Julian x Muriel Oneshots

The meeting

The sound of chatter and glasses clinking together filled the bar. Everyone inside seemed immersed in their conversations and card games except for the man in one of the corner booths, nursing his drink. The empty glasses that littered the table made it clear that this wasn't his first drink.

The man was hunched over the table, staring into his drink. Slowly he raised it and took a sip, it was disgusting, he'd had five.

Without warning a raven flew into the bar in a panic, cawing at the top of it's lungs.

Everyone inside sprung from their seats and rushed towards the exits. The only time that bird screamed like that was when the guards where coming.

The man in the corner, Julian Devorak, was snapped out of his trance, in his rush to get out he knocked over his drink, sending the glass crashing to the floor.

He stumbled out of the bar's back exit as quickly as he could, followed shortly behind by the raven, who soon got ahead of him. Without questioning where the bird was going Julian followed it. They stayed to the side streets and dark alleys, changing course whenever a guard was close.

By the time they had stopped running Julian could feel his legs burning. Once he'd come to his senses and took in his surroundings he realised that they were at the edge of the woods.

The raven, who he learned was named Malak, perched on a nearby branch and squacked at Julian. When he took a step forwards Malak hopped to another branch a bit further in and tilted his head at him, who returned the favor.

"You want me to go into the woods, don't you?"

Malak squacked at him and left the branch to perch on his shoulder instead.

"Can't argue with that, now can I. Onward we go!"

The forest was quiet, a welcome contrast from the markets and bars Julian usually found himself in. Every so often Malak would caw or nibble at his ear.

The sky darkened and a crack of thunder echoed through the air. Julian quickened his pace, hoping to find shelter before the rain started to pour. Malak jumped off his shoulder and squacked at Julian to follow.

Soon they stumbled upon a small hut, when Julian pushed on the door it gave way, opening to a warm fire lit room. Furs were scattered around inside, and it looked cozy. With a final glance around Julian went inside.

It was small but he didn't have to duck to get through the door and it smelled like myrrh. On one of the shelves he noticed what looked like a wooden hand carved bear.

"Just like the one I have."

Julian only noticed how cold he had been when a shiver ran up his spine. He turned his attention from the wooden bear to the fire. He took off his jacket and folded it carefully, grabbing a fur to take its place. He sat by the fire, looking to see that Malak had taken perch on a nearby shelf. Settling down he began trying to poke the fire back to life.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door to the hut slammed open.

A looming figure stood in the doorway, "What are you doing in my hut?"

Julian shot to his feet, still wrapped in furs. "I'm sorry I was in the woods and it looked like it was going to rain and-" He paused, looking at what the man was holding. "What's that?"

A wolf's head popped up out of the bundle and the man held them a bit closer to his chest.

"Is that your wolf? What's their name?" Julian could feel a small smile pull at the corners of his mouth.

The man huffed, "Her name's Inanna." He moved closer to the fine still holding her tight to his body. When he took a seat on the floor Julian noticed the red on the man's hands.

"Are you alright? Are you injured?" The way the man's eyes drifted to Inanna told him what he needed to know. "May I see?"

The man hesitated a moment, staring at Julian, before moving the furs to let him look at the gash across her side.

Julian looked at the man and took his glove off "May I?"

The man nodded, watching Julian carefully as he approached Inanna. Julian would be lying if he said he hadn't seen the man's gaze slip to the brand on the back of his hand. The mark on his neck began to glow and seconds after a red stain grew on his side.

The man quickly checked to see that Inanna was alright before turning to face the now bleeding doctor.

"Well," Julian sucked in a breath through his teeth. "I'll be off, don't want to bother you any longer."

As he began to pick up his coat and leave the man behind him spoke up. "Wait."

Julian turned, the man looked shocked that he'd spoken. "You're bleeding and you'd be stuck in the middle of a storm, you can stay for tonight."

"Uh, thank you ... I - I didn't get your name, did I?"

"....... Muriel."

"Thank you, Muriel, it's a good name."

Muriel looked at the wall, avoiding eye contact. "Don't mention it. . . you should probably sit down."

"Oh don't worry about me, it's probably patched itself up by now." He sat down anyways. Carefully he ran his hand over where the wound would be, it was already healing, still stinging.

Muriel walked over, now carrying a bucket of water and cloth. "You should clean off the blood, here."

Julian took the damp cloth and ran it over the wound. In the middle of cleaning the blood he look up at Muriel. "You've got blood on yourself." Muriel nodded, it was barely noticeable, he grabbed another cloth and began to wipe the blood from his hands.

Malak had fluttered down from his perch and hopped towards Inanna who was licking her fur clean.

Another crack of thunder ripped through the air and rain began to pound against the hut. A shiver ran up Julian's spine, he pulled the furs tighter to himself.

Muriel stood, "I'll get some more firewood before the rain gets to heavy."

With that Muriel stepped out of the hut and into the storm.

Julian sat in the hut, wrapped in furs and holding a damp cloth to his now healed wound. He looked looked at the hut around him.

He could remember coming into the woods and finding the hut. When he looked at the wolf curled up by the fire he couldn't help but feel that something was missing. Like a memory that he could almost remember but kept slipping out of reach.

He jumped when the door opened and a towering figure came in.

"Oh um, hello, I'm sorry for intruding but-"

The man cut him off before he could finish. "I know, you've already told me."

"Really? I- I can't remember, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologies, it's not your fault," the man set a log into the fire. "I have something that makes people forget me, it's like the mark on your neck."

Julian reached for his neck, letting his fingers trace where he knew the mark was.

"Here," Julian looked up at the man who held a small pouch in his hand. "It'll help."

Carefully he took the bag from the mans hand and untied the string holding it shut. The smell of myrrh drifted from the open bag and with it came memories of the man, of Muriel. Julian sat there a moment staring into the bag. When he looked up he could see Muriel's gaze nervously shift around the room.

"Thank you, for giving this to me."

Muriel huffed, turning to poke at the fire.

Julian watched him work, questions spun about in his mind, he supposed he could get quite used to Muriel.