Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

River Ride

"I never had enough money to eat here." Maverick said

She and Ramirez sat together under the dimly glowing neon. Music echoed up from one of the nearby clubs, and voices advanced up the street in a rolling echo as the night life pulled itself into full swing. The table at which they sat wasn't much more than a slab of plywood on top of a barrel.

Ramirez prodded at his plate, "I think that might have been a blessing in disguise.

Maverick grinned at him from the half-darkness, "Stop being so picky."

He lifted his chin in defiance, "In my defense, I am used to a higher standard of cuisine."

"My apologies the food wasn't plated by angels my dear prince."

The beam of a rolling blacklight passed over them from the front entrance of one of the clubs highlighting the, usually invisible, tattoos on maverick's face. From what he had seen of it, the tattoo depicted the branches of a tree which crawled up the side of her neck and around behind her ear onto the side of her head to vanish beneath her hairline. One of the branches but down onto her cheek and forked into two prongs that framed one eye.

She must have noticed his staring because she raised an eyebrow.

"Not that I blame you for staring. I am sexy as hell, but you want to tell me why?"

Ramirez shrugged, "I don't know. I just.... well I just realized that I don't know as much about you as I thought I did, and I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Maverick shrugged, "Honestly all of this stuff.... Its not all that interesting."

Ramirez looked around, tilting his head back so he could see the distant ceiling high above covered in pipes and great slabs of metal lit only by the light of glowing neon and fires. From here, he could see catwalks spanning the walls, and cutting across the ceiling like the tangled canopy of forest trees. Not to his surprise, he swore he could see people moving up there.

"I literally grew up on Cedar Street and started figure skating when I was four at the local rec-center. MY town was pretty boring." He motioned around, "All this.... Well, its almost as alien to me as Arcadia."

She gave a small smile, "You're just as alien to this place as it is to you. You stick out like a sore \thumb."

Ramirez ran a hand through his hair, "When you're this sexy it's hard not to stand out."

"I mean you're well fed, and your facial hair is intentional. believe you me if I wasn't here, you would be in serious trouble."

And as if to emphasize her point, just then a group of rather rough and tough young men walked past sizing Ramirez up with critical expressions. Digital blacklight tattoos rolled across their skin in geometric patterns. It was hard to see their eyes, but Ramirez thought he saw them looking him over. They only stopped when Maverick shifted in her seat and they caught sight of her.

It was clear, he may have been an outsider, but she sure wasn't.

The men walked off.

"To be fair this isn't exactly a great part of town. This is what equates to the red light district, which is sort of meaningless here since the primary source of income in second city is prostitution,"

That was an understatement.

Ramirez could have guessed that fun fact about second city's economy from a mile off.

Voices rose up from another group of passing strangers, clearly directed at him. Promising a good time. Short curvy women and tall lean men.

Ramirez didn't bother to more than glance at them.