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"What do you want this time, Novice?"

"Depends. What's your price for a restraining order?" The messenger looked up from where he stood sparring against the air. "What's needed to get you to stop following me?"

"Submission."

"Uh-huh... Yeah, about that..." Lex folded his arms and leaned them against the fence that separated them. "I don't do submission. At least, not for you." The man's dark eye stared at him before he sheathed his sword and moved toward where the Journeyman stood. He leaned down into the younger man's face.

"Prepare for a world of trouble until you learn your place then, my friend. Things will be very difficult for you from now on."

"Yeah, because I should be extremely terrified of the man who has a steady relationship with Miss Rosy Palms." Turning on his heel, the Sparrow made his way to the library.


He was pinned to the wall. It had been three blissfully calm days of training and doing little runs about here and there to keep warm, mostly staying indoors and studying. And this was what came of venturing outside. Being pinned to the wall of one of the houses in the village, this one being situated with its back to the drop to the river below.

Now Badr had him by the shoulders, half-pulled up so that the toes of his boots alone touched the ground.

"Get. Off."

"Thank you for the invitation." The Sparrow grunted as the man leaned his full weight on him. "You chose to go against a stallion, little colt. There's always a price to pay for arrogance."

"Look who's talking of arrogance, taking advantage of someone."

"Don't lie, little brother. I know you want it. Otherwise you wouldn't answer to my touch so well."

Badr flinched as the smaller man's teeth sank down, but kept him still as he could with all the thrashing he was doing, blade arm clamped between his legs as they fell into the slush beneath his feet.

The smaller man's legs were suddenly around his waist, bodies twisting so he was on his back. Knuckles came down heavily onto his face. Lex gagged as a knee rammed into his gut, the horseman pressing his face into the mud, fingers twisted into his hair.

"Submit, boy, or I'll make you." He let out an aggrevated noise of pain as a pointy elbow jabbed itself into his ribs. "Be still!" The horseman heard a satisfying, muffled yowl as he slammed his fist into the small of the other man's back. The struggling ceased, becoming gasps of pain. His fingers traced their way along the Journeyman's back, curling beneath the lip of his pants to shed them when...

"Leave him!" The masked man looked up at the Dai's voice. Malik's eyes were vicious slits trained on him. He frowned, fingers slipping beneath the Sparrow's robes to trace the lower half of his belly.

"His own body betrays his desires, Malik," he protested.

"So you would bring an ungodly wrath down upon our heads? Leave him be."

"But--" The ring of steel cut him off as Malik's longsword was freed from its sheath.

"Damn you, hear me now, Badr ibn Sherif, and let him go!" Badr gave the one-armed Assassin a studious stare before leaning down and whispering into the smaller one's ear, "I will find you again, little colt." Lips brushed his ear before the weight was gone from his back.


That night a silence tense as the strings of an oud hung about the room. Lex had returned wet and silent and had remained so throughout the day. Every attempt the Red Owl made to get the younger man to speak, or so much as acknowledge his presence other than by a noncommital noise or gesture, was rebuffed with his silence and the altogether unnaturally blank stare he gave the floor.

When the sun opened his eyes, he found the Sparrow returned to the curled position in which he'd sat before lying down to sleep. Lex flinched as a hand settled on his shoulder, looking up at Jameel groggily.

"Would you like to finish our game, Sparrow?" He shook his head, beginning to press his face into his arms once again. "Lex." He looked up again. The Master Assassin's face was fixed in a frown, icy eyes reflecting his face if he looked into them at just the right angle. "What's going on with you? Are you ill?" His voice took a harsher turn. "Do I need to kill someone?"

The question shook the Sparrow out of his funk. Jameel, kill someone for him? Was he being serious? Sure, if he reached back far enough, he could remember certain of his friends asking who they needed to kill when they found him too quiet or sad, but... But it's different when the person asking you has a liscence and born-and-bred job description to kill.

"You serious?" he asked, voice cracking before he cleared his throat and repeated, "You serious?"

His answer was a flat look and another question: "Who is it that needs to die?"

Lex's brain flicked over the possibilities of what this question meant. Jameel could just want to beat the s**t out of him. Or he could want to kill this person. Well, but he could just want to threaten him. No, no, he wouldn't joke about killing someone. It's Jameel we're talking about. But--No, stop fooling yourself, he'll mount his head on the gates if you tell him who it is. His fingers kneaded at the sleeves of his robes as Jameel watched him, waiting.

"No one," said the Sparrow finally. "No one. I was just in a funk yesterday. Weather and all. Fell on my face in the snow for a good ways, got all muddy. Was just embarassed." He blinked as he was pulled to the taller man's chest. The Journeyman relaxed as his Owl's thumb brushed against his cheek.

"You're a poor liar, little bird." Jameel lifted the smaller man's chin with a finger, lifting a brow slightly as the color drained from his face. Caught. "If I promise not to kill whoever it is, will you tell me?" Lex swallowed, a shiver running up his spine, though whether it was the chill of his still damp robes or the Red Owl's words, he wasn't sure.

"Promise?"

"I swear." Lips pecked his softly. "I swear on your life." Lex released the breath he'd been holding.

"Okay." He ran his teeth over his lower lip, chewing a little. "It was that messenger guy, Badr." He tensed as he felt Jameel's fingers curl into his back, the muscles of his jaw clenching visibly. After a moment, Jameel relaxed, but the action was forced. His fingers traced through his Sparrow's hair a few times before he bowed his head and pressed his lips to his brow.

"Don't lie to me again, habibi."


He was pinned to the wall. It was the same house as before. Except this time it was he who was suspended off the ground. He who was staring into a pair of angry blue eyes instead of brown. Badr dangled clear from the ground, the soles of his boots dripping snow as Jameel held him by the front of his robes.

"Why?" was all the Red Owl said.

"Revenge," was the answer the desert Falcon gave.

"If you mean to take revenge against me for some little fault I've made against you that I can't remember, take your revenge against me. I thought you were above such cowardice as attacking someone I care for." The cloth mask twitched as the man smirked.

"I'd come and have my revenge on you, but you are the one who hides like a coward, Red Cur. You wouldn't remember the slight, so high and mighty and cloud-headed as you are. But no matter. I've settled the dispute through your boy, and if I feel slighted again, I'll continue as much." And he made the mistake of giving a bored yawn. Jameel's hand flashed out, tearing the cloth from his face and cramming his fingers into the man's mouth. They clamped onto his tongue as he gagged, pulling it out from his mouth as far as it would go.

Glare met glare as the two Assassins squared themselves off, the one moving to clench his fist and tear the muscle clean from the roots in the man's throat.

He shifted himself back as the man's right hand moved up, Hidden Blade flashing toward his face. Jameel threw the man into the ground. Badr rolled to stand, but was thrust back down as a knee met his back. Jameel jerked his hood down and grasped a fistful of the man's short, black hair. A low growl was uttered as the man made a vain attempt to struggle.

"Be still!" The world seemed to hold its breath as the roar echoed around the valley. The next words were whisper low, Badr's face pressed into the mud. "Or do you not like receiving the treatment you gave? Hear me now. You will not go near Lex again." Badr spat a globbet of mud to the side to clear his mouth.

"Your boy's body responded to me, Jameel. I would say he wanted my touch and my presence. Why on earth then should I not give him what he wanted? It's fair." He gritted his teeth as the weight pressed him down further, a low snarl sounding in his ear.

"He is my lover."

"And?" He froze as Jameel's Hidden Blade pressed against his spine. The Red Owl stared at the knobs of his victim's neck before he stood.

"Be glad I swore not to kill you." He turned on his heel, prepared to leave.

"I win." The Master Assassin performed a whip-quick aboutface, the satisfying crunch of snapping bone sounding as his fist collided with Badr's face. His foot came up next, knocking the air from the messenger's lungs as it met his gut. Badr clenched his teeth, schooling his eyes into slits to not reveal his pain as he sank to his knees. Jameel stared down at him, eyes narrowed. Turning his back, he began to walk toward the keep.

The whistle of a blade turning through the air made him toss himself to the side, the dagger falling harmlessly to the slush. Rising into a crouch, Jameel loosed three knives from his belt. One forced Badr to take a knee, tugging at the blade in his shoulder. Standing, keeping his mind focused on his promise, he spat at the man and made to leave once again. The ring of steel pulling free from its sheath forced him to halt once again. Forgive me if I kill him, Lex. He's making this rather difficult!

"What are you doing?" He looked up at the voice. Altair and Maria stood looking at him and the other man.

"He insulted me! He spat at me!" Badr screamed, turning his anger on Jameel. "How dare you--"

"Silence!" Altair stared at Badr until the man quieted. He looked at Jameel. "What the hell are you two doing? Has the weather addled your minds so with boredom that you decide to kill each other in the middle of the village for sport?"

"His boredom makes him unable to control his own c**k. He tried to take Lex." Badr sneered at Jameel over Altair's shoulder.

"It was barely forced. I am not interested in him in that way anyway. It's merely dominance. He tried to run with a stallion when he's little more than a colt." Jameel bared his teeth in a snarl.

"He's more of an Assassin than you act, gelding!"

Altair and Maria stepped between Badr and Jameel as the messenger lunged at Jameel with his drawn sword.

"Enough!" Maria snapped. She looked to Badr. "You act a fool and prove his words right. Take yourself from here and find something to occupy your time. And mind you do not go near the boy again." She turned to Jameel. "And you. Do not attack a brother again, even if it should be for recompense."

The men's faces flushed with heat as the woman gave them a tongue lashing. Jameel eventually gave her a nod. She was right. Even if it was a great embarassment to be scolded like a little child. Badr, however, took the reprimand to heart and stated with a low hiss, "Dung beetle woman."

With a movement swift as any Assassin, Maria brought the flat of her sword across his head in a great smack. The one-eyed Assassin toppled to one side, gawking at her.

"Mind your tongue, or you'll be made a Novice once more and your teachers will be all the women of the village." Shaking his head and leaving Badr to the care of the Master and the apparent Mistress, the Red Owl marched toward the keep.

"Jameel." He stopped, looking at Altair. "I've been searching for a way to--"

"Altair, if you finish that sentence, I may use this sword in my hand." He sheathed the weapon and retired to his quarters. Jameel leaned his head against the wall opposite the infirmary before making the rest of the way to his room. Looking inside, he found Chandra nestled into Lex's hair, the boy slumped over the table and the book he'd been reading.

Shaking his head, he shooed the brown owl away gently before taking the Sparrow into his arms and moving him to the bed to sleep.