( Schattenkrieger and sassiechicka )

[Dante Rosaire]

He saw that the doctor had gone away for his lunch, it was now time for his plan to be put into motion. The supply crate was in its normal position, the window was closed but not locked.

"Alright Desirae, just do what you would normally do. If all goes to plan i'll have this thief caught."

"And that's a nice name by the way." he added with a smile.

Just as Vincent planned, he dashed over to the closet and shut the door behind him, leaving just enough of the door open so he could see the crate. Like an assassin, he waited in silence for his target. About 15 minutes went by without incident, but the Doctor was still out to lunch so he knew he still had a chance. After another 5 minutes, he heard what he was waiting for. He could hear somebody trying to open the window from the outside. He silenced his breathing in anticipation. Then an older man climbed through the window and began looking around. When he thought it was clear, he pried open the box and began scooping out supplies. That was when Vincent sprang his trap.

In one swift motion, he drew his sword, sprang out of the closet and pointed it right at the thief's throat.

"Stop thief!" he shouted.

The thief turned around to see Vincent's blade pointed at him.

"Put the supplies down and your hands up." He ordered.

When he did, Vincent put him in handcuffs and brought him over to Desirae. He had never seen the man before, but maybe she had.

"Does he look familiar at all to you?" he asked her.  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae looked at the gentleman. She thought he looked familiar, but wasn't quite sure. She wanted to be sure before she said anything, " I've seen him around town. I've seen some of the more higher class people giving him money. I believe he's homeless. "  

[Dante Rosaire]

(If at all possible, could you try to make your responses a bit longer?)

"Ah, well that explains a lot." Vincent replied.

That answered quite a few of his questions. He did feel a bit of sympathy towards him because he was homeless, but that didn't make him different than any other law-breaker. He would bring him to the enforcer, he would get paid and the thief would rot in jail.

But something didn't feel right, like something was off, like it should be different. Vincent always went with his instinct, it had never let him down before. But he just couldn't put his finger on it, but he didn't have long to wonder. The front door was thrown open and a large bulky man was standing in the door way. He looked over to the handcuffed thief and became enraged.

"Let my friend go bounty hunter!" He yelled as drew a short blade.

"Not a chance criminal scum!" He shouted back.

"Well then I guess i'm gonna have to make you pay."

To Vincent's horror, the criminal made a mad dash for Desirae. He was running full speed with his blade pointed at her throat. But Vincent would be damned before he let a woman die.

Vincent threw himself in front of Desirae just as he was lowering the blade in a slashing motion. Vincent was cut at an angle all the way across his chest. But reacting quickly, Vincent lashed out with his own blade and cut the man's throat. Both slumped to the floor.

The criminal was dead, but Vincent was still hanging on. He scraped himself off the floor and looked at Desirae.

"Are...you...alright Desirae?" he asked before clenching his stomach.  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae looked at Vincent and quickly got out from underneath him. She lifted him up and took him to the back room. She had watched the doctor enough to know to stop the bleeding first. She rather quickly picked out the supplies she would need. She carefully started to treat the wound. She had a few tears coming down her cheeks. He had defended her and that had meant something to her. She cleaned the wound then did her best to dress the wound.

" That is the best I can do. The doctor will want to take a better look at you. "

As soon as Desirae had finished her statement, the doctor walked in. The doctor looked to Desirae then to Vincent. The doctor looked over Desirae's job, " I suppose women can learn things after all. " The doctor didn't care for Desirae and Desirae was well aware by now.

" Lad, I think you will survive, but next time be more careful. The girl isn't worth much. I'd rather have had her wounded than a lad whom is a bounty hunter. " The doctor went about his afternoon routine. He turned to Desirae, " Clean up the mess up front will you girl? You're not allowed to go home until you do. " Desirae with tears in her eyes quickly went about cleaning up the criminal and ushered the homeless man out of the office.  

[Dante Rosaire]

When the doctor had patched him up, Vincent got up and walked over to the doctor a little angry. He couldn't understand why he treated Desirae so poorly, anytime he saw that happen it made him very upset. So he decided to get some answers, but not before helping clean up.

Vincent got down on his hands and knees and started helping clean up the mess that he made. It was the polite thing to do. It wasn't very long before the two of them working together got the place to the way it looked before. Now that that business was taken care of, he could take care of a personal matter.

"Excuse me Doctor, why do you treat Desirae like this?"

"Because she's a woman." the doctor replied.

Vincent could feel a wave of anger coming on, but he repressed it for Desirae's sake.

"She's worth a lot more than you realize." Vincent added.

But then he had to take care of something else.

"I'll have to turn the criminal in, i'll see you around, I promise." Vincent said to her before walking out the door.  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae nodded as Vincent walked out. She had hoped that he only meant what he said about seeing her around. The doctor came out of his exam room, " Girl, I don't know about that one. He seems to have a thing for you. I do not wish him hanging out the office for you. If he remotely distracts you from this job, you are out of here. Now go to lunch. "

Desirae skipped out of the office and headed to her usual downtown lunch spot. She opened her paper bag lunch and pondered what the doctor had said to her about the thing Vincent had for her. No one to her knowledge had ever had a thing for her. She was fairly plain in her eyes and wanted to keep it that way. After finishing her lunch, she walked around town for a bit. She figured the doctor wouldn't miss her much.  

[Dante Rosaire]

The sight of Vincent dragging a bound criminal through the street seemed to draw a lot of attention. But as more people showed up, he discovered that it was positive attention. As he got closer to the enforcer's office, He could see now what the enforcer meant when he said that this town needed more people like him. But for some reason, he just couldn't get that doctor out of his head. He treated Desirae so poorly, he was a sexist b*****d. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. So he decided that he would save payback for later.

Vincent opened the door to the enforcer's office with his hand-cuffed thief in tow. The look on his face when he saw Vincent was of both gratitude and surprise.

"I heard about what happened. That was pretty brave of you kid, protecting Desirae from that scumbag."

"I just do what I was raised to do." Vincent replied.

"Well here's your 80 gold Vincent, and an extra 50 for the other guy."

130 gold, a decent and unexpected payout. There was a lot that he could do with that money, but he had something in mind.

"Well i'm going to swing by the tavern, I appreciate your business. Hopefully I can do more to help your town. I just need a little while to relax."

With that he headed off to the only tavern in town, The Gray Mare, secretly hoping that he would run into Desirae.  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae continued her roaming. Vincent still so freshly on her mind. She wondered if the doctor would even care if she didn't show back up for the afternoon. She wandered near the Gray Mare and as was usual drunkards kept calling to her. She found the little tree next to the place with a bench and ate her little bit of indulgences that she let herself have on rare occasions. She knew this little sweet cake would come in handy today. She sat down underneath the tree and lightly dozed off. While dozing, she caught herself waking up to see if anyone had tried to harm her. One of the drunkards came over and sat on the bench.

" Beautiful, beautiful Desirae, when are you going to run away with me? Be my bride and I'll give you the moon. "

Desirae giggled at the young man's proposition. She turned to the young man, " Dear Sir, I appreciate your offer, but I am afraid that my heart belongs to another man. " The drunkard stood up and walked away back into the Grey Mare. Desirae dozed back off when he left. She didn't understand why all these men around her wanted to make her their wife. She wasn't anything special at least not in this town. Maybe back where she was from, but definitely not here.  

[Dante Rosaire]

Vincent couldn't help but notice that the Gray Mare was full of drunkards, a damn army of them. Every time he walked past one of them, he got the same routine, either a warning to stop what he was doing and move somewhere else, or an overly affectionate congratulations. He had never had much of a tolerance for drunk people, they only got in his way and served as an inconvenience. He walked into the tavern itself and it only got worse. Apparently a round of bar songs had started, people were singing either very loud or off key, or both.

"Is everyone in this town this obnoxious?" he thought to himself.

But after downing a glass of wine, like he always did after a mission, he found what he was looking for. It was a bar of chocolate wrapped up in thin wax paper. He bought it for only 20 gold, he figured that Desirae would need it after a day like today. So he walked out of the tavern and began looking around. It didn't take him long to find her, she was sitting underneath a tree right next to the tavern.

So with a bit of reluctance, he walked over to her, but it looked like she was sleeping. So he decided to jump up to the lowest branch of the tree to watch over her. After what happened earlier, he couldn't be too careful.  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae sensed someone near her. She couldn't quite place who it was. She forced herself to calmly open her eyes. She looked around, but it didn't dawn on her to look up. She got up from her spot and headed away from the tavern. The same drunkard as before approached her again.

" Beautiful Desirae, I can't live without you. I need you baby. "

Desirae giggled and the drunkard grabbed her arm. Desirae tried to jerk her arm away and the drunkard gripped her arm harder.

" I told you. You are mine. "

Desirae tried not to let her emotions show, but he had her arm so tight. The tears started to flow as much as she was fighting them back. She tried to reason with the drunkard. He gripped her arm harder this time. She thought that her arm was going to break. She tried jerking her arm from him again as she heard a snap. The drunkard heard the snap and immediately let her go.

" Sorry beautiful. You go get the fixed up and then we can work on our wedding plans. "

Desirae nodded and kinda slid onto the ground. She held her arm and just let the tears flow.  

[Dante Rosaire]

The second that Desirae had hit the ground, Vincent nearly flew out of the tree and with one swift motion, punched the drunkard square in the jaw. He also managed to land a kick to his rib cage. The man fell to the ground and started howling in pain. Vincent was so angry that he was about to stomp on him, but then he saw Desirae crying. The rage began to build up, so he did end up stomping on the arm he used to hurt Desirae. Still howling, he got up and ran away.

"You better run far away dirtbag! If I ever catch up to you i'll break every other bone in your body!" he yelled.

But now he had to deal with the situation at hand. He knelt down next to Desirae with a very concerned look on his face. He began to feel around her arm to figure out if it was broken.

"Well the good news is that it's just dislocated." Vincent began.

"Now this is going to hurt a little bit, but it will help." In one quick motion, he snapped Desirae's arm back into place.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stop him." he said woefully as he handed her the bar of chocolate.

"But I got you this earlier, I hope it makes you feel a little better."  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae still had tears in her eyes and she reached for the chocolate bar. The pain was too much to bare and she was seeing two of most things. She seemed a bit shaken up as she finally felt her fingers close around the chocolate bar, " Thank you. Is there more than one of you? Because I'm seeing two of you. " She tried to focus on the main imagine of who had helped her.

" Two times in a day. Must be a record for saving a girl. "

Desirae tried to smile to let him know how grateful she was to him. She wasn't quite sure of how to to thank him.

" For payment, I could make dinner for you tonight. I'm fairly sure if your line of work a hot meal is something you don't often get a lot of over time. I'm not the best, but I can make a decent spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread if you would like. "

She only hoped that he would accept her offer. Even though, she could understand if he didn't. There might be more criminals out there.  

[Dante Rosaire]

Vincent was taken by surprise by Desirae's offer, it had been a long time since any girl had given him the time of day, let alone offer to cook for him. He couldn't help but smile, his first real smile in ages. For the first time since before he left Atraia, he felt happy, content. It would be rude of him to not accept her offer.

"If your arm isn't still hurting, then it would be lovely to sit down for a meal with you. I can't remember the last time that anyone has cooked for me , let alone having a decent meal myself."

He had to pull his scarf up over his face to hide the fact that he was flustered. He was liking Desirae more and more every minute. There was still something familiar about her, it was bugging him in the back of his mind, but he decided again to just ignore it. Taking her by her good arm, he helped her up to her feet.

"Hunting can wait, you're more important. Besides, after a day like today, somebody has to protect you."  

[sassiechicka]

Desirae slightly blushed as he helped her off the ground. She held his hand for a minute to steady herself. She was still somewhat fuzzy in most details, but she figured that it would pass with time.

" My arm should be in better condition in a bit for dinner. It's not the first time I've been hurt. Actually it's not really the first time a drunkard has caused me harm. Most of the soldiers propose to me almost every time they see me around. Some even purposely get injured so that to see me. "

Desirae stopped shortly. She was babbling on like she knew him. Even though there was a bit of a familiarity with him that she couldn't place.

" So do you have a preference for dinner? I can cook anything you like. My handsome...my protector. "

Her face turned a deeper shade of red. She turned away from Vincent and started to head to the market downtown to figure out dinner.  

[Dante Rosaire]

Vincent had to cover his entire face at this point. Otherwise the entire town would have seen how flustered and embarrassed he was. She had just referred to him as her protector, he couldn't believe he just heard that. He began to feel strange, some odd feeling he hadn't felt in a long time. With his scarf now covering everything but his eyes, he followed Desirae into the marketplace. It was clearly the busiest part of town, with people moving in and around the stands and conversing with the various vendors. But for the first time in a long time, Vincent felt happy, like his life had meaning now. Like he had a purpose in life, to protect Desirae and make her feel happy. He realized that he had started to lag behind, so he quickened his pace to catch up with her.

"Whatever you make will be fine Desirae, i'm sure you're an amazing cook. I can help if you want."

Vincent knew how to cook, but nothing fancy, just killing animals out in the forest and cooking them into a stew with whatever kind of vegetables he could find. But as they continued walking, Desirae's hair began flowing in the wind, it caught Vincent off guard and momentarily distracted him. He understood now why all the men in town loved her so much.