Tammy and Avi reach the hallway at the bottom of the staircase.

“Why’d you just blurt that out?!” Tammy cries.

“Because I was upset?” Avi raises an eyebrow. “I think that’s pretty obvious at this point.”

“And you broke a girl’s leg- wait, is that what you were doing last night? That plot?”

“Yes.”

“Ahh!?” He grips his hair, “why?!”

“Because… I was upset?”

Catala, Jozou, and his friends come down the stairs too.

“You broke Ki’s leg because you were upset?!” Jozou yells.

Avi looks up at him. “Who’s Ki?”

Enraged, Jozou slaps her across the face. It’s a hard slap that reverberates through the hall. She winces, and the side of her face turns red.

“Figure it out from context clues, dumbass!” Jozou screams.

Helger jumps in front of his friend and leader, prepared to take Avi’s counter hit for him, but Avi doesn’t retaliate. Her eyes are open wide, her brow narrow, and she stares at Tammy.

The others look at Tammy as well.

“…” He reads her face and body language, how the end segment of her tail twitches. “N-no you can’t kill him! You deserved that for breaking Ki’s leg!”

Catala looks down at Tammy, “you… really are an assassin?”

“Heheh,” he rubs the back of his head and looks up at her, with Avi watching this display and biting her bottom lip as Jozou and his friends surround and berate her. “Sorry, but… yes. We are.”

“You’ve… killed people before?”

He nods. “Or, rather, I’ve only killed one person before, a-a long time ago. She’s the one that does the bulk of the work, I just think up plans and support her.”

Catala nods slowly, ignoring the growing confidence of Jozou’s band which allows the four members to shove Avi side to side. “Have you ever killed a gurant?”

“Only one, but I plan to change that soon. Once we’re older and more experienced, we’ll take on all sorts of missions to assassinate toadmen.”

Catala looks deep into his blue eyes for a moment, sighs, then pulls the boy in for a hug. “Well… be safe,” she says softly.

Avi’s pupils constrict and she draws blood from her bottom lip.

“Y-yeah,” Tammy responds, hugging her back.

Avi’s tail shakes so fast it looks like the end splits in two. “WHY? FUCKING WHY? WHY, WHY, WHY, WHY?! Why does he looks so happy hugging her?! What does she have that I don’t? That stupid fake smile she’s always putting on? Or… is it because she’s so tall? Does Tammy hate that I’m just a runt?” She absentmindedly starts tapping her foot in rhythm with the dance she learned. Jozou’s band sees this and starts getting skittish. They’re only brave enough to mess with her because Tammy seemingly has her on a tight leash.

Avi can’t handle it anymore and moves in. She puts a hand on Tammy’s chest to hold him in place, puts her other hand on Catala’s stomach, then shoves her back into a stumble. “Okay, that’s enough of that.” She looks down at Tammy, “I snapped that stupid girl’s leg, I forced these other stupid people to teach me how to dance, focus back on me.”

Jozou clenches his fists tight but waits for Tammy to respond.

Tammy narrows his brow. “Why is she acting like this? She’s not a bad person, just misguided sometimes. I mean, I get that she was jealous of me spending time with Catala, but is that really such a big deal? Well, evidently it is since she reminded me of her wrongdoing just so I’d go back to berating her.”

Tammy frowns, then turns to Jozou, “terribly sorry about all this, Mr. Jozou. My partner here-“

“Wife.”

“-acquaintance, is a bit messed up in the head, as you have no doubt gathered. Your friend, Ki, was it? Is she…?” He smiles weakly.

Jozou looks down at him for a second. “Kizhan’s still alive.”

“Ah! Great.”

“But her knee is completely broken, and it’ll take half a year to heal. We’re performers, we make our living through dancing, and we need her to be on her feet.”

“Ah, great.” He clicks his teeth.

“After she broke Ki’s leg, she made me teach her our routine so she can play with us tonight.” He shifts his harsh gaze to Avi, but she’s unaffected. “I guess it was to make you jealous, which… is confusing since she didn’t even go through with it. When you looked over at her during your song, you didn’t seem to really care that she was hugging my arm, and then she just snapped and ruined the whole thing.”

He nods, “so, you’re not playing with her tonight?”

“No, we absolutely are,” Jozou’s voice is harsh. “We need the money.”

Ghzan speaks up from the side, “a-and she offered us that big ball of money too.”

Jozou snaps his fingers, “that’s right, must have been more money than we can make in a month normally. That’s coming with us.”

Avi frowns, “hey, no, I never said I was giving that to you guys.”

“You never said anything!”

“Exactly! So you can’t hold me to that.”

Jozou snarls, “so, Samuel, did she share that she also broke a doctor’s leg?”

His eyes open wide, “how many bones did you break last night?!”

Avi clenches her fists and her tail sticks up in alarm, looking up at Jozou, “you told me to do that!”

Jozou, Helger, Ghzan, and Pandin all smile and speak at once, “you can’t hold us to that since you couldn’t understand us.”

She grits her teeth hard, not smart enough to come up with a response.

Tammy crosses his arms and steps away for a second, mumbling to himself as everyone listens. “Okay, so that’s an obvious problem. We… We’ll give Jozou the money she promised them, half of what I made from performing just now, Catala gets the other half, Avi will perform with them tonight and they’ll get that money too. That should at least be something to help until Kizhan’s healthy. When we get to port we’ll just have to steal some money and find our own way back home, or maybe we can play songs for cash. Might be a week before we can get the money together for another boat ride. So… yeah, we can be back in camp with everything fixed in like two weeks. Good.” He spins around and looks at Avi. “You’ll be dancing with them today, tomorrow, the next day, and depending on how long we’ll be stuck in that port, you’ll be dancing with them then too.”

“Wha-!?”

“AND!” Tammy yells, a little bite in his voice, “we’ll be going to Kizhan and you’ll be apologizing.”

Jozou’s group starts snickering, Catala brings a hand to her mouth to hide her impolite smile.

“C-come on, Tammy, isn’t that kind of unnecessary?”

“You wanted my attention, so here it is. I’m scolding you.”

“I didn’t want this kind of attention!”

Keeping his head to Avi, his body faces Catala and he extends his arms. “Would you rather I hug Catala some more?”

Avi rolls her eyes hard, “ffffff-fine.” She speaks through clenched teeth, “whatever you want, darling.”

To start, Tammy pinches Avi’s ear and drags her to the infirmary. When there, despite every cell in her body demanding she not, Tammy makes her bow her head and apologize to Kizhan.

“Kizhan,” she says, looking at the floor with her hands on her thighs. “I’m—oh, you can understand me because my husband is a psychic and he’s translating my words—sorry for breaking your leg.”

Tammy elbows her in the ribs. Her bones are indestructible so he quietly rubs his arm.

“A-and… I’m not just apologizing… but I will take responsibility for my action. I will ensure that your temporary, uh…”

“Incapacibility,” Tammy answers.

“I will make sure that your current incapacibility does not bankrupt you or your friends. I am deeply sorry. I would offer you to break my leg in exchange, but my bones and joints don’t break, so that’s impossible.” Tammy elbows her. “And also that would be a bad idea anyway because it would prevent me from giving you money.”

Kizhan gulps and grips the sheets. “Well… Okay. I can’t really forgive you, but I accept your apology.” She turns to Tammy, “and thank you for putting her straight.”

Tammy nods, and Avi bites her bottom lip hard.

Next, Tammy directs her to the doctor, who is sitting behind a medical desk, with his broken leg raised, covered in a cast. “Sir, I would like to-“

Jozou moves between them and waves his hands, “not him. He was an asshole who deserved it.”

The doctor frowns.

“What exactly did he do?” Avi straightens her back slightly. “I only gathered that he was a nuisance.”

“He was extorting us for money to heal Kizhan, wanting that ball of cash you were offering.”

“Oh,” Tammy looks at the doctor, “that’s kind of your fault then. I know private security is expensive these days but that’s not something you can skimp out on.” He reaches up to grab Avi’s ear and directs her, but she walks close enough that he doesn’t need to tug. Kizhan’s leg, wrapped tight in a cast, is secure enough that Pandin can carry her off.

Kizhan gets to see the next steps of Avi’s forced repentance. They head back to Tammy and Avi’s room, Avi digs out the large ball of local currency. Through clenched teeth, she’s forced to get down on one knee, bow her head, and offer the money to Jozou.

“I… am very, deeply sorry for my actions.”

Tammy clears his throat.

“Going forward, I will reflect upon my actions and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Tammy clears his throat. Everyone else is loving this.

“And… it was wrong of me to wrap up so many innocent people in my petty act of jealousy.”

Tammy clears his throat once more.

“Uh… So, yeah, I’m sorry.”

“Ask permission to dance with them.”

Avi groans deeply. “As an act of repentance, please allow me to perform with you and get you more money.”

Jozou smiles and swipes the ball of cash, “you may.”

“Thank you.” Avi exhales harshly and stands up, turning to Tammy. She gestures and makes faces, communicating in their secret language. “[Is this really necessary?]”

“[Yes.]”

“[Why? We’ll never see these people again in our lives.]”

“[Because it’s the right thing to do. Do you want to be like the gurant who stomps on people with no regard for their lives?]”

“[Ugh.]”

“[That’s what I thought. Now, apologize to Catala.]”

“[…Why?]”

“[Because you were rude to her.]”

“[Why are you throwing all the blame onto me when YOU cast me aside to spend so much time with her!? Where’s MY apology from YOU?!]”

“[How many knees did I snap?]”

“[UGH!]”

“[Earlier, you said I was a bad teacher because I didn’t account for your needs when learning the violin. You didn’t tell me my style of teaching was bad, but I understand why you were skittish to say something. Therefore, I’m being careful and giving you the style of teaching that you need. Now, apologize to Catala.]”

“[I didn’t mean like this!]”

“[I’m giving you what you need, not what you want. Apologize.]”

Avi takes a deep breath and spins on her heels. Walking up to Catala, she speaks through clenched teeth and mumbles, “sorry.”

“Hm?” Catala cocks her head, smiling that forced smile, “excuse me?”

“I’m. Sorry.” She says with more emphasis.

“My whatever for, Ms. Parabba?”

“It’s Barabba.”

“Ah, yes, that lie.”

“I’m…” Deep breath in, then exhale. Everyone is watching her and loving every second of her torment. “Sorry for lying… wait, no I’m not, we’re assassins. I won’t apologize because Tammy accidentally shared our name, and I covered for him.”

Tammy nods behind her, “that’s fair.”

“What I’m actually sorry for is being rude and having a low opinion of you… and telling those waitresses to spit in your food.”

Catala nods politely, “that is very mature of you, Ms. Barabba. Thank you.”

Avi raises her head and forces a smile that very obviously isn’t genuine. She spins on her heels to look at Tammy. Tammy can read the misery on her face.

“Now, we’ll get you ready to dance. After this little apology tour, it’s almost time.”