Brawling and Bawling[Ayero/Job]

Ayero cursed as her knee made contact with something metallic, wondering in brief confusion what she had hit if the man wasn’t wearing any armor. Looking down she recalls the metal cloth the man wore around his abdomen and her eyes flare up in anger in time for stumble backwards and avoid the fist to the gut. Unfortunately for her, she was still in the range of Liber’s kick which made contact with her ribcage, breaking two of the woman’s ribs as she was sent backwards, ultimately crashing into the counter. Momentarily stunned, the Fanalis woman struggles to climb from the wreckage that the impact of her body had created and pauses as she feels the cold sensation of ale poured onto her head followed by Liber’s face landing in her now wet chest.


Jolting her head up with a scowl, Ayero quickly pushes the Fanalis man off of her with both hands. But the nasty expression quickly fades as she meets with the disappointed gaze of the elderly woman and looks down in a bit of embarrassment and shame, the cold drink having sobered her somewhat momentarily. ”Sorry, ma’am…” She mutters, hanging her head like a child who had done something wrong. She casts an apologetic look to the young barmaid and gives the grandma a questioning look. She follows her gaze to see Brutimus’ twitching body, a wave of realization coming over her. Ayero didn’t know that the man was even wanted, but she was able to catch the contextual clues.


Grunting as she pushed herself up, Ayero tried to ignore Liber for the most part as she made her way over to the felled bandit and prodded him with her foot. She was still angry, but thanks to the grandmother’s intervention the fire of her rage had been somewhat smothered.

The cool ale splashing on Liber's face was a stark contrasting difference to the hot cheek that was now beginning to swell from Ayero's first good blow. It would of cause Liber's head to cool off if he hadn't just also almost broken his nose by flying face first into Ayero's breasts. Liber pulled away from her holding a bleeding nose and snapped at the old lady, "Stay out of this! I need to kno-" But the elderly woman would hear nothing of it. She threw the now empty mug in her hand with expert aim. The hollow wood clunked against Liber's forehead and shut him up long enough for him to take a look into her eyes. Suddenly feeling disarmed and disengaged, Liber's posture deflated and he too looked down in shame.

"She started it..." Liber mumbled to himself as he got up and moved over to Brutimus' side as Ayero kicked his defeated form only to get a slightly more energetic twitch before the bandit fell still again. "Looks like...hey, this guy is wanted. Good thing I knocked him out." Liber said passive aggressively claiming that he had been the one to defeat Brutimus. He would then kneel down and try to pick the human up insisting that he carry his body. If Ayero argued, he would bicker with her over it until their voices raised loud enough that the old woman cleared her throat from behind them. At that point, he would agree that they could both carry Brutimus and positioned himself under one of the bandits arms propping him up from one side.

Once they were outside, Liber's slightly sobered up mind tried to make heads or tails of what had transpired between them. At the moment he couldn't even remember what started the whole thing...something about loved ones? Either way, considering his odd mood towards Ayero, Liber assumed that it had been his fault. "I'm sorry..." The apology would come out just loud enough for the fanalis woman to hear.

”I hit him too.” She grunts, glancing over at Liber with a sour look on his face. As Liber knelt down to pick up the ruffian’s body, Ayero protests and makes a move of her own to carry Brutimus, claiming that she should be the one to take him as Liber was drunk. At the old woman’s hinting Ayero relents and compromises with Liber, each Fanalis shouldering either side of the man as they dragged him into the night.


She didn’t plan on saying anything more, but Liber’s soft apology came as a surprise to her. She hadn’t expected him to apologize, but the sincerity of his tone softened her heart. Leaving about a minute of silence between them as she gathers her thoughts, Ayero responds in a low voice of her own.


”When I was young, I lived in the mountains with my family. I was the second oldest of 10 kids. When I was 12….” Her voice suddenly catches in her throat and she swallows the lump that had formed from there mere thought of her brother and the family she left. ”…M..my older brother was captured by slave traders. It broke our family, I couldn’t…I-I left.” She pauses again to bite back tears before continuing. She relays to him the guilt she felt over leaving, how she couldn’t stay in a place like that and about how at times her strong desire for freedom had overshadowed the urge to find her brother. She told him briefly about the caravan, about how she left them and traveled on her own, how she reunited with her brother in Heliohapt during the slave auction only to become separated from him once more in the chaos.


Taking in a deep breath, Ayero prepares for the most painful part of her story. ”About a month ago, I went back to my family’s home to visit. When I got there, they…it…i…it was all gone. Bandits came, I don’t…why? They had nothing, they…the houses were burned, the blood…I-I…” She keeps her face pointed forward, desperately focusing on anything other than Liber’s crimson locks in her periphery as tears stream freely down her face.

When Liber apologized he had been expected a well deserved cold shoulder. He had built a wall around himself when she had upset him the night of the ball, despite the woman's apology. What reason would Ayero have to react any differently? But to his surprise, Ayero began recounting the tale of her childhood. At first, it all seemed very unrelated. Liber would have though she were simply drunk if it weren't for the sobering tone of smothered pain her voice held. As Ayero went on it became more and more clear that this was a heavy subject for her. One which claimed an immovable spot deep within her heart where it eternally burned away a hole that would not be filled by normal means.

Finally, Ayero came to the details of where she had been during her trip and what had taken place. It all fell into place in Liber's addled mind and even with lingering intoxication running through his blood, the fanalis man realized that this must have been what the fight started over. Liber would open his mouth to speak but quickly realized he had nothing he could say. His lips closed again and he too looked forward not sure what to say without trampling on Ayero's feelings. There would have been silence between them if not for Brutimus regaining consciousness just in time to hear Ayero's heart breaking story. Even the egotistical bandit was brought to tears and he sobbed softly all the way to the guard house where the two fanalis turned him over.

It was there that Liber decided to part ways with Ayero for the night. But he would not do so on these terms. The fanalis man placed a hand on Ayero's shoulder from behind and turned her into an embracing hug. "I'm sorry..." He said again, the words more genuine than ever as the warmth of his body spread into her through the hug. Liber's arms squeezed her gently and then he let go. "I was wrong." He admitted. Liber wasn't 100% sure on what he was wrong about due to his hazed memory, but he knew that he had been.

Ayero lapses into silence shortly after conveying what had happened during her trip. She couldn’t say more if she wanted to, for her voice began to crack and slur. She doesn’t even notice the soft weeping of the man she and Liber were hauling along the darkened streets, concentrating hard on reigning in her feelings and fighting to keep them from overwhelming her. Right now, she had a powerful urge to climb back into bed and never let go of Vincenzo, the only relic she had left of her family.


After unceremoniously dumping the bandit at the guard station, Ayero turns to leave without so much as a parting word to Liber. It wasn’t out of her animosity towards him, but rather she was more focused on returning to her inn and her brother. She makes a soft noise of surprise when she feels his hand at her shoulder, turning her head to gaze at him in her inebriate curiosity with misty eyes.  ”Ah—“ Her body stiffens, startled with the sudden apology and gesture from the man she had been fighting just minutes ago. Biting her lip, the distraught woman relaxes her body into the hug, finding that it was actually somewhat of a comfort. As they part, she lets out the breath she didn’t know she was holding in and lowers her head. ”Goodnight.” She mutters, an edge of a sob in her voice as she turns on her heel and makes her way back down the road.


[Exit]

"Night..." It was almost painful to watch Ayero go. Liber wanted to do or say something but he couldn't fathom what kind of words he could impart upon her that would make much of a difference. As the fanalis man turned and began his own lonely walk home, he sighed and reflected on what had happened between them. Perhaps keeping Ayero at arms length was a bad idea after all. The wall he had built led to an unjust insincerity that brought fresh and agonizing memories about. Her hurt was much more recent than his own and yet he had torn it to the surface anyways. Sure, his transgressions had been unintentional, but that didn't make him feel any less terrible for them.

When Liber arrived at his inn he spent the rest of the night tossing and turning in bed as he wrestled with the idea of letting his cautions against Ayero go. One on hand, it was probably the right thing to do...but it meant letting her get closer to his own heart wounds. Liber fell asleep torn, unable to make a decision yet.