Behind Those Golden Eyes

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Tal certainly understood Archer's feelings about women. He played around with them but he was usually done within a week, they were just too annoying to deal with and besides he had to take extra precautions with them whereas he could just be lazy and go for it when he was with a man. He mused on the subject now that he had a woman who was the epitome of frustration in his life and a man who was the epitome of a hell of a lot easier to get along with even despite trust issues. They were in some ways physical representations of the dichotomy within him and he couldn't say he was entirely thrilled about that either.

"Love to hate each other." Tal answered the rhetorical question immediately. That may not be how Aisha felt but that was definitely how he was feeling at the moment. He cared for her but he really would have her far far away. And now apparently Archer had more insight into his childhood friend than he did. He gave the man an incredulous look. "Of course I don't. She has always been hard headed but even she should be able to see after this that she does not belong anywhere near me! I barely understood her reasons for insisting to chasing me in the first place." The last was more muttered at himself while he rubbed at his eyes with irritation.
 
Archer shook his head and sighed softly. Even though he couldn't be much older than Tal, it was as if he spoke with a child. Maybe because everything seemed so simple for him.

"You told her to go back home to safety right after she found out how incredibly harsh the real world actually were. Even if she returned now, she would never be able to stay there. Knowing what is out here, how the world you grew up in only is a small bubble of fake security that can be popped at any time, you won't be able to turn back to that life." He made an attempt to explain, and probably ended up providing a ton of information about his own way to his current lifestyle.

"People change, especially after big events in their life. She's probably not the same person she were a few days ago." He then finished. Of course he didn't mean that she was a completely different person, but certain aspect of her would be very different from what they used to be. Not because Archer would notice them, as he hadn't known her before. He also didn't believe that she would end up as him, becoming an assassin and not caring for whom died. She had already proven that by trying to save Jeremy. He wondered if she would be angry with him once they stood face to face again. She had been quite verbal about it when he forced her to leave the dying boy.
 
Perhaps Tal had such a hard time understanding her because he never really had that realization. His reasons for leaving had been because he had realized how dangerous he was to the rest of the world, not the other way around. "She would be safe though…" Tal leaned back to look up at the sky with a sigh. "My father is there, and if you think I am dangerous then it is only because you have not met him yet." He grimaced, thinking again back to their brief meeting before Aisha had shown up. It had always been one of his goals in life to surpass his father but much like everything else in his life he couldn't quite do it. He couldn't quite keep Aisha safe. He couldn't quite play as a proper human. He couldn't quite control himself.

"But I guess understanding her reasoning really doesn't matter. Even before this she swore to follow behind me and if she has changed as you say then she will be only more determined to do so now." If Archer was trying to figure out why Tal let her come along, that was it pretty much in a nutshell. She was marginally safer traveling with him rather than behind him and he would take the best he could get. "Guess I'll have to get on those lessons…" He frowned musingly. Perhaps he would settle in one place for a while. He could restock and at least get a fair start on teaching Aisha how to not fall over her feet while actually doing damage to an enemy.
 
"If your safety depends on someone else's ability to keep you safe, then you will forever live in fear that they might not be there when you need them. But if your safety depends on your own ability, then you will always be aware of your limits and feel safe with yourself." Archer mumbled. A life lesson his first sword tutor gave him. He barely even realized that he had said it.

"Try not to forget about me though. I need training too, or else I'll get out of shape." He then said with a smirk as he came back to reality. "By the way, I heard something about a bet. Something about killing someone's toes? What was that about?" He had been curious about that part of their conversation, especially after Aisha had taken that as an escape rout when she and Tal had gotten into a sensitive topic. Even though he was used to getting information he couldn't fully understand, as he did work as a spy on occasions (though he preferred the 'fast in, kill, fast out' jobs more), he was still not too found of not knowing what things meant. Especially when it sounded like something incredibly simple.
 
Tal gave Archer a bit of a curious look, feeling that his first statement was very telling of his past life but Tal felt no need to follow up on it at the moment. It was another one of those statements that he never had a problem with. He was realizing that in some ways, a few limited ways, he had lucked out of a lot of problems that other normal people seemed to have. Of course they also didn't have to worry about flipping out and destroying the town when they got a little frustrated either, so there was that.

"Well we can't have that." Tal's smirk was clear he was definitely thinking with his other 'brain' at the moment. "Though I don't remember that being part of the deal." Not that they had really worked out much a contract yet, mostly just that he offered his own company and more than however much his previous employers had been paying him.

His expression turned decidedly more amused at the mention of the bet though. "Ah yes the bet…Aisha has it in her mind that she is the most dangerous thing on two feet when it comes to dancing or anything that requires moving your feet in a coordinated manner. So of course I told her she just hadn't had the right partner yet." There was no doubting his complete confidence in his skill. "So of course she took a bit of umbrage at that."
 
Archer couldn't help but laugh out quite loudly. He had met some women that were insecure with or very bad at dancing, but never had he heard of someone that actually would go that far to make a point. "Be careful with your toes then, you'll never know." He joked, still slightly curious over how the young girl got such an idea just because she most likely were bad at dancing. Or maybe she just didn't like it. Many people tried to get away from doing things they didn't like by saying that they couldn't do it.

"Let's make a new deal then, I'll help babysit little miss trouble, and you and your sword will give me some attention." There was definitely a double meaning there, though one of the points was already taken care of completely.
Tal couldn't be around her 24/7, which the kidnapping was proof of. Even with a strong determination it would still take her at least weeks to be able to fend for herself. And even then there would be too many enemies of Tal's that was far superior in strength that would be able to kill her in seconds. If she came with them, she couldn't be left alone for longer periods of time during the first few months at least.
 
Tal waved his hand indifferently; he and his feet would always prevail. He actually turned to give Archer a surprised look when he actually volunteered to help take care of Aisha. He couldn't help an amused grin and a chuckle though. "You really are a martyr." He scooted closer and nibbled pleasantly on his ear. "I suppose I'll have to endeavor to make it worth it." If he were going to pass on his father's blade work to someone Archer was definitely a good candidate, though he would probably regret it if and when things went downhill there.

That was a concern for later though and he anticipated the next few months at least being very enjoyable. He had never really had a steady partner but he didn't think it was going to be a problem with Archer. Even better he would be there to ease the tension of being around Aisha and the issues she couldn't seem to help bring up.He patted the other man's lap suggestively before returning to his spot. Sex in the carriage was one thing but while one of them was supposed to be driving probably wouldn't be the best idea. And an amusing as the thought of trading Aisha up here would be he could see her getting a bit pissy over them doing that so they could just have sex a bit sooner.
 
"I know, I'm too perfect for my own good." And a bit too cocky too. He smirked and was a bit tempted to just stop the carriage to have some fun time instead. But he doubted the little lady would like to have them running off into the woods while leaving her completely alone and defenseless. There was times when you had to take the better road an be a gentleman.

"Your friend is quite funny though. After I stabbed Jeremy, she almost begged me not to let him die. 'He's just a child' she said." That was something that had tugged on his mind. Even without them knowing about what Jeremy had been doing to her, it was still quite odd for someone to wish mercy on someone whom had at least agreed on the order to kidnapping and hurt her.

From those few minutes in the tunnels, and the conversation she had with Tal, Archer knew very well what kind of person she wanted to become. While most people wanted power to abuse it, not caring whom they hurt if they got in their way. She would probably be one of the few that simply wanted it for protection. If it was for only herself or for those around her too, he couldn't tell. But the chances that she would use it to kill anyone if she ever got the skill to do so, was slim. It didn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but in certain situations it would end with a sword into your back.
 
Tal flat out snickered at that arrogance. It was a lot like something Tal would say and that only made him want to fuck Archer into the ground even more. "Funny is one word to describe it." Tal rolled his eyes and sighed. "Despite her being stubborn and hard headed as a rock, she is honestly far too sweet and innocent." Unstated was 'to be around him' but he had beaten that horse into the ground a couple times over without success so he just refused to say it and upset himself more.

Instead it reminded him of something else. "I wonder how she would feel about saying that when she knew those were the last words of Carla." Tal hummed softly in pleasure. "The expression on her face…I didn't really care about the boy one way or another but the pure despair as I left her bleeding out and watching her sister die to go hunt down her brother…" He chuckled darkly, a subtle glow coming from his eyes. He didn't even notice, shivering in pleasure as he relived the moment. It was a shame she had to die. It would have been a great boon to his reputation for what happened to people who crossed him. "I would have saved him for you of course, but you see why I couldn't chance him getting away yes?"

Maybe he would have to find a sneaky way to spread the story himself. He had promised to take Aisha to a party or two and while most of the parties he went to these days had crowds he wouldn't let within a mile of her there were still a few that had a minimal enough criminal content to deal with while having a select few of the right type to spread the word.
 
Archer wasn't disturbed at all by the things Tal said. It was too normal in their world, and actually, the topic did interest him. So called normal people would most likely turn pale as ghosts and run the other way if that kind of topic was ever brought up as anything else than a joke. The reason he knew that? It was a bit of a hobby of his to scare people with made up stories while pretending they were real. Of course he could have just used real stories, as he had a lot in stock, but he preferred not to be traced. Invincibility was a great weapon, thus he made sure few to no rumors were spread about him.

"You're quite morbid." He laughed, knowing he was exactly the same. "So that means that the kid got to hear his sister's last words before he followed her without even knowing of it. And on top of that, he got to die in the same fashion. Oh, the world works in mysterious ways." It was always amusing to find such coincidences even though they didn't mean much to Archer. It was even more amusing to listen to people whom thought it believed something, as if it was a sign from God.

"But even if you had taken him down, I would eventually have gotten over it. I would have been in a really bad mood and annoyed you to the point that you would want to kill me, but eventually I would have let it go." He then said. It had happened that he couldn't do his ritual of taking out his former employer, and it did bother him quite a bit since he didn't felt like he had gotten a proper closure. He had raged out a bit on innocent people, and he had almost attacked his at the time current employer, but after a couple of weeks he had felt better. His behavior had almost gotten him killed, but that's just a minor detail.
 
"Hmmmm…" Tal found the coincidence rather amusing as well. He hadn't thought of it that way until Archer said it but it was quite appropriate. They could not have had that happen better if they had planned it out. "Just as well I didn't then. It would have ruined an otherwise lovely few weeks." Aside from the fact that he did not have a lot of patience for people being annoying unless they were Aisha who had magic pre-Tal-assassin protection. Archer would definitely be more inviting rather than skirting death, much as Tal liked him.

"Speaking of lovely, there is the town there." Tal looked down the road and may have let out just a bit of a relieved sigh. Getting to the inn wasn't going to magically solve anything but it did mean that several good things were incoming, like a bath and a more appropriate environment for sexy times which would go a long way towards relieving the ball of tension inside of him. Though food should probably actually be first this time, as his stomach reminded him. He chuckled a bit at the thought of only a little more than a day ago. "Tonight perhaps we should exercise slightly better manners." He spoke suddenly, which a sly grin.
 
Archer chuckled at the comment. "I won't promise anything. I have never been much for manners." He grinned back. The town couldn't have appeared at a better time. His eyes were almost ready to give up. He definitely preferred sitting inside the carriage where he could take a nap. The most annoying thing of all would be that once he stretched his legs and walked for a bit, he would wake up completely, even though he had started to daydream about a bed from the moment he had set down that girl after a one hour run. The human body could be quite annoying sometimes.

They soon arrived at the town and once the carriage stopped, Aisha forced herself to open her eyes even though she rather stay asleep for a couple of years. But a real bed would probably be the best for her back. Her legs was a lot less shaky, and she was somehow able to walk, even though it did hurt a lot to move. But she didn't want to subdue to pain. And she didn't really want to be carried even though she realized that the stairs would be a freaking pain in the ass.

Just the thought of being touched was making her feel sick, even though she knew non of them would do something like that to her. Tal because he did respect her, even through their weird relationship. Archer, because he apparently weren't interested in girls, or maybe Tal had meant just her. She wasn't sure what he had hinted at. And she didn't care much. Her body ached, she had an headache, and her pride was completely destroyed. But she would pick up the pieces again, no matter how long it took.

"Need some help?" Archer asked as Aisha opened the door to the carriage before they had gotten there. Even though he didn't care for her as an individual, and Tal had a much bigger reason to ask. But he still remembered how wobbly she had been when he got her, he doubted that she would be able to walk already, so she did surprise him. The only reason he cared to be nice was because she was the friend to the man he wanted to have in bed. If she was in a good moon, he would most likely be in a good mood. But on the other hand, if she frustrated him enough, then he would be a lot of fun. A win win situation.

"I'm fine." She mumbled, walking very carefully, both because of the pain and because her feet was bare. On top of that, it wasn't light enough outside to actually see the stones, not because they could make her existence much more uncomfortable than it already was.
 
Tal chuckled and very firmly told his hands to stay put, as much as he wanted to 'play' some more. Archer was managing to do all the right things to make him want to jump his bones at every possible moment so far which while fun, might become problematic at some point. Of course he heard that was something of an early relationship thing and while he'd never had one long term he assumed they would calm down at least a little eventually.

Tal watched Archer and Aisha with a bit of a bemused expression, though he knew quite well Archer was not offering her help out of the kindness of his heart, and that was quite fine with him. The callousness of Archer was a refreshing breeze after dealing with Aisha. He left them both there, since Archer seemed to have the situation in hand.

He went ahead and found a stable boy to put away the carriage horses and such for them before heading inside to speak with the innkeeper. He ordered what was practically a feast to be sent up to their suite and turned around in time to see Aisha slowly make her way through the door. His eyes narrowed and his first instinct was to just pick her up and carry her upstairs despite her protests.

Something stopped him though, perhaps that nagging intuition about what happened to her that he was still firmly ignoring or the conversation he had about Aisha's motives with Archer earlier. Either way, he instead stood waiting at the foot of the stairs and slowly led the way to their suite. Once inside he gestured towards the room that he and Archer shared. "That's ours." Wow, that sounded really…weird. Ours? Well whatever. "Take your pick of the rest." It was a lot like the scene when she first joined him actually, except there was Archer and a heck of a lot more had happened in the short week since then. "Dinner should be here any moment."
 
Aisha held the sheet that covered her tightly, as if it was a protective shield. Her eyes were nailed into the ground, not only because she had to make sure she didn't step at anything hard, which she did either way, but also because she refused to see the curious eyes that might or might not watch her. If there were any people outside at that time of the day, they would most likely at least give a look towards the barefoot, sheet covered girl.

It went slowly for her to move forward, especially in the stairs, but luckily Tal didn't seem to feel the need to hurry it up. Which he could one way or another, non of which she would like in that particular moment. At the sound of 'ours' an eyebrow rose. Already at that stage huh, the words went through her mind, but didn't enter her mouth. Wow, that was a first.

"I'm not very hungry. I just need to wash myself off and then get to bed. It feels like I haven't had a good nights sleep in ages." Aisha said and tried to smile a bit, but as long as she stood up and her back kept protesting for every move she made, that would be impossible. She could still remember the last meal she had some hours earlier, or was it half a day? She had no idea how long she had been sleeping after she ate, nor how long they had been in the carriage. It was funny that the first thing she thought about was a shower, when her body obviously didn't want to stand for a single second longer. But she felt dirty, and it wasn't just because of the sweat and dried blood that still covered parts of her body.

"I'll see you guys in the morning." It was mainly directed towards Tal, but she did still acknowledge Archer's existence. Slightly against her will though, as she didn't particularly like him. While her memories had been fuzzy before, now she could remember that during their first meeting, he had decided to call her a rat. Yeah, she wouldn't forget that any time soon. She was simply just too tired to argue about it that very day.

"More food for me then, I could eat an elephant right about now." Archer rejoiced while Aisha started to take some painful steps towards the bathroom. Somehow she were able to keep her back straight, amazingly enough. It did cause more pain, but at least she didn't look as bad.
 
Tal frowned at bit at her turning down food but it was hardly going to kill her for one night and he suspected she wouldn't be thrilled to be in their company right now, among other things. He shrugged the concern off within moments, keeping watch on her out of the corner of his eye to make sure she didn't fall on her face or anything but like the stubborn girl that she was she didn't seem to be having too much trouble forcing herself along. He couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Well then." Whatever he was going to say was lost as a solid knocking came from the door. Tal chuckled a bit and went to answer the door, not bothering to finish whatever it was. He let the servant push in the cart that was laden with all sorts of meat, vegies and pastas. It should be plenty to fill the two starving men and perhaps even have a fair amount left over for when they wore themselves out.

Tal led the servant out and locked the door with a final sounding click. There would be no more interruptions and he expected Aisha to stay in her room if she knew what was good for her. Which admittedly sometimes she didn't seem to but she looked bad enough he didn't suspect it would be too much of a problem this time. "Let's dig in~" He grinned and started loading the plates onto the table they had had breakfast on and practically heaped a bunch of everything onto his own plate.

As tempting as Archer was, his main hunger at the moment was by far food based.
 
Archer bent his whole body forward and let his arms covering his stomach as he laughed out quite loudly. "One would think you hadn't eaten in weeks." He still hadn't stopped laughing completely. Something about he current situation was apparently awfully funny, but not even Archer could put the finger on what it was. Maybe it simply was that adorable man sitting in front of him that made him feel weird emotions at awkward times.

He himself started to take some food, though he started small, completely contradicting his previous statement about eating an elephant. It wasn't because he wasn't too hungry, because he was. It was just that he preferred to take many portions rather than one big that he might not finish. At least most of the times. It happened that he went completely out of character after weeks without a descent meal.

"So... Where are we going after this? Any plans for the near future?" It had taken him sometime to collect himself, but finally he were able to ask. It was always good to know of traveling plans, as they might get separated for one reason or another. But he mainly asked because he simply wanted to know what to expect of the upcoming weeks or month's. He had never worked for, or lived with someone whom traveled around. If he did travel because of work, then he usually did it on his own without companions. And if he needed companions for a certain job, then he usually just met up with them right before they were going to do their job. So this was a completely new experience for him. A nice one to say the least.


Aisha was sitting on the bathroom floor, finally letting her body rest, while the water was pouring down on her. Not a chance that she would be able to stand up through all the time it would take to get rid of the blood. She barely even dared to look at her naked body, but when she finally did she noticed wounds she didn't even know she had. Like the cuts in her sides which Jeremy had oh so generously given her. There was also a little bit of blood that had sipped out on the inside of her leg. She gagged as she saw it, suddenly it felt far too real. He had actually done that towards her. Silent tears started to creep down on her cheek, and she forced herself to not start sobbing as she didn't want to worry Tal. Everything would be okay. It was all over now. But somehow, it felt far from over.
 
Tal paused in his wolfing of food to give Archer a dark but amused stare at the others mirth. He knew his plate looked ridiculous but he was quite sure he would end up eating all of it. He had used up a lot of energy, both of the more normal and the spiritual sort today. He decided to just tune out Archer until the other man got control of himself.

"Ah…I'm still working on it." Tal set an arm on the table and set his head on his hand, looking at the other man while he ate. "I want to find somewhere to stay for a month or two while I start training Aisha to the point where she probably won't stab herself at least. One of the bigger cities probably so I can restock my supplies. Here would work but I never was very fond of Borderton. Once I'm feeling a bit better about her ability to handle herself I'll start taking jobs again." After his weird slip up with 'we' earlier he was making a point not to say so. Also he still wasn't entirely sure how Archer fit into this. He would happily pay the man in all the requested forms until Archer decided he wanted to leave or turned on Tal and was killed.

All in all, it was just weird how he had gone from flying entirely solo to having not one but two steady companions now. What's worse was he could feel Aisha in the back of his head and she was being decidedly upset and distracting and he honestly had no idea what to do about it aside from leave her be. He highly doubted she wanted anyone to see her like that and she seemed to have hit a 'I'll do it myself' kind of mentality so he did his best to just ignore it.
 
Archer chuckled lightly. He would be damned impressed if she had the ability to actually stab herself with a sword. A knife wasn't too surprising, such things happened all the time. But a sword? No one could be that clumsy. He pondered over the information for a while, not sure exactly what he should do. Staying in one place for that long wasn't his strong side, even if his employers didn't send him out on a mission, he still often left himself to get something to do when he got bored. And staying in one place for more than a few weeks did bore him half to death. Though with Tal there, it would probably be hard to get a boring moment.

"Two months..." He mumbled as he started to get his second portion on the plate. It was slightly bigger than the first one, but still far from Tal's monstrous food mountain. "You better keep me busy then. I'm easily bored." There was far too much sexually implications in that sentence and his voice for even someone as dull as Aisha to miss it if she had been there.

"What about Ruuk? Big city, low crime rate, cheap prizes.." He paused to take another piece of food into his mouth. Once he swallowed he continued. "And the best prostitutes in the country." At least the men were, but that was left unsaid.
 
Tal could almost see the train of thought going through Archers head. He had similar feelings, it was part of the reason he was so migratory. The rest being that if he wanted to not kill all of the men in the country he needed to stay at least a little ahead of all the people out to get him. He hid a sly grin at Archers comment with a big bite of food, chewing slowly while he pondered Archer's suggestion. If he thought about the statement before he would definitely be in danger of skipping the rest of dinner and he really wanted to finish this meal while it was at its peak.

Finally he swallowed, trying not to think about his own thought there as well. "Well I would hate to ruin the crime rate by being there." Tal chuckled darkly at the thought of the at least 3 attacks he would have during a two month period. "But I think you might have the right idea. Though personally I think the prostitutes at Aleien are the best." Tal smirked at him, saying that mostly to be contrary though he would put money on Raleigh being the best in the country.
 
Archer coughed a bit and looked up at his companion. "You have such a poor taste, it must be a curse." He spoke so seriously so that no one could deny that he was joking about it. Then he smirked. "Would Ruuk become best on your list if I worked there." It was an interesting question. Had he been the best bed partner Tal had ever met, or did someone defeat him in that area. Reversed the answer was pretty obvious, no one could beat a man like Taliesin, no matter what area they spoke off.


Aisha forced herself to stand up, as she couldn't really sleep in the bathroom. Or she could, but it would do nothing good for her back, and catching a cold wasn't very high on her what-to-do-list. As fast as she had dried herself she covered herself once again with the sheet. Even though she was completely free from sweat and blood, she still felt incredibly dirty. As if mud was lying just beneath her skin. But that wasn't something she could do anything about. The best would be to go to sleep, and hopefully the nightmares wouldn't hurt her this time. If they still haunted her, would that mean that it wasn't food poisoning that was the cause?

She stepped out of the bathroom and went straight to her room, which could have been any room as she wasn't certain which she entered. At least she kept away from the one Tal had pointed out was his... And Archer's. Her mind was barely conscious of her surroundings, and she collapsed on the bed and fell right asleep.
 
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