. "Ain't going to sorry for that," he told her, smirking down at the girl. "Man's gotta just make his move when you are looking like that in a place like this."  He really hoped she would not reject his attentions. There were enough around that knew him that he would be getting shit for ages if she slapped him or something. 

Sasha | OUTFIT or lack thereof

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[attr="class","cbody"]Being pulled out of Hogwarts to be put to work by Death Eaters hadn’t been what she’d expected of that year. Despite the Ministry being taken over, Sasha had hoped… well, she didn’t know what she had hoped for. She would never call herself an optimist and while she might not be a Ravenclaw that read history books for fun, she wasn’t an idiot. She knew what that lot believed in and she knew that wouldn’t bode well for her, no matter how old she was. Being a student, being a child technically, wasn’t going to protect her if they wanted to get rid of Muggleborns.
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But she hadn’t expected that apartment in London. She hadn’t expected she’d be sharing it with seven other people, that it would have one bathroom--if it could even be called that, one bedroom, and probably half a dozen diseases in the kitchen.
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That was not something that she was ever supposed to deal with. She had never even slept on the floor before she had stepped into that apartment for the first time, and she knew that she probably could have made a play for the bed. If she had really wanted to. After all, she could pull off innocent when she wanted to--could even be sweet, and who would want the sweet, innocent, blonde teenage girl sleeping on the floor?
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They had brought up sharing the bed, though… taking turns. And she was not about to sleep in the same place as seven other people with questionable degrees of cleanliness. That was just not an option.
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All of that had brought her Devin, though, and as strange as it was, he had become important. Even if she hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself, he had. Then that night had changed everything, and going to Pyxis had made it worse. By that point, it had mostly seemed like he wanted nothing to do with her, and she was not the comforting sort. She didn’t know how to fix broken people, if that was what he was.
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So when Pyxis had been shut down, when they had been sent home, a part of her hadn’t been surprised that she hadn’t heard from him. What was she expecting, him to ask to crash with her? She didn’t think he would set foot in her house if he could help it and she didn’t really know how she would have talked her parents into it anyhow. But she could have tried it. She would have tried it, if he had asked.
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He hadn’t.
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There was no way of knowing if they would ever go back to Hogwarts or be allowed back in the magical world again, so she had figured it might be best to try to forget about him. Move on. Talk herself into believing that she had been slumming it because the situation had called for it. Maybe it had been starting to work. She thought it had.
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Until now, anyway. She hadn’t thought that she would see him here tonight. She didn’t know why--what were the odds, really, though this was definitely more of his scene than hers. Sasha was tempted to walk away. She hadn’t heard one word from him since their release from Pyxis and now he wanted to smirk at her like that? He had lost his chance. Right? He had definitely lost his chance.
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Despite her attempts to tell herself to walk away, she didn’t move. And when he kissed her, it felt like all of the horrible things that had happened that night was a distant memory. So, she kissed him back. Her hands slid up his chest to his shoulders and she didn’t even care that she was in a room full of people. At least, not until he pulled away and she heard the wolf-whistling. “You should say sorry, you’re so sweaty. I’m never going to be able to wear this again.” She wrinkled her nose, but despite her words, she didn’t move away from him.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]674 ● @ devin ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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street fighting man

It felt good to kiss Sasha. It felt good to win that fight. Devin was himself--he was cocky. He was all swagger. He was all Hackney. This was a damn good night. These were the nights that he loved himself and his life--Nights like this all the Kolna bullshit faded away. Rabastan Lestrange was no one. His blood status did not mean shit. This was what living was supposed to be like---all the remarkable, intense sensations that remind you really are alive. 

Devin was glad to put on a show for the crowd--both inside the ring and outside it with Sasha in his arms. When the catcalls and whistles broke out, his smirk only grew. He loved the attention. He loved them knowing that he was staking his claim, no matter how barbaric that might have been. He wasn't trying to be some backwards wanker. He just did not want to think of anybody else getting their hands on Sasha. 

He had been so out of himself at Pyxis. He hadn't been able to do things like this. His libido had been dead. His spirit crushed. But drink and smoke and fighting--those things all reignited the spark in him. He was alive...and he wanted her to know her part in bringing that blaze back to burning. 

The fighter laughed at the words out of the witch's mouth. Couldn't wear that again? He wasn't so sure that was a bad thing. "Probably for the best. I'd hate to have to fight somebody for free cause they resist grabbing that arse." He flashed a cheeky grin as he moved his arm around to give her rear a nice squeeze. His hand did move up eventually, to where his arm was encircling her waist with his fingertips resting against her hips. Devin began to walk further out of the crowd, his touch urging her to follow suit. "Come back with me. I'll get you a drink and clean up a little bit. You can tell me what the fuck you are doing in a place like this...or we just skip that chatter and go back to snogging." He made a suggestive, teasing expression with his eyebrows and laughed.

Yes, this was definitely the old Devin Wright. Nothing could touch him. He was too high. It made it so much better that Sasha was here--that she had seen him win the fight--that she had kissed him back as a room full of much richer blokes had looked on. Maybe things were not so over for them after all. 

Sasha Violet Augustine

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[attr="class","cbody"]Pyxis had changed everything. She couldn’t even explain why--not to herself, not to Mari or Tav. It hadn’t just been that night that they had gotten tortured that had ruined whatever it was that they had. Sasha thought that they would have gotten past that. Maybe. If they had still had the freedom to do whatever else they wanted. If they could still sleep next to each other, and Devin could still cook her dinner and she could act like it was only okay… she thought that eventually, things might have been able to go back to normal.
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But they hadn’t had that chance, because they had been shipped off to Pyxis. Being stuck there, not being able to leave the grounds ever… in so many ways, that had been worse than being in those horrible jobs and living in those awful apartments. Maybe she wouldn’t think that if she’d had a worse job. If she was being experimented on, or forced to work in the mines, or something. But even if she hated gardening (and she did), she would much rather be subjected to that than stuck in a school learning cleaning spells and unable to leave.
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Yes, technically they weren’t allowed to leave Hogwarts either but that had been different. That felt like a completely different life at this point. In the span of… going on two years now, her life had changed drastically.
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She had gone from Hogwarts to Kolna to Pyxis, and now she was right back at home again. Sasha didn’t know if she would ever be allowed to go back to school, or even have a real wand ever again. She was trying to adapt to that idea, to the prospect of the magical world just being out of her reach now, but that was easier said that done.
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Her parents obviously thought that was for the best. She’d be in boarding school by Christmas if they went on with the current plan, and maybe… maybe that was good. Maybe she needed to move forward. She didn’t know.
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But that wasn’t what she wanted to do tonight. As much as she could have tried to start off this whole ‘moving on’ thing by walking away from Devin before he could even get close enough to talk to her, she didn’t want to. Even though their time at Kolna was over and they were back to being in two very different worlds, she didn’t want to walk away.
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And as sweaty as he was, she didn’t want to even move away. “Oh, you would fight them, would you?” She had been with various boys at her time at Hogwarts, and while plenty of them might try to act tough, none of them had ever fought someone over her. It was an interesting prospect. Kind of hot too, not that she would ever admit that. “Hey! People are staring…” Her skirt was way too short for him to do that without giving people way too good of a view and she was so not that kind of girl.
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Rolling her eyes in half-hearted, and mostly fake, protest, Sasha let him lead her further away from the ring. “You wish.” But despite her words, she was smiling--trying to hide it, of course, but still smiling. He was acting more like himself than she’d seen in months and this was the guy that she couldn’t help but be attracted to, even against her better judgment.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]579 ● @ sweaty boy● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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street fighting man

It was stull shocking to see Sasha here. Even with his arms wrapped around her, his brain was still hurling questions at him. Her being here made no sense. This was a spot for people like him--brawlers and gamblers. Though, he supposed there were plenty of aristocrats, too--The rich bastards who loved to watch the impoverished battle it out with one another for their entertainment. Still, Sasha did not really strike him as the type to be interested in that sort of display...But she was here. So, maybe he was wrong. What did he really know about her anyway? Not that much. He had picked up on some of the foods she liked when he had been cooking for her back at Kolna, but that was nothing really...and it wasn't as if she had ever really made any sort of habit of talking to him about anything serious. Neither of them were really inclined to share about themselves, though he had told a hell of a lot more than she had. 

Whatever, it didn't matter why she was here--she was and he had won...and both those things were worth celebrating. Hopefully with him between her thighs--but he wasn't going to get ahead of himself...and honestly, after a fight like that, if she wasn't interested in fun, there would be someone who was. He had way too much testosterone pumping to just go without tonight. Nah, that wasn't going to cut it at all. 

He had just come out of the ring, but he was still a ball of energy. The victory and seeing Sasha and feeling like himself, it was all intoxicating. He felt powerful in ways he hadn't in ages. This was the sort of strength he had felt after a Quidditch match when he had knocked opposing players out of the sky. 

Sasha seemed surprised that he had said he would fight others. He scoffed. "Damn straight, of course, I would-" he confirmed, the Gryffindor recklessness giving him more confidence than he should probably have. He had just gone several rounds. The adrenaline had not faded yet, though; so, he was not really feeling any tiredness. He felt like he could take on the world. Winning a fight was the best rush. He couldn't wait to get back in the ring. 

Devin laughed deeply when Sasha said people were staring. "Let 'em look." He was proud to flaunt his victory and the claiming of his prize. He had all that Hackney swagger rolling off him tonight.  "You sexy as hell and I'm not too shabby either." He grinned and laughed again, moving them further from the ring and back towards the changing rooms. The crowd was focusing on the fight that had just started, but he still got a few claps on the back and comments of congratulations as they made their way along. 

He pushed open the door for her, giving a nod of his head to the guards that limited access to the prep areas.  He didn't have actual guards on the room where his clothes awaited;  it wasn't even really his room, just a spare little space for non-affiliated fighters to prep and recover for a fight. It was much quieter back here, the roar of the crowd seemed distant as they walked along the mostly empty hallway, weaving through the maze of hallways towards where he was pretty sure he had gotten ready. Devin kept his arm around Sasha's waist as they walked. Glancing over at her, he asked:  "So, what are you doing here, Sash? Ain't someplace I'd expect you to be."

Pretty girl | 599

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[attr="class","ctopline"]Everybody's looking up when she

[attr="class","cscriptgryff"]walks by you want to be her

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[attr="class","clyrics"]And your boyfriend pretends not to see her[break]
'Cause she's got that fire, doesn't even try

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[attr="class","cbody"]Being in a place like this… well, it wasn’t exactly a place that she was fully comfortable. She could admit that. When she was home for the summer normally, she was with her friends in clubs or occasionally a new bar that had opened up, but they did not come on this side of town. Sasha had never wanted to be that cliché. She didn’t want to be that rich girl on the wrong side of town. It had never been something that had honestly even appealed to her. She had been perfectly content with her friends, and with her life. Sure, she didn’t see her parents all that much—but that wasn’t new. They had always been busy.
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And before the registration, before everything had gotten so messed up, her life at Hogwarts had been pretty good too. She had been able to focus on her friends and boys—one boy in particular by the end, but still. Everything had been good, and she had never been drawn to that rich girl gone bad cliché.
[break][break]
That wasn’t even what she was doing now. Merlin forbid. She had just needed something different for a chance. Kolna had been a difficult time and it had changed her in some ways that she wasn’t even fully okay with accepting just yet. Then there had been that night and Pyxis, and that had ruined everything with Devin. She didn’t even know when that had started to matter so much, but it had. It felt like she… well, she didn’t know how to help him. She hadn’t been that girl. And he hadn’t seemed to want her around, so she’d seen less of him at Pyxis. And that had just been strange. She had gone from sleeping next to him every night to nearly nothing, and coming here tonight…
[break][break]
Well, maybe a part of her thought that this was exactly the sort of thing that Devin would do. Come to some bar like this, on the wrong side of town. It wasn’t that she had specifically thought he was going to be here or anything. It was just… something. Something different, something where she could dress up and act like she was somebody else for a change. She didn’t have a problem with being exactly who she was, but she had never really gotten to dress like this before. It was just a fun sort of change. It had been what she was in the mood for tonight. That was really all there was to it.
[break][break]
But then she had seen him and every opinion and determination she’d thought about him had gone away. She had told herself that she was not the person to fix him—because she wasn’t. She had told herself that he didn’t want her around, that he didn’t tell her where he was going when he left Pyxis… all true. She was moving on. To whatever her life was going to be now, because Hogwarts wasn’t an option but she also wasn’t a registered slave anymore, so… Merlin knew what was going to happen. She didn’t. She just knew that it wasn’t going to happen with him.
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Had been certain of it, actually. But then not only had she seen him, he had kissed her, and he was acting normal and Godric above, she thought that she actually had butterflies. Him smirking at her like that and acting like this was enough for her stomach to do stupid little flips. Actually pathetic. She was actually pathetic. “Well, as… appealing as that would be…” And it would be. Fighting over her was not something that she had seen before and if her stomach was doing flips now… well… “I think I could do without strangers groping me.” No one had so far tonight, apart from him, and she had to admit this skirt had been pushing her luck. She’d had to change when she’d left the house on the off chance her parents were around and that was saying something.
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The mood that Devin in was practically contagious. She was having to put a high amount of effort in to not smile when he laughed. She wasn’t a girl that just went around smiling all the time, certainly not while surrounded by people like this. But she was finding it actually difficult not to smile. Merlin, this night had taken a turn. She let him lead her through the crowds, which practically parted for him as they headed back to… wherever it was that they were going. It wasn’t like she knew just where he could possibly be taking her in this place. Somewhere with a drink, she knew that much—somewhere private, hopefully, but apart from that she’d just have to wait and see.
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When he pushed open the door, and they made it into the hallway, the loudness of the bar started to fade away. “I was… bored. Thought I’d try something different.” It was the simplest answer that she could give, really. She had needed something that wasn’t her old life, because she was still trying to fit back into it and she wasn’t sure how well she was doing at that. This was new. She didn’t have to fit into anything, she could just pretend to be someone else.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]883 ● @ devin ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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