REUNION

(Yo dawgies, this is a private RP with me and Rose aka Nikki. Feel free to watch! I like it when people watch...)

"Hey barkeep. another round." Irving slurred, slapping down the pieces of silver on the splintered wooden bar. The barkeep, who was drying down a worn out mug, merely shook his head in denial.

"You've had too much. I'm not giving you another drop." he said defiantly. Irving scowled with irritation and slammed his fist on the bar, raising his voice to carry over the clutter and hustle and bustle of the Inn.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, jackass." he sneered. "Your job is to provide the stuff that keeps me numb, and dammit, I'm paying you to do it! So get off yer ass and serve me some ale!"

The bartender sighed and shook his head once more.

"FINE! But don't come crawling to me when you spew back up your innards, ya hear?" he said, pouring a frosty mug of the intoxicating brew.

"Pfft, not like I can feel any worse than I do now." Irving mumbled, as he lifted the mug to his lips. As the retired thief drank himself into a stupor, two young man took a seat next to him, completely ignoring everything that was transpiring, as they were too engrossed in their conversation.

At first, Irving didn't pay attention as he finished his ale in one dramatic gulp, slapping down the last of his silver for one last swig. Aa the bartender refueled his poison, Irving heard a name he hadn't heard in years...

"....says her name is Fay." the taller man said. "You can find her house just outside of town, by the dock with the rest of the whores. For two pieces of gold, she'll do ANYTHING and I mean ANYTHING you want to her. Slap her, pull her hair, call her names, hell she'll do it all."

"Oh yeah, I know what you mean." the shorter man said. "Hell, I remember once I gave it to her so bad, I'm surprised she could even walk the next day."

"Hey fellas I hate to interrupt..." Irving said, not really caring if he did interrupt. "But...what exactly is this Fay again?"

(He's not lying, yo, he REALLY likes it when people watch XD)

Her green eyes had become dull over the years, they had lost the curiosity they once held. Her skin was still powder soft and held no wrinkles, she looked like some of the young girls selling themselves because they had fallen on hard times, though she was one of the oldest. She brushed her long red hair and put it up into a bun. She heard thumping footsteps up the stairs, two pairs and her door burst open. She stood up.
"Mama!" her youngest cried hiding behind his mother and holding onto her skirt.
"Jillian," She started, looking at her daughter who had chased her son up the stairs for some reason.
"I... I was trying to get him to take his nap, and he ran off, I didn't know if you were still asleep, you didn't get in until late last night..." Jillian told her mother.
Fay smiled, "Thanks honey for caring about your mother," She told Jillian, "Come on Alexander..." She said with a sad look on her face, she felt a stinging in her heart almost every time she looked at him, he looked exactly like his father, exactly like the love of her life, the one who broke her heart. She picked him up and carried him down stairs into the kitchen area. There was a knock on her door, usually she would ignore it but she heard a soft voice, it was one of the “girls”. She set Alexander down and opened the door, closing it behind her.
“There... There's a ship that's coming in soon... Angela told me that I should tell you...” The shy girl told her.
“Thanks Lucy... But I have enough money, and anyway, Sailors never pay well, and they smell like fish...” Fay told Lucy.
She smiled, “Yeah... and they're rude...” She saw Jillian and Alexander looking at them through a window, she sighed, “Fay, your kids need someone besides you to raise them. You work so hard your eight year old is raising your three year old, they need a...”
“Don't say it...”
“Fine, oh and tell Alexander happy fourth birthday from his aunt Lucy,” The girl said walking off. Fay just sighed and went inside.

"Lookin' for Fay, huh?" the taller man said with a laugh. "She ain't hard to find, lemme tell ya. She'd do anything for gold."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah...I heard you the first time." Irving said sobering up quickly. Granted, the odds were a thousand to one that this was the Fay he was looking for, but whether it was his own lack of common sense or the pints of ale that were swimming in his blood, something told him to go on check. "You said her house is down by the docks? Which one is it?"

"She's the fourth house from the fish market." the shorter man said. "Though, the Blacksmith just left, so she's probably in pretty sloppy shape, if you ask me. But hey, if you're into that kind of thing..."

"Thanks." Irving said and staggered out the door, trying to quiet down the spinning and turning inside of his head. Years of drinking had taught him how to pass off his drunknensses, as he made his way towards the docks. A guard on the way stopped Irving, thinking he was a drunkard looking for a fight.

"Whoa, easy there fella. Mind telling me where you're headed?" he said, glancing the intoxicated thief up and down.

"Fay." Irving slurred over himself. "I'm looking for Fay."

The guard laughed hearing this, slapping his armor covered knee.

"Loose Fay, huh? You and every guy and girl in town. She's just right down the road, you can't miss her house. You have to knock on her door three times to say that you're a client. She won't do anything unless you pay her ahead of time. Girl would do anything for gold."

"So I've heard." Irving said, clenching his fist.

"Well, good luck to ya." the guard said, tipping his helmet. "Tell her I said Brian says hello."

Irving said nothing, but merely watched as the guard walked away, before turning around and following the path to Fay's house.

On the way, he passed several different prostitutes, each one offering a night of passion for a few pieces of gold. Irving ignored them all and opened the door softly, without knocking.

"Fay? Are you here?" he said, but instead of her voice, was greeted by odd noises coming from upstairs.

The man currently on top of Fay just grunted hearing another voice. She had stopped moving, she knew that voice all to well and struggled underneath the man, trying to get him out of her, and herself out from under him. She knew that if it really was Irving he would be up here following the noise. She didn't want him to see that she had rehabilitated into what she was before they met. She just hoped he didn't find the kids rooms, he didn't know he had a son and his son didn't know he had a living father, she wanted to keep it that way.

The man noticed the harlot movements and put his massive calloused hand around her thin neck, cutting off her air supply, which made her squirm more, which only raised his level of aggression. He slapped her as hard as he could across the face and nearly ripped the crimson hair from her head. Her head had tilted to the side and she just left it there, not objecting to what he did, she needed the money so she could put food on the table for her children.
"Try and get away again," The man told her, "And I'll slit that pretty little throat of yours, wench," He told her before pulling her hair back once more and forcing her into a bruising kiss.

Those grunts, those moans, it could only be one person. In a blind rage, Irving rushed up the creaky wooden stairs, somehow not tripping over himself in his drunken state of mind. It took very little effort to track down the sounds and their location. With a swift kick the rickety wooden door gave way, nearly flying off it's rusted hinges. What Irving saw nearly made him throw up.

Some greasy, over-weight, disgusting slob of a human being was writhing his oily body on top of Fay, his sausage like fingers wrapped around her skinny neck. Enraged like nothing has ever enraged him before, Irving roared with anger and grabbed the slobbish man by his hair, yanking his head back.

"You SON OF A BITCH!" he shouted. "I will kill you!"

With a sick headbutt, Irving connected his forehead squarely on the man's nose, sending up a shower of blood. But Irving didn't care. He yanked the man off the bed and out of Fay, leading him by his hair to an open window.

"Hey, when you get to hell, till them Irving sent ya." he said, and tossed the man outside the window, as his naked, bulbous frame crashed into a large manure truck, knocking him out.

"Fitting." Irving said, still glancing out the window.

Fay quickly grabbed a slip from next to the bed. She was still trying to catch her breath and was shaking, "Why..?" She asked, "Why are you here?" Her cheeks were red and a dark purple mark was slowly forming under her pale skin. She balled up her fist, and switched her position so she was now kneeling on the bed, "Haven't you done enough to me! Now you're taking away one of my clients! I can barely put food on the table as it is, now that I lost a client..." She ran her fingers through her hair, she had been shouting and hoped that she didn't wake the children up. She was bleeding from various spots on her body though barely.

She looked away from him, afraid to make eye contact, tears ran down her cheeks. A part of her wished Irving would just take her into his arms, and take her and their children away from this life, but another part of her wanted to slit his throat with his own daggers for what he did to her. She looked at the door, at the window and around the room to spot anything else he might have broken, knowing she couldn't fix any of it or pay for any of it to be fixed.

When the adrenaline had dropped down, Irving found himself in a very awkward situation. It had been years since he had seen Fay, and now here she lay before, naked and bruised. It had become apparent that the stories were in fact true, and that Fay had resumed selling her body for money again. This broke the thief's heart more than anything in the world, because deep down inside, he knew it was true.

"First off...I didn't come looking for you." he said quietly. "I sold the Inn and with nothing else to do, I just kind of wandered all over the place. I was at the local pub when I heard some guys...talk about you...and I had to see what was going on."

He brushed some of the hair away from his face, sighing deeply. He was still mentally bruised for his horrible actions of before and this was just merely twisting the knife that was dug so deep in his psyche.

"And you wanna talk about losing a client? Fay, he was gonna kill you! That fat piece of trash would have crushed your wind-pipe! I mean...is this how you live now? Does Jillian know?" he said.

Everything was just happening so fast, with the retired thief having no clue what to say or do next.

"Fay...I...you're right, I shouldn't be here." he said quietly. "Let me just get my things and I'll leave. I'm...sorry for bothering you."

Fay swallowed, "You're right... He would have killed me... And Jillian doesn't know... I don't want her to know her mother's one of those people frowned upon by everyone in society just to keep her alive so she can have a better life then her mother does..." She laughed a little, "Hell... She barely even remembers you or the life we once had... The life every day I want to go back to," She told him, "And neither would..." She started before looking away, she placed her hand on her stomach, and shivered, remembering what it felt like to have life inside of her, slowly developing, He has a right to know... she thought, "Neither would..." Her voice trailed off and she sighed, Just tell him... Knowing that Irving had no idea he had more then one child was like a stone in her stomach, slowly dragging her down, "Neither would..." She took a deep breath, "Your son."

If a large, angry troll had marched right up and sucker punched Irving Stone, it would greatly lack in the shock and awe that he was expericing at this very second. Fay's words had sucker punched him, freezing him in mid-step as he attempted to walk out the door. He was stunned, shocked, amazed, so many things at once.

"I...had a son?" he said quietly. Finding a large wooden chair in which Fay's clothes hung, Irving sat down and ran his fingers down his face, letting all of this soak in. "I...have a son?" he said, only changing his words slightly. "Why...didn't you tell me?" he said.

"I didn't tell you because when I found out and was going to tell you I found you on top of another woman... And if Jillian and I weren't good enough for you to be loyal to, what would make you be loyal to another child," She told her ex husband, "I named him Alexander, maybe someday you can meet him..." She sighed, "Though... he needs a father I can barely feed him and his sister, and keep clothes on their backs," She told him, standing up and pulling on her dress it was a plain green dress that was faded and worn out in the elbows, showing just how strapped for cash they were.

She walked over to the end table next to her bed and picked up six gold coins, showing that she had been with three clients tonight, and since the rent was due for her house and they were running out of food she would probably have to spend some of her time with three more.

She put them in a small box, they made the sound of hitting other coins but what was louder was the sound of them hitting the bottom of the almost empty box.

"The rent's due..." She said closing the box, "I don't think I can pay this month, unless..." Her voice trailed off as she looked over at Irving, No... I'm not making him one of my clients...

"Before I told you about Alexander, you were about to say something but you decided to say something else, what, may I ask, were you about to say?" She asked.

Fay's words stung deep, most of the power coming from the very fact that they rang so true. She had every right to not till him about his son, and he knew it too.

"Well....you got me there." he said quietly, sighing deeply. "I don't blame you for not telling me about Alexander." Irving cleared his throat slightly, as he found himself becoming choked up again, as thoughts of Fay and his failure as husband normally did. These feelings nearly tripled when she saw the worn out green dress she had on and the small pile of gold coins. His heart sank somewhere near his left foot, as everything he could possibly think of had gone wrong.

He could also see the pained look in her eye as she counted the meager amount of money she had, and he instantly knew why. Without saying anything to her, he unlaced his left boot and pulling it off, turned it upside down while providing a few vigorous shakes. With a soft CLANK, a small pouch fell out and hit the floor. Irving smiles as he undid the drawstring, revealing a generous amount of gold coins.

"This is my rainy day fund. I snagged it off some piece of trash, low life, socialite that was gonna buy up a bunch of slums and turn them into hotel property. I made a nice haul off of him and this is all that's left. It's yours, one last gift before I get out of your life for good. Oh and, there's no obligation, Fay. You don't have to uh..." he coughed slightly "...service me."

Fay took the pouch from him, "Rainy day fund? Judging by the smell of your breath you really mean your ale fund," She told him. She hugged him tightly and quickly and cleared her throat, recomposing herself, "Thank you, Irving," She told him almost in tears, "I... I guess you'll be leaving now, I doubt that you wish to stay here any longer then you have to... In these conditions," She said to Irving.

She heard a pair of soft foot steps in the hall followed by slower footsteps going up the creaky stairs. The two children appeared in the door way. Alexander followed by Jillian.
"What are you two doing up?" Fay asked her children.
"I heard yelling and woke up, then I woke up Jillian," Alexander told his mother, not entering the room. He looked up at the man in the room, his father who, at the time, he didn't know was his father. He ran over to his mother and hid behind her legs holding onto them tightly preventing her from walking. Jillian walked over to her mother and smiled at her strawberry blond haired brother. This was the first time the family had been in the same room as each other, and half of the rooms occupants didn't know.
“Who's this mommy?” Alexander asked looking past his mother's legs.
“He... He's no one,” She told Alexander, “Just someone from mommy's past,” She told him, wiping a tear from her eye.

Again, Irving felt the bitter sting of truth tear through his soul. Fay's words had hurt him, but he knew she had no choice but to say them. He took a long, hard, deep sigh and smiled weakly at the boy.

"Yeah...my name is Irving." he said. "I...used to know your mother." he said quietly. Alexander just gave a tiny nod, still using Fay's legs as some sort of shelter between him and Irving. Jillian just stared at Irving, he little brow wrinkled into a perplex expression of puzzlement, as she knew she had seen this man before, but she couldn't remember how. With all of the men who came to see Mommy, maybe he was one of them?

Jillian, being the second mother of the two, quickly scolded her younger brother for staring, though she was doing the same thing. Still shy, Alexander trudged after his sister, holding her hand as they headed towards bed for some sleep.

"He looks like me..." Irving said quietly. He realized though the longer he stayed here, the harder it would be to leave. "Looks I should be going..." he said. "Fay...it's been amazing seeing you. I hope that gold lasts you long enough to get a new job. If you ever need more...just....get ahold of me. I'll be happy to provide. Until we meet again..."

(HO MEH GAWD! Eberything is fixed that's teh sheets.)

Fay sighed, “Yeah, he looks like you...” She said in agreement, “He looks like you, acts like you, he's even starting to talk like you,” She laughed a little, “If I didn't know better I would say that he is you, though, after all, he basically is you, with just a little bit of me, and I'm raising him to be courteous and loyal, a trait you've rarely shown...” She said looking at the broken window and the broken door, “You're fixing that you know, and if you broke anything else, you're fixing that too," She said smiling.

"Where are you living," She asked blushing, "You know... Just in case the children need their father," She told him, not liking the idea of taking money from him.

Irving scratched the back of his head out of nervousness and shame, especially since the loyal trait was thrown right in his face. That knife just kept getting turned.

"Of course I'll pay for any damage." he said. "Word on the street is that some hoitey toitey land baron is coming through town in the next day or so. I think I may be able to sneak off with a handful of gold coins at the very least. Figure if not, I'll just grab a sword or something and pawn it off at the blacksmith. Either way, I'll pay you back, Fay. I promise."

The moon was out in full bloom now, casting an eerie glow into Fay's bedroom, the only light coming from the various cheap wax candles she had scattered about.

"Living? Uhh....good question. I really don't have a place to call my own. I just kinda wander from town to town, sleeping where I can. I was going to climb up that big tree behind the Inn and see if I can't sneak my way into a room, but if not, I'll probably just crash in a bale of hay behind the stable."

Fay blushed a little, she couldn't believe she was doing this, she hated the man before her and would like nothing more then to beat him till he was a red mass on the floor but she still had a soft spot for him, "No, I won't have you sneaking into inns or sleeping in hay. Even when we were in the castle we found a bed to sleep in, and I guess you're out of retirement, I don't like that, even I make an "honest" living and I'm a harlot, though it doesn't surprise me. You are who you are because you were who you were, and to change who you are you have to change who you were," She told Irving.

"But for the time being you can stay here, I think you deserve some time with your children, and they're always asking about their father..." Her voice trailed off, "I was even looking for a husband about a year ago, but no one would have a prostitute with two children," She told him, that wasn't the only reason but she was content with what she had told him.

This confused Irving, because the thief would have thought Fay would love nothing more than to castrate him, let alone offer him a place to sleep. Though he wanted to ask where exactly he would be sleeping, he figured it would be best to not press his luck.

"Thanks Fay." he said quietly. He looked down at his one booted foot, and his one bare foot, finding himself too ashamed to make eye contact with her. "I would like to pretend that I deserve this hospitality, but I think we both can agree we don't."

He sat like this for a moment or two, nothing but an awkward silence hanging thickly in the air between the two former lovers. Finally, Irving spoke, figure it was best to make with what he had.

"Well...since I'm here, are you hungry at all? I could at least make you something to eat."

She nodded a little, "Y-yes, I would love that. I haven't eaten in a day or two," She said before backing up and leaning on the bed, "And maybe we could catch up, after all, the last time we were on the same room was well," She cleared her throat, "Yeah..." She smiled, "Hell, I don't even know if we're still married, I didn't bother with the those matters because it's not like a woman would have a say in that matter..."

"Come on," She said standing up straight and walking out of the door way that was almost missing it's door, "Though, I don't know what we have food wise right now, but we do have a good deal of ale maybe a little of rum," She told him, she had developed a bit of a drinking habit to help her coupe with the things guys made her do.

Irving nodded, his head in a daze and in a fog. "S-sure, Fay. Some rum sounds nice." he said. He followed out out the busted out door, down the creaky steps into what he assumed was their living room. A thread bare, worn out couch sat in the middle, in front of the hodge podge, cobblestone fireplace, in which a single glowing log rested.

Irving sat down on the couch while Fay went to get something to drink. He could hear mice squeaking from various directions, yet couldn't pinpoint their exact location. He felt like he could throw up.

'This is my fault. Me and my stupid hormones...' he thought to himself. His heart broke in a thousand different pieces for Fay and he was determined to somehow, someway, make it up to her.

Fay came back into the room carrying a bottle of rum and two glasses, they were, surprisingly, not chipped or anything, she set them down on a low table in front of the couch and walked over to the door and locked it, "Sailors..." She started, "They'll come in drunk without knocking and no matter what you're doing just barge in force you down and walk out without paying... I usually have that door locked though," She shrugged, everyone could make mistakes.

She sat down next to Irving and poured him a glass, a little more then someone would get at a bar and poured herself a glass with more then she poured in Irving's. She didn't know if he ever saw her drink, she didn't think so. She brought the glass to her lips and drank the almost all of what the glass was holding in one shot. She started feeling warm and tingly inside, she was a bit of a light weight, she leaned her head back letting it hit the wall behind her, she put her shoe less feet on the table. She wasn't proper at all and saw it useless to act since she didn't have to try to impress Irving. She laughed a little, "I think once before you said that parent's couldn't hate their kids, before Alex was born and before I could get back on my feet I went to see my mom, just to kid of live with her..." She laughed, "Oh the look that woman gave me... The first words she said to me were, "Oh, I thought you were dead, Fay. She loved Jillian though, and at least she was nice to one of us..." She said tapping her nails against the side of her glass.

"Yeah, I got the feeling your mother liked me...heh, I'm sure she hates my guts now." Irving said, taking a deep swig of his rum. The substance was surprisingly strong, much 'harder' in bite than compared to the ale he had earlier. The substance warmed him from within, as if he were drinking liquid fire.

He swallowed down several more glasses worth, as the night carried on. Fay had thrown some more wood on the fire and now the fireplace was cracking and snapping with gusto. The combination of the moon light and the fire light made Fay's skin almost seem to glow lightly, illuminating the delicate features of her face.

Irving bit his bottom lip, trying to fight back the feelings that wanted to surge through his heart again, But underneath the worn out expression, underneath the faded green eyes, he could still see the girl he fell so madly in love with.

"Fay..." he said scooting a bit closer to her. "I know...I know I'm an ass...and I know I'm a horrible person...but...if it means anything to you, know that this. Know that I still love you and tonight, you look amazingly beautiful, as always."

((Don't worry readers, this isn't going to get NC-17))

This was a surprise. A huge surprise. Never in a million years did he expect Fay, of all people, to be coming on to him. It had been years since he felt her embrace, a sweet, gentle touch that had only seemed like a bad memory he could never let go. With his hands shaking slightly, he wrapped them around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

His hands ran up and down her bare arms, her skin just as smooth as it always had been. Her weight pressed down on him, as her tongue snaked it's way into his mouth, the thief offering little resistance to her advances. His tongue explored every inch of her mouth, letting loose a little over 4 years of tension.

He could wait no more, the passion, the desire, the raw carnal pleasure was just too over whelming. With his hands firmly resting on the small of her back, he stood up and let her cling to him, her legs wrapped tightly around her waist.

It took a bit of effort to see where he was going, but he made his way to Fay's bedroom. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, working in a dream like state as he unbuttoned the back of her blouse, and slide down her heavenly shoulders.

"I love you...so much..." he whispered to his goddess, and tugged the dress completely off of her.

The morning sun came through the damaged window. She put her hand on her pillow and found it to not be fabric but flesh. She opened her emerald eyes and looked up, Oh shit... She thought, the fact that both she and Irving were completely nude finally sunk in. Her head hurt and she was dizzy, Irving was still sound asleep. She looked back out the window and could see the sun, it was late, about ten am.

Wait... She thought, it was to quiet in the house, Alexander always comes running into my room as soon as he gets up and says good morning to me... Jillian always follows him... No one came in the room and I don't hear anyone down stairs, she thought before getting out of bed and putting her white slip on and hurried down the stairs almost silently. She walked down the hall to their room and opened the door both of their beds were empty, she looked in the kitchen area, it was just as she left it.

She felt as if she was going to throw up and ran out of her house, not caring that she was only in the small white slip. She knocked on her neighbors door, the woman opened it.

“What's wrong Fay?” The woman asked.

“Lucy... It's Alexander and Jillian, they're gone, I checked the whole house, they're no where,” She cried.

“Oh god...” Lucy whispered, “It's not like them to run off...”

Fay just nodded and ran off, she didn't have time for that, “Jillian, Alexander?” She called as she surveyed the area for her children, “Where are you?” She asked. She spotted a guard, “Please sir, you have to help me! my...”

The guard interrupted her, “Listen whore, put your clothes on and don't come crying rape to me ever again, you and your little friends complain about this every time a new ship comes in and I'm sick of it, now go back to your little hovel, put your clothes on, and move on, I have more important things to take care of,” The guard told her.

“But, sir my children...” He interrupted her again.

“You should have thought of that, whore, before you had children,” He told her, “Have a nice day.”

Fay just narrowed her eyes and balled up her fist, she wanted to punch the guard, but knew that it would land her in jail and then her children would never be found. She just turned around and walked home, up the stairs and into her room where Irving was still asleep. Tears were running down her cheeks she grabbed a hold of his shoulders and shook him, “Irving wake up,” She cried, “Jillian and Alexander aren't in the house, I can't find them anywhere...”

"Huh...wha...I..missing?" he said, his brains starting to unscramble themselves. He had planned on sleeping in a bit, curling up next to Fay and possibly, POSSIBLY asking for the chance to be taken back, but now was not such a time.

Quick as a bolt of lightning, he said straight up in bed, his eyes locked into hers as he put his hands on her should. "Okay, calm down, Fay." he said and gave her a quick, reassuring peck on her forehead.

He wasted no time in sliding back on his leather pants, but neglected his shirt. Following the frantic Fay to the kids room, he noticed a piece of parchment nailed above Jillin's bed.

'WHORE-

YOU HAVE 24 HOURS TO TURN YOURSELF OVER TO BE MY HARLOT. IF NOT, THE CHILDREN DIE.

SIGNED,
THE BARON'

"The Baron....?" Irving thought out loud. "THE BARON! I thought that fat bastard on top of you looked familar! That's Baron Trussledorf, the very same guy I was going to rip off! That sunvabitch! He's using your, I mean our...I mean, Jillian and Alexander as leverage."

Irving slammed his fist into the wooden wall so hard, that it was a miracle he didn't break a finger.

"I promise I will get your kids back, Fay. I swear."