Darren did not often spend his evenings in pubs - at least, not unless he had finished his work for the day and found himself without a plan and without anybody to bother. So now that coursework had finished and he needed to pick out a final, practical project, Darren found himself with more time than he truly wanted with which to do nothing. It was because of this that Darren found himself sitting in the Leaky, listening to some woman complain at Carter, the late night bartender. Apparently Declan had taken off for some personal reason, and Darren had been around long enough to realize that the man had almost definitely found himself a girl (finally) that he worried after enough to ignore work.
His eyebrow lifted, however, when he came to understand what, exactly, her dilemma was. Parent issues? Darren understood that to an extent. His parents thought fairly highly of him, though they really did seem to prefer his brother Flynn sometimes. That usually happened when Darren was being his overly-curious, nose-in-your-business self, though. And he had gotten pretty good at hiding it around his family, if only to save face and to keep them from groaning every time he wanted to visit. He wasn't exactly a people person, but he did want his family around from time to time. They were the exception, he supposed.
Darren couldn't help himself, really. She needed to fool her parents, and he needed to do an experiment regarding whether or not he could convince people of something that was untrue. The situations could not have been more perfectly aligned. So he turned towards her - apparently her name was Bella - and decided that there was nothing for it. He had to ask.
"Sorry, love, don't mean to interrupt," he began, reaching a hand out to stop Carter as he approached her. "I think I can help you out with your problem. Name's Darren. I'm a student at university but I've got a bit of a project, and I think we can actually help each other. Carter," he spoke to the bartender, "I've got this. If she needs a room for the night I'll pay, but I think she might prefer to head to her own house."
Turning back to Bella, he added, "I think it's time to get you sobered up a bit, eh? Then you can explain what it is that you're after."