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Nariana's complaint made Sabe's cheeks burn, as she did catch on to something, but he was not blushing. He opened his mouth to say something but he could not say anything about what Twilight said to him that Nariana did not also hear, so he closed his mouth. But he did not understand why she had a burning hatred for Twi. He saw nothing.

"So why do you hate him? I don't think you've even met him that well, unless it's because something happened?" he asked, with a hint of concern at the end. This time he looked into her eyes, but glanced away when he thought she was about to look into his, only to return when he thought it was 'safe'. It didn't help that the sun was coming through in a way that gave some life to their currently dull eyes - Nariana's were bronze and Sabe's a deep purple. Sabe liked the colors but staring was rude.

Nariana's blaze also ruined Sabe's cool. A small whimper escaped from his throat as she startled him with her anger. The knotted feeling came back with a vengeance, and fresh air present or not he felt queasy. "...when was that?" he managed to ask about...though as it will turn out, he will not like the answer.

He slumped back in his seat and tried to breathe slowly to dispel the nausea. Sometimes it worked, sometimes he'd have to recall the dark elven alphabet backwards in two different dialects before he felt any better. Or he would faint, or sometimes he would puke and get even more agitated, just making everything worse.

"Also I did not mean to knock you over that one time, I hope you know that. Waffle pushed me down the stairs." he meekly added.

"Oh..." Sabe said, disappointed at the vague answer. Although he could deduce it happened last night, he couldn't place an exact time on it as there was a big gap in his memory; the closest things he could remember were when that night he stripped down and was just getting into the shower to clean up and this morning when he was greeted with a hard punch to the face and Waffle made him put on the blue-tinted concealer to hide the marks. At least Nariana stopped yelling at him, and he eased up as she did. The half-smirk was a good sign but he couldn't return it with anything, as he couldn't recall what she was talking about. He turned to face forward, down the road and not looking at anything in particular but still thinking about it in vain.

As they passed by a major road near the only grassy park in Durem, the wind blew his hair around and a lock of it ever so gently grazed the outer rim of his ears. Sabe found it...pleasant to say the least, but his ears started twitching violently. His face was flushed with red as he grabbed his ears to keep them from flapping about like hummingbird wings.

Finally Sabe's ears stopped moving and he set down his hands. "Uh...." he started, "I guess we can say we were out for a Sunday drive is that what it's called, unless we're somehow not allowed to go outside anymore? I don't think he'll question us too much... he's got problems of his own."

He paused to think a little more, and looked down at his hands. Then he noticed some blue smudged on his sleeve. He tried to not react to it, and hoped nobody would see what the concealer was hiding.

Sabe's ears drooped and he winced as soon as Nariana pointed out the bruise on his face. "...no," he responded defensively, "I got that in the morning. It's fine...stop looking at it..."

He looked away from Nariana and toward what he called 'the little push-bob thing that shows if the door's locked'. Sabe just wanted to stop talking and get home already, but there were such pesky things as traffic laws and speed limits they had to follow. He sighed in frustration, but figured it would have come up at some point. "If Twi did it, you would have known it. I'd be crying like a little b***h of course," he said in a way that almost sounded like it was meant to be an imitation but of who nobody knew...or at least wanted to think about right now.

An impatient driver behind them honked their horn, making Sabe nearly jump out of his skin. He looked up at the stoplight. "It's g-green already." he said.

Sabe almost opened his mouth to say something, but Nariana already addressed it, so it stayed shut. He looked at the clock instead and came up with a different question. "How much time do we have before then?" he asked, "Also, when are we coming back? I hope it's not too late to where I can't do anything else. I'd like to get that small portal fixed as soon as I can."

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Waffle was left alone ever since she passed out; since the advent of planned trails, almost no one walks through the thick woods anymore save for those already experienced enough to navigate them. There were no dangerous animals to be mauled by or steep hillsides to fall down from but it was very easy to get lost here, especially to someone who rarely left the castle walls willingly on her own.

Her sleep was interrupted with a hard prod to the shoulder. It felt cold, like metal.

"Are you okay?...Hello...? You poor thing, look at these wounds!" a voice called out. It was lilting and easy on the ears, but effeminate and impossible to place an age on. Waffle picked herself, opened her eyes, and was greeted by a tall heavyset man with long dark brown hair, tied loosely back in a ponytail. He sported a longish beard, kept neatly trimmed. He was one of the men in what looked like brigandine armor, which appeared to be well-cared for with no holes showing the metal underneath or prominent stains. Absolutely shocked, Waffle fell back on her behind...only for him to ask one of all the people behind him to make sure she's alright. Of those she could see, she counted about seventeen of them.

"I don't think you'll have much time to work today. You've got about three and a half hours until we need to leave. The fights usually start at sunset, but we'll probably only be there for two hours at the most-- time for me to fight and time for you to mingle and gather some information about the competition. I'm only fighting one person today. Emelio said it was just a simple test of hand-to-hand combat, buuut I'm bringing a weapon just in case... Anyway, if we have time tomorrow, I'll gladly help you." Nari said, glancing at Sabe every few seconds. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable by staring, but that bruise seemed to invite her eyes to steal a look every so often.

*((Note to everyone reading: It's 4pm. -u- Okay? Okay.))

Getting home at 9 then. Not bad... Sabe thought immediately. There would still be the rest of the night for him to work on the machine he busted, at least until he falls asleep on the floor.

To Nariana, he shrugged. "Assuming we're not held up to where we come home too late, I won't need help," he said.

Sabe noticed they were going down the same roads they first went down on the way to the tavern; it wouldn't be too long before they got back to HQ. He let the conversation fall to a lull as they got closer.