This thing just appeared from nowhere. I swear.
She was doing it again. Just like the day before and even some very sparse days varying between months to years ago, she was doing it.
Hanso held back an urge to frown slightly, noting the Kougra's tensed and tight fingers as they pulled the feather across the paper with a rough daintiness. Usually, Brynn held a writing utensil inbetween her index and middle fingers, the rest of them in a loose position that often caused ink smudges as they were dragged along the quill's flow and pace. But seeing that she was holding it between her index and thumb - almost in a fist-like gesture - it showed that something was off. Either being terrible or was irritatedly nagging at her.
He did what he always did in moments like these - started up a casual conversation with the Brightvale guard. "Hey, what'cha writing?"
Brynn hardly paused to look up in recognition. "You know what I'm writing, Hanso - we've been at this for the past seven-eight years."
He shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to be reminded. Besides - like I'll remember all this guard stuff."
Softly, if he strained his hearing, the Ixi could hear a tired sigh along with the silence of a conversation harshly ended without much progress. Besides the weary-sounding heave of breath, Hanso could also see her blue-stripped tail flop - with an equal amount of exhaustion - onto the desk's polished surface, though it seemed to go unnoticed by the orange pet, who seemed rather focused with squinting her eyes as she scribbled hastily. Yup. Something was definitely bothering her.
But what in Neopia do I even say? Hanso made a few 'hmm's as he thought about it, leaning into his wooden chair with folded arms and a hand on his chin, like he saw some of the Brightvale scholars do. He never really understood why they even did something like that - looked a bit silly in his opinion - but they seemed to look more, well, 'wise' and 'knowledgeable' like that, so he adopted the habit when he nothing but a seven year old thief.
Habits...
"Oh, I know!" the Ixi exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, momentarily forgetting the Kougra before him until she coughed, eyebrows raised and gazing intently at the thief, half-frowning, half-unamused, and a wee bit confused, though it was barely visible in her disapproving expression.
"Is there something you'd like to say?" she asked curtly, irritation smeared heavily onto the letters. The blue pet grinned - nervously, though it was mostly filled with a sense of determined accomplishment-to-be-done - and noticed that the guard had paused in her writing - it was the first since the two even came in here for Brynn to interrogate him and all that nonsense the guards do to prisoners of not too much priorities. (He wasn't exactly pleased to hear that he wasn't considered so seriously, but at least he had something than nothing.)
"Just wonderin' about your writing," Hanso began, playing the role of the innocent questioner. "I mean, it's weird to write between your middle and index fingers. Do people even do that?"
Somewhere, disappointment rolled itself out as the Kougra was reminded of the paperwork to fill up, hurriedly picking up the quill and beginning to write again. "Seeing that I can write so 'strangely' like you say so, I think that's very possible."
Hanso looked with an expression of silent disbelief - and not the shocked sort. "Yet I've never seen anyone do that, and I've met a lot of people."
Brynn snorted. "During your stealing, yes, you've definitely met a lot of people who you've stole from. Though that doesn't mean you've stolen from them while they were writing - I very much doubt you're the kind who even waits for moments like that."
"Nope, I'm not," the Ixi proudly replied, grinning when he continued. "And you're not the kind who's so disturbed by stuff."
The guard immediately stopped, slowly setting the blue-tipped quill into the glass bottle before her gaze sharply turned onto the thief, finally deciding to not let the papers on her table draw away her attention. "Nothing's bothering me, Hanso." There. She said it.
Hanso, however, simply shook his head at her denied response. "We've had nearly eight years - you don't think I haven't noticed when you're tensed or not?"
"Honestly, no," the Kougra retorted momentarily, soon returning to the actual topic with sharper, narrowed orbs of blue. "But there's seriously nothing happening. And I mean it when I say that."
"Really?" It was easy to tell that he was immensely unconvinced.
An irritated sigh left Brynn as her shoulders slumped, leaning onto the desk while massaging her not-helmed forehead like a migraine just struck her. Her free fingers yearned for the writing utensil simply seconds away, but she felt no need to distract herself - what was the point of running away? It would only reinforce whatever idea had occurred in the Ixi's head - with something as useless as paperwork, even though it was all that was needed before Hanso would be 'kindly' directed to the familiar prison cells.
"...Yes," came the stressed reply. "Now... just leave it, okay? I have a lot to do."
Hanso made a not-exactly-agreeing 'mmhm' at it, nodding just a slight bit though hesitance and friendly concern had been sewn into his current expression. The silence returned with its expected swiftness, along with the quiet scratches of an ink-dipped quill being dragged onto paper, fingers holding it a tight grip that resembled a hand closed for punching something or someone. The blue pet watched idly as that hand never loosened and never created annoying ink smudges until it stopped and dropped the pure-colored feather into the ink bottle smoothly with experience and practice; the paperwork was over.
Being escorted into the prison, Hanso was accompanied with no one but Brynn - once she handed the paperwork over to some other guard, for some reason even the orange pet didn't exactly understand or see a good need for. The ex-Thieves Guild member openly agreed with her when she brought it up once in a distant conversation - to his cell. Why? Because no one exactly wanted to deal with a nuisance like him, nor could put up with his cheeky and annoying attitude to the other guards. But someone still had to do the job.
The routine of being taken to his cell was both a familiar comfort and a monotonous bore to the thief - Hanso could easily get out. He always had, in one way or the other, no matter how long it took.
As he heard the metallic bars close behind him with that annoying creak that made it seem like no one really maintained the prison, the Ixi turned back to watch the Kougra walk out in the direction of the exit, the two of them unusually silent for once. No chatter, no playful irritation, no witty remarks or comebacks - there was nothing between the two, and any prisoner who had a good amount of exposure to their routine would find it very, very strange.
"...You know, you can always talk about it with me." The Ixi gripped the bars - he didn't notice how tightly he held them. "I won't tell even a petpetpet!"
Brynn didn't look back, but Hanso knew she smiled a little - he couldn't help but grin a bit in return.
"Yeah. You wouldn't."
There ya go - my second writing of those two awesome people. The first one being on the NT already.
I'm kinda considering to continue to this as a one-shot collection thing, though I honestly don't know how that would ever work out... I mean, I'm kinda procrastinating on writing multi-chapter stuff. Though once the vacations roll out, there'll definitely be updates and all.
Review. No flames.
~Shiroi