With nothing left to do for the day, Tibaut decided to visit Vanessa.

As soon as he got down to the basement he could feel the oppressive heat of her forge. While his flames had helped him to build up somewhat of a high-temperature resistance, the heat down here was anything but healthy. He was surprised someone would willingly put themselves in a room like this. When he saw Vanessa, the clothes she was wearing were drenched in sweat.

He was unsure if the sweat cooled her down or the humidity from it made the heat worse.

While she seemed to be hammering away at a piece of metal she noticed him. It seemed whatever she was doing had been important as kept hammering while trying her best to keep a conversation.

"You like seeing women sweat?" She said wholly focused on her task.

"How the hell do you work like this?"

"What do you mean?" She said while breathing heavily. "Having all you could need in one place is convenient. Don't tell me you think this place is cluttered?"

"No, I was talking about the heat."

"I thought since you throw fire all the time this wouldn't be that bad for you, was I wrong?"

"You're not, but last I checked you can't do that,"

"So what? If I can't handle at least this amount of heat how can I call myself a blacksmith?"

Tibaut sighed.

"Well be careful, I don't think it'd be pretty if you fell unconscious and landed on whatever hot metal you're working on." He said while shrugging his shoulders.

"Let's get down to business already, you surely didn't come down here to warn a smith about the danger of their own trade now did ya? If you're wondering about your armour it's not gonna be done for a few more days, so come back some other time."

"I didn't come down here for any sort of business, honestly I just was bored. Now that I'm here, watching you doesn't seem like a bad way to waste some time."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Although Tibaut had no way of knowing due to her dark skin, this caused her to slightly blush.

("Tch I know your type, you say you're interested to try and hook me in. You're 100 years too young to get me to fall for that, green horn.")

Then as she continued she occasionally glanced over to Tibaut. And with every move she made Tibaut would be intently staring at her. And this continued on for over an hour.

("Is he actually interested? Seriously!?")

She felt somewhat embarrassed by this as this was the first time she could recall someone had watched her smith something.

She then quenched the metal in a large container of liquid and left it to cool. She then wiped the sweat off her head and turned to Tibaut.

"Was it really that interesting?"

"I mean…yeah. It's really interesting to see how a professional like you does stuff. I didn't even know you used the pointy part of the anvil for that."

His genuine compliment pushed her over the edge. In a desperate attempt to not let her embarrassment show, she quickly searched for a sword.

"Stop yapping your mouth and help me with this."

"I know you're still mad about the armour thing but give me a break already." He said. He then approached her to see what she was holding.

Although the blood had been cleaned off of it, there was no mistaking what it was. It was Ezekiel's (formerly Mr. Bentley's) claymore. It was chipped beyond belief and looked more like a saw than a sword. It was a mystery if it could even be restored in the first place.

("Ugh, why'd I grab this one?") She lamented to herself after the fact.

"You're gonna fix that?" Tibaut said in shock.

"Yep. Although with how bad the blade is looking, we might have to melt it down and forge it from scratch."

"We?" Tibaut asked, hoping she was making an error.

"What, you think the show was free?"

"Ah, well would you look at the time, I think it's to look for something to eat."

She didn't try stopping him and looked as though she was getting ready to put the sword back.

("Thank God, this would be way too much of a pain in the ass to deal with today.")

Upon seeing her not try to stop him, he turned back and started producing a flame in his hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

He then looked for a stool and sat down on it.

"What does it look like? I'm helping you. I'm not so heartless I'd actually just leave like that."

"Huh?"

"Come on, let's start already. I don't want this taking past midnight. Elizabeth's probably gonna kick my ass if I don't wake up in time for her training."

Vanessa at first didn't know how to respond. This might have been the first time someone's ever willingly decided to help her with her blacksmithing.

("Of all the times to pull this shit, was now really the time. Although… I suppose it isn't so bad having him be willing to help out now and then.")

She then broke out of her shock and responded.

"Sorry to disappoint but it may be a whole day's operation."

"Seriously?" He complained yet he never bothered looking at the exit.

Since they were melting metal he made the hottest flame he could manage and unbeknownst to him Vanessa had a smile on her face as they began to slave away at the task before them.