You can applaud if you wanna

The music was pounding already, and yet the sun was only just setting. It was to be expected with any place Vito owned, though, because everyone knew he had a thing for loud music, women, expensive cigars, and brilliant wine- especially when it was all thrown together. Not to mention that feeling of extreme superiority that came with walking into your own club and being treated as if it was your world, rather than just a club.

But then again, there was always someone around to f*ck with that perfect balance.

“One of our dancers is upstairs with a customer, and they haven’t paid yet, Mr. Symons,” the newest bartended said after spotting Vito as he walked into the place through the front door, Jack at his side. The poltergeist’s smirk instantly became a threatening frown upon hearing this news, “Look, you bastard, I hired you to mix drinks and make me money- but if you see one of my dancers going upstairs with a customer WITHOUT PAYING, you. Should. Do. Something. About. It,” Vito hissed, his voice low, but still able to be heard over the loud, thudding beat of the song that was playing in the place.

The bartended nodded quickly and backed away, only to run into one of the tables and fall to the ground, bringing a bottle of Vito’s favorite wine down with him.

Vito’s dark eyes narrowed instantly, taking on a very catlike appearance, before he walked forward and kicked the man before him in the side, earning a shout of pain from the bartender. Vito turned around to face Jack, smoothing out the front of his suit, “Wait here for a moment babe, I need to go take care of something,” he said before turning on his heal and heading up the spiral stairs that allowed people to access the second floor, where the high-class, and rather pricy bedrooms were located.

Jack rolled her eyes as the little incident transpired. Vito hurried away and she walked further into the establishment, her sharp eyes taking it all in the way one would scout out an enemy camp. This did seem like the kind of place Vito would own. Smoke filled, filled with edgy people who liked to drink and rub up against each other.

Jack did not even dance. If she went somewhere with a dance floor, she found the nearest table and propped up her feet. She hated dancing and she did not like to be one of those 'wall flowers' on display who refused to dance. They were just teases. If Jack did not want to dance, then she would not act like she wanted too.

She continued to amble around. The bartender shot her an edgy glance, probably wondering if he was supposed to throw her out. she ignored him and ran into some drunk guy who was leering at her. Her lip curled in disgust and she backed away, turning and taking up a different route on her minor exploration of the bar/club thing, whatever it was.

She glanced upwards at where Vito had disappeared off to and shuddered. Obviously his places was one of those kinds of places. Girl meets boy, boy buys girl drinks, girl dances with boy, boy buys room... Jack thought the lot of them were stupid, though the wisest thing would have been to not call Vito's bluff. Then again. she still had a lot of messing with him to do.

“No, no, no, no sex for you, moron, this is my employee, and you haven’t even paid the f*ckin’ entry fee. How the hell did you even get in here without paying?” Vito frowned, his voice very dangerous when he spoke, as if daring either one of them to go against his orders. Vito grabbed hold of the female’s wrist, pulled her up off of the bed and tossed her uniform at her, “Go downstairs,” he commanded, waiting for her to dress and walk down the steps before he punished the man before him for going against the rules Vito had set upon opening the place.

Click, Click, Click, Click, came the sound of the dancer’s heals tapping against the stairs as she made her way back down to the first floor.

Vito turned to the man and picked up the bottle of alcohol that was sitting on the bedside table. He gripped the neck of the glass bottle, brought it over his shoulder, and then brought it down on the man’s head with ease, smirking icily as he watched the glass shatter upon colliding with the man’s thick skull. The man was unconscious the second the bottle hit his head, and Vito was left with a passed-out drunken freeloader in one of his best rooms, which should have earned him a good amount of money had the freak paid as he should have…

Small crimson droplets trickled down the unconscious man’s forehead, staining the skin there. Vito pushed the man off of the bed with the heel of one of his shoes and with a loud thud the man hit the floor. Vito took the other bottle of wine that had been lying about the room and uncorked it, taking a swig before raising his leg and stepping down with as much force as possible, on the man’s throat. There was a sickening noise, and Vito knew that he had managed to kill him.

-

With the bottle of fine wine held loosely in one hand, Vito Dee Symons made his way down the spiral staircase, a bit of spring in his step as he walked, one foot in front of the other. He scanned the place with his dark eyes in search of the young female he had brought to the place.

Vito smirked when he spotted Jack in one of the booths on the other side of the room, her feet propped up on the sleek table’s surface. The man headed over to the booth, amusement to be seen in his eyes, “mmm, here take a sip,” Vito offered, resting an arm around her shoulders, passing the bottle of wine her way; Vito Dee Symons didn’t share, so it was very unusual for him to do so all of a sudden- but being who he was, it was probably just to see if Jack would actually take it, or, to see if it was possible for her to actually act like a laidback human around him.

He had to admit, he would have very much enjoyed seeing who she was with her guard down.

She saw Vito approach from the stairs, looking oddly happy and she raised her eyebrows, eying the bottle in his hand and his new demeanor. If he had gone up to punish someone, and come back happy, that meant no good. Not to mention the dancer who had come down had looked shaken up.

Her eyes narrowed coldly. Something bad was up, she could tell. He slipped his arm around her and pushed her the wine. Again, she tensed up. She grabbed his hand and flung it off of her shoulders, scooting away a bit. She did not like to be close to people in general, and she did not like to count Vito as a person. "Don't touch me, pal."

She eyed the wine with disgust and pushed it away. She was a troublemaker, but she was not an idiot either. She knew what alcohol did, and when dealing with someone as tricky as Vito, you had to keep your senses about her. Not to mention, her mother was a bit of a wino, so that was even more of a turn off on the stuff.

She slid it away from her, back to Vito. "No, it's all yours." She cracked her neck, trying to relive some of the tension that always seemed to be there. She scanned the room again and said, "Sleazy place you got here." She meant it as an insult, though she knew Vito would take it as a compliment, so it was a win-win all around.

The man’s lips once again formed a frown, though, for some reason this frown seemed more genuine, and in his eyes there was a strange expression of disappointment. Vito was a very persistent person, and he didn’t like it when people disagreed with him- in fact, it often enraged him, but at that particular moment, Vito saw it as a challenge; he had to see that other side of Jack that he just knew existed…

… and Vito never gave up when he wanted something.

“Fine, fine, no wine then- you’re a lot smarter than you look,” Vito replied smoothly with a simple roll of his eyes. He usually would never compliment anyone other than himself, but like sharing his wine, he had a motive behind his actions and words, and being an expert in deceit, Vito figured it wouldn’t take long at all. Though there was always the chance that Jack saw through him – no puns intended – and things didn’t turn out as planned, but Vito had no place for thoughts of failure in his mind.

“A water then, hmmm? You can even watch the bartender pour it to make sure that it really is water,” the man offered, fallowed by a rare laugh- one what was no doubt forced… but Jack didn’t know that.

Jack cocked a suspicious eyebrow, a frown playing on her own lips as she considered what Vito was saying. He had complimented her; that was incredibly strange of him. Vito never tried to compliment anyone if he could help it, and Jack would be at the bottom of the heap to be complimented willingly by him. So then what was he up to?

He offered her a water, again strange. Thoughtfulness, kindness, and generosity were never apart of Vito's personality and his actions had a touch of each. Jack felt uneasy but she shook her head slightly. She might just be paranoid...Then again, it was Vito. If she wasn't paranoid with him, she would be stupid.

She crossed her arms and sat back, chewing her lip and studying Vito's face for any possible tells. When he laughed, she was again reminded of just how manipulative and deceitful Vito always was, but she was also parched from a long day of running around, being obnoxious. Finally, she said, "Fine. A water." It was almost a warning. Strictly water. No tricks. Or you will pay.

Nodding, Vito stood from the booth and walked over to the bar on the other side of the room, sitting down at the bar, his back turned towards Jack as he ordered her a drink, “A water? Why the hell do you want a water?” the bartender that Vito had kicked in the side earlier asked, his eyebrows moving upwards slightly, his curiosity clear in both his words and his facial expression. Vito shook his head and leaned forward slightly, “Slip in some of your strongest alcohol. Get rid of the smell with one of those charms that you learned at Hogwarts. If you mess this up for me, I swear I will snap your neck,” he ordered calmly, resting his chin on his knuckles slightly as he watched the bartender nod quickly and get to work.

It was only a few minutes before the man on the other side of the bar handed Vito the drink he had ordered. Vito brought the glass to his nose and sniffed it, inhaling the scent that was supposed to be there, only to smell the air around him; the man had succeeded in making the alcohol odorless. Vito looked through the glass and smirked; it looked exactly like water. As for the taste, well, the alcohol that the water had been mixed with was one of the strongest, and still legal, drinks that the bartender could mix, so by the time Jack realized it wasn't water, she would already have doomed herself. Vito grabbed a few ice cubes and dropped them in the drink, “Ah, yes, and I will need you to get the maids to remove the dead man upstairs from my favorite bedroom,” he stated, not looking up from the glass to see how the man had reacted to such news- he could tell already that he was shocked, and really didn’t care.

Vito slid into the booth Jack was accompanying and set the glass down in front of her before taking a large swig of his own drink, “Say thank you,” he ordered, unable to help himself; some things about him simply couldn’t be masked by lies, and that was that. Vito turned his head to look at the female for a moment, “or I’ll have to punish you,” he added mockingly in her ear, waiting for her to squirm away as she usually did.

Jack grabbed the drink and then tensed up once again as he brought his lips close to her ear. She cooly slid away until she had went around the curve of the booth and was sitting across from him. She batted her eyelids mockingly and said, "You know I find you repulsive, right?" She smirked, pretending to have forgotten about the thank you and brought the drink to her lips.

It tasted sort if funny and her nose wrinkled. Had her mother been the one for hard alcohol instead of wine, Jack might have known, but she shrugged it off. It was Vito's place after all, so it was not surprising that the water would be so bitter and gross. It had probably come from a tap. She did not see other waters around.

She cringed her nose as she set it down on the table. "If I get some sort of disease from your water, I swear I'll sue you." She shuddered a little but was happy to feel that some of her tension in her neck was relaxing out a bit. She said, "So, how long have you had this place, then?"

Repulsive. Repulsive could mean hideous or revolting, and both words bothered Vito to such an extent that he had to cover his mouth with one of his hands for a moment in order to keep from spitting out a flurry of curse words. He rubbed his temples in order to keep himself from going transparent; he had been quite distracted by that insult, and it took him a moment to recover. No matter, Vito, you are a brilliant man, whith expensive clothing, shoes, and wine. You are king of the world, remember? Thoughts of that manner flipped around in Vito’s head, and it wasn’t long before he had managed to calm himself.

The last thing he needed was to end up murdering the young woman in front of all of his customers- though he doubted they would think much of it, being drunk and all…

“Disease? You do know that this place is more expensive than any place in London, right? That means that everything in this place is of the highest quality” he spoke, his nose in the air slightly, without him realizing it. Vito slipped on a mask of obvious- meaning he knew that his expression of concern didn’t look genuine, and didn’t care- fake concern and spoke once more, “But I could taste it for you, just in case,” he offered, “Just sip a bit more and come on over here…” he teased her, smirking.

Now all he had to do was make sure she staid in the club long enough for him to witness the effect of the alcohol on her.

She had to keep herself from smirking to victoriously when she saw his face contract after her slip of an insult. She loved that she could get past his sly demeanor and make him lose his cool. She knew it was actually dangerous, especially seeing as the man who had stolen a room from him still had not returned, but she always knew how to do it just enough to piss him off, but not enough to make him too serious of a threat.

She rolled his eyes as he went on and on about how expensive and amazing his place was. None of that meant a flying spit to her. She would rather have it run with noble intentions and be the dingiest place around, then to be expensive and edgy. Of course, that was where she and Vito differed in opinion.

At his comment about the water, she sneered at him and pulled the water closer to her, almost defensively. "No. Mine." She smirked and brought it to her lips, drinking again, vaguely recognizing how out of character saying 'mine' was. She set down the drink after swallowing down the weird water and said, "Anyone, if you drank out of it then I would have to order a new one. I don't want to catch the 'evil.'" She smiled teasingly.