"I- I don't mind your drinking. Kobas used to get these really depressing moods sometimes, and he would just lay around wasted... but just don't hurt yourself, okay?" Arrika said, hugging him back. "I love you. I really do..." She whispered in his ear to see how he would respond. "I don't know how I can help you, but I'll try... just tell me what to do, and I'll do it... I'd do anything for you."

"Well, the drinking isn't good for my body. I may not die easy...but I can still get sicker than a dog that just ate a dead bird..." Sovelis said, looking in Arrika's eyes. "And I want to be a better example for Seth. Maybe if I quit drinking, he'll not hate me so much?" he asked quietly, standing up and pulling her up to her feet as well. "What bothers me is...how does everyone look at me, and not see a monster?"

Sovelis kissed Arrika's neck gently and put his hands on her slim hips. "I love you too, sweetheart. I'll help you with anything you need me to...you know that, right?"

"Like Seth cares whether you drink or not. You're looking at a couple of gutter rats who've seen it all since they could walk," Arrika replied, running her hands up in sleeves. She realized how cold her own hands were in comparison to his.


Mokkan sighed. Can we please stop now? You've been sitting on this counter all day.

"Then just make me get up. I thought you're supposed to be some super powerful coldhearted beast of a Twili?" Ralin said with grin.

But that's mean, Mokkan said sarcastically, when in reality it just drained his energy more. And you know how I don't like to hurt anyone's feelings. C'mon, get up, love, and just go outside- haven't you always wanted to feel the wind?

Sovelis pulled the much younger Sheikah closer. "You haven't seen everything. Maybe you two have seen all that a life as thieves can offer, but I want to help you both make a place in the world for yourselves. I want you though." he whispered, holding Arrika right against his chest. "I want to get to know you better than I do already, I want to love you, and I want to have someone with me each night I go to bed, and when I awaken the next morning. I...want someone to hold on to, to talk with, and to love..."

He kissed Arrika's forehead gently and held onto her closely, not wanting to let go.

Arrika felt a sense of joy she had not felt before... it almost seemed too perfect, what the Tempest had said answering all of her doubts about him.

Seth held his head in his hands, trying to block out all of the thoughts of everyone in the house- flashes of what they were seeing passed before his eyes... Morendo cursing and throwing down the alchemy book on the ground atthe failed transmutation circle in front of her, Ralin giggling madly as she twirled around in the wind outside, Sovelis with his hands on Arrika's hips... Their emotions seemed to drown him, blocking and clogging his own confused mind.

OoC: Seth is tripping out. LOL.

IC:
Sovelis pushed Arrika over, and onto the bed. "I'm not perfect though...Just to let you know." he whispered into her ear as he lay on top of her, his hands holding onto her's tightly. He lowered his lips to meet with Arrika's, and kissed her hard. He stayed on her for a few minutes, kissing her and squeezing her hands. "I love you...so much. I just want you to be happy, Arrika..." he whispered in her ear again. This time, he started to nibble on the tip of her right ear gently, trying to tease her and make her get all riled up.

Arrika pulled her reddening ear away from Sovelis's mouth and twisted up to bite on his, yanking on it sharply and biting him softly on his left jaw. "No one's perfect... I gave up on that notion years ago." She chuckled with amusement. "You seem to have gotten plently of practice at this before."

"Maybe...but does it matter?" Sovelis asked quietly, pulling off his robe top, and the tunic underneath it. His muscular chest had numerous scars, like slashes, stab wounds, and a few burn scars. One seemed to stand out more than the others, A scar, shaped like a katana's blade, as is he had been stabbed with a sword through his heart. If Arrika felt his back, she'd find a matching scar on his back, right next to his spine.

Sovelis kissed her neck, and went little lower, gently kissing and bitting the skin around her collar bones, right above her shirt.

Arrika kept down a moan and ran her thin fingers down Sovelis's chest and down his back, blinking in surprise as the seemingly shallow cut on his front was actually a very thourough stab wound. "Woah... that must have hurt.... What happened, you get super drunk and pick the wrong fight?"


"Seth?" An inquisitive voice asked. The green haired Hylian looked up from his huddled body on the floor to see a cute, familiar looking boy. He had sandy brown hair and a bow and quiver across his back. "Are you okay?"

"Thorne? How the hell did you get in here?" Seth asked, annoyed at not having felt his presence earlier.

"You shouldn't swear like that, Seth," the boy said, frowning.

"Screw you."

Thorne clearly showed his disaprovement of Seth's language but continued anyway. "There was a really weird girl outside with a short dress, and she was dancing around and singing and stared at me and stuff. You shoulda told me you moved to a mansion!!!"

Sovelis smiled. "Nope....that happened before I was a drunk...about a year ago...I tried to kill myself. I thought I could end my suffering, so I ran myself through with my own sword." his smile melted, and he had an expression that was blank. "Thats how I found out that I couldn't stay dead...I'm either undead, or an immortal." he said, looking over at the window. "They even buried me in the backyard, some of the people I knew here in Hyrule, and an old friend of mine. Methuselah. He was once a Tempest, but gave up his powers to live out the last few years of his life in peace...I might take you to meet him someday, if he doesn't keel over."

Arrika bit her lip, wishing she hadn't said anything. That empty look on his face, it looked so much like his...

Kobas cried out in pain everytime the already blood stained dagger cut into his skin, his arms drenched in blood... All those people whose lives he'd cut short in the war in Tellius... How he'd had to force himself to view Daein's soldiers as robotic, mindless scum... He couldn't bear to look any of them in the eyes as he stabbed them in their guts or sliced their throats, their blood forever covering his hands... He forced the dagger into his stomach for good measure, every cry of pain as if avenging all of the lost souls.

That was war, wasn't it? The enemy was the enemy and nothing more. They were just pests to be exterminated for your cause.

"Kobas-"

Kobas looked up at the Sheikah thief, an odd smile on his face although his eyes were twisted in pain. How he dreaded the frightened look in her eyes... but she would never understand how many wars he'd fought in, seemingly endless... "Go away, Arrika... Please... Maybe one day you'll be lucky and I won't be afraid to finally end it..."

Arrika shrieked for Rhyss, the familiar blank look spreading across Kobas's face.

"You fool... what good will come of hurting yourself? You killed for a reason. A good reason, and that's all you'll ever need... What would Commander Ike say if he saw you like this?" Rhyss said quietly, having seen Kobas in this state more than once before.

"I've lied, I've stolen, I've killed, I've sinned... And one day I'll pay...from the gallows I'll swing..." Kobas said instead, his voice broken and staring off as if he could see the noose already.

Sovelis looked back at a worried Arrika. "Whats wrong, dear?" he asked, cuddling up on top of her, twiddling with a strand of her dark hair between two of his fingers. "If its something I said, I'll be quiet. Are you hungry?" Sovelis kissed her neck and scrapped his teeth on the Sheikah's pale skin. "Or are you just wanting me to give you more attention like I was before Seth walked in on us?" the older human whispered as he laced his fingers with Arrika's and kissed her lips deeply again.

Thorne ducked out of the way just in time as a paint filled deku nut soared over his head. He loaded his slingshot and fired back at Seth, missing and staining the wall across from him. "That's no fair-" He said, ducking again. "-You're psychic so you know everytime I shoot-"

"Hahah. Eat this!" Seth said as he gleefully got Thorne right in the side of his face, his cheek staining blue.

"Hey Seth, won't the guy who actually owns this house get mad if we-" He rolled out of the way and under the kitchen table.

"Nah, I don't think he'll care too much," Seth said, laughing as he fired 3 shots in less than 2 seconds.


"I'm fine..." Arrika said. The past was the past, and it did no good to keep digging it back up.

Sovelis slipped over to the side some, and wrapped his arms around Arrika loosely. "If you want to talk about it, then I'll listen. If not, then I'll just listen to your breathing. Alright Arrika?" the mage said thoughtfully, holding the girl next to him and smiling. "You may think that...but the past is as important as the future, if we don't learn from the past, then we are doomed to repeat it."

"I think it's easier to show you..."

A much younger Arrika tagged along after Kobas, skipping through the snow. "Hey Kobas, where are you from?" She insisted on asking again.

Kobas sighed. "Why is that so important to you?"

"What's wrong with finally telling me?" She had a cute, thoughtful expression on her face as she said, "You're a lot different than everyone else..."

"Different? Like how?"

"I dunno..." Arrika was at a loss for words, unable to convey the knowing look she had seen in Kobas's eyes. Eyes that had known and seen too much. The Sheikah girl fumbled with her huge scarf and Kobas sighed again, wrapping it tighter around her neck.

"I... it's just that some people, more than you would imagine... they don't like thinking about the past," Kobas finally said. "There are some things that most of us would like to forget, to pretend that had never happened-"

"So what are you trying to pretend never happened?" Arrika persisted.

"Everything..." Kobas said quietly, sticking his hands in his coat pockets and getting that familiar glazed look in his eyes as he stared into the endless white snow. "Some people just want a clean slate, a fresh start where they can be someone else. But somehow the past always manages to catch up to them again..."