His eyes, ever watchful, swept across the crowd of people, paying close attention to the shadows, sills and alleys as he passed by. Not that most would realise just how watchful he was being. Because to the passers by, he was meandering through the streets and across the bridges, his head down like most others, as they stumbled and fumbled their way to their homes.

Some had woken up in another's bed that morning, with hangovers that made them feel like death. While others had woken in alleys, to look at their bruises and wonder just what had happened the night before. Yes, the celebration of the Unmasking was always a thoroughfare of revelry, excess and debauchery. He was steadily making his way to his home, as he surreptitiously moved his hand to his side, to others he was simply a man checking his coin purse was still in place, or he was adjusting his scarlet robes. In reality he was checking the placement of his dagger and ensuring that he could draw it easily at a moment's notice. He didn't think that his father would have sent men to his home yet, but he could not be sure and so he had to be prepared.

He wasn't planning to take much, just what he needed and nothing more. Arya had remained at her home, Needle once again pulled from her hidden encasement. He hadn't liked the idea of them separating, not at the moment. But she had assured him that should someone come for her, they would not best her. After all, he had been the one to train her personally, so surely he had more faith in himself than that? He hadn't really been able to disagree with her on that front, he had taught her very well after all. But even so, his protective nature was in full swing now, particularly when it came to her. He was Lorathi after all and by design they were a race of men who, as a matter of honour, protected their women to the bitter end.

But he was hauled from his thoughts by a whisper of something, just at the edge of his senses. As his head rose sharply to pinpoint the shift that he had sensed, he froze when he found Gara suddenly in front of him. Shit. His fathers right hand man. As Jaqen moved to draw his dagger, Gara coughed before his jaw fell lax a little, blood pooling in his mouth before it trickled down his chin. Then without warning he pitched forward. Jaqen, reflexively caught the fallen man's weight against himself. But as the now dead body of Gara slumped against Jaqen, it revealed a hair pin, driven into the base of Gara's neck, that he recognised immediately. Quickly pulling this free and slipping it into his pocket, he quirked his brow in interest and impressed, his eyes found the slight form of his wily woman. Her hair which was previously bound by said hair pin, now falling over her shoulder alluringly.

"Dear me!" She said loud enough to draw just enough attention to them, and with just enough annoyance inflected that those around took notice briefly to scoff and then moved on about their day. "Oh uncle! You always do this. You burden me and my husband with your drunken antics! And you wonder why aunt Nema left you!? Let's get you home." She bemoaned complete with an irritated shake of her head, for added effect before falling silent.

And it was in that moment that Jaqen felt both incredibly proud of his little woman, while equally concerned for the monster that he had clearly created by teaching her his ways. Then just like that, she slipped her arm around Gara's waist as if it was nothing, throwing his arm around her shoulders as well. Jaqen following her cue, copied her movements on Gara's other side. Making sure the man's head was bowed low, he and Arya quickly disappeared into a dark alley in the slums of the islet that they were currently on.

"Really, lovely girl? The pin? The hair pin that a man has gifted you?" Jaqen couldn't help but spit out in disbelief. That had been…well it had been particularly personal for him to see his harmless gift used in a manner that was anything but harmless. There was definitely something he had unintentionally knocked loose in her, with the amount of times that he'd put her on her pert backside, during training.

"If you didn't want me to use it like that? Then why gift it to me sharpened to a stabbing point? I could only conclude that you expected me to use it as a subtle dagger, should the need ever arise." She hissed in irritation, as they struggled to stuff Gara into a clearly disused and forgotten salt barrel. And Jaqen couldn't quite get his head around the fact that this was even happening right now.

He was helping his lover hide the evidence of her murder of his fathers right-hand. And they were chatting as if they were discussing the weather! It wasn't like he wasn't used to having casual conversation over a fresh corpse, Gods knew he'd had enough of them over the years. But this was different! Never had he had one with his lover, who not two hours previous, he had been spilling himself inside. Seven hells! They definitely did not prepare you for this particular scenario in training. But shock and horror aside, Jaqen had bigger worries, (well aside from the dead fucking body, but that was neither here nor there, really) such as why did it get him fired up!?

Why was he seriously contemplating the morality of taking her up against the wall, right beside the damnable death barrel!? Had he drunk too many of the Order's potions and elixirs that they had now addled his mind? Or perhaps he had always been mentally unstable and it was only now that the issue was presenting itself? He didn't know but what he did know is that he felt sick, angered, proud, elated, horny and horrified all at once. And for a Lorathi man who prided himself on his calm and collected composure? There were entirely too many big and complex emotions swirling around inside of him right now. Fuck but she was so damned frustrating! But God's, did he want to keep her even more now than he had this morning! But one thing at a time, he could untangle the labyrinth of his emotions later. For now he would focus on what he could control, which was answering her question.

"Or a man invites you to contemplate another view? A woman has long, thick and lustrous hair, so maybe a man thought that it would be better suited that way, so that it could hold her locks more securely?" He hissed back, giving her a look that clearly screamed 'Really? A weapon? That was your first thought?'. Before making sure that the barrel was well and truly sealed.

"Gods! You've reverted back to the speech of the faceless? I have found since, that you now only do that when we're in hot water. Who the fuck did I just kill Jaqen!?"

"Really? Now she asks a man whom she has killed!? Gods above and below!" Jaqen groaned out more to himself than to Arya, rubbing at his eyes in exasperation with one hand, his other falling to rest on his hip. But taking a deep, calming breath he answered her.

"Well, demon girl…" He began wearily, not missing how she bristled at the new nick name; "It feels needless that a man should say to a woman, that the water is now boiling over. A dead man's name is Gara and he is the right hand of this man's sire!" He finished, barking out an incredulous laugh.

Honestly, he felt as though he was teetering on the edge of sanity at the moment. He probably should really analyse whether this was truly who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. But to the hells with it, at least life wouldn't be boring!

"Well fuck! Why didn't you tell me before I killed him!?" Arya blurted out, her turn now to become slightly hysterical. Her voice rising in pitch in something akin to panic and he couldn't help to feel a somewhat sick feeling of relief that she seemed affected by her actions. But then her words finally registered fully and he levelled her with a look of deadpan disbelief, before he frowned and blew out a frustrated breath.

"Is a man to have foresight now, that a woman would expect him to be able to warn her before she severs another's spinal cord? When he only realises she is there and what she has done after he catches the corpse in broad daylight? I was unaware that a man could do this thing. He supposes he does learn something new every day." He replied, the sarcasm thick and full in his tone as he raised a brow in her direction.

"Well there's no need to be so snarky about it!" She muttered petulantly, more to herself than to him and he found, not for the first time in the past twenty minutes, that he may quite like to shake her. Either with his hands, or make it happen uncontrollably with his body. She was quite fetching in the throes of pleasure. Releasing a small growl of annoyance, he shook his head to clear his thoughts before he did something…regrettable.

"Or maybe a woman shouldn't go around stabbing blindly? Think twice, stab once. A woman did one of these things correctly and the other incorrectly. Can she guess which is which?" He asked sweetly tossing his hair over his shoulder haughtily, his tone so sickeningly sugary, that it made it clear that he was being sarcastic once again.

"And if a woman hadn't, then a man would have found himself as something akin to a morbid pin cushion! A side of gratitude with all that derision would be the polite thing to do at this point." She scoffed in mild offence, before spinning on her heel and heading towards the mouth of the alley.

Jaqen's eyes were rolling in his head before he could stop them in an outward expression of his internal feeling. This cursed woman, he thought once more before he sprinted to catch her shoulder and haul her ass back into the alley, right before she stepped out into the light again.

"Really?" He asked as if he was questioning her intelligence, which at this point he probably should. "We were just found by an extremely powerful member of the order, Arya! We cannot just walk out on the main streets!" He snapped, as he flicked her forehead in reprimand. But before she could retaliate, he spoke again. His tone serious and brooking no argument.

"Follow me, I know a path through the alleys. Once we get to my residence, I will gather what I need quickly. I also have an underground passage, unbeknownst to others, below my home that we can use that will let out to the docks. But before then, we need to take new faces. It's the only way we stand a chance of getting away from Braavos, now." He explained, before taking her hand in his and leading her back through the alley.

-X-

After a hair raising thirty minutes of tricky stealth, navigation and shadowed movements. He and Arya finally dropped down into his back garden from the high wall that surrounded the whole of the residence. Jaqen could see that Arya really wanted to take in and appreciate his home, but she knew that they did not have the time. Which was a shame because he had been wanting to take her on a tour of where he lived.

It was his pride and joy in many ways, he didn't keep many material possessions, it just was not his way. Having been raised in the order, some things had ended up sticking with him into his adulthood. And material objects or lack thereof was one of them. But he had indulged himself with his home and had turned it into a sanctuary for himself, where he could shed all of the rules, stipulations and traditions that had been forced upon him from when he was young. Here, in his home at least, he could just be and exist as himself. Not as a faceless man who was supposed to have no identity.

It was a villa, not too large or too small. It held three large bedrooms and boasted a kitchen with a panoramic window that gave an unobstructed view of the sea that surrounded Braavos. His living room was open and airy and held a small library that led off from it. The main dining space was an open air area that was accessed from a wide, arched doorway leading out from the kitchen. The dining area held a roof and two half walls on the right and left of the area. But he also kept a small, every day dining nook inside of the kitchen for when he wasn't entertaining or when the weather didn't allow for outside dining. Wrapping around the rest of the home, was a stone veranda that provided ample, sheltered seating options.

The walls that surround his home and gardens were tall enough to provide ample privacy, but not so much that you risked serious injury if you jumped down from them, or indeed fell. Depending on the situation. The only access point aside from scaling the wall, was in the form of a large, curved, decorative wood and iron reinforced gate that had to be opened from the inside. He knew that Arya was dying to ask him how the hell he had afforded this. But she wouldn't. Not now anyway. And although he had been truthful with her this morning about his most basic origins and family history, he had not in fact told her everything about him and his family. Not yet. It would come as he did not plan to hide it from her, but just like this morning, now was most definitely not the time. It was a long journey to the Summer Isles, so he would have plenty of time then to share all of himself with her.

"Come, Arya. I need your help. We need to be swift. It's likely my father has now figured out that something is amiss, given Gara has not returned to him yet." He said, ushering her to follow him, feeling relieved as she did as he bid without complaint.

Leading her through the arch doorway to the kitchen, he quickly made his way to the main entrance hall and headed up the wide staircase that sat in the middle of the foyer. He could hear as Arya continued to diligently follow him, they didn't speak but that was ok because he was mentally running through what he needed to pack up. Thankfully everything was in the master bedroom. His bedroom. A bedroom that he hadn't wanted to admit Arya into in this manner. He had wanted to lead her in here for good and happy reasons, not in a desperate attempt to escape a city that was crawling with the faceless. He had hoped that her first time here with him would have involved love making and then settling down to sleep the rest of the evening away in one another's arms as a fire blazed inside of the mantle. But plans rarely worked out the way you wanted them to and so was the case for he and Arya.

"It's a shame that we never got to spend any time here together, Jaqen. You truly do have a lovely and welcoming home. It feels…safe. Warm. The kind of place that would be perfect to start a life in together." Arya spoke softly, startling him because he wasn't expecting her to speak. But he also felt his heart seize in his chest, when he heard the wistful notes in her words.

"That had been part of my plans, lovely girl. To have us live with one another here, if we decided we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. But, maybe if we can sort out this horrendous mess, we may yet still return. Until then, we will make a home wherever we lay our heads in the Summer Isles." He replied equally as softly, letting her hear that he felt the exact same way as she did.

A silence fell between them then, one wrought with uncertainty and a sense of bittersweet longing. Between them both they could see clearly, the potential of this place and them within it. But to know that it was inaccessible to them for an indefinite period, tinged the moment with a strange sadness that neither could really explain or understand. Jaqen saw as Arya's head whipped to the side, her ear pointing towards the open bedroom door. She seemed confused about something before an odd expression of realisation crossed her features, before she shook her head and looked back at him, although her eyes seemed dulled with a deep moroseness that he desperately wanted to ask her about but knew now wasn't the time. It hadn't been something he needed to worry about for the moment, because as soon as he had seen her movement, he had focused his ears on their surroundings, just in case she had thought she'd heard someone entering the house but he could hear nothing out of the ordinary.

"Yes well…we can only hope that we will return. For now, what are some things that you need? Tell me and I'll start gathering it, while you gather the rest." She asked and he'd known that he'd lost the moment to ask anyway.

So focusing on the present he listed a few things he needed and where he kept them in the room. As Arya took to her task, he turned towards his own. They needed to leave. Now. They could not dally any longer.

-X-

Arya and Jaqen collapsed, exhausted, onto the bed in their assigned room aboard a ship bound for the Summer Isles. They had specifically chosen this ship, because it was one from the Summer Isles and captained by a Summer Isle national. They had changed their faces, their names and their clothing.

Arya was now a red-haired, green eyed woman of average appearance called Alyna, while Jaqen was now a black haired, brown eyed man of nondescript nature and named Titus. Which was exactly as they wanted it. They wanted to be utterly forgettable to anyone and everyone that they met aboard the ship. The back story they had created as they traversed the rat way below his home, was a simple and believable one because it was one very close to the truth. A young couple (which they were), star-struck in love (possibly, he hadn't figured this out just yet), unmarried (truth) and expecting a child out of wedlock (untrue for now but may change later given their…activities of late), escaping from their families who strove to drive them apart (half-truth because it was just his family). It was a story heard often enough in Braavos and one that would garner much more sympathy and understanding from a Summer Isles citizen. Given the island's stance on sex and relationships in general.

It really was no surprise that a place that worshipped a goddess with sixteen breasts and used sex as a sacred temple ritual. Where prowess dictated if you became a priestess or priest of that temple, would not judge a pair of young lovers who had conceived out of wedlock. Moreover, they would be rather eager to help them escape the 'suffocating prudishness of their lands', an actual quote from the Captain himself, so that they could be together freely and raise their new child in peace.

Jaqen, although relieved that they had made it, did not take a full breath until the ship lurched to the side as the last of the anchor chains were locked down and the ship began to move off from the dock. As they set sail, he sat up and shed his new face. He and Arya had agreed that while they were tucked away in their room, they would wear their proper faces. Neither had liked having to hide themselves from the other. They would put the new faces on, any time they left their room to walk the decks of the ship or get some fresh air. But their plan was to confine themselves to their room for the most part.

They would keep their heads down and not cause any drama or trouble. They would be the perfect guests and when they disembarked, within a day or two? All of the shipmates would have forgotten about them as they would blend into the sea of passengers that all ships saw as they traversed the different trade routes around the world. Their confinement to their rooms wouldn't raise too much suspicion. They were runaways after all and with their story, it would probably just be assumed that they were spending their time in bed together. Which, actually, wasn't too far from the truth. Jaqen had every intention of using the time they had here, to keep a certain princess below him. For now they could afford a breather and to enjoy one another. While this ship sailed? They were unreachable. They would need to shield themselves again, for a while after they reached the isles. But until then.

"Remove the disguise, m'lady. For a man wishes to see you as you are, while he has you." He requested gruffly and watched Arya shudder as goosebumps erupted across the skin that was visible to him.

"A man is aware that too much of a good thing is bad for his health, yes? Knowing this, is he sure he wants a woman again? She fears he may grow bored of her and the novelty then leave her bereft." She asked coyly, shedding her disguise as he requested and he smirked darkly.

"A man is quite sure that he could have a woman for a thousand nights in a row, and still crave her for a thousand more. Assuage your fears dearest one, for a man is yours alone, as long as you want him." He replied without hesitation, before he leaned over and gripped her ankle, hauling her across the bed towards him.

The sounds of her tinkling laughter filling their small, cosy cabin was enough to make it clear to him that her half-hearted protests to his actions were hollow. And if there had still been any doubt? It was soon cut down in the face of Arya pulling him down on top of her, before she claimed his lips for her own. But as they fell into their new rhythm with one another, Jaqen took note of the warning voice in his head. As much as he wanted to live within her while they made their way to the Summer Isles, they were not safe and they could not constantly risk a pregnancy occurring. They still had too much uncertainty and danger for that. But even without all of that? He and Arya were still very new to one another in this way, and so a pregnancy wouldn't be good in general. Not now. Not so soon.

So as much as it pained him, because he showed a good portion of his feelings through actions like this? He knew that he could easily throw caution to the wind with Arya and then before they would know it? He would have her in the family way. So yes, as much as he disliked it? He would need to keep his hands (and other parts of his anatomy) to himself for the most part during this journey. Once they hit dry land once more, they would be able to go to an apothecary and get an elixir that Arya could take to control her ability to conceive. And the Summer Isles had the best and most effective elixirs for that very purpose.

-X-