“You suck at this!” he shouts before vanishing into air, only leaving behind blue cinders — falling like  the autumn’s leaves.

“I’m− gonna− make− you− pay!” Your screams are mostly muffled by the quacking ground and groans. You try to finish off a garula, doing a rodeo underneath you and the only way you can hold onto it is your dagger, stuck into its thick hide.

Tredd’s maniacal laughter is everywhere, because he keeps warping and stabbing.

“Tredd!”

“You can do it! Just like the other night!”

If you weren’t so busy at killing the garula, you would have noticed how your cheeks and neck grew uncomfortably warm.

“Seriously! I need help!” You feel how the anger makes your blood boil. This would be the last time you’d accept a mission with Tredd as your partner. He just enjoyed throwing a show just for you. You still wonder at times if he wanted to impress you, though he already had impressed you multiple times.

In your bedroom.

He throws his kukri right in between the creature’s eyes and you feel how it suddenly stops moving, eventually starting to fall. You pull out the dagger and throw it away to get to safety.

Feeling completely exhausted from the sudden rodeo, you take a deep breathe and look around you. So many dead garulas in such a short time, only for Tredd’s amusement.

“I did a pretty good job,” Tredd walks over to you, flashing a satisfied smile as he inspects the scene in front of him. You feel the urge to elbow him, you did your part after all.

“Why did we have to kill them all?” you groan and wipe some sweat off your forehead. It was surprisingly exhausting to fight them all.

“Don’t you remember? There was a wanted board back in the last gas station we were in?” Tredd asks while his eyes travel down your body. His lips quiver into a suggestive smirk.

“I don’t remember such a thing,” you cross your arms and quirk a brow.

Tredd shakes his head and stretches his arms. “Well, now that we’re done here… how about…”

“How about no?” you answer coldly. He looks astounded, mostly because you are always so eager to spend some quality time with him.

“What? Why?”

You take your kukri into your hand and spin it around. “I think I did a pretty good job too, don’t you think?”

“Wha—”

“Oh? Too bad then.”

It was something he could not easily admit. Even if he did finish off the major of the garulas, you did some too. The most vile smile flickers on your face as you stare at him, waiting for a praise.

"You seriously aren't making this easy for Tredd," he tries to melt his way to your pants with his flirty tone. Not going to work.

You scoff at him and start to leave the massacre scene.

“Urgh, you did good too…” he mumbles and gives up.

You stopped at the address that Tredd had texted you. It was some sort of a pub in the lower part of Insomnia not far from his apartment. The moment you walked in you felt as if everyone’s eyes stopped on you. That place was obviously not for you. It was known that the majority of the population in this part of town was refugees from Galahd and the other territories taken by the Empire and it wasn’t a secret there was certain pressure in Insomnia about all that. You managed to see Tredd with his friends on a table and rushed there trying to pay as little attention as possible to the looks people were throwing at you.

“Good you didn’t get lost.” Tredd sad as you sat next to him. A normal person in a relationship would probably kiss his partner when he sees them for first time for the day, but Tredd wasn’t normal so you didn’t hold it against him. “That’s Luche.” He pointed to one of the guys, you had to admit you were impressed by the jawline and cheekbones. “And Axis.” He pointed to the other man who was sitting across of you. “Both of them absolute losers.”

“I’m not paying a girl way out of my league to say she is my girlfriend so I can score points.” The guy that Tredd introduced as Axis said.

“You can say whatever you want, your wife is till thinking of me every night.” Tredd gave him a smile which was mostly teeth.

“At least I’m capable of keeping a wife, I don’t have to beg people to stay with me.” Axis looked at you. “No offence but you are too cute and way too classy to be with him.”

“Okay enough!” Luche said. “I really don’t want to listen another argument about who did whose wife and where.” He turned towards you and leaned over the table. “But you are way out of his league.”

“What can I say the simple minded attract me.” You smiled and the two guys laughed almost hysterically, Tredd just groaned next to you.

“I have to leave you guys, nice meeting you.” Axis said, finished his drink and stood up.

“And I refuse to be third wheel.” Luche did said the same. “It was nice meeting you and I honestly didn’t believe he is dating someone who looks…well like you.” He looked at Tredd. “Don’t forget about tomorrow.”

“I will try.” Tredd grinned and watch the other two leave. “Dinner?”

“Here?” you looked around the place, it didn’t seem like much. It didn’t help that in the parts of Insomnia where you lived there were rumors about places like that. The used rats or worse to make the food. You never had prejudice, and you dated Tredd after all, he was the actual mage of why people from Insomnia didn’t like anyone coming in their city, but you weren’t deaf. You were hearing your colleagues and friends talk.

“No, your highness in the palace, the king himself will serve us.” He sighed. “Food is good, trust me.”

You watched him as we walked to the bar to order food. It has been six months since you two had started being more serious in your relationship than just sex and honestly it wasn’t easy. Because of him and because of you. Neither of you had real idea how to work a relationship but you were figuring it out together which was probably the reason you were still with him and he was still with you. You didn’t fight often and usually was about something stupid but once you were calm enough you were just giving it to the fact neither of you was experience in that field. You didn’t live together, but you often spent days at a time at each other’s places, the closest arrangement you could have to living together. You wanted to ask him to move in with you, but you knew he was going to say no. Not because he didn’t want but because Tredd cannot move with a woman, the woman has to move and you couldn’t possibly live in his apartment that looked more like a shoebox. You had insisted on him making some improvements in his apartment like getting curtains or a carpet, which of course he refused and did it yourself. You even got him a plant that surprisingly he was taking care of. If you ask Tredd, he did so because otherwise you were going to nag him about killing the plant. You didn’t care about that, you were just going t get him new one, no nagging, but Tredd needed an excuse for everything he did and you were giving him that space.

“There you go.” He placed a plate in front of you and you looked it with curiosity. It smelled good so at least that was going for you. You tried a piece of meat and…oh by the Six that was amazing. “You like it, huh? It’s popular dish where I come from. They make it pretty close to real here.”

“It is good. I hope it’s not rat.” You said as you swallowed.

“Nah, probably cat or a dog.” Tredd said as he dug into his plate, you gagged. “I’m joking, it’s chicken. You can eat.”

You had to admit that even if that was cat or a dog, it was damn tasty cat or a dog.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” you asked and Tredd gave you confused look. “The thing Luche was talking about.”

“Oh!” Tredd focused on his food again. “Nothing that interesting. There is a new guy that needs some improvement. Luche likes to play the benevolent leader I get pulled in as side kick occasionally.”

“Sounded serious.” You said as you finished your meal. It was so good.

“Everything sounds serious coming from Luche’s mouth.” Tredd smirked. “I love him like a brother, but he could be a bit over the top sometimes. The kid is new and we have an important mission coming in a week, he just wants to make sure the kid doesn’t die or doesn’t get anyone else killed in the process, nothing more.”

It made sense. You rarely asked Tredd about his work, you knew all these guys by names it was nice putting faces to it, but most things you knew were just funny pranks they pulled on each other. Tredd didn’t like talking about deployments, missions and similar tasks, you assumed that most of it could be some level of secret so you never pushed. If he wanted to tell you something, he was going to do it.

Once you were done you decided to go to his place, it was just few blocks down the road. Tredd was telling, very proudly, how he almost kicked Nyx’s ass during practice and if it wasn’t for the captain pulling them apart he would have done it. You had never seen Nyx, but Tredd had weird sort animosity with the guy judging by how often you were hearing stories about how he almost kicked Nyx’s ass but then something happened and Nyx’s ass remained unkicked. Part of you more than curios to see Nyx and figure out what on earth was going on.

As Tredd was talking you saw a man approaching you at a fast pace almost blocking your path.

“Give me your money.” Said the man, and your eyes opened widely, not sure if you were supposed to scream or what.

“No, man I am good.” Tredd said and continued talking about some trivial stuff at work, walking past the man. You looked at Tredd and looked at the man not sure what to do, the man caught up with you again.

“I said give me your money.” The man repeated and you really could feel the threat in his voice.

“I said I am good, go beg somewhere else.” Tredd repeated, again ignoring him and just continued walking.

You waited couple of moments making sure the guy wasn’t following, your heart rate finally going at steadier pace. You looked at Tredd again who seemed absolutely fine and calm.

“You realize that guy just tried to rob us?” you said with as little panic in your voice as you could.

“Wait, what?” He stopped and looked you, then looked back at the guy, he was far down the street. “Hey dickhead!” Tredd shouted and you just smiled politely there were other people on the street. Come back and I will show you where you can stuff my wallet.”

“Tredd, that’s enough.” You pulled him away, you were almost at his apartment.

“I thought he was begging!” Tredd said as he opened the door of his place for you. “Now I feel bad I didn’t beat his ass.”

You could just stare at him and shake your head. It was funny, Tredd not even assuming someone could try to rob him. You weren’t sure if that was ego or ignorance, but it was cute.

“Speaking of which.” He added more serious. “I have something for you.” He walked to one of the cupboards in his kitchen and pulled out a thin long box. You smiled thinking that it was something nice and shiny, bracelet perhaps or similar. He gave you the box and you couldn’t have been more disappointed.

“A knife?” you said after you opened it. “That’s exactly what I wanted.” It wasn’t even a pretty knife, it was probably functional, not that you knew the first thing about knives. It was one of these knives that were just a handle but if you press it at the bottom the blade would spring out. You were also sure they had a name for these type of knives, you just knew you had seen guys at survival shows use them.

“What did you expect?” he asked, he wasn’t annoyed but apparently wasn’t pleased that you weren’t jumping around.

“I don’t know. Something made of gold or silver.” You grabbed the knife with two fingers and studied it. Looked solid, probably. “What am I supposed to do with that, shove it up your ass? You should have told me you are in this type of stuff.”

“Very funny.” He took it from you and showed you how to spring the blade out and then retract it again. “I want to keep it, would have given you a gun if didn’t think you would shoot yourself in the leg.”

“I don’t need it.” You said as he passed the knife back to you.

“Don’t argue with me on that, just say thank you and take the fucking knife.” He sighed. “I guy just tried to rob us.”

“And he didn’t” you argued back.

“He was probably too surprised at my reaction to pursue further. Plus, do you think he wans to argue with these.” He flexed his biceps showing you the well donned muscle under his t-shirt. “Keep it just in case.”

“Fine.” You really didn’t get what was going into him, that was slightly unusual behavior for him, he almost sounded serious and there was little to no sarcasm in his voice.

“I’m just trying to protect my girlfriend when I’m away, and she argues with me even over that…” he said as he started undressing and walking toward the bedroom.

“Did you just call me your girlfriend?” you asked and ran after him, big grin on your lips.

“I absolutely didn’t.” he had his back toward you and you couldn’t see his face but you knew he was beating himself mentally for saying that. “Get in bed.” He turned around pretending nothing happened.

“Not until you admit you said what you just said.” You teased him back, but he just made a step towards you and grabbed you throwing you on the bed. “That is not fair.”

“Oh, and when you use your womanly tricks on me it is fair?” he groaned.

“What tricks?” you acted all innocent.

“Stockings for example.” He reached for your skirt and rolled it up reveling the edges of your stockings and the garter belt that was holding them. “You think I didn’t notice. I might not have a degree from some fancy overrated university, but I can notice that.”

“You can’t notice a man robbing you.” You laughed and moaned at the same time as his fingers ran over your panties.

“You talk too much.” He groaned again and shut you up with a kiss.

 You had just walked home from work when you turned on the TV for some background noise while cooking dinner. Every channel was showing all the same, the Empire had offered peace the wanted to sign a treaty. The terms, what was going to happen from now, they were all talking about that. The background noise of the TV had turned into the only thing you were focused on, dinner cooking was somehow left for later. You looked at your phone thinking about Tredd, he couldn’t be happy about it. He had been deployed and he texted you when he returned but said he had some things to look after. Did he know about that before the media learned?

As you were thinking about him, your front door opened with lots of noise and you peaked half freaking out that someone was breaking in. It was just Tredd.

“You scared me.” You said switching off the TV as fast as you could, you could see he was in bad mood you didn’t need to piss him off further.

“Leave it on, I don’t mind.” He was still in his uniform and walked straight into the kitchen.

“Tredd, what’s going on?” you asked as you followed him. You knew you needed to step carefully, if you push too far he would just shut himself away.

“His royal highness is giving up that is what is happening.” He looked at the chopped meat and vegetables on your counter. “Can we eat. I’m starving.”

“S-sure…” you said really unsure how to proceed. You wanted to talk to him, get a better picture of what was happening. He leaned against one of the walls as you continued cutting in silence. “Tredd, I’m sorry.” You eventually said, not looking at him. You half expected he would start shouting or something. Not that you couldn’t take it, you could argue with him any day of the week and twice on Sunday, but today didn’t seem like the day to do that.

“About what?” he had one of his knives in hand and was studying it as if he had never seen it before.

“Your home is out there…” you knew he didn’t like talking about his home even on the best of days, but he surely needed you now. He was going to hide it and fight against your help, however little it might be, but you were together for more than a year now, you knew he wasn’t made of ice.

“My home was gone long before I joined the Kingsglaive.” He walked towards you and placed the knife he was playing it on the kitchen counter. After a short pause he pulled one of his guns from his belt and left it there as well. “I need you to listen to me.” You turned around facing him, your body locked between him and the kitchen counters. “I will be busy the coming couple of days up until the signing of that damn threat. Probably won’t be able to talk or text, although I will try.”

“Tredd if you want to fuck around, you can just say so.” You joked but he wasn’t in the mood.

“Listen!” he said a bit louder. “If something happens when the treaty is being signed, anything, even something small, like police car busting a tire, I want you to leave Insomnia.”

“What? You think they will do something?” he knew something. He knew more than he was telling you. “Tredd, you need to tell me.”

“There is nothing to tell you.” He placed his hand on the pistol he had left next to you. “You will take that and the knife I gave you few weeks ago, put it in one of your overpriced bags, one that could pass for comfortable, put some comfortable shoes, get some dry food put your little ass in your car and leave town. Don’t stop for checks, don’t stop for anything. Go to Lestallum or Galdin Quay, you always wanted to go there. When shit hits the fan, you don’t want to be here, you hear me?”

You just nodded. He didn’t say ‘if’, he said ‘when’. When shit happens.

“Don’t go to work that day.” He added a bit calmer. “Just watch the news and leave when it’s time. I will call you when I can.”

There it was again. He said when not if. You were too scared to ask. Probably they had some inside information on what the Empire was planning and he was worried they might not be able to prevented. They also didn’t want to scare the people in Insomnia hence he couldn’t give you details, made sense. You nodded at every thing he said and just accepted it.

“You are scaring me.” You finally admitted, running your fingers over his face where the scar was.