Hero and Noah managed to maneuver through the crowd, but not without being brushed up against. They have no idea whether it was on purpose or not. They found a little boutique hotel that had quite the reputation of being a hot spot for lovers on the go. When they showed up as a pair, the workers just smiled way too much, and that little 'Herobrine' part in Hero wanted to turn their smiling faces inside out.

Hero was ready to collapse, so he paid for two nights in the boutique hotel. Hopefully, he could get a relaxing bath. Dragging his foot to the room with Noah trailing worriedly behind him, he realized something. Hero normally never slept. At all. Apparently he was 'so powerful' that sleep was not really necessarily, as well as food or water. However, Hero still did have random cravings, and his throat still goes dry. He then assumed that if he ever used his powers up, he would either have to rest or sleep to get them back strong.

He let out a long whistle once he unlocked the door to the suite. (He paid for one of the fancy ones. Treat yourself.) Noah just peered in over his head and stared curiously. The room was decorated with hues of red and black, giving out a sexual vibe, and Hero groaned. Noah did not. There was one huge bed for two, but Hero did not care. He does not care if he sleeps right next to Noah, he just needed rest. Immediately. He stood for a moment, focusing, and then tried to summon all the energy and power he had left to his fingers. With a snap, the illusion charms on the two fell and they were back to normal.

However, since the hotel staff had assumed he and Noah were looking for a playful night, he checked the spruce nightstand. There was a lamp that could change color on it as well, most of them were dark and dim colors because... Yeah. Hero pulled out the drawer and laughed at the sight of the insides. Noah raised his head from inspecting the couch and joined him to look inside. Hero had fallen into the soft and lush bed, still heaving in laughter. All Noah could see was a bottle of white liquid and a string of square plastic. He reached in to pick up the connected strip, and felt something circular underneath. He thought absently, he was pretty sure he knew what these were. Hero was staring at him with wide eyes and a (cute!) smile.

Once Noah grasped on the English word and its meaning, he dropped it and closed the drawer immediately. Hero raised his voice from his face implanted on the pillows, "Aren't you going to use that?"

Noah stared at his golden brown hair with shock, his dark cheeks reddening. "W-What? You mean, y-you want to-"

Hero cut him off, in between chuckles, "You were staring at them, thinking whether they would fit?"

Oh. It was a joke. Don't get your hopes up, Noah. The spider just laughed along quietly. He was still looking at the drawer. He turned back to his friend, and found his asleep and curled up in the blankets. Being nocturnal, Noah just occupied himself in the bathroom. He had lived his life as a spider, but his human needs came and sometimes he would have to take on the identity of a traveler and enter a random village. He would then trade in emeralds he harvested from the cave systems for human things such as clothes and such. When he's lucky, he would get a night in an inn and take a comforting bath.

○

Noah had just came out of the bathroom fresh and clean with the hotel's towel wrapped around his waist. Once he stepped out dripping and wet, he saw Hero tossing around, clutching at the sheets. He bit into his pillow and his fangs had ripped the cloth. His face was scrunched up in fear? Anger? Whatever it was, it was not good. His protective instincts flaring, Noah got on the bed and shook his friend. He gently moved Hero's trembling form to his lap and softly purred to him.

The ex-general jerked awake and Noah dodged Hero's head in fear of his precious chin. He immediately clutched his friend's face in his hands to look at him. Hero's white eyes were wide, and there was faint exhaustion in them. They were glowing brighter than before, so his energy and power was up. Hero was sweating loads, though and he was panting. Before Noah could ask, Hero just relaxed in his grip and pressed his face in Noah's chest. The spider could smell humiliation and fear in waves. He immediately wrapped his arms around him, protecting him from any harm.

"Hold me just like that. The nightmares would stop."

Noah did not ask and kept on purring, the rumbling of his chest and throat sending Hero back to sleep. It was still night, and Noah was still active. The moon called out to his inner spider, but his more personal spider instincts told him to guard his ma-Hero. Staring and capturing the features of Hero's face, the light freckles on the ex-general's nose and cheeks seemed to dance. Slowly, Noah found himself falling asleep as well.

○

"Fuck!"

Noah jolted awake and found the bed empty of Hero. His warm cookie dough scent still lingered in his arms, and Noah was a little happy it smelled calm and pleasant rather than the scary stench of burning wood the previous night. Still, his instincts caused him to slightly panic as he shot out of bed, still slightly damp and with a towel around his waist. The towel caught on the sheets and almost pull it off of him, but he managed to catch in time as Hero poked his head to look at him. The man just stared at his face, and to the towel that was dangling over Noah's hips. The spider watched the man gape in awe(!) then immediately look away.

He asked, "Why are you awake? It's morning right now and you're always emphasizing you being nocturnal. Also, I washed your clothes they're on the nightstand."

Noah tied the towel tightly around his waist before picking up the pile of clean and sweet-smelling clothes. He turned to Hero with a smile, "I slept with you. I'm well rested already. So, what happened last night?"

Noah's mind supplied him with warnings. That did not come out right.

Surprisingly, Hero went along with it. He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Don't want to talk about it. Get changed, I ordered breakfast. Have you ever tried baked potatoes with bacon?"

Before Noah closed the bathroom door to change, he yelled, "No, but I've definitely ate raw pig before."

He caught sight of Hero's wide eyes before locking the door.

○

When Noah stepped out, smelling really great and looking tidy, he smelled someone else in the room. It did not have the sweet cookie dough scent of Hero, but a little nasty stench of way too much perfume mixed with wet mops. He had no idea why that was so specific. He turned to the small hallway and saw Hero under the illusion charm again. He was speaking to someone at the door, and was leaning against the wall with a tray of food in his other hand. Leaning close, his spider enhanced hearing allowed him to eavesdrop.

"So, you're alone? In this suite? Need some company?"

Noah let out a low hiss.

"No, uh, I'm with someone. He's in the bathroom right now. You've got the money, right?"

"Come on, don't be like that. He won't know if I get more than money. I can even give you a discount if you just let me in. You smell really good."

Noah could smell waves of anger and frustration from Hero. Surprisingly, there was no fear. There was a restraining scent around there, and Noah only smelled those from spiders who were upset and agitated after being defeated by another. Like he wanted to fight back. Behind those interesting smells, Noah could smell the disgusting stench of lust. It was tainted with a little anger and sexual frustration, but he could catch a bit of confusion and dizziness. He then realized how Hero's lovely scent seemed to spread everywhere, it went haywire, really, and Noah had to stop himself from doing anything he may regret.

Without thinking, he moved out from his hiding spot and spread out his own dominating scent. Gently rubbing a hand down Hero's back on instinct, he rubbed his own scent to mingle with Hero's. He peered over Hero's shoulder to glare at the hotel staff who was leaning against the doorframe, her hands on the top buttons of her uniform. He glanced at Hero, who smelled extremely pissed but looked calm. He was smiling a little politely. Hero made eye contact with him and gasped. Noah cocked his head and a voice filled his head.

Your eyes!

At first he was a little confused as to why Hero's voice was in his head. Then, he realized what Hero had said. He did not have the illusion charm and he had nothing to hide his black and red eyes. Refusing to back down though, he stared straight at the woman, who also gasped. He let out a soft growl, that made the woman tremble. Hero just watched him with an exasperated look, turning to put down the tray of food.

After chasing away the woman with a snap and threatening her not to tell anyone, he turned to his ma-friend. Friend. Hero was sitting on the bed, and was looking at his foot. His fingers trembled as they hovered above the wound, but to Noah's surprise, the wound was pulling back together. It was healing abnormally fast, but Noah dismissed it as another one of Hero's powers. "How's the bullet wound?"

He took a seat next to Hero. He picked up one of the baked potatoes. It weren't as good as raw insects and crushed berries, but he did not want to disgust Hero with his spider abnormalities and preferences. His friend rolled up his pants to show the bandaged bullet wound. He carefully unwrapped it to show a closed scar. Clean and healed. Noah just stared in interest. "That's amazing."

Hero shrugged and discarded the bloodstained bandages with a snap of his fingers. He muttered under his breath, "I guess." His voice raised higher. "The foot may take longer though. Recovery time depends on the severity of the wound, from what I've observed. Also, what's the plan?"

Noah looked at him strangely and Hero repeated, "The plan? We have to check out at about 8 in the morning tomorrow. But, if you want to avoid the crowd, we'll have to leave at 4."

The spider looked away and said, "My clan is still miles away. When I traveled by foot, it took me weeks to get to the North. But, we are down to one week after your... Teleportation. Do you think we can do that again?"

Hero shrugged, "Maybe. I still don't have the hang of it. But... Let's try."

○

The two never went to sleep. Noah was surprisingly energized and Hero had his energy and power back up, so sleep was a mundane task to him. They just loitered around the suite lazily. Hero's thoughts kept drifting back to what he had done so he distracted himself by asking Noah questions.

"So, tell me about your clan."

Noah just grinned mischievously at him. "It'll be better to see for yourself. However, we're the most biggest clan in the North."

"So... You're the leader?"

The spider smiled smugly. "In a way."

"So, how did this whole spider hybrid happen?"

Noah then looked sullen. Hero regretted his decision and whispered, "Sorry."

"It's alright. I'll tell you eventually. It ain't a pretty story though."

Hero then looked stoic. Noah noticed and stared at him sadly. The ex-general tried to keep his voice low, but the spider heard anyways. "Mine isn't either."

It was silent for a while before Noah asked, "How about you tell me what I missed when we stopped writing to each other?"

Hero cleared his throat and tugged on his collar sheepishly. "Um, well, we stopped when I was, what? Fifteen? Fourteen? I don't even know. I'm twenty-two now so, there's too much to talk about."

Noah stared at him with wide eyes. "You're only twenty-two? I'm twenty-six. And you don't have to tell me everything, maybe just big things that happened when you left."

Hero bit his lip and said, "Alright. Um... I was soldier? A general? You should have known from the dog tags."

"If you were a soldier I would have been fine but a general? Holy crow, Princess."

"Oh, but there's more than that."

"I'm all ears. We've got time to spare."

○

The two had bantered back and forth that night. Hero told him what happened, but did not expose Derrek. Said man was rather quiet since the runaway. Hero embraced the silence. On the other hand, it was about 3 in the morning and the duo were back under illusion charms, and were walking the empty and silent streets. Noah lingered back a bit protectively, his night vision supplying him a clear view of the dark surroundings. Unbeknownst to him, Hero had some sort of night vision as well, and navigated well in the dark. They slowly made their way out of the red light district, and focused on leaving the Center. Only once there were outside the borders, would Hero teleport them a little more closer to Noah's clan.

Even if Hero did not want to. Noah's clan was in the forest close to Hero's childhood home. Both the cabin in the woods and the house on the hill. Part of him wanted to panic and move away from the abuse he suffered in his family's home. Another part wanted him to explore and see what had happened to his childhood neighbors.

○

They had made it past the Center's borders and were in the North. They were trekking through a meadow silently in the afternoon, the sun making the both of them pant heavily despite all the charms. They were dragging their black clothes behind them, and Noah halted. Hero turned to him with a sigh, his injured foot still healing. "What's wrong?"

Noah snarled, "Can't I just go into spider form? You can ride me or something and I could get us to shelter."

Hero coughed awkwardly at the sexual innuendo but he did not point it out. The sun was glaring at him and he desperately wanted to glare back. He just shrugged and waited for Noah to do his thing. He watched tiredly as Noah's form glowed brightly before shifting down into a hulking form of a spider. The strange and unique fuzzy pattern seemed so much more distinct under silent. Noah was the size of a common horse, much more bigger than the average spider. He heard the spider his in relief. He then noticed how Noah was crouching next to him, waiting.

"I thought you were joking about the riding thing."

Noah shook his fuzzy head. Sighing, Hero swung his leg over and mounted the spider's huge abdomen like a horse. Then Noah ran and Hero clutched onto the spider's cold body as he bolted. Noah was hissing excitedly and the two entered a nearby forest and settled down next to a tree with a huge canopy to shelter them. Hero crawled off, the exhilaration still in his lungs. He panted heavily and watched Noah turned to crawl away. "Where do you think you're going?"

The spider changed to Noah's usual form as he answered, "Hunting. We're both pretty hungry."

Hero lazily got to his feet and waved his hand absently. A bow appeared in his hand and a quiver of arrows slung on his back. Noah watched in awe. The ex-general, still a little tired, shooed Noah to rest. He insisted on hunting for the two of them, as Noah was still visibly panting. He had no idea he summoned a bow and arrow from the North, though.

A dead chicken and a few berries later, both of them were back on their feet. Noah was getting more excited, saying that his clan was close and that he could smell their territory. Hero could tell that they were still a long way off from his village so damn, the territory must be huge. Slowly, Noah took the lead, jogging forward with a smile. He seemed to forget that Hero was nursing an injured foot. He stopped when he saw Noah frozen in place. He was about to ask what had happened but Noah just turned to him, a predatory look in his eyes. Hero just gulped at the sight and crawled closer to the spider, as he clearly was more experienced. Noah just sniffed around carefully and he hissed under his breath, just as Hero picked up a few noises and scents from a few trees away.

"Rogues."