Closed [Sunset Quarters] Bleeding Hearts (Aider)

[Kaie]

21st of Fall, 514 AV
1st Bell


The night had been far from planned. First there was her strange woods wandering not to mention that impulsive following of the curious wolf into the graveyard mist. Then there was the shock of meeting Aider and his stunning change of character when met with murderous grave diggers. It was a rather disgusting notion that one would look for profit in one's final resting place. Given Sunberth's nature Kaie found it perplexing it even had a graveyard at all. Taloba had it right, she decided. Funeral pyres were superior to that of the burials, which took up space and risked loved ones being disturbed. It held no purpose for the Myrians anyways considering the deal Myri had struck with Dira. What was the point of carefully burying bodies when the soul that occupied it was already being born into another? So many things in the barbarian world continued to perplex her, as did her sudden relationship with Aider.

When they had finally made it out of the mist and into the city, it seemed foolish for them to press their luck further. They found their way back to his home rather than Ruby's for the sake of distance and avoiding more danger. Their additions to the Dustbed were enough for the night, and Kaie loathed to see her partner bleed as it was. Besides, the visit to the Sunset Quarters was another adventure in itself. Having lived at Ruby's due to her position, she'd never had a reason to wander through the area so many lived. Exploring that part of their anarchic world with her lover made it that much more interesting. At least they had reached his apartment without another incident.

Dim light from the few candles Kaie had managed to find and light illuminated the room. They sat beside one another on his bed, the Myrian facing him as she her legs were folded beneath her. She eyed the makeshift job she'd done for his wound and frowned deeply, that worried crease returning to her forehead though none of his injuries appeared remotely life threatening. "Is that the only one there on your leg? I see blood on your shirt. Did you get cut anywhere else?" She asked as she surveyed him, still somehow feeling responsible for the reckless situation they were subjected to. A bowl of water with a soaked cloth in it laid in her lap in preparation.

[Aider Silander]

x

Aider laid across his bed and looked up at the Myrian as she had a bowl in her lap. He sighed and reached out to place his hand on her thigh. "I am fine, I got cut in a few places. But I will make it, stop worrying it isn't your fault." he said with a warm smile. He sat up knowing that she would not agree with him and pulled off his shirt. His waist was lined with a few cuts here and there. "Most of them are on my leg" he said. He moved closer to her trying not to spill the water and slid his hand behind her waist. "I am not a child dear, I may not be the best fighter. But I can handle myself. I've had injuries worse then this in a Nykian brawl." He tap his fingers along the side of her hip before shaking his head.

He slid past her and off the bed, removing his clothes he stood there for her inspection. "There probably is no point in arguing with you about it. If you feel that you should tend to every little scratch then might as well make it easier" he said. He laid down in front of her now. His leg had more cuts then any other part of his body, his blood painting his skin around the smaller wounds. He placed his hands behind his head and looked at her. Studying her face and her eyes, the beauty that they were caused him to smile. Upon her inspection of his body she would notice multiple scars across his abdomen and waist. Fights and hunting as well as scars from his trip to Sunberth. Each one had it's own story that the Nykian probably would not remember nor care to.

"Why did you tell me to run?" he asked. He shifted again and looked up at the ceiling. He remembered the feeling of her cuddled up next to him in the grass. The sudden realization that she had to trust him somewhat resounded in his head from that moment. He looked her over and reached out his hand to run it along the side of her thigh again. "Can I ask you what you think about me? When you think of me, if you do, what is the first thing that comes to mind?" he asked. His words were not laced with a harsh backing or aggressive in any sense of the word. It was pure curiosity at why the Myrian woman who tried to kill him before now seemed worried that he was hurt. The same woman who had told him that he trusted to easily and was going to get himself killed. He thought that for sure she only saw a person to talk to with different views then her own and maybe a companion for the bed every so often.

But the Nykian didn't want to believe that. He wanted to know if there was something more between the two then lust and interesting conversations. "If the gods have ever done me a justice in my life. It was by meeting you. If we were thrust upon each other by fate and the gods decree then that is one thing I maybe able to thank them for." He smiled. He had considered that meeting the Myrian was a blessing in itself. He knew his life had changed since they met. His want to go out and see the world, or at least part of it. His want to be quest to Syliras that had brought him to Sunberth only to meet her again. He wanted to believe that there was a bigger reason other then sex that the two were constantly drawn together.

x

[Kaie]

Once her lover had conceded to obey her wishes, she moved closer to his bare frame with a strange focus in her gaze. As he spoke she remained silent. Brows tugged together, there was only the reply of the wringing of the cloth over the water bowl. Tanned hands moved to his leg first. It had been the most obvious and the deepest compared to the others. The tear in the fabric brought her back to the moment she wanted his tear the steel from his own flesh. The injury was angry and red, but showed no signs of infection yet. With the healing process in the works made clear by the beginnings of scabbing, the Myrian chose not to touch it. Instead she dabbed around it to wash the dried blood from his skin. Thrice she brought the cloth back to the bowl, wrung it and watched the blood dribble into the water, before it the surroundings tissue was clean around the gash. Kaie rose from his side and sauntered toward the window. Away from that hand that lit a fire in her when it graced her thighs.

"You ask a lot of questions," She finally sighed suddenly, throwing open one of his windows and dumping the blood into the filthy alleyway below. The Myrian shook her head at the necessary act. Even the bizarre jungle witch doctors would've been appalled by the unsanitary conditions. The bowl was refilled with fresh water and then she was back at his side, sitting close to the man upon his bed. The cloth ventured to one of the minor cuts on his upper chest. "I told you to run...because I didn't want to have to do this." She squeeze the cloth out in the bowl again and shook her head. "You're not a killer, Aider. I wasn't even convinced you were a fighter. It was stupid, stupid, stupid of you not to listen to me." A sigh escaped her lips as she swirled the dried blood from his pectoral with the rag. Amber eyes found his and there was a curiosity there. A sort of surprised admiration. "Stupid...but brave."

The rag moved lower to his abdomen, cleaning the man as it went along. The water in the bowl had remained far more pure (by Sunberth's standards) since the leg had been tended. A twitch of a grin teased at the corners of her lips when she addressed the question he wanted to know most. "What do I think of you? I used to see that deer, the kind that wanders aimlessly around the forest, but pauses and lifts its head in panic at you when it feels the aim of your arrow. The lone traveler sitting by the falls, deaf to the savage hunting him. But now I think I'll see something else. I think I'll see the man I saw today, the one who had no business being fearless but made himself seem so anyway. The one I told to leave this wretched city but stayed anyway to make something of himself, even when he knew he didn't belong here."

She dropped the rag in the bowl and set the two on the floor. With an uncertain emotion in her eyes, the Myrian took his chin with her gentle fingers and turned it toward her. Lips found his, warmth and pressure that signaled a sense of urgency there. Then she broke away and stood. Slowly backing her way toward the door, her expression was one of painful earnestness. "But I wouldn't thank any gods just yet. They have an awful habit of taking away the things you love."

[Aider Silander]

He watched her clean the area around his wound and smiled, it was nice to have a feeling that she cared enough to even bother. "It should be fine, if not then I'll cut it off and get a cool peg leg or something." He was trying to lighten the mood and get her to smile. His eyes followed the sway of her hips as she walked towards the window to dispose of the crimson water out onto the street below. He laid on his bed and chuckled when she said he asked a lot of question. It was true and he knew it. He bombarded her with questions on the first day they met and even more so now. He shrugged and nodded his head. "I do because I like to know" he said.

He watched her dab the soaked cloth and took in a breath as the cold water graced his skin again. He swallowed and listened to what she had to say. "You don't have to do this. I told you I was fine." A moment of silence between them as the words registered in his head. "I may not be a killer, that's true. But I will kill to help the one I love" he said shaking his head. "Everything I do is stupid. Getting stuck here was stupid, getting stabbed cause I wasn't paying attention was stupid and I know that. But running away is even dumber. How the petching shyke would I be able to live knowing you might have gotten hurt because of me. Damn I couldn't run, I may not be a killer but I am not the man to run from something. Running gets you no where and the cycle is a sure thing. If I die then it's my time to die. But I won't go without fighting, if I am being chased then I will fight whatever it is that is chasing me."

"You are worth fighting for. Your attention is worth taking a stupid risk..." he mumbled. He looked at her and blinked when she answered his second question. The last part of her answer stunned him and left him speechless for a moment. He coughed and looked at her face. "You are worth taking stupid risk's for Kaie. Even if you don't truly understand it. I didn't stay in this city to make something of myself, at least not fully. I could go elsewhere and do that. I did it because you are here and for some reason my heart wouldn't let me leave. I could have pact up and left, but the idea of you being close to me. Being able to see you for more then a few bells in some cursed part of the land was enough to make me think that maybe... Just maybe I had a chance."

The kiss caught him by surprise again and he closed his eyes to enjoy the emotions and sensations that was passed between the two before she moved away and his eyes opened again. Her words about the gods landed like poison on his ears. He ran a hand down his face before pushing himself off of the bed and moving quickly as his injury would allow him to wrap his arms around her and press her against his body. He stood there in silence with her for a couple of chimes. His hands pressed firmly against her back. He pulled back and brushed the hair out of her face and stared into her amber eyes. "The gods will have a hell of a fight if they try to take you away from me." he said honestly, his eyes burning with a passion that she may have not seen before. The same passion they burned with when he had fought against the man in the graveyard who wished to do them harm.

x

[Kaie]

All the while, even as she tended the deepest of his fresh wounds with such unskilled hands, he spoke so sweetly to her. He was always doing that, talking to her how every barbarian girl she'd ever met had impossible, fantastical dreams of being spoken to by a man. The unwavering loyalty, self-less if not suicidal risks to earn her attention. He was determined to prove his worth as he continued through the seasons to pursue her, to ensure her there was more beneath the surface she saw in the man she had thought the better of killing the woods so long ago. Finally he stood there before her, on the precipice of his victory. It was the one she was so unwilling to give him. Yet part of her wondered, is it his well-being I fear for or my own?

"You poor fool," She whispered to him softly, recognizing that fierceness in his stare for she had known it so well to exist often in her own. Amber eyes looked at him then, searching his gaze as if trying to instill some understanding in them. Her hand rested upon his cheek. A small, almost sardonic smile slipped across her lips. "Don't you know it's not often the gods that do the taking?" She could feel the presence of the wall behind her, the door handle must've been in reach. A flick of her hand and she could turn it, rid herself of the mess she'd created. Free him from his madness. If only there wasn't such a potency in that burning passion in his eyes. It was alien to him, a product of his trials in Sunberth no doubt. Part of her wondered what had happened to him between their last meeting. What crucible was molding him so?

"You could go anywhere in the world, Aider, and yet you stay here...in this shyke hole? For some woman you don't even know?" Kaie could feel the pressure of his hands upon her back, the desperation to keep her there within his gasp. To know she would stay right there against his chest. Her hand dropped from his face and her fingers wrapped around his biceps, a tenseness growing in her own as if a threat she might break free. "It sounds like a distraction and a good way to get you killed. You know the road I'm heading down. The one I've been wandering along for so gods damn long, Aider. Why are you so quick to put yourself to the sword after me? A stroll through the woods and look what's come from it!" Her eyes flicked down to the wound that caused his limp, then to the bloody nicks that lined his flesh. This time, though it pained her to do so, she removed herself from his embrace with a gentle, but deliberate shoving down of his arms. "What do you think will happen when real trouble comes? I have obligations here that I can't abandon. Not until I can get back home. You don't. Find a caravan out of here and go drink wine with rich merchants in Syliras, or sail after the women with the white hair to their mystery island. Be that artists of words you told me you are. Go live, Aider, and make something of yourself!"

[Aider Silander]

She could escape easily from his grasp. She had been trained to do so and he was no match for her. Something was boiling in him, and he couldn't tell what it was. Anger, hatred, displeasure a combination of every emotion he had ever felt when she had been near. The hatred of watching her walk away. The anger at the feeling of loving something he couldn't have. The pain from everything that he didn't know and probably never would. Her words stung more then they should have. Burning at him even more then both the times they had met in the woods."You follow them not me. Damn if I am going to let some petching gods ruin my life." he said looking into her eyes.

He waited for her next question. Knowing that there would be more after it and there was. Her hands went to his arms. Her words continued to burn at him. Ripping apart the fragile walls he had built up in this city. His slow attempts to change himself to be better for her and him. To be stronger in this city and be able to walk out of it with nothing more then a few scratches on his body. She was on again about him dying. He shook his head as she pushed away from him and he took a step back.

"A stroll. That's all it was" he said looking down at the ground. Feeling slightly defeated at her words. He wiped a hand down his face, the wound stinging from he pressure he was putting on his leg. He sat on the edge of the table and looked at her. She was free to go as she please, he wouldn't be able to stop her even if he wanted to. "Because you are the only thing that has made sense in my life since I was born. The gods have done nothing to prove to me that they are worth following. Uphis is nothing but a figure head to me in Nyka, a place that I left to try to better myself?" he stated that sounded more like a question. "No. I left because I didn't fit there. That prideful person... That artist of words. It all means nothing, its a skin of a former life that I was trying to live to lie to myself about everything." He paused again, watching her looking for any sign that she was actually interested in what he had to say. "But no you are right let me just give up again" he mumbled.

That she was understanding and he wasn't wasting his breath. "Gods be damned Kaie. I can't leave because if I do then I lose the only petching thing that is important to me..." he raised his voice quickly. Letting the quiet settle in between the two as he began to speak again. "Real troubles... This entire world is real trouble. This hopeless city is just a small taste of what is out there. People that are happy are only so because they have something to cling onto." He rolled his neck before sighing. "Syliras is no longer a goal for me. I don't care to go there and as for those women. I don't want them. I don't want any of them." He pushed himself off of the table only to stumble and fall. A crimson tear running from his wound as he pushed himself back up. "Go live... Make something of myself" he mumbled shaking his head.

"What if I don't want to leave? What if I want to stay here and try? Do I not deserve the right to prove that I am not a failure? I am so sick of running from everything. From Nyka, from my caravan, from conflict. If the gods are so damned determine to kill me then let them try. I ran into my carvan. The first time we met, I saw them a few days later. They asked if I wanted to go with them, and I said no. Because I thought maybe, just maybe I could do this right this time. I shouldn't have let you walk away in the first place. I should have gone with you. Then maybe you would actually think I am worth something."

He remained quiet for awhile. Both his fist clinched tightly, the feelings deep inside his chest bursting out. Wanting to just scream and somehow prove to her, to show her how we was truly feeling. "But I can't keep you here. But if you think leaving you. Just walking away from you would make me 'better' " he said making air quotes around the last word. "Then you are more of a fool then I am" he said turning to walk back over to the bed to sit down on it.

[Kaie]

Now it was the Myrian's turn to bring a hand to her face. Aider's expression and his reaction to her words were enough for her to see the one error in her words. Just a stroll? Really? She scolded herself internally for her insensitivity. Her tanned hand dropped back to her side and her brow raised apologetically. "Aider, I didn't mean it was nothing more than 'a stroll.' You know what I meant," Kaie sighed with a shake of her head. She swayed back to let her spine rest against the door. Her jaw tightened as the man struggled with his wound and fell. Had he not been so heated and her words so definitive she would've helped him up. Though perhaps that would've only injured his pride further. "If I didn't think you were worth something I wouldn't be telling you to go. For Myri's sake, you're so blinded by me aren't you?" Copper arms folded and amber eyes drifted upwards. Silence persisted for several ticks before she released an audible exhale.

Kaie unfolded her arms and conceded to drift away from the door. Bladed boots beat a rhythm upon the creaky floor as she made her way toward her lover. There was a pause before him. Another hesitation as she thought her actions out carefully. Then she sat down upon the edge of the bed beside him. "If you want to stay here and...do whatever it is you're trying to do here...I won't stop you. You're right. You have a right to do what you want, especially here of all places. But I've been out there to the rest of the world, Aider. I've drifted through the sea with Svefra, drank wine with the Akalak, rode beside the Drykas, and served ale to Syliras knights. Petch, I've even given Rhysol's followers a hand in Ravok and seen some shyke in Nyka, too. Every place has its flaws. Every single one...but not even the Nykans made me feel so threatened I can't take my hand off my sword." More silence then which she hoped he wouldn't break just yet. She took a moment to contemplate her previous speech, doing her best not to go forward with any sort of patronizing tone.

"You always used to tell me how the gods must have some plan for us, or that they will us to keep meetings no matter where we run. But then you stand here and tell me they mean nothing to you. That they hold no weight in your life. Not the way Myri dominates mine. Do you ever think that's why you might be so lost? Why you have no direction?" She stole a glance at him and then shook her head, hands rubbing together absently."I can see you're missing something. Like you've never been whole. I just wondered if that was why."

[Aider Silander]

x

He shook his head. He did know what she meant but that didn't take away from the stinging that tore at his skin. A long sigh released from his lips as he stared at the ceiling. Was he blinded by her? Was that what it was? "Maybe I am. But I don't want to go. Not yet, there is still something I need to know." he said, not having a retaliation to her first statement. He sat there and listened to the silence that broke between the two. Then the echo of her clanging boots as she sat down on the bed. He looked up at her. He chewed on his tongue for a moment listening to what she had to say after she had joined him on the bed.

"I have not experienced all of that. Or any of it really. But that doesn't mean that I am completely naive to the world around me. I know the dangers of the path that I am choosing and everything that comes with it." he paused for a few ticks. His words were more calm then before, they were flowing rather then being spit out in a fashion that didn't suit the man and that Kaie didn't deserve to have thrown at her. She was only trying to protect him in her own way. "Then take comfort in knowing that you have someone here who cares. I am not going anywhere without you Kaie. I want to travel with you. At least until you go back to your home, then we can part ways. I am not the best warrior, but I can hold my own. I can get better if I try. But I need a reason to and my reason is you. So I can help you and stand beside you."

Her next words hit him deeper then he expected. He had once believed in the gods fate, and that they would guide him. He stared at her without a word on his lips. Nothing was coming and he could not muster anything. He sighed and took her hand in his. Spreading out both of their fingers and then matching them tip for tip. He was moving on instinct not thinking about what he was about to say and just letting it happen. "We are different, but I still love you. Your skin is darker then mine, your eyes shine brighter and you are stronger in terms of combat. You follow the Goddess Queen and I am lost..." he said looking at her hand pressed up against his. He shifted his hand slightly letting his fingers fall between hers nearly perfectly. "Different but we still fit" he said.

"We are drawn together by something. If we like it or not the strings of fate have wrapped around us both. Leaving would just cause me more pain then any dagger can ever give me. I don't know about the gods. The few I do know about I can not say I trust. Dira is the only one that is for certain, everyone joins her in the end" he said. Squeezing her hand slightly. "I have never been whole, I have not felt a connection to anything since I came of age. I used to fake it, drown out the empty with a pursuit of knowledge. My father was a spy of sorts. It always interested him and he was always behind books or notes. Trying to connect the dots, so I thought why not me?" he said with a shrug.

"I moved out into an Inn after awhile and then met you." He looked into her eyes. His dark brown eyes staring deep into her amber eyes. He leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on her lips before sitting back down. His hand gently sliding away from her face while his other hand was still tangled with hers. "I felt something then. I didn't know what it was a new feeling maybe. Something I had never felt before. I thought it was just a sign that I could gain knowledge. Then after we talked and I stared into those beautiful eyes of yours. When I was making my way back after I knew that you were gone it felt like I had gotten stabbed in the stomach. I felt sick, like I had been poisoned a few days after and I couldn't get you off my mind"

He stopped speaking and looked at her face. Letting his rambling sink in before he decide to speak again. "Then we met again, and I felt it again. I figured it out in the city.. I had fallen in love with someone who I should never have a chance with. Who I probably should have never met in the first place. Then I saw you again and that all happened. In the morning you were gone and I felt the same that I had before on the way back to Nyka. Then we meet again in Sunberth. This city that can bring even the strongest man to his knees. I blamed the gods. Cursed their names and believed that it was the end for me. That I would die here. Even after the night we spent together it didn't kill the pain. Only dulled it for a time. Now I have you across from me. I am missing something, I don't know what that is. But I know that I can find it with you."

x

[Kaie]

Home, She thought with an inaudible sigh from her lips. The very notion of what the word was associated with for her brought forth her imagination. The heat of Falyndar and the hot sun that brought a simmer to her tawny flesh. The swaying of palms and the hiss of inhabited grasses. She could practically smell the smoke from her clan's longhouse fires and feel the dried brush that blanketed the dwelling structures. More captivating was the thought of those who rested within those familiar homes. What I wouldn't do to see their faces. I've almost forgotten what they look like. Yet when she remembered what Razkar had told her of the chaos that befell Taloba and when the Djed Storm arose, and there came the quiet question within if those people still lived, her heart filled with sorrow. The guilt, this time, she managed to suppress.

The Myrian stared into her lover's gentle eyes that had been so consumed with his purpose. Still there lingered that desperation for gain. That perseverance through the perils that surrounded them even in that very moment. What surprised her was the way he took her hand despite the manner in which she'd wounded him, as if sizing up their physical differences even as he spoke. The list was somewhat lengthy, those obvious differences between their appearance, upbringing, and nature. His observations were far more significant. Kaie found her own throat constricting, as if his argument had so surpassed hers that he had physically silenced her. His honesty was admirable in all truth. There was no fighting fate, whether real or imagined, in the same way there was no way for her to deny him his emotions. Still there came that crease to her brow when he dropped that "L" word.

"You may be onto something. Our meetings have passed that of mere coincidence," Kaie allowed, almost disdainful that she needed to acknowledge perhaps a higher power the barbarians recognized had influenced her path. Amber hues eyed the locking of their fingers. There was an almost beautiful contrast between their skin. A curious thing. "I won't deny there's something different in both our lives when we come together. I won't lie to you and tell you letting you share my bed is such an awful thing. I do care for you, Aider. I do." Her hand slipped from him then. Her meaningful gaze zeroed in on his, holding him there. That crease in her brow deepened at what must be said. "But you don't love me, Aider. You can't. You don't know me." A tick or two after watching his expression and she was off the bed again, hand reaching for the door.

With a twist of her hand upon the knob, it was locked tight. Such a simple gesture and she symbolically (and hopefully, literally) sealed themselves away from the death and despair Sunberth's denizens longed to deal upon them. If only for a little while would she ensure some peace for the two of them. The Myrian turned back to the man she allowed herself to become intimate with. Was this whole thing a folly? He's a distraction. Tanned hands worked at the kukri harness at her back. It dropped from her shoulders and was gently tossed to the bedside. Her weapons' belt, however, was taken off far more carefully. She approached the bed again and laid it on the table. Then she sat back beside Aider. There was a look of finality on her face. A certainty in her decision.

"You're right about one thing. Dira and her kiss of death is the only sure thing in this world. Sooner or later she comes for us all. I can't convince you to leave this me and this city. I know if you die, no matter what path I take, with or without you, I'll feel guilt. So fine. If you want to build something in this wretched city for yourself, I'll be here to help you. If you need my presence to bring you that confidence to find yourself, so be it. I can do that for you." And with that she locked her lips with his as if to seal that oath.

[Aider Silander]

x

The Nykian sighed as he thought of the place he was born. The spiritual, spectral place that was Nyka. Run by the monks and ruled by the Demi Gods. It was never a place he really considered home. He lived there and was born there but he never truly fit in. To his experience with the city of Sunberth, he didn't fit in anywhere. The marshy swamps of the land around Nyka had been a favorite of his when he would roam out the same way he did when he ran into Kaie. The spectral feel that the city gave was always interesting to try and dive into but usually left one with more questions then answers. He wondered if he missed the place, if he had made a mistake. But his mind and body both said no. They were tired of Nyka as he was. Leaving was a good choice on his behalf. But he could understand what the Myrian was saying there were other less dangerous places that he could have gone to and carved a name out for himself.

But he felt drawn to the city for the time being. No matter how much he cursed and despised it. There was something pulling him to the city and it was being aided by his heart pulling him towards Kaie. He was shaken out of his day dreaming state when she spoke. Her words like honey upon his ears. "They have. Each time it was the same, more or less. There has to be a reason for it." The gods had a play in every ones lives, if that person liked it or not. Dira could reach in at any time and snatch your soul or you could be killed by any number of the gods if they saw fit. They had the power even if man wanted to deny them. There was an odd twist in his stomach when he admitted that within himself. Then her words stabbed him harder then they ever had, like a hooked blade that had been dug into his chest. "But you don't love me, Aider. You can't. You don't know me." he echoed her. "You can't. You don't know me."

He shook his head and watched as she slipped off and towards the door only to find that it was locked. She could easily unlock it if she chose to. He made no effort to hide the key or anything. "I don't know you. But that's not my choice and I understand that you don't want to share everything. That you want to keep secrets and protect yourself. But don't say that I can't love you because I don't know you. I care about you more deeply then I have ever cared about anyone, including my parents." He went to stand before he noticed that she had turned to face him. A certainty in her eyes as she walked back towards him after removing her weapons. Something that he had only seen once before and that was in the safety of her own room.

He chuckled a bit and smiled before her lips met his. He pushed back into the kiss with power and force behind it. His hand slipped behind her back and pressed against it before he pulled his lips from hers. "I don't plan to make anything in this damn city. I plan on using it to build myself into something better. Something useful. I will take that damn bow and practice every day if it means that I can assist you and watch your back." He spoke strongly and surely. He wasn't about to give her up. "If I must follow a path laid out by a god... By Dira or Myri themselves to be by your side then I will do it" he spoke. His words crossing lines that he had set for himself before hand. He didn't care anymore all he wanted was her.

x