Claire POV-

Jordan quite literally crashed on to her bed after a days worth of pursuit for the pirates.A mission that didn't have promising results. Somewhere out there were the pirates camping, plotting perhaps.

The covers were comfortable but the aches on her legs were too much to fall asleep.

She wanted to go back out and look for them again but a part of her knew it would be a futile effort on her part. Her only hope now was that they were safe from those that wanted them dead and that she would be able to help them next time she saw them.

When Tom had mentioned booty that gave her an idea, the pirates loved gold in the streams, perhaps that could help them feel more at ease, like a peace offering. Tomorrow she would go mining for gold all day in the hopes of it helping her strike a deal with them.

But she couldn't even think about mining without her body protesting in pain.

"You look awful" said a voice behind her

Jordan's face was fully buried in her pillow as she laid on her belly on the bed, it took a great amount of effort to attempt to face whomever was standing in her room. After a unless attempt she just groaned and threw a pillow in the direction of the voice, by the sound of it, the pillow hit the intended target with a thud.

"Go away Tucker, my legs are about to fall off" she whined

"Tucker?! You can't even recognize my voice" the voice echoed in the room with a laugh

Her brain couldn't think properly because of the pain, she was almost sure it had been Tucker. Reluctantly, Jordan managed to turn on her back and face her friend when a gasp escaped her throat.

Stefan...the guard from yesterday.

"Um...what are you doing here?" she asked

Dianite probably knew about the pirates and sent him for information...

"I told you I'd come visit you. I wasn't sure where you lived but then I saw this giant tree and thought to myself 'Now what little doe would live in such place?' and decided to test my luck"he said "Sure enough, I was right. Only someone like you would live in such an unusual place"

Jordan closed her eyes and laughed

"Point taken, but what are you doing here exactly, did Dianite send you?" she asked

Stefan sat at the edge of the bed and reached for her, without a moment of hesitation she staggered away ignoring the flowing pain of her calves.

He scoffed in frustration and held his hands in the air, surrendering.

"I was just going to help, I don't help people often so stop complaining and accept this very rare offer" he said

He had been kind to her up till then, perhaps she was being unfair to him but the moment he showed hostility she would kill him. Jordan relaxed on the bed once more and Stefan let out a satisfied sigh.

To her surprise he did help. Stefan began massaging her calves intricately, in a way that caused her pain the first time but them soothed her pain.

"Your muscles are incredibly overworked, What did you do?" he said while he massaged

"Ran like hell for hours"

She finally took the time to look at him then. He wasn't wearing his lava armor, instead he had on a simple pair of leather pants and skin tight long sleeve shirt, both black and red. He had no weapons on him, not even any visible on his boots. Like last time she saw him, his dark hair was combed back and green eyes still blazing bright despite the lack of light in the room.

There he was, a guard of the nether, gently massaging her aches for whatever reason. The thought puzzled her, but she knew it was wrong to assume things about a person. After all, Dianite turned out to not be as bad as everyone thought, maybe there were others in the nether that were the same, maybe Stefan was one of them.

"Done looking me over?" he asked suddenly, snapping her out of her thoughts

"I wasn't! its just odd not seeing you with the crazy armor" she replied, still laying still on the bed

"And you're not dressed like a doll today, guess today is full of surprises" Stefan said

Its like they had switched places then, Jordan was wearing her fighting clothes and cape and had at least eight weapons she hadn't bothered to take off when she made it back home. Meanwhile, Stefan looked like the innocent doe now.

"Must be very confident in yourself to roam around at night with no weapons" Jordan added

Stefan finished massaging the back of her legs and began removing her shoes, now beginning to ease the pain on her feet without a word. He finally looked up and saw her staring with the puzzled look she knew she had plastered all over it.

" When I was a young boy, I had to train day and night, aches filled every inch of my body that made me feel like I was gonna fall apart. Luckily, the older soldiers had been dealing with them for years and taught me how to soothe them. As the years went by, the pain became easier to ignore until my body was so used to it I no longer felt pain" he said quietly, his eyes elsewhere re living the moment he described.

"Training to be Dianite's guard? It was that bad?" she asked

Stefan laughed deeply, but not like his usual laughter, this one contained pain.

"Parents used to offer their first borns to fight in Dinaite's army back when civilizations still existed. Once I turned eight I was shipped to his training camp without so much as a goodbye. That initial training is meant to get rid of the weaklings, so it was very intense full of work and punishments" he said , his silhouette barely visible in the dark

"I made it through, but the actual guard training was the worse torture you could imagine, still, failure would have brought dishonor to my family so it was never an option, good motivation to Iive by at the time" Stefan said, his fingers slowing down against her skin

"Sorry you had to go through that" Jordan said, and meant it.

"No need, its a ritual of sorts, one that made me into the man I am today. I am strong because of it, and strength is a big asset in survival in this world"

"Then thanks for sharing a bit of your life with me, I know its not always easy to think back on hard memories" Jordan explained

Stefan smiled and stood from the bed, he got the bucket of water she kept on the corner of the room in case Tom or Dianite decided to set her tree on fire. He then placed his hand inside and the water began to heat up.

"What are you..." Jordan began to ask

"Im gonna place heat on your muscles to help them relax" he said as he placed some of the towels she had on her desk into the now boiling water

"Pull up your pants, unless you'd rather I do that for you" he teased with an evil smirk

She did as he requested after debating wether or not to shove him off the bed.

Stefan placed the wet towels around her calves and relief flowed through her as her aches began to vanish.

"See, told you it would help" he said, now sitting down next to her on the other side of the bed, a respectful distance away.

"Once they get cold, I'll switch them out" he added as he leaned back on the headstand of her bed

"You don't have to help me you know, aren't you tired?" she asked

"Nah, I'm more of a night owl and not just because of the temporary night vision" he joked "And I'm helping because I can. You know, other people would simply thank me for my services"

"Right, where are my manners?" Jordan joked back

"You know, when you said you'd come visit I never expected you to come by so soon, I literally just saw you yesterday" she added after a few seconds of silence

"I got bored at work, and what better way to be rid of my boredom than to visit my favorite sassy doe" he said "Knew you'd keep me entertained"

"Favorite? how many other does do you know?"

"Just you I suppose"

As promised, once the towels got cold he went ahead and changed them, returning to his place next to her right after.

"Not many personal items here, what happened to your family and home? Die because of the war?" he asked as he settled the covers on both once the air outside grew colder

"No, both are still standing. My parents and sister still live at home, I assume they are doing well" she said

She wasn't so sure if they were ok, for all she knew they were crazy worried for her. Maybe they thought she ran away or was abducted.

"So there are more humans int his world still" he assumed

"Nope, they aren't in this world"

"So they did die?"

"No. Im from another world" she added, enjoying playing around with his confusion

He stoped to digest her words, turning them inside his head trying to make sense of them for minutes.

"A portal brought me from my world to yours by accident, been here for a few months now"

He looked at her, this time his eyes trying to reach her soul to search for answers. She could see a bit of disbelief his eyes but also creeping acceptance.

"No wonder you're so odd" he finally said

"Look who's talking! Mr. I wear flowing lava in my armor"

"Hmm, must have been powerful magic that brought you here. The nearest world I know of is still very far away from us, are you from Ruxomar by any chance?"Stefan asked

"Nope. Still can believe that place is an actual thing! I come from Earth"

"Earth? Thats an odd name" he said, scratching his head

"Well I am from earth, hence the lack of personal items, but thankfully I do have some things from home" she said "we can put on some music if you'd like"

"Music? you brought instruments from your world?" he asked

"Haha you guys are so old school" Jordan said as she reached for her iPad and went through her music

From the corner of her eye she could see Stefan leaning closer to her and the device in amusement, his eyes almost glowing gold with curiosity

Once she made her selection and the music rang across the room Stefan actually jumped back in amusement.

"Fascinating!" Stefan said "What kind of magic is this? Are you keeping people in there to sing for you?"

"What!? No! It's technology, not magic" Jordan added

They stayed up listening to a few songs, Jordan even attempted to teach him how to use the basic mechanics of it. He was a quick learner.

After a few hours, he was making the song selections himself.

"Your world must be magnificent with these kinds of devices" he said after selecting the song she had originally chosen.

"Helps make things easier. The magic from your world intrigues me just as much as my technology does to you. My world doesn't have any magic and I'm sure everyone dreams of it sometimes" Jordan said

He laughed and they both continued to listen to music until she finally fell asleep.

Stefan was still next to her when she woke up, both had fallen asleep leaning on each other with the iPad sitting between them. Stefan must have turned it off when they bang dozing off...

Sunlight shone from her balcony walkway and windows, welcoming and warm.

As she stood, careful not to wake up Stefan, she noticed all her aches from yesterday were gone. That nether guard had actually helped her...

She ran downstairs and prepared breakfast for the both of them, as a thank you gift for helping her aches. Once she went back upstairs with the bread and milk he was barely awake, hair a mess and eyes adjusting to the light.

"Here, brought you some food" Jordan said, handing him over the food which he bit into quickly

"I see your recovery came in nicely" he added in between bites

"Not a hint of pain"

Both ate the food on the bed in silence until the silence was cut off.

"Jordan! Ready to go hunting today?" Tucker said through he world communicator

"At least we'll look fabulous as we do thanks to me of course" Sonja added

"Meet you guys in an hour" Jordan said back to them, getting up from the bed

She had some pirate clothes they had 'borrowed' from the ship to look like pirates yesterday.

There weren't many girl outfits, and she knew who they belonged to. She had stolen Capsize's clothes.... but on the bright side she would look like a pirate.

Stefan noticed the clothes and laughed

"We're all about doing things in style here in Mianite" Jordan said, going to the other room to change.

"Guess I should leave you to it and get back to work while you go get yourself some food" he said

Jordan paused and looked back at him

"Thank you for your help" she said, bitterness in her voice because she knew thats what he wanted to hear.

"No worries little doe, if you don't come visit I'm afraid I will have to come visit you again soon. I still want to know hoot work that device better" he said as he made another mocking bow and disappeared in the elevator.

Jordan got changed and after finishing her breakfast, she headed down to search for the pirates again, and this time she wouldn't fail....