* 79 * 3/5/13

Neeshka had left the tavern, giving up on trying to get Bishop to talk. He wouldn't, especially not to her. He knew how much of a gossiper she was; she could never keep her big blabbermouth shut.

"What was that about?" Duncan asked.

Ever.

"Does it even matter?" the ranger returned with tangible irritation. The other drunks had gone back to minding their own business in the relative silence after the loudmouth was gone. Duncan hadn't wanted to ask Bishop about anything until they had turned their attention away.

"Lily doesn't seem like the type to outright ignore anyone," Duncan added.

Bishop couldn't help feeling his irritation pulse again. "I know," he snapped. There was that tinge of something in his voice again. Duncan had only heard that tone one other time with Bishop. When was that? He racked his brain, but just couldn't remember for the life of him.

"But she's not ignoring me," Bishop suddenly corrected him, much to Duncan's surprise. After a few more moments of silence, he continued, "I'd half expect her to, but instead she's acting like everything's fine. It doesn't make any sense."

The fighter barkeeper couldn't believe his ears. Bishop was actually talking about what ailed him.

This is too...odd, for him. I don't understand it. Unless... A thought occurred to Duncan suddenly, and his mouth almost fell straight open. Does he...fancy her? he considered, completely bewildered. Is such a thing even possible for Bishop? With even just the thought, Duncan was beginning to see the ranger in an entirely new light.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to sound as undemanding as possible. If he was honest, though, he was now terribly curious. The moody ranger he himself had forced to join the group when Shandra first went missing had perhaps fallen for the group's leader, and Daeghun's own adoptive child. That would be, to say the absolute least, a very unexpected turn of events.

Bishop took a drink, and Duncan eyed him. He could tell the ranger was throwing back a lot, even for his normal standards. The secretive Bishop would never let any of these personal details out otherwise.

After a few moments, Bishop put down his tankard and answered: "She saw me fooling around with Elanee." It was almost nonchalant. Almost. Once more, the extra flavor in his voice was there.

You sure do have a thing for elves. The barkeeper almost chuckled, but he stopped himself, knowing that that would more than likely set Bishop off and make him keep his mouth shut about any more information.

But Duncan grew serious once more when he considered the severity of the situation. What Bishop mentioned didn't sound like the sort of thing someone could bounce back from quickly.

"Do you care about Elanee?"

"No!" Bishop almost shouted, drawing attention his way again. He waited for heads to turn back away from him before continuing in a low voice, "That treehugger can screw any one of these drunks for all I care."

"Then why did you do it?" Duncan ventured.

"Because I..." Bishop started with haste, but he caught himself just as quickly. He wasn't drunk enough to let that much out.

Duncan understood nonetheless. He thought he wrapped his head around the situation pretty well, in fact. Knowing what he knew about the ranger, the barkeeper assumed that the egotistical, hardened Bishop couldn't allow himself to give into his intense attraction to Lily, and he had needed to feel detached and in control of himself again. What better way to do that than to spend the night with a woman he didn't care about, just like he used to?

And at that moment, Duncan realized what that extra tinge in Bishop's voice had been, a sound he'd heard from the ranger only once before, a long time ago.

Guilt.