Disclaimer: I don't own Tinman or any of it's characters and I don't gain any profit from the writing of this fanfiction but I do own Aris and friends (can't name them yet because that might spoil stuff)
"I'm looking for Aris." The man's face was obscured by the wide brimmed hat he wore. "What make you think I know where she'd be?" the hooker leaned against her corner, her hands defensively on her hips. The man chuckled darkly. "Who said Aris was a she?" He lifted his head so the girl could see his face. His pale blue eyes flashed in the gas lamps' light. A metallic click made the hooker's gaze flick down to the man's hip. His coat had fallen open slightly, to reveal the barrel of a gun, she could see his finger resting on the trigger. She visibly paled. "Aris." The man prompted. The girl kept her eyes following the gun, "Long-coat?" The man spat hatefully on the ground, "Tinman then. Good, she hates long-coats." The girls breathing had become almost erratically as she continued. "Another thing she don't like? Those who dream of things that can never be." The girl nodded toward a shadowed doorway. "You'll find what you're looking for in there. But a word of advice? Don't trust anything. Not even yourself." The man smiled coldly at the girl, while his finger pressed down on the trigger. The girl squeezed her eyes closed against the imminent pain. There was a dull click. Of metal-on-metal. "Well. Would you look at that?" The man said as he stepped toward the doorway the girl had indicated. "I'm all out of bullets." The girl could hear the smile in his voice even without opening her eyes, which had filled with terrified tears.
The man trod, as stealthily as he could, down the tunnel that the doorway led to. He had re-loaded his gun before even opening the door and still clenched it tight in his hand. He had been ready for an ambush, and was almost starting to get worried when one didn't come. The gas lamps flared and dimmed as he passed them. Something brushed his arm. He span on the spot. Arm out, gun clenched like an extension to his hand. A small women stood before him. She peered short-sightedly up at him, her hand snapped out and slapped his hand. Hard. So hard he dropped the gun, which she snatched out of the air. "You'll not need that, lovie." He lunged at the women, swung back his arm and clenched his hand into a fist. But the woman dodged his attack and countered with one of her own. Her heel slammed into his crotch. It hadn't been one of his best ideas to forgo wearing his cod-piece. The woman giggled as he slumped to the ground, hands clasped protectively around himself. "I'm surprised!" She told his huddled figure "I thought long-coats always wore black!" The man tried to grunt out a retort, but she kicked him in the side, winding him, and silencing him. "Why have you come here?" She growled at him. He rolled himself into a protective ball before attempting an answer. "I came to find Aris." He wheezed. He was lifted up, still bent double with pain, he was able to look at her, even if his eyes were watering. "Now why are you looking for Aris?" The woman cocked her head slightly. "She's no threat to Azcadellia." She kicked him again "Tell me why you're here!" The man closed his eyes to the impending darkness and allowed himself to black out. He was still conscious to hear the woman as she realised he was no-good to her "Damn!"
He opened his eyes to a gaze blinkingly up at a beautiful young woman. "Who're you?" he asked haltingly, she shushed him and lay a cool hand gently against his lips. "What do you dream of, man?" She asked in a voice that reminded him of a trap he and his fellows had once befallen. She spoke with a smoothness that made his eyelids droop. "What do you dream? Son-of-man." Incense hung heavily in the air, almost smothering in its potency. "Tell me your wildest desire." She cooed, the soft security of the pillows he lay on made him drowsy, he wanted to palpitate this beautiful woman. He wanted her not to worry about him, he didn't deserve her pity. He wanted to open his mouth and for his life story to gush from his lips, wanted her to know everything about him. "Tell me." She whispered into his ear, blowing gently. He moaned his eyes going in and out of focus, "Adora." He groaned, "Adora." He told the girl in his grating voice, so course and broken against hers of free flowing honey. She smiled. He closed his eyes and breathed the incense in deeply. When he opened his eyes he was looking at his wife. "Adora!" he gasped, her sweet tanned face broke into her loving smile, the one that had won the distant tinman's heart. "Adora," he whimpered stroking her face "My lovely Adora." She kissed his cheek, and he breathed in the smell of her hair, the sweet honeysuckle that was her favourite flower. He gazed wonderingly into her eyes, those endless brown orbs, with their spark of green deep into them. "I love you" she told him. He sighed with pleasure, the last time he had heard that voice other than in his dreams was when she had been screaming for her life, and the lives of her son and husband. "I missed you so much." She whispered into his ear. "I thought you were dead." His eyes snapped open. No, his Adora knew he wasn't dead. This wasn't the woman he had loved, wasn't the woman who had bore his son, wasn't the woman he had once, long ago, promised himself to. And hadn't that hooker said Aris didn't like people with impossible dreams and that he couldn't even trust himself, or his eyes. He whipped around and drew his gun. He pushed the barrel against the neck of the woman lounging beside him. She stared at him, those perfect brown eyes filled with terror. "My darling! What? What are you doing?!" She begged. He closed his eyes and pulled back his finger on the trigger. There was a bang, but not the sound of a gun. His eyes swarmed with colours and shapes and half formed memories. "A man who chooses to shoot his dead wife." Purred a female voice. "Aris will like you." And he felt scratchy cloth being brought down over his head. "No!" He wanted to say "I won't let you do this to me!" But he couldn't open his mouth, and the colours filled his field of vision. "I don't want to…" The incense drowned him in its cloying sweetness. One last thought captured him before he passed out again; she uses mists. She uses Azcadellia's mists.
He woke up in a darkened room. He felt suffocated and his mouth was dry and foul tasting. "Well well." A light blossomed and grew to illuminate the middle of the room. "Our little sleeping hansom has awakened." The smooth voice roused him slightly more gently that the light. He blinked away the stars that had been born from the light. He felt a gag being carefully removed from his mouth, when the skin touched him; he felt a silky smoothness and smelt a slight sent of lilies and something he didn't know. "I hear you've been looking for me." A girl's pail face smiled down at him kindly. Her blond brown hair was drawn back tightly into a ponytail and her grey eyes watched him intelligently. Several people stood hidden by the shadows cast by the light. He groaned and closed his eyes. "You're Wyatt Cain?" The question was sharp and came from one of the "shadowy characters" Cain tried to find the speaker in the gloom. He gave-up with a sigh and nodded. "I'm Cain." His voice was cracky and didn't sound like his own. "You're a tinman?" The question again came from the shadows, but from a different direction. Cain nodded, talking hurt. "Why are you here?" The girl knelt down to look him in the eyes. He was tied to a wooden chair, usual interrogation style. "You're Aris?" He asked, his voice broke slightly and he started coughing. The girl reached for something, Cain was ready to flinch away but she brought a cup to his lips. He sniffed suspiciously at it. "It's only water." She told him smiling at his mistrust, her voice was quiet "I'm not going to kill you just yet. I want to know what a tinman is doing looking for me." She brushed away her fringe from her eyes "Your kind, Mr Cain, are quite rare. I'm sure the long-coats would love to receive a tinman as a present." She laughed quietly. He took and experimental sip of the drink, when he was sure it was just water, he guzzled it down greedily. Aris calmly reached to bring him another drink. But she withheld it from his lips. "And to your question, yes. I'm Aris." She allowed him to drink from the cup. Cain's eyes darted around the room at the figures that surrounded the two. "These are my friends. I trust them with my life. They will not harm you." After a pointed look into one corned, that seemed to make someone squirm, she continued "Any further." Aris lowered the light from Cain's eyes. He blinked away the brightness and looked around himself.