A Few Rules

Disclaimer: Ragnarok Online (c) Gravity. Characters (c) YunCyn.

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In the process of graduating from a Thief to an Assassin, one went through rigorous and oftentimes unmerciful training in the hot desert of Morroc. Considering the fact that Assassins had to withstand any sort of temperature and any sort of condition, scorching desert heat and blinding sunlight was supposed to be a piece of cake with pink sugar icing. They trained you to be hardy, to be so fast you were a blur caused by overheating, to be so silent you were little more than the barely heard whistle of the wind.

Then, they'd push you even harder. They'd train you so there wasn't even a blur or whisper of wind. They'd train you to be so tough, nothing fazed you. Not by much. The skills, the principles and the ideas… they were all taught by the instructors and trainers.

But the finer points of the job, the extra things that no one else could teach was drilled in by Experience, a relentless teacher who never got tired of homing in a lesson. So far, it had taught him the unspoken rules of an Assassin and he tried to follow them as best as he could. Following them was essential for his health and for continued breathing.

However, after his five years of being a Thief and a further six more years as a trained Assassin, Experience still had a lot more tricks up its' sleeve as he was about to find out.

As he sat on a dark rooftop in the dark of the early hours with the blinking stars above as his only companion, he thought back to when he had seen her about a year ago.

It was in the city itself. He had been watching the hustle and bustle of the crowd from the sidelines as he blended in with the walls. He'd been sitting so still, a merchant's wheelbarrow rolled over his foot and thought of it as a loose cobblestone. Silently biting off a curse and trying not to break his stillness by rubbing his aching foot, he had happened to glance upwards at the right time.

He lived in this city his entire life. When he wasn't off in some foreign land on assignment, he hung around the marketplace to practice his stealth and put faces to names. It was part of the job to remember people but mostly, he liked watching people go past him, both the familiar and the unfamiliar. He liked trying to guess their stories.

So, he knew hers'. He remembered it particularly well since he had played with her and a lot of other children once when he was very young, before he became a thief at the age of eight and left them to concentrate on his training. But there was nothing out of the ordinary about her. He knew she was the same age as he was, and was the eldest daughter of a merchant couple in this city although she eventually became an acolyte.

She wasn't heart stopping, eye popping beautiful; not like the Dancers or Wizards that he had seen on his travels. She wasn't exotic or exciting unlike the foreign female Rogues or his other fellow female Assassins. She was no heroine with any dark past or large destiny to fulfill. She was, in all truth, just an ordinary nineteen-year-old.

But how he suddenly felt so strange at the exact moment he saw her kneel slightly and give a red apple to one of the tinier street children running about in the dusty streets with a gentle smile was something totally unexplainable. Maybe it had been the sparkle of her warm brown eyes or the contrast of her brunette ponytail against the silver ribbon she used to tie it up with.

Whatever it was, the reason her face had remained in his mind's eye ever since that particular afternoon had driven him completely round the bend and back and round again.

As he recalled, explaining his predicament to his friends only resulted in highly irritating nudges and knowing grins that tempted him to shove katars into their mouths, not caring if there were teeth in the way. There were long, drawn out coughs, extremely cryptic sentences, words that hung in mid air that he couldn't finish and finally, resigned sighs and expressions on their faces where the eyes rolled to the heavens, silently asking why.

Apparently, he had to "find this out on his own since he was so damn dense".

This coming from people whom he had had to teach to use a katar some years back, he grumbled silently. Even the assassins who were his seniors by one or two years had gotten wind of his bewilderment and had gotten into the act, teasing him endlessly over being so "naïve".

"Naïve" had given them a swift kick that knocked them off their feet just to inform them that he wasn't in such a pleasant mood as to be teased like that. With all due respect. The seniors had taken it in stride although two days later he'd gotten a not-so-mysterious dousing of flour mixed with egg yolk from the top of the Pyramids.

But back to his bewilderment…

It had lasted throughout the last year and still refused to go away this year. It felt to him like a constant itch; something compelled him to try and learn everything there was to know about her.

He had even gone to the city archives in the middle of the night just to find out more than what he knew about her. But after finding her records, he had stared at it for a few minutes and then felt utterly disgusted with himself. It was a blatant invasion of her privacy and he knew better than that. So he put it back without reading it.

However, there were other ways that an Assassin could gather information.

That was how he had gotten this peculiar habit of watching out for her in the streets whenever he was around. When she was around, smiling and laughing, he felt happier and more at ease. When she seemed upset or sad, he felt down as well. And when she was nowhere to be seen…

His friends had learned to stay away from him on those days.

Slowly, he began to discover the little things about her, things he couldn't remember learning about her when they were young ones. Her favourite colour seemed to be silver and she loved to eat strawberries. She had a soft spot for Lunatics and she helped strangers and locals alike with anything she could.

And much to his strange feeling of… dismay, she didn't seem to remember him. Friends whom he had promised a favour to be named later had gone around talking about him in the marketplace, just mentioning his name as they talked loudly in the streets. One of his bolder comrades asked her if she knew who he was.

Her response was an unreadable, blank look.

He had tried to inflict self concussion that day by ramming his forehead against a wall before his friends wisely pulled him away.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. This feeling was changing him so much, it wasn't funny. From being generally collected and calm, he had turned into a total idiot. And it seemed like EVERYONE but HE knew just what on Midgard was wrong with him. But would they tell him?

Hel, no.

Not even people he called friends cared to enlighten him on this subject. Apparently, his fellow comrades were "heartily disappointed" that he had yet to figure out for himself just what was going on inside him whenever he saw her.

He continued to glare furiously at nothing. So help him, he was determined tonight to unravel this year old mystery in the early morning hours of his nineteenth birthday.

…she would turn nineteen too, come to think of it. In about two weeks' time.

…

Dammit!

There he went again! Every single time he thought about something, he could relate it to her! HALF his thoughts could be related to her in some way or another. It was driving him NUTS! Not that he hated thinking about her or anything. (on the contrary, he could spend days on end envisioning her in his mind without stopping. It was one of the highlights of his daily routines to be honest.)

It just bugged him to no end as to WHY he kept thinking of her. He was turning into one of those lovesick fools in those romance novels Adelynn always rea…

A few rules of an Assassin.

1) Be silent
2) Be swift
3) Remain unseen
4) Remain undetected
5) NEVER fall in love.

He HAD to go and forget Rule 5.

The quickly muffled groan as he thumped his head against his arm was soon followed by two thumps on either side of him.

"So. You finally figured it all out, did you?"

There was another muffled groan.

"Apparently so…"

He raised his head. "I can't believe this… I AM as dense as a rock!"

There was a sigh. "After a full year, two months and one week, he finally admits it."

"Now, Trien, he isn't all that bad. He was after all the first of our class in the Academy."

With his mask hiding a highly amused smirk and his blue eyes gleaming in mischievous delight, Trien grinned as he looked over his stricken friend, to the other side. "The best of our class at the skills maybe. But about these sort of things?" He snickered and knocked his knuckles on his friend's head. "Not a single brain cell for it."

He swiped Trien's hand away and glared. "Why didn't any of you tell me? Just so I wouldn't have to act like an absolute fool for a whole year?"

"You deserve it the way you took this long to figure it all out," remarked the other Assassin dryly, with a smirk on his face.

"Well, you have to look at it this way, Kayden. He hasn't had a girlfriend his whole life!" cackled Trien. "Of course he'd be helpless at this!"

Kayden choked for a moment before bursting out into sniggers alongside Trien. Sniggers soon escalated into full blown laughter.

The mirth was abruptly brought to a painful halt as both received a good whack on their skulls with a very hard katar.

"Funny how the people I call friends are often the first ones to laugh in my time of misery," observed the assassin wryly as his two friends rubbed their aching heads.

Trien was seeing some brightly coloured lights dance in front of his eyes. Still, he found enough wits to curse. "Dammit, if you weren't my best friend, I'd toss you off this rooftop…!"

Kayden's eyes had crossed and it took a few minutes before he could speak properly. And stop tearing up from the head trauma. "So…" he croaked as he rubbed a growing welt. "Now that you know… what're you going to do about it…?"

He stopped short, his brain processes coming to a grinding halt.

What was he going to do about it?

Trien took one look at his expression and rolled his eyes. "…That was a stupid question. Look at his face! He doesn't have a blessed clue!"

The assassin shot Trien another death glare. It was all right for him; he already had a girlfriend. Or rather, Trien had girlfriends what with all the girls he was dating at one go. Kayden just commented that the blue eyed assassin must be tired of living.

"I can't do anything anyway," he said at last with a small sigh. "She's an acolyte and I'm an Assassin."

Trien emitted a long suffering sigh. "Earth to the brainless fool sitting beside me… you're not a murderer, you know. Weren't you the one who was the very first among us to support the whole spy-under-assassin's-name business? It's because we keep our mouths shut that everyone still thinks we go around killing people for gold."

"Still… it doesn't seem right."

He smacked his forehead. "Kayden, I give up. There's just no talking to this guy."

"I can see that." The sandy blonde haired Assassin with dark green eyes looked him in the eye. "You remember how you owe me, Trien and Adelynn a favour each?"

Wondering why he was bringing that up at a time like this, he nodded. "….yeah. What about it?"

Trien patted him on the shoulder. "Eqan, old buddy… it's time to do us that favour."

He raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Which is…?"

Eqan had barely time to note the flashing exchange of looks between Trien and Kayden before they both pushed him off the roof.

"GAAAAHH!"

As expected, his in-trained instincts got through and he landed safely on his feet. It didn't mean however that he didn't need to take at least three minutes to remind himself that he was alive, he could resume breathing and he had to go kill his best friends for this.

"WHAT THE HEL WAS THAT FOR!" roared the silver haired Assassin after his voice managed to come out. Despite the late hour, it was excusable for a guy who'd been pushed off from around 30 feet to disturb the peace.

"You've got that favour to return, Eqan. This is for all three of us by the way." replied Kayden placidly with a mild grin. Trien's eyes were unremorseful and his lips were twitching in laughter.

"LIKE HEL I'M GOING TO DO ANYTHING FOR YOU TWO NOW!"

As if he was deaf, he breezily continued. "You're going to have to reacquaint yourself with Miss Megallan."

"MY-" Eqan stared at his friend. "What!"

Trien feigned sudden realization. "Oh, you mean you didn't know she's standing right behind you?" His hidden grin just made everything worse.

As if he'd been shot, Eqan whipped around.

To his terror, shock and thrill all at once, there stood Efarin Megallan, looking surprised and nervous.

There was a semi-long pause. During which, Eqan spotted his other best friend, Adelynn, sneak out of the shadows and head for the rooftop which he'd been so kindly pushed off by his two other best friends.

He slowly came to a decision.

"…excuse me for a minute, will you?"

Blinking, Efarin nodded.

"Thank you." Turning, he glared up at the now three grinning faces looking at him. "If you want to continue breathing, you better make yourselves scarce. NOW."

Naturally, as is the duty of best friends all around the world, they completely ignored him.

"Awww, isn't he cute the way he's so shy?" commented Trien, face lit up by pure virtuousness.

"One of his best traits really," remarked Adelynn with nothing but purity in her tone of voice.

"You may have to make the first move though, Miss Megallan," said Kayden, radiating innocence.

The unsheathing whistle and gleam of a katar blade seemed to have more of an effect as the trio suddenly vanished upon him bringing it out. Putting it back in his cloak, he turned, slightly cringing now since he knew he had made himself into a complete idiot in front of the girl he liked.

Then he opened his mouth and made himself feel like an even bigger idiot.

"I hope they didn't give you too much trouble…uh, you should probably get home. It's much too late for you to be out here-"

Efarin stopped him with a raised hand and a sweet smile that made his knees knock involuntarily together. Her hands then moved together to 'speak' for her. He could understand due to lessons in sign language that he had had in his childhood. When, he again didn't remember but still, he understood.

It was the only way that she could make herself heard since she had been born mute.

'There is no trouble. When your friend came to see me… I wanted to come.'

Eqan's light gray eyes widened in surprise. "Uh…"

'I wanted to wish my old friend a Happy Birthday.'

If anything, his eyes widened even more and the guilt of not remembering her clearer started to swell.

Efarin smiled a little wider. 'I still remember your silver hair and eyes. I remember teaching you how to understand me.'

The blush on her face curiously gave him hope for something. Still, all he could say now was "uh…"

'I guess when you became a Thief you had to leave us behind to work. So, gradually you drifted away.'

Eqan brushed his hair backwards in embarrassment and more guilt. "…I'm sorry."

She looked at him for a while then smiled. 'There is nothing to be sorry about. Was it you who's been leaving fresh strawberries every morning at my doorstep?'

Eqan could quite literally feel himself blush horribly. "Uh…"

If it was possible, Efarin's smile grew sweeter. 'Thank you. They're delicious… and thank you for watching out for me. Your friend told me you were the one who prevented that runaway cart from hitting me and one of the kids the other day.'

"That was no big deal…" I'm gonna kill Adelynn…

'I guess… I know now why I've been feeling watched this whole time.'

Eqan stiffened. Then his tongue tripped over itself to get a sane, decent explanation out. "I, I, I… I wasn't, I wasn't trying to do anything, I just…"

Her lips parted in a silent laugh. 'I know, Eqan. I'd just like to know one thing.'

'Why have you been watching me?'

Light gray eyes met soft chestnut brown ones. Without knowing it, a deep red blush had grown across his face as he mussed up the back of his head slowly. The mask didn't hide his nervousness as Efarin patiently waited.

Here was a girl he had known in his early childhood, half forgotten and now rediscovered. How could she feel the same way about him the way he did about her?

And yet, there was that look in her eyes…

With a large breath, he spoke, still not looking at her. "You know… I've been asking myself the same question for the past year. And I just realized the answer a few minutes ago."

He turned to her now, his fingers pulling his mask away from his face to reveal a small, shy smile.

"I guess I… I like you. I'm just sorry it took so long for me to figure it out."

There. He'd said it. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears and he felt so lightheaded that he could almost float and he had just done the stupidest thing an Assassin could do and that was taking off his mask just to show her just how serious he was about him liking her…

But he'd done it.

Now what…?

To his relief, Efarin's eyes go from nervous to pure, undeniable happiness. Her lips widened into a wide smile and she looked at him, seeming to contemplate something for a few minutes.

Then she took a step forward and stepping on tiptoe (since he was a good head higher than her), kissed him right on his lips.

A second later, she pulled away, took the mask hanging from his neck and silently tied it back around his face still with a smile. The bright blush on her face could be seen even though it was the dark of the wee hours.

'You know, you're the reason I like the colour silver. I suppose it's safe to say that I've liked you since we were children.'

Eqan was very grateful for the dark mask that was covering the large, idiotic grin on his face. However, he pushed it downwards again and bent his head to return her kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist. It was a chaste kiss on the lips and not very alarming, but it was still enough for the two of them.

He took her hand in his a minute later after putting his mask back upright. "I think I better take you home. I just hope you don't get into trouble, sneaking out this late to kiss an Assassin."

She laughed silently again and with little hesitation, leaned against him slightly as they walked. His only response was to put his arm around her shoulders as they walked the streets of Morroc in the wee hours of the morning.

From a different rooftop, Kayden chuckled. "She took my advice after all. Smart girl."

Trien snickered as Adelynn stifled her laughter. "C'mon, let's head back and get some shuteye. It'll be a while before Lover Boy gets back anyway."

"Ah, I've been unseated as the Romeo of Morroc, have I?"

Adelynn and Kayden exchanged a roll of the eyes at that remark as all three headed back to their lodgings.

A few rules of an Assassin.

1) Be silent
2) Be swift
3) Remain unseen
4) Remain undetected
5) NEVER fall in love…

6) IF you can help it.

The End.

A/N: I suspect it may be rather impossible for Efarin to say so much just with her hands. I'm unsure about this since I don't know sign language myself. Nevertheless, I apologize for any offense I may have inadvertently caused with my remarks. I hope you enjoyed reading and thanks for your attention!