Kai was nervous.

He fiddled with his keys as he sat in the car outside the designated meeting place. There was no real reason why he should be nervous, but a part of him wondered whether or not everyone has grown out of highschool. The last thing he needs is to be judged based on the fact he has a kid. But then again, it's up to him to let them know that. Why lie though? Most of them were all friends once.

Kai finally dragged himself out of his car once he noticed that people were arriving. He strolled over to what seemed like a bouncer of sorts and quickly pulled out his ID. Although Kai was here for the get together, he was also hired for being the Paramedic on scene in case anything bad happened. Nothing should go wrong though, as long as everyone acts their age. The guy gave him a quick nod and allowed Kai access into the place. There were quite a lot of people already and he doubted anymore would show up. Kai was always late to the party though, nothing new about that.

Taking a quick glance around the room he noticed a striking blonde girl. "Ronnie?" He asked himself, trying to get a good look at her without looking like a creep. He's never told anyone before, but back in their sophmore year he use to have a giant crush on the girl. His best friend had a crush on her too however, so Kai never bothered to act on his feelings. Walking casually, he went up to Ronnie, a warm smile on his face.

"Ronnie King? I'm not sure if you'll remember me but I'm Kai Nomura." He greeted, holding his hand out to shake.

OoC// It's not the highschool reunion, It's a "Coincidental meeting" at a big, swanky party, just so you know :)

BiC// He folded the paper up, stuck it back in his pocket, and limped inside. He made his way to the podium onstage, "'Scuse me everyone, Take a seat please, we shall start shortly.." He waited for everyone to sit down, watching as the crowd came in from outside. Oh BOY there were more than he had planned for. His PTSD started to kick in. His head started to hurt, and his heart rate slowly started to go up. But he kept his composure, nobody in the crowd would know he's not right at the moment. He flipped through the couple sheets of paper on the podium for a minute, ran his fingers through his short, smoothed over hair, cleared his throat, and smiled as he approached the mic once more.

"Alright, Hello everyone, and welcome to the Annual Smith and Brandon And company Dinner. My name is Ruarc Casey, I'm a boardmember and head of Security, physical and otherwise for the company. I am speaking on their behalf to say 'Welcome!' if you are sitting here tonight, my bosses have taken interest in working with YOU and your company, their assets and trade. Your company will get mine known, and in turn mine will provide you with Security, which is my department. Seeing how I just might be personally working with you one day," He scanned the crowd, his crooked smile slowly working its way on his face" Lemme tell you a little about myself. Like I said before, My name is Ruarc Casey, 27 years old. Before I started working here, I was a soldier in the US army. I did 3 tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. I had to retire medically after an Injury I sustained during my last tour. Not only does my company look after its stocks, they look after their people. Brandon Smith, CFO of the company, is a personal friend of mine, he gave me a job, allowed me to prove myself, and to get to where I am today. You will not regret this deal, so now, without anymore waiting, Let's have some fun!"

He stepped off the stage as the band behind him started up, they had a bigband backing up a small rockband, with a jazz/ska sound to it. He limped towards the door, pushing past waiters as they filed out to take peoples orders for food and drink. The door almost came off its hinges as he slammed it open. His hand shakily went for his pack of cigarettes. He stuck one in his mouth and lit it as he stared at the Vegas night sky. Although it was in his head, the gunfire sounded as real as it could. It started out quiet and distant, but just like that day, it started getting louder as they neared the fighting.

PFC. Casey was manning the .50 cal machine gun on top of the humvee when they pulled into the city, the fighting already heavy. He pulled the action back on the gun, racking a shell into the chamber, he began firing. His sergeant was yelling something at him from the passenger seat, when the Humvee in front of theirs exploded. Ruarc got a couple shots off before scrambling over the top. He dove for the nearest corner, and began firing back. That's when The man came around the corner with an RPG....

-d-

Glancing up to where the voice originated from Jack didn't look long enough to realize who the guy speaking was. But she followed his instruction, pulling out her phone to check it as she meandered to a seat. She tucked her phone back into her clutch setting it on her lap hearing the speaker clear his throat. Jack's head lifted slowly and seemingly uninterested as his voice started to fill the room. There was a moment of possible recognition but she simply brushed that off as he had one of those faces. That is until he said his name. Her eyes lit up a little, a stronger stroke of recognition. For a quick moment the rest of his words weren't registering in her mind, it was racing to try and figure out where she remembered him from. His words started fading back into her conscious as he shared about himself. That was it, high school. She remembered losing touch with him when he went to basic and she was on tour and trying to record. That's when she lost most contact with almost everyone she was friends with other than her band at the time. Especially after when she finally moved to Chicago, not wanting anything to do with anyone from home after the semi-bitter break up of the band.

She was hoping that when he was finished speaking he would walk past the tables so she could stop him, instead he didn't as the band started. She listened for a moment, loving the unique set up of the bands, and the sound, thinking she'd love to record them, at least try out messing with recordings of them, seeing how the inner workings worked for them. Her attention was pulled back out of the music side by a looming waiter, with a quick glance around the room looking for where Ruarc went, all she saw was the closing door. Glancing back up at the waiter with his many questions to try and get her attention she finally answered, politely waited for the waiter to leave before setting her sights on where she thought he exited.

Carefully excusing herself from the table for the moment she tried to gracefully and quickly go to the door holding her clutch tightly in her hand. Her walk slowed approaching the door, unsure if she was actually allowed to be there, she didn't care and figured if it would be fine if he did remember her. Slowly than he did, but not so slowly her exit didn't look natural Jack slipped out. "Ruarc Casey?" She asked softly, and a little shakily unsure of how exactly she should have addressed him at the moment. She kept some what of a distance not wanting to startle him in his seemingly distracted state. Stopping just a few steps away, she softly asked again, "Ruarc?" Going with a more friendly approach and just waiting for an answer from there, putting both hands on her clutch to keep from playing with the skirt of her dress.

((I hope it's not too late to join, I just really like the look of this. I'm going to post a skellie while I have ideas, I hope you don't mind...

OoC// That is fine! The more the merrier!

((Awesome, thanks :) I'll just post an intro straight away then. Don't worry, I know it looks long, but my other posts won't be quite so long; I normally put as much into my intros as I can, especially when it's a new character))

It had certainly been a long day. Hazel had got in late that evening and collapsed onto the sofa with a sigh. Four meetings was enough for one day, but she'd had to miss lunch and snack in between meetings, freshening her breath with gum before an author slipped into her office, and typing up book descriptions and synopses of those that she liked the look of where she could. She was championing 5 novels at the time, excluding her own which was being handled by another editor, and had seen 3 more that had captured her interests. Unfortunately, after several hours of business correspondence via email, she'd discovered that one wasn't willing to wait and she'd had to pass him on to another editor. She couldn't take on 8 authors at once, she'd had to tell herself, knowing that even for her 8 was too many.

Before she'd had a chance to even slip off her jacket, a squealing voice enveloped her, followed by a tiny person tugging her cream pencil skirt. "Hey sweetie," Hazel whispered to her daughter, and smiled up at the babysitter as the girl entered the room. The babysitter was named Emily, around 15 years, and saving for college, she'd said. On the coffee table, Hazel could see the girl's biology notes scattered everywhere. There was a cup of half-finished milk in her hand, and Hazel reached for it. "Are you going to finish your milk, Rebecca?" she asked, as she was handed it, and Rebecca reached towards it with grabby, grabby hands.

"I really appreciate this," Hazel told Emily, knowing the girl would be in her home until about 10 in the evening and had been since 8 in the morning. This function tonight didn't seem to have a point to it, but she'd been told by 'the men upstairs' that she needed to go. Emily quickly let her know that it was fine and she needed the money anyway. She had no school that day and appreciated the work, too.

Hazel left Rebecca with Emily and rushed upstairs to get ready for the function. She pulled on a slim-fitting, emerald green cocktail dress, attractive but business-like enough to suit. Her auburn hair needed but a quick brush, and her make-up just a touch up. Her eyes shone brightly despite the long day. On the way out, Hazel grabbed a clutch purse and filled it with the necessities (business ID and cards, driver's license, money, keys) and kissed Rebecca on the way out. She really didn't have time to stop, and leapt in her big-enough-for-one-and-a-baby car.

Upon arriving, Hazel pulled into a space in the underground garage of the venue. Clutch purse in her hand, she flashed her business ID at the door, and slipped through the crowd to a group of rapidly-filling tables. At one, she saw a woman she vaguely recognised. Slightly muscular, blonde hair tinged with colours at the front, and an undeniably-familiar face; Hazel quickly identified her as Jack, a girl she'd known at high school. She seemed mostly unchanged, but for the tattoos that crept up one arm. Hazel toyed with the idea of going over and saying hi, worrying that it would be embarrassing. Hazel, a woman who dealt with 4 meetings a day and countless numbers of insolent authors who all thought their book was the most amazing, was worried she couldn't handle a girl who still looked like a teenager. Of course, Hazel had fond memories of that teenager, and she wondered what Jack was like now.

A flash went off to the right of her, and a familiar voice filled the air. "Ronnie? Ronnie King?" it said. She recognised that name and that voice, though they didn't belong together. Ronnie, she remembered, was another girl she'd known at high school, a friend of Jack's and hers, actually. The voice, when she thought about it, she realised belonged to a guy they'd all known, called Kai. Hazel looked towards the voice and there they were. She was about to go over, when her thoughts were interrupted.

Hazel turned sharply towards a podium she hadn't previously noticed. It seemed she would see many old friends here, but, at this rate, never actually get to speak to them. Speaking to the suddenly-large crowd from a microphone on the podium was Ruarc Casey, yet another high school friend. This would be a strange evening. Ruarc explained that there must be some interest between his company and hers (though she knew he spoke to all the guests of the occasion), and wondered what Carnation Publishing Inc. needed more security for. She watched as Ruarc limped from the stage and realised he must have joined the army like he'd intended; Hazel hadn't liked this idea, and had rapidly gone off him after learning this. Now, strangely, she pitied him.

With a glance at the table in front of her, Hazel saw Jack speeding away - towards the stage and Ruarc. She clearly remembered him, too, and wanted to catch up. Hazel, instead, turned to the two nearby her, hoping they would be allow her to contribute to their conversation. Both were as attractive as they used to be, though Ronnie's youthful looks had, she could see, matured into beauty. Kai still had the youthfulness that many Japanese men seemed to possess. Trying her best to use the confidence she had in the office, Hazel smiled at the pair. "Hi, Ronnie, Kai. It's been a long time since we've spoken." She held out her hand for them to shake. "Hazel Boniface."

[font=Constantia][/font]

More bodies were already filling in the already crowded room and with the small space she had to breathe, Ronnie took in the decor of the room. Stunning, gorgeous, what was expected from the rumors surrounding the place, and she dare say picturesque. Click it was her job to showcase the venue to the best of her abilities, a flash, but it was rather disappointing as beautiful as it was, the place was so superficial. It had nothing on the breath-taking views she'd captured out in the fresh air, she mused while scanning through the images already within her camera's memory. A sense of nostalgia hit home at a picture of several teenagers all huddled together to make it into the frame, ridiculous expressions on their faces, the sunset backdrop peaking in from in between the bodies and edges. That had been an amazing camping trip the last one they all went on together, right before the beginning of senior year. 'Jack...Hazel... Kai and Ruarc...Me. How long had it been?'

An oh-so familiar voice cut through her reminiscence as one of the boys in the image materialized to stand before her, looking as young as he did eight years ago. Painted lips curved into a teasing smirk, "You think I would forget you Kai? We all practically lived together senior year...it's been awhile," she ignored the hand, instead throwing her arms around his neck for a brief hug, noticing with a slight huff even in wedges she was still forced onto her tip-toes. Releasing Kai she was about to ask him the typical questions of "What have you been up to?", "How's the wife," so on and so forth when an old voice caught her attention and she quietly listened to the speaker. A slight downwards turn to her lips at his tone of voice, something happened...something bad this wasn't like him...normally. She watched the man limp away from the large mass of party-goers usually the type to join the crowd, cringing internally at the sound of the slammed door echo throughout the party, 'Ruarc...what happened to you?'

Ronnie didn't have much time to worry before a smile well-known to her made it's way over to her and Kai. Another grin fought the frown previously gracing her expression, holding up the camera to capture the familiar face, "Say 'cheese' Haze," a shining smile overtaking her expression at the women's pose. Placing the camera on the table she graced Hazel with the same actions she did towards Kai. "Well, first there was Kai, then Jack and Ruarc, and now you...we getting the group back together or something?" Ronnie questioned her old habit of tilting her head to the slightly to the right still present after all these years.