“It matters to me,” Harou replied firmly.  Brise blinked at him, surprised again.

“Why?”

“Why?” Harou looked perplexed.  “Why wouldn’t it?  As I said before, you don’t deserve to be treated like that.  No one does!  Of course I want to help any way I can.  So, how can I help?”

Brise stared at him blankly for a long moment.

“You say that like anyone else in your position would think the same way and make the same offer,” he said, looking equally perplexed.

“Well…” Harou scratched the back of his head sheepishly.  “I’m not so naive to think everyone is good or kind.  I’ve seen enough of the world to know otherwise.”  The fingers on his left hand drummed against the crutch handle, drawing Brise’s eyes to it.

“Ah… true, you are a soldier.  Is that it, then?  You feel a sense of duty?” he asked.

“Hmm,” Harou rubbed his chin, considering.  “I suppose that’s a contributing factor, but I can’t really say that’s why.  I just…” he paused, feeling his cheeks begin to heat up, and gulped slightly. “I saw your performance.  I was mesmerized by the talent and skill you displayed.  It reminded me a lot of my military training.  To be honest, I was hoping to ask you to teach me a few of your moves.  I’m kind of a bulky guy, so it’s not always easy for me to dodge, and I thought I might benefit from some tips.  I also just… wanted to talk.  Seeing that goblin treat you that way just made me–”

“He’s the owner of the market,” Brise interrupted.  “Don’t mistake him for an ordinary goblin.  He might be as mean, short and ugly as all the others, but he’s cunning and vicious.  He is why this goblin market is so big and successful.  I’m not his only elemental slave.  I’ve been his prisoner for decades.  His interest in his various slaves waxes and wanes, and right now, he’s been fixated on me.  I’ve been doing my best to make excuses, but, well, you saw how I ran out,” the sylph said, waving his hands in a helpless gesture in the direction the goblin had gone.

“Well, what if you found an excuse not to perform tomorrow at all.  Such as, if you were injured or unwell?” Harou suggested.

Brise leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow as he looked Harou up and down.

“It’s a clever enough idea, but I can’t fake such a thing.  He can compel me to speak the truth by exerting his control over these cuffs,” the sylph waved his arms to call attention to the silver cuffs again.  Harou frowned and fidgeted with his crutch.

“I don’t want you to injure yourself, though.  If you deliberately hurt yourself during an upcoming performance, you might hurt yourself badly enough that you can’t perform for a long time,” the lycan lamented.

Brise’s gaze softened, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his shapely mouth.

“You really care, don’t you?” he asked.

“Of course!”

“You really are too kind,” Brise sighed.  He watched Harou silently for a moment, tracking his gaze and watching his expression.

It made Harou nervous, and he could feel his face becoming flushed again.  He tried not to stare at Brise’s lips, or his exposed pecks, or the clear outline of his manhood through his leotard.  Harou swallowed, and, unable to meet Brise’s gaze, looked at the floor.

Brise smiled slowly and stood up.  He walked over to Harou and looped his arms around the soldier’s neck.  Harou’s head snapped up, his amber eyes meeting Brise’s blue gaze, obviously startled.

“Did you come here because you want me?” Brise whispered.  Harou’s eyes widened and he jerked back slightly.  “Did you come here with the same intentions as the goblin?  Is that why you got so mad over what he did?  Is that why you want to stop him?  You want me for yourself?”  He pressed his body close to Harou, and felt the tall soldier’s partial erection.

Harou’s expression hardened and he pulled Brise’s hands from around his neck and firmly pushed the man back.

“No,” he said firmly, almost forcefully.  “I will admit, my attraction contributed to my approach, but I would never touch someone like that without their consent, and I had no expectation of sleeping with you.  I am not like that tyrannical little monster!  I may be a beast, but I was raised to be a gentleman, and trained to control my impulses and urges in the army,” Harou stressed his point with a hard expression.

Brise was taken aback by Harou’s response, and more than a little impressed.  He did catch one thing in Harou’s words and seized upon them.

“What do you mean, you may be a beast?  What are you?  You look human, but… you have a different aura.”

“I am a lycan,” Harou said, seeing no reason to hide it from the sylph.  The sylph licked his lips and stepped back, his hands easily slipping out of Harou’s as the lycan made no move to contain him.  That, too, was different than he was used to.

“A lycan?  So then… did you approach me because you believe I am your fated mate?” he asked.

“My… what?” Harou asked, taken aback by the question.

“Your fated mate, the one true love bound to you by the moon goddess at birth,” Brise clarified.  Harou stared at him blankly, visibly perplexed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.  That’s not a rumor I’ve heard about lycans before.  But I also haven’t spent that much time around well-traveled humans, so I suppose I haven’t really heard what kind of nonsense they say about my kind these days,” Harou said, his tone reflecting his bemusement.  “The concept of ‘fated mates’ seems to take away the autonomy of both people involved,” he added.

“Oh,” Brise said, surprised.  He took a moment to recalibrate his thinking.  “I suppose I don’t know much about lycans, then,” he admitted.  He went back to his chair, and gestured for Harou to sit in the chair across from him.  “Sit,” he said, “I have a while yet before my next show, and you seem like you shouldn’t stand for that long.”

Harou gratefully sank into the chair and sighed.

“Thank you.  I’m glad to sit, and glad to talk a while longer.  You said you don’t know much about lycans, what do you know?  Or, I suppose, what do you think you know?” Harou asked, amusement glimmering in his golden gaze.

Brise laughed sheepishly.

“Well, I heard you live in solitary communes away from humans, under the leadership of an alpha male and female, and their beta males and females serving basically as guards, and that you all seek your soulmates, whom your moon goddess links you to at birth.  I heard when the moon is full, you’re forced to take on the form of a monstrous wolf and become slave to your animal mind and go on a killing rampage, sometimes alone, sometimes hunting as a pack,” Brise described.

Harou was shaking his head as Brise talked, his amusement growing.

“Almost all of that is wrong,” he laughed softly.  “The only part that’s correct is the part about living in solitary communes away from humans.  And even that is a generalization.  Where I grew up, half the lycans lived in the surrounding forest following the old ways, while the other half secretly lived among the humans in a proper town by the sea.  We lived like any other civilized race.  When the moon is full, we believe our goddess’ eyes are open and we take on our wolf form and run and hunt in the woods like a pack of wolves would, but we are in full control of our minds when we do.  We’re not compelled to shift.  We do suffer some negative health effects if we go too long without shifting, and it’s possible to lose control and shift unwillingly, but it has nothing to do with the moon.  I suppose some clans might believe in the ‘fated mates’ thing you mentioned, but if so, it’d be a religious belief like any other religious belief.  I’ve never heard of it and my clan certainly never followed anything like that,” Harou explained.