[Mousen]

"Hmm." Zari said, nodding. On first glance it might appear that she wasn't listening to a word Shy said, her attention seemed to be mostly focused on Belias. She didn't acknowledge Blaidd as he went, then again, why would she? He'd obviously said something to make Belias break his nose.

"Thanks, Belias." She said, examining the glass placed infront of her. "Are you sure this is drinkable? I wouldn't touch half the drinks served near my village, most of them contain something poisonous." Zari joked as Belias placed his hand over her's.

As the woman came over, the dancer's eyes narrowed. A few minutes passed before her ravings started to grate on Zari too, and she stood up. "Ma'am, despite your intentions, which I am perfectly sure are completely and perfectly honourable, for Zu'hai's sake, shut up! I can fight my own battles, thank you very much. I'm aware of the fact I'm not a trophy, but a cavillion. And if he for one second even began to think of such, I'd be first in line to put him right."

[MythicDusk]

His shoulders trembling slightly, Belias took Zari's hand tightly in his own. "Shall we leave soon?" He asked simply, kissing her cheek. He softly leant against her, letting his eyes close as he then moved his arm to drape over her shoulders. He slowly calmed himself and a smile began to play with his lips. "C'mon, there's something I want to show you." He said softly, standing and pulling her from her seat. Betty, Shy and Binkie all waved their farewells, Betty jumped up and gave Zari a tight hug. "It was nice meeting you. Make Unca Beli happy, he deserves it." She spoke the last sentence in Zari's ear, so only she could hear and sat down again, grinning at Shy who had risen an eyebrow at her.

[Mousen]

"If you want to," Zari replied, airily, looking around. She smiled as Belias kissed her cheek, looking up at him at him as he spoke. "Oh? What would that be?" She asked curiously, standing up to say goodbye to Belias's friends. That was when Betty decided to almost strangle her. "Betty, I can't breath!" She said, before the shy girl spoke. "Thank you." She whispered back, smiling slightly. She waved back to Shy and Binkie before turning her attention back towards Belias. "So, I hope you've got nothing life threatening planned for today. Quite frankly, I'm sick of life threatening situations, they never seem to end well."

(( Fail. ;3; ))

[MythicDusk]

Belias chuckled at them slightly, and tugged Zari along softly. "Just going for a nice walk, possibly get my hair and beard trimmed a little, then we can go back to mine and I can cook you a nice meal." As he spoke, he weaved through the gathering crowd in the bar and eventually burst into the dusky air, glancing over at the sun, he saw it setting and he gave a slight smirk. Holding her hand softly, he began to move forward, towards a barbers. Then, stopping, he turned towards her, pressing a small pouch of keystones into her hand. "Why don't you go around some of the stores here, I'll probably be a while." He smiled softly, kissing her forehead.

[Mousen]

Zari nodded. "Sure, sounds like a good plan." The sun was setting, perhaps they shouldn't have set off so late, the young woman wondered as they walked. Then again, it hardly mattered whether they ended up traipsing home in the dark or not. "Belias, I've got my own keystones, you know." She protested half heartedly as the keystones clinked against one another in the fabric of the little pouch, she knew it was a lost cause. It was Zari's way of saying thank you without having to be appreciative. "Sure, don't be too long though. I don't want to go wandering around somewhere I don't really know in the dark."

[MythicDusk]

Belias frowned softly. "If you need me, I'll be right over there, just shout." He pulled her close as they stood outside the barbers, nuzzling the top of her head softly. "I'll never be far." He spoke softly, holding her close. He didn't want to let go of her. He never wanted to let go of her. He loved this woman. Softly, he pressed his lips against her forehead and spoke softly, almost to himself but sure that Zari could hear. "I love you." With that, he quickly detached himself and hurried away into the barbers out of fear of the reprisal that he would get.

[Mousen]

Zari sighed to herself as Belias hurried away, he really was cute sometimes. Well, cute in a kind of slightly overgrown puppy kind of way, 'cute' wasn't really a word you could use to describe the battleheart in sensible terms. She headed towards what appeared to be a little market, content to waste half an hour or so while she waited for him. A couple of times, she could have sworn that she saw a suncheeka moving about in the crowd. Though she never got chance to see for certain, Zari knew who it was. Really? She could take care of herself, if it wasn't Belias watching over her shoulder like an oversized hawk there was someone else looking out for her well being. Still, it wasn't if they meant any harm.

Eventually she found herself wandering back to where she'd started off, and figuring that Belias would probably turn up again soon she sat down on the remains of an old wall to wait for him.

(( The suncheeka is just an old family friend of Zari's, kind of. He's of no relevance. X3 I just needed something for Zari to get a little prickly about. ))

[MythicDusk]

Belias eventually emerged from the barbers, scratching at his now freshly shaven chin, his hair cut and groomed. He looked better, his eyes weren't hidden behind his hair, he missed his beard, but he could live without it. Silently, he padded towards Zari, softly draping his arms over her shoulders. "Better now?" He grinned, a half-mouthed, heavily lopsided grin that forced his slight dimple in his left cheek to show. He then softly nuzzled her neck. "'Re you okay?" He asked, concern edging its way into his voice.

[Mousen]

Zari smiled as Belias came towards her, atleast he looked a lot less like a tramp now. "Definitely." She answered.  "You've gone from creepy hobo to just plain creepy now, that's quite an achievement." Zari could never leave him be, could she? "I mean, you look great." She added sheepishly after a moment or two.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine. It's just that I'm not helpless you know? There's plenty of people that think I can't take care of myself, which is clearly not the case. Morte, Silas, Rhett, Taurmynt, Cualli, Woody, the list is practically endless! Sure I've gotten into trouble before, loads of times, but there's never been anything I couldn't handle. I mean except for the guador thing, but that was like a freak incident. You know I can take care of myself, right Belias?" She bit her bottom lip, moving away from the battleheart ever so slightly.

[MythicDusk]

Belias nodded softly, his brow rising slightly as he stepped over the wall to stand in front of her, unobstructed. "Of course I know you can take care of yourself, I just don't want to see you hurt, like me." He gave her a slightly sad smile. "It only takes one slip up. I've been fighting for other people for the past two years, and I only had a few scars. then, that Garudor happened and now look." He gave a soft chuckle, glancing down at his heavily scarred lower arm and missing ring finger. Slowly, he took one of her hands in his own, damaged hand. e then looked up to her. "I fight for you so you don't get hurt. I know you can take care of yourself, Zari. But you don't have to." He lovingly pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on top of her head. "Let me fight for the both of us."

[Mousen]

"...Belias," she began heavily. "That's really sweet of you, but I can't just rely on someone else all the time." Zari pulled her hand from beneath his. "It sounds silly, but I need to be independent. I don't want anyone to fight for me, I want to fight for myself. If I slip up, it'll be my slip up. If I die, I don't want it to rest on anyone's conscious. I'm not saying anything I'm just going to drop down dead, but I'd like to know that you'd eventually pick yourself up if something did happen to me. It's not as if we live very dangerous existences, but with our luck..." For a minute, there was a half hearted smile on her face but it soon disappeared. "I'm sorry, but if any battles, metaphorical or not come up, you can bet everything you have that I'll be taking part. ... Whether you care to stand by me or not. If you want someone that's just going to be a pet, to let you just be the big scary dragon protecting the delicate princess, well. You know better than I, that you've got the wrong girl."

[MythicDusk]

Belias was about to say something, his mouth opening, when a song struck up that he recognised, with acoustic guitar being played along, a young woman sitting on a derelict portion of the wall, a guitar case sitting infront of her with the old, ratty guitar resting on her lap as she strummed and sang. Her soft voice seemed to weave through the air as her fingers danced across the strings.

"Come and sit with me and talk a while,
Let me see that pretty little smile,
Put your troubles into a little pile,
And I will sort them out for you."

Belias then looked down at Zari and without a single word, pulled her close as the final few chords were played and the woman sang.

"I'll fall in love with you,
I think I'll marry you."

Belias then looked down at the dancer in his arms and playfully bumped his forehead against hers. "I'll tell you the truth, there is no other way I would have it. After all, lots of girls walk around in tears, but that's not for you." He then softly tugged her hand. "C'mon, let's go back to mine, it's going to be dark soon." He gave her a soft kiss on the forehead and held his hand out to her, inviting her to take it.

[Mousen]

Her expression softened, and she sighed quietly. Zari let Belias pull her close, she wasn't one to be swayed by simple gestures or well-timed songs sang by street performers. She could only hope that Belias wasn't just going to ignore what she said, all hell might just break loose then. For whatever reason, she was on a short fuse that particular night.

"I'll tell you the truth, there is no other way I would have it. After all, lots of girls walk around in tears, but that's not for you."

Zari smiled, tilting her head up to look at the human form battleheart properly. "Glad that's settled." She took his hand. "And if you call me anything to do with any kind of flora whatsoever..." Zari added as they started to walk back, her threat obviously an empty one.

_{((Fail. XD; ))}

[MythicDusk]

"Is my little desert flower missing out on some water?" Belias teased good-naturedly, he then skipped forward a few steps, grinning back at her. His silly, ugly, and somewhat frightening half-grin that lit up his eyes and made his face seem horribly lopsided. Eventually they arrived at his home, and Belias opened the door, leading zari in and flicking on lights as he went, he then stopped at a mirror, the first one he had seen since his fight. His face dropped and his eyes filled with tears.

He was a monster. He placed his injured hand beside the mirror, slowly running a finger down his large scar that tore his face. "Tell me honestly, Zari. How can you face being seen with me in public?" He croaked softly. He knew it was a big scar but this scar...This scar tore his face in two.

((Beli ain't happy :B))

[Mousen]

Zari frowned when she caught the look on Belias' face and immediately knew there was two ways in which she could tackle this issue; being tactful, or being Zari. Well, her bother always had told her to be herself. The young woman scoffed slightly, rolling her eyes. "Easily, Belias. I love you and for all I care you could look like you were run over by a tractor, and admittedly, some days you do look pretty close to that." She smiled, looking up at him. "I don't care. Honestly, it does not bother me. So stop the 'oh I'm a monster, you deserve much better' speech right here, Mister, because you're starting to sound like a teenage romance novel and I tell you, that's the one thing I will not stand for."