eswareinmal | Where are you going? Where are you going?

Characters: Rupert Giles and Helios Sprensonne
Open? Nope
Where: The marketplace
When: 18th of Rebirth's Decline, after Giles' encounter with Ginia in the Drunk Duck Inn
What: If Giles and Helios have their way, Ginia is going to be losing a necklace very soon. The two intend to see to it that she has an even better one to replace it.
Warnings: Nothing I can think of! Just two bros being miserable and messed up.

He doesn't mention the fight, when he returns to the house. Giles knows that he probably doesn't have to - rumor travels impossibly fast in Schwanheim and, besides, even if she was obviously on some level going easy on him, Giles looks like he's been in a fight.

And the watch is gone. She actually took the pocketwatch. Some tiny part of him had been convinced that she wouldn't actually steal it, and so a clinging feeling of shock mingles with the general dread and misery that is losing his most precious possession.

The last time he'd lost that watch, he'd died shortly after.

But, Giles doesn't mention it, when he gets home. He doesn't say anything about the fight, and the way Ginia had left him half collapsed on the floor, and how he'd failed to get through to her and that Helios and his magic were their only hope now.

No, instead, Giles stands at the door of the little room that serves as Helios' little shop to the outside world, looking in at his best friend. He's silent for a few seconds, before finally offering in a soft voice:

"Um...do you want to go to the market? I-I'll, um...I'll buy you some tea."

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And just as Giles moves off to go investigate further, Helios path is cut off abruptly by a woman whom he has never met. "Ah. I-I am." He looks at her a bit confused, if not with a little trepidation. He tries to be polite and look her in the eye but he isn't sure what this parchment thing is all about.

"Wh-what, um, what is it exactly?" He doesn't want to sign something that might lead to...well...something he'll regret.

"Oh, it's just about that notice, on the board. Am I really the first one to ask you?" Her smile only broadens, as she offers the paper to Helios again. "Quickly, sign it! Before anyone else comes along!"

It's around about this point that Giles turns back and sees that Helios has been well and truly accosted. "What on Earth?" he asked, perplexed, and moving back to stand next to Helios. "What on Earth are you? Some sort of...fairy tale Girl Scout?"

He'd seen plenty of the little brats around the place in Sunnydale, and is fairly certain the comparison is apt.

Of course, Giles hasn't read the board, either.

"N-Notice..." well it certainly can't be anything good or very well true, then. Though he can only imagine what it says. Helios flinches then and moves away a little, holding up his hands in a sort of defensive position.

"I-I'm sorry. I-I really don't think I should." Not without at least knowing what she's going on about. His tense posture slackens a little when Giles comes back, he gives the other man an apologetic look. Sorry bro, he was really trying to keep up with you, honest.

"No, he shouldn't."

Giles gives Helios a nod - it's okay, bro, he knows you were. He also knows how...alarmingly pushy the people of Schwanheim can get, when the mood takes them. As for what particular mood has taken them, well...that might bear some investigating.

Unfortunately, the woman only seems to be emboldened by Giles' presence, and the fact that Helios is clearly clueless. "It's for the king!" she chirps. "Come on! There's probably a score of people there already with signatures of their own."

"I'm afraid that isn't actually appropriate motivation, actually."

Giles would never actually willingly go to the king with any business of his. In the time it took him to pay attention, you could already have solved the problems.

"You're heroes, aren't you?"

"Wh-why would the king need our-our signatures?" Helios shifts uncomfortably in his position, noting the other people pausing nearby and then smiling. Good lord he really hopes whatever the king has posted isn't true.

"W-We are, I-I suppose. But, ah, what does having a s-signature from one of us have to d-do with anything?"

"Neither of you need to worry about a thing!"

"Besides..." And here another woman comes out of the crowd, trying to take hold of Giles' arm. He pulls away as though he's just been burned - in a lot of ways, Giles is as sensitive as Helios is to certain things. "...everyone's heard it. What happened between you and the rogue. You've broken up, haven't you? I'll never hurt you like that..."

Giles opens his mouth to snap at her...and then, comprehension dawns. He closes it again, eyes widening with horror.

And then, muttering an apology, he takes Helios' hand as well, and makes to lead him away. "We, w-we really have to go..."

Helios also blanches at the words coming from the woman's mouth. Oh...oh dear. He looks a bit apologetically back at Giles when the other man takes his hand. The warmth of the other always giving him a bit of a jolt as the warm and cold clash with each other. When they're finally out of hearing range Helios lets out a very relieved sigh.

"I-I can't believe them. Th-they're just...they're only concerned about those silly rumors! That was-was completely uncalled for..." Helios looks back over his shoulder as he shakes his head. Apparent disbelieve strewn across his features. "Giles a-are you alright?"

Giles is not okay. Pretty much every line of his body says that he is not okay.

"...do you suppose we are?" he finally ventures, unable to keep a tremor out of his voice. "Broken up, I mean." Then, aware of how very adolescent those two words sound together, he hastily adds: "I mean, um, at the least, we're...certainly not together."

It's probably a sign of just how hard the last couple of days have been that Giles even has to ask a question like that. But it's an issue that's been on his mind. Ginia really isn't Ginia, right now. If they can't get that necklace off, she never will be again.

"No." His voice is firm and quite literally stern when he says that. His eyes narrow and his jaw is set in a very hard line.

"This? This is by no means the be all end all for you and her Giles. W-We've been through so much worse. This is just...it's just like something the Malnosso would concoct." His stance gets a little more tired, a little more worn as he looks back at Giles.

"Everything will...be fine once we-we help her out of this. Th-these people don't know a-anything about you or the b-bond between you and Ginia. Otherwise they'd know that-that a small rut like this is n-nothing." There are bumps and there are hills in the road, but he knows with all his heart that Giles and Ginia can get through this.

Where are you going? Where are you going?

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