first meetings
characters involved:
Nexe===============Dicypher
Bei================Sayn
series:
si vis amari, ama - Darkly Beloved
notes: she/her for Dicypher, he/they for Nexe.
Dicypher has worked as an assassin for most of her life.
She can barely remember what had driven her to be apart of the small but deadly organisation, but she knows she’d done it to protect and care for someone dear to her heart. Someone kind, who kissed her wounds and chided her every time she returned home. She remembers them being sickly, among a few other things.
Not that any of those things matter now; they’re dead, and have been dead for the past decade or so. And with nowhere else to go, what else could Dicypher do but stick with the organisation?
The organisation, small as it may be, has its workers for a reason. Preying on desperate dragons, offering them what they need in exchange for services, slowly tightening the thread around their necks until they feel lost being anywhere else and doing anything else than what the organisation tells them to do. It’s cruel, but it’s Dicypher’s life, as one of the few pawns on their chessboard.
Now, seventeen years since she’s been enlisted in the organisation, she’s an assassin. One of those in the ‘top ranks’ — although, considering there’s only ten of them, that doesn’t mean much — and very much busy with all the work the bosses pile on her, what with her unique ability of controlling thin, ghost-like limbs that stretch from her body, allowing her to attack multiple creatures at ease and take care of business quickly.
Dicypher is used to this life. It’s why she doesn’t flinch when, mere seconds after she delivers the body of a young Fae — and she doesn’t even think about the fact that the Fae had only just become an adult, celebrating in a bar for their birthday — she gets another mission.
The pictures she gets are of three siblings: a Skydancer and two Pearlcatchers. They’re all dressed up in matching outfits, although from what she hears from the bosses, the Skydancer is the leader of a mysterious island, and the Pearlcatchers are her guards.
“They’ve been a nuisance in one of my other businesses,” one of her bosses remarks, distaste evident in her voice. “Better to get rid of them before anything else happens, don’t you think?”
“Very smart,” her other boss says. “Since this is a more… private deal, and not from commissions, you’ll be getting time off instead of any payment as usual.”
Dicypher nods. She knows now that they never live up to it; calling her back a few hours into her time off for a mission with promises of extra payment and threats if she doesn’t come back.
“Well? Off you go. They’re nearby; good time to catch the three of them if you’re quick enough.”
It’s deliberately provoking.
Whatever. Dicypher is one of the fastest in the organisation for a reason — a blink and a breath later, and she’s gone like the wind, searching for the mission’s targets.
—————
The siblings are strolling through a forest. If Dicypher hadn’t known who they were, she would’ve thought they were simply a group of friends or travellers.
The Pearlcatchers certainly don’t
act like bodyguards; they tease and push at their sister in the middle, who strikes back with equal force and playfulness. They seem completely at ease with their surroundings, as if they’ve never faced assassinations or murder attempts before. Perhaps they haven’t; the file did say they’ve only started heading out. Perhaps they’ve never been targeted by someone until now.
Still, it’s like a dream for Dicypher, to be as comfortable as they seem to be. To be as
happy as they are.
As she watches and listens to them chat, she can’t help but frown at how naive they are. She sighs as she sees the black Pearlcatcher split off to explore, with the other two staying behind.
Too naive. Too overconfident.
They’ll die easily as this rate. She’s honestly surprised they haven’t died earlier.
Still, it does give her a good opportunity. She follows after the black Pearlcatcher, and catches him kneeling in front of a particularly beautiful bloom of gardenias.
They seem like an easy target. Dicypher hums, tucking most of her weapons and ghostly limbs away.
She has to admit, she is a little curious about how they’ve survived for so long. Surely a little talk before she kills him wouldn’t hurt much, would it?
Well, wouldn’t hurt anyone but the Pearlcatcher, but that was a given from the start.
“What’s a Pearl like you doing here?” she asks, stepping out from the bushes she’d been hiding in. The Pearlcatcher turns around, and she can see the surprise in their eyes.
“I didn’t realise there was someone else here, sorry,” the bodyguard apologises. The calm and serene type, huh?
“It’s fine,” she laughs, moving closer. “You still haven’t answered my question, though?”
“Hm…” they chuckle. “Well, what am I getting out of this?”
“An answer from me, to a question you’d ask,” Dicypher responds. “Well? How does that sound?”
“Alright,” they nod. “Well, I’m here on a trip with my siblings. Split off to go see the view.”
“Interesting,” Dicypher knows that they are on more than just a simple trip — on many diplomatic trips, actually — but well. She’ll be lying too, so she can’t judge. “Alright, it’s your turn. Shoot it at me.”
The bodyguard chuckles. “Maybe later. Would you like to hear a few fun facts?”
Oh, her interest is piqued. “Sure. Give me all of it, big guy.”
And so it goes on. Dicypher finds herself enjoying the conversation the Pearlcatcher leads her on, as they chat about their (fake) lives and hobbies. She learns more about him than she’s learned about any other mission target, and it’s… fun. Nice, almost.
Still, she doesn’t forget about her mission, and especially not about the time. “Say,” she starts casually, after she finishes laughing at a funny situation the bodyguard had found himself in. She still doesn’t know his name, but that’s fine; he doesn’t know hers, either. “You haven’t given me a question to answer yet?”
“Hm?”
“Back at the beginning. I promised you a question, did I not?”
“No, you did. Hmm…” the Pearlcatcher smiles calmly, stretching out his wings as he stands up. “Say, are you an assassin? Or a murderer? Or someone else entirely that’s up to kill me?”
Huh. That’s… unexpected. Kind of interesting, too.
Oh well. She’d known her ruse would’ve ended sooner or later.
Dicypher laughs. She stands up as well, grinning.
“Yeah, an assassin. Good catch.” she admits — no use of hiding it now, right? — and whips out a weapon, charging for him without any preamble.
It’s time to end this ruse now.
—————
“You’re good at this,” the bodyguard compliments her, calm even as they spar. Dicypher is calm as well, although that’s probably going to change as she gets increasingly irritated at the Pearlcatcher’s annoying words.
“Thank you,” she says back snappily, lunging out to try and dig her claws into their skin and hold them down, only for him to swerve out of the way and try to take a stab at her, though she dodges that too, body curving in the air.
That’s the position they’ve been at — dodging and attacking constantly. She had thought that he would be easy, but it turns out to very much
not be the case; she won’t make the same mistake for the other two, when she’s done with him.
She also won’t make the same mistake of trying to make conversation, because by the Eleven is he absolutely
annoying. Chattering weird and senseless things; she never would’ve pegged him to be that sort of dragon.
With a scoff, she lets her ghostly limbs out, and shoots forward, limbs stretching out to pin him down. She should’ve used this sooner, she knows, but she wanted to see how the bodyguard would fare first.
Thankfully, the bodyguard can’t dodge this time, giving her the perfect position to just end his annoying life once and for all.
“Wow, you’ve got strength,” the bodyguard says, even as she’s above him, a knife to his throat and claws digging into his legs. She retracts her ghostly limbs — he’ll be dead soon, anyway, and she’d rather conserve her energy for something else.
“I’ll slit your throat,” she hisses, letting the knife dig into the curve of his neck, beading out a tiny droplet of blood. “Maybe that’ll shut your annoying mouth up.”
Still irritatingly serene, the bodyguard glances up at her fully, his smile stretching brighter across his face. Perhaps it’s delirium, perhaps it’s him simply being the annoyance she’d never have pegged him as with his initial personality, but he smiles up at her, and he breathes out, “You’re so beautiful.”
The knife slips a little deeper. Dicypher quickly yanks it out before it does any permanent damage.
The bodyguard has passed out now. By all means, she should stab the knife deeper, leave him with deep and bloody wounds and head off to hunt down the other two.
And yet, and
yet.
A hand raises up to touch her cheeks. They feel hot to the touch.
She’s
blushing.
With a shuddery breath, she curls in on herself. She knows her cheeks are bright. She knows it’s an uncharacteristic embarrassment that she feels.
And it’s all because of the stupid, foolish Pearlcatcher.
The one that called her
beautiful and seemed like he
meant it.
Dicypher… doesn’t recall a time when she was complimented on something other than her skills. She must’ve been, back when she was with the kind dragon, but she doesn’t remember it anymore. And yet, now…
“I’ll regret this,” she tells herself. How foolish she is, to spare someone simply because they are so
kind to her. Kind to
compliment her. “I’ll regret this, and the organisation will have my head, and I’ll have nowhere else to go to.”
She glances at the Pearlcatcher again. Remembers his bright blue eyes.
Dicypher groans.
—————
She huffs, panting as she drags the Pearlcatcher with her. She’ll face hell when she gets back to meet with her clients, but… as annoying as he is behind the calm and wise facade he puts on, as irritatingly pretty and nice he is… she wants to see him again. Alive, preferably.
It’s why she’d left a contact method in his sleeves, after all. Maybe she’ll regret it, maybe she’ll get hunted down when he awakens from his delirious state, but to hell with it. She can treat it as an overdue work done if he does come to try and kill her.
…still, if this damn bodyguard doesn’t lose some weight, she might just throw him down a ditch and leave him to fend for himself.
When she spots the other two dragons she’d first seen him with — the other bodyguard and the leader of the mysterious Island that her clients hate — she could practically sob in relief. She doesn’t, because she’s better than that.
“Take him!” she snaps, catching their attention as she drops the Pearlcatcher’s legs onto the ground, panting. “He’s so heavy, get him to eat less, damnit!”
“Wait, aren’t you the-” the other bodyguard tenses up, and Dicypher knows it’s time to flee.
“Tell him he’s annoying as well!” she yells as she’s flying away, instincts kicking in to let her get away before the two can get their bearings. Her face turns heated when she remembers what she’s left. No time to regret that now, though.
—————
(“His wounds are all bandaged,” Bei observes. “Nothing bad on him either.”
“That assassin was weird,” Sayn murmurs, as the two of them sit around their brother’s prone form, waiting for him to wake up and tell them what happened. “If I recall, she’s a pretty strong assassin.”
“What if they fell in love?” Bei jokes, and Sayn snickers.
“Impossible,” he denies. “No such thing as love at first sight, especially not in a case like this.”
“It would be funny, though,” Bei responds back. Her eyes glance over to a part of Nexe’s body, and she reaches out, grabbing something from the inside of Nexe’s sleeve. “Hey, isn’t this…?”
“What?”
As he says that, Nexe groans, blinking their eyes awake. “What…?”
“Hey, take it steady,” Sayn helps them sit up properly. “You good?”
“Yeah. Where’s… the assassin?” Nexe blinks, glancing around. “I wanted to…”
“Meet up with the assassin again?” Bei snickers, holding up a piece of paper. “Don’t worry, little midnight, I think she like you too. Left her contact and all.”
Sayn has never seen his brother lunge for something so fast before, snatching the piece of paper and carefully holding it. It’s
weird.
“Seriously, what even happened while you were gone?” Sayn can’t help but question in disbelief. “What sort of impression did you
make on her?”
“I…” Nexe’s face could be mistaken for a sun with how brightly they’re blushing. “I… I think I called her pretty. While she was trying to kill me.”
Silence.
“Brother,” Sayn starts calmly. “Have you heard of the word ‘masochist?’ Because that’s you.”
Bei laughs up a storm as Nexe gets up to lunge at him.)
