The twitch in the woman’s hand is what Sky had expected, but instead of balling into a fist it stayed there as she snapped at Ruce instead of laying him out. Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been… Even if the blond knew that he deserved the alternative. Under the collar of the armor Sky’s lips curled into a light smile, that sarcasm… He liked her. What came next though was even more surprising than the lack of an attack, was she… Flirting back to Ruce? The smile vanished as his mouth hung open a little, and more than ever the mercenary was glad they could’ve see beneath his eyes. What in the world was going on here? She even tried measuring the brunet up, which just baffled the blond. There had to be some alternative motive or something to her act, even if the hadn’t quite figured out what it was yet.

Surely when Ruce searched for the teeth and blood, he was merely jesting and playing along with her joke. He wasn’t [i]that[/i] stupid, was he? Of course not, Sky needed to have a little faith and relax. Things were going to be alright, there wasn’t a fight breaking out over this and it wasn’t like he couldn’t step in if the woman tried to pull anything out from under their noses. In fact, the whole bar had settled down quite nicely despite the announcement, perhaps people just resigned to their fate for now. It wasn’t like this planet was all that bad, and the ban probably wouldn’t last very long anyway. Besides the food and drink in the establishment were good, able to help the common folk relax and forget about their troubles even if it was just for a little while. No need getting upset over things that you couldn’t control after all.

The surveying eyes and thoughts of the mercenary snapped back to the situation at hand when he felt the tap upon his chest-piece. Sky took the glass in hand, though his eyes narrowed and the icy glare stared daggers through his friend. Honestly, he had half a mind to break the glass over Ruce’s head, but it wasn’t like he’d even feel it as thick headed as the bastard was. He was just trying to show off anyway, the blond was sure the moron still remembered Alexia with how long they’d been together now. With a snort as he closed his eyes, his free hand lowered the front of his collar so he could take a shot of the drink then rest it at his side.

[color=00aeef]“We both know Alexia’s more woman than I can handle already, besides I’m not insecure enough to have to keep adding notches to my belt to feel worth something,”[/color] Sky shot back coolly. Unfortunately, Ruce was intent on getting himself into trouble, even if it wasn’t in the first place he looked for it. With a sigh, Sky finished his drink and set it on the counter, pausing for a moment as the warmth slid over him. Then he opened his sapphire eyes to look at the woman and nodded, politely saying [color=00aeef]“Excuse me, let me see if I can keep him alive long enough for you to cash in on your threat.”[/color]

Grasping his sword once more, the blond slowly pulled from the bar and made his way through the crowd as he surveyed the situation Ruce was getting himself into. It looked like an ordinary game of poker, nothing special about that, but the man winning at the moment caught Sky’s eye and he stopped. What in the world was a captain doing here? Well, not so much what was he doing here since that wasn’t too unusual, but why was he wearing his dress uniform? This certainly wasn’t an occasion for that, especially if he was here by himself and no other of his ilk. Whatever it was they needed to be careful, something fishy was definitely going on here. A bump from a drunken man behind him made Sky take a step forward and grunt, but he ignored the man’s complaining over his standing still as he swiftly made his way to his friend’s side and nudged him with his arm. A glance towards his friend with that expression was all Sky needed to do to get the message across: something was wrong here and they needed to tread lightly. This had a chance to get really sour, really fast...

Maybe he was going to drag Ruce to the hospital after all.