Old Acquaintances (Murdoch + Nel)

[Murdoch]

He reached out and caught the tail of her shirt, yanking her back before she could go running off too far. "Hold on, you ridiculous thing," he snickered, shoving away from the wall and dusting off the back of his pants in case they'd gotten anything on them. "Gods, you pay attention to something about as long as a spaniel pup."

But he considered it as he looked down at her - and for once, there was nothing flirtatious or seductive in his gaze, just a careful weighing of the pros and cons.

Pros: He could keep an eye on her. He could use her later to steal more stuff since she made a lovely distraction. He might get to fuck her.

Cons: She was really damn conspicuous. She'd know where he lived, and might steal his shit. She might stab him if he tried to fuck her.

"What the hell," he finally sighed, shrugging a little. "But I will not be sleeping on the floor, little swan, so if it's a mattress you want you'll have to share it with me. And trust me, I'm quite capable of believing that you'll cut my dick off if I try anything, so don't even bother with the threats. Oh, and if you steal anything from me, I slit your pretty little throat," he said, just as casually as he'd explained the rest of it. Again, not a threat - just a fact. "Deal?"

[Nel Sayo]

"Hey!" She yelped, stumbling backwards when he snatched at the tail of her shirt. She whirled about, smacking his hand away, which brought her up short directly in front of him. So when he looked down, she looked up, and their eyes locked while he weighed the benefits and drawbacks of the situation.

"I'll sleep on the floor," she said. Floors didn't bother her. "And I won't slit your throat or cut your dick off if you don't slit my throat or try to steal my shit."

Gods, it was like trying to get two armless men to high-five.

"Deal," she said, in the end, though.

And then she spit in her hand and put it out to him.

[Murdoch]

He spit in his hand as well, and started to take hers... and then his eyes narrowed and he hesitated. "And you won't steal my shit?" he asked cautiously.

Yep. High-five.

[Nel Sayo]

Nel sighed...hugely.

"And I won't steal your shit," she recited, waggling her fingers at him as if to say: shake now?

If Syon had been there, he would have told Murdoch to run...don't walk...away from this situation. But, alas, Sy was dead.

[Murdoch]

If Sy had been there, he might have told them both to run. There were loopholes on either side, but so long as his life, his cock, and his money were secure, he could deal with the rest.

"Deal," he said firmly, and shook on it. And then unceremoniously wiped his hand down the front of his thigh. "All right. I assume you're tired now?" he said with a snort of laughter.

[Nel Sayo]

Sy...Nel tried not to think about Sy. Poor Sy. And he'd only just begun to understand what it was he'd rescued all those years ago. Murdoch, well -- he was no hero, and Nel had no intention of treating him like one.

She, likewise, wiped her hand on the thigh of her trousers, nodding even as she did it.

"I am tired," she agreed. There was a but lying just behind her teeth, like maybe she was about to say that she didn't want to be a bother, and then she decided against saying what it was, because he didn't deserve that kind of consideration. As far as she was concerned. Yet. She tucked a stray braid of silvery hair behind her ear, and looked at him with earnest curiosity. The first genuinely interested attention she'd paid to him -- and it was true, she didn't often give attention in large doses. "Sy told me you pretty much know everybody in the city."

She paused, weighing whether or not to ask him what she wanted to ask him. She decided, in the end, not to ask him anything, and so it ended up sounding totally nonsequitor, but -- that wasn't so unusual either, for her. She shrugged, and waited for him to lead the way.

[Murdoch]

He raised an eyebrow at that, but simply tilted his chin in a different direction through the city streets and started off towards home. Or rather, he started the long, winding, completely indirect circuit to his home. Either she'd stay with him longer, and they'd work out a more fitting deal, or she'd be out tomorrow and never be able to find his apartment again. Either way, really.

"I know of a lot of people," he chuckled. "And most of the fixtures in the city know me well enough to give a smile and a how-dee-do when we pass in the street. I'm by no means famous," he said with a smirk, "but I can generally get what I needed when I need it."

He didn't bother to ask her what she wanted, because her sentances were full of fits and starts. She'd ask or she wouldn't, and letting her come to that decision on her own was more likely to earn her trust than pretending to be concerned. She'd see right through that bullshit. So he continued his lazy stroll around the city and just watched her from the corners of his eyes.

[Nel Sayo]

She knew damned well that he wasn't leading her directly to anywhere. A glance up at the night sky told her that much. But it would also tell her -- not precisely, but at least vaguely -- how to get to and from his apartment if she needed to, in a pinch. Nel often found herself in pinches -- through no fault of her own, she swore.

But she said nothing about it, and just kept pace with him, walking by his shoulder.

"They don't really like slavery here, right?" She finally asked, glancing sidelong to him.

If she couldn't keep just the faintest glint of fear out of her eyes, well -- it was a risk she took anyway. He could try it; he'd probably try it. She was worth a pretty penny if he could find someone willing to buy her despite getting bitten and stabbed and whatnot. But she'd hoped to pick a city that wasn't a hotbed for that kind of activity, in which maybe -- at least for the few days it'd take her to figure what happened next -- she wouldn't have to constantly be looking over her shoulder for a master's branding iron before it struck her.

She didn't carry herself like a slave, never had, not in the time Murdoch had known her. But he'd mostly known Syon, and Syon had shaken the little slave girl out of her. Without him, she crept back in, dimming the naturally sunny disposition that always had a smile sneaking onto her mouth. There still weren't any smiles.

[Murdoch]

Dark eyes glanced over at her when she asked that question, shaking a few choice bits of information into place. Well. Way to go, Sy, a pirate to the end, hmm?

"Depends on who 'they' are," he said, shrugging a little as they turned down another alley. "This ain't Ravok, the gods be thanked for that. None of the locals are like to grab a person up off the streets. But the ones passing through... well, you never know where they're headed, or what they'll be looking for when they get there. The Knights are good about keeping that sort of thing to a minimum, though, so if you're ever worried just head towards one as soon as you can."

Murdoch had never really cared one way or another about slavery - there was always a chance some Zith would grab a kid off the streets, but he'd never really been sure how much of that was just stories told in the back alleys to keep others out from under your feet. While he could see the inherent allure in trading flesh for gold, a lot of gold at that, he wasn't quite sure it was worth it. Besides, slaves had no mivas, which meant they had nothing for him to steal - and he pretty much hated that.

Of course, speaking of Knights, they hadn't passed a single one since they'd stepped out of the tavern - which may have been odd considering how prevalent they were in the city, but that really depended on how much Nel had noticed them when they were there.

"Besides, they usually don't give a fuck about humans," he said with a reassuring smile. "It's all the exotics that fetch a fair price at market. Not that you ain't lovely to look at, little swan, but there's girls who'll do that without all the screaming and crying."

[Nel Sayo]

She stared at him for a minute, but it was hard to tell whether she was staring at him because he'd said that there were girls more exotic -- potentially lovelier -- than she, girls who'd take a good ramming between the legs without all the weeping...or because he presumed that she was human. Both of these possibilities were somewhat unbelievable to her. Her eyebrows rocked a fraction higher, and she looked away from him again in the same second.

But another blush crept across the pale slopes of her cheeks. She wondered how long she could keep him thinking that she was a human; did he think Sy was her real brother, too? Impossible; they'd looked nothing alike. If she slept fully-clothed at all times, it might work. But she'd have to bathe sooner or later; she'd need to change, she'd need a towel. She didn't even know how many rooms his apartment consisted of. She'd want to take her gloves off; she'd want to shrug out of her overshirt. There were too many details.

She instinctively glanced around to locate one of the knights he'd mentioned. Which was precisely when she realized there weren't any around.

Stupid, stupid. Stupid Nelly. Never learned.

When the silence stretched uncomfortably long, she muttered, "Well I was just...curious."