[MythicDusk]

Belias's knuckles rapped on the heavily varnished table in front of him. He had found a small corner booth in the pub he and Zari had agreed to meet in those few short weeks ago. since he had seen her, he had told his family and friends about this new, amazing woman. Many of them were shocked at the fact that Belias had apparently found someone else, after Keahi. Others congratulated him. But it didn't stop him thinking that maybe she wouldn't show.

He shifted uncomfortably, his glowing eyes scanning the sparse crowd for his dark-haired, blue-eyed girlfriend. That word seemed to sit so perfectly on his tongue. Girlfriend. He played with the word in his mind. Hey, guys! Meet my new girlfriend, Zari! Isn't she amazing? A soft and wistful smile took him over as he faded out into his own imaginary world. He was brought back around when a glass of whiskey was slammed in front of him and he shook himself out of his stupor and smiled up at the barmaid, giving her a few keystones as a tip. Slowly, he took the glass in his damaged hand. Since the...Incident, when he was defending Zari from the Garudor, his scars had healed nicely, his hand no longer needed to be bandaged, his face, although deformed, no longer had a glisten of glowing flesh within the scar. He placed the drink back down, sitting back, letting his head fall backwards with a soft sigh. Why was he so nervous?

Since the last time he had seen Zari, Belias had fleshed out nicely, and now looked a lot less sickly. He then sat back up and continued to stare into the amber liquid, once in a while taking a quick sniff, letting the aroma fill him.

[Mousen]

The young woman had never been to Nabias before, or atleast she'd never been to this part of the town. She was sure that the circus must have stopped here once or twice, if only as a break from travelling. Zari never really payed much attention to the scenery when he travelled, or at the very least, she never payed much attention to the names. In that sense, she was a stark contrast to many of the other members of the troupe, who's postcard and stamp collections could fill an entire wall.

Since she and Belias had last spoken, she'd travelled over to the Wilt'no desert in time for one of her little village's festivals. The legend of their town apparently stemmed from the Tengel Rainforest, where an exiled god of knowledge ruled over a small tribe of people, being a far and strong leader the tribe had flourished under his reign, and their numbers becoming far too many to support several members of the tribe went their own way and started the small village in the Wilt'no. The one distinctive feature about those people was their blue eyes, which Zari and all her family had. The festivities had been to celebrate their ancestors leaving and their thanks to the god of knowledge, Cipactli. Little did she know that the fabled god of knowledge was in fact a malachite hunter, who was at that moment busy running away from a particularly large spider which had dropped down onto his head while he was sleeping.

Since the festivities, Zari had gotten a little bored with herself and now the two vertical markings that were around her eyes in her cavillion form. The markings suited her, in an odd way. Well, Belias had told her to meet her in a bar... Her eyes scanned the line of shops, looking for the distinctive-- Ah! There it was! Smiling in relief she walked towards it. At the door she hesitated slightly, checking her reflection in the glass. Her shoulder-length wavy hair was unmanageable as ever in the humidity, having given up on it, she'd settled for just tying it off her face. Well, not that Belias really cared what she looked like, anyway. Once inside it didn't take her long to find Belias, she stood a few feet short of him, waiting for him to notice her.

[MythicDusk]

Slowly, Belias looked up, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes, now having grown what could truly be called a beard, a grin split his face, seeing the woman before him. He jumped up, nearly knocking over the table in his haste and he quickly righted it before it fell, managing to keep the drink upright too. He then rushed towards her, his deep, uproarious laugh bellowing from deep, barreled chest and he scooped Zari up in his large arms, lifting her off the floor and pulling her into a soft kiss. Pulling away, he gave her a large grin, and placed her on the floor. "I'm sorry, Zari, I didn't mean to get so excited, it's just, it's been so long, and I missed you so much..." His words began to run into one another and he sighed softly, calming himself and looking fully at her face, he softly tilted her face to a side, in order to look at the two markings. Softly, he ran his fingers across them and a soft smile began to pull at his lips, and he pushed a strand of hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered softly, pulling her into a soft kiss again, wrapping one of his arms around her waist.

[Mousen]

She barely had time to react before Belias had swept her up off the floor. "Oof!" Zari yelled, surprise colouring her face. "Put me down! You know I hate having my feet of the floor!" Though she couldn't help but smile after he kissed her and she had both feet firmly back on the ground. "It's okay, Belias." In all honesty, it was kind of funny in a sweet sort of way.

"I wish I could say the same about you." Zari replied, wrinkling her nose. "How long has it been since you brushed your hair? You look like a tramp, Belias." She giggled, picking up a tangled strand of his hair. "Look! You've got tramp hair!" The young woman just couldn't help it, her happiness at seeing him and his tangled hair had made her hysterical with laughter. She had noted, however just how much healthier he looked since the last time they'd met.

[MythicDusk]

Belias began to laugh, sitting down and inviting her to sit next to her. "I was honestly worried that you weren't going to show up." His voice was quiet and solemn, staring into his glass. "I was worried I would be nursing a glass of whiskey for the rest of the night out of pure, blind hope." Slowly, he looked up at her, his eyes glowing and his smile soft. "I'm glad you're here, Zari." He then ran a hand through his tangled hair and scratched at his beard. "At least I got a shower." He gave her a grin, and then looked down at the seat next to himself. "Oh! I got you this, too."

Slowly, he brought up a large gift box, obviously meant to house a necklace. He opened it, and within, laying on velvet was a pendant with a single, small, slightly rounded stone hanging from it. In the faint light that entered the box, the stone seemed to give off a soft glow, the pale cream and white within the stone seemed to swirl and mix with each other. It looked as if someone had made a jewel out of Belias's own blood. He looked up at her, holding the necklace out to her. "Do you like it?" He asked softly, placing it down in front of her.

[Mousen]

"Belias, why on earth would I not show up? It's kind of silly to think so. I'm just as happy to see you as you're happy to see me, except I'm probably a little better at controlling my emotions and not knocking things over." She said reassuringly, waving things of as per usual. It had become habit for her to dismiss his concerns, whether they were actually important or not. In this case, the latter was true, Belias was just being silly again.

Zari tilted her head slightly as he brought out the jewellery box. "You didn't have to get me anything, you know. I'm perfectly happy without anything..." At the sight of the necklace she relented a little from her earlier rant. Not so much because of the necklace itself, which was in all honesty, beautiful, but because of the expression on Belias's face. "It's beautiful, thank you."

[MythicDusk]

A smile of relief split Belias's face and he stood up, now more careful not to knock things over, and he gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, scooping up the necklace. He walked around behind her, and softly moved her hair out of the way, slowly lowering the pendant over her head, he silently closed the latch and let the chain go. watching as it sat around her neck. Slowly, he then wrapped his arms around her waist and with a soft kiss to the back of her head he smiled. "I'm glad you like it." He then slowly pulled away, sitting down again and inviting her to sit beside him. "Do you want anything to drink?" He asked softly, smiling softly at her.

[Mousen]

The hazy reflection on the shiny wooden counter was enough for Zari to see that the necklace suited her, she grinned. "Of course I like it, you bought it for me, you twit." Zari was being uncharacteristically nice, perhaps it was because she was trying to stop Belias from being so insecure, or perhaps she was a little bit more worried about something else. "Say, Belias..." She begain, biting her lip. "You said I was going to meet your family at some point, right? Is there like a set time for that or something or are they just going to materialize out of thin air?" Ah. Well, that made sense. "Oh, and I'm fine, thanks." The dark haired woman added, almost forgetting his previous question.

[MythicDusk]

Softly, he draped an arm over Zari's shoulders as she sat beside him, pulling her close. "Don't worry about it. They usually come out for a casual drink, there's always new people in the family, you won't be left out or shunned. If you want to leave at any time, just tell me." He kissed the side of her head softly, and slowly looked up as a small group of people came through the door.

The small crowd of four, two men and two women slowly walked towards their table, their personalities defined by their walks. One fairly tall man with dark hair, wearing a black suit with a white shirt and a loose-fitting black tie, along with a pair of dark shades halfway down his nose had a fairly strong gait and a playful arm draped around one of the women. The woman he was interacting with seemed to have ever-changing eyes, one moment, they would be green, the next, they would be a deep, dark brown. A cap pulled low on her brow, hanging at a strange angle. Wearing a large hoodie that was about two sizes too large for her, a pair of jeans and an old pair of trainers, she shrugged off the man's arm with an angry glare.

The other man, obviously more aged was hobbling along on crutches, his dark hair had cyan streaks running through it, a dark overcoat covered most of his body, but it seemed to accentuate the fact that he only had one leg. he lowly looked up and at the youngest woman, who was helping him walk and three, thick and ugly scars trailed their way down the side of his face, but he gave a warm smile to the young woman, who rushed ahead. The young woman, wearing a rainbow scarf, a pair of jeans and a thick jacket, her dark hair hung messily in her eyes, saw Belias and almost squealed out of pure joy.

Belias began to laugh as the youngest woman slipped into the booth beside him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Belias continued to chuckle and patted the top of her head, and she leant back slightly, looking over at Zari with interest in her green eyes. The crippled man slowly sat on one of the spare seats with a low groan, happy to finally be relaxing. The younger man sat opposite Zari with a flirtatious grin spread across his face, his silver eyes watching her with a deep interest and the girl with ever-changing eyes sat opposite Belias, watching him intently.

Belias gave them all a grin and turned to Zari. "Zari, I want you to meet a few people from my pen, my family." First, he pointed to the woman with the strange eyes. "That's Shy, she takes care of us all." Shy gave her a soft nod in recognition, then returned her hard gaze to Belias. He then pointed to the crippled man. "That's Binkie, I told you about him before." Binkie simply gave off a soft groan in reply. "That's Blaidd." He said simply, his grip tightening around Zari's waist, showing his discomfort around the man, his glowing eyes narrowed. Blaidd gave Zari a flirty grin. "Hey baby. Let me know if you want to get away from old scarface some day." Belias snarled angrily, and then looked to the last family member to be introduced. "And this is Betty, say hello." The last comment was directed at the young woman, who was currently clinging to one of Belias's large arms. She slowly peeked around him and mumbled out a quick 'Hello' before ducking behind him again. "Don't mind her, she's shy." Belias grinned at Zari, nuzzling the top of her head softly.

[Mousen]

She opened her mouth to obviously give some sort of sarcastic reply, but she quickly shut it when she realized that Belias's family had materialized out of thin air. Oh joy. It wasn't that she wasn't looking forward to meeting them... but she wasn't. She was sure that Belias had wonderful friends but did she want them scrutinizing her? Not really. Not at all. Zari vividly remembered all the times she'd tried to introduce her various boyfriends over the years to her family. They had either been chased out by her mother or scared off by her sisters, she really hoped a similar incident wouldn't happen today.

Quickly looking over them all, none of them quite seemed like the kind to chase someone for a mile with a shovel. First impressions were fairly standard, the first guy was the kind she'd blatantly ignore, the first girl seemed quite stand-offish, the second girl seemed like the kind that would cry at the adverts for animal charities and well, from Belias's description she recognized old Binkie. She could only hope that Belias wouldn't end up like that in his old age.

Right. She watched them all sit down, until she knew them better, she'd better not do anything stupid. And while she wasn't exactly the type to be awkward around people sometimes her mouth could get the better of her. She smiled at Shy and before rolling her eyes at Blaidd. "Or maybe, you could do us all a favour and drop down dead." Upon realizing that probably wasn't the best first sentence to say when meeting your boyfriend's good friends she shrugged. "Eh. Knee jerk reaction." Zari couldn't help but me somewhat amused at Betty, clearly she must know Belias quite well to be ducking behind him all the time. "It's fine." She said to both of them.

[MythicDusk]

"Blaidd, stop being such a whore, you have a wife. Now go get us some drinks before I beat your ass out of this pub." It was the first time Shy spoke, and Blaidd cowered away from her, quickly moving away from the table to go get their drinks. Shy slowly looked over at Zari and shrugged. "He does it to everyone. Just ignore him. Or punch him in his family jewels if it gets too much." Binkie slowly sat up properly, rubbing his stump of a leg. "I tell ya what. I can't wait to get some alcohol in me system. I've got without painkillers all day for this." Slowly, he slipped off his coat with the help of Shy.

Eventually, Betty found enough courage to slowly peek around Belias and watch Zari. "You're really pretty." She mused softly. She then looked up at Belias. "Hey, Unca Beli, didn't you say you got all of those big scars from protecting her?" Belias nodded once, looking down at Betty. "That I did, little one." Betty looked up at him with wide eyes, then slowly tilted her head to a side. "Why?" Belias simply gave her a soft smile, and with a soft hand rubbed the top of her head. "Because, when you like someone as much as I like Zari, you would loose as much as I have, and a lot more for them." Betty looked over to Zari with wide eyes and then snuggled into Belias's side with a soft smile. "I hope I find someone like you, some day, Unca Beli." Belias simply gave her a soft smile, rubbing her shoulder in a fatherly way while pulling Zari close with his other arm.

[Mousen]

Zari just nodded at Shy, wrinkling her nose slightly. Well... this was wasn't awkward at all. This was probably how Belias felt when she'd dragged him to her circus. Well, atleast Rhett was the exact opposite of intimidating, he was fairly tall but too lanky to be anything but a beanpole. Not to mention the fact he usually looked fairly ridiculous in that purple duster jacket of his... What had he been thinking when he'd bought that? Idiot.

"Oh," Zari said, startled from her thoughts. She looked up and smiled at Betty. "Thank you." She couldn't help but blush slightly when Belias spoke about her to Betty, he could be so adorable sometimes. Well, as adorable as a scarred battleheart in human form could be. Oddly enough, when most people thought about battlehearts, the word 'adorable' did not suddenly spring to mind.

[MythicDusk]

Betty simply nodded towards her softly, a small smile playing with her lips. Belias slowly stood and slid from behind the table, slowly approaching Blaidd, who was still waiting at the bar. Blaidd turned to him, said something that couldn't be heard because of the din of the bar goers, but Blaidd nodded towards Zari with a slight smirk.

Obviously, Belias didn't like this, as Blaidd was then on the floor with a bloody nose and an angry, scarred, human form Battleheart standing over him. Belias dragged the man to his feet, sending another fist into his face and repeating this a few times until Blaidd's face was bloody and broken. He then dragged Blaidd by his collar to the table and forcefully sat the bloody and bruised, and slightly dazed Blaidd in his own seat, then returned to the bar with shaking shoulders, obviously trying to hide his rage.

Shy sighed slightly, glancing over at Blaidd. "What did you say this time?" Blaidd whimpered softly, glancing over his shoulder at the large man. "He told me to never repeat it."

[Mousen]

Zari had to stifle an over theatrical gasp (curse her, show business upbringing) as Belias hit the other man in the face. While she knew Belias enough to trust his judgement she couldn't help but feel out of the loop, as if Belias was trying to fight her battles for her without telling her a thing first. Then again, perhaps Blaidd had deserved it... It seemed from the conversation once this had happened more than once before.

The dark haired young woman opened her mouth to say something to Belias as he returned with an extremely worse for wear Blaidd, but she quickly fell silent as she realized that it was probably more intelligent to keep quiet until he'd calmed himself down. "... Does that happen alot?" She asked Shy, even surprising herself with how timid she suddenly sounded.

[MythicDusk]

"What, Blaidd getting his ass beat, or Belias doing the beating? Not really. Blaidd knows better than to run his mouth, but Belias gets very protective when his body tells him there's a potential lifemate." She gave a knowing smile at Zari. "I guess it's a Battleheart thing. If he really didn't care for you that much, Blaidd's face wouldn't be so wrecked." Blaidd whimpered softly and slowly stood. "I'm off." Shy simply shrugged, Binkie was watching Betty and Betty was watching Zari, and Blaidd then left and Belias returned, placing a drink infront of them all, including Zari.

"I didn't know what you liked, but they said this originated in the Desert, so I thought you might like to try it." He gave her a small smile as he sat down himself with a fresh drink, sitting close to her, softly placing his good hand over hers in a protective and almost posessive gesture.

Then, everything blew up, to say the least. A woman marched over, rolls of flab making her jiggle in the most entertaining of ways. She began to berate Belias for acting so posessive over his mate, belias tried his hardest to ignore it, but after a few minutes of this, he stood, slamming his large fists on the table, making the drinks leap. Shy, Binkie and Betty all recoiled in horror and fright, not expecting this. "ENOUGH!" He roared over the woman, she fell silent. "Enough." He snarled, slowly sitting back down. Binkie slowly moved his eyes towards the large woman, and said with a seemingly delightful tone in his voice, "I think you better leave." The woman began to tremble and as Binkie had advised her, quickly left.