Title: Lawbreaker's Eyes

Author: I_nv_u50

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer/Claimer: Characters so far are mine, but the world is Mercedes Lackey's.

Warning: Slash (m/m) ahead.

Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long to get out. I'm in a rush now, so I can't answer all the reviews individually, but thanks so much for reviewing if you did ^^ I'm glad you're enjoying this one as well ^^ The next chapter will be up much sooner than this one was, honestly. Look for it definitely by the middle of august ^^ As for questions, Coan just doesn't like people. He's nicer in the healing house because sympathy and his empathy shows him how wrong it would be for him to be rude, and besides, he feels more at ease there. Outside of there, the only place he feels truly comfortable is with faolan. He just doesn't like people at all. It confuses people he met in the healing house, but they accept it after a while. He's polite and stuff, he's just not friendly. Or something O.o;

Anyway, I'm sorry again for the long wait, and I really will have the next chapter up by the fifteenth or so. Read, enjoy, and please review!! ^^

Thaelin gawked around at the study, eyeing all the books and the loose sheets of paper dubiously. Herald Elan, Dean of the Collegium, was sitting behind a rather large desk and staring at him.

Thaelin grinned brightly back in return, but didn't speak.

Elan eventually sighed softly. "All right. Would you like to tell me anything about yourself? How you got injured, for instance?"

"Nothing important," Thaelin managed to say. His jaw was already hurting less, and he was incredibly grateful to the Healers for speeding up the process. He was less grateful to the Dean for sending him to school, but he supposed the full Herald had a reason. "I got beat up on the streets, like I said."

Elan lifted a brow questioningly. "Are you sure? My Companion tells me that Jesalis says you were injured before that."

Thaelin spared a moment to send what might have been a quick mental glare to his companion. He loved her, and he wouldn't change her for the world or for the Havens, but she didn't really have any business telling people things like that. If they knew the truth, they could get hurt. Thaelin shrugged in reply to the older man's question though. "Rough life."

Herald Elan hummed thoughtfully and inscrutably. "You're a thief, aren't you?"

"Yes." Thaelin didn't see any point of lying about that. They'd probably all know eventually anyway.

"You know that you aren't going to continue that line of work while you're here? While you're a Herald at all, in fact."

Thaelin smiled at the thought of a Herald as a common thief. "I'd be more surprised if you'd want me to continue stealing."

Elan looked thoughtful again and eyed him. "You'll find that there's a need for everything occasionally, Thaelin, and… Well, I expect you're right for the moment. Do you actually know what Heralds do?"

Thaelin shook his head in answer. "Not really."

Elan smiled a small smile. "The first thing we're going to get you to do then is to go to an Orientation class then. You already know where your room is, right?"

"Yeah," Thaelin murmured, his mind suddenly preoccupied with the thought of his own room. His own room. Not to be shared with other people of questionable characters and intentions, his own room with a comfortable bed and a desk and a wardrobe, a room with its own fireplace and small chair. His own room.

"Good," Elan smiled a larger smile this time, and stood up, holding out a hand. "I'll show you the way to your Orientation classroom."

Thaelin wandered through the hallways, alone and completely lost, had he thought about it. Herald Elan had had to leave because of a slight mishap with a Firestarter student, who apparently had had to be sent to the Healers for a while.

Thaelin had accepted the Herald's profuse apologies with a grin and had tried to hide his own confusion about where he was. Elan had given him basic directions on where to go from where he had been left, but Thaelin hadn't really been paying attention. He regretted it now, certainly.

:Stop dawdling, Chosen.:

"I'm not," Thaelin answered, half playfully. "I'm admiring the sights, is all."

Jesalis snorted in his mind, and he grinned, both physically and mentally.

"I am!" he insisted.

:Admire the sights on your way to class then.: she told him in no uncertain terms. :There's a surprise waiting for you there.:

"Really?" Thaelin asked, half curiously. Without waiting for a reply, he pushed open the door he was standing at and walked a few steps in, blinking around at the faces staring at him in surprise.

"Uh… Is this the Orientation classroom?" he asked hesitantly, his gaze going automatically to the adult of the group, a middle aged looking woman wearing Heraldic Whites.

She smiled at him kindly. "No, not quite. You're just a little lost."

"Just a little," Thaelin repeated, and grinned at her, pushing away his slight embarrassment and the natural suspicion most adults seemed to draw from him; pushed them away until he was barely aware of them himself.

The lady's smile grew into a grin, but it wasn't mocking, and she glanced around the classroom. "Coan, you understand the work, right?"

Thaelin blinked in surprise at the suddenly familiar looking boy he had last seen in the House of Healing. The brown haired boy ignored him.

"Yes."

"Would you show our new Trainee over to the correct classroom?"

"All right," the other boy replied quietly. Thaelin could see that he was really quite reluctant.

"No, that's all right actually. I'll just find it myself," he started, only to be waved into silence by the Herald.

"Don't be silly," she told him briskly, her smile still friendly. "Coan understands the work, so he isn't missing anything anyway. And he'll be back in a few moments to help me explain it to the others."

Thaelin, unable to find any way to object to this, merely inclined his head submissively. He should have known better than to try and argue with an adult.

He followed Coan out the door and offered a grin to the aloof looking boy. He looked quite different than he had when he offered to tell Thaelin about Heralds back in the Healing House. "Sorry."

Coan shrugged dispassionately. "It's all right."

They walked in silence for a few moments before Thaelin tried again. "I saw you in the House of Healing, didn't I? Do you go there often?"

"Yes."

Thaelin wasn't sure which question the other boy had answered. He attempted to try one last time. "…"

Coan glanced at him somewhat curiously when Thaelin opened his mouth silently, but as no speech appeared forthcoming, faced ahead again, leaving Thaelin burning in confusion and mortification, even as he let his mouth relax into a commonplace grin.

Coan stopped outside a door a few corners away from the classroom Thaelin had tried. "This is it."

Thaelin glanced at the other boy, trying to see any reaction, and finally gave up, shrugging mentally. Jesalis chortled in his mind.

When he opened the door, however, Thaelin immediately forgot about the confusing boy still standing beside him, because he saw a friend.

A real friend, in a place like this, and even better was the fact that Kylan had survived after all. It was a worry that Thaelin had never consciously realized until it had been eased, and he barely registered the surprise on Coan's face, or the expression on the Herald teaching the class as he bounced his way over to one of his best friends, who was looking absolutely stunned.

"Thank you, Coan," Brynn said quietly, bringing Thaelin jolting out of the happy haze of ecstatic surprise that he had almost started drifting in.

He beamed at the Herald Trainee in the doorway. "Thank you," he repeated, vaguely realizing that his voice sounded almost ridiculously sing-songish, and turned back to Kylan, who appeared to be getting over his shock.

"What are you doing here?" Kylan spoke first. "I thought you had died!"

"Almost did," Thaelin replied cheekily, not noticing as Coan silently left the classroom. He winked. "I'm not easy to kill though, as I'm sure you've figured out."

Kylan smirked and was about to reply, when Brynn cleared his throat rather obviously from the front of the class. Kylan transferred his attention to the Herald, and Thaelin was rather surprised to see the blissful amount of love reflected in the blue eyes, and he grinned happily in reply, even if it wasn't aimed at him.

He didn't mind. He had never loved Kylan as more than a friend, and he was happy that his fellow criminal seemed to be so happy.

"Now," Brynn said wryly, although the slightly tender look in his eyes was plain to Thaelin even at the back of the classroom. "Are you two finished?"

Thaelin smirked. "Ready when you are, m'lord Herald."

Brynn shot him a Look that was friendlier than the last time Thaelin had met the Herald. "You can catch up later, I have a class to teach, and you're being disruptive."

Thaelin idly wondered if the Herald sounded more tolerant than he felt, then decided he didn't care.

"Go on, milord Herald."

Brynn gave him another exasperated look, and started talking, whisking Thaelin into a world where King Valdemar needed help to rule his new kingdom.

"So how did you get out?" Kylan lounged back on the grass under Brynn's window.

Thaelin smiled, somewhat sadly. "Cyril."

Kylan looked surprised. "You mean he actually listened? What did you do?"

Thaelin looked up, maybe a little sharper than usual. "He did it on his own. I had a broken jaw, remember?"

Kylan held up his hands placatingly. "Ease down, Thae. I'm just surprised, that's all. He doesn't usually help people like that."

Thaelin shrugged non comitally and felt the first flash of dread spread through his body when Kylan's expression faded into a slyly thoughtful one.

"Or maybe it was because it was you," the blonde said.

Thaelin forced a laugh. "Whatever, Kyl. Come on, tell me what it's like living with the Heralds."

Kylan shot him a dry look. "I expect you'll find out for yourself soon enough. It's not like I'm actually living like a Herald anyway. And don't change the subject."

Thaelin smirked and stretched, sitting up in the first stage to get to his feet. "I'd better get going."

Kylan laughed. "Sure, whatever. Just give me a moment to persuade Mr. Implacable in there, and I'll come see where you're sleeping."

Thaelin grinned at the other boy suspiciously. "What are you planning to do?"

"Me?" Kylan beamed innocently. Thaelin didn't believe it at all.

"Yea, you."

"Nothing at all. I just wanna come visit some nights or something."

Thaelin lifted an eyebrow and stood up, swinging his arms energetically. "And maybe spread some mud on my bed?"

Kylan winked in what might have been a flirtatious way had Thaelin not known that the blonde and the Herald were inseparable, and stood up. "Well, it happens, you know. And admit it," he glanced over his shoulder as he started walking inside Brynn's suite. "It'll feel more like home if I do."

Thaelin shoved Kylan out the door with some difficulty, laughing as he did so. It was hard to keep from laughing when around Kylan. It was either laugh or kill the blonde, which was actually a tough choice sometimes.

Thaelin always chose to laugh though. With his own cheerful mask growing cracks in it that he couldn't hide from some people anymore, he needed all the amusement he could get. It was the only thing keeping him from thinking too much about less pleasant things.

:That mask of yours has to go.:

"I don't know what you're talking about," Thaelin answered the imperious voice in his head, and sat down in front of the fireplace, idly wondering if it was considered too hot to start a fire.

:You know very well what I mean.: Jesalis continued, running over his denial as if it weren't there. :I know it's your defense mechanism, but you don't need it anymore. We're all trustworthy here.:

Thaelin shrugged, feeling for sure that she'd know he had done it. "It's not only that," he tried to protest again, but Jesalis continued ruthlessly.

:We aren't actually that scary. Trust us. Trust me. You do, don't you? Nobody here is going to hurt you, so what harm can it do to let your mask go occasionally? Show people there's more to you than jokes and smiles.:

"Are you so sure there is though?" Thaelin asked quietly, not knowing if he meant the question or not.

Jesalis snorted loudly in his mind. :I know. Absolutely positive that there's more. I Chose you, remember? We Companions don't make mistakes about Choosing people. We're above that.:

Thaelin grinned at the teasingly superior tone she had adopted for the last statement. "Of course you are," he said smoothly.

There was a pause. :I meant that.:

"I know you did," Thaelin responded.

:Seriously.: Jesalis said suspiciously.

"Of course you did," Thaelin replied soothingly, grinning as her exasperation drifted over.

:Humans!: She snorted.

Thaelin laughed at her, honestly meaning it.

There was another pause. And then Jesalis spoke again, her voice softly serious. :I did mean it, Thaelin. Honestly. There's more to you than even you see. I know it. I can feel it. I can see it. Seriously.:

Thaelin's grin faded to a smile of pure happiness, enjoying the warm glow that was spreading through his chest. "Thank you," he replied softly, and he meant that too.