A/N: When I start a story I have a very rough idea what I want in it and make most things up as I go. That was why I didn't plan on even naming that random guy who approached Val in the pool. But since he appears in this chapter as well, I've decided that he should be Cain - the male lead in the story I'll be working on during Camp NaNo in April. Do you want to read the blurb?

*****

Val's POV

I dashed downstairs, quickly scanning the hallway. When my eyes didn't find the person I was searching for, I returned to the pool room.

He wasn't there either.

Kitchen - nope.

Living room - nah.

Did he leave? I wondered as I headed towards the back yard. I could always find someone else, I guess...

There he was!

Wet dark hair and black swimsuit with two slim vertical grey lines on each side. He was in a small group of two other guys and two girls, laughing at something one of the boys said.

I marched towards him, grabbing the hand that wasn't holding a plastic cup. He startled and spilled some of his drink.

"What the..."

"Come on," I pulled him towards the house.

"Wait, what did..."

I did not pause.

More of his drink found itself on the floor.

"I said wait."

I barely managed to keep my balance when his heels dug into the ground, bringing me to a sudden halt. I turned around and glared.

"What did I do this time, you crazy chick?"

"Nothing. Now let's go." I tugged on his arm.

"Oh, no, no, no, no; I'm not going anywhere with you." He raised the cup to his mouth only to realize it was empty and throw in over his shoulder.

"Glad to know you are so worried about the environment," I said, pointing with my chin in the direction he'd thrown the cup.

"I heard the host is loaded. He can afford to get this place cleaned." He waved with his free hand.

"Aha. Let's go." I turned around once more, but he swirled me back towards him.

"I told you I wasn't going..."

"You wanted to get to know me earlier, right?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, and my wrist still hurts because of that." He gave me a flat smile.

"Well, I'm not going to twist your arm again. Now let's go inside and dance."

"Dancing?" He looked me up and down with narrowed eyes.

Wow, he had beautiful light eyes. Looked kind of hot too, when they were half-closed.

I gave him the once over.

The rest of him was pretty impressive as well, especially the abs.

"What are you playing at?" He leaned closer to me and I wrinkled my nose when his breath carried the smell of alcohol.

"Not playing." I let go of him to cross my arms over my chest. "Just changed my mind."

"Mhm." He murmured, unbelieving.

"If you think I'm playing, dance with me and see what I'm up to. Unless you are scared that is," I challenged, looking straight into his eyes. I still couldn't tell what color they were.

He smirked - yep, it was official: he was really hot - and took me by the hand, leading me towards the house. I expected us to go into the living room, a.k.a. tonight's main dance floor, but he brought me into the kitchen instead.

"How old are you?" He asked, letting go of me and reaching for a bottle of Jack.

"Why?" I questioned in turn.

"Answer me and I'll answer you." He poured two shots of the whiskey and immediately gulped one.

"Seventeen," I replied, reaching for the second glass he held, expecting him to hand it to me.

"Then this one is also for me," he stated, bringing the tiny object to his lips and pouring the content in his mouth. "Also, we can dance, flirt, no getting too friendly though."

"Why not?" I asked out of curiosity. Taking it further than hands on hips was as far as I was going to let him go anyway.

"I'm twenty-one." He replied, pouring another shot and gulping it right away. "Let's go."

This time his hand landed on the small of my back as he pushed me towards the center of the living room.

"So, you don't hook up with seventeen year olds?" I asked as we swayed, his hands on my hips, mine on his chest... Nice, firm, bare chest... This guy definitely worked out.

"Not since I was a teen myself."

"But in the pool..." I began and he cut me off, knowing what I was about to say.

"You look older." He shrugged. "Was going to ask about your age eventually."

"When is eventually?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Before you gave me a blow job." He assured me.

"Do I look like that kind of girl?"

"Maybe." Another shrug. "If you like the guy."

"And you think I like you?" I asked in a purposefully bored tone.

"Your eyes definitely like my abs." He winked. "Or were you staring lower?"

I suppressed a grin.

I might have taken a glimpse or two lower.

"I've seen better." It was my turn to shrug and he paused. "Abs, I mean."

"Mhm." He grabbed my arm, made me do a turn, then our hands returned to where they'd been.

"Nice ink though," I commented, referring to the tattoo on his left shoulder blade.

"Oh, that." He looked away for a moment. "I lost a bet," he told me when his eyes returned to mine.

"I think it's cute."

"That was the point." He rolled his eyes. "The looser had to get an embarrassing tattoo."

"And you thought the silhouette of a kitten is embarrassing?"

"Where I grew up, guys didn't ink adorable kittens into their back unless they wanted to get their ass handed to them."

"How did you manage?"

"I punched harder than them. Sometimes. Sometimes I cheated."

I raised both of my eyebrows this time, but when he didn't clarify on what he'd meant with "cheated", I changed the topic:

"You didn't do anything back in the pool when I twisted your arm."

"You are a girl and you are younger than me. I could've gotten out of your grip and pushed your back against the pool wall, but that would've caused some drama and I don't feel like doin' drama tonight. So I had to leave." His eyes narrowed at me again. "Which really pissed me off."

"Too bad for you, mate." I placed my hand on his hips. "Now get moving."

He smirked again.

"Getting a little bossy, are we, crazy chick?"

"It's Val."

"Cain." He mirrored my pose and we began swaying again.

"Got anything against crazy chicks, Cain?" I asked.

"I grew up around psychos from both genres. There was this one chick that was making me crazy." He grinned, but his eyes seemed a little sad.

"What was she like?"

"Kind of spoilt. Changed her mind a lot. Used to throw things at me. To be honest, I met her when she was going through some personal shit so I suppose her being unstable was expected at the time." His eyes were still aimed my way, but they no longer saw me. "It was her rebellious phase. Not that I minded that that much. Rebellious suited her." He focused on me and clarified: "She was a redhead. Gotta love a redhead."

"Yeah. Gotta love a redhead," I murmured, averting my gaze.

"Oh, so it's that guy."

I turned back towards him.

"There's only one redhead in this party that I've seen and I'm guessing that's the dude you are trying to make jealous or whatever you are using me for. He's been glaring at us for a while."

He nodded in the general direction of the door and I turned my head that way. It wasn't difficult to spot Raiden, indeed glaring; he turned around as soon as he saw me looking at him.

"We are just friends." My gaze fell on Cain again.

"Mhm." Once again, I did not manage to convince him.

"We are," I insisted, louder.

"So, you turn me down, ten minutes later you hunt me down and demand that I dance with you and I'm supposed to believe it is not to make the only guy who looks pissed at me jealous?"

I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut.

It wasn't to make Raiden jealous; I just wanted to... Piss him off?

"As much as I like having pretty girls around me," he let go of my hips, "stop wasting time and go sort it out."

I didn't move.

"Come on, get your fine ass over there," he prompted.

"And what will you do?"

"Me? Drink some more, then find a girl my age to get dirty with 'cause I'm kind of horny." He shared his plans for the rest of his evening without shame.

"What about your redhead?"

He let out a loud sigh and I couldn't help but smile when he pouted, morphing from a really hot guy into an undeniably adorable one.

"That's a long story. Now go before he decides to take a page from your book and dance with some random hottie."

"See you around, Cain." I nodded, but he shook his head.

"Not from around here, but it was... Well, not nice, but not bad to meet you, Val."

"Mhm." I tried to imitate his tone when he doubted me and he graced me with that mischievous smirk again.

Bye, Mr. Adorable, welcome back, Mr. Hottie!

I gave him a wave, he gave me a nod and with that we parted and I made my way through the dancing people towards Raiden who had moved into a corner.

"Hey." I started, keeping it simple.

"Aren't you busy?" He crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the crowd.

"That guy? Not my type." I leaned on the wall next to him; he still wasn't looking at me.

"Are you angry at me, Raiden?" I nudged him with my elbow. No reply.

"Is Way-Way angwy at Vallewy?" I asked in a baby voice. He clenched his jaw.

"Is Way-Way angwy? Why is Way-Way angwy?" I kept repeating, my voice raising with each sentence.

"Will you cut it out?" He snarled at me, his face matching the color of his hair when he turned to me.

I grinned.

"Come on." I intertwined my fingers with his and tilted my head into the direction of the door.

"Where are we going?"

"On an adventure!" I grinned, wide-eyed. The truth was I had no idea where to go or what to do. I just wanted to go somewhere with him and do something with him.

"What about Nat?"

"I'll text him to grab a cab. He was planning on going home early anyway since Hunt is coming over tomorrow," I explained.

"And what do you classify as an adventure?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"You'll see." I tightened my grip on him and lead him towards the door.

"Would it involve the police?" He kept interrogating me.

"Who knows?"

Really, who knew?

Even as I was pulling Raiden through the packed hallway and towards the yard, I still didn't have an idea what our adventure could be.

Guess I'll just have to improvise!

*****

A/N: So, how many of you guessed Val would go back to that guy from the pool?

What do you think of Cain? What about his tattoo?

Are you curious what his story is going to be about?

Are you curious what Raiden did between arguing with Val in the previous chapter and getting dragged off to an adventure?

Any ideas what their adventure could be?

Please support this chapter with a VOTE if you enjoyed it!