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With auditions coming to a close, Luca felt as though he had a slightly above mediocre group. There was talent, of course, but nothing that had really stood out to him in such a way that was enough. He needed girls that would attract anyone, even the most shallow, stuck up assholes that he was likely to bring in. It wasn't enough to just have the physique of a dancer, there had to be more.
He'd already begun gathering up his things, prepared for the worst case scenario to come from one of the very last dancers to even show up. He had a thing about those who chose earlier spots, it just appealed to him on a comfortable level. Luca had been raised on punctuality and the mindset that those who went first were more eager to be a part of something. Although, he knew he shouldn't really judge without a backstory. When she spoke her name, she sound sure of herself and the way she held herself was also a key point that Luca marked down before nodding, giving her the go.
Leaning back in the chair, he watched closely. He was in no way a choreographer, nor was he an expert on dancing, but he knew what he liked as a man and he'd observed enough people in his life to know what was acceptable in this field. She had a good sense of rhythm and her fluidity in movement was attractive. All in all, he supposed he was impressed. She'd make a good final addition to the show, although he still had a specific role that he needed filled and he didn't quite see her in that. The song ended and he was looking down at the notes he'd been taking throughout the course of the dance.
She spoke and he lifted his head back up to look at her, "You're in, but there are some thing I think you need some work on. At least to fit with the very concept of my club. If you're not open for critique though, the door is there," He motioned behind him.
Lucky is not the word Luca would have used for his situation. Mar and Rena were the only ones he could ever imagine working with. But Mariana was flighty and he wasn't sure how long she'd be content with living in America, or rather, Oregon. She was good enough to go onto a bigger city, but he supposed she was a little tired of being on her own. It was only a matter of time before she found a replacement for her position. He didn't bother saying that to Callie though.
His expression turned confused and he realized that might have been a typical reaction for family to have, maybe, but he'd explicitly told the few siblings that he'd dove into the story with, that Callie hadn't done anything wrong. She may not have handled it the way he'd have liked, but if she was to be hated by his family than it was safe to say that her own probably should have hated him for the way he reacted. "No, I wouldn't expect them to. The women in my family are forgiving people, not that they'd have anything to forgive anyway," He shrugged.
But she pressed on about the few things that he'd have to say in light of her, and he had to admit that it sort of miffed him that she would think so. "Callie, you're not a bad person. I can't think of anything negative to say about you and even if I could, I wouldn't go spreading it around just to make myself feel better. We were teenagers, we were bound to make mistakes." If he hadn't been so uncomfortable with the way he often came off when touching someone, cold skin and all, he might have reached out in a reassuring gesture, but as it were, his time in Romania had pushed him back a few steps. The ex hadn't much liked how frigid his body temperature was.
Getting an apartment was practically useless, Luca was coming to find. The only time ever spent in the apartment for him was often just to sleep, although he hadn't been doing a very good job at that. The opening night for the club was such a short time away that he couldn't focus on anything but that. He'd hardly unpacked, barely went out for groceries. If it hadn't been for Lorena, he was pretty sure he probably wouldn't even eat anything, but she still found time to look out for him in all the chaos.
With a minuscule break in his schedule, Luca had fully intended on unpacking his things. He told Callie that he was intent on staying put, whether the club sank or swam, he was remaining in Oregon. The first task before unpacking that he'd been messing with for hours was preparing each room accordingly. His room needed an air conditioner, one that was high powered and wouldn't break easily because with Lorena living with him, well, they needed their own ecosystems more or less and he had bought her a heater for her own room to maintain a comfortable temperature for herself. At least if her heater broke, she'd likely be okay, but if his air conditioner broke, he wasn't sure what would happen. He'd have to make a few friends quickly just to make sure he had a place to stay.
He was sweating profusely, something that was very rare for him with his overall body temperature being cooler than most. But the air conditioner was heavy and he'd been working on it extensively. Which would explain why it took him a minute to even hear the calls from outside the apartment. Luca took a moment to catch his breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a cold, damp rag before pushing himself up onto his feet and making his way out of his bedroom and to the door. He glanced around to see if his twin was anywhere to be found, but he didn't hear any rustling anywhere else. She must've left to get more groceries or something, the kitchen was a little bare.
Finally, he opened the door to his youngest sister and smiled, hoping not to show any signs of wear on his expression. "Sorry, love, I was working in my room. Why didn't you just use the key, that's what I gave it to you for. Never mind, come in. Make yourself comfortable. How was class?" It was always the same with him, a bombardment of information thrown all at once. He couldn't stop himself though, it was like a routine. Not living with her for so long, he couldn't bear to have anything left out in their conversations now.
Luca had always been pretty impressed with Callie's brothers. They were successful, but neither of them were cruel in order to be successful. And while they both reminded him a bit of his own brothers, the Ivaskov men always had an undertone of cruelty within them. Which he hoped that Callie never had to find that out by meeting them.
Her question made him hesitate because she wasn't all that aware of how many of his siblings were around. He'd mentioned Lorena and Jez, but he figured he might need to tell her about Mar, too seeing as she was in charge of the marketing for the club, they were bound to meet each other at some point, too. "The ones that I'm with frequently, yes, but it isn't just a few of them anymore. My older sister works for the club, too. And my brother Cris is going to OHSU for medical school." And Darius was all too quiet back in Romania, which he highly doubted would last very long.
"I should apologize now for if any of them bombard you, you were one of the only people I talked about when I was in Romania," Luca wasn't even embarrassed by that because she had been worth talking about. And even when he'd been upset, he couldn't find it in himself to bad mouth her to any of them.
Luca lifted his head and his eyes right as Callie made her way closer. Her question made his eyebrows pull together and he shook his head, "No, no, you're good. I'm just weirdly early all the time." With a shrug, he gave her a once over, focusing on not lingering for too long. She always had been beautiful, no matter whether she tried harder one day or not. He was just happy for the familiarity of her and the comfort he took from the fact that she'd been willing to have dinner with him after everything.
He motioned for her to go ahead while he held the door. It wasn't long before they were taken to a table and he, in typical fashion, pulled out her chair for her and didn't sit until she was settled. Old habits died hard. He placed his napkin in his lap and ordered a water before the waiter left the table. Luc chewed on his lower lip briefly before glancing up at her.
"We didn't get much chance to talk the other day, I still feel a little crappy for having to just leave like that. The opening is so close and everyone has been breathing down my neck," He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck as if to emphasize his words. "How've things been though? How're your brothers and the rest of the family?"
After extensive phone calls with vendors, designers, new employees and a couple of siblings, Luca had realized that the whole time he'd been with Callie the other day, not once had they really caught up. He had no idea what was going on in her life, although he wasn't sure that he wanted to dive into his own life and what had happened after he left. It was an excuse to see her, something that he had to seize and take hold of because he'd missed out on it for years.
It only took him a day, which he knew probably made him out to be desperate, but it was Callie. There was no point for him to feel desperate for seeing her because she was one of the only people in the States that knew him. So as he'd promised before getting whisked away the prior day, he asked her to dinner. He didn't know anything about Oregon, what were nice spots to eat and where the true holes in the wall were. He basically threw a rock in the direction of a restaurant when he picked it and showed up completely unsure of what to expect.
He was dressed in his usual, dark jeans and a dark button-up with a leather jacket for no real intent other than to feel seemingly normal. Standing by the entrance, he had the bottom of his foot pressed against the wall while he leaned against it, waiting for his former flame to rescue him from the impending feeling of awkward discomfort.
The beginning of her question caught his attention and he tilted his head to the side waiting for her to finish. His expression softened and he suddenly felt a little embarrassed by the fact that he hadn't deleted her number after he moved back to Romania. He had never thought he'd need it, but it was the comfort of having it at his disposal in case of emergency. "I've, uh, I've still got it," He smiled sheepishly.
At the topic of phones, he felt a little shock when his own started buzzing in his pocket. Once he pulled it out he saw the time and cursed, "Hey, I've got a few things to take care of. I'll call you and we can do dinner or something, okay? It was really good to see you, and thanks for saving my ass." Luca gave her a smile before sliding to answer the call.
It probably should have been harder for him to hug her and feel comfortable with it. For the last few years, he'd spent a lot of time letting go of what he could. While he had let go of the riff that came between them, he had never let go of caring about her and loving her. She was just too good of a person for him to be angry with. He'd been hurt, heartbroken, so what? It wasn't as though he couldn't have and probably even did do the same thing to her at one point or another.
With another squeeze, he pulled back and smiled, "Yeah, well, whether this place fails or succeeds, I don't have a place in Romania anymore. So it would look like I'm not going anywhere either." And he had no complaints. Not about America, his living situation or the company he kept. All of the important people were around and those who wanted nothing to do with him were half a world away.
"I'm going to have to try not to play favorites at work now," He grinned and lifted his shoulders.
Luca gave a nod, but hoped that his face didn't give way to the minor panic attack he was having over her meeting more of his family. Not just one of the siblings, but his twin. Lorena was basically the other half of him, they were so vastly different and somehow incredibly the same. He'd always wanted Callie to meet her, but that was before they'd parted and things had gotten complicated. Now all he could hope was that Lorena didn't say anything about the past relationship. He didn't want Callie to be uncomfortable around them.
The sudden 'but' caused him to pause and he narrowed his eyes at the way she smiled. Her statement caused him to grin and he shook his head, "I mean, as long as you don't go to HR. One sure fire way to fail a club is a harassment charge against the owner." Especially before it even had a chance to open, not that he actually worried that Callie would do something like that to him.
Luca took a deep breath and hugged her again, this time not pulling away immediately. He gave her a light squeeze, "I missed you so much, Cal."
It took a minute before Luca realized that she'd just accepted his offer. He had looked away at some point, but he lifted his eyes when it registered and they widened. "Are you...you're really..." He couldn't put the fragments of the sentence together.
Without much thought, he wrapped his arms around her. After a split second he paused and stepped back, "Sorry, that was a little, uh, I didn't mean to." And he probably shouldn't let it happen again. Especially now that she was his employee. His excitement was a little hard to contain because he could actually see the future of the club now. With Callie, there was no way they couldn't gather a few crowds.
"Immediately. The first meeting is on Tuesday where we're going to go through and figure out acts and such. Get everyone together, meet, greet, discuss schedules and stuff like that. My, uh...my sister will be there. Lorena? I don't know if I've mentioned her much," He said rubbing the back of his neck.
She didn't say she didn't want to. He supposed he should have realized that, but he had grown used to immediate rejection and that wasn't something she could know.
Her hand against his chest was warm, but it didn't make him uncomfortable. It was like he'd grown used to her body temperature a long time ago and it just registered in his body that it wasn't dangerous to him. However, it always made him curious how she could stand it. She said so little, but with such impact that it was hard to shake. Putting the blame on himself rather than on anyone else was just his way of coping. It kept him from lashing out the way he often wanted to. Funny how his ability had very little effect on his temperament.
Luca laughed a little and shook his head, "I've never learned how to not blame myself, but I'll try. So long as you don't carry whatever happened before either. It was a long time ago, neither of us needs to hold onto that."
"'Easy' she says," Luca narrowed his eyes at her with a grin. There was nothing easy about proving his father wrong. It was so out of his own control, that thinking about it made him panic. Of course, he had help, he had Rena and Mar, but there was the potential for catastrophe. Was a burlesque club really the smartest thing he could have done in a place like Oregon?
Her hesitation made him feel a sharp twinge of regret, but he stood fast and kept his eyes on hers. He could understand her reservations about the whole thing, he had some of his own, too. But the honest truth, or rather, his honest truth was that he knew she was the best dancer he'd met and she had everything he needed for the show. Luca stopped in their dancing and pulled her hand from his shoulder so that he was holding both of them in his own. "Callie, you know me. Would I ever offer something I didn't think all the way through?"
He squeezed her fingers, "Look, you're right. It is you and me, but I put you through a lot, too. I handled things wrong then, I'm not about to do that again." Luca chewed on the inside of his cheek and released her hands, "I'm not going to force you, you know that. I just think that you'd be good here and I trust you as an employee because you were my best friend. Still sort of are."
Luca's face fell and he cast his eyes away from her, "Unless I fail." When he was young and stupid, he'd made it out like he thought he could never fail. Everyone knew it was a sham because there was no way that he wouldn't fail a few times in life. But now that he was older, it was like all he heard in his mind was his father's words about how if he wasn't going to act like an Ivaskov he would fail at everything he did. At that, Luca let out a humorless laugh, "Turns out something my father said stuck with me after all."
He didn't know what he would do if the club took a dive and he lost all of the money that he'd put into it. All he knew was that he would try as hard as he could to remain in Oregon for Jezebel's sake and his own. Going back to Romania was not an option, no matter how much he was poked and prodded to do exactly that by the rest of his family.
When he finally looked back at her, he made the split decision to offer exactly what he wanted from her, "Work with me. Dance here. I know that if I've got you, there will be no shortage of people coming through that door."
OPEN Darius Ivaskov (Wes Bentley) Age: 34 Power: Non-powered Qualities: -Calculating -Cold -Distant -Intelligent -Brooding -Pretentious -Arrogant History: -First born -Went to University in Romania -Shadowed their father's company -Looking to expand to the US (and keep tabs on the rest of the Ivaskov siblings)
OPEN Cristian Ivaskov (Matt Long) Age: 28 Power: Something awesome? Qualities: -Good sense of humor -Intelligent -Distant -Arrogant -Playboy -Athletic -Aloof History: -Second born -Manifested and was recruited to the Eastern European academy where he stayed -Transferred to OHSU for medical school shortly after Jezebel returned to Bellefonte
OPEN Mariana Ivaskov (Frances Bean Cobain) Age: 27 Power: Non-powered Qualities: -Rebellious -Forceful -Blunt -Independent -Self-destructive -Daring -Honest -Intelligent History: -Oldest girl -Expected to become the matriarch, but often got into trouble -Got involved with a bad crowd -Moved out when she was 18 -Went to art school -Followed Luca when he returned to the States the second time -Working as a photographer at his club
TAKEN Lorena Ivaskov (India Eisley or Emily Rudd) Age: 24 (Luca's twin) Power: It'd be cool to have either the opposite of Luca's ability or something similar to it? Or she could be non-powered too Qualities: -Adaptable -Calm -Empathetic -Intuitive -Selfless -Motherly -Warm -Tidy/Perfectionist History: -Took on the matriarch role after their mother died -Stayed in Europe after manifestation (if powered) to help take care of their father and Jezebel -Followed Jezebel and Luca everywhere they went after that
TAKEN Jezebel Ivaskov (Ryan Newman) Age: 16 Power: Something adorable like bubble manipulation! Qualities: -Bubbly -Happy-go-lucky -Lovable -Creative -Energetic -Friendly -Sociable -Naive History: -Didn't know their mother -manifested while Luca was in the States and transferred almost immediately after -Moved back when Luca did, but was adamant about returning to the States and Bellefonte to finish school
