this is definitely AU. i wanted to go with a funnier, clumsier gavner and a more quicksilver kind of larten. ahhh well. enjoy.


His assistant had been gone for a couple of hours at most, and Mika was already who he used to be again.

Of course, there had been a couple of white lies along the way. It had been necessary to convince him that Arra was in safe hands somewhere with Vanez, who was explaining something about the Festival to her – it was a weak story, but it had worked, probably in part because Mika had wanted it to. However important she was to him, Arrow could see in Mika's eyes that he was tired of spending every second of every night worrying about her if she was any further than a couple of feet away.

Truthfully, Arrow had no idea where she was – and he couldn't have cared less. It was very telling that she hadn't come back to Mika when she must have known exactly how to find him, and was so clearly without any other friends at the Mountain. She was thankful of the freedom. Arrow couldn't help but dislike her a bit for that – though he disapproved of their whole relationship and had since its outset, it at least would have been better if he thought she was just a little more grateful, or just a little more attached.

Without her, Mika was laughing like he used to. He had never been much of a charmer to the average stranger, but he'd always had a special kind of relationship with Arrow. They could finally talk like brothers again without her sitting in between them like an obstacle. Arrow knew it was Mika who behaved differently around her, but still couldn't help but blame Arra. Over the years since he'd unwisely acquired her, Mika had grown so far away from everyone else. Whether or not that had been his own doing or due to her influence was irrelevant; she was ruining him, and that was all Arrow could see.

Though he would never admit it, it had crushed him the way Mika had brushed him off the last time they had seen each other. It had been much easier to just blame the girl and get it over with than consider, even for a moment, that the two of them might grow apart.

"Where to?" Vancha bellowed from across the table. He was swinging a mug of ale in the air, already drunk. However disgraceful he was, he always made Arrow laugh.

"Are you in the mood for a challenge?" Arrow asked Mika, leaving Vancha huffing on the edge of their conversation again like he had been all evening. He wasn't much good at playing third wheel.

Mika shrugged. "If someone challenges me, I'll have no choice," he remarked, in his usual vague fashion. The twinkle in his eye gave him away though – there was a glint of mischief that Arrow hadn't been able to locate for a long time simmering somewhere under the surface.

"Come on, then," Arrow grinned in response. "Let's you and I have a match again, like we always used to."

Vancha slammed down his mug indignantly. "Are you two a couple?" he roared, but only a few of the vampires around them dared to laugh. Nobody wanted to get on the wrong side of Mika and Arrow – Vancha was one of the very few who wasn't at all threatened. "Who'm I gonna talk to all night?"

Mika and Arrow exchanged a look, and in a glance they both smiled.

"We'll come back for you," Mika lied in his most convincing voice, patting the drunken vampire on the back reassuringly.

"Yeah," Arrow echoed, already halfway towards the door. "You just relax here for a while, we won't forget about you!"

With that, the two proceeded to make a swift exit towards the Sports Halls. Vancha rolled his eyes and finished whatever was left in his cup before starting off to locate better company.


Halfway through their second sparring match, Arrow caught sight of her through a crowd of cheering vampires at the other end of the Hall. He was careful not to look too long, for fear that Mika might turn around to find out what was distracting him, but he briefly wished she was a little easier to miss. She was severely under-dressed for the occasion, evidently not having been charmed by the idea of lugging a dress all the way to the Mountain in order to wear it just the once, but her hair, for once, was loose – it hung all the way to her waist and swung and shone when she walked. In one of his quick glances Arrow managed to ascertain that she was about to embark on a challenge set to her by a man he didn't recognize on the bars, and then he snapped his eyes back exactly into place.

He had a feeling deep down that Mika would have wanted to go and watch her, or catch her when she fell, or stop her fighting altogether. Arrow could see her smiling when she flicked back her hair and faced her opponent. She hadn't spared a thought for Mika all night, so why should Mika spare any for her?

"Ah, one more," Arrow said, as soon as his distraction got the better of him and Mika very nearly ran him through. There was no real danger – the most harm they had ever done to each other amounted to a few cuts and bruises, and that wasn't likely to change. There was more to enjoy about their fights than inflicting pain. "We can't stop anyway, we'll disappoint the audience."

As usual they had attracted a little band of followers, eager to perhaps see one of them injured or perhaps to pick up a few tips on how they might emulate such success. They were all jeering already, uninterested in the conversation and ready to see a real fight.

"I've bested you three times," Mika mocked. "When did you become such a useless swordsman?"

"I'll have you this time," Arrow promised, glancing over once more to check how Arra was getting along. She was still on her feet, but also still in plain view.

Mika tutted. "I don't know," he said. "I've already had my victory. You can't even best me out of five."

"Alright," Arrow conceded, mind racing for something to do next that didn't involve Mika having to turn around. Arra was on increasingly dodgy ground – she'd lost her footing badly a second ago, and only barely landed on a lower bar. Whoever her opponent was certainly had the beating of her. By the time she fell she would be out of sight again; she was so much shorter than most of the men that even standing she would be obscured. It was just a matter of occupying Mika until then.

Luckily, there was a particularly drunk General milling around in front of them who shouted several obscenities followed by a declaration that everyone knew Arrow was the better warrior. Mika laughed out loud, probably only another few words away from knocking that bad-mannered General out for the rest of the night, and started forward again with his sword.

"We'll see!" he shouted back, grinning. Arrow defended himself for a few moments and then glanced up one last time – just in time to watch Arra step backwards off a higher bar at the wrong moment and fall. With his inability to stay focused, it was only a few seconds after that Mika managed to trip him again, sword raised up high. Everyone around them jeered again, and Mika threw his hands out wide as if to ask why his brother was so useless. Arrow, having achieved his aim of keeping Mika to himself just for another hour or so, simply smiled.

"Another drink?" he asked, just in time to watch Arra disappear through a door into another room, finally safely out of sight. Mika nodded while he helped him up, and then quickly turned around to locate Vanez, who he'd overheard talking behind him. Arrow could barely keep from rolling his eyes.

Mika hopped down from the enclosure in which he and Arrow had been fighting and tapped Vanez on the shoulder. He had a keen interest in all of the tests and games the vampires challenged each other to, and it took him a second to tear his eyes away from the wrestling match happening in front of him.

"Where's Arra?" he asked, almost shouting in order to be heard over the noise of the other vampires.

Vanez was barely listening, one eye on the match all the while. "She was on the bars a minute ago," he answered. "That was a good match to watch, actually. She's either a little drunk or she's a little off with her footing sometimes, but there's big potential there. I'll work on it with her, if you want."

Mika rolled his eyes. He had no interest in sport like Vanez did – many of the vampires enjoyed Council specifically because it gave them a chance to practice some of their best loved sports and challenge each other to see if they had held on to their title. It held no appeal to Mika; if he wanted to win something he usually would. Besides, he could remember Arra on the bars twelve years ago and the surprising trouble he'd had trying to defeat her even as a half-vampire. If anyone knew about her potential, it was him.

"She trains enough," Mika said, a polite enough way of declining the offer on her behalf. Vanez's head turned a fraction suddenly, as if he'd just remembered something, and finally he managed to completely tear his eyes completely from the game.

"She came and joined in one of my training sessions for the trainee Generals earlier," he said, watching the almost imperceptible twitch in Mika's eyebrows as he tried to hide his surprise and possibly displeasure. "She was good. Nearly broke one of the younger ones in half."

Mika almost laughed. That certainly sounded like her.

"I thought I'd tell her to keep coming," Vanez said, testing the water carefully. "It'll be useful to her, if she wants to take the Trials in a few years."

The dark General managed to catch himself before his mouth even opened. His first reaction had been to talk himself away from that subject, or attest that she wouldn't be doing so for another few hundred years, but when he heard himself in his head before he spoke he realized how foolish that sounded. Besides, he liked Vanez, and he trusted him. If Arra was on the lookout for something to do with her time, Mika supposed there was no harm in allowing that she spend it with him.

Suddenly his purpose for coming over was clear in his mind again. "I thought she was with you, though?" he asked, as Vanez turned back to the game after realizing that his suggestions hadn't got him on Mika's bad side.

"As I say," Vanez replied, still staring at the two vampires ahead of him, one of which was now missing an ear. "I saw her when she tried to break Gavner Purl's arm. Then she turned up on the bars just now – I haven't seen her otherwise."

Mika realized he'd been tricked immediately, but before he could even react Arrow was already beside him. As soon as he turned toward the bald General, Arrow groaned and rolled his eyes.

"For the love of the Vampire Gods, Mika," he said impatiently. "It's about time you gave the girl some peace."

Arrow had been friends with Mika long enough to know that he was phrasing it the best possible way. There was no point in detailing the endless issues he had with Arra, or how he hated the way she, either purposefully or inadvertently, controlled and manipulated Mika. It had been twelve years now of trying to convince Mika that she wasn't a good idea; there was no use trying that again.

"She is too young to spend all of her time with you and your friends," Arrow convinced, already leading his friend towards another Hall, hoping to get some alcohol down him before he changed his mind and started running around after his assistant again. He could see Mika starting to puff his chest up at her age even being mentioned, so he swerved away onto safer ground as quickly as possible. "One night off from each other," he began carefully, considering every word. "Can only be a good thing. Besides, you agreed to another drink."

Mika sighed, but he didn't look overly irritated. Arrow began to believe for the first time that he might have actually gotten away with it.

"One more drink," Mika agreed cagily.

"Several more, I think," muttered Arrow, as he poured them and then found them a seat at a nearby bench. It was unreasonably too loud for seemingly the only two vampires left in the Mountain that weren't blind drunk, and it soon became clear that even if they could manage to navigate away from the issue of Arra's whereabouts and back onto friendlier territory, their evening wasn't going to get any better. Arrow was almost at the stage of wishing for Vancha back again, just so that he might keep them entertained, when he was suddenly covered all the way down his head and back in a liquid that, after only a moment, he was able to identify as gin from the overpowering smell.

Mika started laughing immediately, his heavy shoulders shaking beneath his dress robes.

"I'm sorry," began the unfamiliar young vampire who had unwisely been attempting to juggle four glasses in his clearly intoxicated state. He was clearly not drunk enough to forget whatever lessons he had already learned about the dangers of Mika and Arrow. "I am so sorry; I didn't realize it was you –"

Before sufficient time had passed for Arrow to make up his mind whether he was going to laugh about it or exact some sort of revenge, they were interrupted by another youth who swooped in to remove two of the glasses from his friend's hands.

"Gavner, time is of the essence –"

He noticed the wet back of Arrow's shirt and the way his friend was blushing and simply laughed. He was noticeably older than the nervous youngster who had spilled the drink. He had none of his friend's awkwardness, but rather an air of arrogance that still readily identified him as one of the youths.

"You and Kurda can share that one," he said through his laughter. "I am afraid I need these."

He finished off that selfish thought with a click of his tongue and a comical wink before strolling back off into the crowd of young vampires in another corner of the Hall. "You two keep yourselves busy!" he called over his shoulder with a cheeky grin.

In Mika and Arrow's brief moment of consideration about what they'd just witnessed, 'Gavner' had managed to slip away from Arrow unnoticed, and was now standing a little further away clearly discussing how close he might have just come to death with a slender blonde friend of his.

"I think I know him," Mika mused after a second.

"Gavner?" Arrow asked. Unfortunately everyone knew young Gavner, possibly except for Mika. Paris had taken him on as an assistant years ago convinced that he showed promise and it had never quite yet been demonstrated. For one thing, it was embarrassing to be identified as another of Paris' assistants if his latest was so utterly useless, and for another the boy's complete incompetence seemed to be a sad reminder that Paris was beginning to lose his touch in his old age.

Mika shook his head. "No," he replied, frowning, and concentrated on the crowd the older of the two had disappeared into. "I've met that other one somewhere before."

Arrow shrugged. "He isn't an assistant anymore," he said, without knowing what harm it might do to fill Mika in on the other young vampire's background. "But he used to be one of Seba's."

It all clicked, and Mika frowned. He hadn't liked that interfering assistant then and he certainly didn't like him now.

"He tried to take me on once, a few years ago," Mika revealed, having already decided to keep the details of the entire story to a minimum even in the face of possible questions. "He thought I'd treated Seba badly, or spoken to him wrongly, and he stepped in to tell me so!"

They both laughed, as though someone talking back to either of them was simply hilarious.

"You can't dislike him just for that," Arrow chided. "He probably didn't know who you were. Besides, Arra would do the same for you, even if it was Khledon Lurt himself giving you difficulty!"

Mika smiled at the thought of that. It was the first nice thing Arrow had found to say about her in a long time.

"He's too cocky," Mika complained, still craning his neck to see where Seba's annoying old assistant had disappeared to. "He reminds me of you, when you were younger."

Arrow laughed out loud, and prepared to launch into an old tale of Mika's embarrassing behaviour when they had both been assistants to prove him wrong in his statement, when the other General's face completely dropped. Rather than ask any questions, he followed the line of Mika's gaze to an empty table near the entrance. It was getting more and more difficult to pick out things in the distance as dawn approached and the candles started to burn out, but as soon as he identified that hair glinting in the last of the light the whole situation was clear. Arra's fingers hovered over the glass she'd just placed on the table behind her, and when he focused he could hear the sound of her laughing – genuinely, for once, not in any sort of disdain. The cocky young vampire who'd stolen the gin from his young friend was loitering in front of her as they joked together, his hand hovering suspiciously around Arra's without ever actually capturing it.

"She's made a new friend," Arrow placated softly, sensing suddenly that this was no longer at all a time for jokes. Mika nodded once, but he was totally still, and his eyes remained trained on his assistant even when Arrow spoke.

When the youngster finally did manage to take her hand in order to place it on his shoulder, Mika's breath hitched. In the back of his mind, Arrow wondered why he didn't just interrupt them straight away, if the situation bothered him. Arrow imagined that however much it pained him, Mika knew deep down that there was no agreement between him and Arra, and, if he could stand it, he wanted to test the possibility that she might be loyal to him from afar.

As the cocky young vampire leaned forward to place a hand around her waist, Arrow heard the beginnings of movement from the other side of the table. "Why don't you leave it?" he asked, before Mika had a chance to stand up. Though his brother looked at him like he was insane, he relaxed in his seat again.

"Maybe this can be the test," Arrow convinced his old friend, having already decided that it was for the best, however painful, for Mika to watch her kiss this stranger and prove once and for all that she cared nothing for his feelings. "You've been waiting for her to love you for years now. Maybe now you can see if she does."

It hadn't crossed Arrow's mind even for a moment that his plan might backfire. As insufferable as Seba's old assistant had seemed, he was probably quite a charmer, and Arrow couldn't imagine very many people had ever been so close to Arra without fear of injury. But suddenly the moment came, and as he leaned in for the kiss, her hand slipped to his chest and pushed him back.

She was shaking her head, brushing his hands away, visibly making excuses and distancing herself from him. He must have thought it appropriate to chance it one more time, and swooped in once more to attempt the kiss he'd been certain of a minute ago, but this time she only pushed him back more viciously.

It had all happened so quickly that Arrow wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, or what role he'd just played. He'd been so sure a moment ago that finally he might have been about to free Mika from the strain of constantly chasing her, only for her to go and wreck it all at the very last moment.

As she finished her conversation with the young vampire who had clearly taken a shine to her, Arra turned away from him and locked eyes with the two of them straight away. She had the decency to look a little embarrassed at the way she'd behaved, but she strolled over to the table all the same.

Whether she knew exactly what she'd just done or not was a mystery, but she took a seat next to Mika like it was the most natural thing in the world. She was a little drunk, and it was an odd look on her – Arrow had barely ever seen her smile and yet here she sat, grinning like all the others.

"How was your evening?" she asked, to both of them, but neither replied. Arrow's last hope was that Mika might have been irritated with her for drinking and becoming involved with any of that group of rogues in the first place, but as soon as he looked across and saw Mika looking at her, a kind of adoration in his eyes that hadn't ever been present before, he knew immediately that everything was ruined. It had become Mika's proof that deep down she did love him too, and one day when the time was right somehow they would be together, when really nothing she'd done meant anything at all.

"Let's go," Mika told her, smiling in an unbearably sickly fashion. "I'll tell you about it on the way back to our cells."

The fact that they had plural cells rather than just the one between them was the only pleasing aspect of the end of Arrow's evening. He watched the two of them walk away, arm in arm, and sighed. There was no getting away from it – at least part of this, now, was entirely his fault.