O.o This ought to shake up some moods o.O. {OPEN TO ALL}

[Venis Jordianthan]

Venis walked along her roses, snipping one here and there, and just enjoying the quiet of the day.  The leather of her boots creaked as she knelt down to snip a teal rose.  She closed the scissors over the long, dark, stem with a snap.  She rose back up and laid the rose in the basket that was hanging over her arm.  She slid the scissors back into her back pocket and started walking again.
 
She placed the last purple rose into the basket and her pocket started to vibrate.  Within half of a second Supermodel by RuPaul started playing.  She slid the scissors into her back pocket and fished her phone out of the front pocket of her tight blue jeans.  ”Hey Jesse.  What’s going on?”  She continued into the house and to the kitchen to get a vase of water.
 
Jesse was the manager at Venis’ night club, And The Beat Goes On.  He was a fallen angel.  His sin was lust.  Now, he manages a night club when he’s not dressed in full drag hitting other night clubs.  He considered his life to be perfect.  ”Venis, did you order something mommy?”  It was very rare that Venis ordered something.  But she did on rare occasion.  ”There is delivery boys here, and they is bringing in some big boxes.  Two boys per box.”  Not that he wasn’t happy to see the delivery drivers flexing their muscles as they struggled with the load.
 
Venis placed the roses into the black vase of water and placed the bouquet on the dining room table.  ”Um, no.  Not in over a year.  But I’ll be there in a few minutes to see what’s going on.”  She was moving the flowers in the vase to make them look right.  Then she pulled the scissors from her back pocket and took them out to the desk in the garden along with the basket.
 
Jesse was watching the delivery drivers bring in a second box.  ”Take your time Mommy, I am liking this show.”  He laughed as he hung up the phone and continued to watch.  He knew that Venis would be there in just a moment, but she wouldn’t make him stop watching.
 
Venis dusted herself off as she slid her phone back into her pocket.  She went into her bathroom and ran a brush through her hair before putting on some lipstick.  Then she headed out the door.  She didn’t have to worry about taking the car, she had a portal in place.  She walked around the house and out onto the road. 
 
As she walked down the road, she passed through the portal.  When she stepped out of the portal, she was standing in front of the club.  Knowing that the front doors would be locked at this early hour, she went around the left side of the building to the service entrance.  The delivery truck wasn’t there.  She had missed them.  She moved her lips to the side in frustration as she entered the building and headed to the stock room. 
 
When she entered the storage room, there were four massive wooden crates sitting in front of the shelves where chips and other dry snacks were kept.  ”What do we have angel?”  She walked over and knelt down to examine the crates for markings.



 
Jesse walked over with a pry bar and handed it to her.  ”I haven’t opened them.  And the delivery boys didn’t have any information.  Though, one did slip me those digits.”  He giggled as he waited to see if she was going to open the crates.
 
Venis laughed as she used the pry bar to lift one end of the top crate.  Once she had the lid popped up on the left side, she stuck her fingers in and pulled it the rest of the way off.  She counted the red metal caps sticking up out of the straw.  ”Eighty-five?  That’s strange.”  The bottles were set in seventeen rows of five.  Not the normal way to load a crate.  Usually, crates were loaded in even numbers.  These must have been a re-pack instead of coming from a manufacturer. 
 
She pulled a bottle out of the crate and looked at it.  ”Fireball.  Cinnamon Whiskey.  Never heard of it.”  She slid the bottle back into it’s little slot in the crate.  Then she stood up and turned around to face Jesse.  ”They didn’t say anything about where three hundred and forty bottles of Fireball came from?”  She turned and looked at the crates again to see if there was any kind of packing slip at all.
 


Jesse shook his head and grabbed a gift bag off the table behind him.  ”Not a word.  Just this.”  He handed her the bag with a smile.  It was a paper bag with geometric patterns in multiple colors.  It had black tissue paper sticking out of the top of the bag and there was a card taped to it.
 
Venis took the bag and looked at it.  ”Pretty.  Ok.”  She removed the card and looked into the bag.  There was a red cap peeking out down in the middle of the tissue.  ”Three hundred and forty-one bottles.”  She set the bag down and opened the card.
 
She read the card to herself and a soft smile spread across her lips.  She slid the card back into it’s envelope and put the envelope into her back pocket.  She looked at Jesse, knowing that she couldn’t just not tell him.  ”They’re from Fallon Zane.”  She picked the gift bag back up and pulled the bottle free.  It had a cute little blue bow on the neck of the bottle.  Her smile widened, the tips of her fangs even peeking out from between her teeth.
 


Jesse smiled a big, bright, smile.  ”Ooooo.  That super sexy crazy guy that was a Templar with you at the SBR?”  It was no secret that Jesse preferred the company of attractive males.  In fact, he was quite flamboyant when letting the world know as much.  And he found so many of Venis’ friends to be ‘hawt’, and though he had never met Fallon, he had seen images of him from Venis.  He thought Fallon was ‘HAWT’.
 
Venis started laughing as she double checked the bag to make sure that it was empty.  ”Yes.  Your knight crush.”  Finding the bag to be empty, she tossed it in the trash can.  She set the bottle with the blue bow on it down onto the table.  Then she knelt down and grabbed the rope handles of the top case.  She lifted with her legs and turned to set the crate down next to the stack. 
 
She looked over her shoulder at Jesse.  ”I’m going to take two of these over to the Tel.  You can stock a few here, maybe they’ll sell.  Charge regular whiskey prices.”  She lifted the now second crate, bringing the top crate with it.  She turned to look at Jesse with a smile.  ”If you could set that extra bottle on the crate and get the door for me?”  She waited for him to set the bottle on the boxes before heading to the door.
 
Jesse grabbed the bottle and laid it on the crate for her.  ”No problem mommy.”  He had mastered his Hispanic accent and was pretty fluent in Spanish.  These facts were quite obvious when he called Venis mommy.  And even though he was wearing his black leather pants, black leather motorcycle boots, and a leather harness for a top, he couldn’t hide his gay (or his black wings) when he walked out into the hall to go get the door.
 
Venis smiled as she followed Jesse out into the hall.  She had to turn and walk down the hall sideways to get to the door.  ”Thank you my little angel.”  She leaned over and Jesse met her half way.  She kissed his cheek and then squeezed out the door he was holding open for her.
 
Jesse leaned in for the kiss and kissed her cheek at the same time.  ”Have fun at the Tel mommy.  I might come by later if this place doesn’t get too busy.”  The fact was, if Venis had depended on revenue from this place, she would be in the poor house.  The club was almost never busy.  But Jesse came an opened it every night anyway.  And there were two girls who were renting rooms upstairs.  They came down and helped if the place got busy enough for him to need help.
 
Venis headed back to the house the same way she came.  As she walked up the driveway toward the front door, she pondered if she should drive over to the Tel.  It’s not like she could get drunk.  And it’s not like she would get pulled over for drinking and driving.  She set the crates on the patio table and grabbed the bottle with the ribbon as she went into the house.
 
She went over to the bookshelf and moved a few decorative glass bottles.  She stuck the bottle of Fireball up on the bookshelf and smiled.  Then she went over to the table by the front door and penned a note to Kahn letting him know that she was going to the Tel and that drinking might occur.  Then she grabbed her keys off the shelf and headed back out.
 
The mustang wasn’t in the garage and it was at the end of the driveway, and it was also her favorite, so she opened the trunk.  She loaded the crates into the trunk.  ~I’ll be damned, they fit.~  She dropped the trunk and got in the car.  It was a very lovely day, so she left the top down, but she did pull her hair up into a bun and tied a scarf over her head.
 


It wasn’t a long drive to The Tel’Ranaemyn Inn, and the roads were mostly paved, but when she got to the gravel road that led to the Inn, she made sure to drive very slowly.   She didn’t want to break the hundred and seventy bottles in the trunk.  That was the last thing she wanted her car to smell like. 
 
She parked and put the top up.  There was more wildlife around here, birds and whatnot, and she didn’t want the upholstery ruined.  She almost forgot to take her scarf off and take her hair down.  The scarf went back into the glove box where she kept it.  She got out and went to get the crates from the trunk.  She didn’t smell the alcohol, so the bottles seemed to be intact.  She set the crates on the ground to shut the trunk and hook her keys to her belt loop.  Then she carried the crates up the steps to the door of the Inn.
 
She set the crates down again so that she could open the door.  Then she held the door with her foot while she picked the crates up again to carry them into the Inn.  No one was at the desk, not that she was expecting to have to bother anyone.  She knew where things were, and she knew how things worked. 
 
She went into the bar area and behind the counter.  She set the cases down and pried the top one open.  She pulled out three bottles and set them on the bar.  She added some glasses from behind the bar, then went back around to the bar stools.  She sat down on the second stool from the end, crossed her right leg over her left, and opened a bottle.
 
The scent of cinnamon was strong.  But she still put it to her nose to get a better whiff.  She smiled as she poured herself a drink and raised her glass to the air.  ”Love you too, brother.  Wish you were here.”

[Kahn Jordianthan]

*The huge silver dragon flew up to the house and noticed that his wife’s Mustang was missing from the driveway.  That in and of itself was no cause for worry.  He shifted forms and landed on the land between the house and the separated garage that housed the majority of their car collection.  Well, those that weren’t stored at The Keep.  He started walking toward the box at the end of the driveway.*
 
“Jonas, sit rep?”
 
*He walked as Jonas walked with him and filled him in on things.  The animals were mostly out and about.  Venis had left in her car with two massive crates in the trunk.  A young lady came by with a slip of paper from the club.  That paper was handed to Kahn.  He took the paper and put it with the envelopes and packages that he was retrieving from the box.*
 
”Thank ye.  I’m going to take a quick shower.”
 
*He headed into the house and put the parcels into the box by the door.  He turned to set his keys down on the table.  That was when he saw the note she had left for him.  Reading it over he smiled.  Then he headed in for a quick shower.  Then he towel dried his hair, dressed and headed for the door.*
 
”Might as well take this to her.”
 
*He picked up the box full of parcels and carried it out with him.  He shared a glance with his Rangers that were on duty and shifted forms.  He could have taken his Mustang, but they already had one vehicle there, no need for two.  Then he began to take flight, making sure to grab the box with his taloned back legs before flying away to The Tel’Ranaemyn Inn.*
 
”There’s her car.”
 
*He flew down and set the box on the ground and then shifted to land.  The ground shook and a cloud of dust formed around him.  Once the dust settled, he stepped away.  Venis had taught him a neat little trick.  He knelt down and touched the ground that was indented from his landing.  He focused on the water in the soil and froze it.  The ground moved and the crater was filled like nothing had ever happened.*
 
”All better.”
 
*He dusted off his clothes.  Black slacks, leather boots, and a black t-shirt.  He picked up the box and carried it into the Inn.  It wasn’t hard to find her.  She was sitting at the bar.  She had a pen and paper in front of her, presumably something she found behind the bar, and was writing something down with one hand and had a drink in the other.  He couldn’t help but stand there and stare for a moment.  She was just so beautiful.*
 
She didn’t look up from what she was writing.  She knew he was there though.  ”Don’t just stand there, beloved, join me.”  She took another swallow of her drink and set the glass down as she finished writing down her thought.
 
*He laughed as he walked into the bar.  He set the box on the barstool to her right and peeked over her shoulder.*
 
”And what are we working on?”
 
She looked up from her paper and leaned up to kiss her husband.  It was just a chaste peck to the lips, but it was better than nothing.  ”A to do list.”  She eyeballed the box that he set next to her and shook her head.
 
*Kahn returned her kiss, a little disappointed that it wasn’t more.  Then he reached up and picked up a bottle off the bar.  She had already emptied one.  He grabbed a glass from the stack and poured himself a drink from a new bottle.*
 
”And what is this?”
 
*He moved to sit on the barstool to her left.  He could smell the cinnamon emanating from the liquid in the glass.  He wasn’t sure he wanted to taste it because of how strong the smell was.*
 
Venis looked over at him and smiled as she watched him smell the glass and wrinkle his face at it.  It made her chuckle.  ”Cinnamon whiskey.  Apt, oui?”  She returned to writing her list, but she was paying attention to him in case he replied.
 
*He laughed before taking a swallow of the amber liquid.  It made him cough for a moment, but he took another swallow.*
 
”Aye, Fireball.  And it’s hot as hell.  I’d say perfect.  Where did you find it?”
 
*He took another swallow to empty the glass.  Then he reached over to the bottle he had opened and he poured Venis another, then another for himself as well.*
 
She shook her head as she picked up her glass.  She touched her glass to his as she spoke.  ”I didn’t.  Fally did.”  She left it at that as she took a swallow and returned to her list.
 
*He smiled as their glasses touched and made a little ding.  He took a swallow as se told him about the whiskey.*
 
”He did good.  It grows on you after a few swallows.”
 
*He laughed again and then took another swallow.  He rested his empty hand on her thigh as he leaned on the bar and watched her make her list while he drank.*