#sorry i just wanted to call it a horsefly i hate those:)

[magnumopos]

it's like a strange little insect to me

[spiteweaver]

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Mergo’s eyes scanned the crowd. There were faces he recognized and those he did not, but that was nothing unusual for the village square. Feldspar was a territory of commerce and trade, as well as a political hotbed. Migrants were as common as horseflies in these parts.

There was a pattern tonight, though--a repeating series of traits belonging to multiple individuals, spread out across the town center like points on a graph. They were dissimilar enough that the untrained eye would gloss over them, but his eyes were not untrained, and so he picked them out one by one from his place outside of one of the local cafes.

Dark clothes. Hooded. Standing almost perfectly still.

If they were trying to appear casual, if they were trying to blend in, they had failed miserably. It was true that Feldspar housed its fair share of shady characters, but they knew how to hide in plain sight. These were out-of-towners, without a doubt--and shady out-of-towners were always trouble.

“Are you Mergo?”

For a split second, he diverted his attention to the source of the inquiry. It was a drake, tall, broad, looking a little out of place and out of breath, as if he had run all over the village seeking someone in particular. Mergo supposed, based upon his question, that that someone in particular was himself.

“Yes,” he said, and returned his gaze to the crowd.

The hooded figures had moved on.

“Can I sit?” the drake asked.

“If you’re so inclined.”

The drake fell into the chair across from Mergo with a heavy sigh; it groaned in protest under his considerable weight--all muscle, Mergo noted. “Been lookin’ all over for ya,” he said. “Some blokes out ‘round the south gate told me you’d be home about now.”

“I like to mix things up,” Mergo replied. “Do you need me for something? Because, if not, I have some business with the founder--”

“Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt ya.” The drake held up his hands--calloused, a worker’s hands. “I’m just lookin’ to acquire your services, that’s all,” he said. “Heard you’re the best detective in the region, on account of your, uh, ‘ability.’”

“I’m a diviner,” Mergo clarified, “of a sort.” He looked the drake up and down. Red-haired, green-eyed, with a grin like distilled mischief--he was an alley cat, and no mistake. “I don’t believe it’s my divination skills you’re interested in.”

“Ya don’t, huh?”

“You’re feeding me half-truths,” Mergo said, “which, if you knew so much about me, you should have known was a poor idea.”

“Well I couldn’t just mosey up ‘n tell ya I wanted to bed ya, could I?”

It wasn’t the first time someone had propositioned him, and he felt certain it wouldn’t be the last, but nonetheless, a fine dusting of pink colored Mergo’s cheeks at the frank admission. Worse than the drake’s boldness was, perhaps, the simple fact that he was being truthful.

“You haven’t even given me your name,” Mergo pointed out.

“Argus,” the drake said, and extended a hand. Mergo moved to shake it, but Argus pressed a firm kiss upon his knuckles instead. “I figured it’d be better if ya thought I was after your skills ‘stead of your arse,” he confessed. “But I’ve been watchin’ ya a while now, the past few days, and, well, you’re too good to pass up. I had to at least talk to ya.”

“Do you bed a drake in every town you visit, Argus?” Mergo asked, the ghost of a teasing smile playing out across his lips.

“I try to,” Argus replied. “A healthy love life’s the key to longevity--or so my da used to tell me.”

“Well, I’m afraid I’m not quite that easy.” Mergo drained his cup of tea and stood, his hand slipping easily from Argus’ grasp. “If you’re going to be in town for a while,” he said, “then perhaps you might have a shot. You’re exactly my type--and you know it’s true, because I can’t lie. I like to get to know my partners a bit before diving into bed with them, though, so if that’s all--”

“You’re sayin’ I can woo ya, then?” Argus’ grin widened, showing off his abnormally sharp (and charming) canines. “I like a challenge,” he said, “and I like you. Don’t think I’ll be in town too long, but I come through often enough. I’ll have plenty of time to win your heart.”

“Hmph.” Mergo chuckled. “You’re quite confident. What if I didn’t like confident drakes?”

“Who doesn’t like confident drakes?”

“Point taken.”

“Lemme walk ya home.” Argus stood as well, so eagerly that he nearly knocked over his own chair. Mergo hid his smirk behind a raised hand. “Ah, ya said ya had business with the founder, though,” Argus said. “Damn, ‘n here I was hopin’ to win some favor with ya.”

“I’ll allow it,” Mergo said, “but you might have to wait a while.”

“I’d wait a hundred years for a drake like you.”

“Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?”

“Was I lyin’?”

“No,” Mergo said, “you weren’t. When you do, I’ll be sure to call you on it.”

Argus laughed, loud and hearty. “Lookin’ forward to it!”

His meeting with Dreamweaver was brief. Preparations for Brightshine were already under way, so they were busy enough without sneaking suspicions and conspiracy theories. He reported what he had seen, ensured them that he would keep an eye open for any further unusual activity, and left.

Argus was waiting for him outside, leaned against the wall, his arms, thick with muscle and hair in equal measure, crossed over his chest. It was all Mergo could do to keep his lip unbitten. Argus was a fine specimen of a drake, and although Mergo had meant what he’d said about not kissing on the first date, he was sincerely considering throwing caution to the wind--just this once.

The longer they walked together, the more physical Argus became. It started with a slight brushing of their shoulders--but by the time they’d arrived outside of his home, quiet, tucked away in a dark corner of the village, they were arm-in-arm.

“--and that’s when I packed up and became a merc,” Argus concluded. “Not my whole life story, drake’s gotta have some secrets, but those’re the basics.”

“The bit about the pigs was my favorite,” Mergo said. “Your father was certainly...eccentric.”

“Aye, well, ya’d have to be to raise a lad as ornery as I was.”

A brief silence descended between them. They each stepped back to stare at one another across the meager breadth of Mergo’s front stoop.

Then they were kissing, so deeply that Mergo’s legs threatened to crumple beneath him. Argus wrapped his arms around Mergo’s waist to hold him steady, smiling smugly into the kiss. Undoubtedly, he was proud of himself, and Mergo wanted to hit him for it--but the smarmy bastard was justified, so he let it slide.

“I’m not inviting you in,” Mergo warned, when, at last, they parted for air. “A kiss is one thing; that is another.”

“‘S all right,” Argus said. “I’ve got what I came for.”

The ground rushed up to meet him, and he tasted copper on his tongue. It oozed into his mouth between his lips from a cut upon his temple. Argus stood above him, a foot on his back, a length of rope pulled tight between his hands. Mergo didn’t feel the sting of his wound or the weight of Argus’ boot, only a dazed sense of disappointment in himself.

He should have known.

“Sorry,” Argus said. Mergo jerked as his wrists were tugged behind him and bound. “Hate to mess up a pretty face, but I’d hate to have my pretty face messed up even more.”

“Who are you?” Mergo asked.

“Argus.”

“All that talk of your family--”

“All true.”

“You said you wanted to bed me.”

“I did. I do.”

His vision was blurred, out of focus, but he could make out other figures in the gloom just beyond the lamplight’s reach. The hooded strangers. He clenched his jaw. “You knew I would be suspicious,” he said. “You knew I would be suspicious of them and not you.”

“That was the idea,” Argus replied.

“How?” Mergo asked. “How did you fool me?”

“By not lying to you,” Argus said with a shrug. “I approached ya with the intention of acquiring your services. I never said they were for my own personal use. You picked up on that pretty quick, but that was fine--I figured ya would.”

“But everything else--”

“I have been watching you for the past few days,” Argus went on. “I did think you were too good to pass up. I wasn’t going to be in town very long, and I do come through here often enough. I was lookin’ to bed ya--just never said when. I will have plenty of time to win your heart, ‘cause we’re gonna be spendin’ a lot of it together.”

“You really think you can,” Mergo said, “after this?”

“I’m not the quittin’ type.”

Argus expected Mergo to lash out, to struggle, to scream, to do anything but burst into laughter--but laugh Mergo did, until his lungs ached and he wheezed with every breath.

“Why has no one ever thought of that before?” he mused. “It seems so obvious, doesn’t it? Just don’t lie to me.”

“Thanks,” Argus said, “took me ‘n the boys bloody ages to come up with it. Dealin’ with you’s like dealin’ with smoke with your bare hands. Now...” Argus pulled Mergo onto his feet by his bindings. The hooded strangers drew in close. “You gonna come quietly?” Argus asked. “I don’t wanna have to hurt ya, or--”

“Or anyone else?”

“Yeah.”

“You beat me at my own game,” Mergo said. “I’m yours.”