Red and White Rabbits

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Phoenix landed hard after jumping from the cart, in that obscure way where you hit the floor but the world just seems to... keep moving for a moment, making the dizzy and nauseous feeling that usually goes with smacking into the ground at speed twice as bad. It was only a few seconds in reality, but it seemed to stretch into eternity, sucking the sound out of the air as he skidded away into the undergrowth, eventually stopping, beaten and bruised and incredibly dizzy, amongst the rough twigs and stony ground. He was aware, vaguely, that a cut had opened up on his forehead, the cap he'd been wearing had disappeared long ago and he had a bloody nose, but the rest of the damage had yet to have been surveyed by him. He was fairly confident that the cart would continue to trundle on its way even without them in it, but he was clutched abruptly by the cold panic that Rory might not have been able to jump from the thing in the first place.

Sound suddenly returned to the world. Phoenix cautiously shuffled to his knees, which, like his elbows and his hands, were grazed and bloody, though he barely noticed. They had landed in a small enbankment just beyond the dark road they'd been travelling down, and the fact that the Grand Mountain Range was so close had made the ground gravelly and sharp, to say the least. "Rory..." he muttered, not trusting himself to move yet, in case she didn't appear at all. He waited breathlessly, not daring to speak, when the tell-tale rustling and scraping sounds from a few metres to his right made her leap from the cart obvious to him. Oh, Gods, he hoped she hadn't hurt herself too badly. The thief, holding his breath, scrambled through the undergrowth and over shrubs and other such things until he finally found her.

He winced as he noticed the bump on her head, taking a second to wipe the blood from his nose before half crawling next to her, tugging the rough shrubs more closely around them so that they were better covered by the foliage and less likely to be spotted. He was lying beside her now, almost hovering over her and brushing her hair from her face as if to make certain that she was alright, albeit banged up. She looked dizzy, that was for certain, but she was alive, at least.

"Thanks for doin' that..." he whispered to her, only inches away from her face when the thundering of hoof-beats reverberated across the ground, signalling that the band of guards and the cart-drivers were getting close by, and would soon be passing them. He instantly moved to hide them, tugging her down and slipping his arms around her to hide her face in his shoulder before tilting his head down as well and shutting his eyes firmly, as though they'd never be caught if he couldn't see their captors.

It seemed to take forever for them to actually pass by; the hoof-beats got steadily louder until all at once the shouting, outraged group rumbled by them, sounding close enough to spot them instantly and shout out that they were there, and they were criminals and should be hanged and all manner of other things. But they simply continued on down the road after the runaway cart, which they had obviously not realised was runaway just yet. Phoenix was quiet for a long time after the sound of the horses had faded away, as if he couldn't believe it. Eventually he looked up, and slowly sat up from where he had been practically shielding Rory, not noticing the blood trickling down his cheek from the cut on his forehead as he looked around. "We made it..." he mumbled, "They should be occupied for a little while. Let's go..."

[Angel ♥]

Rory was, quite clearly, in shock. She hadn't moved a muscle since she had come to a stop, as though worried that if she moved she would find some serious injury. Maybe one of her legs would be broken, or an arm. For now she was content to just lay staring up at the stars which twinkled above them, attempting to ignore her pain. If she just laid there and stared she could pretend that nothing existed but the stars, and in a strange way that numbed her brain, as though her mind was doing as she wanted and shutting out the pain, concentrating on only what she could see. Then again, her mind wasn't working properly yet either, it had been shook around so much that her thoughts were jumbled up.

Then Phoenix appeared, and for a moment everything was alright. A smile even played over her features as she looked up at him, the dazed look in her eyes telling that she hadn't gathered her thoughts together yet. Phoenix was there, so that meant that everything was going to be alright, right?

This brief period of calm in her mind didn't last for long. As soon as she moved the pain burst into life again, seeming to have doubled. Everywhere hurt. She had been lucky to have the coat or she would have been even more battered, but as it was she had escaped with a body full of bruises and grazes. Her head hurt the worst though, though the skin wasn't broken it was already starting to bruise and throb painfully, meaning that she hadn't even noticed the nasty graze on her cheek yet. Rory had barely registered where all of her own limbs were, nevermind trying to work out where exactly she hurt.

Her arms moved around him as he moved her, the Princess practically clinging to him. She wasn't sure if she had been trembling before, but she definatly was now, shaking all over as she hid her face in the crook of his neck, pressing her eyes closed. Marmosia was supposed to be safe, so why were they hiding amongst the undergrowth, battered and bruised, while the guards thundered past? It was all just too much, and before she could stop herself she was crying. She was exhausted, a million miles away from anywhere she could ever call home, she hurt everywhere, Phoenix was all bloody (she hadn't yet dared to check how badly hurt he was, she feared the worst), she had lost her hat...and they were curling up in some ditch hoping the the guards wouldn't see them.

Rory was very reluctant to move, not releasing Phoenix as he sat up, moving ever so slightly to peek up at him. She was in half a mind to just refuse to go anywhere until the world decided to be nice to them, but if she waited for something like that then she would probably be sat there a long time...but still...she just couldn't summon up the motivation to move, she blamed it on the bump to her head clouding her judgement. "You're bleeding, Phoenix." She whispered, reaching to touch her fingertips to the blood on his cheek, not even attempting to hide the fact that her own cheeks were wet with tears.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

If anything could have made Phoenix feel any worse then it was seeing her cry. He knew that they really only had a limited amount of time to get away from the trail and on to a different road before the guards and the cart drivers figured out that the cart was empty and backtracked to go after them, but he really couldn't find it in himself to drag them off on some new horror, not when she was obviously feeling so miserable right now. "Rory..." he murmured softly, reaching up to take her hand, not even noticing that he was bleeding, the thief frowning as he reached out to wipe her tears away, sighing heavily. He didn't even think about it as he leant forwards to put his arms around her again, stroking her hair and glancing bleakly into the darkness around them, as if trying to search for something that would make this all better.

"Don't cry, alright..." he murmured quietly, "We're okay. We made it, we just have to go a little farther and we'll find a safe place to stay." he whispered to her, eventually shifting to lift her into his arms and rise shakily to his feet; everything ached, he had grazes galore and his ankle hurt when he put weight on it, but he wasn't even thinking about that as he strode off down into the undergrowth with Rory in his arms, eyes scanning the trees for any light or a signal that there would be a road or (God forbid) a village somewhere nearby. The mountains were so close here they were oppressive, and Phoenix was silent as he picked his way through the shadows down through the shrubs and bushes and other such foliage. Eventually he came to a road which must have been parallel to the one they'd left, but just as well used.

There were twinkling lights in the distance. He wasn't sure what it was, a town or a city, but he guessed that it would be a mining community judging by the closeness of the mountains. Without even thinking about how far away it was or how long it would take him to walk there, or whether he would even hold out until then, Phoenix began trailing along towards the lights.

It took an hour or so, he guessed, before the twinkling lights actually began to take any kind of relevant shape, and thus far they appeared to have been lucky, because not even a cart had passed them by, let alone the band of guards that had been pursuing them. He had realised as they had walked that they'd left their bags on the cart, and so his spirits had sunk about as low as they could go at the moment. It wasn't so bad, because most of the things of sentimental value were in his waist coat, but his extra lock picks, and extra money, and that all important letter he'd taken with him was in the bag, and now it was gone. It wasn't as if he could read the letter, but he'd still kept it. The lights in question had turned out to be a small mining town on the apex of a main route along the Grand Mountain Range, so it was pretty busy. Not that Phoenix cared.

His arms had long fallen asleep since they started walking, and it was reluctantly that he finally put Rory down, unable to carry her any more. He took her hand instead and, without a word, began to walk towards a lit up tavern.

[Angel ♥]

Phoenix's words seemed to have an opposite effect on her to what he had desired. She was crying even harder as he spoke, unable to make the tears stop, unable to find even a shread of strength to even attempt to make them stop. She just felt so...desperate and vulnerable, and his words just doubled that feeling. The Princess could do nothing but hold onto his hand and nuzzle her face against his shoulder again while she waited for this to pass. At least his presence seemed to soothe her, her sniffles gradually coming to a stop as he stroked her hair. She might feel as though she was at rock bottom right now, but there was that tiny voice of optimism in the back of her turbulent mind reminding her that things could be worse. She wasn't alone, she had Phoenix, and as long as he was there things would work out...eventually.

She didn't resist as he picked her up, arms looped around his neck and head resting on his shoulder. What would she have done without him? She would have been sat there crying to herself until the guards came if it weren't for Phoenix. She needed to pull herself together, for his sake.

The regular, repetitive movement of his walking helped to clear her head. The Princess remained silent as he carried her, her breathing gradually evening out as she stopped crying, her trembling stopping around about the same time. All thoughts of sleep had left her mind, however. She was exhausted, mentally and physically, and in more pain than she had ever experienced before, yet inside her head her dispare was turning to numbness. It had to be a mechanism for coping, for her mind to just close itself off to everything and focus itself on something mundane and ordinary, something that could offer a little bit of hope, such as the flickering lights up ahead.

They looked like Hell, Rory realised that as she noticed the strange looks that they were recieving, and for once she didn't care. They had jumped from a moving cart, they weren't exactly going to look great, were they? There was a blank look in her eyes as she looked around, gaze flickering between the buildings, yet there seemed to be no life in her. Even when Phoenix put her down she seemed listless, moving to trail after him without a word, though her grip on his hand was rather tight, as though she was depending on that little bit of contact to keep everything together.

A town was good. A town meant that there would be an inn, and in the inn there would be nice, safe, warm rooms for them to lock themselves up in and hide from the world.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

They were at the lowest that they'd ever been, Phoenix thought. He had been in worse situations, like when he was with the White Knights, but he'd never been so physically and mentally exhausted as he was right now. He'd gone from the ordeal of climbing the tower to being thrown into the Claustrum. Then they had been dragged onto cart after cart for days, had been forced to disguise themselves, got barely a hundred metres into Marmosia and, lo and behold, they'd had to run again. Phoenix couldn't remember the last time he'd slept properly. It was at least four days, he thought, and by the seems of things he wasn't even going to sleep tonight. He walked into the tavern without even checking with Rory to see if it was alright. Currently he felt bad enough to drown his sorrows, and he was so far beyond being able to cope he wasn't thinking about anyone else anymore.

He shuffled into the tavern, ignoring all the looks from the people there; some of them were concerned looks, others understanding, 'Been there, done that' looks, and a few were a little puzzled. But he didn't care, and a few moments later he'd sat himself down at the bar, the stool next to him empty for Rory to take a seat as well. He did actually regret sitting down, because the moment he did everything that had happened to him just... caught up. Everything hurt, absolutely bloody everything. His knuckles were scraped, as well as his elbows, knees and any other random injuries he'd obtained. The cut on his forehead, although it had stopped bleeding, didn't look particularly good, and his ankle was throbbing painfully. He felt like crap, to put it simply.

Without a word, he took his money pouch from his pocket and knocked on the bar, muttering what he wanted from the barwoman, who obliged instantly. You could smell the whiskey as soon as she set it down, in two small glasses, and he instantly slid one towards Rory. To hell with not drinking. To hell with her being a princess, and to hell with Avalas, and Marmosia, and travelling and all the rest of it. He wasn't in the mood. The whiskey was gone in an instant, Phoenix wincing for a second before pushing his glass away, waiting for it to be re-filled again. He was going to get so drunk.

[Angel ♥]

The tavern was warm, and all the noise was almost reassuring. The fact that conversation didn't stop when they walked in was a good sign, though Rory did instinctivly reach for her charm, panicking for a moment when her hand closed around thin air before remembering. Claustrum. Crazy man. It broke. All of her natural poise and grace was gone now, her head down as she shuffled along after Phoenix, not even bothering to look around. Rory didn't like taverns as a rule, but she decided that she could tolerate this one, for Phoenix's sake. He could get as drunk as he wanted to tonight, she wouldn't stop him, he deserved a drink after everything that he had been through in the past few days.

She eased herself onto the barstool as Phoenix knocked on the bar, tilting her head as the drink appeared in front of her. The strongest alcohol that Rory usualy indulged in was a glass of wine now and again, but she had never before thought about indulging in anything stronger...well...not until that drink appeared in front of her anyway. She reached out, rather hesitantly before mentally shrugging to herself. What else could go wrong tonight?

The drink disappeared in an instant, the Princess wrinkling her nose up as it burnt her throat. It was a rather adorable 'ew' face really, Rory eyeing the glass accusingly before shuddering. How could people drink that stuff? It was like drinking a cup of fire...though, she did have to admit, the warm feeling that it left in her stomach was rather pleasant. She placed her glass down on the bar before looking up at Phoenix. He looked as though he had settled into his seat for the night. Rory was about to stop the barwoman as she refilled her glass, but something stopped her. Maybe one more little drink wouldn;t hurt...would it? She might as well, seeing as Phoenix was staying...and there was only a tiny little bit in the glass, how much harm could it do?

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Phoenix had more than settled into his seat. For this night only, he had become part of the upholstery of the tavern, and the barwoman seemed to have realised that by the way she left the bottle of whiskey just within her reach so that she could refill it as soon as she needed to. He had forgotten that Rory was even there for the first three glasses, only seeming to realised vaguely that someone was next to him and was drinking as well. Although as he slowly grew warmer, and he began briefly to feel his fingers (as well as all of his injuries) before all of those feelings washed away again in a pleasant, tingling numbness, he realised that she was there. He liked getting drunk. He vaguely recollected that he shouldn't be drinking because Layla would disapprove, before he remembered that Layla wasn't there, and wouldn't be for a long time. He didn't even know if Layla was alright.

"We should sleep here." he mumbled with a faint smirk, glancing across to Rory. "I don't think I can get up." he shrugged, pushing the glass away again so that they could re-fill it as well as Rory's. Time seemed to pass in a blur while he was drinking, even more so with each glass of whiskey he drank, and it was only an hour or so, when the tavern was just beginning to empty for the night, and he was completely smashed. It probably didn't help that he was exhausted, and that he hadn't eaten in God knows when and that he wasn't in the mood for anything else, and he was having a job staying on his stool. He swayed for a second after pushing his glass away again, reaching out to grab the bar for support but instead finding Rory's hand, seeming vaguely surprised as he righted himself, and gazed across at her.

"Well... we've not been arrested yet." he murmured to her with a lopsided smile, forgetting to move his hand and sighing heavily, glancing at his empty glass before wrinkling his nose and discarding the thought of it. No more whiskey for him tonight. You'd probably have to carry him away by this point anyway. He was looking at Rory now, a rather pensive look on his face that made his drunkenness seem almost hidden. She really was something. Even bruised, battered and miserable, she was truly beautiful. And, although it was true that he would do anything for a pretty woman, he'd never gone quite this far out of his way for one. It was strange, how the knowledge hit him, about why he would put himself at such risk for Rory. The only logical conclusion, he figured, was that he must love her.

This realisation was a little less than expected, but it just seemed to fit at the moment, when there was nothing else to distract him. Slowly, he reached out to touch her cheek. "I'm still not sorry we did this..." he told her softly, "I'm still glad. No matter where we go, what happens, I'll always be glad." he muttered, smiling and moving forwards suddenly, as if to kiss her.

[Angel ♥]

Somewhere in the past hour Rory had lost her ability to count, which was probably rather a good job really. If she could count then she would have known exactly how much she had drunk, and she would be appalled with herself...in the morning, she was in no fit state to be appalled by anyone or anything right now. It hadn't take very long for the alcohol to take effect; Rory was a major lightweight when it came to alcohol. Her worries, and pain, seemed further and further away with each glass that she drank, and the more of her usual llife crept back into her eyes. At least she was smiling now, and giggling, even though she had no idea why she was smiling. Sometimes you just just had to smile or you would cry.

"We haven't?" She asked in response to his comment about not being arrested, seming genuinly surprised by that little fact. "I suppose that we haven't! We should celebrate!" She exclaimed before bursting into uncontrolable giggles again. Her glass had been half full for the past half an hour, and it seemed that it was destined to stay that way. Each time she went to drink it she got distracted by something (mainly Phoenix, silly distracting Phoenix.), but it was probably better off that way. She had had enough to drink, in fact, she had had far too much to drink.

Her cheeks flushed as the thief stood looking at her, tilting her head at him, as though to ask what he was looking at. He was looking at her as though he had never really seen her before, how silly was that?!?! Phoenix must really have been drunk. His hand was nice and warm, however, as it touched her cheek, and she wasn't all that surprised by the butterflies which were suddenly fluttering around in her stomach, or how his touch was making her skin tingle. Nor was she all that surprised by the fact that he was leaning in towards her, or that she had moved to lean closer to him too. In that moment she understood completly those strange feelings she got when he was around, it was just a shame that she would have forgotten by the morning.

"I'm not sorry either. Phoenix...I..." She trailed off, words seeming to fail her. He was so close right then, and even with his cuts and bruises he was dashingly handsome. Her eyes closed, cheeks burning a bright shade of pink, which was a strange contrast to the cuts and bruises which were developping.

Closer...closer...

BANG! Chris couldn't describe the rage that had sent him crashing across the room, nor could he explain the change in his behaviour. He wasn't a violent person by nature, not at all, but seeing her there...with him, whoever he was, was enough to make his blood boil. He hadn't even had to think about it, his fist clenching all by itself, flying into the side of the thiefs face; that would teach him what he got for harassing a Princess.

"Aurora, what on earth do you think you are doing?" He demanded. After everything, after all that searching, she was here, of all places, in a tavern...with this...lowlife. He felt like he hardly knew her at all...well...except when she looked up at him with that innocent and bemused expression that he knew all too well. Even drunk and in the state she was in she was adorable.

"Chris...?" Rory whispered, blinking at him. Oh dear...alcohol really was bad for you, wasn't it? She was seeing things...she wanted to go to bed now.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Phoenix couldn't describe how it felt to go from feeling like he was on top of the world to being smacked in the face in just a few seconds. Well, at the beginning he couldn't describe how it felt. He'd had to grab hold of the bar to stop himself falling over, ignoring the blood that was beginning to drip down his chin from his split lip, just adding to his other injuries. After the initial shock, he could tell you how it felt. To begin with, it bloody well hurt, and as he stood himself back up (albeit dizzily), he had to narrow his eyes to focus on this noble-man, whoever he was. He was clearly well off, you could tell that just from his speech, but as to who he was, Phoenix just had no idea. All the pain from his other injuries had come back though, with the pain from his lip, and he could already say that he wasn't happy with this man for that reason alone.

But then of course, he called Rory 'Aurora', and she called HIM by name, and it all clicked into place. This was Chris. The Chris, the one they'd been looking for right at the beginning. The one who hadn't been around. It felt weird, standing there face to face with this man. He could thank him, really, because without his absence he'd never have gotten this close to Rory. He could also get rather annoyed at him, because of his absence when Rory needed him the most. But all of a sudden, through the haze of whiskey, he realised something. He had been about to kiss the most beautiful woman in the world. And not only had this pillock WRECKED it, he'd smacked him for his trouble as well. Then all Phoenix felt was rage, that peculiar red mist settling over his eyes which never signalled anything good. He never got angry. This was one of the reasons Layla had stopped him drinking whiskey.

"You son of a fucking bitch." he growled, his fist flying out of nowhere to slam into the noble's face, the force behind it surprising even to Phoenix. He really must have gotten stronger since being with the Knights. He didn't wait to see if he fell or not, his hand found its way to the back of his head, fingers entangling in his hair to jerk his head down in a sharp movement at the same time as he brought his knee up to smash it into Chris's chin. He'd teach him. Throw a punch at him, would he? He'd chosen the wrong day to do that. "You might wanna think twice before you do that again. You stupid fucking bastard." he narrowed his eyes, shoving Chris away from him and seeming to have completely forgotten about Rory. He was seeing red, and was surprisingly sober to say that he shouldn't have been able to stand right now.

[Angel ♥]

Forgettng about Phoenix was the second big mistake that he had made withn the space of the last minute, the first having, obviously, been the punch that he had thrown at the thief. The punch he receved in return caught him by surprise, sending him stumbling back a few steps, almost losing his balance before Phoenix grabbed him. He would really have rather fallen though. Unfortunatly for Chris, he didn't have any alcohol in his system to numb the pain, nor did he have a very high pain barrier. Needless to say, it hurt when his chin was slammed against Phoenix's knee, , and he had no idea how he had avoided biting his tongue off. Chris was looking to be in a similar state to Phoenix as he was shoved back, stumbling into a table. His nose was squished, obviously broken and bleeding profusely, his lip was also deeply cut, along with his chin, and, as he realised when he spat out a moutful of blood, one or more of his teeth were chipped. Chris was a storyteller, not a fighter, he hadn't been expecting that kind of retaliation, nor did he know how to respond.

And all the while Rory was sat watching them with wide eyes, her mind too muffled to make sense of the situation. She had never seen Phoenix this mad before, she knew that much for sure, and she had a creeping feeling that Phoenix might just kill Chris. He really had chosen a terrible time to show up, and the most inappropirate way to announce his presence. Could he not see that they were in the middle of something? Oh wait...maybe that had been the problem, maybe he had seen that they were in the middle of something, and wanted to make sure that they stopped that instant. She would need to talk to him...tomorrow...when it was easier to string a sentence together. Right now she needed to calm Phoenix down; he was almost scary when he was this angry...no, wait, he was terrifying when he was this angry.

She had no idea how she managed to get to her feet without falling, her dizziness having lifted a little. The seriousness of the situation was probably helping her to think a little clearer...or maybe not seeing as she moved to place herself between Phoenix and Chris, facing the thief. "Phoenix..." She murmured his name softly, reaching out to gently take hold of his hands, standing right in front of him to (hopefully) block his view of Chris. "...please...Phoenix...you're scaring me..." She murmured, biting her lower lip as she looked up at him. "Come on, we'll get a room...and I'll clean up your cuts for you...ok?" At that she attempted to smile to him, as though to show him that everything was alright, but there was far too much fear in her eyes for it to work.

All the while, Chris remained silent, having enough sense about him to know that now wasn't the time for him to speak up. Aurora would know what she was doing, right? She obviously knew the man, or so he assumed. If Phoenix dared to raise a hand to her he would...well...he didn't know what he would do, but it wouldn't be pleasant.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Phoenix couldn't even say that he wouldn't have acted in the same way if he had been sober. He had been pushed just that little bit too far for today, and unfortunately Chris getting in the way of the only good fortune that had befallen them in what felt like forever meant that he was the subject of Phoenix's anger. Although it was true that whiskey did tend to make him get angry pretty easily, nobody often caused him to get angry. This really wasn't Chris's lucky day. The thief probably would have only settled for smacking the noble back (eye for an eye and all that), but now he really just wanted to hurt someone. It was amazing, how one person could be so completely adverse to their own personality sometimes. He had been well on his way to pursuing Chris and making him really feel some pain when Rory was just... suddenly... there.

For a second, it was as though they'd never been interrupted, the thief looking down at his hands dizzily as she took them in her own, and he smiled faintly. "Sorry..." he mumbled, "I didn't mean to scare you. I'll be alright... I'm just a little tired is all..." he shook his head. "Sounds good, yeah... let's go..." he murmured vaguely to her, as if the last few minutes had never even happened. As quickly as it had appeared, his anger had evaporated, the little scuffle (if you could really call it that) with Chris having sobered him up considerably. Which was why the agitation was still written all over his face as he looked up and glared across to the noble, even though the desire to hurt him had disappeared completely. Oh, well, he supposed, bastard's own stupid fault for smacking him like that.

"What about him." he muttered, not sounding too impressed with Chris even if he did feel a little guilty for the state that he was in right now. But only a little. Phoenix could have been anyone, he could have been a mass murderer for all the other man knew, and by the look of him... and also by the way his nose had broken so easily under the force of Phoenix's knee, he wasn't much of a fighter either. He must have just been stupid, the thief decided. Smart people didn't punch random people in the face. And people with more brawn than brain wouldn't have stopped at just one punch. "Should probably find him a healer." he lifted a brow as he spat what looked like his teeth onto the floor, the thief trying to hide how amusing that was. Big J had taught him how to punch like that. He was rather proud of it.

[Angel ♥]

That had been remarkably easy, with the flare of anger which she had just witnessed she had been expecting it to take more than a couple of words to calm him down. Instead, his mood swung back to how it had been a few minutes before, and Rory found herself feeling rather giggly again, blushing for a reason which was unknown to her. She slipped her hands into his to hold his hands properly now, half for support and half because she just liked holding his hands. "It's okay...but...getting to the room might be a little difficult. Everything's spinning." She informed him with a bright smile. He should have been proud of her for being able to say stood up like that, it was quite an achievement.

"...him?" A look of confusion flickered across her features, showing that she had forgotten all about Chris being there, the storyteller smiling to her rather sheepishly as she studied him. "Oh...um...I'm not sure..." She trailed off, looking totally bemused. If she had to choose between the two of them, then she would choose Phoenix; right now it didn't even seem like a difficult choice to make. Chris could take care of himself, but she didn't want to leave Phoenix on his own, nor did she want him to leave her.

Thankfully, Chris made things easy for her. The indecision on her face made it clear what she was trying to decide. He had his hand over his face now, as though to hide his injuries. "I have a room, don't worry about me for tonight. Promise me that you will meet me here in the morning...?" Speaking was difficult, and it hurt, so he wasn't going to say anything more than he needed to. It looked like Rory was pretty close to this man, whoever he was, and he didn't seem to pose any threat to her. It would be better to leave things until the morning, when they all had clear heads, before they spoke. He didn't want to cause any more arguements...plus he doubted that either of them were in a fit state to go anywhere tonight. As much as he hated leaving her alone with such a man, there wasn't really anything he could do. Plus, he needed to go find a healer, and it wasn's as though Rory was in any state to go walking about town.

"I promise." She smiled to him brightly and nodded, instantly regretting nodding; the room was spinning even more now. "See, all sorted. We really should go clean your cuts Phoenix..." She told him gently as she turned her attention back to the thief. "You have lots."

[Vyncent Schwarz]

"Spinnin'...? Awh, that's okay. It does that sometimes. It's the floor you gotta watch out for. The floor is tricky, sometimes it moves by itself." Yes, it did seem like her mere presence coming between him and Chris had put a swift end to his anger; he was simply too exhausted to care about doing anything logically anymore, and let's face it, with what little they had to look forward to, could you blame him? He was rapidly sinking back into that nice state of drunken-ness, throwing her a rather tipsy, but nonetheless charming smile as she held his hands. He liked holding her hands too, as was evident by the way he seemed to forget about anyone else in the room, and looked just as bemused when he had to remember that Chris was there again. You'd think he'd remember a guy whose nose he just broken a little better, but he wasn't really in a 'remembering' state of mind.

He didn't look particularly happy that they would have to see this man again - hadn't Phoenix made himself clear about how he felt about him when he'd smacked him across the face? Psht, some people were so rude like that. His disapproval was written all over his face, although he forgot about it all over again when Rory spoke to him. God, he hadn't been drunk like this in the longest time. "You got cuts too." he reminded her, "If you're cleaning my cuts we gotta get yours cleaned up too." he objected, as if to say all this cut-cleaning could wait because he was just too tired and drunk to care tonight. He threw the inn-keeper a few coins for the room (without knowing exactly how much it was) and leading them towards the stairs. Thankfully the inn-keeper moved in front of them to lead them to their room, so he wasn't as worried about them getting lost.

He slipped an arm around Rory's waist to help her walk, disregarding the fact that he could barely walk himself. There was a large, pleasant gap between them at the bottom of the stairs and them reaching the top, but Phoenix was in fits of giggles (yes, GIGGLES) by the time they got onto the landing and were shown their room; he'd fallen over his feet too many times to count, and had kicked one of the stairs, which would undoubtedly cause him more pain tomorrow. The inn-keeper had a sense of humour, at least, chuckling to them as he handed Phoenix the key outside their room, before wishing them a goodnight and leaving them alone. "We have a room." the thief observed, looking at the key in his hand with a bright smile before pushing the door open.

It was a standard room, with two beds and a window on one side, as usual, but to Phoenix it looked like Heaven.

[Angel ♥]

Rory got to find out just what he meant about the floor being tricksy as Phoenix lead her over to the stairs, concentration written over her face. This was so difficult! She swore that the floor kept moving and sneaking up on her, why else would she be stumbling around so much? The floor was just trying to make her fall over again! How dare it?!?!

Christopher didn't look very impressed as he watched the pair of them stumble away, worry in his eyes. He hoped that Aurora would be alright, he had never seen her like this...and from the state she was in he wasn't even sure that he wanted to know what had happened to her. She looked as though she had been to Hell and back again. With a heavy sigh he turned to head out of the inn again, glad that he had brought a considerable ammount of gold on this trip with him; healers were expensive, especially when they were fixing teeth.

The Princess had to admit that this was the most eventuful journey up the stairs she had ever taken. Between her and Phoenix they must have tripped over everystep, and if it wasn't for the thief's arm around her waist she would have probably given up half way and decided to just sleep on the stairs. So, as could be expected, she was giggling uncontrolably by the time they got to the top of the stairs and stumbled into their room, her sides hurting even more from all this laughing. Ow, ow, ow, she needed to stop laughing, why could she not stop laughing? Oh...maybe breathing would be a good idea too...ahhh! She had too many things to do at once.

She had barely even looked around at the room they were in, Rory turning to put her arms around Phoenix and half hug him, half let him hold her so that she stayed stood up, taking a moment to concentrate on remembering to breathe. Once she had herself under a reasonable ammount of control again she looked up at Phoenix, her cheeks flushed red from all of her laughing. "I can't remember what we were going to do...it was something important...but you distracted me! You kicked the stairs and I forgot everything!!! This is your fault." She pouted playfully, poking his chest lightly.

[Vyncent Schwarz]

Rory's laughter just made Phoenix's even worse, the thief practically unable to move, or breathe, or do anything by the time they staggered into the room. He clicked the door shut behind them, throwing the keys somewhere in the corner, and letting out a yelp as she clung on to him, having to collapse back against the door to stop himself from falling to the floor. He was equally as useless while he tried to contain his laughter, practically crying by the time he regained some of his senses. Letting out a deep sigh, he was vaguely aware that his throat and his sides hurt, as WELL as all of his other injuries, but he couldn't find himself feeling too bad about it. "Something important?" he tilted his head down at her, gasping as she poked him in the chest as though that had been the final straw that would just make him collapse and die.

"You fiend..." he pouted down at her, thinking about poking her back, but that would mean he'd have to let her go. And he quite liked holding on to her, if he had to be truthful. Stupid Chris. He'd probably punch him AGAIN tomorrow, when he was sober and it all sank in all over again. "I didn't mean to distract you..." he apologised, still looking as though he was threatening to burst out laughing again, eventually overcoming it and moving from the door. It was difficult to get to the bed, especially when he was practially carrying Rory with him, but he had at least managed to blow out the lantern by the time he collapsed on his bed. "I have an idea. I dunno what we were plannin' on doin' that was so important. But I think right now we should sleep. Sleeping is the best idea ever." he concluded.

He seemed incredibly reluctant to move from the bed once he had collapsed on to it, and he seemed equally as reluctant to let Rory go as well. Pouting, he reached over (with incredible difficulty) to grab the blankets from the other bed and pull them over the two of them, before he kicked his boots off. The darkness was comforting. It stopped the world from spinning, and he was too drunk to care about anything else right now. His life had come crashing down around him today, and now he was able to sleep and pretend he wasn't all scraped up and that they weren't in a weird new place. And Rory was there. That was definitely an upside. "...Night, Rory." he mumbled, curling up under the blankets, his arms still around her.