* 81 * 3/5/13

Bishop sat in his room, having had enough of Duncan's prying. When he eventually realized he was revealing a lot of personal details to the damned barkeep, Bishop had given up drinking for the night, angry with himself for having a mouth almost as big as the tiefling's.

The last couple of nights had been odd for Bishop. He had kind of gotten used to Lily knocking on his door late at night, sometimes just wanting to talk. He remembered her expression when he gave her the cat, even recalled with a slight grin how she had left his room frustrated that one night not so long ago. That all seemed so insignificant now.

One thing was for sure: having gotten drunk today didn't do him any favors. He opened his mouth to Duncan, nearly had half the bar figure out what was going on, and now, he sat here in the chair he'd often sat in, thinking of her.

He chastised himself for it. She's gone, he told himself. But, to his surprise, thinking of it that way made him upset, restless.

Why am I being such a little pussy? he thought, though he tried not to think this too harshly. Being upset in general was to be expected after his thoughtless actions today.

Still, though, he was hardly in the mood to talk to anyone else. And there it was, a knock at his door, though he wasn't delusional enough to think it would be Lily.

Instead, it was...

"Bevil?" Bishop questioned when he opened the door. His tone was hardly inviting.

"I heard from Duncan that you were in here. Can I come in?"

What in the hell does this guy want? Bishop wondered. Bevil's goody-two-shoes act bothered the ranger.

Bishop wasn't feeling up to talking to Lily's former flame, whatever he had to say. "The hell do you want?" his words echoed his thoughts.

"It's about Lily," Bevil explained.

"Sure it is," the ranger replied brusquely, tilting his head back. "I'm not interested."

"Please, just hear me out." Bevil was about to ask again but, seeing the hostile glare Bishop gave him, just sighed and went on his way.

This won him a few meager brownie points with the ranger. At least he wasn't annoyingly persistent.

"What do you want?" Bishop called.

Enlivened, Bevil returned, and Bishop opened the door more, though, standing there stiffly, he gave the kid hardly enough room to pass through it.

He got straight to the point, much to the impatient ranger's relief. "I've hardly ever seen Lily like that before," he started.

"Like what?"

"Well... Sorry if this comes off the wrong way, but she didn't seem happy to see you at all."

Bishop rolled his eyes. So this was going to turn into a lecture.

"And at first I thought, 'Well, she's clearly mad at him'. It made perfect sense," Bevil reasoned. "But then, she talked to you. Though she was still obviously upset, she acted like nothing was wrong."

Bishop narrowed his eyes. This conversation was becoming slightly more to his interest. Why had this guy been paying so close attention, though?

To which Bevil answered: "I know it's not my business, but I just couldn't help but think of the only other time I've seen her act that way. It's really memorable."

"And when was that?" Bishop asked, purposefully making his tone harsh to hide his interest.

"Back in West Harbor, when we were younger. I was playing with this other girl Amie a lot. Lily didn't like it. When I thought about why she was being listless and figured out that was probably it, I went to face her."

Bevil shook his head, punctuating his reverie. "But when I told her I'd try to spend more time with her than with Amie, she gave me that look she gave you. That blank look. I asked her what was going on. For days, almost weeks, she wouldn't tell me. The whole time, she was acting like everything was fine, even though she was treating me very differently."

"Finally, she'd had enough of me asking, or maybe she just felt bad about it. She told me I had never needed to apologize, because it was her that was being stupid."

Bishop raised his eyebrows.

"Lily has an interesting relationship with jealousy. She told me she feels terrible and insecure for feeling it, because she wants me to do what I want, too, not just what she wants. She said she didn't want to have a say in what I did because she was normally happy just to let things unfold the way they unfold."

"I told her I understood her being jealous, and she took it as a strike to the heart. She cried and told me she felt like she didn't make any sense, being happy for me while still feeling upset. Until she could resolve what she felt toward me, though, she completely blanked when she thought of how to act around me and constantly considered whether to show her dismay or to hide it."

"What followed was one of the weirder parts of my childhood. Lily, a good friend of mine for a long time, pretty much blanked every time I got near her. She wasn't ever mean to me; it just was like none of our interactions meant anything to her. I was kind of a nobody in my best friend's eyes, and it hurt."

"I don't know how or why she got over it, but after a few months, she started laughing with me again. Tentatively at first, then for real." Bevil smiled.

"This may be totally unrelated to whatever is going on with you, but I know it's related to why she's acting that way now. Maybe it's not jealousy or another girl, but I don't think she knows what she's feeling right now about something, and she feels even more conflicted for not making any sense. And, to be honest, I told you in the hopes that it might make her stop. Her acting that way gives me the creeps from how sad it made me way back when."

Bishop hmphed. What kind of fairytale childhood did this guy have if something like that bothers him so much?

Then again, the ranger was hardly one to talk.

Bishop didn't want the kid to feel like he'd helped too much, but he also wanted to encourage him to talk if he knew anything else. He settled with a thoughtful but short "Hm."

"Lily's like a sister to me," Bevil finished.

Bishop laughed. "That's an interesting way to put it."

"Why?" Bevil asked, baffled. Catching sight of Bishop's oh-come-on expression, it was Bevil's turn to laugh.

"Oh." Bevil then gave a knowing smile. "You think I slept with her, don't you?" he inquired with humor.

The ranger blinked. Now his face was blank.

"Everyone does. I don't mind, really. That assumption at least makes people stop asking me when I'm going to get a girlfriend." Bevil thought for a moment. "We've never been anything more than friends. We were closest right when West Harbor was destroyed, but then I left for a while and we grew apart a little. It's nice to see her again. You know, alive." Bevil smiled sadly at the memory of his village.

Bishop said nothing, still focused on the first implication. Never slept with her? He almost couldn't believe it. At the very least, Bevil was much more tolerable now.

"Anyway, I think I'll get a drink. Haven't tried one since I've been here, actually; Kana's been keeping me outside the Keep recruiting people from all over." With that, Bevil got to his feet. "You wanna join me?"

"Nahh," Bishop answered, uncharacteristic disgust at the idea apparent on his face. He was sick of drinking...at least for a day or two.

"See ya, then," Bevil replied, exiting and leaving Bishop to his own thoughts again.

But to be honest, he didn't know what to make of pretty much any of it.