Chapter Two – Lies Spread

Nash had no idea what time it was, but he had had enough of guarding this hole of a castle. He hadn't heard so much as a hoot from an owl since his shift started, and he was incredibly tired and grumpy from being made to stand there while he had more important things to do. Like sleep.

For the last half hour, his attention had been focused on the castle. There was no sign of Cecile. Nash wondered how much trouble he'd get into if he skived off the last bit of his shift.

He began walking towards the castle, having convinced himself that no one would make an issue out of it, except Chris.

But she wasn't going to find out.

"Where are you going?"

Nash stopped in his tracks as Chris came walking towards him, guiding her horse by the reins. Her face was a mask of suspicion.

Why was it that not one thing had gone right since he came to this accursed castle?

Nash racked brain for an excuse, but his usually impeccable wit had been dulled slightly by his sleep-deprived brain. "You know Chris, you're much more lovely when you aren't scowling like that."

"You were leaving the gates unguarded on your shift!" Chris narrowed her eyes at him accusingly.

He hadn't expected his cheesy charm to work on her, especially this early in the morning, but at least it had stalled for enough time to make up a lie.

"I was not! I was going to see why Cecile hasn't come yet... I've been sitting out here for over five hours, she was supposed to take over at 6:30 but she never came."

"That's a lie."

"It's the truth!"

"Nash, it's only 5:30."

"... My mistake."

Chris continued to glare at him for a full minute without speaking.

Nash finally sighed. "Look Chris, I'm sorry but there just doesn't seem to be any point to standing guard here all night. No one would find this lump of rubble even if they were looking for it, it's out in the middle of nowhere!"

"Don't be so sure of yourself," Chris quipped. "Master Thomas has already had problems with soldiers invading the land."

"Those were soldiers from Zexen! We're on the same side now, are we not?"

"That's not the point!" Chris exclaimed, losing her patience. "Someone has to be alert at all times to fight off any evil beasts that may find their way here!"

"I've been standing here for over four hours and I haven't had to fight off anything more than copious amounts of boredom!"

He could have sworn he saw her eye twitch.

Nash decided it was time to try and change the topic. "Are you leaving now?"

"Yes. We expect to return from the investigation within a couple days, possibly sooner with any luck."

"Are you sure you couldn't use my help on this expedition?"

He saw her clench her teeth. "Quite. Why do you want to come so badly anyway?"

"I need to send word to..." Nash's speech faltered. It would not be wise to tell Chris about his frequent contact with Sasarai at this point, considering how she had been accusing him of spying on the Fire Bringer to hand Harmonia information as weapons. "...to my missus."

The good ol' "missus" alibi had never failed him yet.

Until now.

"I'm not sure how that has anything to do with the mission," Chris replied suspiciously.

Nash was quickly forming a story in his mind. "Well, you see-"

"Lady Chris, all preparations are complete!" Percival's voice called, interrupting Nash's explanation.

"Save it," Chris said to Nash as she mounted her white mare. "You're staying here, and that's final."

Percival rode up to her on his horse, followed by the other four knights. They all seemed to disregard Nash, save for Borus, who was glowering with an expression of unreserved dislike that he seemed to reserve just for him.

Chris looked down at him from her horse. "Geddoe and Hugo are remaining here to gather more information and help rebuild the castle. I want you to help them in any way you can, and I hope for your sake that this display of irresponsibility will not be repeated while tending to your other duties here. You are expected to treat everyone here with respect and courtesy, or you can expect to be thrown out of here when I get back."

"Nothing like facing an ultimatum first thing in the morning to get a man's morale up," Nash replied, not bothering in the least to hide his sarcasm. Then, seeing Chris' displeased face, he flashed a smile and added, "You have my word, I will be an especially good boy, and just for you."

She glared at him for a moment longer, then set off to the plains, her five knights following without a word, except for Borus, who as he passed muttered "ruffian!" out the corner of his mouth.

Nash's confrontation with Chris did not deter him from leaving his post early.

The Harmonian entered the castle and made his way slowly and quietly towards his room. His head was pounding, and he wanted so badly to fall face first on his pillow and become dead to the world.

"Mr. Nash Clovis, isn't it?"

Nash turned around to see that a boy with light hair, freckles and a large pair of goofy glasses was approaching him.

He just wanted to get to bed. "No, you must be mistaken."

"But I saw you being chided by lady Chris this morning. You must be!"

"Who are you?"

The boy smiled brightly. "My name is Arthur. I'm the author of the Budehuc Times!"

"What is that?"

The boy's smile drooped. "It's the castle newspaper. Surely you've heard of it!"

"No. Why are you up so early?"

"Because I knew you were on duty this morning and I wanted to write a news story about you," he replied, sounding important.

"No."

"Please, this won't take long, I just want to ask you a few questions!"

"Look, I've already had a kid poking his nose into my business –"

Arthur cut him off, scowling. "It's that detective, Kidd. He has no right to be poking into other people's business, keeping files on everyone like that."

"And you do?"

"I write for a good honest newspaper though, so it's different!"

Before Nash could protest or retreat, the boy began bombarding him with questions.

"Now, as I understand it from several sources, you are a married man?"

Nash was slightly startled at this question. "What?"

"I happened to overhear the conversation between you and Chris. You distinctly said something about having a 'missus'."

What was it with eavesdropping kids in this place? "Go away."

Arthur persevered. "An eyewitness saw you with a lovely young lady by the lake late last night. Is she your wife?"

The very idea caused Nash's eye to twitch. "No."

"Then who was she?"

"She's just an old friend."

Arthur squinted at him suspiciously. "Is that so?" He flipped open a notebook and scribbled something down. "Thank you, that will be all." The boy took off up the stairs.

He had just opened the door of his room when he saw Nadir turn the corner and see him.

"Oh, good! You're up! I'm waking the others, we're going to start rehearsal in twenty minutes!"

Nash was sure he couldn't have felt more horrified than if a banshee from hell had come howling down the hallway rather then the quirky masked man. In fact, he was quite certain he would have preferred the banshee. However, Nash closed his door and turned to face Nadir. "...Excellent. We'll have an early start and an early finish."

"Oh, but we'll be rehearsing right into the afternoon, with the first performance being tonight and everything," Nadir replied all too jovially.

Just then Nash very much desired to rip the bizarre mask from the man's face and punch him in the nose.

"Right..." Nash exclaimed with an apparent lack of enthusiasm.

But Nadir paid no notice. "Superb. Go and wait in the tavern, we'll get started shortly!"

As Nash gloomily made his way towards the tavern, he wondered if it were possible to drink himself dead in the twenty minutes it would take for Nadir to gather the rest.

Nash's plan to drown himself in alcohol went up in flames when the barkeeper, Anne, refused to lend a hand in the suicide. As a result, he soon found himself standing on stage with several other of Nadir's victims. Sergeant Joe, Thomas, Ace, Queen, Jacques, and Geddoe all looked as tired and as unenthusiastic as Nash felt.

"Now, I trust you all had a chance to review the script?" Nadir asked with a degree of cheerfulness that was disgusting for so early in the morning. Nash bet that behind that mask he had a big goofy grin on his face. It made him resent the man all the more.

No one replied to Nadir's question. The man looked around expectantly.

Interpreting the sleepy silence for the best, Nadir clapped his gloved hands together excitedly. "Very well then! Let's begin rehearsing, shall we?"

There was a non-committal grunt from the people on stage.

Nadir flipped open his copy of the script. "Now, as you know from the script, this play will be a re-enactment of Neclord's fall during the Dunan Unification War."

Nash felt a growing dread rise within him. Did this mean...? He opened his copy of the script and sure enough, Sierra was listed under the characters to be portrayed. Just great.

"Now, first I'll assign parts and then –"

But Nash cut him off. "She's described to have, 'the smile of an angel?' who writes this trash?" he exclaimed incredulously as he flipped through the pages.

Nash looked up to see Nadir looking in his direction. He said nothing, but Nash was almost certain that beneath the mask he was wearing an expression not unlike Borus' whenever he caught sight of him.

Nash feigned an apologetic look and Nadir continued.

"Now, Thomas, you'll be the main character. Joe, you'll be Flik, and Ace, you're Viktor. Jacques, you'll do nicely as Neclord, and Geddoe, I think you should be the narrator."

Nash looked down at the last name on the list and knew what was coming.

"Nash, you'll be Sierra."

He was sure this was his punishment for criticizing the script.

The morning passed incredibly slowly, and by mid-afternoon everyone's apathy towards the project had ripened into an intense annoyance. Nash couldn't see how Nadir expected anyone to sit through this poorly written play. The group's acting wasn't exactly doing the story justice either. Thomas could barely stammer through his lines, Geddoe took it upon himself to turn the narration into point-form, and Jacques hadn't uttered a single word despite the fact he had the most lines in the whole play.

Finally, Nadir let them go around two in the afternoon, reminding them that they were expected to return at six o'clock for the first performance.

Nash hurried out of the tavern and made a beeline for his room. He very much needed some sleep if he was expected to do humiliate himself further on stage that evening. He also had to listen to a report from the same hag he was portraying in this pathetic play.

However, once again as he touched the doorknob to his room he heard a young, familiar voice.

"Mr. Nash, sir! A word!"

He turned to see Kidd running up to him, notepad and pencil in hand. Nash groaned and was tempted to dash into his room and lock the door, but Chris' warning to be courteous to all castle residents echoed in his head, and he let out a sigh of resignation as the boy began to speak.

"Good day," Kidd said, flipping his notepad to a fresh page. "I have done some further investigation on your shady background due to your reluctance to be straightforward with me. Are you fraternizing with the enemy? Passing information along to a source not associated with the Fire Bringer?"

Nash narrowed his eyes at him, wondering if he'd heard more of his conversation with Chris yesterday then he was letting on. "No."

Kidd scribbled something on his notepad. "A witness saw you speaking to an unknown person by the lake last night. Are you saying," here Kidd made an expression of disgust, "that tabloid-like newspaper article is right in assuming she is a 'friend' who you are mostly likely having an affair with?"

This was definitely starting to wear on Nash's nerves. "An affair? No! I don't have to answer to you, that Arthur kid, or anyone else. Now get out of here!"

"Hmm... Sounds like you're hiding something to me!" Kidd pointed at him with his pencil as Nash entered his room and slammed the door behind him.

Nash planned on going straight to sleep, but on his bed was a copy of the 'Budehuc Times'. Sure enough the paper's headline read, "Nash having an affair? Not revealing the truth". This Arthur kid had wasted no time in doing a page-length report of Nash's encounter with Seirra at the lake. He scanned the article, catching phrases like "seemed a little evasive, and "his wife's troubles continue".

He lowered the newspaper, rubbed his forehead, and closed his eyes. Was there so little news in the castle that the kid had to resort to making up disparaging stories regarding Nash's non-existent love life? Now the whole castle was going to believe he was married and having an affair.

But he couldn't correct the newspaper. If he confessed he wasn't actually married, then everyone would distrust him for lying to Chris. He had first used the 'missus' story on Chris in Iksay village in hopes that he could get her to believe him when he said he needed her help and wasn't just trying to flirt with her. His profession called for a lot of convincing lies, so he had no problem prattling on about a wife as though she actually existed. He had no idea that the little lie would spread all over this castle. At any rate, this newspaper was not the way to get the people at the castle to trust him.

But then he knew he didn't really deserve to be trusted.

Finally, he flung the newspaper aside and reclined on his bed. If these kids were going to try and make life difficult for him, he'd just have to play their game. For now, he'd just ignore it and concentrate on cooperating with the castle's other tenants, which meant he had to get some much-needed sleep before this silly performance tonight.

But as exhausted as he was, he continued to lie awake, remembering Chris' distrustful face that morning, and finding that there was more than one reason why he shouldn't have told her that lie in Iksay.

A/N: I'm finding it harder to write Nash in this fic, as he's not as mysterious as I usually write him, due to the fact that it delves more into his perspective on things.

Thank you everyone for the reviews, I appreciate them a lot! K'Arthur, I went back and fixed up the typos you pointed out... and then right after found a couple other ones... I must have the worst proofreading skills in the world! Majin Yuffie, you can bet on plenty of Nash/Chris moments! I haven't rated it as a romance fic, but it may still somehow end up as a Chris/Nash fic, we'll have to see. .

Thanks again for reading! Until next time!