"Ha! You're funny," Adrian laughed, a slight sneer flashing across his features. These guys– well, at least one of them– were quite entertaining. In a slightly annoying way, that is. He glanced at the Queen's Men below. Should he or should he not yell something in the demon tongue at them? It would be funny to see them recoil in disgust, but that might make them want to chase after him with even more vigor. He didn't need that in his life at all. Adrian settled for making a vaguely demonic gesture at them and turned away. "Which way do you suggest we go next? I'm all ears." His smile was bright and extremely fake.
"I don't care," Javaid snarled. "Anywhere away from you." This guy irked him, he didn't know why. He just seemed… irritating, in bad way. He seemed too full of himself, and Javaid hated him. "You're not coming with us."
Damen rolled his eyes and clocked his brother on the back of the head. "Be nice."
"But this guy's clearly an asshole, and not to be trusted!" Javaid looked annoyed and a little offended.
"I know that," he said patiently, "but if you make anymore enemies, there will be enough of them to cover the entire town. And you don't want that, do you? This guy may be untrustworthy, but at least he hasn't tried to kill you yet. The only thing he's done that you don't like is underestimate you. And I don't see why that's a bad thing."
"Well, I'm glad we're all getting along pretty well already!" Adrian exclaimed. It seemed pretty clear that his new friends didn't exactly love him. That was fine. It wasn't like he needed people to like him. It would be nice if they didn't hate him, though, but he was probably never going to see them again. "I only agree with one of those statements, but I'll let you figure out which one." He peeked over the edge of the building again. A few Queen's Men were starting to climb the building, though they seemed to be having some trouble. Still, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to stick around much longer. His two companions seemed to be bickering among themselves, but they could do that later. "The Queen's Men are trying to climb the building. It'll probably take an eternity, but it would be a smart idea to get out of here before they succeed." Adrian turned towards the two men, his arms crossed.
"You little-" Jav started.
"It probably would be," Damen agreed. "So, should we try to jump to the roof of the next building, and climb back down and get hidden in a crowd? Or do you have a better idea?" His words were directed at the man in front of him, but his glare was directed at his twin, who scowled back.
Adrian winked at Javaid with a smirk, loving how much he seemed to be annoying him. So what if that might kill him down the road? Right now, he was having a lot of fun. And it made up for him having zero ideas about how to get out of there.
"Well, I'll let you pick the best way out of here. It seems like you have some good ideas," Adrian said, turning towards Damen. His eyebrows raised slightly at the glare. These two men weren't getting along at all. He'd never had a sibling, but from what he'd seen, he didn't want one. That was a lot of fighting, even for him.
Javaid's jaw clenched, teeth grinding together at the look, pure anger in his eyes. His hand went for the hilt of the knife at his side, fingers grazing the cold metal of the hilt. He hated self-saticfied bastards. He wasn't sure what it was about this guy that irked him, but he was annoying, and Jav wanted him to go to hell.
Damen pursed his lips. "Jav, no," he said, spotting his brother's hand on the hilt of his knife. He sighed. He loved his brother all right, but he was such a dunce sometimes. He never used his head. His temper led him on. Although, the guy in front of them was being no help at all. "O have a few ideas," he said calmly, trying to act as though he was perfectly fine. "First question, though: do you plan to run with us, or go a different direction?"
Adrian turned away from the brothers for a second. It was clear that his mere presence was causing one of them a great deal of anger, and the faces he made clearly weren't helping. He rolled his eyes and sighed softly, then turned back towards them. Jav, as his brother called him, looked like he was about to jump on Adrian and slice his throat open. That might actually be some fun, but not at that exact moment. "Oh, good." Adrian looked towards the other brother, Dae. He was currently Adrian's second-favorite, and that was because Adrian couldn't get under his skin as easily as he could with his brother. "Well, I think I'm going with you guys. You seem fun. I wouldn't want to miss out on any of that." Adrian risked a slight smirk in the direction of Jav. It might get him maimed, but he was having too much fun.
Damen was watching, and before his brother could do anything, he grabbed Javaid's hand. "Alright. But you need to stop bothering my brother, or he'll try to kill you, and I rather like him." He glanced around. "First of all, let's try to get some distance between us and the Queen's Guard." He motioned to the rooftops in front of them, that rose up into the sky. They were almost all flat. "If we try to get across a few of those, first, by jumping, we could climb down and find some place to hide. Does that sound good to you guys?" He saw Jav's angry face, and sighed. He hated playing peacemaker, but with a brother like Javaid, he had to.
"I'll try. But if me just being me is bothering him, then that's his problem." Adrian shrugged. He'd been told multiple times that his demeanor was a little bothersome for some people. It seemed that Jav was some people. "Agreed. That sounds like something that might work." Adrian nodded slowly, eyes fixed on the rooftops. Jumping from roof to roof shouldn't be too much of an issue. Getting down might prove to be if there weren't any accessible ways down, but he could worry about that once they got there. "Why don't you guys lead?" He suggested casually, running a hand through his dark hair. Keeping these guys in his sights was the smart thing to do. Letting them go behind him and potentially stab him in the back– liturally– was not the smart thing to do.
"I'm gonna rip that stupid smirk off his fucking face," Jav muttered angrily. Every single one of his instincts told him to kill the guy now and get it over with. This guy would be more trouble than he was worth.
"We'll go at the same time," Damen said, ignoring his brother. He could understand Adrian's line of thought, but with this guy's character, it might now be the best idea to have him behind them. "That way, we can be sure that neither side stabs each other in the back. Deal?"
"Ah… fine." Adrian shrugged. It made sense that Dae didn't want Adrian behind them. There wasn't any trust between the three of them. Expecially between Adrian and Jav. He pressed his lips together to avoid smirking at him again. Given what he'd muttered, all Adrian had to do was breath in his direction and Jav would follow through. "Shall we, then?" Adrian took a step towards the roof Dae had pointed out, not wanting to go before the others.
"Sure." Damen sent his brother a glare. "If you so much as do one move wrong, I'm going to tear your limbs off and throw you to the soldiers, okay?" He meant it, too. Well, mostly, anyway. He didn't want his brother and partner to get hurt if he could help it.
Javaid sent him a cold look, but nodded reluctantly. The three of them moved quickly toward the rooftop of the next building, and jumped over easily.
Adrian let out a little laugh at Dae's words, then focused on jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He was fairly good at it, but all it would take was one small mistake and he would be dead. Being dead wasn't something he wanted to do. Expecially since he hadn't accomplished his goals just yet. When running across a particularly nice roof, Adrian risked a look back. The first Queen's Man had made it to the top of the building and seemed to be listening to something shouted at him from below. "We've got company!" Adrian warned the brothers, looking back at where he was going. "Or we will in a few minutes."
"Shit," Damen cursed. "Well, we may have to get our feet back on the ground sooner than I thought." He risked a glance back and swore. "We have even less time than I thought. I didn't expect the bastards to work so fast."
He glanced at the rooftops before them. "Let's climb down there," he said, motioning to two buildings in front of them. "It's close enough to the marketplace that we might be able to escape their notice. Hopefully."
"They're amazingly persistant," Adrian agreed, thinking back to the events that led up to him meeting the brothers. If that hadn't happened, then he wouldn't have met them. It wasn't that he was regretting meeting them, but the less people who knew him, the better. "Hmm, good thinking." He nodded slightly, taking a second to look behind him again. Another Queen's Man had joined the first one and they were starting towards the edge of the roof. Wonderful. Maybe having someone between him wouldn't be so bad this time, since they would be between him and them. "I can go first," Adrian volunteered, stopping where Dae had gestured to. It didn't look like too difficult of a climb– that was a bonus.
“They are,” Damen said, his voice low and angry. “I don’t understand why they can’t apply their talents to the rest of the people, not just the poor ones who can’t even afford a days food.” His eyes flashed with anger, but he seemed in control of himself.
He got back to the situation at hand. “Alright then. Jav and I will be right behind you.” He knelt down at the edge, paying attention to the way down. He’d have to be careful, but at least it shouldn’t be too difficult for him.
"Yeah." Adrian nodded and sat down on the edge, swinging his legs over. He was pretty sure the Queen's Men would pass a murderer in favor for a person stealing something in order to live. Well, that was enough thinking about that. Adrian let out a breath and focused on his descentThe first step was fine, as was the next one. Thank everything for long legs. A minute or so later, the tips of his toes touched down on the ground. It was empty of anyone except for him. He looked up and stepped away, waiting for the brothers to join him.
Damen climbed down pretty quickly, as if he was used to it. His movements were careful, though, and precise. He was afraid of heights… not that he would let anyone know.
Jav, on the other hand, scampered down quickly and easily, his long limbs stretching easily and gracefully from one hold to the other, almost as if he was dancing. He clearly climbed a lot, and was also showing off a bit.
Damen rolled his eyes.
Adrian's gaze flicked between the ground and the men climbing down. It was funny seeing the difference between the two of them. Granted, nearly everything about them was different. Still, he'd never met twins before. It was an instructive situation. And he wasn't taller than everyone for once. "Alright, no one's here just yet– lucky for us– but the Queen's Men will be soon. Did you see where they were before you climbed down?" Adrian asked when they were both on the ground. He turned to Jav, wondering if the question would get him a punch in the face. "Or were you too worried about how you looked coming down to notice?" He added, smirking. Jav was totally going to make him regret that, wasn't he?
Jav, to Damen’s great surprise, looked serious, as if the jibe didn’t matter. “Yeah. I saw them just a few houses down. I think some of them were deployed at the ground level, in case we came down.” He glanced around. “They went the wrong direction, though. They must not have expected us to go down this way.”
Adrian had been ready to dodge an attack or sprint out of there, but… nothing. Had he broken Jav? "Ah, well. That's good. We'd better get going, then, before the ones on the roof catch up to us." He glanced around the alley again. He had a safehouse a few blocks from here, but should he bring Dae and Jav there? So far, they hadn't done anything too suspicious. It would probably be fine. "Do you guys have somewhere safe to go? If not, I know a place."
“We can find a place,” Damen said. He wasn’t quite ready to trust the guy who would use any instance he could to piss Javaid off… although he of all people knew that Jav got pissed easily, especially if it was someone like Adrian. “Thank you for the offer, though. It’s best not to bring you any more trouble.”
Jav nodded. “We can find somewhere. After all, we don’t usually get caught unless we want to.”
“I’m amazed,” Damen remarked dryly to his brother. “Is bullshit all that comes out of your mouth? There seems to be an awful lot of it spewing from you.”
"Alright. I'd say, 'see you guys soon', but I think it would be best for Jav's health if he never saw me again," Adrian laughed. As he did, it occurred to him that he hadn't checked if his pendant was still safely out of sight in a while. His hand casually drifted towards his throat and unfortunately connected with cold metal. Shit. The pendant was carved with the symbol of Jahtal on the front, which had lately become very connected with the Crimson Lord. That could be a good thing or a very bad thing, depending on who he was with. How long had it been out in the open? He really needed to put it on a longer chain so it wouldn't jump out of his shirt any time he did anything remotely active. "Well, goodbye!" Adrian spun around, tucking the pendent under his shirt again as he turned. Maybe they hadn't noticed.
"Yes, yes it would," Javaid said, half angry. "If I ever see you again, I might die of old age. You make me get older so much faster than I should."
Damen whacked him on the head. "Well, good luck, then," he said.
And then he noticed the pendant. The guy - Adrian - had made a sudden movement toward it, and so naturally it had caught Dae's eye. He noticed the symbol, and his eyes widened. This guy - who was he? Before he could call out and ask, however, Adrian had already run off.
"Ha!" Adiran laughed and hurried away from the brothers. The first thing he was doing after getting back to his safehouse would be getting a longer chain. Granted, he told himself this every time this had happened and he still had it, but things had always come up. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure the brothers weren't following him. It seemed like they hadn't noticed the pendent– good. Adrian let himself relax ever so slightly. This time, he really was going to get a new chain. Nothing would stop him. These encounters were going to kill him someday.
(Should we do a time skip? To when they see each other again? Or do you want Damen to call attention to Adrian’s pendant?)
(We could do either. A time skip might be fun 'cause then everyone can think about what happened for a while and make up theories or something. You can choose which one you want to do, though. If it is a timeskip, do you want to take it?)
(That sounds good! I can, unless you have an idea on how to start.)
(Nope, you can have it! :)
(Okee! Give me a second!)
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