A/N: Thank you for reading and for the reviews! I will try to get some more Brath/Amy stuff in soon.

…-….

Hell has officially frozen over.

I hugged Nicolas today.

I mean, he's still such a jerk and I still can't stand him, but…

Let me back up.

What's that saying? The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes?

I'd been fishing for a few hours on my nth day in Moonglade when I heard a soft rustle of the grass behind me. It was too heavy a sound to be the occasional deer or rabbit. The wildlife here may have been used to the druids, but when I first came, nothing would come near me. It sort of fueled my 'I'm really evil and never realized it' notion for a while. Slowly though, the rabbits and whatnot took to grazing nearby. They don't let me touch them—they are wild—but they don't mind my presence anymore. I can't tell you how much better that made me feel. I mean, animals can sense bad stuff, or something like that. Maybe. I think.

Anyway, so I've gotten used to the quiet sounds a forest makes, the way the boughs move in the wind, the way bugs make little chirpy noises, the way animals graze. I get why the night elves and other druids love it so much here. It's really calming.

Anyway, I knew the sound was too heavy to be an animal and it was also too heavy to be one of the barefooted elves. That left person, be it stranger or not.

I didn't bother to look because I figured they'd make themselves known soon enough, be it with a word or a blade. I suppose I'm lucky that it was with a word, huh?

Or rather, a question.

"Mind if I join you?"

I watched my bobber as it rested lazily on the lake's surface and shrugged. I knew the voice. It was one I'd sort of prayed I'd never hear again. So much for the power of prayer. I ignored the voice, hoping that maybe I'd just lost my mind and perhaps no one was really there after all.

It was another moment full of rustling cloth and crinkling leather before I saw a pair of human feet slip into the water beside me and then a line whooshed through the air and a second fishing bobber joined mine.

I kept my gaze straight ahead, occasionally tugging the line as I waited for a fish to bite.

"There were three search parties for you before those druids realized you were the one who'd taken their message."

I kept my gaze on the water. At a glance, the surface looked still, but I'd learned where to look to see the occasional blip from a fish coming up for air or where most of the water bugs skittered around near the more shaded parts of the bank.

"I came by before, but Dargon told me that you weren't well enough for visitors."

I tried to match the name to a face, but I couldn't remember him.

"He's the elf you give fish to every day." When I didn't respond, I heard a sigh. "Amy, I know what you did."

I closed my eyes slowly and took in a breath before turning to look at Nicolas. I'd rather expected to see him with one of his unreadable expressions, but instead, his guard was down. He looked exasperated…and maybe a little disappointed. Or maybe that was just in my mind.

Frowning, I turned my attention back to my bobber. "Just what did I do?"

Silence settled back over us and for a moment I wondered if perhaps I ought to act indignant or something, but then, I'm supposed to think Greg is dead, right? So I wouldn't know to be offended that Nicolas was implying I'd helped him escape.

However, even as I wondered if there was a way to tell him off without confirming his suspicions, he leaned against his knees, chin cupped in one hand as the other let his fishing pole dip down into the water.

"When I was a child, my family was killed by orcs," he began suddenly in a calm voice. The break in the silence startled me so that I nearly dropped my fishing pole, but he ignored me and kept talking. "I had to steal to survive and eventually I was caught by the guard. I was certain that they were going to ship me off somewhere horrible, but instead, they handed me over to the SI," I had no clue what that was, but somehow it didn't seem appropriate to interrupt him, "and they began my formal training to be a rogue."

He straightened up and stretched his shoulders slowly. "When I was fifteen, I was given my first mark." His voice faded away and for a second I thought that maybe the trip down memory lane had ended. After all, this was Nicolas. I didn't really want to be talking to him and I didn't see a point in listening to some childhood story. However, when I looked at him, I could see this echo of an emotion in his eyes and it dawned on me that he was gathering the strength to even tell me this.

"Prior to then, I'd just slipped into houses, gathered documents for my superiors, eavesdropped on important meetings, that sort of thing. I'd thought that was all it meant to be a rogue and I was happy to have found my calling." He leaned against his knees again. "And then I got my mark."

"It was an important one. She was working with VanCleef and the Defias and my superiors told me it was crucial that the information she was carrying be intercepted. And I was to leave no trace of it. I didn't even realize what they were telling me to do until they said to make it look like an accident." Nicolas' lips twitched as though to force a smile, though he seemed to realize what he was doing and just let his face fall back into a frown.

I couldn't stand it. "Just because you can kill someone doesn't mean everyone can—"

"I never killed her," He interrupted my all but direct confession. Regardless that it must have confirmed his beliefs, it didn't even register to me that I'd just condemned myself. However, instead of holding it over me or even slitting my throat for my betrayal, he simply shook his head. "No, I didn't think that taking a life would be right. So I didn't kill her. I burned her house down with every scrap of paper I'd found in it, even though none of them had been particularly damning." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I saw her watching her house fall in on itself, but decided I'd done a good job. That she would think twice about turning her back on the crown again." He hesitated, head bent down. "It wasn't until I reported back to my superiors that I learned the information I was to destroy wasn't on a piece of parchment, but in her head."

I fish mouthed, not knowing what to say. I mean, for a breath, I even forgot it was Nicolas I was talking to. I felt bad for him.

I guess the silence was too much for him, because he abruptly gave me an annoyed look. "My point is that people died because I didn't do my job and let her relay that information. Innocent people died because of me." He straightened up in his seat and motioned toward me. "And now innocent people are going to die because of you."

I felt a knot form in my stomach as I clenched my teeth. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Nothing, would have been ideal," Nicolas muttered. "However, I'm not here to damn you. I'm here to make sure you understand for the future: every action has a consequence. You should make sure you can live with what comes from what you do."

Damn him and his logic. What did he think I'd been beating myself up over since I'd come out here? Did he think I didn't care about the people I'd endangered? I glared out at my bobber, suddenly wishing that I were anywhere else. It would figure he'd come to ruin my haven. "I didn't think he could really be that bad of a person."

"I didn't think she could have been, either," Nicolas said softly and I hated that we had such a clear parallel in lapses of judgment.

"But he was my brother and—"

"And if you saw him again," Nicolas held up a hand as I tried to protest that I wouldn't. "I'm not asking that you be the one who lands the killing blow, but would you at least stand back and let others do what needs to be done? Let me do what needs to be done?"

I swallowed slowly. I didn't know what to say. I mean, I knew what I should say: Yes. But then, I can't get all the times we shared together as a kid out of my head. He may be horrible, but somehow, he'll still always be my Greg.

"If we find him again, don't tell me, okay?" I finally whispered.

Nicolas reached out and tousled my hair. "I don't plan to."

So, okay. I know that everyone has their own story. What's that saying? …I know I've been relying on those a lot lately—at least, it seems like a lot—but, I don't know, maybe it's my way of clinging to my culture. Anyway, I heard somewhere that everyone is their own main character. I'm not sure why, but as I was sitting there, getting lectured by Azeroth's greatest rogue, it occurred to me that I'm just a side character in a lot of people's stories. Like as awful as I may think some things I've done are—and some of them really may be awful—they're not as important or they don't have as much of an impact as I thought they would. Like, I was sure that everyone would hate me for helping Greg and that I'd never be able to face any of them again. Yet here was Nicolas…

I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I realized that Nicolas wasn't just some annoyance. He was his own man. I was probably little more than a pest to him, too, yet instead of squashing me, as I'm pretty sure he originally intended to, he was offering me comfort. That I wasn't the only one to screw stuff up from time to time.

I don't know if I'm making a lot of sense, but even as I tried to understand it all myself, he reached out and jerked my fishing pole out of my hands. "You're gonna lose your damned pole." Something was jerking against the line pretty hard and I realized that if he hadn't grabbed it when he did, my fishing pole would've shot out of my hands and into the depths. Not that it would have taken much to replace, but I think he was looking for a way out of the awkwardness that had settled over us.

He twisted the pole once to the side and reeled in a fish that I'd never seen before. I'd thought my foot long trout were pretty awesome, but it turns out I was just catching the runts or whatever. As he handed back my fishing pole, he held up the fish, rising to his feet and trotting back a few yards to where he'd left his bags. "Now then, let's swing by the inn to gather your belongings and we'll head back to New York."

Was he serious?

I stared at his back. He was in a loose shirt—apparently he hadn't bothered with armor to come fetch me. Or maybe he just needed a break from having to walk in all that heavy gear? It was sleeveless and I could see his muscles under his skin, moving with a certain grace as he rustled through his pack and pulled out a small knife to gut the fish.

I kind of abruptly realized that he was handsome.

It wasn't like I wanted to jump his bones or anything, but…I don't know. Before that, I'd been too busy hating him to really see him.

Before either of us knew what was happening, I'd strode after him, my toes leaving water droplets on the grass, and I hugged him. I think he was surprised, but he just patted my head and then told me that I was lucky he hadn't instinctively knifed me. Even though his comment was no less snarky than usual, it had a strange comfort to it.

When I let him go, though, I was worried. "Would it really be smart for me to go back?"

He let out a half laugh. However, when he realized I was serious, he arched an eyebrow. "You may still need to work on your grip on your weapons and you may need to learn to lie better and move faster," for once I didn't take his words as needless cruelty and I listened as he continued, "but you do realize how important you are to your world, don't you? You're the girl who crossed dimensions to save it. Even if you never down another demon in your life, just standing on the frontlines is an incredible boost for morale. Just knowing that you are still out there, fighting the good fight, inspires others from your world." He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head. "It's a pity you have such a spot light upon you. You might have made a decent rogue someday."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

However, even as he ordered me off to get my things—which was still annoying, but somehow not nearly as much as it would have been, even ten minutes before—he called after me. "Even if you weren't an icon for your people, I'd still have come to get you."

When I paused, genuinely surprised, he gave me a half grin. "If someone doesn't bring you back soon, that dragon of yours is going to tear your world apart before the demons can."