I won't forget the day that, that I came to

And I started thinking that there's more
Than just perfect prom queens and silver spoons
@caterinas

Honor and high society was never Van's thing. He never fit in with the pureblood norms. At least he tried his best not to. It was boorish and prissy and he hated it. That never stopped his parents from trying to set him up with possible matches. One must carry on the line, they'd say. One has a duty to their bloodline. Ugh, the very thought of it could make him lose his lunch. That is, if he had any to lose. Van had merely rolled out of bed half an hour before he was to meet Caterina and the only contents that may be left in his gut were that of the copious amount of whisky he drank the night before. It was an epic night, but he may have taken it a little too far. Especially considering that the two had an arrangement in the morning.


Mother had set it up, of course. She had harped on him about meeting his possible in-law until he finally couldn't take it any longer. Yes, Michael was going to be married but that didn't bloody well mean he should have anything to do with it! In fact, he had tried long and hard to keep as far away from wedding talk as he could. And just when he had won, and father had kicked him out, he found himself in the losers circle yet again. Meet with her, ha. This poor lass didn't know what sort of fresh hell she was getting in to. Then again, if she was anything like the rest of the purebloods she'd certainly be hoity-toity enough for the Parkinson name. If he didn't scare her off at their little luncheon, that is.


Van looked disheveled as he walked into the Clearwater Joint. Disheveled, yes, but he would certainly have a better word for it. Grunge, maybe. Punk rock. He wasn't dressing to impress this lass. Nor was he making any real attempt at all, having shown up at least ten minutes late. Possibly a bit more, if he gave enough of a damn to look at the clock. He saw the blonde bob his mother had described and headed toward what he assumed was their table. He came upon the girl, looking her up and down with a perked brow. "You Caterina?"

Outft

Gatting to know the family was something that her mother had pushed her into. She didn’t really want to, despite the company that she kept with Michael and Jaxon, she didn’t see herself marrying into the family. She had a year to be happy, she had a year to decide if this was the life that she wanted. She wasn’t locked into a relationship, and though she had affection for both Jaxon and Michael she knew that she wasn’t one for traditional marriage. She never had been. This whole agreement was so that her father would leave her alone. Michael didn’t want this either, but it was a good connection for their families. He was the Lord Parkinson, and he would need a wife, and though she knew that it was a good match, and that she would be comfortable she had never been sure that she wanted to live up to those expectations.

Breaking it off would mean a lot of things, it would mean losing a lot, because her family would disown her. Well, her father would. She knew that she had enough money in her own vault to hold her for a while and Michael wouldn’t let her be destitute, but she was still searching for that reason. Jaxon was a good reason to go through with it. She was attached to him and he made her feel special, but he wouldn’t be her husband. Michael would. It was a heavy weight that laid on her, because while she would be tied to Parkinson for the rest of her life, Jaxon would be free to do as he pleased and once those vows were spoken she would be forever stuck.

She had time to get this straight though, time to get her head on straight, and for now, she had time to enjoy herself. She had been invited out to Clearwater by Van. It made her smile and it made her laugh. He didn’t remember her, but then again it had been a little over two years since their night together and he was more than a little drunk. She had gone back to the dressing room with him after a concert, she had just finished Hogwarts, and shew as impressionable. His age didn’t bother her, but then that had never really bothered her to begin with. She was an equal opportunity lover, and he hadn’t been bad at all really.

She put on something Sassy and sexy, which was her usual wardrobe honestly. She had gone to a place that he had requested. She hadn’t been there in a long time, but she decided to treat herself while she was there. She got a milkshake and waited for him to come in. She ignored the looks that she got from other people and crossed and uncrossed her legs, her lips pursed around the straw as she drank the raspberry cheesecake milkshake. The voice was one that she remembered and her face broke into a smile and she looked at him up through her lashes. Releasing the straw she held out her hand. ”I am.” She wasn’t sure if he remembered or not, but she did. Motioning for him to sit she tucked hair behind her ear. The waitress dropped off her food and she handed him the spare menu. ”It’s on me.” He was a Wrockstar and probably had no shortage of funds but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be nice to the bloke.

I WON'T FORGET THE DAY THAT, THAT I CAME TO

AND I STARTED THINKING THAT THERE'S MORE
THAN JUST PERFECT PROM QUEENS AND SILVER SPOONS

There had been quite a few meetings like this in his lifetime, meetings of betrothal. This was the first one he had ever attended that didn't have to do with his own. He could dig that. He could definitely dig that. When he had been a younger man he'd gone along with a few of them, mostly to please Mother. He would attend to meet the lass, get annihilated on happy hour margaritas and go stumbling back home. It had been fun, at the time. Father hated it. Father hated most things that he did, but he proceeded to do them anyway. Most of the girls had been smart enough to call off the arrangements themselves, but there had been more than enough times that he had to do it himself. He wasn't interested in that lifestyle. He wasn't interested in being a husband.

As much as his family knew this, it wasn't easily accepted. He needed to carry on the name, the bloodline, and dammit he needed to do his duty! Everything was about duty. Never about freedom of choice. Though they made it seem that way, but when he expressed his wishes he had always been drug through the mud for it. He was free to choose, as long as he made a choice. Not getting married wasn't a choice. That is, until it was. Father had disowned him, stripped him of his title and inheritance. Most purebloods would dread such news, but not Van. He had been happy enough that he could have sang Hallelujah from the mountaintops. 

There was, however, a tiny piece of him that wasn't as cheerful about the news. His brother Michael had become Lord and taken on the roll well. It was supposed to have been his roll. Van was supposed to be that man, but he had fucked up. And as big of a fuck up it had been it had also been the greatest fuck up of all time. He was finally free. Or, at least, from any sort of duty to the family name. He still had a duty to his family to be himself. The son, brother, whatever. That duty was the whole bloody reason he was meeting this girl in the first damn place!

Mother had made him do it. Thirty-fucking-one years old, and still taking orders from good ol' mum. Damn that pureblood societal shit. And damn Michael for agreeing to marry this broad. And....Damn. Dayum! Van felt himself looking still at the woman with perked brow. She didn't look like any pureblood princess he had been promised to. He took her hand and kissed it politely, his eyes narrowing as he studied her. Had he seen this woman before? "Van Parkinson," he affirmed, as if she could have any suspicion. The rock star sat opposite her and took up the menu she offered. She had offered to pay. How cute. Trying to make a good impression perhaps? Would it make a bad impression if he ordered a whisky sour, hold the sour? "So," he started bluntly, looking at Cat from over his menu. "Seems that we're to be related soon." He wanted to say more. Something along the lines of: this is probably the most you'll see me, so take it in, sister! But he didn't. "My brother is a good man, you're lucky to have such a match." 

There were few times that being a Shafiq had it’s perks. She was on the PR list with a few designers and there were magazines that wanted things from her sometimes. She was no model but being a beautiful woman from a sacred twenty eight meant a great deal, and she was in the right circles. Even if she didn’t always behave like a Pureblood Princess she was one. Her parents were always some kind of disappointed in her, but she didn’t really care. That was a part of her problem. She had expectations to meet, and she didn’t really give a fuck about them. She didn’t want to do the things that they wanted her to do, and she didn’t want to be any one’s wife. She had made a deal with her father, if she found someone else before she said her vows to Michael then she could marry, but she could not embarrass the family (as if Castor didn’t do that already). She was never going to be perfect and she refused to pretend like she was.

She laughed when he introduced himself and she nodded before drinking from her milkshake. ”Yes, I am aware of who you are.” She was amused and it showed on her face and the light in her eyes, the way her face moved as she looked around. ”You are a rockstar after all.” She wasn’t a fan girl by any means, but she had been to quite a few. ”If all goes according to your mother’s planning, yes. We would be brother and sister before the end of next year, I am afraid.”

She didn’t plan on going through with it. She didn’t want to go through with it. She wanted things like a life and to be young and stupid. She was not even twenty yet, getting married was not in her plans. She wanted to be a lawyer, she wanted to party and have fun and just enjoy being stupid. ”Being forced to marry someone you don’t love is never lucky, Lord Parkinson. It is a fortuitous match for our families, of course but, it is arranged nonetheless.”

Caterina had never been silent on her feelings about these kinds of marriages, and how she felt about them.

I WON'T FORGET THE DAY THAT, THAT I CAME TO

AND I STARTED THINKING THAT THERE'S MORE
THAN JUST PERFECT PROM QUEENS AND SILVER SPOONS

He knew this woman. He fucking knew her. Where did he know her from? Merlin! It was driving him absolutely mad. If he had been a decent enough son to have attended any of the luncheons his mother had thrown over the many, many years of his life he may have saw here there, but he wasn't a very decent son. He didn't attend those sorts of things, much to his mother's dismay. It was with almost one hundred percent certainty that he could say she was never a match of his before. She was young, much younger than himself. Twenty, maybe? And he was relatively certain he would have remembered being matched with this absolute fox. Who the hell was she? There was the possibility that he had met her at a show. She wasn't a regular groupie, he knew those gals. Those crazy, crazy gals. Yes, he knew them, avoided many of them, those loony birds. She may not have been one of them but something was telling him that he was on the right track.

Van slunk behind his menu a bit as he tried to figure the whole damn thing out. She began to laugh at his introduction, saying she knew who he was: a rockstar. Yes, he was on the right track. Van's dark eyes shot up from the menu and he cocked his head with the slightest curiosity. He shoved the menu down on the table, shaking his finger loosely at her. "Have you always been a blonde?" Jesus, Van! What a rude thing to ask. He could have swore she may have been a brunette. Redhead? No, he didn't think so. Definitely a brunette. His eyes narrowed at her, the corner of his lip turning up in a half smile as he began to make the connection. "I'm almost certain that I've met you before. "

Cat spoke in agreement about the arrangement and he nodded, brows still a bit furrowed. "You're afraid?" He had reiterated the last of her sentence for clarity. Had he ever heard a woman speak that way about a marital arrangement before? No, he didn't think so. Not that he could recall. She really wasn't like any Pureblood Princess he had met before. As she spoke further on her views he found his interest in her grow further. His brows had un-furrowed themselves and instead raised in a sort of disbelief. She was very up front, honest, unafraid to speak her mind. He'd be lying if he said he didn't appreciate that in her just then, admire it even. They were characteristics of his own that he was proud of and to see another voicing their opinions in that way was sort of...hot.

Merlin, no. He was to come, meet his future in-law and leave. Come, Meet, Leave. That was the plan! What was it about this damn woman that interested him anyway? She was to be wed to his brother within the next year. If anything he should be looking forward to having someone new to torment at family functions not....stare at from across the table. Shit! Was he staring? Fuck, he was. Van quickly averted his gaze from her and cleared his throat to speak. "Well, you know....I'm sure you could possibly...grow to love him. Or...something." He hadn't the slightest clue what to say. He imagined this was what it was like when he openly expressed his distaste for the entire ordeal to his parents in his younger years. Now the only thing he could think of was to quote mother? Honestly, he wasn't thinking very straight at all. Not with the beauty across from him and this stupid need to remember exactly how he knew her. He tried not to look directly at her. Like she was the fucking sun or something. Instead he waved the waiter over to order himself that whisky sour he had been thinking of before, hold the sour.

"It sounds as though you aren't very thrilled with your prospective marriage. I can understand that, I was the same way myself. Which is why, Lady Shafiq, I am not married." Van paused, taking an enormous swig of the drink the waiter had brought him. It burned like the dickens, but so would his trip to Hell if he didn't pull it together. Pulling it together had never really been a strong suite of his, and he felt the tiniest bit of a rant coming on. He finally turned his gaze back to the woman and spoke his mind. "It is my understanding, too, that duty regularly supersedes happiness. Which, by the way, is a load of shit. I think you should do what makes you happy. And it sounds as though you have a year to figure it out."

Letting him figure out where she was from was pretty fun, she knew that she could just tell him, but the teasing and flirting thing was her game. She loved it, and she loved the way that getting people riled up made her feel. Of course it didn’t always go the way that she had planned, but it worked well on Asher and later Jaxon. She loved the teasing and the rise and fall of things. She loved to watch the squirm before they either left or they gave in and things went the natural way. She was shameless, bold and did as she pleased, not giving a fig about proper or improper. She wanted to be happy so she did what she wanted to do. She knew that her family hated that about her, her friends loved it about her, but most of all she loved herself, and to Cat that was the most important.

She smirked as she took another drink from her milkshake. Her food arrived and she picked up a fry and bit it to it with an arched eyebrow. She could see the wheels turning as he thought and wondered if he would figure it out, He asked if she had been blonde always and she bit her lip before picking up another fry. “I don’t know, Van. Have I?” Okay, so the level of her flirting was heavy and horrible, and that night was forever imprinted on her brain. Who knew what a game of strip popcorn toss would have started.

She still couldn’t remember why she hadn’t sought him out after that, why she hadn’t sought for more. Maybe it was because of the Tequila, or the look of disapproval from Alayla the next morning as they left and she carried one stocking and wore the other, the remnants of some of her clothes lost to the green room forever. ”Well, not as if I am scared of the match or anything, Michael is easy enough to bring to leash, but where is the challenge in that? “ She said with a small laugh knowing that he would know what she meant entirely. His brother was very much a pushover when it came to most things,especially when regarding her. They had a good relationship, and they slept together from time to time but he never blew her away. He didn’t take her breath away and have her dreaming about it days later. That, it seemed, fell to his elder brother.

”It is also why, my lord, that my father and I made a deal. I can do what I want, date who I want, shag whomever I want until my wedding day. Should I find love before hand, I am free of my expectations, and can go off into the sunset with the man of my dreams, or nightmares. “ She was going to cross the line and have some fun. She would regret it, and she knew it but she slowly stuck her foot out and began to rub it along his leg.

”Well, should ever the desire to teach arise, I feel as if I could… learn a few things from you, M’lord. It seems as if you have figured it out for yourself, and I would love to see some of your joy.” She said before picking up her Milkshake for another long sip. ”I have learned that there are two things in life that bring me the most joy, José Cuervo and .. popcorn. “ Her eyes flashed at him before she quirked a brow and she smirked. ”Not everyone would understand such things. “

She looked at her watch, she had three hours before she was expected home. More than enough time.

I WON'T FORGET THE DAY THAT

THAT I CAME TO
AND I STARTED THINKING
THAT THERE'S MORE
THAN JUST PERFECT
PROM QUEENS AND SILVER SPOONS

What the actual fuck was happening?! He honestly didn't know, but he couldn't deny that whatever it was he was liking it. This had not been what he imagined lunch with a future in-law to be like in the slightest. Truthfully, he'd imagine some boring young lass who'd try her best to deal with his obnoxious antics until either she couldn't take it anymore or he couldn't. Then he'd walk the fuck out. That had been the plan. Step-by-step instructions he had laid out for himself come, meet, leave. If he could have done it via owl he fucking would have, that was how he had expected this to go. But this lass...was she flirting with him? Van looked at her with an interested narrowed side glance, a smirk on is face. "I will take that as a yes," he said with a small chuckle. He slunk back in his seat and bit thoughtfully at the tip of his thumb. He had to have known her, and she had to have recognized him. Hell, she was fucking with him at this point!

He liked it though. The flirtatious way she spoke, the way she sexily sipped her milkshake. She was wise in the ways and weaknesses of men and he, he was a weak weak man. So weak that his mind had already been proposing ideas of how to get this little bombshell back to his place. He shouldn't think those things. No, he most definitely should not. She was for his brother, she was off limits, even for him. And-- "So you like a challenge then? I've been told I'm quite challenging--" he smiled giving her a wink. Oh shit. Ohhhh shit, he was going to do it anyway. Wow. OK. Van unlinked any guilt sensing part in his brain, like yanking a cord from the wall. At this point he wasn't really caring if she was off limits, if she was Michael's soon to be bride. Hell, had he ever been one to care about such things? Noooo! So why start now?

"That's quite the deal your father made," he said cocking his head feeling very much like this was his lucky fucking day. Van glanced down at her foot as she rubbed it against his leg. Very lucky day indeed. "And Michael--" he leaned forward, taking one of her fries, "--does he have any issues with your little deal? Or is he quite alright with the idea of you shagging the man of your dreams while you ride off into the sunset?" He mimicked her, biting the fry and perking his brow. Michael wasn't exactly as stern as his father had been. In fact, he was sure that his brother was very much so aware of their little deal and didn't have a word to say in opposition.

Oh Merlin there she had to go sipping that damn milk shake again. He thought about pouring it right on her and li-- wait? Was that maybe how he knew her? Something struck a familiar cord and just as the gears in his mind started turning again she blindsided him with it. Fuck, YES! Yes! He knew that was how he knew her. "Oh, I know, those are passions of mine as well." Van feigned seriousness, looking up at her with playful eyes. "You know, I happen to know a game--" the corner of his lip turned into a half smile, hinting to her that he knew now where he knew her from before, "--and it involves both of those things. Have you ever played anything like that? If not, I'd love to show you."

@caterinas | OUTFIT

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