It was a rather nice bar; not too seedy, but nothing like the other loud, flashy clubs that lined this street in Baton Rouge. Wick had insisted that they go out tonight, for dinner and drinks, she said, and Kat had been left with little say in the decision. It hardly mattered. There was nothing to do at home, no one to talk to her, and her expression darkened when she amended that thought to read, No one who wanted to talk to her.

Mode had been ignoring her for weeks, now, and Kat looked at the drink in her hand and then quickly gulped it down. They hadn't eaten yet, but Wick said that you always had cocktails before dinner, and when the alcohol hit her empty stomach, Kat had to agree. She felt lightheaded and angry and excited, all at once, sitting in a strange bar with strange people, and she turned to give her sister a small, tight smile.

Wick was tired of trying with Kat. The older woman was responding less and less to the distractions that Wick had been creating for her, and their little shadow hadn't yet seen fit to interrupt any of their activities. Tonight was Friday. Monday she'd have to go back to work and she would need to work uninterrupted by fits of drama from her houseguests.

The bar was already pretty full, but the waiter had managed to seat them almost immediately and it was a good table. She could see almost the entire room just by turning a little in either direction, and they could both see the door without any trouble. There were a few other couples and a few other knots of women in twos and threes, but most of the clientele were men somewhere between twenty and forty in loud groups of five and six at each table. Most of the outer ring of tables were tables and chairs, but the inner circle where they sat were high stools. It was almost like they were on display, but it also allowed them to look down on the rest of the patrons, and Wick liked that.

The alcohol was already beginning to hit Katera, and when she gave Wick a toothy smile Wick returned it with one of her own. Kat was wearing a dress, an actual dress the same color green as her eyes that clung to her torso and ended just above her knees. It had no sleeves and though it did loop over her shoulders had a rather low neckline. It had taken Lucy more than an hour to get her into it and properly configured. Wick herself was wearing a dark red dress the same color as her drink that left her shoulders almost bared but covered her upper arms to hide the little scar there.

"I want another drink," Kat said a bit defiantly, as if she expected to be overruled. Wick merely nodded and signaled the waiter, who scurried away and returned in short order with another of the tall sweet-smelling concoctions Kat had a taste for. He also placed another drink in front of Wick, though she wasn't half done yet, and she looked at him askance.

"Courtesy of the man at the end of the bar," the waiter said smoothly. Kat jumped.

"Which end?" asked Wick conversationally.

The waiter inclined his head discreetly to indicate which end, and Wick casually glanced in their direction. Three men sat in a small group, their eyes fastened on Kat; well, two of them had eyes fastened on Kat. The third one was looking at her, and she let her gaze pass over them without pausing and dismissed the waiter with a flick of her hand before looking back at Kat and grinning at her again.

There were three of them, all older than she was, and they were watching her and Wick as closely as she was staring at them. Wick had been discreet about it, but Kat was not the subtle type. She gave them all a raking once-over, from the tall businessman with dark eyes to the one sitting beside him, the one with hair almost as blonde as Mode's. They were all rather attractive, especially the man who was smiling at her, and she grinned broadly enough to show the edges of her teeth.

She was still wearing the smile when she turned back to Wick.

"I don't think we'll have to," she murmured as the men rose from their seats and began to walk toward them. Wick wondered what the men saw when they looked her and Katera over, and what they thought they might be able to tell about the two of them. What showed on the surface? What mannerisms were they noticing, and what did they think they meant? This promised to be instructive and at least a little entertaining, and she looked them over with a little more subtlety than Katera had and tried to make some judgements of her own.

There was the blonde on Katera had mentioned, and his walk said she was already half into his bed and he was just deciding which exit to take her out through. He was wearing clothing that showed his muscles without being too obvious about it. He was even around Nathan's height, and Wick was interested to see how Kat would react. The second one also had his eyes on Kat, but he was shorter (though still taller than Kat) and had light brown hair that looked artfully tousled, not blonde. Instead of the preemptive possessive smirk on the first man's face, this man had a more subdued smile that was more friendly and less honest, she thought, than his blonde companion.

The third had dark hair and dark eyes and he was barely smiling at all, but he was certainly looking at her and there was approval on his face. He wasn't nearly as tall as the neo-Nathan but she still had to look up when the men reached their table. Upon closer inspection his eyes were a deep, dark blue.

"Hello, ladies," said the one with the brown hair easily, glancing Wick over politely and then returning his gaze to Kat. "Want some company?"

It had been so long since she'd last hunted in earnest, years ago when she had roamed the dark hallways of Charybdis, and she was brilliantly aware of the dagger strapped to her thigh beneath the dress. The leather sheath was a comforting weight as she crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat, and she twirled the straw in her drink with an expression that almost managed to be innocent.