Watch for that Stinger [ open ]

[Taci Pierce]

Life had gotten pretty interesting since coming to Hammel. Taci was learning all sorts of fascinating things about her powers and the people around her. That wasn’t to say she was exactly happy to be in the institute. She hated that word…institute. It made her feel like a psychopath. Then again, maybe she was. She knew that it wouldn’t be long after her freedom from Hammel before she was arrested. She was planning on abusing the shit out of her powers and enjoying every second of it. She couldn’t tell anyone that, of course. They’d just go and tattle and get her put in extensive therapy or something. Who knew these days. But she had never been much of a rules person, and she was looking forward to not having to follow any but her own.

The day itself wasn’t nearly as fascinating as her plots for the future, however. It had consisted of her core classes, required by all high schools in the country, plus a power training session. That one had been fun. It usually was. She just hated how tired it made her. After the training session, Taci decided to crash in the student lounge, and who knew? Maybe there would be a hot guy she could chat up, or a loser chick she could pick fun at. Anything to entertain her, she wasn’t picky.

When she got to the lounge, it wasn’t as crowded as she had expected, but sitting on the couch on one end of the room, Taci spotted the perfect entertainment for the afternoon. She smirked and walked over.

[Braxton Carson]

Braxton had silly power training that day. He considered it useless, he had almost-perfect control over it by now and the sessions were more focused in mastery and pushing his abilities to the limit, something he wasn't really interested in doing. But law was law, and he had to do it or face real trouble, so he religiously went weekly to Hammel to do it. After he was done, he stopped by the student lounge to rest a bit as the dizziness and fatigue from using his abilities too much wore off.

As usual, he demanded a Pool tournament and challenged any decent-looking senior in the lounge to play with him. Three accepted and the little tournament started. Of course none of them knew his powers were excellent to give him a metahuman advantage over all the others without no one noticing, unfortunately the training session had left him tired enough not to want to use them for a while, so it was a fair competition... at least from Braxton's side.

The first match was him versus some jock. The boy was nothing but an amateur and the match lasted nothing. He patted the jock in the back and helped organize the pool table for the second match. Afterwards he moved aside as the two competitors started and searched for a spot to sit when he noticed a familiar face that was walking up to him. He grinned a bit.

"Tace herself." He eyed her up and down as she walked, clearly checking her out. "Haven't seen those two in a while." Braxton clearly stared at her breast. "Have you been hiding from me again?"

[Taci Pierce]

The last person Taci had expected to see at the school was Braxton. He was older than her…a college kid, she was pretty sure. She had thought he had graduated, but apparently he was stuck here, for power training most likely. She had liked him well enough while he was in school. He had always been a bit too slender to be the perfect image of the perfect guy, but his saucy attitude made up for that. At least, it did until it got him in trouble with her. She knew he was a hopeless womanizer, and she didn’t mind that in the slightest. What bothered her was that she wasn’t the most important to him. She knew for a fact that she was the prettiest thing he had ever and would ever have, and she demanded she be treated as such. No luck with him, though. Not that that mattered right now.

Taci smirked as Braxton noticed her and looked her over. She waited until he had stopped talking and was admiring the twins before putting a hand on her hip and giggling lightly. ”I see you haven’t changed a bit, Brax. How are the big leagues treating you?” She looked down at her chest for a moment before looking back at him, checking him out as well. ”Maybe you’d like to get a more personal look at them later.” She winked and rolled her eyes playfully. ”Have you ever known me to hide from anything? I’ve just been busy. It’s a hard job, keeping order in a place like this. Gotta make sure the friends are pleased and the idiots are scared. And what have you been up to, lately?” Taci stepped closer to him, so that they were almost pressed together. She placed a quick kiss on his cheek and leaned close to his ear, whispering. ”Have you missed me desperately?”

[Braxton Carson]

"Tace, I was born for the big leagues." Braxton smirked.

Taci was just as he remembered her, a complete flirt. She was already proposing a good time later and they both knew that he was highly unable to say no if the proposal was a serious one. Then again, if it was, there was no time to rush things. Braxton always like to say that in there are two types of hunting, the hunting to survive where you kill and eat your prey right away to satisfy your needs, and the hunting to entertain yourself, where you enjoy the game, the chase, the tease and then, in a climax, you kill and eat your prey before the game becomes too repetitive. Braxton was an expert of both, and enjoyed them just as much, but Taci belonged to the later type. Speeding the process up was nothing but a waste of her potential.

It was good that Braxton didn't believe in serious relationships, otherwise he might think she is pretty much perfect for him, perhaps his soul-mate.

"Oh, well, nothing much really." He eyed the pool match. Pfft, amateurs. "College. Homework. Studying hard. Learning. You know me." If she did, she'd know this was a lie.

The kiss caught him by surprise. She really meant business... Brax thought as goosebumps covered his body after she whispered in his ear. From his position, he eyed her up and down with a half-smile.

"You wish." Braxton was pretty much sure, and hoping, it would anger her a bit. "Tell me, what do you have to offer that college girls are not already offering?" He quickly glanced at the pool table before directing his attention back at the red-haired. "And believe me. They are throwing themselves at me... offering... many things." He winked at her. "You know first-hand that thankfully there's enough Brax for all of them."

[Taci Pierce]

Taci giggled a bit, using one of the oldest tricks in the book to her advantage. A lot of people said that men found it demeaning when you laughed at everything they said, and perhaps they did, but Taci made sure to laugh at the opportune moments and at the opportune pitch. Sometimes, all it took was a good noise of amusement and an innocent-yet-saucy expression to accompany it to win a guy over. Brax, she knew, was easy like that. He was hypersensitive to any flirtatious action, no matter how subtle or how obscure. If it was meant to be a turn-on, for him, as far as Taci could tell, it was.

For a moment she stopped looking him over and instead followed his gaze to the group of kids playing billiards or something. She had never been fond of the game. The homosexual metaphors ran rampant in her head whenever she tried to, and she couldn’t help but laugh. It didn’t help that it was a bunch of foolish teenage boys playing right now, either. She smirked a bit, already thinking up rumors to spread about the boys if they ever crossed her path and she decided she didn’t like them. Taci looked back at Braxton when he started talking again, and once more, she giggled at his joke. ”Oh, I know you all right. I bet you’ve been doing lots and lots of homework, or maybe the homework has been doing you?”

A smirk began to form once again when she noticed the goosebumps on his arms. If she wasn’t better than those college girls he had to be getting some from, then she was as good as, and that did wonders for her already-bloated ego. Taci giggled, more saucily this time, and ran a nail down his chest lightly. ”You know what I have to offer,” Taci continued to whisper, looking in his eyes now. ”And you know it’s better than those silly college girls who talk too much and are looking for steady relationships.” She smirked as her nail reached the bottom hem of his shirt. She brought her hand back up to his neck and ran it down to his shoulder. ”And it looks like you’ve packed on a few more pounds of muscle. Nice.”

[Braxton Carson]

Braxton loved when girls giggled at his words. He was funny, charming, hilarious, friendly and pretty much awesome. People had to laugh and giggle around him, it was their natural reaction to Brax's natural behavior. The more they did, the more he liked the person, or persons, he was with, because really, if they weren't having a good time, and showing it, they were boring people that should leave the place and learn how to enjoy themselves.

"Well maybe we are doing each other." He laughed a bit while eyeing the pool match. One of them was already promising to be the winner.

The way Taci started to visibly feel Braxton's body is exactly what she liked about her. She wasn't ashamed of admitting interest on the boy, like most girls do. Not because they were ashamed of liking Brax, they should actually be proud, but because of that silly girl gene that forced them to be passive and wait for the guys to make a move first in fear of looking slutty. Taci didn't look slutty, obviously not. To Braxton, she looked sexy, fierce, brave. And doable, off course.

"I have." Braxton flexed his arm to show Taci what playing ultimate had done with some of his muscles. Which wasn't much, but hey, if she liked it, it was enough. "And that's not all." He grabbed the girl's hand and placed it in his abs, letting her feel them as he smiled. "And that is not all either..." He slowly lowered her hand to that point just above his belt, raising his shirt a bit so she would touch her skin rather than his shirt. "So... Still want to know what's up?"