Operation Bosco: Revisited, II
The day was breezy and warm and, though it was only just beginning, there was an air of unease in the hearts of the three amassed in the center of camp, prepping for their venture. Locke, of course, was not so much concerned by their destination, but rather their travel there and, for Haven, this presented a number of problems she'd managed to mostly escape during her time back with the most recently anointed S-Class mage. Showing her face again around a community that she had fled was hardly a novice task for the young woman and, honestly, she kind of enjoyed it every time. Beneath the sickening nerves and anticipation, there lied a bit of her that was always excited to rub in the faces of whoever she'd left behind just how much her powers had grown in their absence.
Ah, well, the old her felt that way, of course.
And...maybe a bit of the new.
But things were more complicated now. Running back into someone she knew from those three years she spent excommunicated from her home guild meant facing bits of herself that she'd tucked away. It also meant, possibly, confronting with Locke some things they both rather had stayed buried following the gauntlet.
Their relationship woes of the day were nothing compared to Shae's however, and she still seemed unconvinced of not only the necessity, but also the urgency in which she was meant to confront this former part of her life. She'd insisted to Astra, later that night when they were alone, that perhaps it would be better, no? To just send a letter?
A flat no, unfortunately, was the woman's answer.
"I don't understand what your issue is," Haven remarked flippantly as the three of them were leaned over their packs, going over last minute things before they departed. "You get to show back up at home a hero."
"Haven, what?" Shae frowned over at her as Locke only sighed, not quite sure where his girlfriend was headed with her statement, but knowing that it would be nowhere he particularly wanted to go. "A hero?"
"You freed slaves. From Bosco. After being branded yourself." Shrugging some, Haven said, "If I did nothing else, I could go home right now to a hero's welcome. Bet."
"The majority of the guild abhors you," Locke pointed out, "and the rest are fearful that you'll come back bearing another demon; I really don't think anyone's giving you a hero's anything. Bet."
"You're a fucking idiot, Locke."
"I'm the idiot, Haven?"
"That's what I said."
"You-"
"Yeah, well," Shae cut them both off with a short huff of breath out of her nostrils, "I don't know how many times I have to tell you that the rest of us aren't from some stupid guild, alright? We were all normal fucking people before we got caught up in Bosco's mess. There's no one back home to welcome me to anything."
Haven and Locke had been exchanging piercing gazes, but this changed at the other woman's statement and, both with a sympathetic look her way, Locke began to offer her something of a kind word, but his girlfriend, still so hyped, beat him to it.
"This woman we're going to see, she's someone, isn't she?" Haven shook her head. "She's the one that you tell you're a hero. You'll have her eating out of your palm. He's pissy right now, but Locke does the same thing, any time I come back. No matter what."
Shae didn't seem pleased with the advice however and only said, "Let's just stop fucking talking about it. We have a long trip ahead of us."
Yes.
They did.
X, however, did not.
He refused to speak to any of them that morning, pouting and hiding out, instead, with the girl he was meant to befriend. Nessa. She was doing some of her own pouting, maybe (or was it mourning?) and regarded him with a bit of a glare when he came to join her hiding out under a tree on the property line. Her tray of breakfast sat at her feet and, though he was committed to the heavy frown he'd been sporting since rising that morning, he did lighten up some, if only to hope he could convince her to slide it his way.
"I don't know why I can't go," he complained to the girl. "I could help them. Protect them. You know?"
She didn't respond, but she rarely did to most of his remarks and asides. It was probably for the best though, him stowed away, so he couldn't see just how easy it was to actually obtain permission to accompany those going on the trip.
Jed seemed a bit apprehensive, wringing his hands a bit as he made his way over to the trio, hoping to make a request.
"if it's not too much trouble," he began softly as he stood before the now officially setting out trio. He'd only just caught them and seemed as if he'd long thought over this decision to even approach them. "I wish to accompany you to Joya. It's...been a while since I journeyed home and while I do intend to continue on fighting here, if you are headed in that direction already and plan to also return-"
"W-Well, Astra kinda made a bit deal about-" Locke began, but Haven only elbowed him, hard, before grinning brightly at the only other person (beside her boyfriend and X) that she could reliably consider a friend.
In her own, strange way.
"Of course you can," she insisted firmly, as if this couldn't be argued.
Shae, however, only eyed the other guy sympathetically before saying, "We're not going to be there long. And are you well enough to keep up on the trek there? And on the ship? This is kind of a time crunch. We won't have time to go anywhere else, really."
He bowed his head, Jed did, before explaining, "I don't know if you recall me telling you of my father's time as a botanist, but if I were able to return to my home, and find most things in place, then I might have something that could be of interest to you. Locke. And the cause."
"What do you mean?" Locke asked, frowning then.
And Jed looked to Shae then, drooping his shoulders as he said, "Joya is a...peaceful nation. One that is not intent on going to war with the other Kingdoms. But… It is small. And at times can appear rather defenseless. There was a time when my father and some other of his associates were approached by the crown to introduce...irritants, into the other Kingdoms."
"Illegal warfare," the other man decided then. "What kingdoms, exactly, were you looking into?"
"Well-"
"What are you talking about?" Haven made a face at her boyfriend before looking to Jed. "Your father played around with plants and shit, right? What does that have to do with 'illegal warfare'?"
"What were they hoping to take out?" Locke continued, rather than explained. "Crops? Or something else?"
"I can't be sure." Jed shook his head. "But I am certain that, were I to locate his old journals in my family home, they could be of some help. In bringing Bosco to its knees. There was magic associated, you see, with what my father looked into and I know that you are very talented in the art of breaking down spells, Locke."
"I wouldn't say talented." Locke laughed, uncertain. "How do you even know about that? I mean-"
"Haven speaks quite highly of you," Jed offered and as Locke looked to his girlfriend then, she only kept her stony gaze as she shrugged.
"Jed's my friend," she defended simply. "We have to talk about something when we're doing patrols."
"Yeah," Locke agreed though, still, he reached out to pat her on the head. "But you still chose to talk about me."
"Shut up."
"'cause you love me."
"Damn it, Locke, knock it off!"
And she was batting at his arm then, the man smiling quite brightly for the early hour.
Shae, unimpressed with the pair of them, only took over questioning Jed.
"Locke breaks down spells, fine," she said with a shrug, "but what does that have to do with plants?"
Jed shrugged a bit as he remarked, "I'm not quite sure how my father's work, well, worked, but I do know that there was a magical component. Were Locke to at least look over it-"
"He's coming." Haven had finally grabbed Locke's arm and, as she spoke, was twisting it behind his back, the man no longer laughing as he winced in pain before shoving her off. Still, as she righted herself, the blonde only insisted, "I'll get us all across the boarder. No problem."
Astra seemed surprised when she found Jed standing with the other, an uneasy look in his eyes, but he gave an earnest nod of his head when she questioned his hardiness. She had her mind in other places though and, after confirming with the other three that the man wouldn't be a cost burden on them, merely shrugged some before ushering them on their way.
"Contact if you need help," she offered with a wry smile, "but considering I'll be in Bosco-"
"We'll be fine," Haven cut her off. "Back before you know it."
The revelation that the blonde had talked him up so well to others at least put Locke back in somewhat of a good mood, as the man now spent the trek to the train station trading far more subdued jabs with his girlfriend. For Shae though, none of her fears over the upcoming venture had been calmed and she looked rather pensive, slightly annoyed by Haven and Locke's obvious glee, but truthfully just uncertain as to what awaited them in Joya.
Surely not the warm welcome that Haven expected on the coast of Fiore.
"Does it bother you?" Jed, finally, spoke to her. While Haven and Locke toyed with one another ahead of them, he kept pace with Shae and looked down to her then. "Returning home? To Joya? I...have been quite awhile."
"It's not that." Shae spared the older man a sympathetic smile. "I have been home. Since I was first...marked, but…" She felt weird, whining about such a thing now, with the man in tow. He was clearly dealing with things far worse than she. He'd suffered much worse in Bosco and it felt childish, if not self-centered, to unload her relationship fears on the man when he had so much more weighing on his shoulders. "Sometimes, it's just hard to go home."
He made a noise of sympathy in the back of his throat, pondering aloud, "Perhaps this is why I have been hesitant as well."
Sighing some, Shae could only think to offer, "I'm sure it'll be healing for you. Plus, if Locke is able to do something with your father's old journals, then it'll definitely have been worth it. And getting away from base camp for a few days has it's perks."
"We'll stay in a hotel." Haven looked back to them then, grinning in an odd way as she decided, "One night. Locke'll pay for it."
"Haven, what?" the man complained, but she only made a face up at him.
"We'll probably have to wait for a ship to go out anyways," she retorted simply. "So why not? You were wondering what to do with your guard money anyways. A person doesn't waste blood money on themselves, Locke."
And he looked stricken that she would even bring that up, given she knew how long it had taken for him to finally get somewhat over his time acting as a guard. But instead of having to rebuke his girlfriend himself, Shae only tsked at Haven.
"But he should waste it on you?" she questioned, but it was to the blonde's back as Haven did seem to note the stony face that had overtaken her boyfriend.
While she reached for his hand and he did allow this, there was a noticeable tension hanging around the group once more.
At the train station, they only had to wait a short while before managing to catch one out to the northern coast. The journey would be a good few hours and while they were all dreading different things over what awaited them, they didn't exactly have any way of speeding up the process.
Jed, for his part, attempted to assuage his own fears by discussing with Locke, in a rather rudimentary way, how exactly he went about breaking down spells and understanding their complexity.
Haven had never been more thankful or resentful of a question. With certainty, her boyfriend had waited years, maybe a decade, for someone to ask him this exact question and listen with the same intensity Jed had, but at the same time, she didn't exactly wish to listen.
Shifting slightly away from the man, she rested with her head up against the window, Shae doing the same across from her, while the men sat the opposite, both hunched slightly forward as Jed listened with obvious interest to every word spilling from Locke's mouth.
When the guys finally fell silent, nearly an hour had passed, but more awaited them.
The waiting was, somehow, always the worst part.
Locke seemed to feel better, anyways, after getting some of his knowledge off his chest and when he purposely bumped his elbow against Haven's arm for the third time in a row, she finally moved from the window to his shoulder and they talked softly, but absently, for much of the remaining time.
It was mid afternoon when they arrived at their destination and Locke, distantly, felt a strange cold run up his back. He felt transported almost, to another time period, when he'd make these same sorts of treks with Haven, off on some big, exciting job in some place that sounded rather exotic, when you were sixteen and had very little life experience. And Ravan and Navi would come with them, usually, especially back then, before he and Haven started dating, and it felt like a lifetime ago.
It was a lifetime ago, he was reminded, for his girlfriend.
Summer was leaving them and the early evening was cool as they stopped off to eat something at a small cafe before making the final leg of the day's travel. It wasn't far, Haven assured them. Just another town over.
"When we get there," she added, "let me do all the talking. Alright?"
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Shae retorted softly as Locke kicked at the ground.
With the sun just barely beginning to set in the sky, the surroundings of the port town were picturesque, but the town itself was rather unremarkable. The place was rundown, just a tiny little building with one broken window proudly being shown off while another, presumably suffering from the same affliction, was actually boarded up. The sign that hung, missing a letter or two, across the front of the dilapidated building read simply, "Parts", or at least that's what Locke imagined it's intention was.
"Parts of what?" Shae muttered to Jed, but the older man merely shook his head, holding back some with uncertainty as they all gazed up at the building.
Behind them, there was no other half of the street, but rather just railing and a rather long drop to the water below. It was a beautiful view and, honestly, Shae would be lying to say it wouldn't be where her eyes were naturally drawn were it not for the absolute nonsense that was surely about to play out before them.
There were two men in front of the building, talking softly it seemed, and they noted with little interest the group they thought to just be passing them by. But when, instead, they seemed to be approaching, both guys turned with hard expressions
Burly with shaved heads and scars in different, distinct places, they were clearly the building's muscle. Though he detected no magic emanating from them, Locke would have probably not chosen to interact with them. His girlfriend knew no such thing as caution though.
Neither held any recollection in their eyes at the sight of her, which was fine, as Haven held none in her own.
"Hey," she loudly called out. "Is Kaz around?"
One of them snorted at her question, looking away from the woman, while the other only narrowed his eyes.
"Run along," was his single reply. "You ain't got business here."
"Haven," Locke warned, softly, but she never did care for any of the man's heeding.
"The fuck I don't." She matched his gaze, allowing a bit of electricity to flow through her body. "I'm owed a favor from Kaz and if he doesn't show his fucking face right now-"
"You'll what?" the one questioned her, smirking slightly, but this was wiped off as Haven merely raised a fist and shot a ball of electricity at the exterior of the building, scorching the wood in the places the blast didn't chip.
As the two men startled to attention, there was a loud yell from inside the building as well as a face coming to peek out from the busted out second story window.
"What the-," came the growl from the man glaring out it. "Dreyar?"
"I," Haven loudly proclaimed, tilting her head back to send her own glare at the window, "am owed a favor. And I'm not leaving until I cash it in."
"I don't fucking owe you shit."
She raised her fist again, as if ready to finish scorching the building. "Wanna bet?"
And the man disappeared from the window.
They'd all take a step back, Jed and Shae especially, when Haven had tossed out her first ball of electricity, but Locke rushed forward now, grabbing her arms and tugging her back some too as he smiled politely to the very vexed men before them, apologizing for the woman the same way he had for their entire lives together.
It didn't take long for the window man, Kaz, apparently, to appear outside. He threw open the double wooden doors with a bit of a growl as he came to approach Haven. A short, stocky guy with a clear amount of pent up rage hidden behind the thick sunglasses he drug from the top of his head and over his eyes once he was before her.
Locke imagined the setting sun was in his eyes, or perhaps it was easier to hide his emotions this way, but Haven as she jerked away from her boyfriend, decided he was fearful of the brilliance her lightning generated.
Because if she didn't get what she wanted, she was surely raining a lot more of it down.
"The hell's your problem?" Kaz complained. "Don't see you for fucking years and then you come here busting shit up?"
"I…" Haven looked off. "I went underground a bit. Branched out on my own."
"Is that right?"
"Look, I just need a small favor," she started up then. "Nothing serious. I just need passage for me and my friends to Joya."
"Nothing serious?" he questioned. "Just passage to another country? Expenses paid for by me? You gotta screw loose."
"You," Haven reminded and both their voices were losing edge, "owe me. Remember?"
Staring hard at her for a few seconds, Kaz's shoulders deflated some before he whispered, "I heard shit about you. These past few years."
She only shrugged in return, remarking simply, "Believe it."
With a soft breath, he told her simply, "I wasn't planning of having a ship out to Joya for another week. But…"
"You do this for me," she offered, "then you'll never see me, ever, again."
"Promise?" he questioned.
"She," Locke finally spoke up from where he hovered, right behind his girlfriend, "promises."
And it should have ended there. All well and good. Haven still seemed to have drawn the contempt of the two men that were standing watch over the place, but Kaz even smiled, just a bit, at her declaration of leaving him the fuck alone, forever.
"H-Haven?"
The sound came from behind where Jed stood, accompanied by the small crash of a crate being dropped to the ground. For as long as they'd been standing there, the street had been mostly clear, Haven's lightning strike only drawing the attention of very few passersby, all of who only quickened on their way, the "Parts" store hardly an anomaly for drama.
Still, they were only a few store front from the docks and it wasn't so crazy, maybe, that someone from one of Haven's past lives, in a place she'd spent a considerable amount of time, found themselves showing up. Neither Jed nor Shae quite understood it though, the way Locke stiffened and Haven almost recoiled, as they turned in tandem to see who'd spoken her name in such a way.
He'd only met the man once, Locke had, for a short day or two, back in Crocus, when he was struggling in the middle of Haven's three year absence from his life. But he'd hated him for far longer, noting how the letters Haven would write home after that always managed to not name, or even give a passing mention to the man, and somehow, that was worse. Because she was off with him, but not filling Locke in on exactly what ways, which allowed him to fill in the blanks himself.
They never got filled with anything good.
For Haven though, their relationship extended far beyond that point and the imagined. She had the blanks filled in perfectly, all these years out, and like most things in her life, things hadn't exactly ended on a pleasant terms.
"Hey!" Kaz was the one most worked up though as, in the shock over seeing the woman once more, the man had dropped the crate in his arms, where whatever it was holding didn't sound as if it had taken the fall well. "What the fuck, Porter?"
When Kaz approached him though, Porter only slipped passed him, still staring in a bit of disbelief at Haven. He couldn't get too close though because, as he approached, Locke took to sliding before her in a way that the woman would surely punish him for later.
"How are you here?" Porter questioned with a frown. "I heard that you… Everyone said that you died."
Haven swallowed and it wasn't like she didn't imagine, one day, she'd have to deal with this. Her family had, very publicly, buried a child. And while she herself wasn't well known, her father, especially as he was the guild master at the time, was. The fact one of his daughters had died must've circulated a bit, whereas her return was, for the most part, kept within the guild.
It wasn't exactly the easiest situation to explain.
Still, for all the times Haven had talked about it over the past year, faced it, she usually was doing so with someone who'd had a firsthand knowledge of the basics. To see him here now, years removed, felt like a gut punch.
The last time she'd really thought about Porter was when she and Ravan, in their glee over how well the Monster Gauntlet was going, thought to pay him a rather violent visit following its completion. She felt like she'd gone through so many metamorphosis since she'd last seen him, last thought of him, even heard his name, that now all those emotions over their parting came flooding back and she just…
"I did," she remarked simply and Shae eyed her from where both she and Jed stood, fully distanced from what was going on, having heard the woman speak of this sort of thing previously, but still not fully grasping the magnitude. "Once. I'm hard to kill."
His vibe felt off. Different. Locke could remember how uneasy he felt, before, around the guy. Whatever he and Haven had been doing, whatever their relationship was, even outside of his natural jealousy, had left Locke with a bad taste in his mouth. Porter exuded an unearned confidence, usually, but it was absent now and he eyed Haven with something that was close to actual care.
Maybe.
"What are you doing here?" he questioned then and he'd lifted a hand then, as if for her, but it fell and then he took a step back, glancing over her boyfriend now as well. "You're not still...treasure hunting, are you?"
"No." And for a moment, Haven thought his eyes were lingering on her chest, but as she started to rebuke him for it, she realized he could see it. Her guild marking. Just barely peeking over the edge of her shirt. Reaching forward, she grabbed Locke's hand, squeezing it tightly as she said, "I'm doing something else now."
A beat passed and Kaz was complaining then, about the crate, which was quickly snatched up by one of the burly guys from before, and as that was dealt with Haven only glanced over Porter herself.
"Where's everyone else?" she asked. "Are you...alone now?"
He shrugged some, remarking, "What difference does it make?"
Hardly any, truly.
Porter had always been her reason for sticking around. His power and presence. Just him, sometimes. The other two, as well as any who filtered in, were obstacles in that, hold overs from before he got his power. Sometimes, when they'd drink, alone together, Haven would insist to him that if he just helped her gain some of that power herself, then the two of them made more sense, alone. And would be much better treasure hunters together.
Less places to split to profits.
But then the drinks would wear off and the resentment would set in, and most everything Haven did back then was a cycle. She got really good at being something only to feel to comfortable in it, find a way to ruin it, and then need to be set straight again.
She was lost, a lot, those three years. That was the point. You couldn't find yourself without losing a bit of it first. After the mess that was her first experience in Bosco, his power was alluring and his attitude mirrored the one she always fancied herself as having, that she was losing, every time she thought too hard about Ewing.
For as shitty as everything ended up, it was difficult for Haven to fully write off what she'd had in the time she spent away from home.
She'd never do something like them again, be absent from not only Locke, but also her family's lives, yet at the same time, she didn't fully hate what she'd come away from the time with and was very well aware that it helped shape her going into and coming out of the Monster Gauntlet.
"It doesn't, I guess," Haven gave in easily and the feeling of it, the memory of it, how simple it was for the other guy to get her to agree, to go along with what he said, made Locke frown.
"So it's set then, yeah?" he called out, not to Porter, but rather Kaz, gripping Haven's hand back just as tightly. When the other man glanced his way, Locke insisted, "We can set out tomorrow?"
"Be here before sunrise," Kaz told them with a shake of his head and, as he turned to head back into the building, his slipped his sunglasses back to the top of his head. Over his shoulder though, he did call out, "Or else the deals off."
Kaz and the man now carrying the crate disappeared into the building while the other hung back, mean mugging those before it, but also not speaking out against their presence. Porter stared after Kaz for a long few seconds before looking once more to Haven.
"What are you hauling?" he asked her, but she shook her head.
"Just us," she told the man with a gesture not only to her boyfriend, but also the other two. Shae raised a hand in something of a wave while Jed merely bowed his head in greeting. "We're heading for Joya."
"Really?" Porter took a moment out, scoffing a bit as he thought before brightening some and saying, "What a coincidence; I have something to do out that way too."
Locke's frown increased, but Haven only stared hard at Porter for a moment before questioning, "What?"
"Business," he told her plainly and it was difficult to argue with.
"Us too." Haven swallowed. "All of us."
"Maybe we'll catch the same ship out," he offered. At the sound of some more complaints from inside the building from Kaz though, he chose to walk around the couple, parting simply with a nod to the woman and the softer diminutive, "Hav."
While Locke glared after him and Haven, for once, seemed beaten, Shae only came closer to groan.
"If seeing my ex is even half as awkward as that," the woman complained, "then there's no way we're getting the tunnels cleared out."
Haven made a face at her, but Locke was still glaring after Porter. Only for a moment though. Then he tugged at Haven's hand and nodded at the other two.
"C'mon," Locke ordered softly. "Let's find an inn or something to crash at. You heard that dude; we gotta be back here before sunrise."
The sky's bright orange was fading when they all dispersed to their rooms. Both Shae and Jed tried to talk Locke out of paying for their rooms, but he only insisted, citing with very little amusement in his voice the same thing Haven had before.
"It's blood money," he reminded them simply as, after getting the room keys from the front desk, he came over to hand them each one. "You guys deserve it as much as anyone else."
"Do cicles have a good exchange rate to jewels?" Jed pondered aloud as he headed off to his own room. "I would imagine so, but I suppose these things do fluctuate."
Shae though only eyed both Locke and Haven before reminding them, mostly the latter, "You're not in a barn tonight; try and keep it down."
"Ha ha ha." Haven snorted. "Have fun dreaming about tomorrow."
It felt weird though, once they were away from Shae and Jed. From everyone, really. Locke and Haven did have their own separate area, out in the barn, but it still felt exposed and prone to anyone (namely Xavier) dropping by. As Locke shut the inn room door behind them, it felt heavy and not unlike the peace they'd finally found, almost an exact year ago now, when they began living together.
"I know you'll say something, like, there's so many people back at base who deserve this more than us," Haven remarked as he turned to face her, "but fuck it, Locke; can we at least enjoy tonight?"
Sighing some, Locke slung his pack down beside where she'd dumped hers. To Haven, he said, "We're not just going to skip over what happened."
"What are you talking about?"
"I," he complained, "thought you said he wouldn't be around?"
"How was I supposed to know if he would be or not?" Haven scoffed at him. "You can't blame me for not knowing that someone who I haven't spoken to in years just so happened to be running a job through our shared connection." She frowned at her sentence before questioning instead, "What did you want me to do, Locke?"
"Nothing. I don't want you to do anything."
"Then-"
"You wanna enjoy tonight?" he cut her off, the action nearly getting lightning thrown his way. Still, Locke only glared as he insisted, "Then let's just not talk about it."
"You brought it up!"
"Because I thought you could actually have a conversation without-"
"Defending myself?"
"Just never mind. Forget it, Haven."
She studied him for a moment before flipping him the bird and remarking, "Fuck you."
"That's great, Hav." He only went to fall face first into the bed as she rifled momentarily through her bag, before heading over to the adjoining bathroom door. "Fucking awesome."
Locke felt kind of whiny, the longer he laid there, but also somewhat resolute in the fact that he wasn't wrong. About the vibes he got between Haven and Porter. Even now, with the guy apparently down on his luck, she'd seemed almost...submissive to him, maybe, and the thought grossed Locke out.
And…
Maybe made him jealous?
He listened to the water running in the bathroom for a few minutes, silent, but at the sound of the bathroom door sliding back over, he flipped over, onto his back, blinking up at Haven's still very cross face as she leaned over him.
"Well?" she questioned.
Blinking, he questioned right back, "Well?"
"Are you coming? Tub's filled."
"So?"
"Locke." And she looked closer to annoyed now. "Just come on."
Groaning as he shoved to sit up, Locke told her simply, "Maybe I don't want you to wash my hair. Ever think of that? Maybe I don't wanna make up with you yet."
"Making up implies that I'm saying I'm wrong. And I'm not. Saying that. Or wrong." She still only stood before the bed, arms crossed. "We needed a cheap and quick passage to Joya. I secured that. And I'd do it all again."
"Of course you would," he retorted flatly. "What in your life wouldn't you do again?"
"Right now?" She shrugged. "Probably invite you to go to Bosco with me."
"Haven-"
"Would you just come on? You big baby."
"I'm not a baby."
"You're acting like one. About a guy that I left. Did you miss that part?"
"You never told me that part," Locke pointed out. "Or anything about it."
"I left," she said then, "and went back to you."
"You came back to me to heal your affliction and then ran off on the gauntlet and hooked up with Ravan, so-"
"Goddamn, Locke." And her arms dropped then as she turned on her heel to walk away from him. "Never mind then."
Bringing his hands up to his red eyes, Locke buried his palms into them momentarily, the pain welcome as he groaned before getting to his feet. He found Haven stalling, as if waiting for him, as she merely stood before the tub, staring down into the admittedly somewhat murky water. It wasn't the nicest of inns, but the first real chance at absolutely privacy made it more than worth it.
"What are you doing?" she questioned as he began to strip down. "I don't want you in here. Asshole. so-"
"Shuddup."
"You hardly even have any hair left now," she remarked instead, shrugging some. "So what's the point?"
Still in the process of dropping his pants, Locke answered simply, "'cause you love me."
Haven paused, thinking, before agreeing remorsefully, "It is my one fault."
After he managed to kick off his jeans, Locke closed the small gap between them, gathering the woman up in his arms as she only resisted slightly, turning her head away when he tried to nuzzle his against it.
"I could comb out your hair for you," he offered then. "Return the favor. And- Hey-"
"Stupid." She'd elbowed him in the gut and, once he released her, she added, "That would be fucking weird."
"Why?" he complained as he rubbed at the spot she'd gotten him. "How's it any different than you doing it for me?"
Haven wasn't sure, but it felt like it was and the idea made her uncomfortable.
"Just get in the water," she ordered him and Locke, finally, snickered a bit at the fact her cheeks were definitely red and he had, somehow, managed to catch the woman off guard. "Idiot."
Locke did as she asked finally, and the mood was changing, the energy evening out, and neither of them resisted it
For them, the past few months had been hard. Not as long or as hard as some of the people back on base, nowhere close, but it was hard to deny that between the Ewing manor and Locke's time as a guard that they, as a pair, hadn't had their own separate and joint traumas.
"You'll grow your hair back out, right?" Haven whispered softly as she sat propped on her knees beside the tub, gently running her fingers through his damp locks.
"Of course." He smiled at her then and she could still tell he was tense, but giving into her and the night. It was hard not to appreciate. "Whatever you want."
It was always whatever she wanted.
Locke waited in the bedroom after his bath, for Haven to join him. She wanted to shower too, she claimed, and then kicked him out of the bathroom, which was fair. Maybe. She'd only gotten creeks and ponds to bathe in for the entire summer. He couldn't fault her for wanting some privacy.
But he was a bit anxious for her return, sitting on the edge of the bed, feet planted firmly on the floor as he tapped a thumb against his thigh, words from an old song on his tongue as he attempted to keep the beat. Locke was very aware that the next day would be spent cramped in the belly of a ship and then, maybe, spit between assisting Shae through her problem while also possibly warding off Porter.
Alone, it was difficult to keep such thoughts at bay.
So he grinned, even when it wasn't mirrored, once the woman came back to him. She'd hardly pulled anything back on and that was fine with Locke, who wanted this decision reversed soon anyways.
"Feel better now?" she asked as he shifted back in the bed, eyes locked on the woman as she climbed into it with him. "Locke?"
She hung onto his name, the way that he liked, and it made Locke laugh some, reaching for the lamp on the nightstand. At the same moment he turned it off, Haven fell into him, and he laughed some more, even when she purposely pressed down roughly into his chest with one palm. Pushing herself up this way, she stared down at him with a raised eyebrow, apparently still wanting an answer.
"Yeah," he lied and maybe it wasn't one, really, as he felt the best he ever had then, at least since they'd left home. "Never better."
"Good." Haven seemed pleased. "I thought I'd have to blow you."
He laughed again, but it stalled out as he stared hard up at her for a moment. "Really?"
"Well, now you'll never know- Hey!"
She tired hard to sound agitated, but her laughter broke through as he tossed her off him and they tussled a bit, first, as they always did, and even though he didn't know how much the night would mean to them at the time, he appreciated it for what he did understand. Did know. Was aware of.
"Hey."
He whispered this when the hour was even later and they'd washed off again, this time together, in a hurried way. Now, in bed for the final time, Haven draped herself over his lap as Locke sat up, glancing around the room and sighing, frequently, though the noises hardly even got the smallest of peeking from his girlfriend. She laid there, eyes shut, just breathing, in and out, steady. She was topless, fully unconcerned with this fact, and seemed content to drift off this way, for as long as he would allow her.
Locke found it difficult to move her.
Though he needed to stretch out himself, get full usage of the fact they were in an inn, with a nice, cozy bed and, well, maybe questionable sheets, but way better than their sleeping bags, the man found it difficult to make the motions. He knew Haven would give easily, as she no doubt wanted to get some usage out of a fluffy pillow, more than his bony, crossed legs, anyways, but he just couldn't bring himself to take the action.
Sometimes he forgot.
About how beautiful his girlfriend was.
She was the daughter of Mirajane Strauss, a name he'd grown with and mostly ignored, hearing it exchanged with everything ranging from the guild's barmaid to, maybe, one of its greatest mages.
But once, he heard her name used in a different way. Mentioned in passing. About magazine spreads and modeling and...she'd just always been Haven and Marin's mom. The Master's wife. He thought she was pretty, maybe, when he was a little boy, but once he stopped being a little boy and heard of this past, it was difficult not to spend a night up in his parent's attic when they were gone on a job, digging through old boxes to find the old stack of Sorcerer mags that he knew his mom had, because she never threw out any written work, and it…
Made him feel gross.
The next time he saw Mirajane.
And Haven called him out on it, the way he blushed when her mom served them sodas and juices, back then, as he was still a year or so away from openly getting away with slinging beers at the hall, the blonde even longer. She couldn't understand (and he'd have never even ventured to explain) to her what he thought about for a good month, every tie he saw her mother.
That's what Haven could be.
Now.
In current day.
Or could have been, maybe, as she'd aged past Mira's prime modeling days.
Still, she'd always more or less rejected this legacy in favor for the one her father had carved. The one her mother, actually, had rejected for herself.
Haven had grown into being a woman the same way she went about being a child or teen; by putting all her focus into how talented of a mage she could become. Not how to properly dress to accentuate her body or accurately match shades to her complexion.
Sometimes, when Marin became only slightly interested in the most basic of beauty concepts (and Laxus relinquished some of his leash on his youngest), Mirajane would ecstatically give her tips or even try out different makeup with her. There was a vague offer to Haven. To join them. Or even just her mother. The two of them, maybe, going over such topics.
Bonding.
But that idea felt gross and wearing dresses or even a nice top felt restrictive and it was hard enough for her to even pull on something other than a sports bra or t-shirt and Mirajane gave up, eventually, while her Aunt Evergreen would only sigh sometimes, at her teenage niece, chiding her in snide ways over how very little interest she'd garner this way, from boys her age.
She wasn't interested in boys though, then. Or after, Locke thought sometimes. Even now. Or maybe he just worried.
Her feelings towards other people, or at least the other relationships she let him know about, all seemed based purely on physical power. The men were stronger than her, better connected, and this bothered her in a way that she couldn't quite explain that eventually bled into what Haven derived as sexual attraction.
Or at least that's how Locke viewed it, when he broke it down, and it made sense, maybe.
Maybe.
This left a rather big hole though. A him-sized hole. Because he knew Haven had long surpassed him in the offensive magic field and he had no hope of catching her. He had no interest in it. He might physically be able to overpower her, but her magic was the greatest equalizer. He had no match for it. Only cures.
So what did she want with him? Anyways?
She'd call him whiny if he questioned it.
Actually, she had, any time he tried to explain it to her, growing annoyed or thinking he was passing some sort of judgment over her, over her interests and though he saw where she was coming from, was able to recognize both their personal insecurities were butting up against one another, he would have liked an answer.
Why him? Or them?
She said frequently that she could feel it, when she was with him, just this absolute need to be together, and Locke guessed he felt it too, maybe, but the way Haven talked about it…
He had to address internally, at times, just why he wanted to he with her.
Sometimes, he felt unsure.
When he was a teen, it kind of felt like the natural turn in their relationship. He dated most all of the girls he knew, seriously and in that stupid teenager way both, where it felt serious for all of a week and then unimportant the next.
Haven was his best friend and though he was young and dumb, he wasn't young and dumb enough to not realize that if that next week arrived and it all went sour, then he'd be losing that. But it felt worth the risk. She was a girl, interested in him, and pretty.
Those were most of his only qualifications.
But Haven came with the bonus of having known one another their entire lives, so there wasn't as much guessing over the little things. They could go on jobs together, blow their jewels together, and while she was his first, in the important way, he'd gotten all the unimportant things out of the way before while she hadn't, which finally gave him something of an upper hand over her.
He got to play the older, cooler boyfriend for awhile, instead of the friend she tried to instigate physical fights out of at every turn.
Thinking about it any deeper back then would have been dumb.
But he did care about her. And as more time passed, things started to come together better and he'd always wanted it. What his parents had. The way his father always told him that his mother was just the person he was meant to be with, always.
Locke wanted that.
Haven didn't though.
Or at least wasn't ready for it.
At the first chance of things possibly getting more serious, she ran.
He liked to think that he had no part in this, but maybe…
Had they never dated, were they not together when her father finally excommunicated her (because Locke imagined this coming to pass eventually either way), he always kinda thought that, maybe, she'd have asked him to come with her.
Like you would a best friend.
But asking him to run away away with her, taking him with her, would have implied something much deeper. Something Haven couldn't face then.
So she ran off.
He didn't blame her for that anymore.
He scared her, maybe, in her bedroom that day, when he offered to move in together, that they could live together, really together, and they'd figure it out.
Together.
Together took a lot longer for Haven to come to terms with.
He convinced himself sometimes, that year and some odd months, when she wouldn't talk to him, before they just happened to cross paths in Crocus, that he never really liked her. That they never really fit.
How could they?
Locke liked nice girls.
Nice people, really.
All of his friends were good guys or women who didn't spend the free days seemingly plotting how to annoy him once he arrived home. The people he dated, the women he was serious about, even after Crocus, were all smart and sweet and they'd never purposely say something to him, to hurt his feelings, to win, in a singular moment, at all costs.
Being interested in Haven was childish.
Their relationship was rooted in how they felt as children, when she decided she had to be the best, at everything, a goal he stood in the way of, while he attempted to do as he'd been told, ordered almost, from a young age, too early to remember, to look out for her. Haven. Make sure she was okay and watch over her, because she'd get herself in trouble, Locke, if you don't keep her from it.
The fighting and clawing they did some times, the yelling and screaming, the way she pushed him away first, always, before accepting his affection was part of childhood quirks that they couldn't outgrow together, that they brought out in each other, that she didn't have.
He imagined.
When she was with other people.
That he didn't have.
He knew.
When he was with other people.
He could be with most any woman. Or at least he liked to think. He was reasonably attractive, fit, and was the newest S-Class wizard in Fairy Tail. If his intent was to find a woman who drove him mad, he could find one that would allow him to do it from the comfort of his own home, waiting around for him after S-Class jobs, where she'd take half his money and they could hate each other too. They could hate each other just as much as Haven hated him, any time he told her off or attempted to keep her from getting herself killed, and fuck just as passionately, maybe, driven by that hatred and sick attraction, but without the constant headaches and mental turmoil that came about from loving the only woman in the world that seemed equally as pleased with your pain as she did your pleasure.
Haven's body was scarred. And broken, in some places, reminders of hard fought battles that he hadn't been there to heal. She seemed to fluctuate between under fed and toned depending on her current financial status and, given that they were coming off living in Magnolia to now scarping by between assignments in Bosco, she was losing definition again. Her eyes were striking, but there was something in them that wasn't present in her mother's. Something almost sinister.
She wasn't perfect.
For him, he knew that, but she also just wasn't perfect, in general, and it was easy to think of her, at times, in the way she presented herself, unstyled and almost boyish, in certain ways.
Masculine, but only parts that were toxic and cruel.
These weren't traits that he naturally found himself attracted to, but they worked on his girlfriend and it was just easy to forget.
Not that night though, as her breasts rose and fell as she was nearly asleep, before his words, only peeking an eye open then to stare up at him, a solid, "No," ready on his lips, no doubt expecting him to be interested in something more that night.
But he wasn't.
Not even as he raised a hand to gently trace over her breast, where her guild marking lied now. He knew the pattern well, the emblem ingrained in his brain, but it still tripped him up at times. Seeing it there. Instead of adorning her back, not exactly centered, but slightly lower, and he used to snicker when he was a kid.
Because it reminded him of the Exceeds.
The impression was overrode now, with distant recollections of making out in his bed at his parents house, cuddling or just spending time together, in his room, when his finger would stroke at her back, tracing the fairy that laid there as Haven seemed to struggle between how she felt about this.
The color had changed. Somewhere along the way. It was red now, Locke knew, instead of black like it had been when she was trying to imitate her father, maybe, as a child. It meant more now, different things at least, and he liked to think about how well it matched his eyes, even though he knew this would never be Haven's true reasoning.
Red was for Ravan, who'd sacrificed his own in losing her.
She never told him this out loud, but Locke was very good, he knew she had to know, at figuring most things out.
"Mmm?" Haven moaned then, softly, her eyes only blinking open from his word, no matter how soft it was.
"I just…"
And he hadn't wanted to. The whole point was that he didn't want to. Move. Shift. Stop whatever moment they were having, or he was having, then, because she looked too beautiful there, with the moon just peaking around the curtain of a room they'd never seen again, in a place he hoped to avoid from here on out, and he didn't want to be the reason it drew to a close.
Just like that.
"You're my best friend." Locke was moving as he spoke, shifting, so he could lay long ways on the bed as well, nuzzling heavily into Haven, beneath her previously outstretched arm, into her armpit really, hiding maybe, from himself and the fact he'd let it pass, forced it to fade, caused the closure of the moment. "That's all."
"I'm your best friend," she muttered tiredly, "and that's all I am?"
"No."
He took in a slow breath and she smelled so good then, so did he, they smelled good together, and he wanted to get her under the covers, where they could snuggle and drift off.
Together.
"Then," Haven whispered and she shifted away at first, as always, only giving in when he moved with her, "that's all you wanted to tell me? And we can really go to bed now?"
"No."
It wasn't.
All he wanted to tell her.
It's all he could get out, because the rest would sound bad, he thought, to speak aloud, even to the only person he could speak aloud anything.
She didn't want to fight about Porter again that night, and he was fine with that, he understood why she felt that way.
But the thoughts that were bothering him now went a lot deeper.
To explain them though, to mention her family, her mother, their upbringing, what it all meant, why she loved him or even liked him and what she thought about herself, the way she was and looked and acted, as well as what he thought about it too, as well as himself and what she thought about him and his strengths and faults, well, it would only end in an argument.
That night.
Because he could never get it out to her in a way that wouldn't sound like an attack or just an attempt to bring up old wounds for the sake of rubbing it in her face that he was there, the whole time, waiting for her to come to her senses, to come back to him, and she'd been the one in the wrong, who'd gone off and ran around with the wrong people and had gotten hurt, been killed, all because she wouldn't just listen to him.
All because she couldn't be together with him, when she'd only been a week away from seventeen.
"Then what?" Haven asked, a frown present in her voice as she insisted, "What other option is there?"
"Too many."
"Locke-"
"You're so beautiful, Haven," he insisted then, as she sat up some, just to frown down at him, and the man only stared back up at her, into her so deep blue eyes, the exact opposite of his flat reds, with every ounce of candor he had to him. "You always are. Always have been. And I don't tell you that enough. I love so much about you and I think sometimes I just get so caught up in all the madness that's constantly in front of us that I forget mention it, to tell you that, and I just wanna be with you, forev-
"Shut up." And she was moving then, to the head of the bed, shoving at him in the process, even grabbing a pillow in the end, to hit him with. "You big idiot."
Locke only moved to lay properly in the bed as well, insisting, "It's true. You're the most beautiful woman I know. I'm going to want you forever."
"I'm still not going to blow you." She snatched her pillow back once she'd kicked down the covers some, only to snuggle back under them. And, after a moment's thought, she offered him simply, "Tonight."
He allowed himself to smile, tugging the blankets up around himself as well, hiding out from the moonlight with her beneath them as he whispered, "I don't wanna fight with you. Hav. I never do."
"Liar."
"I'm not."
"Are too. Fighting's part of it."
"Part of what?"
"You know." But she didn't seem to, as she couldn't quite explain it. "Locke."
Falling onto his back, he shut his eyes and she stilled out, back to him, but beside him, close. So close.
"When it's all over," he muttered to the once more close to sleep woman, "and we can go back home, I'll buy us a nice house. With my first few S-Class jobs. Bet. With a pool and one of those kitchens you can invite all your friends over to hang out in, you know? With, like, stools and space and… And an actual dining room. For when we want to have real, adult dinner parties. A pool. Room for our...our kids. Your family and mine. Everyone. And just us too. Yeah?"
She was either asleep or good at faking it, either was likely. But both were enough for the man as he let out one last long, heavy sigh before deciding to join her.
Haven would wake him up some hours later when she climbed out of bed. He groggily called out for a time check, but the woman gave him none and, as she disappeared into the bathroom, he fumbled around before discovering a tiny clock on the nightstand.
Four in the morning.
It was time to head out.
When Haven returned from the bathroom this time, she'd gotten dressed and seemed to have splashed some water over her face. Locke was just beginning to climb out of bed and they met before this was completed, falling back into the bed a bit as they kissed lazily, the last time, before they were faced with the day once more.
"I always wanted," she whispered softly, into the too early of a morning darkness, head pushing up, into his neck now, as Locke blinked sleepily, trying hard to catch every word his girlfriend spoke, "a nice porch, in the backyard that, like, you could sit on? In the evenings? Or the mornings?" When he pulled back to stare at her, she only remarked, "When you start pulling in S-Class money. I meant."
"No, I know." Amused, he reached out to pat at her cheek, but when he did this, Haven shoved his hand away and then he shoved her some back and they both laughed, easily.
Together.
"Let's get outta here." Leaning forwards, he pressed a kiss to her lips, gently now, but quickly before he got to his feet truly now, leaving her behind in the bed. "Busy day."
Or, at least, a tedious one.
Jed was waiting for them in the lobby and Locke only had to gently wrap a knuckle against Shae's door once for her to open up, all packed and ready to head out.
"I got apples," Locke offered them once they'd checked out of the inn and were greeted outside with the salty breeze of a coastal morning. "In my pack. And one orange. I figured we'd have to have at least one impromptu meal."
The dock area was bustling when they arrived, not only from Kaz's business, but most, as either material was being brought up from boats or taken down. Haven walked with little concern, weaving in and out of the crowd, even getting a few people to call out her name in recognition, always with an edge of uncertainty.
She found Kaz easily enough, outside his shop, where he only directed them to grab some boxes and head out.
"And Haven," he added to her back. "I expect you to keep your promise."
"Yeah, sure, whatever."
"Return trip is in two days. At the other dock. Before sunrise," he added. "You arrive back here and then you never come back. Right?"
Haven didn't answer because if there was anything she'd learned during her short stint as a treasure hunter it was to never fully burn a connection.
Just bend the truth a bit to get what you want.
Kaz's ship was much smaller than Luka's, but they weren't hauling nearly anything as concerning. In fact, this was one of the cleanest ships Kaz had ever sent out, given he truly had little reason to do so.
Plus, Locke noted, Porter seemed to be nowhere around.
Haven led the others to the ship, where they all followed the lead of some of the other guys around, leaving the crates they carried in the same place. One of the man grumbled something about them heading below deck for awhile, so they could stay out of the way, and it wasn't the most pleasant of places.
It was cramped, to say the least, and they all four crammed in together, the same as they were on the train, only much closer now. They were boxed in by much larger crates than they'd carried and a guy below deck assured them, once they set sail, they'd be more than welcome to venture out on the deck.
"You're not wanted criminals or nothin', are ya?" he joked and it was easy to say no, when you didn't consider the rule of Bosco.
"Should have eaten a banana instead of that apple," Jed offered weakly, as if in uncertain jest, once they were left alone down in the dark. The sun still had a good hour before it would peek over the horizon, which offered them no light down below. "Avoid the cramps."
"I don't fucking care," Haven warned them all, "if my leg cramps, I'm kicking someone."
Shae, who was in front of her, only replied darkl, "I'd like to see you try."
"Least it doesn't smell too bad down here," Locke offered the others. "Could be worse."
"You say that," Haven said, "because you haven't gotten a cramp yet."
"Well, I didn't mean to worry you," Jed assured the woman. "Perhaps we should all do something to take our mind off the inevitable?"
"Why," Shae complained, "does it have to be inevitable?"
"We could all get to know one another better," Locke offered tentatively. He had to suck in a breath when this got him elbowed by Haven who definitely didn't want to have to listen to someone else's life story (especially not atop also getting a cramp) and didn't imagine they'd let her just blab on about her own accomplishments. But the man was only insistent now, annoyed he'd been struck, as he said, "You could tell us more about yourself, Shae. I know me and you talked before, but… At least about where we're going and who we're going to see. And only if you want."
She didn't seem to, hesitant at first, but eventually let out a loud groan before remarking, "Just a stupid girl I used to date. We met when we were, like, teenagers. Not even, maybe, yet. In secondary."
"Secondary what?" Haven asked and it was Locke who elbowed her then, but she only complained, "I'm serious."
"You are?" Frowning down at her, her boyfriend explained, "Like...in their studies or whatever."
"Really?" Haven looked closer at Shae. "You guys have to do that there? In Joya?"
"Do you not? Have schooling?" Jed questioned back instead. His breathing felt off though and he seemed to be sweating. "Is there not, at least, a wizard school? Or-"
"If your parents are filthy fucking rich," Haven snickered. "To both."
"What do you do if they're not?" Shae asked with a frown. "And I thought your father owned a guild."
"Doesn't mean he was rich. Or even ever had any real money." The blonde's joy was brought back down. "Except for booze, I guess."
"I always kinda wanted to be one of them," Locke admitted then. "One of the kids that didn't have to go to the guildhall or out on jobs. That got to go to the schoolhouse and learn. There's a big, giant one, in the center of Magnolia, but only the snotty kids went there. I actually dated a girl, once, who studied there when-"
"We're not talking about you, loser." Haven elbowed him again. "We're talking about Shae."
"Oh." The other woman didn't sound too pleased as she felt eyes, in the darkness, fall back onto her. "Right. Well...I don't really know even what to say. I used to help her in calculations class, I'm actually kind of good at it, and we just…connected, I guess. I mean, why does anyone like anyone? You know?"
There was a stillness to the four of them and Locke felt exposed, for some reason, at this question while Haven only sat silently for once, not speaking.
"Does the darkness," Jed spoke up then, shifting uncomfortably as he spoke, "bother anyone else? I'm sorry, I just… Haven, I-"
"I know." And she smiled some, it being show as she held up an arm then, electrifying it. Both Shae and Jed jumped back a bit, at this, but Locke didn't mind the sparks. "Is that better?"
As Jed nodded, Locke felt like he now lost his ability to hide his emotions in the darkness and, not so great at masking them, only took a deep breath before choosing to answer the original question.
"I dunno, Shae, when you're a kid, don't you just kinda like anybody?" he asked. "That likes you back?"
She gave him then with a bit of a nod though added the caveat of, "If they're cute."
"If you don't have access to magic as easily, in Joya," Haven butted in as, in the light, she took was feeling more like herself, "then how did she learn her magic?"
"Rich people have access to many amenities the lower classes do not," Jed remarked as, after taking a few deep breaths, adjusting to the light, he was able to explain. "Here, in Joya, children are meant to study and learn, as it is the easiest access to success later in life. So it is readily available. Magic, as it is far more precious, isn't offered up as easily."
"Plus," Shae added, "not everyone is born without the ability naturally. She comes from a long line of mages. Her grandfather taught her, I think. But no, it's not available to everyone."
"Sounds like a shitty place to live," the blonde remarked, which got a glare out of her boyfriend, but she only insisted, "What's the point without magic? To anything?"
Shae only replied, "There's more to life than magic."
While Haven agreed, somewhat, she couldn't agree that there was much.
"Anyways," Shae went on, "we just...clicked. My father was sick, around that time, and I liked to go to her place, after classes, and we were… It's dumb to think about it now, after everything that happened, but she used to just make me happy to be around and that meant a lot to me, back then. I mean, it all ended up pretty bad, at the end, but…"
"If someone I at one point cared about," Locke offered, "even if I didn't any longer, asked me to help them with something this monumental, after having been held captive themselves in Bosco, I'd probably do it."
"No one would ever ask you for help, loser," Haven assured him. "So don't worry about it."
"You know-" Locke began, but Jed only took in his final deep breath and spoke himself.
"If she ever cared for you at all, Shae, then your words will have little meaning," he assured the younger woman with a sympathetic gaze. "But the heart of your story will. Tell her everything. Even if it is hard. Bosco, and what goes on there… It's important that we free it. At all costs."
Shae really didn't want to continue to discuss the matter with them and, though she'd only known Haven a few months, knew well enough how to ensure a topic change.
"When are we going to hear about this Porter guy anyways?" Shae asked with a bit of edge in her voice. "That whole thing yesterday-"
"He's someone I was with for awhile when I was a teenager," Haven said as she felt Locke still beside her. "That's all."
"That's all?" Shae prodded. "Really? Because it seemed like-"
"We ended on bad terms," Haven replied simply and she was staring into her own sparks then, fighting the urge to just storm off. It wasn't lost on her that Shae was purposely bringing this up. "That's all."
"Why?"
This wasn't from Shae. Or Jed. But rather Locke, who still only sat there, facing forwards and not backing down, even as Haven glared at him.
It wasn't that he was still upset with her. As he had been the day before. Or at least he didn't feel that way. The previous night, in the inn room, he'd been able to wave a hand over any anger or resentment he had about Haven's time away, and he did feel that, yes, she should have been given that chance. That opportunity.
And maybe things were even better for that fact.
But that didn't mean that the idea of Porter, the things he witness between her and the other man, didn't still bother him in not so easy to explain ways.
Haven had thought that they were passed all of that. She was. Or at least was ready to not bring it back up again. Especially not in front of Shae and Jed. But as her heavy gaze didn't cause him to back down, she decided it was better to just explain.
As best she could.
"I was only with him to get access to a specific power. One that he claimed he got from some mystic place and could only tell me about once I'd proven myself." Haven turned her glare onto her sparking hand. "But eventually...eventually I felt like he was lying to me. That he would never give it to me. And we got in a fight and I forced him to tell me. A real, serious fight. We fucked each other up. And one of his friends finally told me the location, to get us to stop. Porter told me, begged me, not to go, but…
"I didn't listen. I, uh, guess I had a hard time...have a hard time, backing down from things. And I didn't know the steps to take to gain the power, once I got there. It was some sort of ritual. A former religious thing, maybe, I guess, I don't know, but… I fucked it up. The ritual. Like in that S-Class job we stole, Locke. And it...whatever it was, it...cursed me. It gave me the power I wanted, but when I used it, if I used it too much, it was supposed to slowly consume me. Like a curse. An affliction. You have the best power in the world, all you could want, but using it would corrupt you. It was a trick. A trap.
"So I went back to you, Locke, eventually, when I couldn't figure it out on my own. It was eating at my eye by then and I got scared. So I came back. To you. To heal me and take care of me and It thought… I don't know, anymore. Honestly." Letting out a breath, she finally raised her eyes, but it was to look over at Shae. "It was weird to see Porter. But I needed something, so I came here. I'd do anything to free the silent in Bosco."
Locke swallowed some. He'd finally been given what he wanted, maybe, but it tasted bitter and he only remarked, "Have you tried humbling yourself?"
Shae winced. This comment felt poised to start a fight between the couple, but as Haven's fist clenched, the sparks merely become intermingled with a dark purple glow and, for once, she didn't seem so concerned with getting the final word.
Or punch.
They all sat in their uncomfortable silence, the sound of the men above them and the waves around them filling in the blanks.
It wouldn't be long before there was a call down, to those below the deck, that they could come up; so long as they stayed out of the way.
Jed was the first to get to the ladder, rushing right up and taking large gasps of air while Haven, slowed by the fact she had to actually climb over Locke (he didn't seem so intent to leave) was just as keen to get out of the place.
Or at least away from her boyfriend.
Alone in the dark now, neither Shae nor Locke made the move to rise and, instead, without the other two there, seemed more at ease.
"I didn't mean to make you guys fight," Shae said. "Or make her upset."
"You didn't. And she's not." Glancing after his girlfriend, Locke said simply, "This is how we are."
"Yeah, well-"
"And she's not wrong, anyways, you know." Locke shook his head some as he said, "She'd really do anything. And I know you would too. I mean, even if your ex doesn't come back with us… I'll figure it out, alright? Haven and I will. We'll get someone to help clear out the tunnels. This isn't do or die."
Shae nodded at his words and the sky was just beginning to lose its darkness for shades of blue when the pair finally headed back up. Jed almost immediately set in on Shae, something about Joya. Locke didn't quite catch what was said though as he was instead distracted by the glimpse of Haven he caught, across the boat, seeming to have a rather casual conversation with two of the ship-hands.
There was an edge of familiarity in her face, something almost given considering how easy it was for her, in this moment, to interact with someone else, and Locke wondered if this was how she always felt, back home, watching him with his friends.
The only friend of Haven's that Locke had to be in frequent contact with was Ravan, and even he was mostly gone now.
It was weird to see her talk so easily to someone else. Even someone who wasn't a stupid guy from Crocus.
Locke found a place, out of the way of the men milling about, to lean over the railing of the tiny ship and watch the waves as they went sailing along them. The last boat he was on, not too long ago, had been taking him to Tenrou.
Things felt a lot different then.
"If I fell in, would you come in after me?"
Locke hardly glanced up when Haven appeared beside him. The woman hoisted herself up on the railing, turning once up there to dangle her feet above the water rushing by below.
Sighing some, the man remarked, "Right now? Probably not."
She reached over to push him head. "I was just mad, you know. Last night."
"Is that right?"
"I'd still ask you to come to Bosco with me. No matter what." Haven sneered down at him then, as she added, "I do need you to heal my eye, after all."
He didn't smile, but he wasn't grimacing either and a stillness was allowed to fall over them before the man remarked, "Sometimes there's just things you have to know, Haven. That you can't just accept on blind faith."
The arguments swelled up in her throat, but died off, as she only glared out at the vast water surrounding them. As the first beginnings of the sun appeared on the horizon, Haven found it hard to smile.
Softly, she assured him, "Now you know."
"I'd save you though," he assured her. When Haven frowned down at him, he explained with a nod, "From the water. If you fell. No matter what. No matter how mad I was at you. Every time."
"You're a sucker like that."
"You could," he complained, "just agree that you would do the same."
She couldn't. Exactly. But did manage to mutter, "All we can hope for now is that Shae's ex feels the same way."
