The Walk Home [Liber/Private]

”You’re so nice. Why are you so nice?” Clearly drunk, the red headed woman leans her weight onto Liber and giggles a little as he escorts her out of the palace and onto the streets of Remano. After the events at the ball, Ayero had taken it upon herself to try and numb the troubling feelings that the murders had kicked up. She had succeeded in drowning out any negative emotions with good wine, but at the same time had become a burden to an acquaintance who happened to be in attendance. Luckily for her she wouldn’t have to stumble her way home as the man’s good conscience led him to see her back to the inn safely. ”You’re so nice.” She repeats again before pausing. ”You’re helping me and I don’t even know anything about you...”


”Ugh, it’s so hot out here…” A cool night breeze gently wafted over the city, but all that the Fanalis woman could feel was the heat of her own body due to her inebriated state. In an effort to alleviate the uncomfortable feeling, she lets the nearly empty wine bottle clatter to the ground and reaches back behind her neck with her now free hand in a clumsy attempt to undo the ties of her dress. Unused to wearing such restrictive clothing, her patience had worn thin with her reduced movement and the now uncomfortable fabric.

Liber rolled his eyes as the drunken Ayero stumbling along despite being held up insisted that he was nice and then asked why that was so. The fanalis was carrying her by one of her arms slung across his shoulders as he let the woman perform something that resembled walking alongside him. With a sigh, the man looked forward and spoke through a slightly mocking smirk. "I'm nice because I'm secretly a figment of your imagination~" He teased, but it didn't seem like Ayero had really heard him since she shortly insisted once more that he was indeed nice. Liber found her next comment to be a bit backwards as well. What did it matter what she knew about him? It was more so strange that he was helping her when he knew letting about the warrior woman. Perhaps that was what she had meant? "I've a debt to you after all. Isn't it natural that I lend you a hand when I can?" Liber was referring to the time Ayero nursed him from the brink of death from heavy burns and brought him to a magician to complete the rest of the healing.

As they got further and further from the palace, Liber realized that he had no idea where Ayero was staying. "Do you remember which way to your i- Stop that!" Asking the intoxicated woman if she knew were to go was interrupted by Liber swatting at her hand to prevent it from undoing her dress. "Just tell me where to go and you can strip down all you want once we get there." Giving another sigh, Liber tried to get the woman to tell him where she was staying. Hopefully she could remember in her state, but if not then he would simply have to take her back to the inn he was staying at.

Ayero lets out a low whine, similar to that of a child when being told that they weren’t allowed to do something. ”That’s not….faiiiiirrrrr! You wouldn’t understand cos your nipple is exposed. I bet you’re nice and cool!” She shoots her own words back at him, though they made less sense. Ayero didn’t seem to notice though, and if she did then she didn’t mind. As stern and unyielding as she often came across, some would be surprised at how much she loosened up under the influence of alcohol.


Scoffing at the notion that she wouldn’t remember the way to her inn, Ayero pauses suddenly as she realizes that she had indeed forgotten where she had been staying. ”Uhh…” She whips her head around, finding herself a bit dizzy from the sudden movements and leans on Liber a bit more as she gathers her bearings and points exaggeratedly in a random direction. ”This way, I’m sure of it.” She lapses into silence for a few moments before speaking again.


”You know, I always thought that needle thingy you did was sort of interesting. Most Fanalis are like me and fight with swords or fists…how did you end up using something like needles?” She holds her free hand in front of her and brings her thumb and forefinger close enough to the point where they’re nearly touching, the space between the two meant to mimic the thinness of the weapons he used.

The childish outburst from Ayero almost startled Liber and it likely would have if he hadn't seen for himself just how much the woman had to drink back at the ball. He simply laughed her comeback off and shot one of his own at the drunken fanalis. "Ah, but this isn't my real nipple. I simply wear a suit fashioned to look like a nipple. I'm actually quite hot as well so you're just going to have to bare with it until I can get you somewhere private. After that, take off all the clothes you want." Not thinking about what kind of consequences that could have later, Liber urged Ayero to wait before undressing herself. Instead, he wanted her to focus on the matter of where to go.

Stopping with her, Liber watched as Ayero glanced around looking hardly sure of herself. The fanalis man rose a lone brow as Ayero's quick look in a direction resulted in her becoming a bit unbalanced. His body was there as a firm rest she could lean against however and thankfully she did not fall over. Maroon eyes followed the over done point in a direction where Ayero seemed to insist the place she was staying was. Following the direction with his gaze, Liber knew from his knowledge of Reim's streets that the only things in that direction were a market district and a few slums. He wasn't about to carry her inebriated self into that kind of neighborhood, nor did he know of any decent inns she could possibly find there.

Deciding that asking her for directions was a futile effort, Liber decided that he'd simply take her back to his inn room. "Alright, alright. I know a shortcut." He said before turning down a street in the opposite direction of where she had pointed. After a silence, a question came from Ayero which Liber found difficult to answer...truthfully anyways. "I already told you, I used to do acupuncture. I got very familiar with bodies of men and women and learned how to use the needles to do harm as well as good. How about you? Where did you learn to use a sword?"

Ayero’s face scrunches up in distaste when Liber insists that his exposed nipple is fake. How stupid did he think she was?! ”Don’t screw with me! That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard… …I’ll prove it.” She tilted her face up towards his and wore a pouty expression while scolding him before her free hand moves to poke at his nipple. The frown on her face turns to sudden surprise, her eyes reflecting shock as her mouth hangs open in comical amazement. ”Wh…you’re telling the truth!” It was unclear whether she had decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, or if she was really that inebriated.

She  doesn’t seem to mind his “shortcut”, simply grunting in response. ”Ohh…that’s right. Uh-huh.” She nods, pretending as if she had known that all along when in reality she couldn’t think that far back with her head spinning. ”I learned from this guy…he gave me a sword. I broke it though, and now I have a new one, see…” It’s almost as if she struggles to recall such distant memories, or even recent ones. In an attempt to show him her “new sword” which he had already seen, she grasps at the side of her hip where the weapon usually rested. After a few attempts and coming up empty handed, she sighs and remembers that she didn’t carry the blade with her. The though still made her feel a little uneasy, and she moves closer to the Fanalis man.

”Umm…I was in a caravan. When I was younger, and he taught me. He was a Fanalis guy, really nice. We would practice a lot.” She adds in her thoughts as they come to her, realizing that she couldn’t remember the face of the young man who had served as her guardian and teacher for several years of her life. ”I traveled a lot. Did you travel? Or did you always stay in Reim?” She looks up at him with a curious yet earnest gaze, lips parted slightly.

Liber allowed the amusement he felt show plainly on his face in the form of a smile and held back laughter. Ayero was a lot more fun to tease with a bottle of wine in her. In fact, he wasn't sure if he would dare it in the face of a sobered up Ayero. Perhaps it would be worth sharing a few drinks with her some time in the future. But for now, Liber was content to listen to her short story of the person who taught her the sword. It seemed as though she were having trouble recalling the details and Liber wasn't sure if it was because of the drink running through her system or if had simply been a long time ago. The fanalis man didn't pry or try to coax more information out of her though, she'd answered his question fully enough. He hadn't seen an extensive display of her swordsmanship skill, but it was still a bit surprising to hear that she had learned from someone in a caravan.

While it wasn't uncommon for caravans to hire mercenaries to protect them from thieves and bandits, the way Ayero spoke of the man made it seem as though the man who taught her was a regular member of the trade group. Liber was pondering what kind of life circumstances could lead a capable swordsman to turn to a life of peddling goods across vast distances when Ayero asked of his own travels. Raising an eye brow at her yet again, Liber turned his gaze forward and spoke in a reminding voice, "You know, I already told you before. In the wagon on the way to Reim..." After a pause it would be clear that she had forgotten in her current state. Liber decided to humor her with a recounting anyways so as to pass the time on the way to his inn.

"I have traveled to many places. I was raised in Reim, but I spent many years away from home. I visited the republic of Balbadd, the Kou empire, and the pious lands of Heliouhapt."

After a few minutes of speaking about the things he'd seen in these foreign lands, they would finally arrive at the inn Liber had been staying. Greetings the innkeep who was still at the desk but nodding off to sleep himself, Liber hauled Ayero up a flight of stairs and helped her to his room on the second floor. The man opened the door and guided Ayero to the bed nearby before letting her down and turning to close the door. "Well, here we are." Liber was intending to let Ayero sleep her intoxication off while he would make do with the floor or a chair depending on how he felt. "You should probably get some rest." Liber said just before turning around to face his guest, hoping to usher her off to sleep.

The inebriated Fanalis woman giggles as she stumbles through the motions of walking up the stairs and into the room with Liber’s guidance. ”Finally! My feet hurt so bad. Stupid shoes.” Sitting down on the bed a little lopsided, the young woman eagerly kicks off the heeled shoes she’d worn for the ball. She can’t remember a time in her life when she had to don footwear so uncomfortable, usually choosing her clothing and accessories for their functionality in battle and traveling. At least the shoes Ariella had graciously lent her looked nice. Looking down at her swollen red feet, she sighs before pulling her legs onto the bed with her.


”It’s still too hot…aren’t buildings supposed to be cooler?” She groans, not bothering to stop and think if what she said made sense. ”Oh well.” She shrugs, reaching behind her neck to undo the ties that held the upper part of her dress in place. Either she recalled that Liber said she would be free to strip once indoors, or she simply didn’t care. Either way, Ayero didn’t expect him to have a problem with it.

Liber turned around to find himself observing Ayero in the process of removing her clothing and for a moment he stood there shocked. "Why am I surprised..." The man thought to himself with a sigh before bringing his palm up to his face. Ayero had expressed her desire to disrobe earlier and Liber already had to stop her from doing so once this evening. The naked body of a beautiful woman was no rare sight to the former sex slave and he'd been so desensitized from overexposure that it was natural as could be. So when Liber removed the palm from his face and his eyes fell upon the half naked form of Ayero's voluptuous curves, the fanalis man was virtually unphased. It wasn't that he didn't find her pleasing to the eye, but simply that it took more than the temptation of delicious looking flesh to tempt this man's passions into a blaze.

Attempting to be somewhat gentlemanly and tactful, Liber looked away but no blushing graced his cheeks as one might expect. This could possibly give Ayero the wrong idea as though the man had been embarrassed by her body and had to look away. In truth, Liber was simply hoping once naked the girl would lay down and conceal herself under the covers or pass out so he could do so for her. His expression was that of a tired parent of caretaker exhausted from dealing with a troublesome child. Too bad it was turned away from the fanalis woman preventing her from seeing how he really felt at the moment.

”Ahh, much better!” The Fanalis woman sighs in relief as she feels the constraints of the fabric fall away, revealing her nude flesh. Oddly enough, the inebriated red head doesn’t seem to mind exposing herself in front of an acquaintance. ”Huh?” She tilts her head while making a confused noise as Liber turns away, indeed misinterpreting it as shyness. A drunken thought settles in her mind and she leans forward on the bed, using the sides of her arms to push her bosom together.


”Li~ber~ What’s wrong? Why don’t you come and play with meee~” She giggles, looking up at him through her dark lashes. ”You’ve been so nice to me, let me reward you~”

Up to this point, Liber didn't have any real issue with Ayero's behavior. Sure, she was a handful, but drunk people often were to sober bystanders. Liber had already accepted that things would be as such when he determined that Ayero needed an escort to safety for the night. Babysitting was one thing, but the sultry tone of Ayero's advances had crossed a line. The fanalis fists that had been hanging loose by Liber's sides slowly clenched into tight balls as he turned back to face her. Maroon eyes that appeared to glow with their bright hue burned a glare into Ayero's own eyes and out the back of her skull. He didn't even so much as glance down at the tantalizing breasts pressed together oh so perfectly. A fire that was far from sexual in nature burned in the man's gaze.

"Stop it."

The usually friendly voice was sharp with anger and cold as the frigid northern lands of Imuchakk. Liber held this star and the stoic expression that was just millimeters away from being a scowl. Ayero had stepped on a proverbial land mine by triggering one of Liber's greatest pet peeves. They hardly knew each other and yet she wanted to entice him into laying with her for the night. After years of being forced to sleep with strangers and having to pretend to like it, sexual encounters without spark and passion of love were a taboo for the former slave.

Finally, Liber took a deep breath that shook as it left his body but in doing so carried all the tension and anger out of him with it. The man's hands unclenched and he closed his eyes before opening them and walking towards Ayero. Liber grabbed the bed sheets and pulled them up and around the girl covering her body up and knelt down in front of her. With a softer face this time, he would meet her eyes again only now it was to express his apologies. "I'm sorry...It's not you. I just..." Liber looked away and fought back painful memories. "I hardly know you." He said, hoping that this would help her understand why he was opposed to a night of carnal fun with such a gorgeous woman.

Her girlish grin fades into a look of confusion upon hearing his icy tone, and again to surprise when he turns his glare onto her. Unsure of what to do or even what she had done to upset him, the young woman lets her arms slacken and edges her gaze to the side and away from those intense eyes. Through her teasing, the inebriated woman hadn’t take note of Liber’s body language in response to her suggestive proposal. With her clouded judgment and hazy mind, Ayero was confused as to why Liber had so starkly rejected her advances. The Fanalis woman didn’t have much experience dealing with rejection, hence why she shifted awkwardly under his eyes and suddenly felt rather silly.


”S…sorry…” She mutters out, her cheeks flushing a deep red from the combination of the drink in her system and her own embarrassment. She watches him carefully as the visual signs of anger seem to leave his body as he approaches her. Pressing the bed sheet to her chest gratefully, she finally looks up into his eyes once more, surprised yet again to find an apology. Even still, Ayero was confused. Sex itself wasn’t a big deal to her, but perhaps something had happened to Liber to create such an aversion to the idea of laying with a near-stranger. Her stomach drops and suddenly feels worse, biting her lower lip gently.




Even drunk, Ayero could tell from the soft yet uncomfortable look on Liber’s face that something was on the man’s mind. ”…Do you want to talk about it?” She asks softly, hoping that she wouldn’t provoke him further with her words.

Liber could tell that Ayero was feeling some kind of reaction to his outburst which he had taken to be guilt. Grateful that she seemed to understand she had asked something unreasonable of him, Liber's condition relaxed a bit further. He was glad that she now held herself covered and respected him even when he almost snapped on her, but Liber was not out of the woods yet. He hoped she would just let sleeping dogs lie and was caught off guard when she asked if he wanted to talk about it. Liber's eyes narrowed as he stared off into the distance. He was already trying not to think about those days where torture and shackles were a common occurrence for the fanalis man and here she was asking if he wanted to talk about them. The former slave grimaced and shook his head silently before giving a painful stare downward to the floor.

Liber had left that life behind him. Yes. It was over now. It had been over ever since he wrung the neck of the hag that owned him. Liber could still remember how the hot tears ran down his face as he did the act. The woman had fed him and raised him from childhood and there was part of him that had seen her as a mother. But there was no denying that she used him like an object. That she stole his only love away. That she tortured him on the regular to ensure his obedience. It had to be done, or at least Liber told himself as much and once it was done he experienced a taste of freedom for the first time. It would be years later before he gained true freedom, but the fanalis needed that buffer period to adjust to life outside the House of Carnal Pleasures. Once his ties to the assassination organization were cut, Liber had nothing else holding him down and he had lived life for himself and those he wanted to protect. Gone were they days that he was owned by another.

But still, Ayero seemed desperate to know the reason why Liber had such an adverse reaction to her advances and part of him began to feel guilty for it. Had he hurt her self confidence? Had he somehow trampled on her own feelings? Looking back to Ayero as she asked him again, Liber gave pause as a tug of war began in his heart. Part of him wanted to tell someone. He hadn't told anyone about it in years. But the other part feared that speaking about it would bring the slave living inside of him back to the surface. After a passing silence, Liber eventually decided that he was a slave no more. That side of him was dead and gone...forever. Or at least this is what he told himself. Thinking that Ayero was too drunk to likely remember a long tale in the morning anyways, Liber finally agreed albeit reluctantly.

"If...you really want to know..." Liber stood and then took a seat next to Ayero on the bed. The man looked in Ayero's direction as he spoke, but he could not bring himself to look her in the eyes as he did. Fearful that his own eyes would reflect the weak and helpless slave he had once been. "I was born into slavery." This was not quite true, but then again Liber had no memories before being enslaved as he was just a baby when his parents were killed and he was taken by slavers. "The woman who owned me rose me like a child of her own for a time...but once I began to come of age she started training me to be a slave of the bedroom. As a young boy, I was taught the arts of how to pleasure people of all types and genders. More than half of my life was spent as a whore for hire in one of my mistress' establishments."

Liber was trying to briefly skim over the details but, once he got started, the side of him that wanted to tell someone about his tragic past won out in the tug of war. His voice became quieter and his face more pained as the minutes turned to dozens and then hours. Liber told her everything. The happy years when he was treated like a beloved son and had a simple life doing chores. Then the decline into debauchery and the torture sessions the break his spirit and convince him that he was just as weak as any normal human. How they had castrated his mind into believing that this was simply his lot in life and crushed any aspirations to dream of something more. He told her about the training he received and how he was sent to work at the House of Carnal Pleasures. About the old men who favored him when he was still quite young and the way the abused him, sometimes violently. About the disgusting women who were sometimes beautiful on the outside, but all always rotten at the core, and how they would demand his services all night long.

He also told her about the man from heliohapt, Yhamin, who Liber had fallen in love with. A fellow man-whore, Yhamin shared Liber's pains and joys. The fanalis man spoke on how his time with Yhamin made everything else bearable and for a time, he held a smile on his face as he spoke of the past. But the smile soon faded when he got to how Yhamin began teaching Liber how to fight and his true strength as a fanalis in secret. How the mistress found out about this and punished them be separating the two lovers. "After that, the only thing that kept me going was a perpetual flow of wine and drugs to dull the pain. It wasn't until a few years later that I...claimed my freedom using the strength Yhamin taught me that I had. After that, I left Reim for many years."

When Liber was done, he closed his eyes tight and held back tears to no avail. A few salty drops streamed down the slave's face. A boy again. No longer a man. Liber leaned against Ayero and silently sobbed. If she said nothing else and left him this way, he would fall asleep against her like this, ironically laying with the woman in a very different way than she had initially hoped he would.

Had she been sober, Ayero would have stopped prodding Liber after the first indication that he didn’t want to share his past. She was normally respectful of what other people chose to keep private, she herself having trouble sharing some parts of her past. But the intoxicated woman’s curiosity pushed her to prod him further, albeit gently with another request. To her surprise, the Fanalis man relented.


Nothing could have braced Ayero for the painful tale Liber recounted. She remains silent as he speaks, giving him all the time he needs and listening intently with an earnest look in her eye. She was shocked to learn that Liber had been a former slave, especially one used for pleasure. Her eyes left his form and swept to the ground, feeling a low flame of anger simmer inside her. Slavery was something unforgivable in her eyes, and her heart went out to Liber for all of the suffering he was force to endure. She then realizes how deeply her simple advances impacted the man, and her stomach drops to the point where she almost feels as if she’d become ill. Feelings of regret and guilt over the painful emotions and memories she had brought up in him swirled in her mind, but she forced them down with the bile. This was about Liber, not her.


Calming her growing inebriated rage, the Fanalis woman does her best to focus on Liber. She had no doubt that retelling his past was difficult and painful, but the words seemed to flow a bit more easily from his lips after a while. She has no words for him when his story draws to a close, unable to find something suitable to say. But when a few tears slide down his cheeks and the Fanalis male leans against her, Ayero’s maternal instincts began to kick in. It wasn’t a side that she showed often, at least at plainly as one would think.


With slow movements she slides her arms around his back, resting them there and rubbing in gentle circles in an attempt to soothe. Biting her lip, she wracks her brain for something to say but is too wary of anything she comes up with to verbalize it. At the feel of wet tears against the bare skin of her shoulder, her arms tighten a bit and a reflexive feeling to comfort overcomes her. In that moment she felt as if she held one of her crying siblings in her arms. ”You’re safe here. I’ll protect you.” They were the murmured words of a heavily drunk woman, but Ayero meant them. Shortly after she speaks, her eyes fall closed and her head tilts back as she finally succumbs to sleep.

Liber was out before Ayero ever spoke her final words prior to passing into slumber, but the sentiment was clear from how she wrapped her arm around him a short while earlier. When Liber awoke in the morning, it was to a soft embrace of a still sleeping Ayero. The fanalis man's eyes blinked open a bit close to her breasts for comfort and a blush actually dusted his cheeks. Not because he was inches away from such a bountiful bosom, but because this was a first for him. The women he entertained in the House of Carnal Pleasures were the ones wanting to bury their faces against his chest. Never before had he felt the peaceful hold of a mother and Ayero was providing this in a sense. Liber almost wanted to close his eyes and go back to sleep, but his mind insisted that he should get up and put some distance between himself and the naked woman lest she decide that she wanted to "play" again. Liber only hoped that such behavior had been due to her inebriation.

The lean assassin slipped free of Ayero's grasp and quietly got out of bed where he would slap his cheeks to both wake himself further and urge the flushed heat to leave them. Liber made his way over to a wash bin in the room and cleaned his face before heading downstairs to commission the inn keep for some breakfast even though it was already shortly past noon. By the time he returned upstairs, Ayero would still be sleeping but soon to wake if the way she was stirring slightly was any clue. Liber had gotten enough food for two and moved to the table by the window taking a seat for himself. The meal he had procured was simple enough. Bread, cheese, and various fruits. A humble ration if he'd ever had one, but nutritional enough to start the day on.

When Ayero rose from her sleep, she'd find the sun's rays spreading around her but not quite blinding her eyes as Liber sat in front of the window silhouetting it's light. "Afternoon..." Liber said with a smirk, pretending as though nothing had happened last night in hopes that Ayero was too drunk to recall what they'd discussed. "There is some food here if you're hungry. Basin's in the corner if you need a wash." He then looked away out the window not really wanting to meet the woman's eyes due to the weight of what he'd shared with her last night.

Grunting as her shifting movements became more numerous, Ayero finally stirred to consciousness. At first she simply remained stationary on the bed, but after a few moments confusion began to set it. Her eyes rolled all around the room, wondering why it didn’t exactly have the same feel as it did the past few nights she’s spent in it. Moving her head to the side, she winces at the sudden heavy throb that feels like her brain pounding against her skull. Wincing, the Fanalis woman scans the room once more and realizes that this was not her room. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Ayero attempts to remember the events that led her to be here but all she can remember are snippets of last night.


She remembered parts of the ball, but Liber ushering her drunken self to the safety of his inn room was something she did not recall. But strangely enough, the most vivid part she was able to remember was Liber’s story of his past. Perhaps it simply struck a deep chord with the woman. Frowning, she sits up only for a sudden wave of nausea to assault her stomach. Fighting the urge to be sick back down, she places a hand atop her stomach and squints once her eyes land upon Liber’s form. For a minute she’s not sure what she should say.


”Afternoon?” She repeats, finding it strange that she’d slept in so long. ”Uh…no thank you. I’d better not.” She shakes her head slowly, rubbing a hand over her stomach. She goes to move the blanket out of her way but pauses after revealing the first few inches of skin, realizing that she was topless. With an exasperated sigh, the Fanalis woman reaches to tie her dress hastily back in place before letting the blanket slide off of her. While she didn’t give it much thought, it appeared that she and Liber didn’t get too intimate as this scene would suggest. After all, much of her body was still encased in the tight fitting dress.



Pushing herself into a sitting position on the bed, Ayero’s eyes meet with Liber’s. ”I’m sorry if I was a little rowdy last night. I can be a bit of a handful when I drink too much, or so I’m told…” She apologizes, a sheepish chuckle in her voice. She pauses, wondering if she should bring up anything that transpired last night. ”Would you mind telling me what happened last night after the ball? I’m afraid I don’t remember much.” Her voice sounds strained with fatigue and she winces every so often when the pounding in her head comes particularly hard. But she hoped that Liber would be able to fill in the gasps of her knowledge.

After Liber looked away Ayero asked him what had happened last night and the fanalis swiftly popped a piece of cheese into his mouth which he chewed slowly to give him time to think about out to respond. "...*gulp*....You were a bit childish and it was a lot like babysitting, but in my experience that is to be expected of someone who's had as much to drink as you did. Don't worry about it." He stubbornly kept his eyes looking out the window but they weren't focused on anything other than visions from last night. "Not much happened after the ball. I tried bringing you to your inn, but you didn't seem to remember the way. So I brought you here instead and gave you the bed for the night. You seemed pretty eager to undress, but thankfully your top was as far as you got before going to sleep." A lie that wasn't quite fully a lie. Liber ended his recap of the prior night's events there and left out the details of what had happened after Ayero began taking her dress off.

Popping a piece of bread into his mouth now, along with a grape to sweeten the flavor, Liber leaned back in the chair and continued to look out the window pretending that he was fixated on some scene playing out in the city streets below.

She listens to his recap, quirking a brow when there’s no mention of the story he had shared. But she couldn’t blame him, she wouldn’t want to reiterate a more painful part of her past if she didn’t have to. She noticed that Liber hadn’t met her eyes throughout the entire explanation and wondered if it had anything to do with the feelings she had stirred up in him last night. Either way, she felt as if it was not her place to ask nor to linger any longer than she had to. Standing a bit shakily, the woman steadies herself and located her discarded heels, deciding that she’d rather walk barefoot than with the painful torture devices on her swollen feet.


”I apologize for my behavior and I thank you for your kind actions, Liber.” She gives him the most proper response her hazy mind could produce before making her way towards the door and giving pause before she opens it. ”I’m…leaving for a trip to the mountains shortly, but perhaps when I return you will allow me to treat you to a drink as thanks. I’ll control myself this time.” She adds lightly, hoping to lift the unsettling mood slightly before departing.


[Exit]

Liber was struggling with a swirling mix of confusion as clashing emotions bounced around in his heart making his breast tight and this body tense. He wondered if he was being rude to Ayero and weighed that against how to wrestle the thoughts of previously long forgotten memories back into the dark depths they had been locked away within before. He stopped leaning back in the chair when she thanked him for is kindness, but Liber didn't turn away from the window still. "Don't mention it." The tone of his voice carefully crafted to sound somewhat cheerful. Getting this words out seemed to help Liber relax a bit and a deep breath calmed his strained body as he head Ayero explain she would be out of town for a bit but asked if they could share drinks again when she returned. Not wanting her to leave thinking he was on bad terms with her, Liber finally turned to face the woman just before she left and smiled brightly, "Sure, just don't blame me if I run your pockets dry. I hope they're deep." He teased, implying that he might just drink her into debt if she let him.

When the door closed and Ayero was gone, Liber kept his smile and stared at the door until she would be well on her way. It was like he was a statue. But at last Liber sighed again and the life drained from his smile. The man closed his eyes and leaned back whilst rubbing the bridge of his nose. He was fond of Ayero before last night, but now he felt like he needed to keep his distance from her and yet the man didn't want to be rude in doing so. When she returned for those drinks, Liber would have to be far more careful about how he handled his liquor than his teasing suggested.