A/N: This short is the "new" (as in, never-before-posted-anywhere) Guild Bar story from this batch. Of course, if you've only seen my PS work here at , then it's all new to you!

~X X X~

"You're doing a nice job fixing the place up," Alys Brangwin told Garn as he brought dinner over to the table she and her friend Fenris were sharing.

"Yeah," the redhead agreed. "You can barely tell that there was a huge brawl last night." She paused, then added, "Well, except for the smell."

"Sorry about that, ladies; I really shouldn't have let you use this table until all the work was done."

"Nah," Alys waved it off. "At least it isn't toxic, just stinky, and as hunters, trust me, we've dealt with smells a lot worse than this one."

"Tell me about it," Fenris said. "Just last night, Jason was telling me about this one job he had when he got half-swallowed by a Meta Slug and had to cut his way out from the inside. Apparently he had to burn his shirt, buy all-new armor, and it was over a week before the baths finally got his skin clean, or probably just scraped it off."

Alys blinked.

"Do I want to know why the topic of slug vomit came up while you and your boyfriend were sharing a last night together before he left town on his latest job, Fen?"

"Probably not."

"I didn't think so, especially not right before I eat."

"I'm impressed you can eat even after mentioning the topic," Garn said, setting down the plates. "But I guess you're right about you hunters being a tough lot; the place is as full as the repairs would let it be tonight."

"That's the benefit of running a bar in the Hunter's Guild," Fenris told him. "It takes a lot more than a work zone to keep us away from food and alcohol."

"Of course, that's the down side, too, since I'm guessing the alcohol part of that played a part in why the repairs were needed?"

"Actually, not so much, or at least not mine," Garn corrected Alys. "About a half-dozen townies, who were already at least a couple of sheets to the wind came in, full of attitude."

"Oh, the old 'we're so tough we can hang in a hunter bar' routine?" For all the talk around town, the Guild bar actually had no more fights than any other tavern in Aiedo, probably even less. But every so often, some would-be tough guy tried to prove his manhood by proclaiming he was the biggest, baddest person in a room full of people who made a profession out of violence. That never ended well.

"Yep."

"That," Alys decided when Garn had left them to their food, "is why I'm still single. There just aren't enough men out there who have enough brains to tell their ego to sit down and shut up."

"I'm not lending you mine," Fenris observed, grinning.

"Darn, one more off the list," Alys's own smile then vanished. "Speaking of perfect examples..."

Fenris turned her head to see Joss Howland approaching the table.

"Hey, Alys, babe! You should've seen me last night! One of them town punks tried to hit me over the head with a chair and it broke in two!"

"So you're putting being thick-skulled to use for you. It's good to see a man work with what he has."

The jibe was no more effective than the chair had been; he sauntered over to them.

"So, there's an empty seat there, and you ladies look a little lonely. Sounds like fate to me!"

"I wouldn't do that, Joss," Alys cautioned.

"Nah, go on and eat. You don't have to be all polite and wait until I get served to start; I don't mind."

"That wasn't even close to what I meant."

Alys's second warning, though, went just as unheeded as the first, and Joss grabbed the empty chair, pulled it out, and tried to swing himself down into it. His attempt was thwarted, though, when his fingers did not let go, and he instead found himself coming down onto the edge of the seat, where his weight carried hunter and chair alike to the floor with a crash.

"No one's using that chair because Garn had to glue it back together and the adhesive isn't dry yet," Alys finished.

"Maybe it was the same one he broke last night and it wanted revenge?"