Iris was once again in a tight situation, begging for some of Subaya’s guidance right now, or if her mother could pass her some wisdom from the grave. He was arguing with a butcher, a big man with grey hair who looks like he could take Arylos on in a fight. And her big idiot decided to call the butcher out on making his prices unreasonable even with the winter. The two had been haggling for the past hour, going back and forth with regards to prices and profit margins.

Iris could only sigh. The meat and the prices looked fine to her, but Arylos wouldn’t hear any of it. At this point, neither of them were having any pay off with all of this time spent haggling.

“I’m telling you, I won’t go any more than twenty-five by weight!” Arylos howled, unconsciously baring his fangs.

“And I’m telling you that if I sold them all that cheap, my family would have nothing to eat!” the butcher returned.

The two men were making no progress. Arylos already tried walking away, but got goaded by a passive comment by the butcher, something about him looking like a vampire; Iris couldn’t remember nor could she really care. Arylos may not be human, be he sure is picking up their worst traits.

“Arylos, can you just pay his price so we can go?” Iris asked, not even trying to persuade him knowing she will fail anyway.

“I told you, we can’t blow our daily limit and we need pork for tonight,” Arylos told her, trying to soften his expression. “I already bought everything else we need so it’s too late for me to change dishes at the last minute.”

“And it’s not like you’ll find pork this good anywhere else right now,” the butcher chimed in, catching Arylos’s frustration.

The two men went back to their arguing while Iris just sighed, tempted to leave Arylos behind to deal with this himself. Yet, she couldn’t do that just in case he got himself in a fight. The last thing she needs is him losing control and showing what he really is to the normal people who aren’t roommates with a Titan. She tried desperately to think of any possible outcome.

She then remembered Subaya’s words the other day and remembered something she read in a story about a thickheaded husband and a wife who had him wrapped around her finger. It will be embarrassing, but at this point, it’s no more embarrassing than standing here.

Iris loosened the bun in her hair a bit to let some hair loose and loosened the sash of her yokui and worked up some blood to her cheeks. She then wrapped her arms around Arylos’s arm, pushing herself close to him.

“Come on, can you pay so we can go home?” she asked, bringing out as much of her womanly charms as she could, batting her eyes and working up a blush.

Arylos just stared at her and a part of Iris felt real blood rush to her cheeks as she realised how she must look right now. The worst part was that there was no guarantee this was working.

And Arylos’s expression wasn’t changing.

Iris felt herself panic; she was right, it wasn’t working on him. She pushed herself closer and added a hair flip for good measure.

Arylos still didn’t change.

Iris tried her best to maintain her warm smile while resisting the urge to hit Arylos with her shoe. At this point, none of it even mattered; she just wanted to get out of the nightmare.

She swallowed her courage and reached for his lower back. She knew her target and she knew that Arylos couldn’t resist her then; she would be victorious over this indomitable Titan. She found her target and squeezed tight.

Arylos raised his eyebrow, but his expression softened a bit. Iris could almost swear that his pale cheeks had a hint of colour to them now.

He took the hint and let out a sigh, trying to remain in control. “I’m sorry Iris, but there’s no way I can justify the cost. I’ll just have to make do somewhere else.”

Iris let him go finally and composed herself. It didn’t matter, she still won. “I know you can’t justify it, but I can,” she said with a big smirk while handing some money to the butcher.

Arylos realised then what had happened. He wasn’t only seduced, he was manipulated. He looked in her other hand and found his billfold in her clutches. He had lost and now has to pay the price, quite literally. The butcher thanked Iris and handed her the spoils of her theft. She looked to him with a big smile, proud of her manipulation.

Arylos conceded and shook the butcher’s hand. “It turns out I was too weak today.”

“It was a good effort though, even I would have given up in that situation,” the butcher returned. “She sure didn't make it easy for you.”

The two men settled their differences and a defeated Arylos made his way down the street with Iris in tow with a skip in her step.

“I wonder what else I could get away with?” Iris wondered aloud, gloating in her victory. As if challenged, the air hummed and Arylos’s billfold flew from her hand to Arylos’s hand as he pocketed it safely.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Arylos warned. “That’s the last time you’ll be able to do that to me.”

“I doubt that; the big bad Titan has gone all soft,” Iris teased. “You really are just a man after all.”

Arylos rolled his eyes, entertained by the girl and her pride. “I was confused by what you were doing, that’s all.”

“Sure you were, big boy,” Iris continued her jabs and ran up to walk next to Arylos. “Subaya’s little joke has given me some ideas I should try.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Arylos warned. “You’ll be disappointed by the results.”

“Oh, I am more than satisfied right now,” Iris continued, her smile turning wicked.

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Arylos chuckled and looked to Iris, but something caught his eye; the shimmer of a brilliant silver sword. He looked up and in the distance behind Iris could see a cloaked man wearing a familiar silver sword on his waist. Without hesitation, Arylos grabbed Iris by the wrist and pulled her into an alley nearby. He pinned Iris against the wall behind the corner while he watched the man intently.

“What’s going on?” Iris whispered, but Arylos’s hand found her mouth, silencing her, while refusing to take his eyes off of the man. Iris never saw the man and her confusion kept growing as she desperately wanted answers.

“There’s someone here that shouldn’t be,” Arylos whispered softly. “We need to get back to the house without being seen.”

Iris wiggled her head and he removed his hand so she could speak. “This alley is one way you big idiot,” she whispered.

Arylos’s eyes widened and he turned and saw that indeed the alley had a wall at the end of it, making this a dead end. He turned back and saw that the man was gone. His red eyes darted across the street, trying desperately to find the man. Iris watched as Arylos’s nails grew long into claws again and dug into the stone of the building she was against.

Not even a moment passed and Arylos felt his stomach sink as the cloaked man approached the entrance of the alley and locked eyes with Arylos.

“Is everything alright here?” the man asked. Arylos felt his tension loosen as the voice sounded unfamiliar to him. Arylos let Iris go, understanding how this looked.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Arylos explained, keeping his voice calm as he stepped away from Iris.

“Girl, do you know this man?” the man asked.

“Yeah, he’s my friend,” Iris answered, catching onto the situation.

“He’s not trying to take advantage of you?” the man asked, his hand resting on his sword.

“No, nothing like that,” Iris laughed. “If anything I took advantage of him. I kind of took his wallet to settle something. Nothing bad.”

The man thought heavily before lowering the hood of his cloak, showing his face to be older and with short combed hair and a short beard. Arylos fully relaxed, hiding his clawed hands as the claws retracted.

“As long as there isn’t anything going on a good bystander would have a problem with,” the man said with a smile.

“Nothing like that,” Arylos explained. “I actually thought you were someone else, that’s why we hid in here. Someone who might have a grudge against me. Had to keep her safe if that was the case.”

The man rubbed his chin in thought. “As long as the girl is okay, sorry to trouble you.” The man bowed and moved out of the way and the duo took their opportunity to leave the area behind. Arylos maintained his composure as they went on their way and rounded a corner behind a building.

Suddenly, Arylos gasped as if he had been holding his breath the entire encounter and leaned up against the building while trying to catch his breath. “Fuck me that was too intense,” he exclaimed.

“You’re telling me,” Iris responded, trying to compose herself.

“You don’t get it, if he was the one I thought he was, we’d be in serious trouble,” Arylos said with in between breaths. “There’s no way I’d be able to take him on right now.”

“Wait, there’s someone stronger than you?” Iris asked out of concern.

Arylos shook his head. “Not stronger, but persistent as fuck.”

“I haven’t seen you have issues with anyone like that, unless you’re talking about Baldr,” Iris commented, trying to ease Arylos.

“Baldr would be the least of my concerns in that case,” Arylos responded, slowly regaining his composure. “I can at least kill Baldr if I have to.”

“What do you mean?” Iris asked.

Arylos lifted himself from the side of the building and took a deep breath. “Let’s just hope we don’t have an encounter with him, okay? And if we do, I want you to run away.”

“But–”

“Run. Away.” Arylos repeated himself.

Iris thought for a moment but eventually nodded. She felt that there was nothing she could tell Arylos to change how he felt. The two eventually continued their walk in silence and got back to the house safely.

“I’ll be making a hot pot for tonight,” Arylos announced as he opened the door. “It shouldn’t take too long if you want to relax.”

Iris nodded and took her shoes off in the foyer as Arylos made his way to the kitchen. One idea came to her and she set off to the back of the house where Arylos made a small library. She looked through the collection but found little of interest at the moment.

That was until she saw a book on Arylos’s desk. Leather bound with crystals and metal built into the cover with thick pages. The cover had no clear title but had strange symbols imprinted into the leather. She went over to it and opened it and the contents startled her.

On the ancient paper were strange runes, but the writing moved along the pages in strange designs with each symbol changing its own shape as it moved. They moved in columns of text and in some cases even outlined strange shapes that Iris couldn’t piece together in her mind. She felt she could make out some words amongst the writing but they would only appear briefly before fading into the mass of words.

“You don’t want to read that,” Arylos’s voice called out, startling Iris. He came up beside her and moved the book away from her and closed it.

“What is it?” Iris asked, really wanting to snatch the book back.

Arylos thought for a moment before answering. “It’s a book from Mortehksun.”

“Your people wrote it?” Iris asked, a bit of excitement coming to her.

Arylos nodded and held the book firm. “It was written by another of the Covenant. It was an attempt to outline our history and culture, a way to preserve our knowledge for future generations.”

“I take it this ‘Covenant’ was your government?” Iris asked while coming close to Arylos to look at the book.

Arylos looked to Iris as he tried to find the right explanation. “In a way it was. We were selected to help lead and preserve our people. We were the rulers and also the people of science and the people of culture, giving voice to the many parts of our society.”

“But why don’t I want to read it if it’s about your people?” Iris asked while taking the book from Arylos’s hands.

“Because it’s not complete,” Arylos answered. “It painted us as enlightened beings without a god rather than what we were; rather than how I want us to be remembered.”

“How do you want to be remembered?” Iris asked.

A simple question, but one Arylos had no answer for. He thought to himself for a moment, trying to find reason within himself, an explanation for his own existence, but couldn’t find any.

“How do you want to remember me?” Arylos returned the question.

Iris clutched the book close thinking about what she would miss if Arylos wasn’t around anymore. What memories would she treasure? What would she want to tell her children and grandchildren? How would she retell the story of the Titan, the last of his kind, as he went out of his way to make sure she was happy. A being who knew nothing but loneliness and sadness but still found the ability to make her smile for each time she cried.

“A friend,” she answered after consideration as she handed the book back to Arylos. “I would want to remember you as my friend, the one who was there for me even when I had no one else.”

Arylos took the book and with it, he felt that he accepted something else, something unspoken between the two. Arylos smiled and reached to one of the shelves to return the old Titanic book but grabbed a different one with a worn cover.

“It will be a bit before I finish dinner so here’s this one,” Arylos explained.

Iris took the book and Arylos returned to the kitchen. She still had more questions for him, about him and his people, about the Covenant. But she was right; at the end of the day, he is her friend and that’s what she cares about the most.