“I won’t be here to follow up. Headin’ back to the ‘Wastes so, just take it easy.” The asura waved once more before showing herself out, closing the door with a snap. Nova waited for a moment before she went to throw the ice off, but found she was unable to move it. 

“Let it go,” she growled softly.

“Tsk, tsk,” hummed the voice as its body materialized, wisps of shadow dropping off the partially-armoured frame of Arturius. He continued to hold the ice at her shoulder, towering over her as she continued to sit on the edge of the bed. “You heard the doc’. Ice and rest.”

He released his hand and Nova continued to hold the ice once again on her own. He smirked at her before sauntering over to the table and pulling his jerkin on, strapping everything in place. 

“It’s just a few days,” he mused. Nova sighed loudly and he chuckled in reply. 

“There isn’t much going on anyway; you’ve given your people their tasks for the week, and I’m sure you can do less just once.You have subordinates for a reason. Get that cranky house cat to take care of some things while you relax.”

Nova let herself fall back onto the bed with a grunt, wincing as the heated pain shot up her neck. “Fine,” she groused.”I’ll stay put like a good patient,” she muttered mockingly. 

“Your stubborn nature is charming,” Arturius replied, “But for once, just allow the world to turn and your body the rest it needs. I’ll treat you to a drink if you can actually manage to stay put.”

“Lovely,” Nova mumbled. She didn’t ask where he was off to; he had his own business to attend to surely. Grunting, she shifted the ice on her shoulder, managing to avoid flinching when Arturius’ appeared above her, leaned over from the other side of the bed. 

“Don’t go running off and making it worse,” he tutted, setting a perfect scowl on his hooded features. Nova resisted the urge to punch upwards at him, the muscles in her arms twitching. 

“I won’t leave the inn,” she growled between gritted teeth. “I have faced much, much worse,” she reminded him as he straightened up and made to take his leave. 

“That I won’t disagree with, but I digress,” the thief chuckled. “It is often the smaller injuries we are not careful with.”

“Afternoon, Blackheart,” mumbled Nova, rolling her eyes. 

“Catch you tonight, boss.”

The door closed and locked, leaving Nova with her continued feelings of frustration. How silly was it that she, the guild leader, found herself strained? Working too much, she reminded herself but nonetheless, here she was... trapped in her inn room with ice to her shoulder. 

Not working hard enough, maybe! yelled her subconscious and she gritted her teeth before relaxing. 

The engineer shifted her head to face the right side more - although she could hear her companion fine, the thief’s voice was muffled in her left ear, and she preferred to hear him clearly. She never had to divulge the fact to him, that she was hard of hearing on that side - for either he already knew, or not - but he always did her the courtesy of sitting to her right anyhow. 

“I bet you were counting the minutes,” she drawled. It was not the first time she had caught him, listening at her back for her breathing and heartbeat to shift. She could feel him grin, a finger sliding up her spine before to her side. He wrapped his arm around her and dragged him more closely against him, his leg sliding over hers. Nova shifted, comfortably turning so that her back pressed to his chest. 

“What a terrible accusation,” Arturius mumbled into her messy silver hair. A finger now casually slipped up to her ribcage. Silence found them for a moment, a relaxing one, and he continued to caress her softly about her breasts. 

“Big day today,” he whispered finally as he dipped his head down to the crook of her neck. He grazed her skin with his teeth. She sighed. 

“Mn.”

He gently nibbled on the spot. “The airships are arriving.” His hand moved boldly to cup a breast and she didn’t complain, even going as far as arching her chest into his palm. 

“About time,” she answered lightly, accepting another kiss, this time on her shoulder. And then another. “It will be a welcomed sight.” She turned in his arms then, facing him fully. Arturius inclined his head back to allow her room. “We’ll be able to find more work there, surely. If not, west again.”

“That I don’t doubt,” Arturius agreed, thumb lightly tracing the engineer’s scars about her face once his hand had made it there between them. 

“What do you doubt then?”

The question brought a wolfish grin to Arturius’ face, but he didn’t reply. Nova stared hard at him and when he had no answer for her, she grabbed his jaw with one hand and pulled him by the chin for a kiss on the lips. His hand slackened and he held her face close, sighing when her tongue flicked against his lips.

“So, nothing?” she asked, tongue teasing his lips again at the end of her question. She rolled onto her back as he leaned into her, and then on top of her. 

“And what if I do?” he whispered, free hand slowly sliding up her thigh. 

Nova smirked and let his question hang, right eyebrow twitching upwards as if she were shrugging. Arturius sighed and dug his fingers into her leg, wanting nothing more than to spread her legs and-

“We should get going.”

He blinked and Nova chuckled, her hand reaching between them beyond their hips. He uttered a soft groan. 

“Remember?” she mumbled coyly, “Big day today.”

She released him, sitting up quickly and forcing him back. His legs kept her in place a moment longer and he grasped her jaw for another swift kiss before he allowed her to retreat, chuckling all the while. 

“You’re becoming a terrible tease, you know,” he uttered. Nova laughed, flashing him a rare grin as she slipped out of the bed and began dressing herself, though did him the courtesy of tossing him his pants first. 

“Wonder where I got that from.”

Arturius shook his head, following suit and diligently following her out of the room in short order. 

They had descended the Fields in no time, staying far from the crowds that were wandering into Lion’s Arch from the Canals like they had planned. Despite her mounting excitement, Nova remained complacent in face of the crowds at the bottom of the hills. 

Her lips pressed together tightly and she turned her head to regard Arturius fully. She fought the smile that wanted to rip itself into her calm expression. 

“I actually can’t believe this is happening.”

“Not even a little bit?” Arturius replied, eyebrows raising into the darker shadows of his hood. Nova shrugged. 

“It seems pretty surreal,” Nova whispered back, allowing her knuckles to brush gently up against his before she forced herself forward. 

“If you got better things to do, I-”

“No,” Arturius replied, making Nova glance at him as she continued her descent down the hill. The thief followed her and she nodded without complaint. 

“Am I not allowed to meet with you in person, little bird?” he asked, feigning offense despite the deceiving smile that continued to linger under his cowl. “I see some things have changed between you and your noble.”

Autumn grinned, pulling her hand away to admire the simple ring around her finger. “Quite.”

“Marriage is a big step,” her boss warned. “Especially to a dead woman.”

“It’s a lovely cover, don’t you think?” 

“Do you love him?” What a stupid question, she thought as quickly as she answered:

“Of course,” Autumn replied lightly without hesitation. Her heart skipped a beat. Of course she loved Rheier. 

“So it is both. Love and cover,” Arturius chuckled. Autumn felt her cheeks flush, and she bit down on her index finger to contain herself. He was just trying to push her buttons, and if she could avoid taking the bait, she’d be better for it.

“I chased him into the Silverwastes. If that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.”

“It’s also stupidity, but, interesting of you to mention the Silverwastes...” The older thief replied, flicking his wrist at her from his belt. Autumn reacted quickly without a flinch, catching the thin tube in her hand and popping it open in another light motion. She slipped the map from its protective case, looking over it. 

“Rheier has one just like this.”

“How old is it?”

“Uhm... A couple of months now,” Autumn replied in a haughty mumble, eyes slowly tracing each delicate line. “From the little cartographer-friend you have?”

Arturius shrugged when she looked over at him and she suppressed a tiny growl. For keeping her so close, he only ever let her know just enough. “This one is new, I assure you. There have been reports that the recent Pact assault has failed.”

Autumn lowered the map and looked at Arturius incredulously. “Failed?” she echoed. He didn’t reply, just stared at her unblinkingly. She licked her lips, rubbing her chin with a wrist. 

“When I went back a second time... I had a bit of an opportunity to scout the Pact camp a bit,” she started slowly, “Shortly after we left with Rheier’s mentor - lovely little fellow,” she mumbled, “We opted to separate and when we returned, we discovered the camp had been attacked.”

She glanced at her boss, nodding his head but listening intently all the same. “I was scared, you know,” she breathed. “I was convinced you were there, and possibly killed.”

“Because of a small injury?” Arturius asked curiously, that devilish smirk on his face once more. Autumn’s nose wrinkled at the sight of it. 

“I had no idea if you had moved on out of the Fort with your precious little kitten,” seethed the petite thief in reply. How she loathed that woman. “Regardless, I have experienced and witnessed first hand, just like you, the power of the Mordrem. If the Pact is reporting failure then-”

“I want you to go back and see what else you can find,” Arturius cut in dryly. Autumn gaped at him, a cold shiver firing down her spine. 

“You want me to what?”

“Your first assignment,” Arturius said, finger and thumb lightly brushing his trimmed goatee. “I want you to go back there, with your scribe-husband if you must, and dig around. Keep your head down - or find a new name if you must - and use this as an opportunity... Many will be flooding in to save the precious Pact, or for vengeance if they truly seek it... But we have a lot to gain from it.”

Autumn’s tongue pressed behind her teeth before the reasoning dawned on her. She tore her vivid green gaze away from the map again and lightly popped it back in its tube before attaching it to her own belt. “Don’t get me wrong, little bird,” he continued as she settled back against the wall, “Your work in the city here has been impressive since Mordremoth has become more bold... But we need to broaden our spectrum for the time being.”

“And you?”

“And me?” he replied. Ugh! How she wanted to throw a dagger at him for echoing her like a damn parrot. 

“Yes,” Autumn responded coolly, “What of you? What will you be doing? Have you not been there yourself?”

“My place is with Nova,” he replied, unsurprisingly to Autumn. “She does pay me, after all. I’d be disservicing her by abandoning her now.”

Yeah. She pays you very well I bet, Autumn thought vehemently as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Both in coin and beneath the sheets.

“Which brings me to my next assignment.. Slightly more long-term, however, though I’d like completion before too long.”

“And that is?”

“Keep an eye out on that guild, would you?” Autumn’s eyebrows visibly raised. “Key members, preferably... Your specialty, so I doubt you’ll have too much trouble.”

Autumn couldn’t suppress the wolfish grin that spread across her features at last. “What, you don’t trust your kitten’s little warband?” She cooed. 

“Do you truly think I trust anyone?” Arturius replied, bored with her games. Autumn’s cheek twitched as she hid a wince. It made her wonder, as always: Did he truly trust her? Nova? What a complicated creature he always proved to be. 

“Besides, you need to make it a proper habit to have a contingency plan.” He was up against her in a second, pulling her left arm away from her body by the wrist in a sudden movement. Autumn yelped in surprised, but did not make move for a weapon: she knew better. Her leathers raised slightly to reveal the healing yellow and purple blotches on her ribs. “Or is that what you would call this?”

“It had to be done,” Autumn hissed between her teeth. Arturius was less than impressed. 

“You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“I almost did,” she chuckled back dryly. He pulled her arm again and she let out a small grunt of pain. Healer or not, she was still stiff and slightly recovering. “It keeps Rheier off my mark, okay?!” She snapped finally, ripping her wrist away from his grasp. She glared up at him, despite their closeness. “He doesn’t need to know I’m beyond a common street-rat with a seedy job.”

Arturius’ stare didn’t falter, but neither did her own.

“Consider the second assignment a lesson for your future, little bird.” He stepped back, arm over his stomach as he casually bowed part way to her. He turned to depart when Autumn’s frustration lashed out at her. 

“Your lovely brother is back, you know,” she said.

“Keep an eye out on those two, but they are not your priority.”

“And where are you going!” She growled, frustrated. Arturius chuckled, waving a hand over his shoulder and disappearing in a calm wisp of black smoke, leaving Autumn standing there with a scowl.