Raff stood outside the noisy building, wondering what in the name of Silver he was doing. Music and laughter and light spilled from the windows like vomit, making him sick to his stomach. He hated places like this. All of the people pressed up next to you, half of which smelled, and sure, the other half didn’t smell, they smelled good, real good, but they just wanted things from you. They didn’t say it at first, of course. At first, it was all compliments and laughter, but if you watched close, you could tell what they were really thinking. What they were really after. They wanted flowers, and dresses, and jewelry, and other stupid things. And sometimes…sometimes, they just wanted you, and that was the worst of all.

He shivered at the thought of it and turned to leave, wanting to get away from this place before he saw someone that knew him.

“Raff? Raff, is that you?”

The voice was light and pleasant, but it made his entire body tense. He turned around slowly, trying to force a smile onto his face. Apparently, he failed miserably because when the girl saw him she gasped in shock, putting a hand over her mouth.

“Raff, are you okay?” she asked, full of concern. Sabine was more than a head shorter than he was and so had to look up at him. The hand she had used to cover her mouth floated up to his face and touched his cheek. “You look awful.”

His skin tingled at the contact, and he quickly snatched her fingers away only to realize that he was now holding her small and warm hand in both of his. She stared at him, brows furrowed in worry, and fast as he could, he let go of her. He let go, and his hands shot up to comb his hair, then down to his sides, and he had to grasp his pant legs to keep them from flying off in other random directions.

“I’m fine,” he sputtered. “Just, uh, waiting is all.”

“Waiting?” she asked, her frown deepening. “Whatever for?”

“For Cal and the others,” he said, trying to smile again. “Wouldn’t want to start without ‘em, you know?”

He must have been doing a better job because this time she didn’t cringe.

“Silly,” Sabine said, slapping his arm. “They’ve been in there for the past few hours and the whole time wondering where you were.”

Raff didn’t want to be, but for some reason he was grinning sheepishly. “So you’ve already gone in? What are you doing out here then?”

Sabine brushed back some stray black hairs that had gotten in her face. “Well, we were all celebrating, and Nina, the pretty Keldese girl with the long neck,” she added when Raff looked confused. “She celebrated a little too much and a little too quickly and started not feeling well. The poor thing didn’t want to leave without seeing you first, of course, but she just kept getting worse and worse, and finally, I put my foot down and told her that she would just have to see you another time because I was taking her home.”

“You took her home all by yourself?” He couldn’t believe that Cal wouldn’t have offered. He was gallant to a fault and always jumped at a chance to be with Nina. Unless it was Tina…

“Oh no, of course not,” Sabine said, laughing at the idea. “Cal tried to accompany me, and so did Ned and Flance. But I could see how badly they wanted to stay and I wasn’t about to drag them away from seeing you…especially not tonight.” She got quieter at the end, though Raff wasn’t sure why. “So, I took her home,” Sabine continued, her cheery air having returned, “and had Emily--”

“Who?” Raff interrupted before calling himself an idiot. He didn’t care about this story. Why was he asking questions that would just prolong its telling?

“Raff, honestly,” she said with playful annoyance. “Emily with the lisp? She only fawned over you for the better part of last year, until I convinced her you were a doof and had her meet my brother’s friend Jaime. They’ve been together ever since.”

“Oh,” was all he said. A doof?

“Anyway, I had Emily come with me, but right as we dropped Nina off, Jaime happened by, because he was on the way here to see Emily, and so we all headed back together. But then they decided they wanted to be alone, so I had to walk the last two blocks all by myself.” With an even larger smile, she said, “I bet you had no idea how adventurous I was.” And once again she went to slap his arm, but this time it landed gently and didn’t move away as she looked up at him.

The hand was heavy even though it was small, and all he could manage to say was, “You think I’m a doof?” Anyone walking by must have thought he had said the funniest thing ever because Sabine threw back her head and laughed so fully and so delightfully that the sounds coming from the tavern were almost drowned.

“Oh, Raff,” she said, as her laughter died away and she wiped a single tear from her eye. “I had forgotten how fun you are.” She gazed up at him again, in a way that sent goosebumps prickling all over his skin. Much to his relief, she seemed to remember something. “And look at me, being selfish and keeping you all to myself, when everyone wants to see you.” Without another word, she wrapped her right arm around his left and marched him toward the tavern.

Raff’s mind raced through escape plans, but besides shoving Sabine to the ground and sprinting off, nothing was coming. Then the door was upon him, old and splintered, fitted into the building at an ugly angle. A large brass handle sprouted from the wood, and Raff--resigning himself to it all--yanked the door open with a grunt, letting Sabine lead him inside.

The belly of the tavern was quite full: some people sitting, more standing, all talking loudly with drinks in hand or placed not an arm’s length away. A great cheer rose up as the patrons saw who the newcomers were. Raff grimaced at the noise but caught Sabine blushing from the attention. The loudest screams came from the back of the building, and he veered that way, seeing his friends standing up on their stools, howling and hooting at his approach.

Making his way through the press, Raff had to force himself not to hit all of the people who were slapping him on the back and slobbering words of wisdom in his ear.

“Master Raff, my boy. You do us proud, you do us proud,” one fat man said, as he teetered back and forth.

Another older man jabbed him in the ribs and cast a knowing eye at Sabine.

“Picked the prettiest maid, did ya? Well, you deserve her, ya do!” he said with a toothy grin.

Raff didn’t like the way the man leered, but Sabine pecked the old timer on the cheek, which led to a fresh bout of whooping from those nearby. Raff shook his head.

I’ll never understand girls.

The two of them had almost reached their friends when a large hand grabbed onto his shoulder and roughly turned him around

Instead of a person, Raff’s face met a fist. He reeled from the blow, knocking into Sabine, and they would have both fallen if hands from the crowd hadn’t appeared to catch them. Shouts and boos came up from every direction, a few hard-eyed patrons even looking like they would attack the culprit.

“No!” Raff yelled, as he shrugged off the help and moved toward the body that the fist was connected to. “Trell.”

The big boy stood in front of him, meaty hands raised to punch again. “Came for your hide like I promised.”

Raff breathed out, his focus narrowing: the tavern, the people around him, Sabine, even his throbbing cheek and jaw, all fell away. Trell was his world. Smiling, Raff lifted his own hands, balling them into fists.

This isn’t so bad after all.

Trell moved forward, edging into swinging distance. Unfortunately, the way the big boy shifted his weight reminded Raff of something he had completely forgotten about in his excitement.

“I’m not fighting you while you’re hurt, Trell,” Raff said with an annoyed sigh, dropping his guard. “So get out of here, before I have Cal come over and smack you around.”

“Is that how you two get rough when you’re tumbling under the stars?” Trell said, inching closer.

“No,” Raff said. “But that’s how Trish begged for it when we bedded last.”

“Yeah, she does beg,” replied Trell without batting an eye, “But nothing like your little sis did when she saw the size of my pole.”

Raff’s thoughts went from stunned to murder in a blink, but before he could tackle Trell, Sabine was between them. First, she slapped Trell, which made him happy, but then he received a hard palm to the face as well, on the same side he had been punched no less.

“You will both be quiet this instant,” Sabine said, stabbing the air in front of each of them with her finger. She rounded on Trell, who looked more surprised than hurt. “Trell, so help me, if I ever hear of you talking that way about Trish again, or even worse, a nine-year-old girl, not only will Trish know, but so will your mother. Now, we are celebrating Raff and Cal’s departure. You can either stay and join the fun or you can leave. The choice is yours, but you will do one or the other and you will make sure that you and everyone else is having a good time if you stay.” She whipped around to face Raff. “And you…”

Sabine’s finger shook and her nostrils flared.

Aww het…she’s mad, Raff thought, still feeling the sting of her hand on his cheek.

“Maybe it is good you’re leaving,” she said.

Her words stuck in the silent room, making Raff decidedly uncomfortable, though the moment didn’t last much longer than a handful of breaths.

“I’m going to go celebrate,” Sabine proclaimed. And with that she marched off, the crowd parting in front of her as if she was royalty.

Raff looked at Trell. Trell looked at Raff. Raff grunted. Trell grunted. They turned away from each other, and Raff began to follow the closing path that Sabine had made through the tavern. He thought he heard a few curses as Trell probably shoved people out of the way to get to the door, but with the music and talking having started again, he knew about as much as a deaf man.