Xander awakens the next day to Gwendolyn’s crystal blue eyes peering at him. She seems to be forming words with her lips, but between having one ear buried in a pillow and just waking up, he doesn’t quite comprehend what she is saying.

“Huh?” He loquaciously informs her that he didn’t hear. Gwendolyn frowns slightly back at him,

“You would really make me ask again?” Xander isn’t sure what she means until he feels something brush against a certain part of him.

He is immediately reminded of the euphoria of the previous night as he hears Gwendolyn repeat herself, “Do you want to go another round?”

Xander responds by immediately rolling over and kissing Gwendolyn along the neck.

Two hours later Xander’s stomach starts to growl.

“I am pretty hungry, we skipped dinner last night,” he points out, the meal being skipped in favor of higher priorities.

“I have an idea, why don’t you go get us breakfast, and we can eat it in bed,” Gwendolyn suggests, too comfortable in the tangle of their bedsheets to get up.

Xander gets out of bed and looks for his clothes scattered amongst Gwendolyn’s on the floor. He takes another look at his torn up shirt before putting it back on and straightens it out as best he can. Xander makes a stop in his room, grabbing a new shirt before heading to the cafeteria.

Upon arrival, he orders a couple of omelets as Gwendolyn requested.

“That is a lot for one person,” the cook observes after hearing Xander’s order.

“Yeah, I am ordering for someone else too,” Xander explains, not wanting to be viewed as a glutton.

He finds an empty seat and waits for the food to be ready. A couple of moments later Kayde and Drakthar enter the cafeteria for their lunch. They order their food and join Xander at his table.

Kayde is the first to ask, “Where were you last night? You never came back to your room”.

Xander frantically struggles to find a response, “Um … I was helping one of the airship’s mechanics fix something on top of the ship. He needed a way up and down and I’m more convenient and safe than going up the ladder on the outside”.

Drakthar pretends to believe him, despite knowing exactly what happened because he was recruited by Gwendolyn to be Grayson’s sparring partner. Despite this, Kayde still concludes Xander is lying but also doesn’t say anything about it.

Xander sees his order, two plates with puffy golden omelets on them. He carries one in each hand and heads back to the guest room he and Gwendolyn hooked up in.

Once he has left Kayde turns to Drakthar and asks, “So they totally banged last night right?”

“I don’t care,” Drakthar states plainly, not caring to engage in such a conversation.

Xander returns to see Gwendolyn sitting up in bed, still glowing from their previous encounter. He walks over and hands her the tray with her omelet on it.

Before she grabs the meal she demands, “Give me your shirt”.

“Wha… Why? Are you going to ruin this one too?” Xander jokes as his arm starts to slowly get tired from holding the tray out from him for an extended period of time.

“Maybe,” Gwendolyn grins slyly.

“No, I just don’t want to eat like this,” Gwendolyn adds, gesturing towards her body.

“You know your clothes are right there?” Xander nods towards her clothes on the floor, unable to point due to his hands being used to carry their breakfast.

“Yeah, but they are tight and hard to put on, just give me your shirt,” she demands slightly annoyed. Xander, realizing this could become an issue if he doesn’t comply, puts the omelets down, and gives her his shirt.

He grabs his food and sits down next to her in the bed.

“Next time, when I ask you to give me your shirt, just do it okay,” Gwendolyn tells him after taking her first bite into the omelet.

“Okay,” Xander doesn’t question it much, as he quickly shoves down his omelet.

“You know I thought you would like that kind of thing,” Gwendolyn mentions while meticulously carving out another square.

Xander halts his shoveling to think, “Oh… yeah, I guess I do”.

“So we have a day left here, what do you want to do?” Xander asks as he finishes his meal.

“Can we just lay low, I know my father probably wants to spar with you again, but I would rather you just stay right here with me all day,” Gwendolyn responds, batting her eyelashes at him subtly.

Gwendolyn finishes her meal a few minutes later. “Can you go get me a new pair of clothes?” She requests, not wanting to wear the dirty ones from yesterday.

Xander gets up, “Okay, but I am going to need my shirt back”.

“Your room is only ten doors down from this one, just grab another one and a new change of clothes while you are at it,” Gwendolyn delicately tells him to change his dirty clothes.

Xander sighs, “fine,” as he exits the room.

He walks at an increasing pace down the hallway so he doesn’t run into anyone. Luckily for him, it is around lunchtime so the halls are completely empty. That is until he rounds the corner colliding with Drakthar who just came back from lunch.

“Sorry,” Xander apologizes and quickly walks around him. Drakthar doesn’t say anything as he watches Xander disappear into his room. Xander changes into new clothes and sets off for Gwendolyn’s room.

As Xander is walking down the hall, Gwendolyn’s room is in he sees someone waiting nearby what could be her door. He squints and realizes it is Grayson standing outside her door with a grouchy look on his face. He immediately turns around to get out of his view.

Xander starts to panic internally not sure of what he should do. After weighing his options he heads back to the guest rooms. He knocks on a door, not the one of the room Gwendolyn is waiting in, but Kayde’s.

Kayde opens the door and sees Xander standing there, “What’s up dude?” Xander pushes past Kayde and closes the door behind him.

Xander begins to explain in a hushed tone, “Look, I need you to do something for me, but you can’t ask why”.

“I think I know what is going on here,” a smirk slowly appears on Kayde’s face.

Xander ignores it and asks, “Can you sneak past Grayson and get a new pair of clothes for Gwendolyn?”

Kayde’s smirk gets even larger, “Yes, I know exactly what is going on here”.

“Can you just help me out here?” Xander doesn’t take his teasing well.

“Alright buddy, I’ve got you,” Kayde agrees and heads towards Gwendolyn’s room.

As he gets close to the hallway Gwendolyn’s room is in, he turns himself invisible. He uses his old trick of slightly opening the door and backing off. Grayson, like so many before him, takes the bait and opens the door to see what happened.

Kayde slips into her room and stands out of the way in the corner.

“Weird,” Grayson comments after he finds nothing in the room. He closes the door and continues to wait.

Kayde turns off his invisibility and starts to rummage through Gwendolyn’s dresser. He finds regular looking tops and grabs one of those. As he is about to close the drawer he catches a low cut shirt out of the corner of his eye and pulls it back open.

He puts the first one back and holds that one up to discover it is a crop top as well. Now that he found this particular piece of clothing he decides the rest he picks out should be of a similar nature, in order to help Xander in a way.

In the next door, he finds bottoms. He looks around until he finds the shortest pair of shorts that also happen to be a size smaller than the rest of the stuff in there. In the last drawer, he finds the laciest set of underwear and grabs that completing the outfit.

Kayde puts the articles of clothing in his bag and goes invisible. He cracks the door, prompting Grayson to check once again.

“I know I closed this,” he grumbles as he checks inside again.

Kayde once again slips by hearing Grayson mumble, “I must be going senile”.

He returns to his room and becomes visible right in front of Xander, making a weird face when he does so. It gets no reaction from Xander, causing the weird face to be replaced by a frown.

“Did you get them?” Xander asks Kayde, who is moping in front of him.

“Yeah,” Kayde pulls them out of his bag of holding and hands them to Xander.

Xander quickly realizes what Kayde was going for here, “Really? What are you trying to do? Go back and get more normal clothes”.

“I can’t Grayson was already starting to get suspicious, you’re just going to have to give her those,” Kayde insists; he can’t be bothered to go back a second time after he put in so much effort to pick this out.

“Fine,” Xander rolls his eyes, recognizing he was already pushing his luck to ask Kayde to help him with this initially. Kayde can’t help but grin as he watches Xander leave thinking what Gwendolyn’s reaction to the clothes he selected might be.

Xander finally makes it back to the room Gwendolyn was waiting in. Upon opening the door he hears her exclaim, “About time. What took you so long?”

“Your dad was posted up outside your room like a guard,” Xander explains, handing her the new clothes.

Gwendolyn gets a closer look at the clothes, “Wow... Xander... I didn’t think you would be so bold in your choice of clothing”. Xander just looks down knowing it wasn’t his choice.

Gwendolyn picks up on this, “Wait… how did you get around my father?” Xander’s eyes stay trained on the floor hoping somehow magically she will forget she even asked the question.

“You got Kayde to get them for you didn’t you? That’s why the clothes are so… suggestive,” Gwendolyn finally comes up with the right word.

Xander sighs admitting, “Yeah, he got them for me. I think he was trying to mess with me with his choice of clothing”.

Gwendolyn gets out of bed and slips into what Xander brought her.

She walks directly into the center of his field of view and asks, “Well, do I look good?”

Xander, riveted by the beauty before him, finds himself physically unable to look away.

“I… I mean I think you look good in anything so…” Xander tries to figure out what to say.

“Maybe Kayde actually did do you a favor,” she laughs, steadily closing the gap between them and cornering him against the door.

They spend the rest of the day in the room before meeting up with Kayde and Drakthar to leave the next day.

“Alright guys, to the festival on the trade mesa!” Kayde tries to get the others to be as enthused about this as he is.

“Sure,” the other three respond drearily in unison.

As they try to leave Grayson is standing at the exit of the airship.

“Have a safe journey Gwendolyn. Stay safe,” he wishes her well as he hugs her.

“Thanks, I will,” she assures him. A bittersweet smile showing itself on his face, proud of the woman his daughter has become.

Grayson switches gears quite abruptly, “Xander, come here for a second”. Xander braces himself and walks up to him.

“If you try shenanigans like that again I will beat you until you are nothing, but a bloody pulp,” Grayson whispers into Xander’s ear. Xander’s face goes white the life draining from him. He nods and walks away with chills.

After they are out of earshot Gwendolyn asks the zombielike Xander, “What did he say to you?”

“He said that if I try anything like I did yesterday again he would beat me, most likely to death,” Xander lifelessly recalls the words that put him in his current state.

“You mean like… you know specifically? No, he would have to know something like that is bound to happen,” Gwendolyn starts to think out loud.

“I don’t know what he meant, but I know that he meant it,” Xander recalls the malice behind Grayson’s words.

“Well we are away from him now, so whatever he doesn’t know won’t kill him,” Gwendolyn tries to calm him down.

“Yeah, but it will kill him,” Kayde points to Xander, having heard the entire conversation.

Gwendolyn puts her hands on either side of Xander’s face and points it slightly down so they are making eye contact, “Don’t listen to him. You will be okay, my father is a big softie underneath it all”. Xander can only bring himself to nod robotically.

Later in the day, they arrive at the mesa.

“You guys should go look around at some of the things they have to sell. I’m sure there will be something here you will be interested in. I’m going to take care of all of this stuff,” Kayde holds up the bag of holding full of items he got from the Silent Brotherhood.

“I might as well check out some weapons,” Drakthar mentions before walking off.

“Is there anything you want?” Xander asks Gwendolyn, recovered from earlier today.

“I could use a bigger tent. The one I have now only fits one person,” Gwendolyn mentions insinuating there is a reason she would need a bigger tent.

“Yeah sounds like a plan,” Xander agrees enthusiastically, understanding what she’s getting at.

Kayde walks casually through the mesa taking in the sounds of people haggling among the many different stalls that have been hastily set up upon the mesa. He for the first time in awhile feels at home.

He looks around, trying to find an easy mark to trade with so he can maximize his profits. His eyes finally settle on someone familiar. He spots a balding man with a thick mustache standing in a stall full of fine weapons and armor. He remembers him as Jean the Blacksmith.

Kayde instinctively walks towards him, greeting the man who labeled Alcaeus a manservant warmly, “It’s good to see you here Jean”.

Jean the Blacksmith stares quizzically at what he assumes is a cyborg in front of him.

“I have never met you before,” he responds in his high, snooty voice.

It dawns on Kayde that he hasn’t met Jean the Blacksmith since they changed the future.

“You are correct, but I have certainly heard of you. How could I not have heard of the finest blacksmith in all of the desert?” He seamlessly recovers.

“Ah, yes that is I, you must be a man of great taste. What is your name fine sir? I would very much like to make your acquaintance,” Jean the Blacksmith is impressed by him.

“I’m Kayde. I’m just a simple trader looking to sell some wares I picked up in my travels,” Kayde introduces himself, stating his purpose in case Jean the Blacksmith could help him out.

Jean the Blacksmith leans in and whispers, “You see the booth three stalls down from mine? I have been watching them trade and they don’t know the first thing about making a correct valuation. If you are looking to maximize the gold you can make off your wares, best try to swindle those low-class degenerates”.

“Thanks for the tip,” Kayde tells him, he walks over to the booth Jean the Blacksmith specified and proceeds to make a killing off them.

He returns to Jean’s stall and gives him a few hundred gold for the advice, “Thanks, couldn’t have done that without you”.

“Anytime, I do hope you will visit me in Aconblasam Kayde, I will certainly not forget an individual of your stature,” Jean the Blacksmith comments, very much amused by his new friend.

“I will try, but I’m a very busy man these days. If time permits I will be more than glad to visit,” Kayde replies, knowing the others plans going forward.

“Until then,” Jean the Blacksmith bids him farewell.

On a different end of the mesa, Drakthar is browsing through the different stalls full of weaponry. To his displeasure, he sees no weapon more impressive than his own. He scoffs to himself, unimpressed by any of these smiths.

“You have such a nice battle-axe there, mind trading it for anything?” Drakthar looks down at the impish looking man that asked him that.

He laughs at the notion of being separated from his axe, “I have slain many a man and beast with this axe, and I will not be parting from it anytime soon”.

Drakthar couldn’t be more wrong as he feels a weight off his back as one of the impish man’s friends snatches the axe off his back. Unfortunately, he did not understand who he was stealing from. Drakthar’s lightning fast reflexes kick in, he turns around and easily sweeps the legs of the man running from him.

The man, now flat on his back, looks up at Drakthar in fear of what will be done to him. Drakthar just grabs his axe and attaches it to his back once again.

Before he can be on his way a group of officials that work for the festival approaches them, “What is going on here?”

“These two were trying to steal my axe so I stopped them,” Drakthar calmly explains to the officials what happened.

“No, he is lying sir. The axe is ours, but he attacked my friend and took it,” the impish looking man tries to trick the officials, making sure to sound as afraid as he can to garner sympathy.

“If it was your axe why does it fit so snugly on my back?” Drakthar states having had enough of this man’s games.

“I think I know exactly what is going on here. Seize those two men,” one official orders and the two men who tried to steal Drakthar’s axe are thrown out of the mesa.

“I am sorry they bothered you, thieves like them show up every year. We can’t catch all of them so it’s best if you stay on your toes,” the official advises Drakthar. He just grunts in response before walking off to find his friends.