AN: -does the happy dance- I have over 50 reviews! -dances some more- I love all my reviews and reviewers you all make me feel warm and fuzzy. Thanks so much!
(^_^) Thanks to my beta Hidden in white light(^_^)
Warnings for this chapter: Frau and Hariel in the same vicinity, Fan girls, tavern girls, and more.
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NOTE: As a celebration for getting over 52 reviews a very special event happens in this chapter! What is it you ask? Read and find out!
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Of Taverns and Evil Tavern Girls
Normally, Hariel loved animals, really he did, but nearly being eaten by wild bears a few times had considerably drained his 'I love animals' storage. Now, he was tempted to call the military to give them a tip about where he was just to get rid of the damn things. Bear meat was definitely not his favorite! Nope, not at all, especially after eating a freaking ton of it to get through the damn bear infestation.
He was selling the skins though. Hey, these skins would make great coats; he's made a killing. No animal rights activist here to ruin it for him. Damn it, these bears deserved it, they tried to eat him! He just wanted to be left alone. Stupid evil bears and their insatiable hunger. Why couldn't they eat someone else, like the military, or slavers, or the freaking dear he had to avoid hitting in his stolen Hawkzile every few miles. Next time, he was bringing Shuri to use as bear food.
Now, he had to find that port town, what the hell was it called again? Barts or something… Well, it couldn't be that hard to miss; it was a major port town between the fifth and sixth districts. Originally, the plan was to meet at some hotel, but apparently Teito got sick so now they were working off a debt at Tavern. Damn it! Now, he had to help them work off the debt. Something about Teito breaking a few things and having it added to their debt.
"Stupid kid, only Sirius's brat would manage to do something like that." Hariel murmured fondly, thinking of his godfather's son.
Damn, next time they met in the after life or in the in-between life, he was going to tease Sirius to no end that not only did he end up a king, but a dad too. It was his solemn duty, after all, to teach Teito to be the next generation of the Marauders. Too bad they didn't have Teddy with them; it would have been great.
That would never happen though, so there was no point on dwelling on it. Hariel noticed a cemetery, and figured he must be getting close to Barts. Where there are cemeteries, there usually is or was civilization near by. Hariel was right. Only another half hour of traveling led him to the edge of Barts. From the looks of things they were setting up for a festival. Now all he needed to do was find Teito and the pervert.
It took about fifteen minuets to find the right tavern in the port town. Once he found the right one, he walked up to the proprietress and asked about Frau and Teito… and was immediately sent into the employee area. The woman was gushing about how all this good-looking help would bring in even more money. She happily handed Hariel over to the tavern girls while she went to inform Frau and Teito of his arrival.
It wasn't long until the tavern girls descended. They were thrilled to have a new temporary worker there… More like they were thrilled at another potential dress up doll. While Frau, Teito and Capella were looking around for the 'missing' Hariel, he was being shoved into dress after dress, his hair being forced into various styles, before he managed to escape their evil clutches and get on a MALE waiters uniform, tie his hair back in a simple low pony tail, and hightail out of the room.
The first thing Hariel did, after hearing the evil tavern girls on his tail, was find Frau, then he did a very manly thing. He hid behind the taller man and watched the stampede of tavern girls turned fan girls run past. Hariel slumped in relief as the girls moved out of sight. Those girls were the purest of evil.
Looking up, Hariel noticed the look on Frau's face; it was a face he made when he was about to make a smart ass remark about someone, in this case Hariel. He decided to nip it in the bud this time and stomped hard on Frau's foot, effectively shutting him up about Hariel, as he was preoccupied with his throbbing foot.
"Hey guys, miss me?" Hariel questioned cheekily.
Teito's lip quivered and his eyes glistened with unshed tears as he launched himself on Hariel and refused to let go for several minutes. From What Hariel could decipher from his distressed mumbling, he had been certain Ayanami would have killed him, if not hurt him badly. Awkwardly, Hariel patted Teito's back reassuring him that he was fine, and the only thing that had been injured was his pride. Years later, Teito would swear he had heard Hariel mumbling about kittens and idiotic nobles. Even though he would never admit anything and questioned Teito's sanity when he brought it up for the rest of his life.
It was due to the tugging on his pants that Hariel looked down and came eye to eye with the absolutely adorable Capella. After a short explanation about how Capella came to be with them, Hariel had quickly taken to Capella and practically adopted the little kid as his little brother. It was only after the introduction that Hariel turned serious.
"So why did I need to come down here, and help you guys pay off a debt, hmm? Frau didn't cause this with his porn, did he?" Hariel asked, eyeing Frau suspiciously.
"Hey, why do you think it's my fault?" Frau yelled indignantly, glaring at Hariel.
"Because back at the church almost every mishap was your and doll-boys fault, that's why you two are evil! Evil, I tell you!" Hariel retorted loudly, giving the man a glare that would have made both Voldemort and Snape proud.
Frau and Hariel were in a vicious glaring match, sparks seemingly shooting ate each other from their eyes when the unexpected happened. A VERY angry girl came stomping up behind them and kicked Frau as hard as she was able to, yelling about perverts. That mostly went unnoticed though, as the kick to the back of Frau's knees caused him to pitch forward and his lips to crash into Hariel's causing them both to freeze at the accidental kiss.
Time seemed to freeze for everyone. Teito was flustered covering Capella's eyes with his hands. The angry tavern girl who was caused the kiss was flushed as well, her hands covering her mouth and her eyes shining with the light of a fan girl. Frau stood shocked his slightly chapped lips pressed against Hariel's velvety soft lips. Hariel was stunned, wide eyed, as the taller man unexpectedly kissed him. It took about a minute for a reaction to occur.
"PERVERT!" Hariel shouted with such force and volume that the tavern seemed to shake as he slapped Frau and kneed him in the crotch, a blush covering his pale features as he ran to hide his embarrassment.
Teito was yelling at Frau about corrupting Capella's innocence and dragging Capella away. The tavern girl was squealing a loud fan girl squeal as she ran off to tell her fellow fans about what she had witnessed and start coming up with theories about Frau's and Hariel's supposed romance. Frau was still stunned barely able to lift his hand to his cheek, hunched over in unrealized pain from the knee, where Hariel had slapped him before a small smile played across his face, his blue eyes lightening with emotion.
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Hariel was fuming. He was absolutely livid. Frau had kissed him. KISSED HIM! It hadn't been intentional, but it was the principle of the thing! The pervert has kissed him, in front of Teito, Capella, and a fan girl. Damn it! That was his first kiss with another male. He liked both sexes, of coarse, but men just floated his boat more. Plus, he had only kissed two other people. That disastrous kiss with Cho, which was a mistake, and a few chaste kisses with Ginny. Damn it! Frau had stolen his first kiss with a guy! Unintentional or not, Frau was gonna pay!
Hariel was not blushing! He hadn't enjoyed kissing the pervert! He wasn't embarrassed, damn it! He was angry! That's it he was angry because Frau had kissed him. He didn't find the man handsome, nope, not one bit. There was nothing handsome about the tall blonde… muscular, blue eyed, trouble making, gorgeous… what was he talking about again? Oh right! There was nothing appealing about Frau at all nope, not at all.
While he was fuming, he was busy getting ready for the night ahead, making bread, stocking up the tavern's bar with a selection of beers, wine. And various kegs of the homemade brew specified for this time of winter. He didn't have time to dwell on 'the incident' as he had dubbed it. The tavern would officially open in half an hour, and he still had some last minute cleaning and cooking to do.
An hour after opening found Hariel doing various jobs, from waiting tables to helping a certain pervert behind the bar. Luckily, he had quite a bit of knowledge on wine, beer, and liquor, thanks yet again to the Dursleys who had used him as a servant in multiple ways; one of those was not only cooking, but also preparing entire menus for their parties and gatherings. His time with the Oak family had further enlarged the knowledge. Plus, it being in a sink or swim situation, where his health was on the line helped his incentive to learn and retain everything he could, lest he get a beating for ineptitude.
The landlady was thrilled, to say in the least. Not only was he selling the food, but also when someone ordered it, he gave him or her four to five different wine and beer choices that would go along well with their meal. Not only had he earned glowing reviews, but the tips he had received were killer as well. Now if only the perverts in the tavern would stop making subtle and not so subtle passes at him everything would be perfect.
A few more hours into the night found him taking a break in the form of sitting with Teito and Capella peeling potatoes, well that was the case with him and Capella, Teito was butchering them. Somehow or another, they started talking about their families due to Teito commenting on their skills at pealing potatoes. Capella told about helping his mom with dinner and how he had ended up being sold. And Hariel, who luckily was sent by Labrador, the gist of what Castor had told Teito and Hakuren, said he had grown up being treated as a slave, and how later he found his godfather before loosing him shortly later on in the war.
It was only after that Hariel noticed Frau behind them. Hariel was surprised at the gentleness in the perverts voice as he asked Capella if he wanted to go searching for his mother. After a tearful agreement, Capella was carried off by some tavern girls to have some candy and Teito, Hariel and Frau got up to head back to work… or at least that had been the plan until the evil tavern girls grabbed him and Teito to drag them off to eat dinner. Hariel noted that Frau was asked to serve them instead of eat with them. Hariel had internally gloated at the dejected look on Frau's face for a few moments. He wasn't being vindictive about the accidental kiss, nope, not at all.
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Hariel was later watching Teito have a conversation with a ghost that no one else could see. How did Hariel know it was a ghost, and not Teito when the girl looked solid? Simple, Hariel's nymph powers allowed him to feel life energy around him. Every living thing had an energy Hariel could actively feel; yet this girl had none. He wondered what this girl was doing on this plane of existence. He was someone who suffered silently and hid his pain, so was this girl, he could read her as easily as if he were looking in a mirror. That poor girl was being forced to stay here. Sadly, he could do nothing.
Later that night found Hariel waiting up for Frau. He knew that as Zehel Frau was the only one with the power to set that poor girl's soul free from her imprisonment. Hariel also knew that Frau would deal with the perpetrator of such an evil act. To forcibly keep a dead soul chained to the land of the living was horrible, an abomination of nature. Such a thing would only cause harm, not only to the poor imprisoned soul, but to the living around the town as well, they would be unknowingly tainted by the evil that kept that poor girl there, causing them weakness in both body and spirit.
When Frau did appear, he looked sick from eating such a disgusting soul. Teito, unknowingly, nearly got himself eaten. Such a pure soul going near Frau after eating such a nasty evil soul, was temptation enough, add to the fact that the scythe wanted to eat Teito's soul as well… He was lucky Hariel was there to serve a well-aimed kick to the back of Frau's knee, sending him crashing into the wall. Hariel stepped forward, smiling at Teito.
"You go on and get the towels Teito, Frau had a bit too much to drink." Hariel said with as much distain as he could muster at the moment. Teito walked off, muttering about perverted drunken bishops leaving Hariel and Frau alone.
"The deed is done then?" Hariel asked in a neutral tone
Frau nodded and Hariel made to turn away from the blonde just as the man caught his arm. Hariel reluctantly came to a stop. Hariel would never admit it, but he was nervous about being alone around the man after their accidental kiss. They were volatile at the best of times; they really didn't need fuel added to the fire that was their friendship.
"The kiss earlier was an accident, you know." said Frau, looking at Hariel back.
Hariel nodded and turned to face Frau, not able to bring himself to say anything. He thought for once the man would leave it at that and not do anything thing stupid. He was wrong.
"I thoroughly enjoyed it and we should do it again some time!" The pervert said, leaning in for another kiss.
Hariel's eyebrow started to twitch. The following "PERVERT!" and loud crashing sounds were heard through out the town. When Teito came upon the scene of a heavily bruised Frau and a fuming Hariel, he for once really didn't want an explanation.
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Hariel retreated to his room, trying in vain to fight down his blush. Surely Frau had been teasing him and trying to rile him up? Well, if he was, he had certainly succeeded. It had taken him nearly half an hour to get his blush under control, and keep himself from blushing when thinking about what that pervert had said.
Hariel had the sneaking suspicion that being a pervert was contagious. He didn't like the man at all. Nope, not one bit. This blushing problem he was having was obviously the result of the pervert virus starting to spread. Not that he would tell anyone that. He didn't want them poking logic shaped holes in his theory. Nope it was quite obvious that Frau's perverseness was just contagious. With that in mind, Hariel waited until the others were done with their baths before waiting yet another hour for the hot water to replenish. He needed a long hot soak to calm his mind.
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After tomorrow, they would be leaving. Hariel would accompany Frau, Teito, and Capella a tiny bit of the way before splitting off to rejoin the Resistance. He was needed. He had gotten wind of a serious problem. There were several moles that had managed to make their way into the Resistance. They needed to be taken care of immediately; the entirety of the Resistance was in danger. The empire was scarily close to crushing them. As it was, they were going to have to disband and regroup in a different location all together. One mole had gotten into second ranking, if not moved up to the inner circle in his absence.
The times ahead were looking grim. With the capturing of Antwort, the last major free kingdom outside the empire was conquered. The empire had tightened their strangling hold on the world that much more. If the moles in the Resistance got too much information, or even the right information, it would lead to the complete collapse of the Resistance, everything would be ruined. The Resistance would not rise again and all would descend into darkness as the crushing iron fist of the empire tightened its hold on the world.
Hariel only hoped that Guren could hold things in order until he arrived. They were already on stand by to disband until recalled. No one but the top five tiers of the resistance was at the headquarters. It was the tiers the moles had infiltrated, as the moles in the lower ranks had been weeded out. Now all he had to do was decide who among the officer ranks was a traitor and who was loyal.
Hariel stepped out of the shower, his heart heavy, wrapping a towel around his waist. He would solve this problem even if it killed him.
Hariel couldn't help but snort silently to himself. He had been granted three wishes for this life, huh? He really couldn't help but wonder what the hell his three wishes were to cause him this much trouble. Then again, he may go by Hariel now but he was still Harry-bloody-Potter. Fate, it seemed, still loved him as its whipping boy, no matter what his name was.