+ Fallacy, a 100themes Challenge +
Sarehptar

Theme: 36, Precious Treasure
Characters: Avis, Thatz
Pairing: None (No, this is not Thatz/Rath.)
Warnings: OOC?
Need to Know Info: Ummmm… I've never written Thatz before? I'm sorry if he's totally off! Why do I have such an obsession with strawberries in my writing? I don't like strawberries at all…
Title Provider: Policy of Truth (Depeche Mode)

You had Something to Hide… Should have Hidden it, Shouldn't You?

The human boy smiles, but there is something distant and benevolent in it: a subtle wisdom, a familiar amusement. Avis sighs and brushes the carefully stacked mountain of strawberry tops off his clipboard.

"You really aren't supposed to eat in this office."

"Youkai aren't supposed to enter the Dragon Castle."

The doctor stiffens; his grip on the pen tightens enough to crack the nib. The Earth Dragon Knight smiles again, a little smug, and bites into another strawberry. For a moment, Kharl considers lying, considers faking insult—but the boy's eyes are steady and sharp, and he knows there is no point. And they said he was the least threatening of the Knights...

"How did you know?" The real question, what do you intend to do goes unspoken. For a moment, the moss-haired boy stares at him, the small fruit caught between his teeth and staining his lips red.

"You're just like Rath," the Dragon Knight replies. Kharl stiffens again, suddenly wary. What sort of connections had the human drawn? "You get the same look on your face. Even when you're smiling, there's something in your face telling everyone to stay away. Rath does that same thing, like he's got a wall around him and won't let anyone in. And," Thatz laughs, leaning lazily against the wall, "you've looked over your shoulder three times since I walked in. All three times, there's been nobody in the hall right outside."

"How are nerves proof of my being a demon?"

"There's been no one in this hall, but all three times there have been people two halls over, walking past your bedroom. A human couldn't have heard them."

"So how could you have?" Avis's blue eyes narrow in intrigue and the first stirrings of dislike. The Knight taps the wall beside his head with an errant hand.

"Sensed the vibrations. Comes with the Earth magic."

"You're very observant."

"I'm a thief, I have to be." Silence presses for moment, broken only by the wet sounds of crunching strawberries. Kharl is not sure where the human is getting all the fruit—his supply seems endless.

"And your footsteps," the boy adds, from nowhere, "they're too light. More like floating than walking. Zouma's like that too…" His voice trails off into private musing.

"Do you intend to forcibly expel me from the castle?" Humor is evident in the doctor's voice as it slides over his false, dull canines. The Earth Knight blinks green-brown eyes once, as if the idea had never crossed his mind (but surely it must have). Then he lifts a bandaged hand and waves it gently.

"Did you poison me?"

"No," Avis replies, confusion marring his brow.

"And you didn't hurt Ruwalk when he came in for cold medicine, or the Dragon Fighters when they came to get their scrapes patched up. You healed Kaistern's injuries. If you're attempting to be a threat, you're not doing a very good job."

Kharl cannot help but chuckle in response. "Perhaps I am biding my time."

"And making sure we're all in top form while you're at it? I don't think you're here to cause trouble," his nose wrinkles and his wide eyes narrow in thought, "after all, you'd be a bit more subtle about it if you were." A boot taps the table leg mindlessly. "I didn't peg you as the blatantly obvious type."

"Perhaps I'm using blatancy to lull you all in a sense of false security."

The Knight levels a flat glare in Avis's direction before sighing. "You're my doctor. If you turned around and killed me, I'd be pretty pissed." The inexplicable smile on the boy's face is conspiratorial and open. For a moment, Kharl finds himself hopelessly confused.

"For a Dragon Knight, you stance on demons is—"

"Too friendly?" The exasperation in Thatz's voice makes it clear just how often he's heard those words. "I'm not like Rune or Rath…" he pauses and frowns, "I don't have a reason to hate all demons. Some of you aren't so bad. Really, it seems like a waste of energy to hate a whole race." He flips a strawberry in the air and catches it carefully.

"And you know," his gaze is heavy and too serious for the carefree demeanor he exudes, "it doesn't seem fair to judge people like that. The way a person is born shouldn't decide how everyone else looks at him." And for a moment, the Earth Dragon Knight isn't talking about demons at all. Kharl can see a flicker of insecurity and contempt in his eyes. A smile wipes the boy's face clean.

"And that is why you accept Rath? It's fair?" Avis dumps the strawberry heads into the wastebasket with a disinterested hand. The green-haired boy stares at him for a second, and then his eyes close in lazy content.

"No." He leans back against the wall again. "I accept Rath because he's Rath. He's one of my best friends, though he'd never admit it." There is nothing but sincerity in his voice, and even though he is a Dragon, and even though he is supposed to be an enemy, the boy's declaration is warming. "Maybe that's Rath's problem…"

"Hm?"

"He'll never admit that he's tied to anyone else. He really thinks that he can be free if he cuts himself off from everyone. But every person who cares about you steals a little piece of your heart and keeps it. You sort of belong to every person who loves you, right?"

A little wonder pools in the back of Kharl's mind, but he manages to nod.

"Or maybe Rath's real problem is that too many people love him. So many people want to take a part of him; maybe he's afraid there won't be anything left over?" Thatz laughs once, and the sound is slightly dry.

"Rath is interesting," Avis admits, and that is all he admits.

"He's the Dragon Tribe's treasure. He's really precious to everyone." The words grip Kharl's heart like a fist, because he has said such a similar thing so many times.

"Precious to everyone…" Kharl murmurs.

The boy shifts finally, leaping off the table and wincing at his stiffness. "So you better not be here to cause trouble," he says with a sharp and final note to his voice, "because I'm a thief, and protecting my treasure is what I do."

"You want to protect Rath?"

"I've got a piece of him, don't I? I'm not planning on letting it slip away time soon." With that, the moss-eyed boy is gone, sauntering down the hall as if he hasn't a care in the world.

Kharl cannot help but wonder if he has lost his own piece of Rath forever.

He cleans blood red stains off his desk.

Theme 37: Eyes
"I never blamed you." But Kharl wonders if, somewhere inside himself, he did.