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Jas	By : awcoppelia Category: A through F > Forgotten Realms Views: 3207 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Forgotten Realms series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
CHAPTER 6
It was the morning of the Grand Melee, and Jas felt the usual mix of anticipation and jangling nerves. This time, though, the turmoil was centered more on what was going to happen after the combat was over. The only thing he really wanted to do was just get this over with so he could hunt down Drizzt and try to do that again. His chest heaved in a restless sigh. He was early as always, and sat in the outer chambers of the arena with Tengen, making more fuss than needed as to which poles he wanted to use, both long, short, straight, etcetera, etcetera, hoping to make time move faster. As a normal practice, he used a rather simple straight sword in his dominant hand, but tended to carry a small selection of varying smaller blades for his other hand, which he would choose based on the style and personality of his opponent. But in the arena of the Grand Melee, participants were limited in choices, and Jas was trying to decide which might be best for quickly decimating the ranks of the defending students. Tengen was of absolutely no help, as the Melee was not exactly his favorite of entertainments. He had been studiously ignoring Jas's monologue.
` When Tengen had first arrived, grumpy and still half asleep, he had announced that this year he planned on just marching right to the center of the place, dropping his poles, and inviting any one who wanted to to just do him a favor and get it over with. Tengen's class had their melee first, giving the most senior students the chance at having almost an entire day off from the routines of the Academy. Jas envied Tengen just a bit, knowing full well that the older student would be taken out within a few minutes of the start of combat anyways, even if he did not openly invite immediate defeat, therefore expecting at most to spend twenty minutes or so of his morning in Academy sanctioned activities. Jas was just glad that he didn't have to worry about competition of his own this year; he couldn't seem to totally shake off his lately familiar distraction. Thoughts such as those were no way to approach the most important event of the academic year. .
Soon enough, the outer chambers of the arena filled with students who were either anticipating or dreading the coming events of the morning. By the time Tengen's class was called into the melee, the older student had completely retreated into a sulky silence. He left for the arena a moment later, dragging his feet, leaving Jas only his parting words of 'this sucks' to remember him by.
"Nah, it just sucks to be you," Jas muttered, not quite under his breath.
He went back to mentally plotting the fastest, most efficient ways to take down his student opponents, based partly on individual skill and difficulty and partly on whom he disliked least amongst his fellow classmates. With his main opposition safely out of the way, he supposed he might be able to actually pick who got which class ranking this year, by eliminating them in the exact order he wanted. Of course, he also knew the folly of overconfidence, so thus the meticulous planning, to cover any contingencies he might encounter, even if he did consider them to be pack of idiots.
The chambers once again begin to fill with students, this time with the very students he was plotting against. The time drew near for his own Melee, to be held in the other side of the arena area. By this time, Jas was fully focused, all thoughts of frivolity gone, replaced by the anticipation of a battle that actually counted for something. This feeling was more familiar than it ought to be, and was accompanied by the faintest memories of long halls full of people in front of checkered boards, all waiting for a little buzzer to go off, for the next move to be played.. Then he saw something that threatened to shatter that focus, that intensity, entirely.
Drizzt Do'Urden, accompanied by a master, had walked into the chamber. At first Jas just stared, nothing new there, thinking he must have totally lost it, now he was hallucinating, too. Drizzt, who indeed was no illusion, had spotted Jas as well, but made no move towards acknowledging him. Jas, never having let Drizzt's lack of sociability stop him yet, rectified that quickly enough, heading right over to him.
"Hey, why are you here? Fifth year doesn't start until after morning classes, I thought," Jas trailed off, head tilted to one side querulously.
"They told me to come here," the younger drow replied, gesturing at the master who had accompanied him, who was now buried in conversation with the masters overseeing the eighth year competition. "Its not like I woke up this morning and simply decided to crash your melee party."
Jas tried to looked affronted but could not entirely stifled a grin, "It'd be funny if someone did, add some excitement to the place."
Drizzt grunted and leaned against the wall, arms crossed , flashing him just a bit of a derisive look, the first Jas had ever seen on that particular face.
"And don't think you're going to get all buddy buddy with me for this fight, because I just don't do that," the younger student said, just a bit of a growl to his voice.
This had the exact opposite effect on Jas than intended. Something responded deep in his core, something with a direct and delightfully tingling cord tied directly to his groin, surprising himself. He hid it well, though, covering his sudden physically emotional outburst with a derisive chuckle of his own, quickly assuring the younger student that he was completely on his own once they entered the arena. Briefly, a thought crossed his mind, gone in a flash: Its chess, not bridge, no partners here.
As the masters called the students into the fighting area, Jas leaned over and whispered between clenched teeth, more to keep himself from giggling than to appear threatening, "Looking forward to kicking your butt."
And he was, or at least looking forward to attempting to. He knew he ought to be more worried. He had heard plenty of rumors about this one's prowess, so many since he had met the young Do'Urden that by now he knew there must be some grain of truth in the stories. If nothing else, his carefully constructed plans would be completely askew, since a new piece had been thrown onto the board, a piece he didn't have a set of known rules for. But, somehow, he wasn't bothered. Quite the opposite, actually. He was very much looking forward to their meeting in the arena, as if he had waited his whole life to do exactly this. Of course, that was ridiculous, it was only his silly obsession with Drizzt that was making him feel that way, that had to be it. Well, sudden competition or no, at least it wasn't going to be boring.

*** ***

True to his word, Drizzt not only distanced himself from Jas at the start of the Melee, but continued to keep himself unseen throughout the first forty-five minutes of combat, although he left certain evidence of his passage in the form of blue-lighted students lounging on the floor, waiting for the melee to be over. Jas himself had only taken down one student so far, but since his plans were already pretty much trashed, he didn't really care who took out whom. Let the rumored brilliant swordsman tire himself out taking out most of the class and knock the odds a little further in Jas's direction. Since he was in no real hurry, Jas stopped to chat with a few of the downed students, trying to get their take on Drizzt's technique. Next he scouted for the perfect perch, something out of sight, but still offering him a good view of the surrounding area. Not that he really expected to surprise Drizzt, if even half of the rumors were true, that wasn‘t going to be a possibility. At least this way, though, the younger student wouldn't be able to surprise him either, and he'd see him coming long before it mattered.
He settled into a likely nook, and strained to hear the sounds of battle. Counting the number of students he had chatted with plus the one he took out himself made eight, only two more remained, himself excluded. However, he heard nothing, and after a short period of listening to his own ears ring, he fell into musing about the differences between Drizzt and his late competition, Laa'ven. That brat had done nothing but hound Jas each and every Melee, stalking his every move, hoping to take him out while he was fighting with another student. Three times Laa'ven had managed to do exactly that. It was the only way he could hope to defeat Jas. In open combat, the other student could never figure out how to circumvent Jas's crafty defense and attacks. But what he lacked in swordsmanship, he made up for in perseverance, never giving Jas a moment's pause; he had to constantly be looking over his shoulder for the annoying bastard. Jas scowled, but then his face cleared as he remembered the very satisfying thud Laa'ven had made when he hit the landing at the bottom of the second story stairs. At least Drizzt had so far stayed out of his way, even if it wasn't to his advantage. On the other hand, most likely Drizzt didn't know anything about Jas's placement in his class, it wasn't something he had shared, just never came up.
Once his inner dialogue circled back to Drizzt again, his thoughts turned to unbidden to his stolen kiss. He had resolved not to think about it, not even to wonder what the younger drow really thought about last night's appropriated intimacy. He'd have plenty of time for that once this year's evaluations were over. Resolve seemed to mean nothing lately, however, and as if the very act of thinking about him called him forth, Drizzt suddenly appeared in Jas's field of view from his concealed perch. He stopped about twenty feet away and tapped his foot.
"I can see you there." he said, a little impatiently.
"Good. You're not blind," Jas replied jokingly, never deterred by Drizzt's apparent lack of manners.
Drizzt rolled his eyes. "Are you just letting everyone else do the work for you because you're lazy, or because you ‘re inept?" he shot back.
"Nah, I waste my energy on those guys every year. If you want to wear yourself out chasing them around, that's your problem. Plus, that means I get to save you for last." He added with a cheeky grin.
Drizzt chose to ignore the last part of that remark, instead answering "Since it only took a little under an hour to wipe out the lot of them, I'm just getting warmed up. You're the one getting cold and stiff sitting there like that."
"You got all of them by yourself?" Jas snorted, that at least answering his suspicions as to whether it could be done with this particular group. He had always wanted to try it, as his earlier plans sans Drizzt had been for this year, but Laa'ven had always gotten in the way, that incessant bastard.
"Yep." Drizzt replied simply, starting to tap his foot again. They weren't in the student lounge, for Lloth's sake, it wasn't a place for idle chatter, and Jas still hadn't budged from his perch.
"This lot always did pretty much suck for the most part," Jas replied, ignoring Drizzt's growing impatience. He could just wait, they had three more hours they could technically waste. Wasn't his fault Drizzt was in such a hurry. He wasn't worried too much about being warm either. Drizzt had a tendency to warm him up from the inside out, all's he had to do was just sit and stare at him for a while longer, and remember last night..
"Are we going to fight or should we ought to just declare me winner by default?" Drizzt prodded, noticing that Jas was getting that look again, and he was afraid they'd be there all day if he let that go on for much longer. Not wanting to think any further than that, he moved towards Jas as if he'd bodily haul him out of the crevice, if that's what it took.
"Okay, okay," Jas whined as he slid back up the wall and out of the nook. "But let's go somewhere more spacious, this is a bit cramped."
The space was rather tight, more likely to get a scraped elbow than do actual damage to one's opponent. But, Drizzt, wary as always, didn't immediately accept the offer.
"Ok, but no tricks, and you go first." He squinted at Jas, mouth screwed up in a little pout.
"You're cute when you're suspicious, " Jas said, meaning every word. It made him want to attack Drizzt in many more ways than those offered by a simple sword. Well, not exactly attack, more like touch all over, leaving little round gently glowing spots warmer than Drizzt's skin wherever his fingers caressed.. Jas shook his head slightly, that was no way to begin a fight.
In response to that, and the return of the look Drizzt had noticed many times before, but had purposely ignored, not knowing what to make of it all, or Jas for that matter, he offered his first true resistance to Jas's somewhat awkward and clumsy seduction.
"Oh, stop it already," he said, exasperated, but Jas didn't think he sounded all that sincere, not really. He sounded more like the way Jas's mother did when she got tired of her daughter's constant fawning over her in hopes to win some special treat or duty over another of their siblings. Sure it could be annoying at times, but underneath it all, she really loved all the attention devoted to her. Maybe it was the same with Drizzt, Jas conjectured internally.
Jas walked past the younger drow into the larger end of the winding side tunnel they were currently in, purposely turning his back to him. Drizzt just followed him into a more spacious area without another word shared between them.
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Jas