Cyrus rounded the corner of the motel, and bounded down the stairs.  This...this he considered one of the greatest accomplishments of his life, and that was no small feat.  When he had seen that lovely creature in Max's, he would have never guessed that it would lead to a night quite like this.  In fact, very few people would have expected this night to lead to where it did.  He was giddy with excitement.  He slid down the railing, out of the previous stated rare moment of giddy-ness.  Who uses stairs at a time like this?

"You break it, you pay for it."  The comic-book man behind the desk said to Cyrus as he landed with an ungraceful thud.

Cyrus looked up from his landing. "What?" He asked, genuinely confused.  It seemed to be happening a lot tonight, it started with a flung fork, and now came to a head with a comment about breaking somthing when he hadn't even touched anything.  "Just so-s ya' knows," Cyrus stated with a funky accent," I tend not to touch anything for that particular reason."

The man looked up from the comic.  He let out an un-dignified sigh-like sound, and then pointed to the stairs.  "Those. I've replaced them three times this month, and I don't really fancy having to do it again."

Cyrus' vision scanned back up the steps.  "Wow...do they really suck that bad?" He asked.

The man narrowed his eyes. "Yes..."  And then put his nose back into his comic.

Cyrus shrugged, and began making his way to the door.  Once he got there he stopped, thought a moment, and then promptly turned around to face the man once more.  "What was your name, by the way?"  He asked.

The man looked up at him with a confused expression.  "Tad."  He said cautiously.

"Ah." Cyrus responded with.  He then gestured towards the stairs with his chin.  "Just to let you know, even if I had broken them, I probably wouldn't have paid for the replacements."  He then opened the door, and stuck his foot out on the street.  "Have a nice night Tad, was great meetin' ya'."  And with that he continued his retreat from the motel, and walked straight into Daren.

Daren looked at him, and drew the last drag of the cigarette he was finishing off.  "Nice aim dude." Daren said with sarcasm, proceeding to blow the excess smoke from this mouth, and flicking the butt off to the side.

"Say what ya want..."  Cyrus said with a wistful sigh, "I got her friken’ number and I couldn't be happier."

Daren looked at him with disbelief.  "No way."  He said with affirmation.  "There is no way that in the time I smoked a cigarette, you got 'beautiful's' number."  Daren shook his head sharply.  "Nope. No, I refuse to believe it.  She almost gutted you on the street."  He pointed down the street, and Cyrus's gaze followed his finger.  "Right there, it happened right there, where she made me dent the wall."  He then lowered his finger, and looked Cyrus in the eye.

Cyrus just shrugged.  "Apparently that cigarette took you longer then you intended."  He said with a smirk.

Daren couldn't help but chuckle at his face, and his rather endearing personality.  "Well, you're nothing if not determined."  Daren said as he started to make his way back to Max's.  As long as his quest to Griff's ended up in a dead end, he may as well go back and help Max clean up.  He had caused it after all.

"Hey! Where ya' goin'?"  Cyrus asked, trotting to catch up to him.

   "Um...Max's.  It's up the way a bit.  I left in a bit of a hurry, and sort of left a mess to clean up."  Daren said rather sheepishly, scratching his head.  "Figured I would go back, and help clean up at least.  Max is kind of a friend...." Daren paused, thinking for a moment. "or....well....I think he is."

Cyrus looked confused again.

"You know....this...." Daren started with a grin, gesturing to Cyrus' face, "sort of happens to you a lot.  Or at least it seems to."  He finished with a laugh.  "Are you ever NOT confused?"

Cyrus brought his face out of the state of confusion.  "What? No, not always."  He said matter-of-factly.  "Well, it happens pretty often.  See, I'm kinda smart." At that point, Cyrus saw Daren's disbelieving look. "I know that I don't look it!" He said defensively.  "But I am; rather smart actually.  And it makes me...well...socially awkward at times."

Daren shook his head.  "I'm sure there's a story there."  He said with conviction.  "Now if you don't mind, I need to be on my way."  Daren began to move away, but Cyrus stopped him short.

"Well, that was the thing," He said, with that confused stamp on his face. "I just came from Max's, it was where I followed Sakuya out of."  He gestured over his shoulder towards the bar.  "What the hell happened that it's a mess?"

Daren stopped to look at him.  "When were you in there?"  He asked in confusion.  "I didn't see you leave, and I would think that I would have."

Cyrus shrugged. "I dunno...but we left around 1:15,  I followed her out, and saw her go into a shady building about a block away, and figured I would wait around for her, ya’ know?  I wanted to make sure she wasn't in any trouble."

"Ah, well, that makes more sense.  I got in there around 1:30.  You left before I arrived.  A couple of Alias suits followed me into the place.  There was..."  Daren paused, searching for the right words, "a confrontation..." he settled on, then began their pace again.

"Suits??"  Cyrus said with a shock. "They pursued you in HERE?" He said, gesturing around him to the whole of Blue Haven.  "What the hell were they thinking?"  Then he stopped, and looked at Daren a little harder.  "What the hell did you do?"  He asked with a tone that sounded like morbid curiosity.

"Sorry."  Daren said shoving his hands into his pockets.  "Don't really trust you just yet."  He then met Cyrus' eyes.  "No offense.  Simply trying to stay alive is all."

Cyrus raised his hands in defeat.  "Fair enough."  He said, letting the matter drop.  There was a part of Daren that was really surprised that he actually DID let it drop.  Made him think too.  Perhaps Cyrus had things in his life that he would rather people not pursue as well.  He let it go, because he knew how it felt.

"Well," Cyrus said putting his arms up behind his head without breaking stride, "need a hand?  I've got nothin’ else to do this morning.  We could grab breakfast after if ya' like."

Daren raised his brows, and cocked his head to the side while looking at Cyrus.  "What...you after MY number now?"  Cyrus shot Daren a look of utter horror. "Sorry sweetheart." Daren continued, "I don't give out the number on the first date, and you can forget about getting in my pants."

Cyrus leaned back and let out one of the most hearty, and genuine laughs Daren had ever heard.  "Well, well.  Seems you've gone and found a sense of humor!"

The men walked in to Max’s with a vigor, both seemingly happy that they had found kindred spirits in one another, but the moment they entered, they quickly realized that their vigor was sorely misplaced.

“Holy crap Daren…” Cyrus said slowly.

There was shit everywhere.  There was only one table that was standing, and it was listing sickly to the right.  Not to mention the giant axe-like cut in the table top itself.  Most tables were in pieces.  Shattered glass littered the floor, peppered with ice cubes that glinted in the low light.  There wasn’t a wall that didn’t have a bullet hole in it.  And only one sad, lonely lamp remained with it’s shade intact, and it was swaying gently, casting eerie shadows across the bar.

 “Well. Nice of you to come back around!”  Max’s voice rang out over the empty bar.  “You’re gonna cause this mess, and then just book it?  You suck Daren.”  Max bent back over the broom he was handling, without waiting for Daren to respond.

 “I’m back, if you didn’t notice.”  Daren said, sweeping his way through the chaos.  “I just needed to follow up on a lead.  Besides, you and Cece were having it out.  About ME no less, and I wasn’t going to stick around for that.”  Daren paused after finishing defending himself.  “Where is Cece, Max?”  Max stopped his sweeping to look up, and scanned the bar.  He put his ‘un-broomed’ hand on his hips after his survey.

 “Probably in the back.”  He said.  “The blood was making her sick.”  It was after that comment that Daren noticed the bodies.  Max was right to be mad.  There was a lot of blood.

 “God…”  Daren breathed as he walked over to the carnage.  He knelt down and saw a wallet sticking out of one of the men’s coats.  Cyrus came up beside him, and knelt as well.

“Damn Daren…”   Cyrus said, “Is all this ‘cause of you?”

Daren had opened the wallet, and the first thing he laid eyes on was a picture of a young girl.  Daren winced, rubbing dust off the girl’s face.  To add lemon to the salt-crusted wound, it was one of the most innocent pictures Daren had ever laid his eyes on.  A small, blue-eyed, brunette looked up at him with a sparkling smile.  She had a white sun dress on, and stood in front of a pool in bare feet, holding a tiny bouquet of dandelions.  Daren could’t even fathom where this picture was taken.  Although, there were planets out there that still had legitiment life on them.  He heard a sharp intake of breath over his shoulder.  He turned slowly to see Cyrus’s face puffed up with the excess air he had yet to exhale.  Cyrus gave him a sheepish smile, and a half-assed salute, then seeing that Daren was in no mood, he retreated slowly while letting the air out of his cheeks.

“Daren…” Daren heard Max stop his sweeping, and lean on the broom.  “Who’s your new friend?”

Daren tossed the wallet back onto the body, feeling worse than he had in a long time.  “Sorry Max.  Cyrus, Max, Max, Cyrus.”  Daren said, gesturing to each one of them in turn.

“Uh huh.”  Max said with suspicion.  “And where did we meet ‘Cyrus’?” Max asked while creating air quotes with his hands.

Daren’s shoulders slumped, and he gave Max a look of sheer disbelief and disgust.  “You honestly think that if he were an enemy, he would have gotten this far?”  Daren stood, and made his way for the back to check on Cece.  “He’s harmless, just…keep him away from anything breakable.” Daren said while scanning the bar. “Well, anything that’s breakable that isn’t already broken.  And don’t let him touch anything sharp.”  Daren opened the door to the back of the bar, ignoring the insulted quips from Cyrus, and the confused outburst from Max.

He found Cece sitting on a box of onions with her back to him.  She had her head in her hands, and even though Daren couldn’t see her face, he knew that she did, indeed, look a bit sick.

“What have I told you about sitting with your back to the door?”  Daren said quietly.  Cece’s head spun around so fast, that her bouncy curls had to catch up with her face.

“Daren…” she said with a small smile. “I knew you would come back.”  She began to walk over to him on shaky legs, so Daren met her halfway, concerned that she would collapse.  He wrapped his arms around her, and felt her leaning heavily on his chest.

“Seriously, Cec.  A rooky assassin could have had you in a second.”  He said with sincerity.  And he ment it.  He had always been worried about the friends who put him up after heists, or people who offered him shelter.  One of the easiest ways for the Alias to get to him, would be to go through one of the people he cares about.  He’d offer himself up in a minute if they contacted him, and told him that they had Cece.  If they threatened her, he would have no choice. He would never forgive himself if either Cece or Max got hurt on his account.

He slowly began leading her back to where she had been sitting, although when they arrived at the onion box, he faced her towards the door.  Old habits are hard to break.

“And why in the world would an assassin want to kill me, eh?”  She adjusted herself on the seat.  “Seems like a big ol’ waste of ammo…”

 “Ah, you underestimate your importance in my life Cec.”  Daren said with a half smile, while brushing one of her amber curls out of her face.  He put his hands on her knees to steady her, while she regained her composure.

“Oh Daren, you hunk.” She said with misplaced sarcasm. “Stop falling in love with me.”

Daren began walking to the sink, to get a cold cloth to put on Cece’s forehead.  “No no Cec.  I may not be IN love with you,” he said while wetting the cloth, “but I do LOVE you.  And if you disappear, who in this galaxy is going to make me feel wanted?”  He walked back over to her after he wrung out the cloth.  “Lean back sweetheart.”  He said while holding the back of her head.

She obeyed readily, which told Daren that she really wasn’t feeling well.  She heaved a loud sigh.

“Daren, you need a girl hon.” She closed her eyes while Daren patted the cloth on her forehead.  “And if you won’t let me be her, then I need to help you find one.”

Daren actually laughed out loud.  “And why in the WORLD would you want to be with me??”

“Why not?”  She asked with conviction.  “I know you better than anyone, Daren.  The feelin’s are there, ya’ can’t pretend they’re not.”  He shook his head while smiling.  He then proceeded to move the cloth down her neck. 

“Don’t worry Cec, I’m gonna leave that particular ‘honor’ for some other poor, unsuspecting woman.”  Daren said, and for some reason, Mara flashed through his mind.