Disclaimer: I do not own the Pathfinder franchise, which I will borrowing from heavily during this story, any coincedence from a character to a person in real life is not intentional, etc, etc...

Claimer: But I do own sexy!Nathan/Leo and these stories, so you can't have them. ;D

Warning: This'll be good 'ol boy on boy fiction, so if you don't like that kind of stuff, plz leave kthxbai. Also there'll be much slaughtering of fat guys, wererats, and bad drow ladies so if violence/death isn't your cup of tea, again, plz leave kthxbai. And heed the fic rating as well. Slashy-stuff starting! :D

Unfriendly Warnings

Chapter 5

Nathan wiped the sweat off his brow as he laboriously climbed back up the ornate stairs leading into the Gold Goblin. He had never experienced a day this hot before in his entire life. On his way back from Petunia's Potent Potions, Nathan had heard many people complaining and muttering about the incredibly searing temperatures outside. Apparently the Cyphermages up in their tower of research overlooking the city were all up in a tither about the issue as well.

He had traveled to his master's shop to tell Petunia about the recent events that had transpired. At first the woman was a little hesitant to believe his wild tale. Looking back now, Nathan wasn't surprised. Petunia wouldn't expect a quiet, shy man like himself to have killed three people and end up being hired by a former crimelord because of it.

But after he insisted over and over that the story was true, she eventually gave in. Petunia said she knew Nathan never had lied to her since the start of his apprenticeship, which was true. She then decided to add that if he was going to start lying to her now, he was smart enough to come up with a better fib than this.

Petunia was at first apprehensive about letting him go and work at the Gold Goblin under Vancaskerkin, with him being a former crimelord coming from a shady past, paired with the problem of Nathan himself losing time to work at his craft. But Nathan managed to convince her that the man wasn't dangerous, recounting back to her Vancaskerkin's less than brave actions during the fight against the robbers.

After a few ideas tossed back and forth, they eventually agreed on Nathan giving her a small share of his profits, and him working on his lessons during the weekends. Petunia knew the value of a couple of extra gold pieces in her pocket, and as soon as their exchange was over she shooed him off. But of course, only after giving Nathan a hearty breakfast, words of good luck, and an order to work hard for his new employer.

As Nathan entered the Gold Goblin, a blast of cold air hit him full on in the face, feeling surprisingly good on his overbaked skin. The mages up in the city's tower had drawn a shaky conclusion that the heat was being generated by some kind of magical disturbance above the city. It wasn't dangerous; it just had the unfortunate effect of making the air in and five miles around the city swelteringly hot.

Nathan guessed it was an accidental result of one of the Cyphermages' experiments on the Cyphergate, the huge, stone arch that loomed over the port entrance of the city. The structure had been there ever since the town was founded by a few choice rascals and scallywags, and most of the townsfolk living in Riddleport agreed with one another that it would remain there for thousands of years to come.

Without giving notice to anyone at the Gold Goblin, Nathan had left for Petunia's Potent Potions early in the morning. He hadn't wanted to cause any unnecessary trouble, and also wanted to avoid social confrontation with any of the other workers at the Gold Goblin. And sure enough, no one was there to stop him as he left the establishment at sunrise.

It seemed that everyone was up and working though at this time of day, dealers milling about and sultry waitresses hanging around the corners of the casino, giggling and whispering to one another in hushed voices. The robbery obviously hadn't given Vancaskerkin any pause in regards to getting on with business as usual. Starting to feel a bit nervous around all the strange people, Nathan's eyes skimmed the room until they rested on a welcome and familiar sight.

Leo was leaning up against one of the game tables and talking animatedly to a stout, short man. The small man had a bald head and a long, richly brown beard, his figure sturdy and robust. Is that… is that a dwarf?!

Not many dwarves were to be seen in Riddleport, as most preferred to stay in their underground city far to the east. The one in front of Nathan had on a plain, brown shirt and matching pants, but around his neck and trailing down his back was an elegantly crafted, green cape. As the stout figure turned and shifted, the cape shimmered, the sheen dancing around and impossibly hard for Nathan's eyes to follow. It was enchanted most likely, an item imbued with magical properties.

Laughing loudly at some joke, Leo's head happened to turn in Nathan's general direction. A grin lighting up over his stubble covered jaw, the cleric put his hands to either side of his mouth and yelled loudly, "Nathan! Come over here, I have someone for you to meet!"

Slightly embarrassed and feeling quite tiny as a result of the number of eyes on him, brought upon by Leo's shout, the apprentice alchemist quickly strolled over to the pair. The people around him quickly lost interest and slowly went back to their chatter.

Leo gestured excitedly towards the short man as he approached. "This is Larur Feldin, dwarf and the head of floor staff for the Gold Goblin."

At Nathan's blank look, Leo raised his eyebrows and tried again. "Nathan, he's our manager."

A vision of seeing the dwarf filling up the fireplace with wood alongside the girl Valentia flashed through Nathan's eyes. Suddenly thrust under the authority of the man's status, Nathan coughed and took a shaky bow.

"Oh! I- uh- it's… nice to meet you, sir." At this height he could see the dwarf clearly, able to see the lines of stress and experience layered across his manager's weathered face.

Larur laughed and grabbed Nathan by the shoulders. "No need for formalities, lad. I like t' know my workers personally, it helps make things easier if 'n when problems come about." Nathan refrained from asking what these 'problems' were.

Rising from his bow, Nathan gave an inquisitory look to the dwarf. "I… I thought Vancaskerkin was going to be our manager."

Leo shook his head and interjected before Larur could speak. "Vancaskerkin is only the front of the Gold Goblin, he does all the boring paperwork and behind the scenes jobs. Larur here is the important one that runs everything else."

The dwarf nodded and punched Leo in the arm. "Like I was gonna say before that overeager son 'f a dretch interrupted, I'm gonna be tha one who'll be helping and monitoring ya as ya work your jobs. Vancaskerkin told me about your real purpose in the Gold Goblin, so he's gonna be tha one taking care of that sort of business." Nathan didn't like the way the dwarf said 'that sort of business.' It made it seem… sinister.

But he did give an inwards sigh of relief. It wasn't that he was happy that Vancaskerkin wouldn't be his main manager. It was just that, in his mind, seeing less of the former crimelord was better than seeing more. And Larur seemed to be friendly enough, apparently quite chummy with Leo even after only a morning of knowing the upbeat cleric. Maybe he'd have another new companion by the end of the day.

"Now y' two are gonna be needin' jobs if you're workin' here!" The dwarf gave a pause and scratched his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "Hmm… well ta start off, I think I'm gonna have ya two be door greeters…"

Complete silence reigned over the two young men.

…Is he being serious?! Nathan was most definitely expecting a more… exciting job than being a door greeter. Even a little kid could do something like that. At parties, children usually do just that! An annoyed glance towards Leo revealed that he wasn't the only one here unsatisfied with their new posts.

At the pair's blank expressions Larur continued, entirely missing the reason behind their incredulous faces. "Y'know! Tha people who give out info about tha events in tha Gold Goblin, and a list of times n' stuff like that! Not ta mention givin' guests a warm welcome inta the building an'-"

Leo cut him off before the dwarf could finish what other mundane things they'd be doing. "C'mon Larur, don't stick us with a lousy job like that… I mean, smiling at strangers and giving them things to read?! Really?"

The cleric's spoken thoughts mirrored those of Nathan's. So, he decided to stay out of trying to persuade Larur to change their jobs. He knew he wouldn't be much of a help in that department. Not to mention he'd probably just muck up the situation further with his verbal skills.

Larur shook his head, as if the two missed the point completely. "No, no, no, ya don't understand. Ya're in a low-key job for a reason, ya couple o' dummies! When workin' for Vancaskerkin, being in a unassumin' job is important, people look right over ya. They won't recognize ya if there's been past conflicts between ya, who could be just about anybody, depending on what Vancaskerkin asks ya ta do. Sometimes henchies from other crimelords come ta play here, and if ya've attacked them before, and they see ya, there could be trouble."

It sounded sensible, and even smart. But there was one big problem in Larur's thinking. "But… if we're in the front area… just being door greeters won't protect us. They all can't look over us. It's not like we're invisible… we can still be attacked."

The dwarf just grinned, throwing his hands into the air. "Exactly! No one 'll suspect that two innocent employee's did anything wrong, and if he gives ya any trouble, the guy'll get kicked out. But from what I've heard.... he might be dead before I get there." Larur gave a knowing look two both of them. So he's heard of our bravery yesterday. Or should I say; Leo's bravery…

"Not ta mention you two'll have a scope of every guy n' gal who comes in, so ya two are kinda scouts in a way too. If ya see anyone that shouldn't be here, just tell me or Vancaskerkin." Nathan felt a bit better about his position after hearing Larur out. It was more in-depth than he had thought, and it was a good cover for their future operations under Vancaskerkin.

"Now ya'll be startin' tomorrow, an' ya-" The dwarf's instructions were abruptly shortened by a frenzied cook running into the room from kitchen doors on the left, panting heavily and obviously frightened. He ran up to Larur and collapsed to the ground, taking gasping breaths of air. "There's… you… need… there's a snake… in the kitchen! It bit the head chef!" Seemingly on cue, a woman's terrified scream pierced the stunned silence seconds after the cook's warning.

Before he knew what was happening, Nathan found himself running after Leo. The cleric had bolted towards the kitchen doors less than a second after the shriek reached their ears. He's unbelievably fast… and he jumped to the task without even knowing what the problem was. Just who is this guy? Somewhat disoriented, Nathan burst through the double swinging doors immediately after Leo, and stopped just as fast at the scene before him.

A girl with red hair lay on the kitchen floor in a small pool of her own scarlet blood. Nathan realized with a shock she was Valentia, the woman from Vancaskerkin's office the day before. She was weakly moaning, her eyes closed tight and her body unmoving. A huge, red snake was coiled and perched on top of the girl's body, reptilian eyes glaring at somehow both him and Leo at the same time. Nathan broke his gaze long enough to see that the kitchen had been evacuated, but returned it as soon as the snake gave a loud hiss.

No one came through the doors behind them to help, but that was probably for the best. A loud noise or sudden movement might give the snake enough cause to attack, and that was not needed at the moment. Especially with the fact that they were both only a good three feet in front of the ruby snake.

"Nathan," Leo whispered, obviously trying hard not to move, "…I left my swords in my room… do you have anything I can use to get that thing off her?"

Heart feeling like it was about to beat out of his chest with fear, Nathan swallowed and shook his head. His adrenaline soaked brain had quickly thought of the vials of acid he now owned, but it would have splashed on Valentia as well if he threw them. He didn't have any of the bottles on him anyways; they were all up in the sack sitting in his room.

The cleric let out a tiny sigh and nodded slowly. "Alright… gonna have to do this the old fashioned way…" Before Nathan could quietly ask what exactly that entailed, Leo lowered himself down a few inches to level with the swaying and hissing reptile then stopped.

A few tense moments passed, and then the man darted forward and lashed out with his arm, the snake's gaping maw moving equally fast towards the fist. There was a distinct crack and a sharp intake of breath from Leo, and the red snake fell unmoving to the floor.

Nathan stood frozen to the spot as he tried to comprehend what just happened. This cleric… he had rushed towards a snake as big as a child, bare handedly even, and beat it into submission without even a slightest sign of hesitation. He couldn't help but think to himself… was that bravery… or stupidity?

Taking a shaky step forward, Leo knelt to the ground and put his hands over the girl, mumbling quietly in the same musical timbre that he had spoken in when he was working on Nathan's shoulder. His hands began to glow with a soft, golden light, and the Valentia's eyes finally fluttered open. Slowly moving closer, Nathan could see two large puncture marks on the girl's wrist, clearly from a pair of reptilian fangs, and in a matter of seconds they closed up without leaving a mark on her pale skin.

"Wha… where am I?" She looked up at Leo, and then down to the dead snake, her eyes widening. "You… you saved me?"

Leo laughed quietly as Valentia sat up. "I would hardly say 'saved', all I did was punch some snake in its face."

The girl slowly shook her head in protest. "But you… you healed me, I could feel it!"

"That wasn't me. That was Cayden Cailean who was healed you. It was him who saved you, not me."

Clearly confused, Valentia shrugged and leapt towards Leo, giving him a big hug. "Well whoever saved me; you obviously played a part in it. So thank you Leo, for helping save my life."

Leo hugged the girl back, smiling warmly. "It was no problem, miss! No problem at all."

Nathan looked down and away, feeling awkward and a slight bit jealous. He knew he hadn't done anything in the fight and shouldn't be feeling this way. But it was hard, seeing warm moments like this. He had his rule about not getting close to people. He considered Petunia back at the shop his closest friend, but the middle-aged woman was really only his business partner.

He hadn't gotten close enough to someone to be able to just simply hug them like Leo and Valentia were doing for a long, long time. Ever since that single, horrible incident all those years ago…

Nathan had at first thought Leo was especially nice to him because he liked the apprentice alchemist, but the more people that they met, the more Nathan was realizing the cleric was nice to everyone. And nobody could like everyone, everywhere. An ugly thought wormed its way into Nathan's mind, both distressing and upsetting to the apprentice alchemist . Did Leo just fake niceness to some people, to the ones he didn't like? Could… was there the possibility he could be faking to Nathan?

Ignoring the boulder that promptly dropped into Nathan's stomach after that thought was difficult, but possible. After all, he wasn't friends with Leo, he wasn't close with him… and so it didn't really matter did it? Of course it didn't, because he wasn't getting closer to Vancaskerkin or Larur either. And he most definitely didn't feel the need to reassure the girl in front of him…

Only one thought settled in Nathan's mind after that. I'm such a liar.

Lost in his thoughts, Nathan didn't realize that Leo had gotten up with Valentia until the man tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Nathan. Don't you think there's something a little weird about this? Snakes as big as this," he gestured to the dead reptile lying on the floor, "don't just appear in kitchens at random. And after what happened yesterday?"

Nathan quickly came to the same conclusion as Leo. "It's definitely not a coincidence. Someone must have done this." Snakes weren't rare in the land around Riddleport, even ones as big as the one dead on the kitchen floor. They could easily be found in the surrounding forests and marshlands. But inside the city? That was next to impossible… unless someone had brought this one in from the surrounding wilds.

The pair turning to Valentia, Leo gave the girl a wary glance. "Did you see anyone come in here earlier? Anyone suspicious?"

She shook her head. "No, no one like that. It was just me and the other cooks. We were getting ready for today and one of the workers spotted the snake under the main oven. I went over to tell them it was nonsense and to get back to work, but it lashed out at me as I bent over to look for it. Next thing I knew…" She looked towards the cleric, clearly a bit bashful. "You were there."

Nathan looked away from the two, uncomfortable at the girl's affection towards Leo. Why? He had no idea. All he knew was that he was starting to dislike the woman's growing fondness of the cleric who had saved her.

Leo ignored her fervent stare, and turned to the apprentice alchemist. "It came from under the oven. Why don't we go and take a look?" Nodding, Nathan followed the cleric to the middle of the kitchen, but stopped a foot or two before the machine at a sudden thought. There still might be more of those snakes under there.

Noticing Nathan's apprehension, Leo reached up and grabbed his arm, pulling him down closer with a laugh. "Don't worry, if there's any more of those snakes, I won't let them getcha." The man gave Nathan a wink at the end of his sentence, one that only served to unsettle him more. A cold, but somewhat pleasant feeling washed through his body at the tone of the other man's voice.

The apprentice alchemist couldn't deny that he wanted to be friends with the cleric, but every time Leo did something nice for Nathan, his body would do something unexpected and somewhat unpleasant. His stomach would clench up tightly, his limbs would start to feel like gelatin, or his heart would begin beating uncomfortably fast. Was his very body trying to warn him about being friends with Leo?

Pushing his worried thoughts away, Nathan looked closer under the oven with the cleric. There wasn't anything there… except a small scrap of paper that looked out of place amongst the layer of dust covering the ground. "See? Told you! No snakes to be found. But this right here…" Leo reached in and grabbed the piece of paper, pulling it out from underneath the kitchen appliance and out into the open. Nathan and Valentia moved forward to see better as he unfolded the crumpled ball.

Drawn in a dark red substance, was a crude picture of a short, fat man with a hand missing. The other hand was a stump with a key attached to it. In small, scribbled words at the bottom of the paper was a message in the same maroon ink, one that said, "Looking to go two for two, Saul? Pack up, get out of town, and you'll be fine!" It was clear that the picture was of Vancaskerkin; and the message an apparent threat against him. Seemed the older man's fear that he was being targeted by someone was right on the dot.

Valentia backed up, her face ashen. "Someone's threatening Uncle Saul? I- I need to go warn him! I'm sorry!" With that said; the girl took off out of the kitchen and into the main room, greeted by what sounded like a chorus of questions and relieved exclamations. Nathan wondered if Vancaskerkin was there as well. He hadn't known that Valentia was the former crimelord's niece, but he supposed it wasn't surprising. Everyone had family.

"So Vancaskerkin was right. Someone really is trying to get him out of Riddleport. And they aren't going about it gently either." Leo was still staring at the picture, his face a twisted contortion of concern and wonder.

Nathan could now see that on the cleric's right hand there were two puncture marks, much what like the girl's arm had earlier. The hand was clenched tightly, evidently in pain. Had Leo been hiding his injury to stop them from knowing about it, and therefore worrying over it? Nathan kept silent, and decided not to bring the issue up.

Brave? Or stupid? Definitely brave. Definitely.

Stepping back, Nathan clasped his hands together, testing the waters. "So… based on that note… I'm guessing its gonna get a lot more dangerous from here on out, right?" Leo nodded, and the apprentice alchemist's heart sank. He didn't think he was ready for that degree of action just yet.

The cleric must have noticed his anxious expression. "But don't worry, Nathan." Leo was staring straight at Nathan, his eyes giving him a piercing yet somehow incredibly soft gaze. "Remember what I said before? I won't let anybody getcha."

Nathan's head whipped up faster than the snake's had moved just minutes earlier. He was surprised at the intimate tone of the statement, and at the way it made his body feel like it had been thrown into an ice cold lake. But yet again… the feeling was cold in a good way. What? Why would he say something like that?

Leo's expression turned to embarrassment as he quickly looked away and amended what he had said. "I mean… you're a bit inexperienced, and so I'll make sure you aren't injured if anything violent happens. Ya know. …Well, I'm gonna go check up with Vancaskerkin, so I'll catch you later?"

Without waiting for an answer, the cleric hurriedly departed the kitchen, leaving Nathan alone with his thoughts. He didn't know why… but Nathan felt like crying. Something had stirred deep of inside him when Leo had looked at him and said what he'd said. Then it felt like he was punched in the gut as the cleric clarified and made a hasty exit.

Why? Why was this one person making him feel like this? Wiping his eyes, Nathan gave an attempt to compose himself. He hadn't had any truly 'real' interactions with most people in years… and so the first one who was attempting to be friends with him was the one he was latching onto. It was logical. It made sense. His most likely awestruck facial expression had probably unsettled Leo for now, but Nathan was determined not to do something like that again.

Walking towards the doors leading into the main room of the Gold Goblin, Nathan steeled himself for the barrage of questions that were surely to come. He was slowly being drawn into things he had no idea how to get through, or how to handle. The criminals, the violence, and also Leo…

Though even through all that, Nathan had a small, but strong, feeling in his heart that he'd be okay. Something that said no matter what happened; he'd make it through alright in the end. Smiling, Nathan pushed open the swinging doors and made his way into the milling crowd of questioning employees.