Rough Draft - Coye 4.4

After I write chapter 5's rough draft I'll switch back over and do one for RotGM next. I'm just excited to write Britni and co's debut, I'm sure you all understand.

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"Darling," Suzette said as she looked over at the door. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon. I thought tonight at the earlier! Both of you wait outside for a moment and I'll be right with you."

It was almost evening, and the store hadn't yet closed. Suzette was in the middle of helping a customer pick various purchased and engaging in friendly shopkeep banter, so she sped things along and got wrapped things up before changing the sign to reflect she was done for the day. Afterward, she let Coye in but remained adamant that Byng was not allowed past the front door until her condition had been met.

Althought she was disgruntled, Byng wasn't about to start a fight about it and consented. To make it fair, they all sat outside on a bench overlooking mainstreet. The older woman fussed over the both of them, asking if they were hurt, if she could get them anything, and so on. Returning home after a quest was all the sweeter when he had someone like this to return to, and her affection made Coye blush.

"How did things go?" Suzette finally asked once both had insisted they were fine and didn't require anything.

"Could've gone better," Coye insisted pessimistically.

"Could've gone worse, though!" Byng interjected her optimism.

'And I helped,' Shayla crossed her arms, feeling rather desperate to be included.

"Oh, dear. I suppose you'd better give me the whole story, then."

And they did. Coye condensed the events as shortly as he could, with Byng pausing him repeatedly to exaggerate this and that. Nothing in the account seemed to shock Suzette too much, who merely nodded after learning that the majority of her merchandise was a foregone conclusion.

"I can't say I'm surprised," she sighed. "It's not like I was expecting to get any of it back in the first place. The fact that you were able to bring home even a little bit of it is good enough for me, so I should be thanking you for that."

"Just doing our jobs," Coye smiled.

"If only it wasn't so damned hard to find trustworthy escorts and bodyguards in Dewhurst. This is what I get for taking a risk like this, as stupid as it was."

"Why did you even bother, Suz?" Byng tilted her head. "You knew there was a chance of this happening, right?"

"Yes, but I was assured that the wagoner had experience in making fast trips like these and often pulled through without an escort, so I trusted my associate. The risk was offset by the reward. That's what being a merchant is all about, dear. Taking big risks and hoping for the best."

"Sounds intense," Byng laughed. "I think I'll stick to adventuring and hunting, thanks."

"You could still hire a group of more seasoned adventurers to clear out the cave," Coye suggested. "But..."

Suzette shook her head. "That would cost more than I would make off of the merchandise."

"That's what I figured." Coye nodded.

Byng wrapped her arm around Coye's neck and smirked. "You should've seen how sulky he got, gahaha! He was really upset that he was gonna let you down."

"Byng-"

Suzette smiled gently and put her hand on his thigh. "Thank you, Darling, but I'm not upset. You did the best you could, and that's all I can ask."

Coye blushed and looked around, conscious of the fact that they were in public out here, but he decided not to let it bother him. "I know, but what kind of man would I be if I wasn't a little upset for not saving your day?"

Trying to keep a mature air about her, Suzette looked away and brought her hand up to her bangs, curling her magenta locks around her finger. "Oh, Darling. You've really got to stop saying such precious things. My poor heart can't take it."

‘Enough flirting, ask about the house!’ Shayla demanded.

Just as the boy was about to speak up and awkwardly take the conversation down that direction, Suzette did the job for him. “I believe we have something to talk about now, don’t we?” She asked.

“That’s up to you,” Coye said. “If youre comfortable telling me about whatever you have to say, then go ahead.”

There was a momentary pause before she sighed and spoke, looking straight ahead. “My late husband had a little cabin out on the northwest side of town. It’s outside of the walls, but close enough to the archery towers where monsters won’t be a problem. It’s not big, and it’s not in great shape as it is, but if you’d really like a place of your own I would like to give it to you.”

‘Score!’ Shayla pumped her little fists in the air.

“Hey, nice!” Byng cheered.

Only Coye had anything real to say about the offer. “Suzette, are you sure? Giving me a whole house seems… um… a bit much, even if it’s small.  Not to mention you don’t sound all that convinced about it.”

‘Hey, what the fuck are you doing down there? Don’t ruin this for me!’ Shayla grumbled only for Coye to ignore her yet again. She was starting to feel more and more isolated by the sentence.

“Dont mistake my hesitance as uncertainty. I’ve very much made up my mind on giving it to you, Darling, even at the risk of it seeming like I’m spoiling you. Just because I’ve decided, though, doesn’t make doing so any easier. I have… bad memories regarding that place. I would prefer if I could replace those with happier memories, and I see no better way to do it than by giving it to you.”

Coye took Suzette’s hand and squeezed it to give her comfort. “I understand. If me taking this house from you will make you happy, then I’ll do it.”

That was all he needed to hear, and that charmed Suzette.

“I’m glad to hear that, Darling. That place… had been spoiled by that man, and it’s only fair that I take my revenge by spoiling it in turn…” she stated, her eyes smoldering as she brought her thumbnail to her mouth and chewed.

“Um…” Byng looked at Coye.

‘And she’d been doing so good about the creepy stuff today, too…’ Shayla sighed.

Coye squeezed her hand harder. “Suzette…”

“Oh, yes, where was I…?” She looked around, embarrassed as she tried to recompose herself. “Oh, I was going to mention that the cabin needs a lot of work. If you don’t have any plans tomorrow, I thought the three of us could make a date of it. What do you say, Byng? darling?”

“Sure, I’d love to,” Coye said as he looked at Byng, who was much more unsure.

“I’m up for it, but I dunno if I’m the best one for the job… ask short stuff here about my camp- it’s not exactly tidy.”

“It’s true,” Coye nodded. “Byng lives in organized chaos.”

“Nonsense,” Suzette scoffed. “Just follow my instructions and you’ll do fine, dear.”

“Alright,” Byng groaned. “It’s not like I don’t want to get to know you more or hang out with you, or anything.”

“If that’s the case, Byng, why don’t you stay and have dinner with me?” Suzette looked to Byng and suggested seemingly out of nowhere.

“Um… what?” She blinked. “You didn’t even want me in your house just now. Where did this come from?”

“I’ll make another exception, dear. I wanted to talk to you alone, if that’s alright. Coye, you need to go turn in the quest and inform your Guild Mistress that you’ll be moving out soon, right?”

“Um, right…” he agreed and then stood since he felt like he was getting in the way of wherever Suzette was going with this. "I guess it was nice knowing you, Byng. I wish I could've spent more time with you, and I'm sorry it has to end like this..."

"Hey! You make it sound like Suz is gonna kill me or something!"

"I don't believe that would be necessary, silly girl, but I suppose there's still time for you to prove me wrong." Suzette giggled to herself darkly only to see that neither of the children could tell she was leaning into the joke. "I was kidding."

Byng sighed, relieved. "It's hard to tell sometimes, y'know?"

"Yeah, don't scare me like that..." Coye laughed.

Suzette stood and frowned, aghast that they believed her capable of such vile misdeeds. She let it go for now, because there were more pressing matters to attend to with her new friend. Before he went, Suzette pulled Coye close and the two shared an intimate kiss.

"Make sure you get lots of rest tonight, Darling. I'll have Byng pick you up tomorrow at the Guild for our cleaning date. Sound good?"

"Yup. I don't know what you want to talk to her about, Suzette, but go easy on her. Please?"

"I promise it's nothing worth worrying about. I just need to ask her some questions, and there are a few topics I believe we need to talk about." She said.

Byng felt an ominous chill run down her spine, and soon after the two of them were heading inside the store.

Coye hoped for the best, but then got a message from his partner when she said, 'Go into an alley real quick. We need to talk about this!'

Never one to turn her down, the boy complied. Once they were far from prying eyes, Shayla dashed out of the hat and flew around like she had energy to spare. She then surprised him with a tackle, hugging him in the chest.

"It's finally happening! You're getting a house!" Shayla cheered.

It warmed his heart to see.

"Looks that way," he laughed, then brought his arms around her tiny body carefully to not hurt her.

Blushing, his partner pulled away and looked him in the eyes, pointing a finger at him. "You better treat that creepy old woman like a goddess from now on, you got that? I mean it. You make her cry, I'll give you a Pixie bite for every tear!"

"I find it funny how you respect Suzette a whole lot more now just because she's giving me a small house," Coye observed.

It's not like she was trying to hide it, so she crossed her arms and looked at him funny. "So? She's earned my respect. What's going on with you, though? You should be way more excited! Don't tell me you're upset about the whole dead husband thing."

Coye slumped against the back of a building and shook his head. "No, it's not that. Just hasn't really sunk in yet, you know? My own place..." he thought wistfully. "I've lived in the Guild for the past two years now. It's been my home, and it'll always be a place of comfort for me..."

Shayla gave him a suspicious look. "Don't tell me you're upset because you're gonna miss Dorothy. The Guild is like... right up against the Peace Gate. From the way she said it, it sounds like it won't even be a ten minute walk from your place to the Guild."

"Shayla, I don't think about her THAT much..." Coye protested, but frowned as her gaze continued to linger. "I am kind of curious as to how she's going to take it, though..."

The Pixie snorted. "What, are you expecting her to cry and beg you not to leave her?"

"N-No! Of course not! I just-"

"Admit it, you totally love that idea. Don't you?"

"I refuse to answer such a question." Coye pouted.

"So predictable," she sighed.

Coye frowned but eventually he looked up to the Pixie and asked, "Before we get going, I wanted to know if you're doing ok today. Before the whole house thing, you seemed a bit... moodier than usual."

Shayla wasn't expecting to be called out, so when she was, she looked away in slight shame. "What are you going on about now?"

"During the quest, you just acted a bit passive aggressive. I just wanted to make sure you're alright."

She looked into his concerned expression and found it hard to guard her secrets against it. She shrugged her shoulders, admitting, "Fine, I'll own up to it. Our whole talking in public setup kind of bothers me, and today it was harder to deal with than usual.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I feel like I’m left out! You and Byng get to talk to each other and be cutesy and shit while I just have to watch and make sarcastic quips that you can’t even respond to half the time!” She said, her emotional side getting more apparent than she expected it to. “And before you go saying it I’m not jealous. That’s not the main thing here.”

“Shayla… you know what I’m gonna say to this, right?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “That’s why I didn’t want to talk about it. Because I know it won’t get better unless I come out of the hat and reveal myself but-“

“You won’t.” Coye sighed. “I know… I’m sorry.”

Shayla was quiet for a moment until shrugging and saying, “It’d be better if I was strong enough to read your mind or something. At least you could talk to me then… but…”

“That wouldn’t really help, would it?”

“Not fully.” Shayla averted her eyes. “Way to ruin the mood, baby.”

“So I take it now is probably not the best time to drop these off at Snyther’s shop, huh?” Coye joked, tapping the bag full of snake goods with his hand.

Innapropriate as it was, she laughed at that and smiled. “Can’t say I’m thrilled about the idea of it, no, but it’d probably be good for you to do it just in case. We got a house now, and that means we’ll need to buy crap for it, right? I’ll suck in my fear long enough for you to go and pick up the extra gold.”

“Are you sure? I was really just joking, Shayla…”

“I wasn’t. I want that house to get all fancy and nice, so go and do what you gotta do! I won’t complain!” Shayla tried not to look too nervous at the idea of visiting that ghastly shop, but her thumbs up was a little shaky and she knew she wasn’t fooling anyone.

“As long as you’re sure,” Coye sighed and allowed the Pixie back under his cap.

He took care of business quickly, making it to Lettimore street and the back alley shop where he was in and out in only a few minutes. Coye was in no mood to haggle, so he settled on 1,200G for the whole range of stuff he brought back. Shayla was grateful for the brevity of this visit, even if she thought he could’ve pushed a little harder and wheedled some more coin from the suspicious merchant.

By the time he made it back to the Guild, it was well into the evening. The summer sun wouldn’t set for another few hours, but it was starting to cool down and Coye wanted nothing more than to wrap up his business here and have a talk with Dorothy. When he approached the door, though, something was amiss.

He paused and looked at his surroundings.

‘Uh, something wrong down there, big guy?’ Shayla asked. ‘Is Byng up to another one of her tricks?’

“No…” Coye mumbled and shook his head. “She should still be with Suzette. But if it’s not her, then…”

He thought about the possibility, and it was the only one that seemed likely. He didn’t see them anywhere, but they could be just around the corner. Someone was waiting for him.

Shayla wasn’t sure what was up initially, but she caught on soon enough. She waited for his next move with great interest.

Coye saw no other option besides just moving on with his day and accepting what likely awaited for him on the other side of the door. He opened it up and entered the Guild. At the far end of the room, neither Dorothy nor Tammy were at the front desk. He looked left to right and saw no one, making him wonder whether or not his intuition and sense for danger had failed him.

“Looking for someone, loser?” Coye heard a familiar voice coming from over his shoulder, followed by an overly familiar hand grasping it. The young woman it belonged to spun Coye in place, violently and without regard for him.

He looked at the face of Britni, with all her makeup and her icy blue eyes as she stared into him with a mix of scorn and amusement. In the corners of the room flanking both sides of the door was Coco, a Beastfolk dog girl, and on the other was Tiphanie Biledrop, an alchemist, and Marlie, a half-demon.

Coco was watching closely with her typical face that always made her look angry, Tiph looked like she was in on a joke no one else was, and Marlie could hardly be bothered- not that he could tell with the black face mask covering her from below the nose.

‘No way… this is them, huh?’ Shayla observed with wide eyes. After hearing about them so much, it was hard to believe she was looking at the Baddest Bitches in person for the first time.

When he saw her these girls, his typical first reaction would’ve been to cower in fear or to make an excuse and try and get away from them. Currently, he had an inexplicable question in his mind that he just had to get out.

“Britni. Hey. Were you girls actually waiting for me just now?” He looked at them with a raised eyebrow. If they were, he couldn’t help but feel that would be a little… lame.

Britni looked confused at his suggestion, taking her hand away from him and then putting distance between them. “What the fuck are you on about? That’s, like, totally not the case. Coco just-“

“We were in this room! Coco smelled runt coming, told Britni!” Coco barked.

“Yes! Exactly! Good girl.” Britni smirked and took a small dog treat from a pouch on her back, tossed it into the air to reward the girl for backing her up.

After devouring it without chewing, Coco gave him a fierce stare and pointed at her dog nose that was at odds with the human features of her face. “Best sniffer!” She warned him.

Tiph approached from the side, swaying purposefully as she cupped her chin and puffed out her painted purple lips. “Hey there. What’s up, little man? You don’t seem too happy to see us.” She teased, reaching out to tickle under his chin with her long purple nail.

Coye felt a tingle and tried to suppress his urge to make a moan or a cute noise, but failed. “Ahn- T-Tiph, no…!”

“That’s way, wayyy more like it,” Tiph laughed at him.

“Pathetic,” the dark-skinned half-demoness sighed, refusing to leave the corner she dwelled in.

Tiph gave Marlie an annoyed glare and was on the verge of clapping back at her when Britni took hold of the situation by leaning over a bit to grab Coye by his shirt.

“We’ve been away for a while now, so I think it’d be like, totally a great idea if you came and caught up with us somewhere a little more private. Sound good?” Britni asked with a fake smile.

“Actually, I just… um… needed to turn in a quest and then have a talk with-“

“Tammy’s on break and the greasy, knotty-haired napstress is out. You’re stuck with us, you little twerp.” Britni smirked. “It’s just us.”