RP Log
WHO: Shoon and Lo Hak
WHAT:Just hanging out and some drama
WHEN: Right after Shoon's second swimming lesson.
Shoon popped his head into the Bath House, "I'm back!" he said cheerfully, "Sorry that took so long, I had to pick up some potch from my cabin."
Lo Hak looked up from where he was massaging a woman and shook his head at Shoon, then jerked his head towards the back. "Almost done," he mouthed as he worked.
Shoon nodded, and headed out to the lobby where he sat down on the chair out there and got out his lunch, a salad with vinegar and olive oil, and began to eat while he waited for Lo to finish up.
About ten minutes later Lo Hak came out, the woman following him, dressed in an upperscale attire. Lo Hak bowed slightly at the waist to her. "Please come again," he murmured.
The woman gave him a scathing glance, then turned her nose up and left. Lo Hak straightened and sighed, running a hand through his hair before turning and smiling brightly at Shoon. "What's up?" he grinned.
Holding out a paper bag of cookies, Shoon said, "The cookies you wanted." He took a bite of his salad, "I forgot if you said anything about types, so I got a bunch of different ones."
"Oh!" Lo Hak clapped his hands and took the bag, nearly putting his face in as he inspected. "Heh, you did good!" he lightly kicked at Shoon's calf.
Shoon giggled and kicked back, "I'm eating! You don't want me to get salad all over the place do you?"
Lo Hak rolled his eyes. "Come on. We can eat in the back," he said, leading Shoon to his room. He flopped down on his bed and shoved a chair in Shoon's direction with his foot as he took out a cookie and began to nibble on it.
Shoon sat down and took another bite of his salad. "Who was that lady? I've never seen her before."
"Her? Oh, a random customer," Lo Hak shrugged. "I think she probably stopped in the castle over night and I apparantley did not meet her standards." He rolled his eyes. "Aristocracy."
Shoon made a face, thinking of Euram, "I know, trust me." He sighed and put his now empty plate on the floor and grabbed a cookie and took a bite, "Nothing is ever good enough for them."
Lo Hak shrugged. "Whatever. She was good for the potch. I almost contemplated taking my tip from here, but...naw, I don't do that anymore." It was true. He itched to dip his hands in her purse and steal a couple extra hundred in 'tips'.
"I never really got the concept of money," Shoon said, "I mean, I know it's important and stuff, but I never understood why some people have more, and that makes them think they're better than the rest of us." He looked at Lo Hak, "Why is that? Why do people think jus' 'cause they have money, money that they didn't have to earn, just money they were born into having, makes them better?"
Lo Hak shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I made a living in my early years taking said money, but...," he trailed off and shrugged again. "I can't honestly tell you. But I'll tell you it feels good to hit them where it hurts. Rich people have such obvious weaknesses, namely their money."
"Yeah..." Shoon shook his head, wanting to clear his head of the whole ariscrats thing, "Oh! I brought my lizards for you to meet!" He reached in his pocket and pulled out three lizards, "I have nine altogether, but the other six were napping so I didn't want to bother them." He held out his hand at Lo Hak, "Say hi to Lo Hak," he told the lizards and all three of them looked at Lo Hak and blinked.
Lo Hak jumped and backed up, visions flooding his mind of the lizard beasts that sometimes crawled onto the ship in the middle of sailing and having to fight the damned things off. But as he stared, it finally registered that these lizards were perfectly normal and he came a little closer, peering back as he nibbled a cookie.
Shoon watched as the lizards looked at Lo Hak some more, before two of them got bored and scuried up Shoon's arm and headed up into his hair. The smallest lizard yawned at Lo before following his brothers. "That was Bobby," Shoon said, refering to the little lizard, "the other two were Warren and Hank. Jean, Scott, Spike, Angel, Darla, and Drusilla are the ones at home right now."
"And you decided to keep lizards because...?" Lo Hak pressed.
"Faylen bought them for something, I think she wanted to give them to Lady Sialeeds as a...present," he grinned, "But Lady Sialeeds hates Lizards, so I asked Faylen if I could keep 'em, but she wanted one, so I got the rest."
Lo Hak laughed. "Well, they were...cute." He sat back and attacked a cookie in a flurry of nibbling - it was how ate his cookies! Lay off the man!
Shoon smiled and took a big bite out of his cookie. "When the others are awake I'll introduce you to them too," he said cheerfully. He swallowed, "Did you ever have any animal friends?"
"Does a mermaid count?" he asked.
"Uh...I don't know. I've never met a mermaid before," Shoon pressed his lips together in thought, "Did she talk? I mean human language speaking?"
Lo Hak nodded. "Yeah, of course mermaids can talk. They usually stay away from humans, but they can talk. They talk sort of wierd, but they talk."
"Were they pretty? I hear Mermaids are really pretty," Shoon said. "I don't know if they count as an animal friend since they can talk." He took another bite of his cookie.
"Pretty? Well, yeah, in their own year - if you like scales," Lo Hak nibbled thoughtfully. "Well, if they don't count, then I guess not. The islands aren't exactly full of creatures you can make best friends with.":
"Huh," Shoon said and leaned back. "Are there merboys?"
Lo Hak paused in his nibbling and thought. "Well....I guess there would have to be, wouldn't there?"
"So they can make babies," Shoon said, nodding sagely, "So you’ve never seen any merboys?"
Lo Hak thought again. "Uh, no, actually. Never. In fact, I hadn't seen a mermaid till I joined Lazlo's crew."
"Huh. I wonder if they're supershy then." Shoon finished off his cookie and took another one. "Lazlo, the really quiet boy who works in the infirmary?"
Lo Hak nodded. "Yeah. He led our army way back when. Beat the hell out me, actually, when we tried to con him out of 10,000 potch - me and my sibs, I mean."
"Woah, that doesn't seem like him at all! He's so quiet all the time." Shoon tried to picture Lazlo beating Lo Hak up, but it just didn't seem to fit with the quiet boy's personality.
Lo Hak laughed. "To be honest, my sibs and I sort of...erm, well, pushed him into it." He didn't want to go into an explanation of extortionism, so he left it at that.
Shoon nodded, remembering some of the people the Prince had to deal with who had done similar things, like Euram.
Lo Hak looked down in his bag and pouted. "I ate all my cookies," he stuck out his lower lip. They were good, until they were gone!
Shoon giggled a bit at Lo Hak's pout. "Here," he held out his last cookie, "I can't eat too many, or else I might get...what are they called? love handles?"
Lo Hak nearly choked on his own spit. "Trust me, Shoon, you won't get love handles." He took the cookie though and nibbled happily, almost in a squirrelish manner, but cuter.
"Huh? Why not? What are love handles anyways?" Shoon pouted, hoping Lo Hak would explain it to him.
"They are what happen when you get old and fat," Lo Hak told him. "You fit in neither category with as much work outs as you do."
"Huh, well, that's good to know." He stretched, "why are they called love handles. It seems like a silly thing to call something when it involves body fat."
Lo Hak pondered it and shrugged. "I dunno. They just are." He finished the cookie and licked his fingers clean of crumbs. "You doing anything else today?"
Shoon shook his head. "No, I took a run this morning, and then worked with one of the dummys at the dojo while Sensei was sleeping. I don't have anything else planned."
Lo Hak wished he could say the same, but he was here till the baths closed, and he couldn't afford to close them early. He had loans to pay off! He pouted again at the thought, and would have said something in way of voicing his pout when he heard the bell chime that meant someone had come into the parlor. He launched himself from the bed and slid out to greet the newcomer, a flashy male that was obviously on the higher end of the money scale.
Shoon poked his head out of the room and watched as Lo Hak dealt with the costumer before getting bored and sitting back down. He collected the trash from his lunch and the cookies and put them in the trash can before heading back into the lobby, "I think I'm going to take a bath," he told Lo Hak.
Lo Hak nodded as he dealt with the man, leading him to the massage tables and giving Shoon a smile that said 'Help yourself, this guy will be awhile'.
Shoon nodded in return, grabbed a bucket filled with bath stuff and went into the men's side of the bath.
It was probably twenty minutes later that a crash sounded from the massage parlor, and about a minute after the man came in and glared at Shoon. He sniffed. "Sir," he turned back as Lo Hak came in after him with the tub of bath stuff. "I ask that you remove this...this commoner from the bath while I am here."
Shoon blinked and looked at Lo Hak for instruction, not wanting to leave but not wanting to cause Lo Hak any trouble.
"Sir," the man turned. "Remove the street rat."
Lo Hak's eyes flared and he glared at the man. "I am sorry sir, but he is also a paying customer. I cannot ask him to leave."
"Sir, are you -"
"I said no, Sir," Lo Hak said, eyes narrowing. "Either bathe, or pay for your massage and leave. I will not make Shoon leave simply for you."
The man's nostrils flared again and he whirled. The sound of flesh on flesh rang through the baths, the slap echoing in the tense heat of the room.
Shoon stood, "Hey!" he shouted at the man, "You will apologize to him now or else I'll get the captain of the guard to escort you out of here!"
"I don't take threats nicely," the man glared, but his view of Shoon was blocked by low, his eyes dangerously narrow and his mouth no longer smiling.
"Leave. Now," he commanded the man.
The man glared back, but when Lo did not budge he sniffed. "Fine. But I refuse to pay for such service." He whirled and went back into the massage parlor, and few moments later the door slammed shut.
Shoon grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist and chased after the man. "Hey!" he called, "You will go back and apologize to him and pay!" He glared at the man, blue eyes blazing. "And you will do it now." He knew he wasn't threatening, he was too small to be, but he hoped that he would back an impression on the man anyhow.
The man just laughed in Shoon's face and left, Lo Hak taking Shoon's shoulder and shaking his head to keep the boy from running after him. "Forget it," he said as he knelt to clean up the mess from the loud crashing noise earlier.
"But!" Shoon glared after the man, "He didn't pay you! And he hit you! At the very least you should report him to Cecile!"
"Don't bother," Lo Hak said with a sigh. "He'd just buy his way out of punishment."
"But..." He sighed and leaned to down to help Lo Hak pick up, making sure he would at least talk to Cecile later. "Have you met Cecile?" he asked changing the subject, "She's the captain of the guard here and she's really nice. She treats everyone the same."
"I don't think I have," Lo Hak admitted. "I haven't met a lot of people to be honest, I'm so busy with the baths trying to repay the loans."
Shoon grinned, "Just wait to you meet her, she's such a nice person, and so happy too, most of the time... I haven't really seen since Luca stabbed her...she's probably still recovering from that"
Lo Hak blinked. "I guess I arrived after something pretty major, didn't I?"
Shoon nodded, "It got pretty terrible. Luca had a True Rune that let him control giant Golden Wolves, and he and Yuber teamed up and hurt a lot of people! The Castle master has amneisa still I think, and Lady Lyon and Cecile got hurt really bad. It was pretty crazy all around, but the pale lady in who wears a lot of red and the tentacle monster guy with five heads and Hervey and Sigurd and Jeremy and some others took care of the Rune, which turned into a HUGE," he spread his arms wide, "Two headed wolf thing.
"And His Commandership Ferid," Shoon's eyes got a little glossy at the name of his hero, "and the Prince, and some other people took care of Luca, and they say that the Rune was making him crazy, which makes sense 'cause the Sun Rune made our Queen...kinda the same way." He didn't dare call Arshat crazy, while he had no love for his home land Queen Arshat had fought for the rights of slaves. "It lasted a long time and got really scary. I wanted to fight Luca, but I broke my arm from falling out of a tree and Belcoot sidelined me."
Well, half of that went over Lo Hak's head, but he got the gist of it. "It is a good thing he did," Lo Hak said, picking up on the last sentence and partially the only thing the really got out of that shpeel. "If he hadn't and you've been seriously hurt, I wouldn't have had lunch with a buddy today, would I?"
"No," Shoon agreed, "But I still really wanted to fight him. He really hurt a lot of my friends, like Lady Lyon, and Roy, who he framed for doing all the stuff he actually did, and he hurt Belcoot really bad too, and Kyle. And they're some of the best fighters around."
Lo Hak didn't have answer or a little quip for that. Who could? He just reached out and ruffled Shoon's hair and smiled. "Thanks for helping me pick up."
"No problem, that guy was a jerk." Shoon shot a glance at the door. "I'm going to go back to the bath, do you wanna join me? You deserve a break after him."
Lo Hak laughed. "Yeah, I think I will. That slap still stings a bit."
Shoon reached out and laid his hand on Lo's cheek, "It sounded like it hurt," he said and then dropped his hand and hugged Lo. "You going to be ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Lo Hak assured him. "Go get back in the bath. I'll be along shortly." It was only when Shoon was fully gone and that Lo put his hand to his cheek and fought back the tears. The slap had been hard and painful, and but what hurt most was he thought he'd escaped stuff like that. He kept them back and grabbed a towel and undressed, going to the baths with as much composure as he could.
Shoon was in the middle of bath when Lo Hak came in. He paddled over to edge and waited for Lo to join him. "You sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lo Hak said. He'd weathered enough of them as a kid whenever he got caught, or someone got mad at him. He hadn't received a slap in awhile, but they still hurt.
Shoon took his hand into his and pulled him into the bath, "C'mon, it's time to relax," he smiled at Lo, "Let's just forget about the jerk."
Lo Hak squeezed the hand and smiled, slipping in with a sigh. "Yeah, you're right," he beamed at Shoon as he relaxed in the warm waters.
Shoon went to the middle and stood there before saying, "Hey, since you work with people while they don't have clothes on, I have a question. Do scars," he gestured to his many scars, "ever fade?"
Lo Hak shook his head. "No," he said. "That's why they're called scars. They're there for life." He stood up and turned his back to Shoon, tapping at a line of lighter tan flesh just above his buttocks and up to his hip in a thin, but noticeable line. "Got that when I was...," he thought, "seven."
Shoon pointed to a scar on his abdomen, from when a sword had been thrust into his gut. "I got this one when I was seven."
If Lo Hak had known the story behind it, he might have been appalled. "It suits you," he said. "Shows how tough you are."
Shoon shrugged, "I don't like them, I always feel a little out of place when we take group baths 'cause I have more scars than all of the other kids, and some of the adults. And, this," he pointed to his tattoo, a simple white horizontal stripe on his left arm just below his shoulder blade, "I keep meaning to get it covered, but I haven't found a design I like yet."
"Why cover it?" Lo Hak asked.
"It marks me a slave," Shoon sad simply, "all of us gladiators had 'em. I was lucky I only got it on my arm. Zegai got his on his face."
Lo Hak reached up and ran a finger over the white stripe, peering at intently.
Shoon shivered at the touch, and watched as Lo Hak's fingers traced his tattoo, "It's kinda boring," he said, trying to add some cheer to his voice, "You would think that they would want something more orginal to mark someone as their property."
Lo Hak's fingers dropped away and he looked up at Shoon. "But you're not their property," he stated it with a matter of fact.
"Not anymore," Shoon said, "But for most of my life." He traced the tattoo, "It really hurt getting it, but at least they were clean about it." He looked at Lo Hak, "But you're right, I'm not anyone's property any more. And that's why I want it covered up."
Lo Hak peered at it again. "It's why, so you could color it," he said. "And then move that into a design."
Shoon nodded, "Yeah, an armband of some kind, but I haven't seen any designs l like. There have been some cool ones, but I want something with a sun." He giggled, "THough Kidd and Roy think I should get a flaming mongoose, but that's a no."
Lo Hak laughed. "Yes, defiantly a no." He agreed as he reached up and touched the band again. He took his finger down a few inches and tapped. "Add another here and put the sun in the middle."
"Hmmm...Maybe," Shoon said, watching Lo Hak's fingers. "Once I have enough potch I'm getting it. I want this thing gone."
"If you need a job, I can give you one here, for a little bit," Lo Hak offered, letting his hand fall back in the water.
"Hmmm, maybe. I work with Kidd and Eugene in the Detective business, but we haven't gotten much business lately." He grinned proudly, "I'm the pet detective, I focus on the pet cases."
"So you told me," Lo Hak chuckled. "Well, we need someone to look out for those guys, right?"
Shoon nodded, "'cause people forget animals have just as many rights as humans, ducks, lizards, kobolds, nekobolds, beavers, elves and drawrves."
"That was a rather long list, mostly of things Lo Hak didn't know were sentient on the human level, but there you had it.
Shoon, with his hands on his hips, caught himself before he went off into a tangent about how people should be more thoughtful towards nature and how everyone should be vegitarian. He grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, it's just I'm very into my job."
"That's good," Lo Hak assured him. "People should have as much enthusiasm as you as me about their jobs."
Shoon nodded, "It's also important subject. People really need to be aware of this stuff."
He sat back down in the water next Lo, "People don't really pay attention to me though when I tell them this stuff."
"People tend to not pay attention to a lot of things," Lo Hak noted. "Hence why a lot lose their purses," he winked.
Shoon had to think about that one for a moment before he got it, he giggled a bit before looking at Lo. He noticed that Lo Hak's face was still a little red from the force of the slap, "How's your cheek?" he asked.
"It'll be fine," Lo Hak assured him. "A good soak and an ice pack and it'll be good as new in no time."
Shoon nodded, trusting Lo Hak's opinion. He stretched out, "The water's starting to cool," he noticed. "We should probably get out."
"Heh, good idea," Lo Hak nodded and rose, slipping out of the waters with only a slight sound and grabbing his towel. With his back turned one could see little nicks on his legs, just scratches, but light scratches as he toweled himself dry.
"What happened to your legs?" Shoon asked following Lo Hak's example and toweling off as well.
"Bad runaway plan," Lo Hak explained. "First time on that island, got caught, and managed to fall down a nasty ridge. Rocks cut up my legs pretty bad."
Shoon cringed in sympathy, "Ouch, that would hurt pretty bad."
“Yeah, it did," Lo Hak chuckled. "It was made sweeter by the purse we got away with."
Shoon nodded, understanding, sorta, that sometimes victory made all the wounds worth it.
Lo Hak wrapped the towel around his waist and went back to the massage parlor where his clothes were and dressed. "Ah, that felt good," he said as he tugged his vest on.
Shoon pulled on his pants and shoes and pulled his shirt on, leaving it unbuttoned because of the heat. "I think I'm going to take a nap," he said, "Are you sure you're ok?" he reached up and touched Lo Hak's cheek again, "It still looks like it hurts. He must have hit you pretty hard."
"An ice pack will do me good," Lo Hak assured Shoon once more, patting the hand on his cheek. "I promise if it doesn't get better I'll visit the clinic, k?"
Shoon stood on his tip toes and craned his neck and pressed his lips to Lo Hak's cheek quickly and then smiled, "I saw a mom do it to her son when he got hurt," he explained, "I was wondering if it might help you."
Lo Hak blinked, looking at Shoon, surprised. He resisted the urge to touch his cheek to make sure Shoon really had kissed him, but when Shoon explained his reasoning he relaxed. The boy was to innocent to have...well, yeah. Lo Hak smiled. "Much better, thank you," he ruffled Shoon's hair.
Shoon grinned and hugged Lo Hak, "I'll see you later," he chirped and left with a wave.
"Bye," Lo Hak waved after he hugged Shoon back, and turned back to his parlor and sighed. He still had clean up to do. Oh well. He felt refreshed, and his cheek did feel better.
WHAT:Just hanging out and some drama
WHEN: Right after Shoon's second swimming lesson.
Shoon popped his head into the Bath House, "I'm back!" he said cheerfully, "Sorry that took so long, I had to pick up some potch from my cabin."
Lo Hak looked up from where he was massaging a woman and shook his head at Shoon, then jerked his head towards the back. "Almost done," he mouthed as he worked.
Shoon nodded, and headed out to the lobby where he sat down on the chair out there and got out his lunch, a salad with vinegar and olive oil, and began to eat while he waited for Lo to finish up.
About ten minutes later Lo Hak came out, the woman following him, dressed in an upperscale attire. Lo Hak bowed slightly at the waist to her. "Please come again," he murmured.
The woman gave him a scathing glance, then turned her nose up and left. Lo Hak straightened and sighed, running a hand through his hair before turning and smiling brightly at Shoon. "What's up?" he grinned.
Holding out a paper bag of cookies, Shoon said, "The cookies you wanted." He took a bite of his salad, "I forgot if you said anything about types, so I got a bunch of different ones."
"Oh!" Lo Hak clapped his hands and took the bag, nearly putting his face in as he inspected. "Heh, you did good!" he lightly kicked at Shoon's calf.
Shoon giggled and kicked back, "I'm eating! You don't want me to get salad all over the place do you?"
Lo Hak rolled his eyes. "Come on. We can eat in the back," he said, leading Shoon to his room. He flopped down on his bed and shoved a chair in Shoon's direction with his foot as he took out a cookie and began to nibble on it.
Shoon sat down and took another bite of his salad. "Who was that lady? I've never seen her before."
"Her? Oh, a random customer," Lo Hak shrugged. "I think she probably stopped in the castle over night and I apparantley did not meet her standards." He rolled his eyes. "Aristocracy."
Shoon made a face, thinking of Euram, "I know, trust me." He sighed and put his now empty plate on the floor and grabbed a cookie and took a bite, "Nothing is ever good enough for them."
Lo Hak shrugged. "Whatever. She was good for the potch. I almost contemplated taking my tip from here, but...naw, I don't do that anymore." It was true. He itched to dip his hands in her purse and steal a couple extra hundred in 'tips'.
"I never really got the concept of money," Shoon said, "I mean, I know it's important and stuff, but I never understood why some people have more, and that makes them think they're better than the rest of us." He looked at Lo Hak, "Why is that? Why do people think jus' 'cause they have money, money that they didn't have to earn, just money they were born into having, makes them better?"
Lo Hak shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I made a living in my early years taking said money, but...," he trailed off and shrugged again. "I can't honestly tell you. But I'll tell you it feels good to hit them where it hurts. Rich people have such obvious weaknesses, namely their money."
"Yeah..." Shoon shook his head, wanting to clear his head of the whole ariscrats thing, "Oh! I brought my lizards for you to meet!" He reached in his pocket and pulled out three lizards, "I have nine altogether, but the other six were napping so I didn't want to bother them." He held out his hand at Lo Hak, "Say hi to Lo Hak," he told the lizards and all three of them looked at Lo Hak and blinked.
Lo Hak jumped and backed up, visions flooding his mind of the lizard beasts that sometimes crawled onto the ship in the middle of sailing and having to fight the damned things off. But as he stared, it finally registered that these lizards were perfectly normal and he came a little closer, peering back as he nibbled a cookie.
Shoon watched as the lizards looked at Lo Hak some more, before two of them got bored and scuried up Shoon's arm and headed up into his hair. The smallest lizard yawned at Lo before following his brothers. "That was Bobby," Shoon said, refering to the little lizard, "the other two were Warren and Hank. Jean, Scott, Spike, Angel, Darla, and Drusilla are the ones at home right now."
"And you decided to keep lizards because...?" Lo Hak pressed.
"Faylen bought them for something, I think she wanted to give them to Lady Sialeeds as a...present," he grinned, "But Lady Sialeeds hates Lizards, so I asked Faylen if I could keep 'em, but she wanted one, so I got the rest."
Lo Hak laughed. "Well, they were...cute." He sat back and attacked a cookie in a flurry of nibbling - it was how ate his cookies! Lay off the man!
Shoon smiled and took a big bite out of his cookie. "When the others are awake I'll introduce you to them too," he said cheerfully. He swallowed, "Did you ever have any animal friends?"
"Does a mermaid count?" he asked.
"Uh...I don't know. I've never met a mermaid before," Shoon pressed his lips together in thought, "Did she talk? I mean human language speaking?"
Lo Hak nodded. "Yeah, of course mermaids can talk. They usually stay away from humans, but they can talk. They talk sort of wierd, but they talk."
"Were they pretty? I hear Mermaids are really pretty," Shoon said. "I don't know if they count as an animal friend since they can talk." He took another bite of his cookie.
"Pretty? Well, yeah, in their own year - if you like scales," Lo Hak nibbled thoughtfully. "Well, if they don't count, then I guess not. The islands aren't exactly full of creatures you can make best friends with.":
"Huh," Shoon said and leaned back. "Are there merboys?"
Lo Hak paused in his nibbling and thought. "Well....I guess there would have to be, wouldn't there?"
"So they can make babies," Shoon said, nodding sagely, "So you’ve never seen any merboys?"
Lo Hak thought again. "Uh, no, actually. Never. In fact, I hadn't seen a mermaid till I joined Lazlo's crew."
"Huh. I wonder if they're supershy then." Shoon finished off his cookie and took another one. "Lazlo, the really quiet boy who works in the infirmary?"
Lo Hak nodded. "Yeah. He led our army way back when. Beat the hell out me, actually, when we tried to con him out of 10,000 potch - me and my sibs, I mean."
"Woah, that doesn't seem like him at all! He's so quiet all the time." Shoon tried to picture Lazlo beating Lo Hak up, but it just didn't seem to fit with the quiet boy's personality.
Lo Hak laughed. "To be honest, my sibs and I sort of...erm, well, pushed him into it." He didn't want to go into an explanation of extortionism, so he left it at that.
Shoon nodded, remembering some of the people the Prince had to deal with who had done similar things, like Euram.
Lo Hak looked down in his bag and pouted. "I ate all my cookies," he stuck out his lower lip. They were good, until they were gone!
Shoon giggled a bit at Lo Hak's pout. "Here," he held out his last cookie, "I can't eat too many, or else I might get...what are they called? love handles?"
Lo Hak nearly choked on his own spit. "Trust me, Shoon, you won't get love handles." He took the cookie though and nibbled happily, almost in a squirrelish manner, but cuter.
"Huh? Why not? What are love handles anyways?" Shoon pouted, hoping Lo Hak would explain it to him.
"They are what happen when you get old and fat," Lo Hak told him. "You fit in neither category with as much work outs as you do."
"Huh, well, that's good to know." He stretched, "why are they called love handles. It seems like a silly thing to call something when it involves body fat."
Lo Hak pondered it and shrugged. "I dunno. They just are." He finished the cookie and licked his fingers clean of crumbs. "You doing anything else today?"
Shoon shook his head. "No, I took a run this morning, and then worked with one of the dummys at the dojo while Sensei was sleeping. I don't have anything else planned."
Lo Hak wished he could say the same, but he was here till the baths closed, and he couldn't afford to close them early. He had loans to pay off! He pouted again at the thought, and would have said something in way of voicing his pout when he heard the bell chime that meant someone had come into the parlor. He launched himself from the bed and slid out to greet the newcomer, a flashy male that was obviously on the higher end of the money scale.
Shoon poked his head out of the room and watched as Lo Hak dealt with the costumer before getting bored and sitting back down. He collected the trash from his lunch and the cookies and put them in the trash can before heading back into the lobby, "I think I'm going to take a bath," he told Lo Hak.
Lo Hak nodded as he dealt with the man, leading him to the massage tables and giving Shoon a smile that said 'Help yourself, this guy will be awhile'.
Shoon nodded in return, grabbed a bucket filled with bath stuff and went into the men's side of the bath.
It was probably twenty minutes later that a crash sounded from the massage parlor, and about a minute after the man came in and glared at Shoon. He sniffed. "Sir," he turned back as Lo Hak came in after him with the tub of bath stuff. "I ask that you remove this...this commoner from the bath while I am here."
Shoon blinked and looked at Lo Hak for instruction, not wanting to leave but not wanting to cause Lo Hak any trouble.
"Sir," the man turned. "Remove the street rat."
Lo Hak's eyes flared and he glared at the man. "I am sorry sir, but he is also a paying customer. I cannot ask him to leave."
"Sir, are you -"
"I said no, Sir," Lo Hak said, eyes narrowing. "Either bathe, or pay for your massage and leave. I will not make Shoon leave simply for you."
The man's nostrils flared again and he whirled. The sound of flesh on flesh rang through the baths, the slap echoing in the tense heat of the room.
Shoon stood, "Hey!" he shouted at the man, "You will apologize to him now or else I'll get the captain of the guard to escort you out of here!"
"I don't take threats nicely," the man glared, but his view of Shoon was blocked by low, his eyes dangerously narrow and his mouth no longer smiling.
"Leave. Now," he commanded the man.
The man glared back, but when Lo did not budge he sniffed. "Fine. But I refuse to pay for such service." He whirled and went back into the massage parlor, and few moments later the door slammed shut.
Shoon grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist and chased after the man. "Hey!" he called, "You will go back and apologize to him and pay!" He glared at the man, blue eyes blazing. "And you will do it now." He knew he wasn't threatening, he was too small to be, but he hoped that he would back an impression on the man anyhow.
The man just laughed in Shoon's face and left, Lo Hak taking Shoon's shoulder and shaking his head to keep the boy from running after him. "Forget it," he said as he knelt to clean up the mess from the loud crashing noise earlier.
"But!" Shoon glared after the man, "He didn't pay you! And he hit you! At the very least you should report him to Cecile!"
"Don't bother," Lo Hak said with a sigh. "He'd just buy his way out of punishment."
"But..." He sighed and leaned to down to help Lo Hak pick up, making sure he would at least talk to Cecile later. "Have you met Cecile?" he asked changing the subject, "She's the captain of the guard here and she's really nice. She treats everyone the same."
"I don't think I have," Lo Hak admitted. "I haven't met a lot of people to be honest, I'm so busy with the baths trying to repay the loans."
Shoon grinned, "Just wait to you meet her, she's such a nice person, and so happy too, most of the time... I haven't really seen since Luca stabbed her...she's probably still recovering from that"
Lo Hak blinked. "I guess I arrived after something pretty major, didn't I?"
Shoon nodded, "It got pretty terrible. Luca had a True Rune that let him control giant Golden Wolves, and he and Yuber teamed up and hurt a lot of people! The Castle master has amneisa still I think, and Lady Lyon and Cecile got hurt really bad. It was pretty crazy all around, but the pale lady in who wears a lot of red and the tentacle monster guy with five heads and Hervey and Sigurd and Jeremy and some others took care of the Rune, which turned into a HUGE," he spread his arms wide, "Two headed wolf thing.
"And His Commandership Ferid," Shoon's eyes got a little glossy at the name of his hero, "and the Prince, and some other people took care of Luca, and they say that the Rune was making him crazy, which makes sense 'cause the Sun Rune made our Queen...kinda the same way." He didn't dare call Arshat crazy, while he had no love for his home land Queen Arshat had fought for the rights of slaves. "It lasted a long time and got really scary. I wanted to fight Luca, but I broke my arm from falling out of a tree and Belcoot sidelined me."
Well, half of that went over Lo Hak's head, but he got the gist of it. "It is a good thing he did," Lo Hak said, picking up on the last sentence and partially the only thing the really got out of that shpeel. "If he hadn't and you've been seriously hurt, I wouldn't have had lunch with a buddy today, would I?"
"No," Shoon agreed, "But I still really wanted to fight him. He really hurt a lot of my friends, like Lady Lyon, and Roy, who he framed for doing all the stuff he actually did, and he hurt Belcoot really bad too, and Kyle. And they're some of the best fighters around."
Lo Hak didn't have answer or a little quip for that. Who could? He just reached out and ruffled Shoon's hair and smiled. "Thanks for helping me pick up."
"No problem, that guy was a jerk." Shoon shot a glance at the door. "I'm going to go back to the bath, do you wanna join me? You deserve a break after him."
Lo Hak laughed. "Yeah, I think I will. That slap still stings a bit."
Shoon reached out and laid his hand on Lo's cheek, "It sounded like it hurt," he said and then dropped his hand and hugged Lo. "You going to be ok?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Lo Hak assured him. "Go get back in the bath. I'll be along shortly." It was only when Shoon was fully gone and that Lo put his hand to his cheek and fought back the tears. The slap had been hard and painful, and but what hurt most was he thought he'd escaped stuff like that. He kept them back and grabbed a towel and undressed, going to the baths with as much composure as he could.
Shoon was in the middle of bath when Lo Hak came in. He paddled over to edge and waited for Lo to join him. "You sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Lo Hak said. He'd weathered enough of them as a kid whenever he got caught, or someone got mad at him. He hadn't received a slap in awhile, but they still hurt.
Shoon took his hand into his and pulled him into the bath, "C'mon, it's time to relax," he smiled at Lo, "Let's just forget about the jerk."
Lo Hak squeezed the hand and smiled, slipping in with a sigh. "Yeah, you're right," he beamed at Shoon as he relaxed in the warm waters.
Shoon went to the middle and stood there before saying, "Hey, since you work with people while they don't have clothes on, I have a question. Do scars," he gestured to his many scars, "ever fade?"
Lo Hak shook his head. "No," he said. "That's why they're called scars. They're there for life." He stood up and turned his back to Shoon, tapping at a line of lighter tan flesh just above his buttocks and up to his hip in a thin, but noticeable line. "Got that when I was...," he thought, "seven."
Shoon pointed to a scar on his abdomen, from when a sword had been thrust into his gut. "I got this one when I was seven."
If Lo Hak had known the story behind it, he might have been appalled. "It suits you," he said. "Shows how tough you are."
Shoon shrugged, "I don't like them, I always feel a little out of place when we take group baths 'cause I have more scars than all of the other kids, and some of the adults. And, this," he pointed to his tattoo, a simple white horizontal stripe on his left arm just below his shoulder blade, "I keep meaning to get it covered, but I haven't found a design I like yet."
"Why cover it?" Lo Hak asked.
"It marks me a slave," Shoon sad simply, "all of us gladiators had 'em. I was lucky I only got it on my arm. Zegai got his on his face."
Lo Hak reached up and ran a finger over the white stripe, peering at intently.
Shoon shivered at the touch, and watched as Lo Hak's fingers traced his tattoo, "It's kinda boring," he said, trying to add some cheer to his voice, "You would think that they would want something more orginal to mark someone as their property."
Lo Hak's fingers dropped away and he looked up at Shoon. "But you're not their property," he stated it with a matter of fact.
"Not anymore," Shoon said, "But for most of my life." He traced the tattoo, "It really hurt getting it, but at least they were clean about it." He looked at Lo Hak, "But you're right, I'm not anyone's property any more. And that's why I want it covered up."
Lo Hak peered at it again. "It's why, so you could color it," he said. "And then move that into a design."
Shoon nodded, "Yeah, an armband of some kind, but I haven't seen any designs l like. There have been some cool ones, but I want something with a sun." He giggled, "THough Kidd and Roy think I should get a flaming mongoose, but that's a no."
Lo Hak laughed. "Yes, defiantly a no." He agreed as he reached up and touched the band again. He took his finger down a few inches and tapped. "Add another here and put the sun in the middle."
"Hmmm...Maybe," Shoon said, watching Lo Hak's fingers. "Once I have enough potch I'm getting it. I want this thing gone."
"If you need a job, I can give you one here, for a little bit," Lo Hak offered, letting his hand fall back in the water.
"Hmmm, maybe. I work with Kidd and Eugene in the Detective business, but we haven't gotten much business lately." He grinned proudly, "I'm the pet detective, I focus on the pet cases."
"So you told me," Lo Hak chuckled. "Well, we need someone to look out for those guys, right?"
Shoon nodded, "'cause people forget animals have just as many rights as humans, ducks, lizards, kobolds, nekobolds, beavers, elves and drawrves."
"That was a rather long list, mostly of things Lo Hak didn't know were sentient on the human level, but there you had it.
Shoon, with his hands on his hips, caught himself before he went off into a tangent about how people should be more thoughtful towards nature and how everyone should be vegitarian. He grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, it's just I'm very into my job."
"That's good," Lo Hak assured him. "People should have as much enthusiasm as you as me about their jobs."
Shoon nodded, "It's also important subject. People really need to be aware of this stuff."
He sat back down in the water next Lo, "People don't really pay attention to me though when I tell them this stuff."
"People tend to not pay attention to a lot of things," Lo Hak noted. "Hence why a lot lose their purses," he winked.
Shoon had to think about that one for a moment before he got it, he giggled a bit before looking at Lo. He noticed that Lo Hak's face was still a little red from the force of the slap, "How's your cheek?" he asked.
"It'll be fine," Lo Hak assured him. "A good soak and an ice pack and it'll be good as new in no time."
Shoon nodded, trusting Lo Hak's opinion. He stretched out, "The water's starting to cool," he noticed. "We should probably get out."
"Heh, good idea," Lo Hak nodded and rose, slipping out of the waters with only a slight sound and grabbing his towel. With his back turned one could see little nicks on his legs, just scratches, but light scratches as he toweled himself dry.
"What happened to your legs?" Shoon asked following Lo Hak's example and toweling off as well.
"Bad runaway plan," Lo Hak explained. "First time on that island, got caught, and managed to fall down a nasty ridge. Rocks cut up my legs pretty bad."
Shoon cringed in sympathy, "Ouch, that would hurt pretty bad."
“Yeah, it did," Lo Hak chuckled. "It was made sweeter by the purse we got away with."
Shoon nodded, understanding, sorta, that sometimes victory made all the wounds worth it.
Lo Hak wrapped the towel around his waist and went back to the massage parlor where his clothes were and dressed. "Ah, that felt good," he said as he tugged his vest on.
Shoon pulled on his pants and shoes and pulled his shirt on, leaving it unbuttoned because of the heat. "I think I'm going to take a nap," he said, "Are you sure you're ok?" he reached up and touched Lo Hak's cheek again, "It still looks like it hurts. He must have hit you pretty hard."
"An ice pack will do me good," Lo Hak assured Shoon once more, patting the hand on his cheek. "I promise if it doesn't get better I'll visit the clinic, k?"
Shoon stood on his tip toes and craned his neck and pressed his lips to Lo Hak's cheek quickly and then smiled, "I saw a mom do it to her son when he got hurt," he explained, "I was wondering if it might help you."
Lo Hak blinked, looking at Shoon, surprised. He resisted the urge to touch his cheek to make sure Shoon really had kissed him, but when Shoon explained his reasoning he relaxed. The boy was to innocent to have...well, yeah. Lo Hak smiled. "Much better, thank you," he ruffled Shoon's hair.
Shoon grinned and hugged Lo Hak, "I'll see you later," he chirped and left with a wave.
"Bye," Lo Hak waved after he hugged Shoon back, and turned back to his parlor and sighed. He still had clean up to do. Oh well. He felt refreshed, and his cheek did feel better.