Mind over matter

Kitty dug her claws deep into her hand trying to focus on not shifting in a nightclub full of people. She focused on her claws tearing into the palms of her hand. This had never happened to her before, so she was completely out of her depth. It went without saying the werewolf had a bit of temper, but it had never been problematic before. She had never escalated to violence either. It was like her anger had been amplified a million times since she was bitten. Back in Atlanta, she had her sisters to fall back on if anything went wrong, and they were there to keep her safe. In Mystic Falls there was no one to keep her in check.

Kitty could hear people around her shouting, yet their voices were drowned out by the sound of her increasing heartbeat in her head. It was almost deafening. Shit, had her coursemates seen her sudden outburst of fury? She hoped not, it wasn't a good first impression. Nonetheless, she was too scared to look up and check, but just stared straight into the ground hoping the rage would either faded away, or it was just a terrible dream. Her grandmother uses to tell her to count backwards from 100 whenever she got upset or angry over something, but suddenly Kitty was struggling to even count.

It felt like she had been staring at the dirty floor of the nightclub for hours, but realistically it had been seconds. Suddenly someone grabbed her arm, firmly. Kitty thought it was the girl coming back for a fight, but was relieved when she heard a male voice growl, "Put it away" It away? What was it? She was a little perplexed until she looked up and saw bright blue eyes staring back at her. The colour matched her own eye. "Fuck" Kitty tried to pull back, but the stranger's grip kept her still. She knew there were other wolves out there, but she was yet to cross paths with any. Well, she was assuming he was a werewolf, as they shared the same eyes. “She’s not worth it. Just calm down, breathe.” Breathe? That's all she was trying to do, but it felt like the oxygen was just getting stuck in her throat. The basic human task was proving impossible, "I'm trying!" She snapped through gritted teeth, deflecting her anger onto the werewolf. "Sorry..." She quickly muttered, realizing she was being out of order. Kitty closed her right eye, trying to concentrate on her breathing, taking deep sharp intakes of oxygen.

The breathing was working. The sound of her heartbeat was disappearing from her head, being replaced with loud music from the speakers. She felt her claws slowly retract and her right eye was now back to its original brown colour. Kitty opened her eye, and looked at the guy, "Sorry" The young werewolf repeated, "I don't know what came over me" A mixture of too much alcohol, a mouthy girl who didn't know when to shut up, and Kitty's temperament. Either way, she was grateful to the stranger for helping her.

"Are you?..." Her voice trailed off, she didn't want to say the word out loud and she was also wary of someone overhearing her.


KIT CLARKE

Eventually, Kitty plucked up the courage to look up at everyone else in the club. People were looking, but it wasn't as if the whole club was staring at her as she first thought. It helped her calm down even more, but her heart sank a little when the bouncer came over. The last thing she needed was to be kicked out or even worst, banned. This was the only half-decent club in town. She was thankful when the other wolf ushered him away.

“I think that bitch did it.” Kitty gave him a weak smile, glancing over at the other girl. She didn't stare for too long as she didn't want anything to kick off again. The wolf felt bad for what had happened but she wasn't about to skip over to apologize. The girl would be fine. She only hit the floor, and humans were very durable. Worst case scenario, she would have a bruise. It was a good job Kitty hadn't launched her down to some stairs, or over a balcony. She wasn't sure what would have happened if she had gone full wolf moments ago. Would the cops come and shoot her down? Would she be taken to a weird facility and have medical experiments done on her?

A drink sounded good though.

Once the guy let go of her arm Kitty straightened herself up a little. She rubbed her hands against her black jeans, to get rid of the dry blood on her palms. The wounds had already healed over, something she was still getting her head around. The fact she just healed so easily. Kitty flicked her wavy hair back and gave the stranger a reassuring smile. A smile that said "I'm okay" because she was.

“If this place kicked out all the hot girls that came in and started fights, it’d slowly turn int’a gay club.” Kitty arched her brow and laughed. She never pitched herself as hot. She always thought of herself as being too much of a tomboy to be considered hot, as she wasn't about the high heels and tiny skirts and dresses. Jeans and boots were more her style. Nor did she wear a lot of makeup, or style her hair properly, although that evening she did put a bit of lipstick on to make an effort, and threw some gel in her hair to tame it. The lipstick had worn off by now though. She didn’t think to bring it with her.

“You like vodka, tequila, what?” The younger wolf shrugged, "Surprise me" She replied. She wasn't fussy. She began to follow in his footsteps back towards the bar, “We’ll take some shots, and you can tell me ‘bout why you got that whole pirate thing goin' on.” Pirate? Kitty chuckled. It wasn't the first time she had been called that, but it never offended her. The eyepatch was part of who she was now, and she embraced it.

Kitty pulled herself up onto a stool at the end of the bar. She put her leather jacket on earlier to keep her warm, but now it was proving to do its job too well. She pulled it off quickly and put it on the bar. The breeze that swept through the club was refreshing. "I'm Kitana by the way, but you can call me Kitty, or Kit, or even pirate girl if you want" She stated, as the stranger appeared on the other side of the bar. The anger had disappeared, for now, and she was back to being her chatty energetic self.

KIT CLARKE

Cognac? Fancy shit, which she had never drunk before. Before she could take the shot glass, the other werewolf mentioned he was also called Kit "No fucking way!" Kitty exclaimed, before laughing, "That's weird as hell" She had never met another Kit before. Her mind wandered as she thought about what Kit could be short for, but came up with nothing. She was too buzzing over the fact she had just met another werewolf called Kit. The wolf was easily excited.

Kitty reached for the shot glass, tapping it against Kit's, and knocked back the dark liquid. Her expression didn't falter. She was used to drinking cheap vodka which tasted like paint stripper. This stuff was actually nice. "Half Asian chick" She grinned, as she placed the shot glass back down. Her knowledge of rap music was limited, she was more into the heavy stuff, but she knew who Tupac was. Everyone knew who Tupac was right?

"So, pirate girl, you here just to beat up other chicks or do you wanna actually have some fun tonight?”

"Nah, I'm all done with beating chicks up now, and ready to have some fun!" There was an emphasis on the word fun as Kitty tapped her hands loudly on the side of the counter. She knew some of her coursemates were sat elsewhere, but they could wait for now. Deep down she had a million questions she wanted to ask Kit but was resisting the urge to throw them at him. She was happy to have a few drinks with him for now though.

"Hit me up with a double vodka coke please" She slipped her hand into her jean pocket and pulled out a stack of cards. The girl really needed to invest in a purse. She drew her debit card out. Kitty wanted to make it clear she was intending to pay for the drink. She wasn't a freeloader, "I guess I owe you a drink too for saving my ass back there. Unless you get them for free in this joint, then I'll write it down on my IOU list" A list which was ever-growing, from owing money to her sisters to owing her flatmate a loaf of bread, but since Kit helped her out she was willing to push him to the top of the list.

KIT CLARKE -

“So, still Asian then,” Kitty laughed, and nodded in response. Her grandmother was always keen to teach her more about her heritage and spent hours trying to teach Kitty and her sisters Japanese when they were children, but at times it was just a painful reminder of her mother, who was no longer with them. As she got older she pushed herself to try and learn more Japanese to keep her grandmother happy and proud.

The young werewolf watched as Kit turned back to make their drinks. "I won't tell if you don't" She smiled. She then glanced back over her shoulder to see if her coursemates were still sat in the same place, which they were. She slid her phone out of her jean pocket to see a text message from one of the girls, "Where are you?" She placed her phone down on the bar, as Kit placed the card machine in front of her. She didn't pay attention to the amount of the screen, she just tapped her card before pushing the card back into her pocket.

As tempting as another shot was, Kitty knew she had to go and see her coursemates. It would be rude of her to ignore them all night to do shots with Kit. "I'm good for now" She took a sip of her drink.

“I don’t get off ‘til we close; you good to wait or what?” Kitty was a little surprised by his comment. Was he coming onto her? Inviting her back to his? His proposal was tempting, but she had come out to have fun with her coursemates. Truthfully, Kitty had not looked at the other werewolf in that way yet, she had been so wrapped up nearly shifting in the middle of a nightclub, but as she mulled over his question in her head she realized he was hot. The muscles, the tattoos, the hair. He was the type of man she'd go for, and she was flattered by his question to go back with him.

Kitty elevated herself slightly and leaned forward on the bar, "I already have other plans tonight. I'm here to meet some friends" It killed her to say that, "But..." She picked her phone up off the bar, "Pop your number in my phone and I'll hit you up sometime" Kitty tapped her pin in to unlock her phone before holding it out for Kit to take, "And maybe you can give me some pointers on how to control my temper a little better?" She didn't even know if Kit was good at controlling his anger or not, but he seemed to know what to do with her in the situation earlier. She didn't want something like that happening again.

KIT CLARKE - hehe