"You said you wanted company and I just remembered I have an urgent appointment somewhere that's not here so I guess it'll have to be her."

"Such a dick."

"Oh, stop being such a bitch to a guy who cares about you, you're gonna push everyone away like that."

"You're one to talk—"

He shuts the door behind himself, grinning a bit.

"Oh I thought I heard some familiar voices."

"Odin's sagging ballsack where the fuck did you come from?"

"I was right here," he says, stepping out of a slightly shaded area that was nowhere near dark though to have been enough to hide him.

He looks somewhat different than what Vallynn remembers. His face is a little bit sharper and more angular than before, and he seems to have put on some muscle, which his dark purple sleeveless leather jerkin and skintight (if not as tight as Vallynn's) trousers highlight. There's a dagger the size of his forearm attached to each side of his belt plus a third dagger sheathed by his right calf, and he's wearing fingerless leather gloves and a pair of metal earrings with a clear stone of some kind hanging from the left one.

"Fucking Hel, man, have you been hanging out with Alph a lot?"

"How should I know? It's not like either of us would notice the other if we did."

"Yes, yes, har de har har. Come on, if you're going to show up out of nowhere to scare the shit out of me you may as well follow me." He starts making his way out.

"Where we going?"

"The bar. I need a drink."

"The bar? I knew Geffen was a small city but I didn't realise it was that small."

He rolls his eyes. "The bar that I usually go to when I want to get drunk, how about?"

"Sure, sounds good to me. You're looking good, by the way."

"I always look good."

"Sure, but these robes you're wearing make you look like a delicious snack I want to unwrap."

"We've just met again after months and the first thing you think about is getting your dick wet?"

"It has not been that many months, and also your trousers leave so little to the imagination I can see that I'm not the only one thinking about it."

"I at least have the decency to want to socialise a little bit first. Besides, you're looking hotter, too, so I'm allowed to find you physically attractive."

"Hey, I'm not jumping your bones, am I? I can want to peel those trousers off you with my teeth without doing it right now."

"If you manage to pull these off with just your teeth I'm gonna—I don't know what I'm gonna, my point is it's impossible."

"You get them off daily, I assume."

"With my hands. Which have thumbs."