Behind Those Golden Eyes

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Tal couldn't help but send a lazy grin her way at her discomfort. He forgot that the normal population didn't spend their days walking around with more blood than they bothered to count on their hands and might actually be bothered by such a thing. He carefully took his sword back, once again holding it very gently and putting it back with more care than probably just about anyone else gave their sword.

"I guess you could say that." Tal chuckled softly. "Assuming they are not part of the contract as well family does tend to take issue with what I do and because I do not always take contracts or skip out on them there are other people who very much want me to work for them who would very much like to find a way to force me too." He sneered disdainfully at the thought, though here he was sitting with a way to do that. Or at least something that looked like a way to do that. Unless they were very very thorough taking Aisha would probably be more of a way to make sure Tal slaughtered everyone within a mile radius but some people were that stupid.
 
"What a shock, who would have thought families would be pissed over such trivial matters." She commented sarcastically. It wasn't hard to understand their feelings, no matter what your family members had done to others you would still want to help them. And if someone hurt them, or God forbid, killed them, then you would want revenge. If her own family had been killed, no matter the reason, she wouldn't know what she'd do about it. Maybe she would loose it and go on a manslaughter just to catch whoever did it, and then die in the process. Or get enough money to hire an assassin. It wasn't impossible. Who knew what state of mind she would be in if she lost everything dear to her.

"How did it happen anyway?" Aisha suddenly asked him. "The demon thing." She explained, not really knowing how to word such a question. She had wondered for a while, was he born like that, or had something happened later in life? "I don't mind if you don't want to talk about it though." She fast continued. She had no idea what topics would push his buttons, what would make him irritated, angry or just uncomfortable. But if she never mentioned it she might never know.
 
"Mmmm" Tal pointedly ignored her sarcastic comment. Considering some days he had seriously considered the whole family killing route but then that would just prove the little fucker right and he didn't feel like doing that any more than had already happened. Just the thought of his estranged family was enough to turn his somewhat amused mood to bitter and dark. He blinked out of it to give Aisha a weird look at her sudden question then. "You…" He sighed. Well he supposed he should have been expecting this question all along. The problem being of course that the story was not all his to tell.

He tilted his head and eyed her considering for a moment. "I have always been like this, as a babe from the womb. Of course aside from being faster and stronger than other children my age it did not manifest too much until my teens." At which point everything had exploded and he left to make his own very bloody life.
 
Aisha was certain that he wouldn't answer it, especially after sighing like that. But he did tell her, it was much less than she wanted to hear, but at least she got to hear something. How come he had been born a demon? Had his parents done something? Was he completely demon or just partly? How many demons were out in the world? Were they usually the evil beings people imagined or was it normal that they were as different in personality as every human were?

All those questions and more ran through her head, but she didn't want to prey it out of him right away. It wasn't like she would leave him anytime soon, and as long as she didn't give him a reason to run away from her then she doubted he would. He wasn't one to say one thing and then do another, at least the old Tal wasn't.

"I remember that." She laughed a bit. "You were always able to outrun me so easily. And I complained that it was unfair because you were a boy. I was such a bad looser." It felt nice to just remember the good old times. It didn't really matter what he was, it didn't change their past.
 
"Well, it probably was unfair." Tal was just as happy she didn't try and pursue the topic. It was not his place to leak that secret. Or at least not right now. The anger was still there bubbling on the surface but he did not blame his father for what had happened. It wasn't his fault Tal had turned out the way he did, or that his brother was such a bastard. Tal pushed the memories away and replaced them with the somewhat more pleasant ones of him and Aisha, though those ones burned him in a different way. They represented emotions in him that hadn't seen the light of day in years, and probably never would again. "After all, there was never any way you were going to be able to beat me." He smirked at her. He may also have gotten an extra dose of arrogance wandering around on his own.
 
She stopped smiling as he gave her that arrogant smirk. "I could beat you anywhere, at anytime, in anything." Aisha told him, even though both of them knew that was far from true. She would probably never loose her overly competitive spirit, nor her childish obsession over winning. She mainly showed that side of herself to her brother, since they had competed against each other in something each and every day. Tal had been exposed to that side of her during their childhood a bit now and then.

"As long as it has nothing to do with dancing." She added shortly afterwards. Dancing was probably the only thing she would ever confess to not being able to do at all. And she would never let anyone see her disastrous performances. It didn't matter if it was with a partner or not, it always ended really badly. She would even go as far as to say that she looked like a drunk elephant in those rare moments she tried to dance.
 
Tal managed to look even more superior at her and felt a childish urge to stick his tongue out at her. He put that random thing deep down in a hole. "Ah yes, even after all this time you still can't dance for anything can you?" He of course was an excellent dancer. When he needed to be a proper noble gentleman Tal could pull off the part as if he was born to it. Which, admittedly, he was. "Perhaps I should bring you along to a fancy party." He waggled his finger at her. "You refused to dance with me before but I tell you with someone who is properly skilled you would at least perform passably." Or in other words, so long as she wasn't actually trying to do anything and let him lead everything would be fine. Sort of how traveling with him should play out in theory as well.
 
"That would look good. You dancing with a boy of questionable age. No weird stares there." She replied, reminding him that he was the one making her hide her gender. "But if you really want to try, then I won't stop you. But be prepared to say farewell to your feet. You might never see them again." She then warned him with a grin. Even if he would be able to make her dance well, she might just feel a bit too demonic to not take the opportunity to crush one or two of his toes.
 
"It wouldn't be the first time." Tal said dismissively. He didn't associate with people who had problems with that sort of thing. Or if they did they were smart enough not to say anything about it where he could find about it later. He didn't even think of the fact that his old friend might have problems with that sort of thing. "And luckily I am terribly quick," he smirked back at her. "So we can pull off some fancy moves on the dance floor and you can lose yet another competition."
 
"Don't be too sure about that, I trust my feet to be the most destructive in the whole country." Aisha replied cockily. It might not be an impressive feat to brag about, but he had turned on her competition mode. Though if it had been anyone else but Tal, then it would probably not have worked for the subject of dancing. Even though he had been away for so long he still seemed to know how to press her buttons.

"And how many feet did you stamp on before you became mister perfect?" She then asked him, not really buying that he were good just because he were a demon. He must have had a past with bad experiences of working up to perfection. At least she hoped so. Well, if he didn't then she would at least be better than him on one thing. Failing. Still not the most impressive feat, but good enough for her. You just had to look positively on things.
 
"Well I can believe that." Tal grinned at her and absently rubbed the pommel of his sword. He was actually having fun just chatting with Aisha and teasing her like he used to. He guessed he hadn't lost his touch in regards to dealing with her after all. So long as they ignored the past few years anyway. "Ah, don't blame my heritage for all my skills." He waggled a finger at her chidingly. "I learned dancing by the sword and it was many a year's long process where my father knocked me around the training yard for hours out of the day and then when I was too tired for that he took me inside and had me apply it to dancing sans a weapon." Among other things. Xerxes had always tried to incorporate as much multifaceted usefulness in all of his lessons. "Speaking of, that will be something we will have to work on when I start to teach you. Light sword work requires you to be light and agile on your feet."
 
"You'll need magical powers, or a miracle for these walking disasters to become light and agile." She told him as she pointed down on her feet. "If you only knew all the hours my mother spent, trying to teach me to be light on my feet. The days of torture she put both of us through just to teach me something so impossible. I was cursed at birth to have two left feet, there's nothing we can do about it. I'm forever doomed." She then said dramatically, though in the end she barely could hold back the laughter.
 
Tal snickered lightly. "Well I may have magical powers but not for that…" He would still give it his best though, it would be a relief to have her at least somewhat able to defend herself in an emergency. He settled back and found that the ride passed rather quickly with company to talk to. It was still well into the night by the time the carriage pulled up to a tavern in a small town called Haydor.

Tal let himself out again and moved up to give the driver instructions on when to return and where to put their bags and such. He then gestured for Aisha to follow him and went into the tavern/inn. He bought a double room, since it was so small it didn't have suites, and lead Aisha upstairs. "We'll have to deal with somewhat more cramped conditions from here on out. I don't frequent the fancy places while on a mission unless I am pretending to be some noble or something." He set his bags on the bed next to the window and started fishing through his bags. "So, did you have a haircut in mind or shall I just chop chop until I'm satisfied?" He glanced over at her and couldn't help a sultry smile.
 
It finally felt like they were back to normal. They could talk to each other, joke around, even fight a bit without it meaning anything. Just like old times. Maybe she were a bit too optimistic about the situation, but that was nothing that would bother her at the moment.

As the carriage finally stopped, Aisha almost ran out to breath in the fresh air and move her stiff legs. To sit still for hours wasn't her thing, though it had felt pretty short thanks to Tal's presence. She waited for Tal to finish his conversation with the driver and then followed him in. She didn't mind the cramped living conditions, she had shared one small room with her brother until she was fifteen, so she wasn't completely unused to such living conditions. Luckily her father had decided to continue building on the house after a seventeen years pause.

"If I let you chop chop until you're satisfied, will I have any hair left afterwards?" She asked him as she put her hands over her head a bit protectively. "I'll strangle you if you make me into a monk." She warned him.
 
Tal gave her a mock offended look as he pulled out scissors. "Honestly now Aisha, I thought we agreed by now that I am a perfectionist who is amazing at everything I do?" He shook his head and pulled out the rest of his supplies, a comb and a small folded tarp to minimize the amount of hair got left behind. "Besides," He gave a toss of his hair and it was a flashback to the accidental flirting he had done with her before. "I cut my own hair and it never comes out bad. Surely you don't think I'd do anything terrible to yours?" He pulled up a chair and put down the tarp before setting the chair in the middle of it. "Just relax and enjoy the experience." He gestured towards the chair.
 
"You're not as impressive as you think you are mister perfect." Aisha told him as she sat down. "You do realize that if my mother ever finds out that you cut off her daughters beautiful hair, she will go on a murder-spree to get you. So don't think about sending me home anytime soon." She then continued with a small laughter at the end of the sentence. It was a big exaggeration. Though her mother would probably curse at Tal for hours if she ever met him.
 
"As if I could get rid of you." Tal rolled his eyes playfully and combed his hands through her hair, cupping it in his hands. He really did hate to cut it off but he was sure that he would be able to cut a short style that would look just as good on her. It would probably be the only thing that would save him from Aisha's mother chasing him forever. "Now don't move." Tal was a slow and careful hairdresser, or perhaps it was just his subject. After about a half hour though he stepped back to view his finished product and nodded. "Well, what do you think about that?" He handed her a small mirror. Her hair was now very short, about ear length, and was layered and styled to give it volume and frame her face.
 
True, even if he tried to get rid of her now, she would just follow him. She would be like a barnacle, once she caught him she would be stuck and not let go before she had sucked out every piece of information. 'Maybe I'm the demon here' she thought to herself after she had noticed what it was she was thinking.

Tal's hands brushed gently through her hair before he started to cut. Except for her chest raising up and down while breathing, she was pretty much immovable. She could feel the weight of her hair slowly fall off for every snap she could hear.

Eventually it was done. Aisha took the mirror Tal had handed to her and looked at herself. She examined her hair carefully and had a very disappointed look on her face as she said "Can't you do anything wrong?" It looked perfect. And it felt even better than it looked. That didn't have so much to do with Tal's skill, it was just that the weight of all that hair finally were gone. "You're too perfect, you could at least make a mistake on purpose a bit now and then to make me feel better." She continued to scold him.
 
"Why would I do that?" Tal honestly seemed baffled at the idea of doing anything less than his best purely to make someone else feel better, probably because he would not find that sort of action comforting for himself. "I find it funny that you keep on complaining to me about how I do everything perfect when you showed up at my door to tell me how I was doing everything wrong." Tal brushed off his scissors and comb and started packing them away. He had not been trying to be accusatory in his last statement. It was just some of his old deep seated bitterness coming out.

His 'perfection' was pretty much all he had. It paved his way in life well away from those who saw him as a monster. It allowed him to find a purpose that while perhaps encouraged those thoughts, it honestly felt right. He was no petty Knight to sit around waiting for the next war to happen or some stupid challenge to be issued. He would have been bored out of his mind and probably would have snapped within a week.
 
"Your actions might be perfect, but that doesn't mean your behavior is." She said, drawing a clear line between the differences in the two. "The way you acted towards u.. Me for all those years was not what I would call perfect behavior, even if it was a perfect action in your eyes." She wasn't really blaming him, nor raging out as she had done during their fight the previous day. It was more of a statement. It felt weird that she talked about it as if it didn't matter much, as if it was a discussion about something that happened far back in the past that could be laughed at now, even though the last time it had happened only had been a day earlier.
 
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