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"Well I don't get why you're getting so worked up over this!"
"What does it matter to you what I choose to focus on, Retaliator?"
"It matters to me because YOU'RE dragging ME into it to FIGHT THIS THING!"
They'd been going on about this for thirty minutes.
Thirty. Urbano-damned. Minutes.
Honor crossed her arms.
"Would both of you just-" She started.
"You say that as if you aren't the one who normally goes in to fight these things! Isn't that your whole deal?!" James asked snappily, crossing his arms and cocking his head at the slightly taller Urban Legend.
"NOT WHEN THEY'RE KNOWN FOR TEARING PEOPLE INTO RIBBONS!" Retaliator screeched, voice doubling strangely, once voice higher, more emotional than the other.
Honor and James were both a bit startled by the strange double-voice that had come from the Retaliator just then. Was there something in there for the Retaliators' voice? And on top of that, Honor could've sworn the voice under the mask was... familiar.
"Unlike you, I have some sense of self-preservation." Retaliator grumbled, crossing his arms. Honor didn't like how his energy oscillated there, and she went to comment on it.
"Really? You. The guy who hunts Urban Legends with a belt for a weapon?" James questioned mockingly, cutting Honor off before she could even begin to speak.
"And I back off when I know I'm in over my head. But you seem adamant on shoving me into that things' claws!" Retaliator snarled back.
"Would both of you-" Honor begun, interrupted once more.
"And yet when I offered myself as bait, you told me not to go?" James questioned, gesturing vaguely to himself.
"Because when you went about hunting the Creepy Fashionista on your own, you got knocked out, dressed up in some of the strangest clothes I've ever had the pleasure of seeing you in, tied to a chair, and ended up getting sent to the hospital." Retaliator answered flatly.
"I'm saying you're bad at being bait and will get yourself killed." Retaliator explained huffily, tilting his head back slightly.
"...You say that as if you-?"
"I'm not saying that'll be a BAD thing!" Retaliator barked.
"Actually, no, go get yourself killed. That'll be a favour to all of us, I reckon." Retaliator told James, dropping his arms to his sides, turning his head away just slightly to look over James' shoulder instead.
James snorted, as Honor looked silently between the two bickering hunters.
"Please, could you both just-" Honor begun, interrupted as James stepped forward, lifting himself onto his toes to get face-to-mask with the Retaliator.
"and yet your first instinct was to keep me out of it?" James purred.
Retaliator growled, and Honor groaned. She wasn't wanting to do this.
Regardless, Honor took three long steps forward. She grabbed James - one hand on his scruff, the other around his stomach - and hoisted him off his feet.
"Whoa! Honor- hey, what're you- AAH!"
Honor heaved James over her shoulder, and threw the slender psychic guru over her shoulder, hurling him at a nearby wall.
James hit the ground on his side about a metre away, sliding another metre or two. James took in a few gasping breaths, his back against a nearby wall. His oval-shaped glasses sat a few metres away from James, cracked lenses glinting in the low streetlights.
"...I, uhh.... was that... was that really... necessary?" Retaliator stuttered slowly. Honor looked back at Retaliator, and felt a bit strange - what was that with his energy?
Why did he feel worried?
James staggered up, brushing himself off, and limped back over, stooping to pick his glasses up on the way over.
"Haha... needed- ow- needed mother Honor to help you win the argument, Retaliator?" James mocked, as if he wasn't currently limping.
Retaliator didn't even dignify that with a response as he adjusted his mask. Honor could tell Retaliator wanted to ask James something. It had been happening more and more recently - Honor had even noticed their fights getting less heated. The two felt awkward around each other.
'Something's happening between them... and I don't think I like it.'