Don't Lose Me in the Aftermath

[Kyo]

((Closed. Takes place merely hours after The Game (http://althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=10025). All Bunnying approved of.))



Kyo ran her fingers through the layers of her uneven black hair, pulling it back from her face and revealing ice-cold eyes that lazily observed her surroundings. She was tired, emotionally and physically. Though the events of the night before were still bearing down on her, the ninja had found herself once again in a busy tavern when she should have been resting. Serving wenches made their way through a noisy crowd of humans that neither cared nor paid any attention to her. Just the way she wanted and liked it. The place reeked of ale, sweat, smoke and a few other bodily fluids from those within it that hadn’t washed themselves in an innumerable number of weeks. They were things she pushed to the back of her mind as the gentle glow of candlelight illuminated her tanned skin and all of those within this small and cramped building. She found them boring and uninteresting. Not to mention she just couldn’t keep still. Even here, she felt the unending tingle within her muscles to move. They didn’t even care what she did as long as she used them and relieved them from this seemingly unending burden of staying still. Eventually she gave in to their call to feel the freedom of movement.

Draining the last of her Lavinian ale, the ninja placed the goblet upon the counter and stood. Muscles along her back protested as her skin was pulled and stretched across the cuts she herself had inflicted upon her own body, not that she’d wanted to. After examining them last night she’s discovered they were mostly superficial, as were the cuts upon her arms and her hand. They would most likely not even leave a scar let alone affect any of her skills, which was good. If her aim or her fighting had been compromised, Jared was sure to get an unwelcome visit from her giving her thanks for his unwanted gift.

Turning, the ninja moved her way through the crowd as she made her way to the exit. She didn’t want to think about last night and the events that had occurred during it. It had been a huge mistake that would probably lurk within the darkness of her mind for a long time to come. She couldn’t help but wonder at how different things may have been had she flat out killed Jared when he’d interrupted her. But that was not within her. She was an assassin but she wasn’t a cold-blooded murderer, not to mention she couldn’t change the past. That was already written, she could only write her future.

As she pushed open the door to the tavern, Kyosku was blasted with cool, fresh air, or as fresh as the air could get in Radasanth. It was never the same as it was in the Akashiman mountains where her village lay hidden, but it was much better than the choking and foul stench that had invaded that place. Even though it was still summer, the air was crisper and cooler at night and made goose bumps dance along the bare skin of her arms, back and the top of her breasts. It was a pleasant sensation as they snaked along her skin, making every nerve stand on end like the gentle touch of a lover would. Shame it was just the wind doing that to her body and not the hands of a lover. It would be a nice way to release this pent up frustration and emotion digging into her soul.

In the city, the stars she knew so well seemed to retreat behind a haze of light that rose from flaming street lamps, hung high above the cobbled paths. Buildings of brick kept the shadows long and deep and the sounds of the night she was so used to were replaced by the occasional raucous and drunken call, but for the most part there was just this silence. It wasn’t unsettling; it was just something she wasn’t familiar with, something that made her long for the mountains and the forests she knew so well. Not to mention the village she grew up in and all the memories that it held.

Turning down the street, Kyosku didn’t find herself over twenty feet from the tavern when the sound of boots smacking against the streets caught her attention. At first she thought nothing of it, but soon the sounds tripled and became a cacophony of footsteps that echoed into the night. That sent a skip in the beat of her heart and made every sense she had come to life and beat back the effects of the alcohol within her system. As she reached the next corner a group of three guys emerged from the shadows and stopped in front of her. Her feet froze and the sound behind her stopped just as abruptly making her turn her head and see three more guys standing just a few feet behind her.

What the hell is this!?

They looked like nothing more than street thugs. Their clothes were dirty and torn along the edges; their faces unshaven and their eyes were hard and cold. She didn’t see any weapons on them in her initial sweep, but they could easily be hidden under their layers of clothes.

“Roland sends his best.” One of them said as his face split into a smirk.

Her eyes went wide for a moment just as three of them began to move in on her.

[Lavinian Ambition]

"Tough guy eh? You know what? Roland did say he only wanted the head, didn't care about the rest, let's rough him up a bit more..." The bearer of this particularly nasal voice was a common thug who was already beginning the ritual of cracking his knuckles in a way that Jared could have only hoped to endure in another boring tavern tale. However, the reality of the situation was far worse than that as he struggled. is arms were already held in the vice like grip of another thug behind him, which made it awfully hard for the Lavinian to defend himself. As he tried to steady his breathing from such an exertion, he felt the fist connect with his gut expelling his hard fought air from his lungs as he coughed and groaned.

"That was a good one, how about one across the face, he did try to stab me with those knives," The man behind him cheered on. Jared was sputtering as he felt a hard punch across the face. As he went limp the man let him go as he fell to the ground feeling his face swimming in pain. His vision was turning crimson as blood poured from a newly opened wound over his vision. He coughed, fighting to regain his breath he felt a boot connect with his stomach again causing him to wheeze as his lungs burned for air. He curled up into a ball as they laughed at the downed thief.

"Not so tough is he? Surprised Roland even sent two of us, I heard the girl was worth more anyways," The other man said. Jared struggled to get up on knees as he heard mention of the girl. What was it Roland had called her? It seemed like forever, though he knew their just desserts were both being given this very night. It had seemed so long ago, it had been an odd feeling remembering that only last night he had broken the man's nose for pitting him against the fellow thief.

As he stretched out a hand he felt it brush across a familiar feeling, the hilt of one of his daggers. As he played it cool still needing air to accomplish his new found task one of the men reached out to roughly grab him in order to continue to humiliate the thief. They wanted to continue their game of cat and mouse, though Jared would have none of it.

Someone never taught them not to corner a thief.

As Jared grabbed the hilt of his dagger the man pulled him up, to find a dagger lodged firmly up to the hilt in his stomach. As he wrenched it out he gave it a twirl that just felt natural as the other man looked wide eyed at the Lavinian. It was then Jared spoke, "I was gonna let you live, but if you don't run now, I won't have a choice..."

The thug pulled out a knife of his own, serrated and ugly, a garish display of someone who bought for viciousness rather than any true martial prowess. As he stabbed at Jared, the Lavinian parried and spun bringing his own dagger about in a fatal stab to the back of the man. As he gasped, trying to desperately fill his lung with air, only to draw in more blood. As Jared left the man to drown in his own fluids he looked at the other man, who was hunched on the ground.

Grumbling about the bruises and cuts he moved over to the thug before he brought the knife up to the man's throat, his voice showing no hint of mercy, "I really don't want to do this, trust me. Now, you going to tell me where that other group was going to ambush the girl are, or do I have to let my knife pull the answer out."

"Over by the East Gate, towards the Akishiman Mountains!" The man went wide eyed at the thinly veiled threat as he groaned in pain.

"Describe it like you would to a tourist, I have no fucking clue where that is..." Jared replied sternly.

"East side of town, close to that inn that’s Lavinian controlled. Near the gates probably," The man replied. Jared nodded as he got up groaning in protest to his bodies rebellion. It wanted to be cleansed to be treated, to be bandaged. He didn't have a choice however as he quickly looked around for his other dagger. Picking up the serrated blade he flipped it a couple of times before he tossed it next to the dying man and grumbled, "Badly balanced and to slim a piece of crap to wield. To think he threatens people with that garbage..."

Finding his other knife he rushed out of the alleyway he had been waylaid and headed for the east gate, his speed only roughly faster than walking as he felt his stomach and lungs protest to the treatment.

[Kyo]

They wasted no time on meaningless words as she wished they had. Instead they came right at her with sloppy attacks that would normally pose no worry in her mind. The only problem was there were so many of them and she didn’t have eyes in the back of her head. A tightly clenched fist came sailing through the air at her face and Kyo ducked down underneath it. Tensing her legs, she was about to spring from her position and counter when another thug attacked her rather quickly. A leg clad in dirty, ripped and torn black material came towards her crouched form and the ninja found herself rolling across the dirty cobbled ground in order to avoid it.

Stopping in a crouched position, Kyo rose to her feet, but halfway up something slammed into her back and sent her stumbling forward in an attempt to regain her balance and not fall. If they got her on the ground it would be all over. Spinning around, she found herself face to face with one of the thugs and his incoming fist. Her instincts took over as her stomach flip-flopped around with nervous anxiety. She twisted her body to the side and grabbed his wrist as it flew by. Twisting it, she forced the man’s body around so that his back was to her and his arm was forced far into his back. Reaching behind her she pulled out one of her ninja-to, the black blade making no reflection in the flame lit night of Radasanth as she brought it around and slit the man’s throat without hesitation.

Crimson blood spurted out in front of him as his free hand rose to the wound, trying to stop the flow, but there was nothing he could do to save his life. As he gurgled the last few breaths he would ever breathe, the ninja released him and found herself immediately engaged by four of the five remaining thugs. One was standing back as if he didn’t want to dirty his hands with her, but she was trying to her best to keep an eye on him. It was hard, neigh impossible when she found herself constantly defending instead of attacking.

Even though they were unorganized and rather unskilled, their sheer numbers gave them the advantage over her and as Kyo ducked under their fists and blocked their feet and legs, she found barely the time to counter.

I am not going to die in some back alley street and a group of untrained street thugs are not going to be the ones to do the deed!

As much as she hated to do it, her mind began thinking of a way to escape. Pride be damned, she didn’t want to die here. If she could get back into the tavern she’d just come from, there would be no way the thugs would continue the fight there, not when someone would call the guard. The problem was breaking from the fight to do just that. As she avoided another punch thrown with too much power, Kyo stepped in closer to the man and buried her fist into his soft belly. A loud groan escaped his parted lips as his body double over, without wasting a moment, she brought up her elbow and cracked it against the back of his neck. His body crumbled to the ground, but she knew he probably wouldn’t be down for long.

With him down, the ninja moved to flee this worthless battle. Before she could take more than three steps arms wrapped around her from behind. They snaked under her arms and locked behind her neck, making her hands practically useless. Snarling like a caged animal, she struggled against the grip, trying to find a weakness in it that she could use to free herself, but he merely pressed down harder on the back of her neck.

“Not so tough now, are you?”

She kept her mouth shut as she glared ice towards the two thugs that walked around to the front of her. As the one walked within range she lashed out without hesitation. She pushed off the ground and brought her leg up in a perfect, straight kick. The toe of her boot connected with the man’s nose, shoving the bone up into his brain and killing him instantly. With her weight being supported by the thug behind her, he lost his balance and fell back making Kyo’s entire world spin and turn upside down. The impact forced him to let her go and Kyo quickly scrambled to her feet. She turned and began fleeing in the other direction only to realize the fifth thug was behind her.

Kyo didn’t make it more than five steps. At first she didn’t realize why he was just standing right beside her and she had stopped moving, but then she felt the pinch and the pain throb across her side. She’d never been stabbed before. Her eyes went to the smug, satisfied smirk on his face as he buried the blade deeper into her side and began twisting it. She cried out from the pain that exploded up her side. Taking a step back away from him, something hard slammed into the side of her head and sent the ninja to the ground. Pinpricks of darkness danced in her vision and the sounds of the thugs around her seemed to be echoing as if from a distance. Groaning, she tried to push herself to her hands and knees, only to have someone punch her across the face and send her back to the ground, her fall was followed by a few sharp kicks to her stomach.

[Lavinian Ambition]

As soon as he regained his wind he was sprinting back towards the tavern. He needed to do everything he could to rescue that damn girl, even if she was probably going to give him the cold shoulder. They had both screwed over Roland, and he still had a few days left in this town before he would finally leave on a boat for Otaria. The situation would undoubtedly cause him grief the entire trip, and without some ally in the madness, he was as good as dead.

Wiping some off the dripping blood from his right eye he sighed as he panted leaning against a wall. His eyes closed as he felt like cursing, he'd have a one in a million shot of actually finding her. There was no way he could have known which way she went. As he felt his breath steady the stitch in his side lessened, while he fought to ignore the pains that were already beginning to creep up on him. He looked at the Tavern as he went by it, trying to find the mysterious woman. He grumbled in frustration as he was about to give up on ever finding her.

Then she cried out in pain.

The sound pierced straight to his heart as he worried he was too late. However, he still had to try, running for the sound he drew daggers as he looked around the area. Finally he saw the fight, the four of them were beating on her as he pummeled and kicked her on the ground. A righteous fury overcame him as he rushed in. Wordlessly he came upon them and as they heard the rushed footsteps one of them shouted, "It's the Lavinian!"

As the man with the knife turned to face him he found a dagger shoved up to the hilt in his gut. Jared sneered at him as he roughly pulled it out the side of the man's body and said, "Careful with that thing might poke an eye out."

Shoving the man aside he ducked under a fist as he back up. Three thugs to the two of them, those were odds he favored. The thugs seemed keen on leaving the battered woman on the ground as they came after him. A few grumbles came through the air before one of them spoke, "You should have gotten out of town, at least then you could have gotten away without Roland ever seeing your ugly mug again. Now, we're going to collect the bounty on both your heads..."

Jared snorted with derision at the comment before he spoke plainly, "Roland's an idiot. I'm surprised you guys aren't fighting over who gets the money this time. He did pit you against each other didn't he?"

"Nope, just paying our little group here by the head, I'm guessing you killed the other two, that makes the purse that much fatter for the rest of us," The supposed leader said as the guys began to move to Jared's sides. Jared to his credit remained stoically poised the daggers in his hands as he waited. He couldn't be sure the condition of the girl, but he could at least buy her the time to get to her feet and fight, since they considered her a non-threat.

"If you all die, who collects the bounty then?" Jared asked with a snicker.

"And who's going to kill us? You? You aren't worth the spit to talk. You're a nothing, a nobody, Lavinian. If you had just done as you were told, you might have been spared, but when you break my boss' nose, well he takes offense to that," The thug said as he cracked his knuckles. The others followed suit as he moved, springing on the thief at the same time.

Here's hoping I bought you enough time, otherwise I just bought my grave, Jared thought as he moved beginning to try and evade the incoming blows.

[Kyo]

She just wanted to curl into a ball and wish the pain away from her body. Her eyes were clenched tight to hold back the tears she could feel prickling the inside of her lids and as the blows continued to land against her, she began to wonder how much more she was going to be able to take. Then, all of a sudden it stopped. She heard the words of one of the thugs but it made little sense to her befuddled mind. All she could do was thank whatever Gods resided in this region that she was still alive and for the moment they were not pounding her further into the ground.

Slowly cracking her eyes open, she watched as the feet of the thugs quickly moved away from her and towards someone else. She couldn’t really see who it was, but she owed them a thanks she’d never be able to repay. Knowing the fight was far from over; Kyo began to clear her mind as she slowly forced herself to her hands and knees. She did the same ritual that she practiced right before going out on a mission. She pushed aside thought and feeling and became the cold merciless killer that she was paid to be. In this state she could forget about the pain, she could ignore the blood that was soaking through her Gi and further down her pants. All she had to do was focus on the fight and those that she planned on killing by the end of it.

Pushing herself up onto slightly wobbly feet, the ninja reached down and retrieved her fallen ninja-to, and then she ran her other hand across the small of her back until it wrapped around the handle of her other blade. The sound of metal ringing through the air was drowned out by the battle taking place merely feet from her, the shapes of the men a dark blur in the dim light of the night. With steps barely heard upon the stone ground, she rushed towards the closest thug and shoved the blade of her ninja-to straight through his back, coming out the other side of his chest. Pulling the blade back out, she kicked him forward and out of her way.

Without hesitation she moved onto the closest guy. He seemed to be slightly startled by her sudden attack and his body was slow to react as she moved closer to him. He tried to punch her across the face but she merely ducked out of the way and sliced him across the stomach with her blade. Blood flowed down his shirt and his innards spilled from the wound and onto the ground. Crying out in surprise the man fell to his knees as he clutched at his organs. With him soon to be dead, that left only one man still standing and fighting.

Turning towards him and her would be saviour; the ninja noticed he was doing a good job of avoiding the thug’s attacks but not being very offensive himself. In the back of her mind she made note of the fact that he looked rather familiar to her, but in her current state she only focused on her opponents.

The thug had already drawn his own dagger and was making a huge mess of attacking the red haired man. When he tried to move in on the man’s exposed and unprotected side, Kyo acted quickly. She kicked his hand, sending the dagger flying out of his grip and landing with a clang somewhere down the road. Then she took a step forward and slashed her blade across his neck. Blood spurted from the wound as he gasped and choked, falling to the ground. Wiping the blood coating her ninja-to on her Gi, Kyo retrieved her mind from the darkness she had submerged it in and sheathed her ninja-to. Then she turned to the man who had helped her only to have her eyes widen in surprise.

“J-Jared?”

There was a long gash across his eye that was bleeding down his face and he had multiple other wounds that she could clearly see. He looked just as bad as she felt.

“Are you all right?”

When she moved to approach him, pain lanced up her side from her stab wound, pain that she was just able to conceal with a slight grimace on her face. She needed to get to a safe place to take care of her wounds and so did Jared, it looked like he had run in with a group of Roland’s men just like she had, only he had faired much better. At least she didn’t see any stab wounds on his person.

Looking around the street and the dead bodies at their feet, Kyo sighed. “Come on, I know a safe place we can go to lick our wounds…” Without waiting for him to reply, she turned and began heading down an alley to their left. They needed to get out of the open before someone called the guard on them and reported a fight, not to mention six dead men in the street. If the two of them weren’t wanted enough before, they surely were now. This was really beginning to spiral out of control.

[Lavinian Ambition]

They all came at him at the same time. Jared was in trouble now as he ducked and weaved slashing to keep them at back, because if he couldn't hold out long enough, he was as good as dead. This was perhaps the riskiest thing he had ever done. Moving himself backwards he saw one of them also draw a dagger and felt his heart sink. This was going to end, very badly. As he swung desperately one of them laughed as he prepared to storm forward in the recoil of the swing.

Then the all too familiar blade of the girl came through his chest.

Smirking he spoke his voice soft, yet carrying across the battle, "Looks like someone dropped their eyes off the prize." He then moved as he saw the girl go after the other thug, and began to cross blades with the dagger wielder. He could beat this punk on his own, he knew he could. He after all had two daggers to his insignificant one. As he drew both back to bring around in an attack, the man moved with a speed he thought almost unnatural before a kick disarmed him. As he clutched his hand in pain, she acted coldly and ruthlessly as she slit his throat, ending the battle. Wiping the drying blood on his daggers off on one of the corpses, she heard the amazed remark of his name.

When she asked him if he was alright he was going to stay stoic, going to act suave, like nothing happened. Then the adrenaline ran out, and he had a killer headache. Clutching his forehead, right over the cut he groaned as he muttered, "Never hurt that much in practice."

She moved forward as if to check on him only to hesitate slightly. He frowned at the act as she spoke up of a safe house she had prepared. It threw his mind in disarray as he tried to figure out why she would hesitate at all around him. His mind was foggy with pain and he began to simplify just to stop the little man in his head from taking a sledgehammer to the walls of his addled mind again. If she hesitated to approach him, as he had daggers in his hands, she might not trust him. That lack of trust was going to be a bad thing in the long run.

However, there was the kiss. Or rather the two kisses from the previous night. While he had never properly enjoyed the first one, the second had been a rather pleasant experience. Could it have been genuine concern? Now he was really confused, did this girl like him? His head hurt too much to continue with this line, he merely followed as he sheathed his blades and clutched his head. It hurt to think, and so he couldn't come up with any other reason for her to hesitate at all around him.

Trying to figure out what the hell was going on he followed dutifully behind her, ignoring the emanating stench of mold and mildew. Trash littered the alleyway as they moved and he didn't want to add anything to the refuse. He continued to try to think of why she would hesitate around him, but kept silent as they hit the streets farther from the scene of the fight. He merely would bide his time as he tried to figure things out. Helping the girl had been the right thing to do, after all she was a thief, with a rather cold demeanor, but then again it was said even Seth Dahlios and Garret Brown often killed when it wasn't necessary. Granted, Garret was a bit more Judicious than Seth, but then again Seth had spent the better part of a year slaughtering innocents for shits and giggles.

Reaching into his pack he sipped some water to cool his parched throat before he whispered offering the skin to her, "Water?"

[Kyo]

She found herself concentrating on the pain. It helped clear her mind and allow her to think more clearly, past the fuzzy feeling in her head from one too many blows. But the pain gnawed at her. With every step that she took it felt as if her side was being ripped open again by another dagger. It was agony. Even had she wanted to ignore it, she was quite sure she wouldn’t be able to. She could even feel the wetness slowly spread further down her leg the more she walked. The wound was bleeding rather heavily, but she wouldn’t be able to properly check the damage until she got to her predestined safety zone. And to think, she’d thought finding herself a place to lay low was pointless in Radasanth, and yet here she found herself on the way there, with Jared following just a few steps behind her.

Kyo wasn’t entirely too sure what she thought of having him with her. She didn’t know if she truly trusted him. Their first run in together had been something less than desirable and though he had come to save her from Roland’s men, she still found herself weary. She couldn’t help it. She had grown up in the ninja clan her entire life and trusted only those inside of it, not to mention trusting strangers usually got one killed. But in this situation, not trusting him might get her killed. If Roland sent a group like that after them the first time, the second time it would be more and probably better armed too. There was no way she could stand up to something like that by herself. She would need an ally she could trust to watch her back.

Her thoughts were broken as Jared finally cracked through the silence, offering her a skin of water.

“Hmm… thanks.”

She took it from his proffered hand and drank some of the cool liquid, washing the taste of blood from her mouth and quenching the desert her throat had turned into. Handing the water skin back to him, Kyo continued to lead them through the myriad of streets. She didn’t know what the streets were called, but she recognized land markers that helped her navigate the small alleys and larger, empty streets. This late at night, most people were either sleeping or still drinking within the bars, leaving her and Jared as some of the only people out. Once, she had nearly come across three guards doing their rounds in the city, but she quickly ducked her and Jared back into the alley. The men had passed them by without notice.

Eventually, the cobbled streets of the city made way to hard packed dirt and the closely built houses began to pop up fewer and farther between each other. Open plots of land filled with vegetation, overgrown and long since forgotten. After walking for another distance, Kyo came upon one and paused. It was overgrown so heavily with trees, bushes and long grass one didn’t see much else, but here is where she stopped.

“Come on…”

She didn’t know if she was telling herself it was just a few more minutes walk or him, either way she began pushing her way through the foliage. After less than a minute a giant of a house began to emerge from the darkness, it’s rotting and weather worn wooden structure blending in rather well with the surroundings, so much so that one might not even notice it in broad daylight were they to only stand on the street. It would provide a perfect place for them to safely hideout for a day or two.

As the two of them approached the old mansion, it was clear that the front door and probably the back door as well were well boarded and covered to keep any kind of intruders or squatters out. But Kyo didn’t need a front door.

“I take it all the doors are boarded up like that…” Jared said to her.

“Not to worry… there’s another way in.”

Brushing aside the grass that tickled the bare skin of her arms, the ninja began leading Jared around to the side of the house. There was a large oak tree next to the buildings, it’s unkempt branches thick and wild and reaching for the side of the house and the balcony that lay upon it, perfect for what they needed. Wordlessly, she grabbed the lowest branch, placed her foot on the trunk and hoisted herself up. Immediately a sharp pain cut through her side and she barely managed to stifle the cry that tried to escape her throat. For a second or two she stayed in her crouched position on the first branch as cold sweat beaded down her back and her vision began to clear. Then she stood, thankful her back was to Jared and began moving higher into the tree.

[Lavinian Ambition]

As he reached to climb the tree he grunted softly in pain. Tree climbing wasn't exactly a skill that was developed in Reven, owing to the fact that a lot of the trees were dead, and probably would have snapped under any weight due to the weathering. As he climbed higher he followed behind her as he continued to ponder the situation, but remained silent. It wasn't his place to question her yet, not until they were out of danger. Once that was done, he could open up and see where they stood.

Upon reaching a branch even with a balcony he sighed. She really hated the ground floor didn't she? While he could have argued about breaking open a window, he supposed it was better this way, at least now he could be assured no one could guess their presence. As he saw her balance and leap lithely across to the balcony he sighed and pulled himself up. He wasn't renowned for his balance, merely for his ability to climb walls that needed scaling quickly. As he moved along the branch he placed a hand on the trunk to steady himself before he jumped and barely made it to the Balcony.

""Not very good at balancing your body, are you?"" She chided.

"Not my cup of tea," Jared retorted as he moved with her inside. The room before him was what looked like a study, or an entertainment room, a place for people to meet and discuss things. However, time had changed things as dust clung to everything like an oppressive blanket. There were a few sheets thrown over the furniture, probably to protect it from molding. The scents that assaulted him were certainly more along the lines of weathering. As Kyo moved through the room expertly he sighed and tossed his pack towards the middle of the room.

"There are candles in a closet down the hall, I'm going downstairs to fetch some water," Kyo interrupted his investigation of the room. Nodding as he gave her a faux salute he moved down the hallway to reach the servants closet. Grabbing a few of the fatter candles and a couple of skinny ones he returned to the room, stopping only to return to the cabinet and grab the box of matches. If they still worked after all this time, he would have been amazed.

Striking one he sighed in relief as he lit it, quickly setting up a few candles about the area he saw the room slowly light up with a soft warm glow. Following his endeavor to illuminate the room, the real work began. Picking up the moldy sheet he tossed it off to see the furniture. Ripping the cushions from the couches and chairs he tossed them towards the middle of the room, to give them something to relax on come night. It wouldn't be perfect, but it was better than the hard floor.

He then reached into his pack and sipped form his water skin as he sighed and muttered, "Oh what a twisted web we weave..."

[Kyo]

Halfway down the stairs, Kyo really began to feel the effects of her wound wash over her. Her skin had grown rather pale, her head swam and for the briefest of moments her eyes clouded and obscured everything around her, turning it only to darkness. Her body felt heavy and hard to move and as she stood there thinking she was holding herself up straight, she ended up leaning against the wall. The feeling of the cool wood was something to cling to, something to bring her out of the darkness of her mind and into the darkness of the night. As her senses began to return to her and the sensation slowly faded, she realized she was breathing rather heavily and the cold sweat soaking her back had only grown worse. Reaching up, she wiped her forehead to remove the evidence of it there and then reached down to her side.

Her hand pressed against the wound and sent another shock of pain through her body, awakening it even more, though that had not been her intention. When she pulled her hand away it was covered in the thick life giving fluid that flowed from within her. By now her pants were clinging all the way down her leg and though she didn’t realize it, as the cuff touched the floor it left small smudges of blood in its wake.

Pushing herself from the wall, the ninja carefully made her way down the rest of the steps and then blindly turned on instinct right down the hall. She knew where she was going in this place, but she wasn’t really registering it. Her eyes saw the faded colouring on the walls, the fallen bits and pieces of plaster and the dust that had gathered in layers over everything. They saw it, but they didn’t register it. In the kitchen she opened up the first cupboard and lining the shelves were a number of different items, but her hand reached for the large ceramic bowl. With it firmly held in her grasp, she moved towards one of the windows just above the counter.

There was a latch on the inside that allowed her to unlock it and leave it undisturbed, unlike if they were to smash it and slip inside. Kyo had always been taught to leave no trace and that went double for hideouts. If Roland’s men happened to come snooping in this area—which she doubted they would—they would find nothing to lead them to believe Jared and her were even here. Sliding the window open, she slipped outside and stumbled a bit in the grass, making her way towards the stream. The sound of softly flowing and trickling water filled her ears the closer she got to it and soon the ninja found herself kneeling next to a small band of water that reflected the darkness of the night sky. Looking up for a moment, she absently made note of the darkening clouds that were gathering.

It’s going to rain tonight…

Placing her hand in the cool water, Kyo washed her blood from her fingers and then dipped the bowl in. She rinsed it a few times, making sure she got ride of whatever dust may have collected within the item before collecting the final large amount of clear liquid. Then she made her way back into the house, closing the window behind her, and up the stairs.

When she entered the room she’d left Jared in, she was surprised to find he’d practically ripped everything apart to make for them some kind of comfortable sitting area. Not only that, but the place was awash in the light of about a half dozen candles, their gentle glow a comfort to her eyes. As much as Kyo lived within the shadows as a ninja, she too enjoyed the light.

“Do you need help with that?” Jared asked her.

She put on a bit of a fake smile to hide her current state. “No, I’m fine. It’s not that heavy.”

With more effort than what it would have normally taken, Kyo set the bowl down in the centre of all the pillows and cushions and candles. Then she slipped her rucksack from her shoulders and quickly began rummaging around inside. After only a few seconds, she produced a brown leather satchel that she quickly opened and spread before her. Within it were a number of medical necessities, including needle and thread, bandages, scissors and pouches that contained herbs. Reaching for one of the pouches, she drew out two two-inch chunks of what looked like bark.

Not bothering to stand up, she extended her hand with one of the pieces in it, “Here, take it…”

[Lavinian Ambition]

He looked at the proffered bark as he raised an eyebrow and sighed before he said, "Uh, bark? Sorry if I'm a bit skeptical..."

"Its willow bark, lessens the pain," She replied bluntly.

He carefully pushed her hand back as he said, "I'll be okay I think. I just have the cut on my eye." He then carefully dipped a bit of cloth into the bowl as he wet it, before he began to wash his cut, hissing only slightly when he began to wipe the crusted blood and sweat from the wound. As he finished up, he saw that the bleeding had stopped and it was healing, albeit slowly.

She meanwhile shrugged as she tossed the bark back in the pouch and muttered, "Fine."

Finally Jared decided it was time to figure out where he stood. If it was one thing to stand by idly as he tried to figure out what was going on between them, it had to be lunacy not to just get it out between them. Finally he spoke his voice neutral, "So, back in the tavern. Up till then, you'd been pretty hostile. Now, I know you wanted to plant the cube on me, but why in the world, did you kiss me back? I'd have expected a slap, maybe even getting gutted right there...as I deserved."

She seemed taken aback by the question as she replied, "I...simply did it to distract you... so I could slip the box into your jacket..."

Jared could understand the confusion, and so clarified, "I could think of so many better ways to do it, a hug would have sufficed, plenty of contact, and a slip in the bag, like I did to return it. I'm not angry, just damn confused, especially over that whole night..."

Now she seemed angry, "Look, you kissed me first, all right! It doesn't matter anyway, you can stand there and be confused all you want. I don't care."

"Actually it matters quite much, because right now, we're both on the hit list of one Lord Anthony Roland, ex general of the Coronian Militia, and devout player in the underworld. He's looking to kill us, and I need to know just how much I can trust you, cause if you played me then, then I know I can only trust you to go so far, but if there was anything more there, I know I can trust you that much further. Confusion gets people killed, and it nearly got me gutted and you choked to death, so lets no have anymore between us, alright?" Jared replied, finally tipping his hand.

"You don't know much about, ninja's, thief. We're far more loyal and trustworthy than anyone could ever imagine, because in the end all we have is our allies." She moved away from him. "Don't talk to me about trust, I didn't almost kill you."

Jared felt a pang of guilt in his heart at that comment. It hurt, it was a low blow, but she was right, he had tried to kill her, albeit accidentally. Finally he replied, "And I take full responsibility for that. If I had it my way, I'd take back that entire night. Instead, we got this problem, and it’s a rather large one. Besides, if I was so untrustworthy, how can you explain me bailing you out form that gang of goons?"

"Now you assume your own folly from my words. I never said you were untrustworthy. I just pointed out your lack of trust in me." She smiled. "Now, as for your initial question, yes, I suppose there was a bit more behind that kiss. The tie you down and fuck you until you're senseless kind, happy?"

A smirk crossed his face before he nodded, "On more than one level, yes. At least I know I'm not in this alone. That’s ten times better than when we came into this room. Now, let’s get our wounds cleaned, ‘cause I doubt they're going to let it lie at one attempt on us..."

[Kyo]

She felt agitated and frustrated and down right pissed off all at once! How the man could illicit so many emotions in her at the same time boggled her brain and only served to piss her off even more. He was infuriating and he asked the stupidest questions. Why did the whole kiss in the tavern even matter? She’d stupidly done something that she was clearly regretting right now. She should have slapped him across the face like he’d expected, or even punched him in the gut. Better yet, she should have left with the item in her hand and given it to Roland instead of paralysing the man by slipping powder into his drink. Then this whole mess could have been avoided and she wouldn’t be stuck here with him!

“Bask in your satisfaction, thief. It was a large mistake on my part, one I don’t plan on repeating.” The words were curt and lined with the anger and frustration boiling up inside of her.

As the words left her mouth, she bit down on the rough piece of bark, ripping off a piece of it. It didn’t taste very appetizing. In fact it tasted like wood, but she didn’t care about that. As she swallowed the gritty and somewhat chewed bark, she placed the rest of it in her mouth and began the same chewing ritual, already feeling her jaw beginning to hurt a bit from the toughness.

“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Jared replied dryly.

“I just did!” She yelled the words at him when she hadn’t really meant to.

"Listen, you going to take that swing at me or not, cause in all honesty I'm rather sick and tired of waiting for it. At the very least let me know when you've made up your mind, cause you obviously haven't..."

She clenched her hands into tight fists as she felt the need to do just as he wanted her to, walk right over there and beat him into the ground worse than those fucking thugs had. Grinding her teeth and holding herself in check as much as she could, Kyo kept her mouth shut and grabbed a nearby cloth, soaking it in the bowl of water.

There was no point in fighting him. Not only would she barely last for anything longer than a minute or two at this point in time, but also he was all she had right now. As sad and scary as that was, the two of them were their only allies for the moment in the situation that they themselves had created. Albeit it wasn’t completely their fault, and the strange circumstances they had found themselves in hadn’t really helped, but they could have gone about it much better. Then they wouldn’t be hunted right now and she wouldn’t slowly be bleeding out. Speaking of which, the pillow she was sitting on was starting to get a few bloody smudges from her pants. It was high time she clean that wound.

Grabbing the belt of her gi, Kyo started unfastening it and then turned to Jared. “Please turn around…” She said as civil as possible.

"I suppose if you were going to kill me, it would have been in the alleyway," He replied as he sat down with his back towards her.

“It would have…either that or I would have left your body amongst that of the thugs…” She said absently.

With the belt untied, the ninja quickly parted her gi and allowed it to slip to the floor, then she quickly grabbed her pants and her undergarments and did the same thing with them. They were soaked in blood and she couldn’t use them until she found the time to clean them. With her clothes off, she found herself in the cool night air wearing nothing but her skin and feeling slightly uncomfortable with having Jared only two or three feet away. Still, that was the last of her worries.

Looking down her side, she saw the stab resting just above the curve of her hip. With her fingers she began to feel around the wound, grimacing and breathing rather shallow as the pain began anew. It felt deep and it had bled quite a bit. The skin around the wound seemed unnaturally pale to her and it was covered in drying blood, not to mention that blood spread further down her hip over her thigh and even her calf. Going to the stream would probably be the best and quickest way to clean off her body, but for now she needed to get this stitched up.

Using the cloth she began to sponge away the blood, revealing the clean and straight cut, one that would make the stitching much easier. Even as she cleaned it, it still bled, causing a small amount of worry in the back of her mind. It had taken them roughly twenty minutes to get here and the wound was still bleeding. Had it punctured anything vital? The effects of the willow bark were starting to set in and Kyo knew it would be the perfect time to stitch it. Grabbing a needle and thread from her satchel, she placed the needle within the flame of the candle for about twenty seconds, then wiped it clean. She found herself closing her eyes periodically and trying to calm the light feeling in her head, but it wasn’t really working and it made threading the needle much harder than she could ever remember.

[Lavinian Ambition]

Gods was the girl frustrating. He was only trying to help, and here she was yelling her head off at him. If he wanted this kind of aggravation he might have gone back to Lavinya, certainly he could have found Mariah or even one of the other instructors to yell at him. Still as he sat there he closed his eyes listening to the room. Sighing as he waited patiently for some sign she was okay he remained quiet. Despite the hot emotions running through him he still cared about the girl.

She was breathing rapidly, either she was hurt most than she let on, or she was readying herself for some sort of weird remedy. After all the girl had munched on bark only a few moments prior, perhaps it was not settling to well? As he ventured a sideways glance he shut his eyes as the picture was vividly laid before him. She had been wounded badly, a stab wound. As he remained looking ahead he spoke his voice calm, "When were you going to tell me about that? For a ninja who seems to be focused on calling me the disloyal fucker, you certainly don't give me reason to be..."

"I didn't plan on telling you, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my own wounds," She replied, the venom dripping from every word.

"Right, so basically you were going to fight, make me think you were only bruised and battered, and when some thug gets a lucky shot at it and makes you hit the floor, I was really going to be screwed. Somehow, I don't see that ending well..." Jared let hang in the air as he let his sarcasm drip into every word.

"I wouldn't hit the floor, I'd be fine... I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." The words were sounding less and less convincing as the girl's voice wavered; he saw her swaying as he looked back at the wall and sighed.

"You're as stubborn as I am, but even I know when I've hit my limit, you can't even thread the needle, what makes you think you'll stitch the wound shut? Hell I doubt you could stop me if I went over there to help you anyways..."

She opened her eyes and glared ice at him through the mess of her black hair, but said nothing. Instead she merely went back to the task at hand and once again tried to thread the needle. There was no need to interpret what she had said with the stare, it had been very clear. Butt out.

But he couldn't let it lie, not when she was too weak to even properly tend to her wounds, made worse by the fact she had aggravated it possibly to the brink of death. Finally he sighed as he said, "For one who says they trust me, you certainly have a funny way of showing it, I figure one or two more attempts and you'll be ready to pass out from exerting yourself so badly. If you just covered up and let me do it, it'd have been done already..."

"I..." Was all she managed before he heard her go silent. Frowning he ventured another look before he saw her laying there, staring up at the ceiling. It only served to cement his resolve as he began to act, rising to his feet. Moving he unclasped his cloak as he threw it over her, moving it only to get access to the wound. Picking up the needle he began to heat it through a candle before he wiped it, and threaded it.

"Yeah, here's hoping you just pass out, ‘cause this will not be pleasant..."

[Kyo]

“Wait…” Her chest was rising and falling with her slow shallow breaths, “There’s a black pouch in my satchel… stuff the wound with the herb mix inside first…”

Nodding Jared replied, "Give the lady what she wants, who am I to argue..."

She could barely keep her eyes open any longer as the blackness slowly began to ebb into the corners of her vision, only to be scared away with a sledgehammer as she felt Jared touched her wound. She groaned and clenched her jaw, her hands grabbing at the corner of one of the pillows she had fallen on. He worked as quickly as he could, his fingers pushing the herbal mixture into the inside of her body, stretching and pulling at her wound in the process. It was more then enough to make her want to pass out, but she was a stronger woman than that. Or at least she liked she believe she was stronger than that, truth is, at this point in time she wasn’t too sure. Here she found herself laying flat on the ground while someone else tended to her wounds. Where was her training now?

As he moved his hand away, Kyo let out a small sigh of relief, but she knew that was only the beginning. She’d never needed to get anything stitched before and she wasn’t entirely looking forward to this experience. She had been good enough at her job in the past to not receive any kind of serious injury and especially not get stabbed. But tonight she had fucked up, badly. Kyo could argue with herself all she wanted to about how there had been six of them and only one of her, but in the end it stilled boiled down her to and to her skills. She just hadn’t been good enough.

“You know, getting stabbed isn’t pleasant, I’m sure the stitching I can survive...”

She made it halfway through before the darkness enveloped her mind and she passed out. It wasn’t the sweet and pleasant darkness she had been hoping for, no, it was the uncomfortable kind. The kind where she knew she was lying somewhere completely defenceless and at the mercy of someone else.

[Lavinian Ambition]

“You know, getting stabbed isn’t pleasant, I’m sure the stitching I can survive...”

That was about as far as she got before Jared saw her go limp. As he continued to stitch her wound shut. Finishing up he sighed as he washed his hands clean of the blood. He then took a towel and carefully cleaned her leg of the remaining blood, not wishing to leave the dirty blood so close to the freshly stitched wound. He then sighed as he tossed the towel in the bowl and covered her back up. Placing a cushion beneath her head he shook his head as he gently brushed a stray strand of hair from her face.

"So beautiful, too bad you attack anyone who gets close..." He then rose to his feet as he moved wincing slightly as he felt himself leap in pain. Undoing his shirt he looked at his chest and stomach seeing a few bruises, nothing too bad, only his face had been beaten to a bloody pulp. He then cleaned his face and hands one last time he left his shirt open, not caring much at the moment. He was tired, and sore, and wanted to sleep, badly.

Grabbing his pack he looked about in it and found some water and jerky. Snorting he drank a bit from the water before he set the skin next to her, capped so she could enjoy something. Grabbing the bowl he carefully threw the bloody towels over the banister of the stairs leading down before he took the bowl. Tossing the water off the balcony he closed the door and tossed the bowl on the remains of the couch.

With his back to her he grabbed another cushion to use for his own pillow before he laid to rest. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he closed his eyes trying to sleep. Finally he felt his mind calm and his breathing even. A sigh escaped him as he went to sleep, far from the bed that he was used to.

[Kyo]

Sleep brought no dreams to her mind, no respite, nothing. One moment she had been drowsy and awake and looking up at Jared and the next it had been darkness. Then the sleep had slowly began to drift away, leaving her in a state where she felt like she was awake sometimes only to be claimed once more and lost to the passage of time. In the end, when a rather booming crash of thunder ripped through the night sky and her ears, Kyo found herself awake and staring up at a blurry ceiling. Lightning lashed against the sky, ripping through the darkness and her eyes and leaving the entire room awash in nothing but pure light. Outside, she could hear the steady pour of rain as it slammed against wood, ground and plant. It was a comforting sound to her ears, one she had often sat at the sill of her bedroom and listened to for hours on end. She didn’t know why, but the rain always calmed her.

For a few moments she lay there liked that, without moving, without barely blinking and completely forgetting where she was and what had been going on. It was a peaceful moment that passed too quickly for her liking. When she finally began stretching out and slowly coming to a sitting position, Kyo realized that she felt about as cold as ice and that though her side was still sore and moving it caused her pain, it was not as great as last night.

Wrapping the cloak around her tighter, the ninja began looking around the room. The gentle glow that the candles had left the room in was gone, their wicks long since blown out sometime during the night, and probably by Jared too. Instead the room was left in a grey light, the thick clouds outside the balcony providing neither darkness nor the light the day, though she knew that it in fact was sometime during the morning. Speaking of Jared, as Kyo swept the room she found him just a few feet away from her. Shuffling over to his soundly sleeping form, Kyo took an unobstructed view of him. The wound above his eye barely looked any better than it had last night considering he’d probably cleaned it and there were fresh bruises forming across his jaw and even the corner of his mouth. Despite that he looked quite peaceful when he slept, even though he was a bit of a mess at the moment.

Her own face had taken a bit of a beating. It felt tender across her cheekbone and there was a slight cut on her bottom lip. Nothing as bad as Jared, then again, he hadn’t been stabbed. She still didn’t know what to think about him having stitched her wound for her. It had been silly of her to wait so long to treat it and perhaps silly too not to ask for help, but she was trained to do things herself. Ninjas worked alone and as such she was required to be able to survive on her own.

Noticing Jared’s unbuttoned shirt, Kyo found her eyes drawn to a chain and a certain item attached to the end of it. It was a ring, simple and plain and with nothing particularly special about it. Reaching out, she picked it up off his chest and looked at it, only to receive a mumble from the man she had just disturbed. But apparently he was quite the heavy sleeper as he merely shuffled his body a bit and settled back down. Chiding herself, Kyo placed the ring back on his chest and stood, moving towards the large balcony doors.

Outside, fat drops of rain fell from the sky, creating a curtain of water that almost looked like a dense, grey fog. She could barely see more than twenty feet out the windows and into the overgrown garden. Beautiful. And helpful. She doubted many if anyone would search for them in this, not to mention it would cover any trail they may have left. Feeling another shiver snake it ways up her back, Kyo moved towards her rucksack and grabbed it from the floor, then picked up her blood soaked clothing as well. Leaving Jared in the room, she quickly dropped the cloak and then proceeded to slip into her ninja-gi. It was the only thing clean. Once she was in that, she moved downstairs and hung her clothes just outside the kitchen window. The rain would wash off any traces of blood within less than an hour considering how hard it was coming down. She still felt weak from the blood loss, but knew her body could handle itself just fine as long as she didn’t strain it.

Taking up a seat on the kitchen counter, Kyo closed her eyes and listened to the beat of the rain, broken by the occasional boom of thunder and clap of lightning, as it streaked across the sky.

[Lavinian Ambition]

Hours later Jared grumbled as he muttered, "Who left the window open. Serenity, I thought I told you to..." His voice trailed off as he opened his eyes when his reaching hand found no window to slam shut. Instead he found himself reaching up into the darkness of the room. Sighing as he got up he felt stiff and sore. Rubbing the back of his neck he groaned as he looked down at the ring about his chest.

Serenity had given him that ring in order to remind he not to get himself killed. So far he had been successful; he just hoped helping the ninja girl would be enough. As he looked about the area he groaned as he began buttoning up his shirt and tucking it tiredly back into his pants. He did not sleep well at all, and to make things worse it was storming outside. Getting up he looked about only to find his patient gone.

"Well aren't we clever," He muttered as he went downstairs. Being careful he tested every step before he finally got down. Looking about the area he sighed before he thought he heard something coming off to his right. Shouldering his pack he walked into the kitchen area as he looked about silently. The sight that met him was various tables and utensils hanging. Many rusted from age, a few tarnished showing how they truly were made of silver. Moving through the kitchen he finally saw the girl, looking out at the rain.

Jared cleared his throat as he spoke, "You know I never got your name. I think Roland called you Kyoma-something or other. Kinda makes it hard to figure out what to call you beyond ninja or girl..."

"Tetsoma Kyosku, but most people just call me Kyo." She said without turning her eyes away from the rain.

"Right, Kyo," He said as if trying to imprint the name into his mind. He then went on, "Feeling better?"

She nodded and turned towards him, "Yes... slightly weak and cold from blood loss, but I am otherwise perfectly fine. The herbs you packed into the wound with help heal it faster internally as well."

He nodded as he leaned against one of the food preparation counters. At least that was good, still there was still some bad blood, but at least she wasn't trying to decide whether he deserved to be hit. As he tried to figure out what to say next he felt a bit awkward. He just couldn't figure anything out. Suddenly his mind flashed to the water and jerky left for her, "Did you, make use of the water and jerky I left for you?"

[Kyo]

“Oh, yes… I did.”

He had been sleeping for quite some time and she saw no reason to disturb him, so she had helped herself to what he had left out. After all he needed his rest and she had even found herself asleep at this windowsill more than once. The effects of the blood loss were still raging within her system and she knew it would take even longer than today to fix them. Not to mention perhaps something better to eat than just jerky or water. That was sustainable, but it would not help her body as much as actual food would. The problem was she didn’t have any on her at the moment and there was a chance that if they ventured away from this house they would be found. As fine as she was, Kyo wouldn’t do anyone any kind of good in the battle, not today.

The ninja had already moved her clothes back inside some time ago as well. They hung not too far from where she sat, suspended on what still held rusting utensils and pots and pans. The fabric was not yet dry, but it had ceased the constant drip that had first accompanied its movement indoors, though the evidence of that was a rather large pool of water upon the counter.

Taking a deep breath and turning her eyes to the downpour once more, Kyo swung her legs out over the side of the counter and jumped down. The motion stretched the skin at her side and elicited a sudden intake of air and a sharp gasp as she felt that familiar sting race along her nerves. She hated being injured. She hated relying on others and she hated it when something prevented her from being at the top of her game. This was no time for her to be like this, not when their lives potentially hung by a very thin thread. But the only thing she could do about it, was to take it easy and rest and that’s what infuriated her the most, even though she didn’t show it. Tomorrow would be another day, but she’d still be injured and they’d still be hunted. Today there was a good chance they were safe, as long as the rain kept up.

Moving towards the thief, the ninja stopped and found herself without any words to really say. She opened her mouth, but quickly closed it when she realized nothing was going to come out. Sighing and looking away for a few seconds, she let her eyes wander back to his grey ones, so close in colour to the storm clouds outside.

“Thank you… for everything you did yesterday. You… saved my life.”

It wasn’t easy for her to say that, to admit that her skills had not been great enough to protect herself. But it was the truth and she had yet to thank him for what he had done for her and for putting himself in harms way just to help her. There were not very many people out there that would do something like that.

[Lavinian Ambition]

She was at a loss of words as he was at the moment. He knew they would probably be like this for awhile, but it at least was comforting knowing he was not the only one who the cat had stolen the tongue from. As he smiled softly he met her gaze easily before he spoke softly, "It was nothing. Really, just bravado and a bunch of luck..."

He turned to go back upstairs as he sighed. The situation in the kitchen was fast reaching something. He didn't know what, but he wasn't too keen on figuring it out. He would probably just sharpen his blades and clean them properly. They had after all just seen battle, and if he didn't maintain them, they'd be worthless. Moving through the kitchen he wove his path carefully through it, figuring she would want to be alone, after all only arguments came about when they were close together, and he much rather preferred the calm Kyo to the angry yelling Kyo.

Tetsoma Kyosku, what an odd name. Though he supposed where she came came from Jared Cesarino was an odd name. There was so much he didn't know about her. He figured she knew even less about him other than daggers, the fact he felt guilty the other night for stealing form her, and the whole fact that he had done everything out of pride and honor. Still as he reached the door she called out causing him to turn his head and look back at her. She smirked and chuckled lightly, "Just bravado? Oh, and here I thought you'd actually cared about little ninja Kyosku."

"Make no mistake, I do. I just have a funny way of showing it...or maybe its the right way for the circumstances," Jared said offering back to her.

"Maybe..." his words threw her off a bit, he could tell that much by the uncertainty and further, the delayed continuance of her words, "Most people wouldn't risk their lives for a stranger though, I don't even know if I would..."

"Then I'm sure glad we weren't in switched positions," he retorted laughing. There was no malice in the words as he continued, "Besides, letting the cute girl get gutted by common thugs isn't my style..."

"I wasn't gutted." She said as she turned back to face him. Clearly her pride was still bruised. "Besides, if someone had arrived twenty seconds earlier, I wouldn't even have that stab wound."

"Then next time I'll be faster, and if not, you can inflict any unwanted injury upon me," He replied, his tone serious.

She blinked at him several times, once again finding herself without words for a moment. "Or I could always inflict that injury upon you, you so blatantly offered to me last night." Now she brought up the argument last night.

He turned to face her before he spread his arms wide, "Go for it. If it makes you feel better, I think they bruised my ribs." A soft smirk spread across his face as he did so.

He stepped in it, big time.

The smirk on her face had long since been replaced by a scowl and Kyo couldn't help but narrow her eyes at Jared. She swiftly closed the distance between them as he remained still getting what he felt was his just desserts. Grabbing him at the base of his neck, she pushed him back against a wall and squeezed down with her thumb upon a pressure point just above his collar bone. "Why are you always like this!? I don't know whether to throttle you or..."

He cringed, god damn did it hurt, however he managed to keep his breathe steady as he spoke, "Because regardless of anything else, I am me first, thief second. Forgive me if that confuses you, but I prefer people to know me, and not what I want them to."

[Kyo]

She dug her thumb further into the pressure point as she could feel her anger rising towards him. “You think this is some kind of façade that I throw up? You think you’re not seeing the real me right now? You’ve already met the ninja, she beat you to the prize, and so you choked her. The other me you met last night as she fought for her life and you decided to save her.”

He closed his eyes as he spoke, his voice soft, "No, I know better, I just meet brutal honesty with brutal honesty."

All she wanted to do was move her hand further up along his neck and begin choking the life out of him so he could feel what that had been like. So he knew the last things that had gone through her head as her vision had faded to blackness and the tightness, that burning within her chest had risen to an unimaginable level she could barely tolerate. But she couldn’t, instead she bowed her head and allowed her messy and uneven hair to fall into her face, covering it from his view. The grip she had placed upon his collar lessened until it was nothing more than her hand resting upon his shoulder.

"You okay?"

His voice broke the silence, but she paid it no mind and as he tried to look into her eyes she didn’t try to stop him. But all she did was stare forward at his chest blankly. No, she wasn’t okay. She felt defeated and she didn’t know what to do about it. Everything about him sent her on edge, everything about him confused her and made her mind tumble around in circles. Nothing he said was predictable, nothing he did was predictable and it left her feeling drained emotionally. She couldn’t keep arguing with him, it was pointless and silly and immature of her. She was twenty-four, she should know better. She should be able to control her emotions better, no matter who was trying to throw her off balance.

Slowly, she raised her head and levelled her gaze with his. He did look concerned, funny how he could always look concerned for her, especially when she’d just been pinning him up against a wall and digging into his collarbone. But she merely stared back into his eyes blankly. Her hand moved from its position on his shoulder to his face, lightly tracing the gash above his eye. It looked worse than it probably was, the wound having scabbed over and the skin around it red with irritation and possibly infection. If he had used some of her herbs on it than it would be healing nicer than this, but he had refused her first offering so she had not been about to try again.

Kyo didn’t answer him; instead she just continued to trace her fingers down the side of his face and along his cheek to his mouth. Her eyes stopped there as she remembered the kiss he had forced upon her and the one she had willingly returned. The one he had questioned her about last night, the one that had started their whole argument. Just as her finger finished tracing from one corner of his lips to the other, the ninja turned and started walking away.

[Lavinian Ambition]

His hear was beating at a thousand beats a second as he tried to calm himself. Her hand left his face, leaving him wondering just what was going on in her head. Still he remained silent as she went away from him, retreating. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, and he wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. Perhaps this was what frustrated him more than anything, he didn't know where he stood. For all he knew speaking again would get him thrown against another wall. His ribs, which probably had been bruised were already protesting the rough treatment.

Still there was no denying how excited it had gotten him. His thoughts already were returning to the kiss as her retreating form began to leave the kitchen. Finally he spoke his voice hoarse, as if he had not spoken in Ages, "So then, just going to leave me here? You know I just don't get you Kyo, at times I think you want to do something, and at other times it is the exact opposite. Which is it Kyo, am I friend or foe? Cause right now, I'm starting to get really frustrated with wondering if the next words out of my mouth are going to end with me thrown up against another wall..."

"You're... neither." She said as she rested her eyes upon him. Her expression remained as that same blank stare. "I just... don't know. You throw me off balance and I don't know how to react to you!"

The words cut through him as he realized the problem. She was conflicted with what to say, what to do around him, because his methods and his words always seem to contradict themselves. It almost made him want to laugh with how she was trying to reconcile all his actions, and to his credit he kept a straight face while he replied, "How about you don't compare all my actions against each other. That night was a fluke, that’s not who I was. If I could have taken those actions back, I would in a heart beat. I was stupid, and I was trying to prove myself to everyone, and realized when you confronted me in the Tavern, I had been so dumb. I was lucky you didn't kill me seven times over, hence why I'm doing my damnedest to make up for it now..."

"I don't kill so easily... though in all honestly I could have been within my right considering what had happened that night." She said in response, though it was a hard pill to swallow, what came after it crushed his hopes, "First impressions are usually lasting ones, try harder to erase it and maybe it'll work."

Didn't he know that. As he tried to figure anything he could say he looked down at his hands before he spoke, tired from the emotions that were running through him, "I suppose I have to lie in the bed I've made. Serves me right trying to play something I'm not. Only hope by the end of this I'll have proven myself..."

[Kyo]

She hadn’t expected her words to affect him so greatly. Most of the time whenever she said something harsh and sharp to him, he merely responded with another one of his quick retorts that left her standing there grasping at strings. But this time it appeared that her words had defeated him, which was not what she had wanted. She would have preferred if he’d yelled at her, or thrown more confusing questions at her than the look on his face now as he stared down at his hands. He looked like she felt, confused, tired and drained and floating in the middle of some kind of darkness without any source of light. Why was it that all of their words only ended up hurting each other? What was it about the two of them that set each other off?

Was he right, did they both hold too closely to the events that had gotten them stuck here? Surely he too judged her from what she had done then, for who could not? If he’d just left her alone though, if he’d merely allowed her to escape and done the same, calling the mission a failure and returning to Roland empty-handed things would be so much different than they were now.

And what about if you were to have returned empty-handed?

The thought caught her off guard. She’d only ever thought of him giving up the prize during that night, never had it occurred to her in the hours afterwards that she could have done the same thing just as easily. Their plight had not been one sided, she had contributed just as much to it as he had and now she found herself blaming him for the majority of it. She was playing the role of the coward by doing that to him.

Sighing, Kyo closed the distance between them and rested her hand upon his shoulder once more. She did not attack him, or yell at him, instead she took a deep breath and spoke as calmly and as softly to him as she never had before. “I’m…sorry. Considering what you did to help me last night I should be able to put the past behind me and I should be able to trust you. And I’m sorry that I find myself being so hesitant and I’m sorry I hadn’t walked away from that mission before it ever began. Ninjas shouldn’t try to be bandits, we’re not good at stealing… only killing…”

"I don't know, you most certainly would have done well had a un-tested thief not shown up to throw a wrench in your works..." Jared replied calmly. "I..." He sighed as he went on, "I was being tested that run. If I did satisfactorily I would become a full-fledged thief. If I did bad, it meant more training and testing again later. That’s why I did it, to pass a stupid test, breaking nearly every rule instilled in me. So I don't blame you for not trusting me, if I broke the rules I was told to always go by, how could you trust me..."

She could have felt sorry for him, but she didn’t. Instead she felt her indignation begin to rise. He was wallowing in his own self-pity and looking for something she was not about to give him. So he had broken the rules long ago instilled in him. Everyone made mistakes and everyone pushed themselves beyond the limit of their own mind and body when they thought something important was on the line. He had merely pushed in the wrong direction and felt the tug upon his morals. Kyo had a deep ingrained feeling that he would most likely never do it again, especially if it was haunting him this much.

“You’re right you know… you should be worried about what words are going to get you slammed up against another wall.”

The ninja didn’t give him time to react or think after the last of the words left her mouth. Instead she pushed back against him, hard, allowing his back to hit the wall with a resounding thud. One she was quite sure his ribs were feeling at the moment.

“Stop feeling so sorry for yourself!” She growled at him, “So you fucked up, every one has. Get up, pick the pieces up and start putting everything back together again. Staring at your hands and wishing you could change everything isn’t going to make it happen, learning from your mistakes and actions is. If you think that was a tough test, you’d never survive what the assassins in my clan have to go through in order to turn from a trainee to a full-fledged ninja.

“Now pull yourself together, you’re a man, not a boy. And you’re a thief, whether or not you’ve completed your test with flying colours, or have you forgotten that?”

[Lavinian Ambition]

For the second time that night he was shoved against the wall, and this time hurt as bad as the last one. She was talking through the cloud that had appeared about them as she spoke of growing up. She was stoking a fire under him as his pride kicked in, and he reacted quickly as he growled lowly in irritation. Grabbing her he shoved her in his place before a hand slammed against the wall and he spoke his voice carrying a thread of anger, "Next time you decide to hold that night against me, remember this night very well Kyo. I want to let that night go, and if you keep holding it against me, we get nowhere."

Punching the wall next to her he turned to leave her there as he let the anger go. His pride sated by the violent act as he finally pulled his hand from the wall. His breathing was shallow as he leaned against the counter and felt a rib, she then spoke up as he raised a baleful eye to her, "I've already apologized to you for doing just that... what more do you want from me?"

"To drop it. That’s all I ask, drop the damn issue and maybe, just maybe instead of arguing for the umpteenth time and getting drained because standing around each other makes us bicker like two kids we can do something productive like plan someway to end this predicament..." He responded hastily.

She nodded her head as her eyes dropped down from his face. "Fine... the plan is I kill Roland. Predicament ended..."

"Not alone like you are you aren't. Besides, he probably is planning for you to go off and do something on your own. Hell I wouldn't be surprise if he thinks we tore each other apart," Jared replied.

"You're damn right I'm going alone." Kyo scoffed at him, "I work best alone and this way you don't have to dirty your hands or your morals anymore. I have no qualms killing him."

Jared chuckled bitterly, "You had no idea what happened when you left, did you? I have no qualms with killing the bastard, just like I'm not skulking about killing the men after you. I may be a pacifist, but I'm also pragmatic."

"You don't need to pull any kind of bravado on me; this is what I'm good at. This is my job. You can be pragmatic all you want but I'll still be better at it than you."

"Now, that’s a good argument, if not for the fact that while trying to thread a needle last night, you nearly passed out from blood loss. Strong yes, head strong, definitely, strong enough for Roland, I think not."

She seemed at a loss for words as she looked away from him, trying to figure something out. Finally her voice spoke up, "I've already poisoned him once and I know the layout of about half of his mansion."

"Good, that’s a good place to start, lets pool our talent, and see if we can't get the other half, and a good plan going."

[Kyo]

She didn’t want to do this, she didn’t want to plan sneaking into Roland’s mansion with Jared, because he would only get in her way. He was just a thief, he wasn’t trained like she was and he couldn’t be cold like she could. He may claim to be someone pragmatic or whatever bullshit he spouted from his mouth, but she didn’t care. This was her territory, what she spent her whole life training towards; killing. Why did he have to be so stubborn about this issue?

Shifting her weight from her legs to the wall she had been so violently thrown up against, Kyo raised her hands and started to rub at her temples. Her fingers gently messaged and worked into the skin in a clockwise motion that was doing nothing to appease the headache and the light headed feeling slowly creeping up on her. God she felt like shit and now that the adrenaline of their fun packed argument was beginning to wear off, she could feel it beating against her even more. Maybe he was right, maybe she couldn’t do this on her own. At least not in the state that she was in, but she didn’t want to put him in harms way for nothing if she could!

The man had nearly sacrificed his life to save her and putting all the crap behind her about what had happened during their initial meeting, yeah, she didn’t want to see him get hurt. Not anymore than he already was.

“I need to sit…” She said rather absently.

Although she’d had all intentions of walking up those stairs and going back to the room they’d occupied the night before, she found herself sliding down the wall until her butt hit the ground rather unceremoniously and quite jarring. Reaching into the folds of her gi, she pressed her hand against the wound and felt the blood seep out of the stitching just a little bit. The surrounding skin had already been smudged with the thick, crimson liquid. Bringing her hand back out, she rubbed the blood on her index and forefinger with her thumb.

She hadn’t really done any damage, but moving around so much and throwing Jared up against a wall, twice, only to have the same tactic used on her was possibly not the best choice in her current condition. God, she was useless right now.

Closing her eyes, Kyo rested her forearms on her bent knees as she leaned her head back and drew in a few deep, calming breaths. If she could get upstairs to her satchel, she’d be able to grab her willow bark, but that required moving and right now she didn’t feel like trying. So instead she gave Jared what he wanted.

“There are multiple entree ways into Roland’s house, the problem is he keeps most of them well guarded because he knows he has enemies. The front doors would be suicidal as the quarters for his guard aren’t far down the main hallway and the backdoor is guarded as well. Though he doesn’t have guards outside his mansion because the entire place is surrounded by a wrought iron fence with two men constantly at the gate. Scaling it without being seen from anyone inside the house would be extremely hard.”

[Lavinian Ambition]

He saw the blood on her hands and moved over beside her. He knelt beside her before he sat down with her on the floor. He wanted to badly to just carry her upstairs, but he knew she wouldn't let him, not yet at least. So he remained beside her patiently. As she spoke of the entrance he nodded as his thief mind worked on it. Finally he spoke, "I have an idea to get me inside, letting you operate independently, but I'm relying on you getting inside."

He sighed as he spoke, "I give you my gear, which you could probably carry inside, while I get myself caught. With me in their care they'll be rather apt to focus on me, and the hunt for you will diminish. This lets you sneak in any route you can think of, while I'm inside. I doubt he'd kill me unless he had you as well. It was a rather tag team effort which we fucked him over..."

She shook her head, "It won't work. He's not going to relax his guard with a well trained ninja out there, especially one he just pissed off. We'll switch our roles around; he won't expect you to sneak into the mansion. He probably thinks you've already run off to Lavinya."

Jared nodded as he spoke, "Then you have to leave me everything. We should probably wait a day or two for you to recover. I'll figure out something to get you back on your feet. However, in the meantime we need to get you rested. So, up we go..." At this Jared moved to carry her as he scooped her up.

She of course protested to the treatment as she spoke up, "I think you enjoy manhandling me entirely too much."

Jared smiled at her as he carried her up the stairs and spoke, "Of course I do, I relish every chance I get. Now, if you'll excuse me, you need rest, and I think I might sneak out for food while it’s still raining." Cutting off any further protest he carried her across the room and laid her gently on the cushions. Grabbing his cloak he threw it over her as he sighed and said, "Take a nap, and get some sleep. I'll see about scrounging up some food..."

He knew she would probably protest so he merely ignored her as he went down the stairs. He needed another cloak, preferably one with a hood that wasn't moth eaten. As he hit the bottom floor he sighed as he found the coat room. Looking through the coats he found a few cloaks. Finally he found one that fit the bill. Flapping it in the open hallway he shook the dust and mothballs out of it before he threw it about his shoulders. Clasping it he pulled the hood up and sighed muttering, "I probably look like some psychotic murderer...I hate these things..."

[Kyo]

She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about Jared carrying her up the stairs. She was rather certain she could have made it by herself, if not that then just with a helping hand. There was no need for him to literally lift her off her feet and carry her up the stairs like he was holding a wounded bird. Like he was holding something precious. It was just really odd to her and even though she wanted to protest further and tell him with as much dignity as possible that she could walk perfectly, she found the words dying somewhere within her throat. Instead, she merely rested her head against his chest and listened to the soft and constant beat of his heart. She raised her left hand and rested it upon his chest, allowing her fingers to softly trace across the material of his shirt.

Before she realized it, he was placing her upon the cushions she had occupied hours ago. They weren’t exactly comfortable, but her training had forced her many times to sleep out in the woods on the hard ground with no blanket. This was something she had no problems handling.

When she opened her mouth to thank him, Jared merely turned his back on her and left the room. At first she felt a little angry, but then she realized he probably thought she had been about to protest the whole thing again. She hadn’t though; she’d merely wanted to give him her thanks. What had happened downstairs had been silly and foolish and not at all how she normally reacted. Kyo was usually quite calm and collected, but Jared just… did something to her that turned her inside and out and made her dance around like a chicken. It was frustrating and agitating and not something that she was used to, which was probably why she was lashing out at him. She really needed to stop doing that, she needed to think before she responded to him instead of always coming off as so defensive and attacking him when he was merely asking a simple question or stating something rather obvious.

As he left, the ninja sighed and wrapped his cloak tightly around her body, trying to hold in the warmth. She knew she was cold because of the blood loss and because the house wasn’t exactly warm, not with a storm raging outside and no fires going inside. But she couldn’t risk lighting one, not even in this rain. Someone might see the smoke rising from the trees and come to investigate and that would be the last thing they needed right now.

Lying back against the pillows, she found it rather easy to relax herself and before she knew it, she could barely keep her eyes open.

[Lavinian Ambition]

"That'll be five gold," The merchant said. Jared nodded as he paid with a few coins. He had managed to get some bread, and even a bit of warm soup. The jar it would come in was hardly able to contain the warmth, and so he carefully placed it in his pack using his clothing to insulate it, in the rain, surely it would have become luke warm or even cold by the time he got back. As he thanked the merchant he turned to go before the merchant said, "One last thing..."

Jared froze, while he had kept the hood up to prevent others from seeing him he knew that it would have been impossible to keep the charade up. His accent alone would have made that task difficult, and he was not at all skilled in mimicking other's voices. As he turned to face the merchant he saw the man pointing at his satchel. Jared frowned as he spoke softly, "Yes?"

"You might want to be extra careful with that jar, it may have a lid, but it won't stay shut. Don't run with it or you'll probably have to clean all your clothes," The man said pointedly. Jared gave him a smile as he nodded and turned to go, keeping his voice to a minimum. Any further interaction would scream come and find me to Lord Roland and his thugs.

Moving back through the streets he kept a hand inside the bag, holding the lid on the pot as he did so. He did not want to loose any of this soup, especially since it was warm, and face it or not that house was a fucking ice cube. He had heard of warmer winters in Reven, where there was nothing to keep what meager heat came down, and as always Reven nights were hellishly cold for that very reason. Still he made his way back to the house carefully, trying to stick to groups and crowds as much as possible. With others also with hooded cloaks in the rain it would be all to easy to get lost in the crowd, and that’s what he hoped at least.

When it finally came time to leave the beaten path he entered an alleyway and quickly made his way through it. Finally he saw the familiar road leading into the house before he moved swiftly, staying among the bushes as much as possible. Reaching the window around the back he quickly scanned the area before he shoved his dagger just under the frame of the window sill. Forcing it up he pulled himself into the building before he closed the window in the kitchen.

Looking about the area he saw Kyo's still drying garments and sighed as he carefully set the pot of soup on a counter. Steam rose form the edges of the pots lip and he smiled, Kyo would certainly enjoy that. Perhaps that’s why he chose it, because he wanted to impress her, and make her happy. He sighed as he looked about the kitchen looking for bowls. Finding two and a couple of spoons he set himself to the task of cleaning them, via a mix of rain water and good old fashioned elbow grease, involving the remains of his shirt that he had already torn up to help Kyo bandage her hand.

Finally when he felt satisfied, or rather as satisfied as he could in the situation he moved upstairs bowls and pot in hand. His satchel still had the loaf of bread, and he figured he could use it for some substance beyond the watery soup. At least it was still warm. As he saw her resting on the cushions he sighed as he looked at her for awhile. As much as he hated doing it, he carefully placed the pot down a few feet away, before he reached out with a hand and gently shook her shoulder, "Kyo, time to get up, I grabbed some food..."

[Kyo]

She didn’t hear anyone enter the room. Kyo was normally trained as a light sleeper so that if anyone tried to sneak up on her during any kind of situation she would be awake long before they even got close. But this time she didn’t. Maybe it was just proof of how exhausted she was. But when she felt someone grab her shoulder and shake her, the ninja reacted the way she was supposed to.

Every muscle within her body suddenly tensed in anticipation for what was to come. Her eyes were barely open before her hand shot out and wrapped around the arm that was shaking her, ripping its grip from her shoulder and throwing it off to the side. In the next second she sat up from her prone position on the ground and then practically pounced on whoever had entered the room. She knocked the person to the ground with a surprised grunt as she straddled them, placing her knees on either side of their hips and keeping them pinned to the worn wooden floorboards. Instinct forced her hand behind her to grasp upon the hilt of her ninja-to, but when she found herself grabbing nothing bit air she was forced to change tactics. Though she normally found it a rather unpleasant way to kill someone, Kyo wrapped her hands around the neck of the intruder and started squeezing with all the strength she had within her system. That was until the fogginess of her sleep wore off and she saw exactly whom she had pinned beneath her.

Her grip loosened immediately as her eyes grew with surprise.

“Jared!”

Feeling a slight pain slither up her side from her wound, the ninja grimaced and relaxed her position, yet did not actually get off him yet.

“I’d say soup’s on, but I think you’ve already advised a way to kill me with it…” He grunted.

“Oh, I am so sorry!” She could feel her embarrassment rising in the form of a deep blush that started somewhere around the base of her neck and quickly rose to cover her cheeks as well. “I thought you were one of Roland’s men. You should know better than to sneak up on me like that!”

“It’s okay, you’re right. That was a dumb move. However I’m not exactly disappointed at the results.” He said to her as he started to sit up.

Confused for a moment, Kyo didn’t understand what he meant until he came to a sitting position, bracing himself with his arms behind him. It was at that point in time she realized she was straddling him, and now practically sitting in his lap and that his face was merely an inch or two away from hers. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt her heart speed up, not with adrenaline or with fear, but with something else entirely, a different kind of thrill and excitement.

Placing her slightly cool hand along the warm skin of his cheek, Kyo looked from Jared’s eyes to his lips and then back to his eyes again. She shouldn’t be doing this, she really shouldn’t. Hadn’t Jared once said something about keeping a level head about all this, shouldn’t she really be doing that? Shouldn’t she be stopping herself? By The Thayne she didn’t want to stop herself. Before she could think anymore on the matter, she pulled Jared closer to her and pressed her lips against his.

[Lavinian Ambition]

As she kissed him his hands moved to wrap around her warmly. He didn't reject her, only encouraged her as he kiss her back deeply. The frustration of the incident mere hours ago, was finally being unleashed. He really should have done this in the kitchen with her, but his temper had been stoked and he had raged. His hand gently ran up and down her back comfortingly as he didn't hold back. The thoughts going through his head were a mile a minute but he knew one thing...

...it felt so right.

When he finally pulled back from the kiss his breathing was ragged as he spoke softly, "That's one hell of a way to make up for past wrongs..."

"You could say that... now shut up and keep kissing me," Was her only response.

Not even giving her a chance to go further, he kissed her again as he held her close to him. The soup had long since been forgotten as he rolled them back onto the pillows. A hand gently cupped her cheek as he kissed her hungrily, not wanting to give up their new found intimacy. This is what he truly wanted, and perhaps why he pursued the kiss questions so relentlessly. He just had to know. Now that he knew, he didn't want to give her up for anything.

As he moved his lips he kissed her cheek briefly before he moved down her neck hungrily nibbling on the flesh as his hand moved from her cheek and down her side lightly. His hand lay gently on her stomach as he moved back to her mouth relishing the taste found there. He had bought the soup originally to warm them up, but with their recent actions he felt too hot, too restricted. Kissing her deeply his cloak quickly was undone in an effort to cool himself.

He wasn't sure how far this would go, but currently he didn't care. The bliss he was rapidly approaching outweighed even the residual fear of nearly being choked. Shocking still was the fact he felt even a bit more excited by the rough treatment, and perhaps it was just the compounded frustration with the kitchen incident, but he no longer was in a caring mood. He wanted to explore Kyo in every way imaginable. However, he kept back just barely from going full steam ahead.

After all, it was best not to go into foreign lands without a guide.

[Kyo]

She kissed him back deeply as her hand wound around the back of his head, delving into the strands of his red hair. Her fingers wrapped around them, gently pulling and tugging on them as her tongue slipped between his lips and intertwined with his own. Reason she threw to the wind as she began to feel his hands explore down the length of her body, gently, but never really touching her where she wanted him to. He was being too timid and too gentle with her. Almost scared to push the boundaries in any kind of way.

Why he couldn’t have done this in the kitchen she didn’t know, but that argument would have turned out a lot better than it had and she would have finally understood some of his intentions towards her. She’d never really been sure. The kiss from him in the bar had been forced and merely done to keep them from being spotted by the guards, yet he had returned hers when she had kissed him. Something she had told him she’d regretted, which had and hadn’t been a lie. At that time, while they were arguing she had regretted doing such a thing, but right after the fact she hadn’t and she definitely didn’t now.

Breaking away from the kiss, Kyo ran her lips lightly across his own, teasing him and pulling away whenever he tried to kiss her back. With her hand buried in his hair, she grabbed a large amount of it and pulled back roughly, forcing his head back and exposing his neck to her. Smirking, she ran her lips softly up and down the sensitive flesh, teasing him until she finally bite down rather roughly at the base of his neck. As she released it, she gently kissed the marks she had left upon his skin before slowly working her way back up his neck, where she once again roughly bit down on the area just behind his jaw. She could feel his body tense against her every time she did that and hear the sharp in take of breath. He enjoyed it.

Once again releasing her bite upon his neck, Kyo suddenly shifted her body and rolled the two of them over, coming to a stop with her once again on top of him. Before he could protect or do anything, she kissed him, deeply, distracting him as she manoeuvred her body around. Placing her knees once again on either side of his hips though for a far more pleasurable reason this time.

Gently biting down on hip bottom lip, Kyo kissed her way along to his ear before she whispered to him, “I think you need to learn to be a bit more… aggressive. If you'd done this in the kitchen after throwing me up against the wall...”

She didn't finish the sentence, instead she let his own mind wander and figure out her meaning behind it. Feeling the need to tease him and get her point across a little more clearly, Kyo pressed her hips down against Jared’s and began slowly grinding them against each other.

[Lavinian Ambition]

Gods did she drive him crazy. It didn't take a psion to see where their intimacy was heading. He wasn't sure whether to kick himself for not trying this in the kitchen or not. He knew one thing though, now that he was here, he wasn't going to stop till she told him too. He took a more proactive part in their kiss as he wrapped his arms around her keeping her close.

Smirking he whispered softly against her lips, "Perhaps I was just looking for the right moment..." He then flipped them so he was atop her nestled firmly against her body. His hands now went bold as he began to explore and roam every curve, every peak, every valley. He cared not one wit what she wished, she had made her intentions clear. As he continued to hold and feel her body his lips once again went to her neck as he bit hungrily at the flesh.

He heard a few appreciative moans as felt her begin to tug at his shirt. Without preamble he unbuttoned his shirt, and soon the clothes began flying as they felt too warm and restricted by the very clothing they had worn out of necessity only mere moments before. The heat in the room had gone almost stifling as their passion built up between them.

~*~

It was safe to say that by now the soup was probably stone cold.

They lay on the pillows he had used for her bed as they recovered from the aftermath of their passions. Her head lay on his chest as he laid there, gently stroking her hair. His eyes went to the wound on her side as he sighed and muttered, "Good thing I didn't aggravate that too much..."

She stretched out next to him as she sighed blissfully, "I was gentle with you... I didn't want to aggravate these." She ran her fingers lightly down his side and his bruised ribs.

He shivered at the touch as he whispered, "I appreciate that very much. Shall we eat? Seeing as how we've satisfied one appetite, might as well satisfy the other before we make anymore decisions."

She smiled and placed a gentle kiss on his chest before she slowly sat up and reached for his cloak that he had given her to cover herself. "Trust me; I'm not satisfied quite yet..." She allowed her eyes to travel down his body from head to toe as she bit down on her bottom lip.

He laughed at that as he stole a quick kiss and grabbed his pants, putting them on. Moving over to the forgotten bowls and the soup he brought it over with his bag as he said, "I had figured since it was so cold, some hot soup would have been the ticket to keeping you warm. I guess we don't have to worry about that particular feat, still I guess its as good as anything, and beats jerky."

[Kyo]

Using his cloak as a blanket, the ninja wrapped herself in the slightly rough and abrasive material, but it was warm and it kept her body hidden. Not that Jared hadn’t already seen it and run his hands over pretty much every inch of it. Not to mention the places he had kissed her and nibbled upon her sensitive skin. Just thinking about it caused small shivers to slide up her back and make her arms break out in goose bumps. It was hard to believe that just a few hours they’d been slamming each other up against the walls of the kitchen and yelling and screaming at one another. Not to mention the fact that she had wanted to add a few more injuries to the small list he already had.

Perhaps if she’d actually kissed him when she’d thought about it, when she’d had him up against the wall the first time and she’d run her fingers across his face. But she couldn’t change the past and she didn’t necessarily regret her actions down below. They had allowed the two of them to come to terms in a way and see some of the points as to why they could barely be in the same room without bursting into a yelling match. Hopefully now things would be different. Hopefully now they’d be on even ground and Kyo could actually begin to truly trust him. After all, she had just trusted him with her body.

Slightly disappointed that he decided to cover himself, Kyosku watched as Jared quickly brought over the food he had procured for them. The soup was no longer steaming within its container, but she doubted she’d mind. She’d probably eaten much worse.

“Anything is better than jerky.” She said with a light smile.

He smiled back as he poured the soup out into the two different bowls. “I have to agree.”

Once he had that done, he grabbed the bread from his bag and walked back over to her. Handing her a bowl, he sat down next to her. She looked at the liquid substance and the small bits of vegetables and quite possibly meat that were dancing around in it with a bit of distaste, but she supposed it might taste better than it looked. Akashima food definitely never looked like this that was for sure. Using the spoon to stir the substance, Kyo brought a small amount of it up to her mouth and gingerly took a sip. It wasn’t ice cold, that was for sure, more like a room temperature and it didn’t taste too bad. It was just a little watery; still it would do the trick.

They ate in silence, the comforting kind. Not the awkward kind that could permeate the air between two people. She didn’t really know how it felt to Jared, but she just rather relaxed. Her side was a little sore from what they had been doing not long ago, but she figured it was pass. Once they were done and she had eaten the last of her bread, she unwrapped the cloak and looked down at the wound.

Jared’s stitch job was novice at best, but good enough to do the trick. If she’d had someone more skilled it probably would leave less of a scar, but she was never too worried about scars. There was a little smeared blood around the outside of the wound, but it was nothing that worried her.

Covering herself back up, she sighed as she looked towards the thief.

”If we follow through with this plan of yours… I’ll be putting my life in your hands. If you don’t come for me inside of Roland’s mansion I’ll be killed, worse yet if you get captured as well, we’ll both be dead. Are you sure you can handle this?”

[Lavinian Ambition]

They ate in comfortable silence before he sighed and pushed the bowl away. As predicted the soup while not bad, was watery. At least it was still warm enough to not be a total waste of the gold he had spent. As she checked on her wounds following the meal he sighed as he looked upon her. She seemed alright, and thankfully her wound hadn't flared up. Soon afterwards she spoke of the mission. He had accepted a rather heavy burden, and even now she was checking to see if he could do it.

He reached out and gave her a deep kiss before he whispered, "I have no reason to abandon you to those dogs. Further, I'll come through, one way or another." He didn't want to give her any reason to doubt him. While not his first, the situation was rather different. She was special to him, as they had fought side by side. He trusted her as much as he trusted any of the other Thieves of Lavinya. Perhaps it was this that led to the conviction of his statement.

Though, he definitely felt a fondness with her. Was it that exotic beauty she held, or that rough exterior that intrigued him so? Just looking at her he could not tell what to think of her. She was beautiful, and he definitely enjoyed their moment of heated passion. He wasn’t sure what to think anymore. He decided to go with it, at the very least if it ended in a small romantic tryst, it was something he could pursue later. If it became something more, he’d be that much happier.

Sighing as he thoughtfully looked down he began to ponder how best to sneak into Rowland's Mansion. He knew that all humans had three weaknesses that the underworld exploited in various forms to their advantage. They needed to eat, they needed to sleep, and they needed to reproduce. While he doubted he could do anything with the last two, it was the former that had a nagging feeling. As he sighed he turned eyes onto the watchful form of Kyo, almost embarrassed that he had almost completely ignored her thinking.

As he sighed he said softly, "I'll look into a few contacts with the Thief's Guild tomorrow. See if I can't get anything accomplished. We won't act until you're ready and we have a plan set in stone."

[Kyo]

He said he could handle it and he told her not to worry, but she couldn’t help it. Even when he’d pressed his lips against hers and kissed her in a way that made her want to believe everything he was saying, she couldn’t help but continue to dwell on it. They were taking a big risk; she was taking an even bigger one. If this turned out to be some kind of ruse, then she would most likely not get out of it alive. But he had saved her from Roland’s thugs and put his own life on the line to do that. She might not have done the same for him; she may have just left him to fend for himself with only a brief thought in her mind that she hoped he would survive. She might have, but she wasn’t sure. The situation had not been reversed and she was glad, because things might be drastically different had it been. Neither of them would know what would have happened if she were placed in his shoes, and she was much better off not knowing in case it was an answer she didn’t want to hear.

“Are you sure it would be safe to involve your fellow thieves in this?”

Kyo too had people within the city of Radasanth that she could turn to. They were not members of the clan, but friends of it, people that any ninja could trust should they find themselves in need. But Kyo did not want to involve them. If Roland somehow found out about it, there would be no telling what he would do to them in order to get to her. She didn’t want Jared to make the mistake of asking someone for help; only to have it hurt them in the end.

"When you pick on one thief, you pick on them all. In this case he blatantly stepped out of line. He got a warning, and now he's pushing boundaries. I doubt that Darith would mind much if at all."

Kyo sighed as she looked away from Jared and at nothing particular on the floor in front of her. “I suppose…”

"You don't sound so, sold on the idea. What’s wrong?" He asked as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

What’s wrong? They were quite possibly discussing a mission that could end both of their lives because of a simple misunderstanding and she didn’t want him to involve others. It could only make things more complicated.

“Nothing.” She gave him a small smile as she brushed his hand off his shoulder and stood. “I have a few things that could make your entry easier, since you’ll be carrying most of my gear anyway.”

Walking over to her rucksack, the ninja grabbed the straps and broth it back with her over to Jared. She also picked up some of her clothes on the way there. Dropping the cloak she had wrapped around her body, Kyo quickly began to dress herself, not even minding the fact that Jared was right in the room and most likely watching her every move. Once she was done, she took a seat near Jared and opened the front strap. Reaching in she pulled out one of her ninja-to’s and handed it over to the thief.

Running her fingers up the hard sheath and the tightly wrapped cord around it, she began to talk. “The cord can be unwound and the sheath thrown over a wall to allow for an easier climb up when there are no footholds and it’s strong enough to support up to 200 lbs.” She then pointed to the bottom of the sheath. “The cap there on the bottom can come off and inside is a paralysis powder, the same one I used on Roland.”

Reaching back into the rucksack, she brought out a hard leather pouch and opened it up, picking out a small, white oval object and holding it out to him. “An eggshell grenade. It’s not as fragile as it looks and if you ever need to make a quick escape while surrounded by a lot of people, take a deep breath and smash this against the ground. The ingredients inside will create smoke when mixed with the air. I’ve also got some tetsu-bishi on me as well, but I don’t think they’d be of much use to you…”

[Lavinian Ambition]

Jared listened to her talk of the scabbard, the compartments and uses. He knew she was giving him the rundown, in case he would ever use her tools, and while he knew she meant the best, he was half tempted to stop her. She was an assassin and he was a thief. The tools of their trade should never mix. Using another's tools would be like him saying he was a girl, it would only breed drama, and unwanted side effects, as he tried to recover form the rather large blunder.

No, he would do this by guile alone.

However, he let her talk, knowing she had to get it out, she would not feel safe until she had said her piece. Once she was done he nodded thoughtfully, hoping he was giving the impression that he had taken what she said to heart. As he waited he sighed before he finally spoke up, "We should probably talk about what you want to have happen in there once you're in. Plan where you'll be "caught", and time it so I'm already inside the estate. With luck they'll not notice me till long after it would be too late..."

He hardly gave her time to consider the words before he continued, "I want to talk first about what's going on between us..." He paused, trying to figure out how to phrase it before he went on, "I'll not lie, I enjoy it, and frankly I wouldn't mind pursuing the feelings attached to it..."

"I..." Kyo paused as she tried to find the words to say to him, her eyes not even able to stay upon his face and instead looking at some unimportant spot on the ground. "It was just a one time... thing..."

Jared sighed as he said softly, "As you wish. You know you can be really beautiful when you open up fully..." At those words she finally met eyes with him, a look of surprise on her face. She seemed to try and say something stopping every now and then as he leaned back resting on his hands as he raised an eyebrow. He then spoke candidly, "Is this all part of the 'stiff upper lip' approach you like to give me when it comes to matters of showing weakness?"

"No!" She spat defensively, then seemed to be taken aback at the blurb before she quickly rectified it, "Yes... maybe..."

"I see, well let me explain something very...resolutely, so you know where I'm coming from. I finally got to see you. Not the you that pretends she's tough, not the you that pretends she's a cold hearted killer, but the true you. Frankly, I think she is rather beautiful, and want to get to know that you. The other two, I could care less about, but I figure its part of the package. So, can I see more of that you? Or should I arrange for another session of me waking you up so I can get to know her?"

She smiled very lightly, "You could try, but I don't recommend it. Next time just say my name and I'll wake right up..." His words had once again cutting through her uncertainty. He watched the confusion and frustration cross her face as he closed his eyes and looked down. "I... don't know..."

"Well, what a fine mess I get us into. Perhaps I should have stopped the first time. I don't want to confuse you, and further I don't want to cause you any harm. I just..." He stopped as he bit his tongue. Furthering his goal would do nothing. So he spoke, "Let’s just say I want to get to know you. Call it intrigue, especially at seeing that beautiful side of yours. If not, fine, I can understand I should keep my shit out of yours."

[Kyo]

She didn’t know what to say or do. Jared made her feel like wood drifting in open water, without destination or shore to wander to. It was a dangerous feeling to someone in her line of work, not to mention attachments to anything were dangerous. Her clan was a different matter, what happened in her village was a completely different story, but out here in the world of Althanas, something like this could get her killed if she wasn’t careful. If she couldn’t keep her head focused on the matter at hand and instead worried about Jared and whether or not he was safe and secure, she would not be able to do her job properly.

This time the silence that filled the room felt awkward to her. It made her feel uncomfortable and restless, as if she needed to get away and do something, anything, just not be here at this specific point in time and not see him or think about him. It was getting too complicated for her, all she had done was accept a simple mission with the promise of more work should she be successful and now, this had happened. She had nearly been killed, twice. She was stuck with a thief who had both tried to kill her and then saved her possibly within a twenty-four hour period. And they were both being hunted by the same man that wanted them dead. He was also a thief that turned her whole world upside down, frustrating her and confusing her at the same time. Why couldn’t this have just been a simple mission? Why had it become so ridiculously complicated?

Feeling as if the very air in the room was stifling her, Kyosku quickly rose to her feet. She just needed to get away for a bit, she just needed to move. Perhaps she should go downstairs and retrieve her clothes from the kitchen, they would most likely be dry by now, it was late into the afternoon. The sun was still obscured from her view by the thick clouds and rain still poured down upon Radasanth though the drops were not as fat and nor as frequent. But she knew from her own internal clock that it was growing late into the day and soon it would grow dark once again. They should probably search through the house and see if they could find any more candles and possibly some warmer material to use for blankets. The day had been cold and it would only be worse with the dampness in the air now. That would certainly be something to keep her busy and moving.

Kyosku turned and left the room without saying anything to Jared, her steps taking her only as far as the staircase before she heard him coming after her. His hand wrapped around her upper arm and gently tugged on it, forcing her to stop and turn to him.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes looked up into the depths of his grey ones and read the genuine concern that lined them, then focused on the scabbed wound lining his eyebrow.

“Jared…” She looked away as she closed her eyes unsure of what to say to him. Should she tell him she was scared to get close to him? Should she tell him her job required her to focus solely on it and he would be a burden, or should she just tell him nothing’s wrong and remove his hand from her? She didn’t know!

“Look, I don’t want to cause any more trouble between us. Better get it out now than have it fuck things up later, Kyo…”

His hand moved from her arm to her shoulder, where it stayed as a gentle squeeze to remind her of his presence, not that she could ever forget it. She barely knew him, how was he able to get under her skin so easily?

Sighing, Kyosku rested her forehead against his chest. “Allowing someone to get close to me can only end badly…” She said to him. It was vague enough that she wasn’t telling him a lie and encompassed both her fear over it and the requirements of her job.

She felt his hand run along the back of her head, burying his fingers in her hair as he held her to him. “It only does so if you let it.”

His answer was less than satisfactory and did nothing to alleviate the tight feeling in her chest. This shouldn’t be happening. No, she couldn’t let this happen. He didn’t understand her clan’s rivalry with the Okinawa’s, he didn’t understand that they would use anything and everything they could against her to hurt her should they ever discover her true identity and learn of him. Any of the friends she made outside of the Kunketsu clan were vulnerable to this, at least back home they were born into the risks and they knew what they fought for. Jared knew nothing of her world and it was best it stay that way.

Bringing her hand up to his bare chest, Kyo could feel the heat of his skin seeping into her cool palm as she pushed against him. But he didn’t let her go; instead he merely wrapped his arms a little tighter around her as she tried to move away.

“Jared… please… I don’t think I can do this…” The sudden lump in her throat made it hard to speak and she could feel the familiar sensation of stinging in her eyes as tears began to form. But she wouldn’t let them show.

[Lavinian Ambition]

He was scared of what he had done to her. In the scant period of a couple of days he seemed to have broken the woman who had been strong, had saved his life, and possibly even stolen his heart. She tried to pull away as he instead tightened the embrace, recognizing the fear as it creeped into her voice. He only moved to bring her eyes up to his before he whispered softly, "You don't do this alone Kyosku, I'll be here beside you every step of the way. If it goes a week, it goes a week, if it goes longer, I will be thankful for every day I get."

"Don't be so sure about that... assassins aren't bred from thin air, there's a reason I was trained like this and that reason would enjoy killing you just to get to me." It was a soft voice, that held within it danger. It hinted at something she refused to tell him. This was her way of telling him the problem, that she was afraid. That she was scared not just for her, but for him. Of course being an assassin you'd draw enemies, and only naturally they'd target the loved ones of said assassin, if only to draw them out.

He gently cupped her cheek as he said, "It'll take more than vague warnings to make me give up on you Kyo. Where I come from I face death everyday. Thieves are hung, for being simply that. I knew the price when I accepted my place in the Guild. I highly doubt the stakes could be much higher for me to be with you, and if they are I certainly want to hear every grisly detail..."

She was running out of reasons to give him, excuses to push him away. This much was evident as she blurted out, "You're just going to brush aside whatever excuse I give you... aren't you?"

"I would be lying if I said otherwise, but for the sake of your pride, lets just say, 'No, I merely don't care.'" Jared said as he gave her a brave wink.

The corners of her mouth turned up in a light smile. "It's not for the sake of my pride when you tell me so."

Jared grinned as he said softly, "Now there's that beautiful smile. I missed it so. Now, since I think we got the important business out of the way, I think we have a noble to kill, don't you?"

[Kyo]

She nodded her head as he mentioned Roland and the task that was before them. It was a welcome reprieve from what Jared had brought up. Whatever had happened between them had been… nice, but Kyo had never thought it would go anywhere. They never did after all. She slept with them and then she moved on. They never questioned it or complained, or even said much of anything actually. They were just as content with the one night tryst as she was, but Jared wanted more than that. He was pushing for a relationship, where they could grow close to one another. Something she had never done before. The ninja had slept with her share of men, but she had never considered anything other than sex with any of them. Emotional attachments were just weaknesses meant to be cut away.

Feeling her usual calm and cool demeanour wash over her mind once more, Kyo wriggled her way out of Jared’s grasp. His arms did not try to stop her this time, they did not tighten around her body and hold her close, threatening to break down guards she’d put in place long ago. Instead they merely fell away and allowed her the distance from him she needed, the distance that kept her thinking straight. But the thoughts didn’t flee from her mind instead they stayed right at the forefront, even while she was leading him back into the room to discuss their strategy. Why her? Why was he so interested in getting to know her and this beautiful side of her that surfaced whenever he was around? It wasn’t even a beautiful side of her really, just a vulnerable side. Perhaps that was what men wanted from their women, for them to be vulnerable and dependant on them, so they could feel strong protecting something they thought was weaker. Well she wasn’t like that and she never would.

Back in the room, the ninja sat down on some of the cushions and did her best to organize her thoughts.

“If I’m caught in the mansion, I’ll be taken to Roland wherever he is. He’ll probably smack me around for a bit and question me, possibly on your location since he may assume we decided to work together. If he does, we can use that to our advantage. I’ll hold out for a little while, then give him the impression that I can’t take the pain anymore and I’ll lie to him about where you are. He’ll send a group of his men out, leaving security around the estate to be much more lax and you can slip in then.”

Kyo knew that saying Roland was going to ‘smack her around’ and actually have it happen were two different things. The man was going to beat on her, brutally, until she told him everything she knew. The fact that pain was something she had trained with for most of her life was not a great consolidation either. Willingly going into a place knowing someone was most likely going to torture you on the inside, put a deep knot in her stomach. The kind that nearly made her feel sick.

“And if he decides to just kill you and be done with it?” Jared said rather pointedly. “I’d rather sneak into the mansion before you arrive…”

She sighed, “That destroys the whole purpose of me even going in to get caught then, doesn’t it? The only way you’re going to get in there without him noticing, is if half of his men are out looking for you and besides, he’s not going to kill me right away. No, he’ll want to do it slowly…”

Thoughts of her completing this on her own were beginning to slip into her head. If she could hold out for another day or two and give her side more time to heal, she was certain she’d have no problem killing Roland without Jared’s help. This mission seemed foolish, for her to sneak in only to get caught and allow him access to the mansion, just because he didn’t want her to do it alone. Just because he didn’t think she could.

“Alright, so say he does slow it down, that gives me what? An hour to get inside and find you?”

She nodded, “That sounds about right. Anytime after that and he’ll probably kill me.” The tone of her voice made it sound as if she didn’t care if she died, and in a way she really didn’t. Death was a natural part of life and her job, and accepting that was only inevitable.

“I’ll get in during that time, that gives me probably ten minutes max from entry before they realize I've snuck in, and pushes one of two ways, either he kills you to get rid of you, or he attempts the hostage trick to get me to surrender...”

The hostage trick, huh… she doubted that would happen. Jared wasn’t trained like her though. When ninjas were confronted with a hostage, they did the most logical thing to get to the person behind them; they killed the hostage. “Remind me again why I can’t complete this on my own, without getting beat up and possibly tortured?”

“Well I offered to be the bait, but you wanted to be it. We could of course scrap this entire idea and work it a different way. But either way I'm not about to let you go in there alone, maybe, just maybe if you were in perfect health. Now, I know that’s a sore topic for you, so I'll leave it there, you aren't doing this alone.” Smart move.

Sighing and mumbling several different curses in her native Akashiman, Kyo quickly made up her mind. “I think we should scrap this. It sounds ridiculous for one of us to get caught merely to allow the other easier entry. If you follow my every move on the way in, we should be fine.”

[Lavinian Ambition]

So then the question becomes how do we catch him offguard. I seriously doubt he's dumb enough to rush to where ever we are for a final confrontation. I also doubt he'd even risk his own hide until he was sure it was safe," Jared said as sighed and placed his face in his hand. As he thought through different scenarios he couldn't help but shake the fact he was missing something. Surely by now the thugs would be raring to get at them. As he moved over to a chair who's cushion he had ripped out he sat down, sending a cloud of dust into the air as he pondered the answer.

"I doubt he'd fall for the trade in," He replied muttering. It was an afterthought. One of them trading in the other to get both in place, and if it came to that, he doubted either of them could have pulled it off that well. Roland wasn't as dumb as he liked to pretend. Instead he sighed as he looked at her, "So, we got a situation where there is a house under constant surveillance. That means guards are always going to be patrolling, things will be checked heading in and out..."

He stopped as he grinned, "Now that, could work...We could try to set up some kind of diversion, the kind that we were hoping to do with your capture. Now, we just need something to use for it, other than us, got any ideas?"

"Know where we can get any gunpowder?" Was her reply.

He nodded softly as he thought about contacts. The gunpowder would have to be a rather large amount, enough to cause a rather large explosion. With the chaos that would ensue, they'd be able to sneak in. So that meant using his contacts. The supplier didn't usually deal in black powder, but it was worth a shot, "I can try my contact tomorrow, see if we can't get a small keg of the stuff, should be more than enough. Just gotta make sure to keep it dry, that stuff gets wet and you can guarantee that it won't be useful any time soon."

She nodded, "Oh, I know. If you can't though, there are plenty of other things we could do. And we don't even need to make a large explosion, just enough to draw out some of the guards and keep their eyes to the sky instead of the building. Even a fire in a neighboring building would help... it is a rather fancy diversion though."

"I'd rather not sacrifice innocents if possible, I'll strive to get the gunpowder," He replied, a bit of coldness seeping into his voice. While he knew she was being practical, he felt a need to keep things on the more legitimate side. Their beef was with Lord Roland, not with anyone who was unfortunate enough to live next to the bastard. He figured being his neighbor was punishment enough, to be forced to pay for such an uncontrollable happenstance was unforgivable.

Perhaps this is why she didn't want to be with him, the obvious differences in morality. It didn't matter to him anyways, he was certain that she would agree to the practicality of the situation. No need to make enemies unless necessary. If not, he would make sure it never got far enough to endanger too many innocents.

[Kyo]

Gunpowder... she didn’t think he’d actually be able to get a hold of the substance. It wasn’t exactly readily available and she had said it in an off-handed and almost joking matter. She’d never used such a tactic before to get into a building because she’d never needed it. Working alone usually made it easier to sneak into a building, there was less chance of being seen and one didn’t have to constantly keep a worried eye on their partner. This mission was certainly going to be trying on her mind, but hopefully she would be able to operate just as well with Jared than if she were alone. She hoped, but she knew it wasn’t going to happen. He wasn’t trained like her and he didn’t think like her. Though he had no issue killing Roland, she wondered how he would react to having to kill the guards. After all, they were technically innocents in all of this, they did nothing wrong but get hired by the wrong man to guard the wrong building.

Taking in a deep breath, Kyosku fell back onto the cushions, staring up at the worn ceiling and the paint that was starting to chip and fall away. It created an odd pattern that her mind couldn’t quite pick up on, but it was interesting to look at nonetheless. She was starting to feel tired again, despite the fact that Jared had allowed her time to rest. But it was too early in the evening to fall asleep, if she did that now, she’d wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to sleep anymore.

“From the times I’ve been in the estate, I’ve seen two different areas that Roland has been in, the lounge that we met him in the other night and the library. The lounge is on the first floor, down the left hallway from the entrance and the third door in. The library is on the second floor and is the main double set of doors once you get up the staircase. Those would be the first two places we should look, after that it’s anyone’s guess as to where he is.”

She was barely paying any attention to the words that were coming out of her mouth. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, she just felt rather emotionally drained after what had taken place in the hallway. She wished Jared had just left her alone instead of following after her, and then she could have saved face and recovered before he could see her. All she’d needed was a minute or two, just some time to gather her mind. But he’d never given her the chance. What was she going to do with him? Well, she could always kill him, but she was rather certain that wouldn’t sit too well on her conscious and it was more of a joke really.

“If something happens, he won’t be on the ground floor, a window would give too easy access, he'll be upstairs, either in that room or his bedroom...” Jared replied as he raised his face from his hand to venture a peek at Kyo.

She turned her head to the side and looked over at him. He was beginning to sound more and more like an assassin. Of course Roland wouldn’t stay on the ground floor. It wouldn’t make sense to, but then again the ground floor had an easier escape than the second, unless of course there was a secondary escape route from the second floor she didn’t know about. It was possible since she hadn’t had the time to study the building or its occupants properly. It made her uncomfortable not having all the necessary information.

The main problem now was figuring out how to get into the mansion itself. There were plenty of windows on the ground floor and with the guards hopefully distracted; they may be able to do it. Balconies she was unsure about and she didn’t feel safe assuming that there was one. There definitely would be a servant entrance either along one of the sides or the back that most likely led into the kitchen. If they could get in, perhaps they could disguise themselves as servants. It wouldn’t take much to find two and knock them unconscious, stealing their clothes in the process. Then they could freely move about without having to worry about being spotted.

“If we can get in through the servant’s entrance, we can always disguise ourselves as some servants and move around that way trying to find Roland. It may buy us roughly ten minutes until someone notices something is up or one of the servants wakes up.”

[Lavinian Ambition]

"Too risky, better to just break in and push through, than try to play at something we’re not. Servants won't get between us and Roland, as they'll be too scared by whats going on. After all they're paid to make food, not be a thug, so they won't even think about raising arms. Maybe scream, but we can silence them before it gets out of hand," Jared replied. Now was the problem, everything sounds like a bad idea when you walk into the lions den.

It was then he figured to approach it like raiding the trading post. Raids happened maybe once or twice a year, but the forethought that went into them was often times months in advance. Done properly, no one got hurt, done improperly someone got killed, all the time. Either by being captured or by a reckless guard who sought glory that wasn't rightfully his. With the odds very much the same, he had to wonder just what they could hope to attain by going after Roland. Sure they could let him live, but it didn't sit well with the thief to leave an enemy who would undoubtedly be plotting revenge.

"So if we go in from the kitchen, we should take any servant passageways, back stairs or anything like that, to reach the second floor. I wouldn't be surprised if a stairway leads to his bedroom, if only to help expedite a midnight snack..." Jared began as he sighed shaking his head. It couldn't be that easy, if it was, why wasn't Roland dead already?

"Possibly... but I'm not holding out on there being stairs right to his room. Not to mention, we won't know which stairs go where, we'll be doing a bit of guessing... I hate guessing..." She replied, echoing his earlier thoughts.

"Agreed, but lets look at it this way, the later in the encounter we face guards the less we have to fight to get in and out. At the very least avoiding them a few minutes now, could disorient them as they split up patrols to find us through the house," Jared replied. That much was true, a feint could be very useful, but better than they press in an area completely unexpected to reach an area unheard of.

"I agree, if we take the main hallways, the guards will only blindly let us by so many times..." Kyo sighed as he nodded mutely. Now they had a working plan, something that felt much better than the earlier plan. As he sighed he looked at her, and saw the fatigue on her face.

"You're tired, perhaps we should continue this later, give you a chance to get some rest," Jared said pointedly.

"If I sleep now I won't be able to tonight..."

He nodded thoughtfully before he sighed and said, "At the very least I can go out for more food, give you a chance at a nap, I'll try waking you up your way when I get back. How does that sound?"

"If you feel safe trying, go right ahead..." her speech was cut short by a quick yawn, "but the rains letting up so they might start coming out looking for us."

"Its either that, or more water and jerky, we might have a bit of bread left over from the soup," Jared replied.

She gave a rather mock groan, "If you you're going out make sure to pick up extra for tomorrow as well that way we won't have to leave again until we need to."

"Does the princess have any other desires?" Jared replied smirking softly at his little joke.

She smirked and raised a brow. "A few, but they require you to be here for that."

Moving next to her spot on the cushions he sat down and leaned closer to her as he said softly, "Well then, I guess I better get back quickly then..." He then gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before he grabbed his shirt and began to button it up. With a practiced maneuver his dagger belt was about his hips again and soon he was dressed to go. With a casual salute he was down the stairs and gone again moving out while the rain was still going.

[Kyo]

Two Days Later...


Before her was the large structure that Roland, one underground crime boss, called home and headquarters to most of his dealings. The building was two stories tall, made mostly of uniform red bricks and uneven grey blocks of decoration that mounted each window. There was only one main entrance with a path of loose white stones that cut through the grass and led around a large fountain that trickled through the night. The large double doors had one guard in front of it, he leaned against the wall as if lazy and content with his job and thinking nothing was going to happen. It was dangerous to be so content with ones surroundings like that. Most of the windows showed no life, light or movement from within them. Only the occasional one upon the first floor held the light flicker of a candle or fire through the curtains. Within the second floor she had only glanced upon small amounts of light escaping through the thick material covering the windows in one or two of the places. Most within the building were probably fast asleep, leaving the night guards and quite possibly Roland being the only ones awake.

Shifting her leg slightly to the left, Kyo relieved the cramp that was beginning to build within her thigh and slowly make her entire leg go numb. Her gloved hands gripped the rough stone of the wall she was crouching upon, as her eyes tore through the night and watched the familiar pattern of guards pass along the manicured garden. They almost always used the same path and the slightly worn grass was quite evident of that. Its blades bent and reflecting the light of the moon differently than the others.

Glancing up towards the sky, the ninja watched the soft, dark clouds slowly pass along the brightly shining stars and the darkness they lived in. The moon was waning, but it might as well have been full in her mind for all the light that it cast upon the ground.

It had been a full moon the night Jared and I had met...

The night that had started all of this.

The last two days had been...interesting. It was one of the few words she could find to describe it. Out of the ordinary, exhausting, and thrilling were a few others. They’d talked some strategy when they had the chance, but neither of them knew much of anything about the estate and as such, there wasn’t much to discuss. For the most part they’d just spent those few days in that one room, doing something that required little to no talking.

Pushing the unnecessary thoughts to the back of her mind, Kyosku focused instead on the movements of the guards and the task at hand. She couldn’t afford to have her mind anywhere but here at the moment. It could cost her and Jared too much to do something like that. There wasn’t much she could do right now but watch and wait. A few feet away from her, one of her ninja-to was jammed against the rock of the wall and a cord was dangling down the ten feet to the ground below. She was waiting for a certain someone to grasp the end of that and haul himself up the side of the wall and to her side. But he wouldn’t do that until he’d put in place their distraction. After all, without it there was no way they could make their way into the mansion without breaking a few necks in the process.

It wasn’t even that Roland’s mansion was very well guarded. There were only five guards outside, two of whom were guarding the main gate and the other three didn’t even have dogs. It was the light from the moon, the fact that there were two of them and Jared’s lack of morals when it came to killing or perhaps an abundance of morals when it came to killing. Maybe it was her that had a lack of them. Either way, the distraction would provide them with the precious few minutes they needed to race across the grass and to the back entrance. There wasn’t much in between the house and the wall she currently knelt upon. Just short cut grass, a few lone standing trees and bushes and some well placed flowers. It quite possibly could have been a beautiful garden during the day, but right now she didn’t have the time to consider it.

Once inside the real test would begin though, because then they’d have to find Roland, kill him and get out without getting caught or killed in the process. And afterwards, Radasanth wouldn’t exactly be a safe place for them within the coming weeks. She’d need to find a secure place to hide out for a week or two. Correction, they’d need to. They were in this together and she had a feeling Jared was not going to part so soon after their little murder game was over. There were a few places that came to mind, small villages along the border of Akashima where they would easily blend in and become just two more warriors in a group of many. It was something to worry about later though, when they made it out of this.

[Lavinian Ambition]

He clutched the package as he moved along the wall, looking for the tell tale signs that he had found the correct spot. Outside the estate in the alleyway he hoped to the gods that he didn't accidentally set off his bundle, or Kyo really was going to have to do this on her own. The guy had told him while not pure gun powder it was highly volatile. So as he walked carefully he finally found the spot, at a corner opposite where they were planning on dropping in.

The last two days had certainly been good to him. He had managed to find out a few things here and there about Kyo, and her homeland. To say that he hadn't enjoyed their other activities would have been a downright lie. He was more than certain that if their relationship continued like this he'd have to work a bit harder to keep up the pace that had been set. Still the time for reflection was past, and the time for action was dangerously near. Returning to the mission he pulled the thoughts back and neatly pushed them to the back of his mind, not so far that he would forget, but not so close as to be distracted.

It was always tough, he had after all made more than a few of his fellow thieves into lovers. And when the semi annual raid had come up, it had been hard not to get emotional in the mix, especially when they were in the same area. It had been tough not trying to protect them with every breath, knowing that he had his own job to accomplish. While he had never lost one on a mission, the fact that he could have was always a harrowing experience. Here, it was more so, there was no safety net, if one fell, the death would be immediate. There would be no trial and hanging to try to rescue again.

Smiling he carefully put the prize in his satchel as he jumped and hauled himself up despite the protesting ribs. The pain would probably never go away, but this was more of a dull ache than the sharp sting that had hit him when he had first saved Kyo. Pulling himself up he crouched upon the wall, being careful to stick to the shadows afforded by the neighboring buildings. Pulling out the bundle he grinned devilishly as he muttered softly under his breath, "Paybacks a bitch Roland..."

The package in his hands was deviously designed by the Lavinian Thieves, made partially of gun powder, the rest of the package was a substance that burned hot, an spread a lot of smoke fast, no one could tell what would cause the smoke, as most of the bundle would be destroyed in the preliminary explosion. Carefully he lit the fuse with his stick before he dropped it on the ground. Hopping off the wall he raced back to the place silently counting to ten as he did so. He rounded the corner as he reached seven before he was pulling himself up Kyo's rope at ten.

Recovering his breath as the explosion hit the air the sounds of the guards rushing to the front of the building resounded through the air. Soon big gouts of white smoke spread across the ground as he spoke, "Too late to go back now eh? Lets get to work."

With those sage words he hopped down dropping into a crouch before he rushed forward heading right for the back door. Testing the knob he nodded as it was locked, before with a flourish he pulled one of his knives and began fishing right against the door's latch. Finding it finally he steadied the knife before he smacked the pommel driving the knife to wedge between the latch and the hitch, causing the door to pop open, despite its locked state. Looking behind him for Kyo he gestured inside, knowing she would be the better one at leading the way through the house.

[Kyo]

Jared was at her side moments before the explosion rent the air. The blast was not deafening, but it was enough to leave a slight ringing within the confines of her ears and the concussive waves afterwards rippled along her clothing and pushed against her skin. Nothing too destruction, it was a bit of a bang and a lot of smoke. Smoke that was now billowing up into the sky and across the estate, covering the ground in a white fog that was both choking and blinding. She could hear the confused cries of the guards as all five of the ones outside rushed towards that specific area and even more began piling out of the house.

As Jared dropped down from the wall, Kyo reached over and grabbed her ninja-to. The cord she quickly pulled up from the other side and within seconds had it wrapped around the hard sheath and the weapon firmly placed upon the small of her back once more. Then she dropped down from the high perch, her feet meeting the ground with a slight thud as she rolled to lessen the impact. Quickly coming to a standing position, she raced across the lawn after Jared’s form, already a few feet ahead of her. Both the motions pulled at her side, making her wound feel more like a stitch in her muscles that just wouldn’t go away. An annoyance she would have to keep an eye on. Now would be the worst time for it to reopen. No guards paid them any mind, as all of their eyes were towards the smoke and trying to find the source of it. The downside of this was that afterwards, they would probably increase their patrols of the grounds, suspecting that something was afoot. By that time though, hopefully Roland would already be dead.

When she reached the backdoor to the mansion, Jared was already prying the door open with his knife. Wedging the blade in between the limited space of the door and the jam, the thief was able to pry it open and motioned for her to go in first. She hurried in, allowing him room to come in after her and close the door behind them. The room they were in was nearly pitch black but for the small amount of light coming in from the open curtains. She could make out a large island in the centre with a ring of pots and pans hanging around it, a counter to her left and right and cupboards lining the walls. It was most definitely the kitchen; she could even just barely make out the large, iron oven off in the corner mostly surrounded by shadows.

Taking a moment to gather her senses, Kyo did the one ritual thing that came naturally when she was on such missions. She cleared her head and entered a space void of emotion; where she could think clearly only on the matter at hand and not let petty things cloud her judgement. It took only a moment and the only evidence of the transformation within her mind, was the cold nature her eyes took on. Reaching down, she grabbed at the loose material around her neck and pulled it up, covering her face up to the bridge of her nose in the tight, black material.

Moving through the kitchen, she lightly stepped across the wooden floorboards, stepping down with the balls of her feet instead of her heel. It was second nature to her now, she barely even thought about it. She was in her element here. As her eyes adjusted to the light in the room, the ninja could easily make out two separate doors in the kitchen. The fancier wooden one most likely led into the hallway or another room, perhaps even straight into the dining room. Whereas the plainer door was most likely the servants entrance and exit.

At the door, she stopped and listened more out of caution than actually expecting to hear anything from the other side. It was so late that most of the servants were asleep. Grabbing the cool, brass door handle, she turned it and gave the door a light tug, just enough so that she could peer within. When nothing but the still darkness met her eyes, she opened it the rest of the way and slipped in knowing that Jared would follow behind her. It was darker in the stairwell than in the kitchen, but there were a few lanterns lit along the walls to cast away some of the darkness. Most of them were out for the night though; leaving few and far between ones in case someone needed to use the stairwell.

Glancing around, she noted that there were two staircases, one leading down and the other up. The one leading down most likely went to the servant’s quarters, which was far from where they wanted to be, so she went up. The tight walls of the staircase brushed against her arms and shoulders as she climbed the winding and slanted stone steps. Not far up she came to a small opening that had three different set of stairs going off in three different areas.

Stopping here, Kyosku glanced behind her to Jared. She was unsure of which way they should take; they could after all lead anywhere. There was no way the thief would have any more insight into the matter than she did, but she would rather not blindly make the choice for both of them.

[Lavinian Ambition]

He followed behind her as he kept the knife at the ready. No sense putting it away when they were in hostile territory. As he moved behind her he did a quick spin to watch for guards as he moved as silently as possible. His eyes adjusted to the meager light that had illuminated the room. As he followed behind her he narrowed his eyes as he saw the curtain and watched for shadows to cross the light that was spilling through the heavy drapes.

Moving around the counter they found the servants stairs. Heading up behind her he glanced back occasionally as he moved, his ears picking up no sound other than the soft tap of her sandals and his boots upon the stairs. As soft as it was, he could only hope it was soft enough for the guards not to figure it out. As he finally came to the intersection he frowned, an obvious choice before him. He contemplated splitting up, and immediately rejected it. Instead he move slowly forward holding up a finger telling her to wait as he listened carefully for noise beyond the doors.

The first door was silent, and had no light spilling from under the lip of the doorway, obviously abandoned. Moving back slowly he moved to the next one as he narrowed his eyes, squinting in the faint lantern glow. Crouching he saw no light, and heard nothing. Something was odd, he felt like he had missed something as he went to the third door moving a bit quicker and sighed as he came to a conclusion, whispering it softly, "He was downstairs..."

He turned to look at her as he shrugged, not knowing what to do now, they had planned for him on the second floor, and now they would have to wait for him to show up. Surely she would have thought of a contingency. If not he had a few ideas on what to do. As he looked to her he waited silently his breathing soft so as not to draw attention as he moved. His arms crossed as he thought about his own contingencies. The target wasn't where it should be, and would probably show up soon, so how to wait, and more importantly how long could they wait. They had no idea of the contingencies that Roland had in place.

Already he was beginning to fear, the plan was going rough, and rough meant dead...

[Kyo]

Kyo felt the muscles along her back tense as Jared whispered that Roland wasn’t upstairs. They had planned for him to be up here, they’d never really taken into account that he may be downstairs at the time when they set off the smoke bomb. Of course, it had always been a worry in the back of her mind, one that she hadn’t wanted to believe could happen. But now it had. They could always wait for him to show up on the second floor in order to make their move, or they could take their chances by searching for him downstairs. Both of them had their pros and cons. If they waited, there was a bigger chance of them getting caught, but that was also the same problem downstairs where the guards were mainly stationed. Up here there were only servants, servants that could easily be persuaded to keep their mouth shut should they somehow come across Jared and Kyo, or simply killed.

Weighing it out in her mind, the ninja thought it would be better to wait for Roland. Though the longer they remained in one place the more dangerous it became, after the smoke bomb down below, the hallways were bound to be full of guards coming out to see what was going on or help in whatever way they could.

Folding her arms under her chest, the ninja was just about to say something to Jared when she heard the sound of a door opening and echoing up the stairwell. Grabbing him by the shoulder, she shoved him into the darkest corner of the room and then crowded in as close to him as she physically could.

“Do not speak... do not move.” She whispered to him.

Praying to whatever Gods resided in this region that this would work, Kyosku began channelling her Ki. She felt it spread and flow throughout her body and then further into her surroundings. She called out to the shadows around her, trying to pull them in closer around Jared and herself, darkening the area as much as she could. As she did so, the pupil of her eyes grew to the point where they completely swallowed her ice blue irises and left nothing but darkness in its wake. Keeping her mind focused on the task at hand, Kyo could physically see the area around her and Jared growing darker and darker the more she concentrated and when the sounds of hurried footsteps were finally replaced with three guards; she tensed and held her breath.

With her back facing them and her daring not to even move lest she break her concentration the ninja couldn’t see their movements, but she did hear them quickly leave through one of the doors in the room. Once the door closed behind them, she released her pent up breath and sagged against the thief. Her eyes quickly returned to normal and the shadows around them slowly lessened, leaving them once again in a comfortable darkness. She was amazed that had actually worked, it was an ability far from perfected and she found that under a large amount of stress she could never get it to work properly. Luck was one her side though.

[Lavinian Ambition]

“Do not speak... do not move.” She whispered to him.

Already used to receiving such orders Jared did as instructed, holding his breath as the guards rushed up the stairs. Darkness enveloped them as the shadows of the room grew darker, the torches flickering flames unable to light the room as they once had. He saw them look around, looking right at them, but move on as he closed his eyes and heard them leave through a door. Words drifted from the door, "The servant ways are clear, move on. Clear the house."

She sagged against him as he moved to support her. He finally let his own breath go, and relaxed remaining as quiet as possible. He was more than certain she had strained herself in the hopes of fulfilling the trick she had. As he waited for her recovery his eyes began to look at the doors. The one off to the left remained dark, leaving that room out of the equation. The next door however was light up under the frame. Narrowing his eyes he carefully moved her to the corner as he crept forward, straining his ears to hear something, anything. As he pushed forward it did not take long to hear the familiar voice of Roland float through the door.

"Have you found her yet?" He barked.

"No sir, we haven't been able to locate her. If it is the ninja we'll find her shortly, she can't hide for long here in the house," The guard replied.

"I don't want assurances, I want actions! I don't pay you dolts to babysit me! Now do your god damn job!" He fumed back at the guard.

"Yes sir," was the curt reply.

Boot steps could be heard as they left the room before Jared looked back at Kyo. He nodded as he jerked a thumb back at the door and made the motion of his thumb across his neck. Their target was in the room now, after they had checked the area around it. So fortunate she had been there, or he would have been killed. Still the job was not done, and half attempts could not net further tries. As he moved forward he stopped halfway up the stairs, before he slowly pulled his knives from his sheath, preparing for a fight he knew would come.

He had toted the views of a pacifist, under pragmatic approaches, now; he was acting the role of a murderer. If this is what life had in store for him, he only hoped that these episodes of wanton murder and destruction would be few and far between. Anything more and he might break under the stress.

[Kyo]

She always felt slightly lightheaded after performing any of her shadow arts. It took a lot of mental power to focus and concentrate her Ki, not to mention manipulate the darkness around her to do what she wanted of it. Darkness was seldom very cooperating. As such, Kyosku usually needed a moment or two to recover herself from such a task. It wasn’t that she felt weak afterwards or that it tended to draw away a lot of her energy, but she had to balance her body out once more. Inside of one’s self was always a delicate balance of Ki energy and what she just did, disrupted that and if she moved too fast or did too much there was a chance it would have some effects on her. Whether it be nausea, or a headache she wasn’t sure, but the worst she had ever suffered was fainting once. A hard thing to live down for a ninja, but she was not the first and wouldn’t be the last to have such a thing happen to her after using that specific ability.

Leaning against the wall, she quietly listened to the muffled words as they floated down to her. Jared had left her to approach the door and get a better understanding of what was being said, but she caught enough to know what was going on. Roland was upstairs once more and the guards were out searching for her. How splendidly perfect. They really did think that Jared had run with his proverbial tail between his legs, all the way back to Lavinya.

She wondered if at this point in time he was beginning to wish he had.

Once she felt more stable and balanced, the ninja pushed herself up off the wall and made her way over to the thief. Rushing blindly into the room did not seem like a good idea to her, but there was only the one entrance available to them at the moment and she saw no other way to get around it. Nothing within her arsenal struck her as being particularly helpful either. Her eggshell grenades would do nothing but smoke up the room, making it more difficult for all of them and allowing Roland the time he needed to call for his guards. She did have her paralysis powder, but she’d have to get in rather close to use that and by then she may as well just slit his throat. Killing was so much easier when she had a more thorough plan and when the person did not know what she looked like.

As he reached for his daggers, she placed her hand over his and pushed them down, shaking her head. Kyo was not about to let Jared dirty his hands anymore than he already had in this. Killing was in her blood, but it wasn’t in his. They just weren’t built the same way. Wrapping her fingers around the hilt of the blade, she easily removed the dagger from his grip and began ascending the stairs to the door. Once there, she listened, hearing the sound of pacing feet from the other side and what might have been glass lightly clashing against glass.

He was probably pouring himself a drink.

She didn’t know what room he was in, but from the sound of his footsteps it was carpeted and the clear noise that came through the door meant there was probably very little between the door and where Roland was standing. The lounge and the library immediately came to her mind, though it could have been his private chambers as well. There was just doubt within her that he would be there while suspecting a ninja within his home.

Flipping the dagger around in her hand, Kyosku held onto the cool metal of the blade, feeling the weight of the weapon slouch down against her fingers. It wasn’t a shuriken, but it was still a projectile and far more deadly than her stars. Knowing that her best bet was a surprise attack, the ninja took a deep breath and steeled herself, hoping her aim would be true.

Wrapping the fingers of her free hand around the door handle, the ninja jerked the door open in a sudden and violent gesture and threw herself into the opening. Her eyes had time to perceive only two things, one the room was the lounge and two Roland was standing on the other side of it next to the fire. His back was facing her and as he turned towards the sudden noise, she sent the dagger flying through the air.

[Lavinian Ambition]

She stopped him as she shook her head, almost reading his mind as she carefully took the dagger from him. He raised an eyebrow as she moved forward, preparing by the door. As he pulled the other knife form behind cover he sighed before he took up position, ready to support their erstwhile charge. They had no choice, with only one point of entry, they had to move quickly, otherwise they would be overrun. As Jared prepared he took a deep breath calming his inner fears.

The door opened with a sudden jerk as she was through the portal in an instance. Following behind her he saw the chairs of the lobby, saw Lord Roland there, his face bandaged as he was attempting to move and get away from the knife. As his finely tuned soldier’s instincts kicked in, he could not avoid the fate that had been given to him, but instead merely attempted to persevere. A cry of pain echoed through the air, breaking their cover.

The dagger hit him in the shoulder, causing him some pain, and drawing blood form the open wound.

Two seconds passed as Jared was already charging forward, the sound of boots reaching the door outside resounded.

Two more seconds passed as he moved towards the downed form of Roland with his knife, bringing the blade down, rather clumsily.

A second heard steel upon steel as swords were drawn form the guards. Jared had already completed the stab, which would probably end Roland's life.

He looked up at Jared his eyes filled with the horror of the betrayal he had not expected before he spoke his voice hoarse, "May you know the treachery you've visited me today..."

The battle then joined as Jared drew his dagger and quickly reversed his grip on the handle in a fluid maneuver; he brought the dagger up and blocked the downward swing of the sword that sought to end his career in thievery as he felt himself bend under the force of the blow. He looked the guard in the eyes as he moved, bringing his fist to the guard’s gut. Reaching down he pulled the other dagger from the dying lord’s form as he moved quickly to fight the others, his voice barking out orders, "Get out while you can, I'll distract them."

The voice that gave the order was heavier, more tired, and frayed than Jared's voice. It left no room for argument as he brought a knee up knocking out the guard he had earlier attacked. His cold eyes looked upon the guards that sought to kill him as he grinned, the facial expression far from mirthful as he said, "Come boys, let's see who wins this round..."

[Kyo]

Her attack met flesh. The blade of the dagger easily embedded itself into the shoulder of Roland and elicited a sudden and sharp cry that cut through the air much harder than any sword ever could. The sound alerted those in the hallway to something amiss. It was not the result she had wanted. Her aim had been for the heart or any of the major arteries that surrounded it, but all she had done was wound him. Before she could even react to her failure, before she could reach behind her and pull one of her swords from their sheathes, Jared was on the move. His feet quickly carrying him across the carpeted floor with pounding and resounding thuds as he made his way over to the lord. She wanted to call out to him to stop, she didn’t want him to do what she knew he was about to, but her words died within her throat as he plunged his dagger into the man.

The pointless words of a dying man were spoken with conviction and resolution, as if they really meant anything, and then the door swung open. Guards began to pour into the room, her eyes easily counting four of them as her fingers sought the familiar, cool material of her ninja-to. She pulled the swords from their sheaths just as the sound of clashing metal rang in the air and Jared commanded her in a voice so much unlike his own it almost made her pause. It almost made her comply. But she didn’t follow orders from him.

Narrowing her eyes, the ninja tensed the muscles in her legs and quickly pushed herself off from her stoic position, throwing herself into the thick of the battle. Though the look on Jared’s face was slightly disturbing to her, she pushed it to the back of her mind. Everyone had a dark side to them and it appeared she was getting a front row seat to the one lurking beyond the depths of his stormy, grey eyes.

She wasted no time on words, with the guards distracted by the thief; Kyosku quickly came up beside one of them and thrust the blackened blade of her sword into his gut, right where his liver was. Blood welled and poured from the wound, so dark and thick that it almost looked black. Ripping the sword out the side, she kicked him away from her and turned her attention to the rest of them. Quickly, another wave of men entered their room, their eyes solely focusing on the two assassins and not even caring to note that their employer was dead on the floor.

I wonder if they would fight so fervently knowing their pay check was no more...

They split off this time, some of them focusing on her and the others on Jared. In total she was up against three of them, fair odds to her. They all brandished the same typical steel short sword, with only a few more inches of reach on it than her ninja-to. But she had the advantage of dual wielding and she was much better trained than they were. Two of them attacked her at once, one coming in with a quick downwards diagonal slash towards her body. Deflecting the blade with her left ninja-to, she pivoted and kicked out at the other guard’s knee before he could even begin his attack. He fell to the ground with a slight grunt, quickly trying to recover his balance. Kneeing him in the face, Kyosku felt the cartilage in his nose break under her assault and watched as a flood of blood escaped down his mouth. Kneeing him once more, she watched him fall back onto the ground, clutching at his bloodied face.

Turning her attention back to the others, Kyo watched the flash of steel descend down towards her. Reacting quickly, she threw herself away from the attack and somersaulted. The motion was jerky and not very well executed, it also pulled along her side and the wound still healing on it. Ignoring the pain, she came to her feet and turned once more to the guards, ducking under an incoming blow and thrusting her sword into the man’s unprotected gut. Gurgled noises followed her attack as the man fell back away from her.

They needed to retreat, both of them. There was no way they could sustain this for very long. Eventually the guards would overwhelm them.

[Lavinian Ambition]

She didn't listen, as much as he had hoped he couldn't blame her. He had exposed himself, and when the guards had come, he sought to turn that disadvantage into a plausible escape. Still as he fought with the guards, he took his frustration out on them, and felt a sickening sense of satisfaction with each wound inflicted, each cry of pain. It spoke to him, though not as deeply as he thought it would. This was pleasing something in him, but not him. It was pleasure by proxy, and not something he'd enjoy the effects of in retrospect.

As more guards came at him he was already fighting his daggers no longer in the normal Lavinian fighting stance he had grown up with. The grip was reversed as he fought with the guards letting himself draw in strikes, to crowd them. As they tried to strike at him, the turned their attacks against one another as he felt venomous words escape his lips, "I wonder who's going to kill more today, me or one of your own comrades?"

As he swung his blade through the throat of a guard he felt it briefly slow if only to cut open the flesh of the neck and growled lowly as he felt the primal hatred burn through his frame. It fueled him, gave him purpose as he unleashed that anger upon them, as much as it worried him. As the second wave of guards was heard coming down the hall he looked over at Kyo finishing off the last of the first wave. A low growl of frustration escaped his lips as he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the servant’s entrance, "Lets go before they come back and kill us..."

As he pulled them through the exit they had come through he pulled her upstairs he said, "They'll have the ground floors swamped by now if at all, we'll need to escape from above..."

The anger left his body with each breath as he calmed down, the adrenaline washing off as he felt a sickening weakness in it. He had escaped relatively unscathed, a few cuts and scraps that bled no more than a usual knick from playing with his knives. Still it was this hollow feeling in his chest that gripped him. Had this weakness been there all along? What resided there? He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer as he shook his head, feeling the bitter fog release its stranglehold on his emotions. As he looked at Kyo he said softly, "We need to get out quickly, and we need to probably split up. If they come after both of us, it'll only end in one of us trying another stupid stunt like mine. Alone we'll take the cautions necessary to make it back..."

[Kyo]

It wasn’t Jared. The man who so roughly grabbed her arm and practically pulled her along behind him as if she were someone who needed to be lead was not Jared. It was the look in his eyes, it was the way he spoke and it was the words he used when he did so. They were different, their tone and ferocity was different and filled with an anger she had never seen in him before. Even when she’d pushed him and he’d snapped, slamming her up against the wall of the kitchen his anger had not been as potent. It made something turn within the pit of her stomach.

This time when he mentioned splitting up, she found no reason to argue against it. There was something within her, some kind of pure base instinct that told her to get away from him while she still had the chance. And he was giving her the perfect opportunity to do such a thing right now. There would be no accusations of her abandoning him or turning her back on him because it had been his idea all along. Still, something about it did not sit right with her. She didn’t want to leave him to his own devices, not here in this place. Yet were he to turn into whatever he had upstairs in that room, she had the distinct feeling she wouldn’t need to worry about his safety, more so her own.

Looking into eyes that seemed to have returned to their regular, emotional self the ninja nodded. “Fine.” Her voice slightly muffled through the fabric covering her face.

She said nothing else to him, they had their contingency plan and they knew what to do should they become separated in the mansion. It was just that now they were willingly doing it. Without saying another word to Jared, Kyosku turned and hurried up the narrow and tight servants’ stairs. At the top she pushed open the door and found herself standing in a darkened room. A small amount of light filtered in from under a door, illuminating polished floors that could have reflected her very imagine if they were given the chance. Noting the small pieces of furniture that her eyes could see, consisting of a table and several chairs, Kyo quickly made her way to the door.

She paused and pressed herself up against the warm wood, listening for any kind of movement on the other side. Nothing met her ears. Opening the door enough to peer out, Kyo quickly noted the empty hallway, lit with lanterns on either side that cast shifting shadows across tables, paintings and tapestries. Once out in the hall, she paused and grabbed one of the oil filled lanterns. Blowing the flame out, she dumped the oil contents upon the floor and then grabbed a second one, doing the same thing. By the four she had soaked a few feet of the carpet with the highly flammable fluid and when she grabbed the fifth, she broke it upon the ground.

Immediately the flame caught, spreading along the path of the oil, licking its way up the walls and along the old, wooden floorboards. Turning away from the light and the heat, the ninja quickly jogged down the hallway, searching for a balcony or a window she could make her escape from.

She was taught to leave not a single trace behind.

[Lavinian Ambition]

As she went upstairs he was tempted to follow, but knew any way she could get out of the house, he could not either. They just didn't have the same skill set. As he moved on he moved down the stairs as he heard shouts and slams against the door he had shut behind him. He wasn't sure if the door even had a handle on the other side, but he was trying to get out the only way he knew how. As he went down the stairs he heard the sounds of whispers.

They were planning an ambush in the kitchen.

He was screwed.

As he moved to go up the stairs he heard more slams as he rushed back and moved to the left door, the one that had been dimly lit. Opening it he moved beyond into the room as the darkness shrouded him. He figured it was only a matter of time. He couldn't get out on the ground floor, and he couldn't get off at the third floor. His only hope was to get out on the second. As he let his eyes adjust to the darkness he felt around carefully, before he followed the wall about. His hand lightly trailed about the wall, leading him to the exit.

As he continued through the room undaunted by the prospect of capture he finally found the door and listened carefully, hearing boot steps through the hallways. He wouldn't have time to get down; he'd have to make a run for it. Sheathing his daggers he steeled his courage as he pulled open the door and took the first heavy steps down the hallway. He heard boots behind him come to a stop as he heard shouts of him to stop.

He was racing for the stairs as he saw more guards coming up them. Yelling out a battle cry he dove right into one of them, and was more than sure he had consigned both of them to death. As the man his the stairs beneath them, a good five feet lower he heard a sickening crunch and they rolled down the stairs. Disengaging himself from the corpse of the guard he looks to see more than a few guards recovering form their own roll down the stairs. Moving swiftly for the front door he wrenched it open as he made move to leave, only to see a guard right at the doorway.

They covered the escape routes.

Backing up he pulled daggers as he regarded the man with his stormy grey eyes. His breath coming in sharp intakes considering the rather brutal death he had given the guard he had tackled down the stairs. The guard smiled as he stepped into the house his sword at the ready. He then spoke his voice gruff, "Looks like we found one..."

Jared moved for a slash as he saw the guard move, much better than him at the job of murderer. As the steel of the short sword cut across his chest he cursed not paying more attention in his sparring classes. Barely avoiding a more fatal wound he brought his dagger up in a act to push the sword in a wider arc than anticipated. His teeth gritting against the pain he felt. He wanted to scream, but the desperation of the situation left much to be desired. As he fought with the man, more guards joined him in the fight, causing him to get wearier and wearier with each blade added to the first.

Then someone shouted fire...

The entire scene froze, as everyone met eyes. Smoke rolled down the stairs as the sounds of the crackling fire, either imagined or real began to descend with them. Jared made move to leave, only to have the guard who had blocked him raise the blade point first to his chest. Eying him warily he stepped back as his grip reversed again feeling more natural in that state than the other way. The guard shook his head as he spoke, "You killed our meal ticket boy, can't let you go that easy, even if it means our death. Letting a lord die under our noses, means we will never get employment again. Catch the one who did it, means we can at least get some mercenary work..."

Jared saw as the other guards pointed their swords at him. He was fresh running out of ideas. As he was slowly backing up he spied a window and sighed as he sheathed his daggers, his arms would need to be free for this next trick. He regarded them with a bored expression as he spoke, "Meal ticket or not, your fault for picking a buffoon for an employer."

"That would make you a buffoon as well," The guard pointed out.

He grinned at the comment before he said, "Right, keep that in mind, if it’s any consolation..." Before the guard could ask what he meant Jared bolted, one of the guards expecting it slashed, as Jared used his arm as a shield for his vitals. The spray of blood was nothing compared to what came next as he dove arms first through the window, shattering the pane of glass seen there. As he rolled to his feet on the other side he clutched his arm to his chest hissing in pain. He was covered in numerous cuts as he groaned in pain, almost too hurt to go on. Still a little voice in his head pushed him on, and he was loath to stick around, as the fire descended.

Already guards were pouring out of the building as he ran for the wall, ignoring the pain as he pushed on. He had to hit the streets hit public places for safety at the very least. Anything less would mean his death as he let the fear of that very statement drive him. Fear was an excellent motivator as he started scrambling up the stone wall, hearing the shouts of frustration as he dropped heavily on the other side. He groaned as he cradled his injured arm to his chest and moved on, his instincts kicking in. He needed to hit a safe house and quick. The job was done, any retribution would be fleeting.

[Kyo]

Smoke was spreading throughout the second floor, acrid and suffocating and eliciting a few deep coughs from the ninja before she slipped into one of the side rooms. Her eyes were stinging and filled with unshed tears and about a foot down from the ceiling was covered in thick, heavy, black, smoke. But she was not panicking. This was a situation she had put herself in and one she planned on getting out of, all she needed to do was find herself an exit.

The bedroom was crowded with furniture, a large wooden bed covered in lavish blankets, silken sheets and things she would never be able to afford in her lifetime. Ornately carved chairs covered in plush cushions the colour of plums surrounded a table polished to the point where she could see her reflection shining back at her in the light from the spreading flames. But the most important feature in the room was not the items that lay within it, but the window on the opposite wall.

Making her way through the room, Kyosku pulled back the curtains and looked out into the courtyard. She was on the opposite side of the house now, near to where Jared had most likely planted the smoke bomb, but it appeared that most of the guards were no longer about. Perhaps they had been called back into the house to search through it and find the two of them. Undoing the lock and pushing the window open, she reached behind her and pulled one of her ninja-to from her back, sheathe and all. Unwrapping the cord from around the weapon, she pulled herself up into a sitting position, with her legs dangling out the window.

Placing some of her bodyweight on the cord she watched as the sword jammed itself up against the bottom of the window and then went no further. Feeling it was secure enough, she took a deep breath and then held as tightly to it as she could, pushing herself off the ledge and placing all her weight upon the metal cord. It held and quickly she began to lower herself down the side of the house.
Once at the bottom, she slackened the cord, jerked it to the side and then pulled sharply on it. After a few clattering seconds, her sheathed blade emerged over the edge of the window and fell down to the grass below. Picking it up, she quickly wrapped it and then placed it on her back before making a mad dash towards the surrounding wall. No shouts followed her; no hurried footsteps chased her through the darkened night. Nothing. There were the far off cries of the guards still within the confines of the home and what sounded like shattering glass. Her mind immediately thought of Jared, but she had to assume he was all right. It had after all been his decision to split up in the first place.

As the wall loomed ever closer to her, Kyo did not bother to stop or even slow down her run, instead she headed straight for the corner. No less than a foot away from it, she tensed her legs and jumped as high as she could, the momentum not even bringing her halfway up the ten foot wall. But before she could start falling, her feet hit the rough stone surface and with a quick jerk, jumped off it as well sending her body further upwards.

It was just enough to allow her grip on the top.

Her fingers clung to the rough stone surface as she pulled herself up, her feet attempting to find whatever hole or rough patch within the rock to give her some kind of grip. It worked. At the top, she pushed herself over the other side and landed in a crouching position, taking a few seconds to steady her shallow breathing and the beat of her heart. Then she was off once more, her quickened footsteps taking her into the streets of Radasanth where she would just be another person amongst a crowd. Her mask fell from her face making her look like just another foreigner in the multicultural region of Corone.

--------------------

She got back to their safe house first. Her eyes constantly checking to make sure that no one was following her, though at this time of night she was one of the only few people still wandering the streets. Patrolling guards occasionally passed her by without a second glance and a drunkard or two crossed her path, but that was about it. Whether the guards at Roland’s mansion had just shown no interest in pursuing Jared or herself or they had just lost them in the streets she was unsure. But she was also unsure of the Jared’s whereabouts.

The mansion was empty. She had known the moment she’d stepped inside, it had that lifeless feeling to it that she couldn’t quite describe as anything more than an instinctual feeling. Moving through the darkened home with ease, the ninja came to the room they had been using for the past three days, a room scattered with pillows, candles and a variety of other things they’d found around the abandoned home. Quickly, she stripped down out of her clothes and changed into her regular Gi, then began packing up her things. The city would most likely not be a safe place for a time to come.

[Lavinian Ambition]

He staggered as he moved through alleyways, keeping to the shadows. He couldn't afford to hide in plain sight, as his wounds would make it obvious he had been up to something. As he moved he gritted his teeth as he pushed on. He couldn't afford to fail, not now, not when the mission was over and he was so close. If he lived, Roland had failed utterly, his defeat complete. If he died, Roland would be laughing in his grave.

While he moved, he kept himself going with thoughts of getting back to Kyo. With the hope of seeing her again fueling him, he pushed forward, ever closer to the objective. He was more than certain he had gone delirious, but he continued on as he tried to push himself. His head was light as he moved, causing him to sway unnaturally as he pushed on. The entire time focusing on seeing Kyo again, once he had gotten to her, the job would be done, he could go home eventually. He had to get to Kyo, Kyo would get him home safely.

It was a mantra, something he repeated to himself over and over, as he thought about fulfilling the promise to his sister. His best bet was to rely on Kyo once he got there. The blood flow had stopped on his chest and arm, but he still felt dizzy from the multiple cuts. He probably looked a mess as well. There wasn't much he could do about it though, anything that could be done had to wait till he got to Kyo, and she took care of him. She would take care of him, he was more than certain.

Finally reaching the edge of the estate, he moved as silently as he could, checking over his shoulder constantly. The paranoia was getting to him as he reached the kitchen window. Using his good arm to pry it open he groaned as he moved into it. Shutting the window slowly he closed his eyes as another dizzy fit hit him. Shaking his head to clear it he moved on to the stairs, each step heavy as he rose up them. So close, he could hear her moving up the stairs, as he leaned heavily on the banister he smiled deliriously as he pulled himself up by sheer desire and determination. Making it up to the top stair he leaned heavily against the wall, still wearing the goofy smile.

He looked at her as he spoke, "Well looks like you got out of there. Shall we leave?"

[Kyo]

She had finished collecting her things when the sound of thudding, loud footsteps echoed up from the staircase. At first she thought someone had followed her here, but if anyone wanted her dead they’d be making far less noise than that. It had to be Jared, but why was he walking so heavily and slowly? It seemed like it was taking him far too long to get up the stairs to her.

Turning to the doorway she watched as he finally emerged, his body slouched, ridden with exhaustion and covered in a number of different wounds that had soaked his body and his shirt in blood.

Her rucksack slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor.

“Fuck!”

Rushing over to him, Kyo wrapped her arm around his back and allowed him to put his weight on her as she began leading him into the room. They needed to get moving, but he was in no condition to do that, he could barely keep himself on his feet. She slowly lowered him onto the myriad of pillows on the ground and moved towards her rucksack, looking for her medical pack.

“Damn it, Jared! You can barely stand, how do you expect us to get out of here?”

After a moment she pulled out the leather satchel, grabbing some bandages and antiseptic that would help clean the wounds out.

“There’s more than one way out of Radasanth...” He said a little breathlessly.

“And we’ll use one once I’ve cleaned your wounds.”

She ripped off a piece of a large length of the white blanket on the ground and soaked it in the antiseptic.

“I can live with that...”

“You damn well better, you’re not exactly in a position to argue.”

Helping him take off his shirt, Kyosku began cleaning up his wounds as best she could, wiping away as much of the blood trace as possible from his skin. People asked too many questions when someone was covered in cuts, bruises and blood, especially this time of night.

---------------------

The town was small and quaint the kind of place where travellers came and went rather frequently on their way to and from Akashima but never truly stayed. The houses were of a relatively comfortable size and of a strange mixture of Akashiman and Corone style somehow blended into one, creating larger Pagoda style buildings made of wood and plaster and clay. They were covered in meticulously kept gardens where every stone and every plant had its place and the gentle sounds of running water lapping across rocks was a soothing background to be found everywhere.

Smiling faintly at something so familiar and beautiful to her, Kyosku calmly entered the town, bowing her head politely to those she saw her as she passed by. Most were working in the fields at this time of day or out foraging in the forests and valleys nearby. They were not yet to the Comb Mountains and as such the land was not as harsh as where she grew up. Plants and animals were still bountiful in this area so close to the border. She had been here before, though she doubted anyone would remember her name with the amount of travellers coming through here at once, she would not be surprised if a few recognized her face.

A few children ran passed her, in their hands light wooden stick that they used to train with, that represented that classic Katana that was spreading in popularity throughout most of Althanas. She had seen a number of non native humans using the weapon in her travels.

Moving through the dusty streets, the ninja lead the way towards the Inn, one of the larger buildings in the town for it received the majority of the traffic. It consisted of only two floors, but it spread throughout a large area of land. Moving through the open set of sliding doors, Kyo immediately went to the counter where a lovely woman dressed in a tradition kimono sat behind.

“A room, please.” It felt nice to use her native language once more. Even though she hadn’t been in Corone for very long, she had begun miss the sounds of Akashiman floating through the air instead of Tradespeak and Common.

“Certainly” The woman nodded her head and produced the guest book, which Kyo quickly signed a fake name to. She never used to real one but a series of different ones.

Paying the fee, the woman handed Kyo two keys and she quickly turned to Jared who had been following her this entire time.

“Did you want to get something to eat first, or just go right up to our room?”

[Lavinian Ambition]

The past few hours of travel saw Jared recover slowly. At first requiring a stick to keep himself aloft as he hobbled along, but as he continued to fuel himself through pride alone, he had managed to get by on mere walking. His recovery was still a long way from over as they entered the town, but he was able to act normally, if not fatigued heavily. He didn't let it stop him, much as he had not let it stop him in Radasanth. His ribs still hurt from the fight over a week ago, and he figured that too would heal with time.

When they entered the room he decided to defer to Kyo, afterall this was her home turf, and he didn't want a social faux paux that could cause problems. As he waited patiently he heard her talk in her native tongue and sighed looking about the small hostel. It was quaintly decorated, and held a bit of comfort from Corone, where they had come from, and from Akashima, where they were going to. As he waited she finished and whispered in that tongue her hanks before she turned to him.

“Did you want to get something to eat first, or just go right up to our room?”

"I think I need to rest, still a bit tired from the trip here," He said plainly as he looked at her.

"Considering the shape you came back in... I'm not surprised," She replied back.

He chuckled softly at the words before he spoke frankly, "I guess it goes to show you who is the better between us. As if there was any doubt."

She smirked, "Never doubted it for a second. Neither of us has had much of any rest since yesterday, let's head upstairs."

He nodded tiredly as they went up stairs to their room. Sighing softly as they entered he pulled the ring from beneath his shirt and kissed it softly before tucking it back in his shirt. He was safe, Roland's men weren't organized enough to come after them out here. He would get back to Lavinya, through some means. As they entered the room he looked around.

There was the familiar wash basin and bowl, set on a table low to the ground, giving maybe a small amount of clearance for legs to fit under. Similarly set low was a bed that was made with clean and fresh sheets. A door led to the outside, where he could only guess there was a garden to promote the peace and tranquility of the location. It was a compromise of western and eastern Coronian philosophy, one that suited both parties well.

Dropping his satchel in the corner he kicked off his boots tiredly as he pulled up on his left sleeve, to check for blood on his bandage. While she had cleaned the wound, rather painfully she had also made sure to bandage him well. Perhaps in return for the stitching job he had given her. He even ate the bark, despite his previous misgivings, and it had allowed him to make it this far without too much pain. Still he was tired, it showed on his face as he moved to the bed and sat down carefully, trying to not aggravate his wounds. Opening his shirt he checked the bandages on his chest before he sighed in relief.

He then smiled as he looked up at her, "Thank you Kyo, thank you for everything..."

[Kyo]

Kyo kicked her boots off and let her rucksack slip from her shoulders the moment they were in the room. She didn’t want to show it around Jared but she was exhausted. Neither of them had gotten any kind of sleep last night and they’d spent the majority of today travelling in order to get closer to Akashima, the safest place she could think to go in such a situation. Though she doubted any of Roland’s men would even bother following them this far, she still knew that staying close to Radasanth at the moment was not the best idea, nor the smartest, especially after having just defeated an underground crime lord. Her body was sore from the entire ordeal and her mind was having a hard time functioning past simple motions like walking, Jared was probably much worse off than she was. He was wounded after all. She only had the cut in her side to worry about.

When his voice filled the silence of the room, she turned to him and gave a light smile. “Your welcome... and thank you. There’s a good chance I would not have survived that encounter with Roland’s men if it weren’t for you.”

It still hurt her pride to admit that, but she was above lying to herself.

"I figure that sets us about even for our first night meeting," He said with a dry laugh.

“Yeah...” She turned her head from him, running her hand up through the mess of her raven black hair.

"So, are we going to lay low here for awhile; or head deeper into Akashima?" He asked softly.

“I don’t know yet...”

He might be expecting her to take him to her clan for safety, but she couldn’t. Her village was hidden for a reason and it needed to stay that way, not only would there be serious repercussions to her if she did something like that but possibly to him as well. It would be a very big mistake, bigger than even getting involved with Roland and one she wasn’t about to make.

Sighing, she moved towards the bed, “Lay down while I check your wounds.”

Jared lay down as he sighed and said, "Should I turn my head and cough?"

She smirked, “Only if you feel like having salt poured on your wounds.”

Chuckling softly, he sighed as he said, "Alright, I get the picture. Just be careful, my ribs are still a touch sore."

She pulled apart his already unbuttoned shirt, her fingers lightly running across the smooth skin and the sinewy muscle underneath that it hid. She felt checked the one covering his chest, gently pulling back on the tap and looking over the clean cut that ran a few inches in length. It wasn’t red and it had already scabbed over. The bandages weren’t overly soaked in blood either, just a little bit; they’d be fine until the morning when she had more energy to change them. Then she checked it forearm, removing the bandages from the wound there. It looked even better than the one on his chest so she decided not to rewrap it. Allowing the air to get at it would do it some good. There were plenty of smaller cuts and bruises covering his arms and his chest but they were nothing that concerned her. The last one she checked was the gash above his eye, which still looked rather nasty.
Taking a deep breath, she sat on the bed next to him her exhaustion more than evident now.

“We’ll leave the arm wound uncovered for the night... you need any more willow bark or is the pain okay?”

He smirked at her before he said, "I'll manage. You should get some sleep you look ready to join the ranks of the undead..."

“Look who’s talking...”

He chuckled before he leaned up and kissed her lightly, "At least I'm trying to get rest, instead of pushing myself. Lets rest, we can eat later, and we can finish checking each other's wounds."

She nodded her head and unconsciously reached up and placed her hand over her side. The dull throb there was quite annoying, most likely caused from the aggravation of walking all day. Oddly enough though, even after having spent a few days with Jared she felt uncomfortable at having to share a bed with him in such a setting, which made her reluctant to go to sleep. Even though she’d had sex multiple times now and she’d fallen asleep curled up next to him more than once, here it was different. But she didn’t know what made it different.

It would be pointless to ask for another room though and she just didn’t have the energy to bother going back downstairs to ask the clerk for one. So she slowly crawled into the bed, snuggling down under the layers of blankets and sheets.

[Lavinian Ambition]

The next morning saw Jared sprawled out on the bed. He grunted softly as he began to come to, the rays of light spilling over his face as he winced slightly in pain from his ribs. Shaking the fog of sleep from his head he looked around to see what was only obvious, Kyosku was gone. Probably leaving after he had fallen asleep so as not to worry him. As he sighed he sat up and looked at his bandages again. They would do for now, even as the long scar down his arm turned a mottled brown.

Looking about for a sign of the girl he saw her pack and shoes conspicuously missing. A note however, rested on the small table nearby, and so he picked it up, glancing it over briefly, before reading it in depth;

Jared,

I’m taking the coward’s way out of this and I know it. You’re looking for something from me that I’m not willing to give; you’re looking for something in me that may not exist. I could lie and say that it has to do with my job as an assassin, but that’s not the whole truth and after all we’ve been through, you don’t deserve lies. You said to me you’d be happy no matter how much time I could give you and I hope you can be happy with what has already passed because I can’t give you anymore. Maybe one day our paths will cross again, or maybe they won’t. For now though, this is goodbye.

At the bottom where a few strange characters he could only assume was her name in the Akashiman language. Looking at the note a bit longer he sighed as he contemplated throwing it away. After all, it had basically done its duty. Still, he sighed before throwing it in his satchel. Something to remember her by, besides a few scars wasn't too much to ask for.

Reaching in, he took out some more paper and a pot of ink as he sat at the table and began drafting a letter. A sigh crossed his lips as he muttered, "We'll meet, fate has a strange way of pulling off crap like that."

He then sighed as he pondered how to start the letter. Frowning he thought about the entire journey, about what was expected and what had happened. Finally, he decided to start with the truth, and from the beginning. After all, he had a sinking feeling that Darith already knew what had occurred, and was waiting for the confession.

So he wrote, his hand steady as he decided how to write the letter;

Father,

Your friend was not too keen on playing by the rules it seems. Pitting me against another student as he sought to see who was better between us. His plan was to then give that person his full attention. Of course, neither of us accepted that treatment, and as you have probably heard, your friend isn't in business anymore. I'm on the border of Akashima currently having left the other student only this morning. Perhaps you could send out a few friends to collect me, I know the trip to Otaria will be a bit more dangerous this time of year, being almost the spring.

Your son,
Firebrand

Looking at the letter he sighed as he figured it held enough of the truth to be able to satisfy Darith's curiosity, while hiding it cleverly enough to pass any cursory inspection. Sighing he lit the nearby candle waiting patiently before pouring a bit of the melted wax over the edge of the neatly rolled parchment. As he blew gently on it he drew a dagger and waited patiently for the wax to seal the note. Accomplishing this he then took his knife and carefully cut a triangle bisected by a line in the wax, before he nodded. Anyone who knew what to look for would recognize the note, and hand it immediately to Darith.

Pulling on his boots he sighed as he walked out the door, preparing to pay for a few weeks in the town and send the message to Darith as soon as possible. Wistfully looking into the deeper land of Akashima he wondered if Kyo even looked back before she went, or if she considered him a weakness, and forced herself to keep moving forward.

[Zook Murnig]

Judging time!

Quest Judging
Don't Lose Me in the Aftermath

STORY ~ 15.5/30

Continuity ~ 5/10 This category can be difficult for sequel threads, because they're so closely tied to a previous story. For most of the thread, I had little idea as to why Kyo and Jared were in the situation they were in, who Roland was, and various other things. I ended up simply assuming it was a botched robbery, or something like that. This would have scored lower if it weren't for Lavinian's last post, where the entire story up to then, including the events of The Game, was explained in code. In the end, I had basic knowledge of where you were coming from, and where you were going, and why, but not much more. The timing of that knowledge release was what prevented it from being higher.
Setting ~ 6.5/10 Kyo really pulled the weight here, making note of all the gross descriptions, and interacting with the details. I only had two negative comments here, and only one grievous enough for me to put here: Lavinian Ambition, pay attention to previous descriptions of the buildings you're in. It was established when the infiltration began that Roland's mansion was a two story affair, but in post 52 you talked about third floor escape not being an option. It confused me, and made me go back to check on what I thought was (and found to be) already made clear.
Pacing ~ 4/10 You would have gotten a better score here, if the scene at the abandoned house hadn't lasted forever after the sex. I got bored with being in the same place, talking about the same things forever. It seemed like you were trying to drag the thread out into as many posts as possible. Either that or you were afraid to move on. This is my personal opinion, but I think this thread would have been better if you'd skipped the planning session and gone straight into the infiltration two days later. Then, you could have mentioned a bit of planning here, a bit of strategy there, as you made your way in. As I was reading that whole page of it, I felt like I was being fed fluff that would end up ruining the action for me. Thank God it didn't entirely.

As for positive comments in this area, there were a few points where I got so engrossed in Kyo's writing that I just forgot to take notes and had to quickly jot out bonuses and such before I moved on.

CHARACTER ~ 17/30

Dialogue ~ 5/10 Your dialogue wasn't particularly spectacular. It was there. Sometimes it was wooden, especially when Jared was talking with the thugs or the guards, and sometimes it was pretty good. Use accents and dialects and local sayings and other techniques to spice this up. The thugs ended up sounding like your average college student from Earth, and the guards said some things that just didn't make sense for a guard to say. I'm hesitant to put this here, but whatever. I liked the letters at the end.
Action ~ 6/10 You had some really good action, but you had some bad action, too. That's about what this amounts to. My main complaint is that the climax, when you killed Roland, was just, well, anticlimactic. He died. So what? Wow. Combine that with being confused at some points as to who was doing what, the guards or Jared, and you end up with a six. As a side note, Jared seems to have a lung condition that he might want to get checked out. He sighs quite a bit for such a youngster.
Persona ~ 6/10 Once again, Kyo took the lead. I learned so much about her character, and she still remained mysterious enough that I wanted to know more. By the end of the thread, however, I had only learned a few things about Jared that were regularly contradicted by his actions or thoughts. What really got me was this little bit from Lavinian Ambition:


Helping the girl had been the right thing to do, after all she was a thief, with a rather cold demeanor, but then again it was said even Seth Dahlios and Garret Brown often killed when it wasn't necessary. Granted, Garret was a bit more Judicious than Seth, but then again Seth had spent the better part of a year slaughtering innocents for shits and giggles.

Are you trying to justify Seth's actions, or Jared's? That just threw me for a loop. It goes totally against everything you'd built Jared up to be as a person, and everything you built him up as afterwards. Consistency was the main problem there.

As for Kyo, while I really enjoyed the peeks into who she was, it got to the point where I ended up knowing too much and everything after that became a repetition. Not wanting to work with others, but having to because of her wounds, but not liking it. It got tiring to go in those logical circles. Thankfully, you managed to escape this by the end of the thread, but by then it was just a little too late. Again, this could have been avoided if the post-coital scene were shortened or left out.

WRITING STYLE ~ 17/30

Technique ~ 6/10 Kyo in the lead once more. Plenty of good metaphors and similes were used to good to great effect. Lavinian Ambition had a few problems with sloppy attempts at metaphors. These attempts would have netted you a point or two more, but bad word choice or other slip ups caused them to be more of a detriment. Also, Lavinian, you seem to use the word "as" a lot when describing actions. Try to toss in a few gerunds and words like "while" for a little of that spice of life.
Mechanics ~ 5/10 There were a lot of simple mistakes made. Nothing too horrible, but they were more than common. Lavinian, you have a problem with commas. Most of the time you forget them, but here and there you'd throw in a few unnecessary ones that interrupted the flow. Proofread, even if it's while you write. Just stop every so often and reread the paragraph you just typed up. I've never been a big fan of reading things backwards, but if that works for you, then great.
Clarity ~ 6/10 Pretty much easily understood. There were a few points where Mechanics problems got in the way of comprehension, or I was confused as to who said what, but other than that I got everything fine.

MISCELLANEOUS

Wild Card ~ 6/10 This had the potential to be a really good thread, but there were a few pitfalls. I really loved the close calls where Kyo nearly kissed Jared, and how they ended up going at it.

TOTAL ~ 55.5

Kyo receives 1930 EXP and 450 GP
Lavinian Ambition receives 925 EXP and 450 GP

If you have any questions about the judgment or how you can improve, PM me or send me a message on AIM, screen name SuperSonicMatt1.

[Witchblade]

EXP and GP Added!

Jared reaches level 1!