The Thief Who Stole His Heart

"Relax"

Jahseh heard Michael approaching, so he decided to hide from him, as both a test of his skills, and to goof around. He was trying to be comfortable, you see, so he was trying to relax, and this just happened to be one way of doing exactly that.

Once Jahseh saw Michael appear, he watched the thief's face change from contempt to annoyed. He watched Michael look around for him, quietly cursing him out. After a few minutes, Michael seemed to give up, and huffed angrily before walking back towards the living quarters.

This was kind of fun.

Although, as many a time, every fun thing had to end at some point. Ending on that thought, Jahseh revealed himself.

"Michael!"

The thief jumped, as Jahseh appeared right behind him. The look on his face was priceless. It was a mixture of startled, irritated and in awe. Like a moron, Jahseh just smiled and let out a light laugh, that was returned with a hit to the back of the head.

"Damn you! Why are you goofing around like that? I told you to wait here and all of a sudden you're acting like we're friends!" Michael's words showed annoyance and anger, and so did his tone of voice, but his face made him look flustered.

It was funny. It reminded Jahseh a lot of someone he had once known, but hadn't been able to stay with them for long. She led a very sedentary life, so he was never able to be there or really ever build a deep connection. But the hit to his head still hurt, and he rubbed it, grimacing.

"Was it necessary to hit me that hard?"

Michael just sighed in annoyance and turned to leave.

"Let's just go. Don't pull anything while we're out. I don't want to have to cause a scene. Oh and I might add, if you want to reach my feelings, this kind of impish behavior is not the way to do it."

Jahseh winced. He didn't know why, but he felt bad now. He only meant well, but he realized that Michael had a point. Through his life he'd had a tendency to be too grandiose and demonstrative when first meeting people, maybe it would be a good idea to hold himself back a little.

~

After about an hour into their walk, the two had covered the tour of the entire city, and had actually managed to strike up a conversation. Before the current moment, they had talked about nothing in great significance, it was more like breaking the ice. Remove the hostility that existed between them. And to Jahseh's relief, it had actually worked.

"Do you ever do anything for fun here? Or do you just do your jobs and go back to that hole in the ground?" Jahseh asked genuinely, gazing at the sky as he did so. Right now they were sitting just outside the wall to the city, looking out over he vast lands in front of them. It was peaceful, and couldn't be a more beautiful day. The sun was shining, glistening off of the light dusting of snow that was unturned by man or beast. Along with that, there was just a slight, sweet breeze blowing. Not enough to make the cold brutal, but just enough to be refreshing.

"Oh there's plenty of things I do for fun, whenever I have the time, that is. I've just never gone far. I'm sure you've gone all sorts of places and seen all sorts of different creatures and people and buildings... I must say I envy you." Michael sighed; he evidently was not happy with his place as of now. Which, of course, was understandable. Being a thief in poverty did not seem like the high life at all.

"Yes, indeed I have." Smiling, Jahseh thought back on some of his best adventures, and he almost spoke what he was thinking aloud. The mercenary thought about inviting Michael on one of his next adventures, but that would be inappropriate for the time being. Perhaps later, but not now, he doesn't know Michael well enough, according to the thief. So he just sighed, and tried to think of something else to say. "Oh uh... Sorry about well... everything I guess. You know, showing up and ruining your day, and then proceeding to act like an annoying child afterwards. I never meant any harm." He didn't know why he had said that, but it was really the only thing that came to mind.

"...oh." Michael was silent, and didn't have any words for a long, painful moment, before finally finding his tongue. "If I'm being honest... I don't care about all that anymore. I was just... uptight? When Stokeley is around I change... drastically. Well... I mean... surely you've noticed, right? He makes me nervous... and uncomfortable. And as for the mischief you decided to pull... it was... just not the time. Yes... terribly timed, and I didn't know you well enough. I honestly still don't. But..." Sighing, Michael couldn't continue speaking anymore as he lost his train of thought again. This left Jahseh confused, and somewhat on edge. For whatever reason, he desperately wanted the approval from Michael that he was okay.

"But... well, here's the thing. When you ran into me, I had some sort of... uh... interest? You seemed new, and like you'd been on many different adventures even... or... or maybe some unknown connection granted me with the interest... I'm not sure what but something drew me to you. But... after I stole that... my goal actually was... subconsciously for you to catch me, and follow me. But I didn't suspect you'd actually have the capacity to find your way inside the place. I guess I'd say all interest had gone away to ever talk to you. It was replaced entirely with annoyance, but I suppose maybe that's because I was somewhat taking my anger out about Stokeley. I don't know... I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I accept the apology. I'm not annoyed with you anymore, I just get carried away." After Michael spoke, he couldn't look Jahseh in the eyes, and went completely silent again, looking out on the horizon.

It was somewhat odd, the way they interacted. The two of them knew they didn't know each other well enough to be sharing insecurity together, but at the same time, to them, it felt natural for the most part. If Jahseh were to be honest with himself, he was just glad that this thief didn't despise him.

"Well, we have the rest of the day, and this silence is killing me. What is a good way to pass time?" Michael cleared his throat and spoke again, and asked the wanderer for something to do, and making an effort toward reconciliation with the man after the bitter morning they had.

"Hmm... how about a combination of skills, from both my side and yours? You can attempt to steal my necklace again, and at the same time I will be hunting you. Uh... not literally, of course." Happily, Jahseh responded, chuckling lightly afterward. "We can start in those woods over there." Concluding his words, he pointed to a vast sea of trees in the horizon. It was midday, and the sun was sparkling off of the trees.

"Sounds just lovely. You have until moon high. If you can't find me before the moon is directly above your head, then you've failed." Michael smirked and headed off towards the trees, and Jahseh trailed behind.

"Fair enough, but if you cannot steal this from me again, then you my friend are the one who has failed." Arrogantly, Jahseh replied, all in good fun of course.

And on that note the two were off. They made their way into the forest and it wasn't long until neither of them could even begin to guess where the other was.

Now both of them were goofing around.