Light Eyes; DarK Eyes

Of course, the news of their amazing duel spread like wildfire, to the point where they were followed by students all around the markets, being asked questions and politely telling them that they probably weren’t going to be doing it again. This caused mass disappointment, often in the form of stooped shoulders and downcast eyes. However, they did start spending plenty of time in the courtyard, giving tips and making corrections. Aiden had started to pick up the Celestine way of fighting merely by watching, and he’d already had some very useful tricks just from fighting in the ongoing, if mildly erratic, war. He generally stayed in the background, not wishing to intrude on the lesson. Aurora left him alone, knowing him well enough by now to realize that he wasn’t going to force his presence on her people.
At first, the students were just as wary of him as he was of them. Stealing glimpses of him, usually caring for Hiraka in some way, they found that he didn’t have talons or teeth like daggers. From their point of view, he looked almost too ordinary. The red eyes almost made up for it, and the black hair helped a bit. Once and a while he would get up and come over; correcting a student’s stance, or help Aurora demonstrate some move.
He had a curious knack for matching names to faces. Within a week of passive observation, he could name every member of the small class that she often helped. They learned his name, after Aurora gently advised that he would be more likely to respond if they used it.
To their disappointment, Aiden wouldn’t teach them the Darric moves that he’d displayed on the first morning. They tried all sorts of ways of wheedling it out of him, to no avail. The few times that Aurora and Aiden didn’t come to the session made them realize that he would slip up now and then, accidentally putting a blade twist where there had been none, but made sense. The unit, which was rather like a tiny model of the city in its social workings, decided amongst themselves to watch him like a hawk, to see what else they could learn.
Other people also trickled into the courtyard during the lessons. Guards watched on their breaks, veterans would show up to ‘reminisce’, and squads would turn up, to offer advice; and, quite plainly, to gawk at the Princess’s pet Darric. They were often surprised at what they saw, because they never went to the early morning markets. He wasn’t a grim-eyed, sullen killer; he was patient and polite. They could almost see why the king allowed him to be the Princess’s companion. Almost. They didn’t know about the contract he was under.
Aiden, on the other hand, knew very well how little the king actually trusted him. The king was shrewdly aware of just how little Aiden could do while under contract. Aiden would never tell Aurora; who had a clear sense of justice that would probably crack under that particular blow; just how tightly leashed he was. It tightened its grip, which happened to be noosed around his neck, whenever he was anywhere near Hiraka.
The performance they had put on together had sent it into high alert, making it hard to breathe when he held the sword. Aurora looked at him inquiringly, the first and last time he had been startled by it, which had made him jump.
“What?” She asked, eyebrow raised. He shook his head.
“Nothing.” He told her, lying. It wasn’t until that night that he let himself speculate as to why he had felt he had to protect her contentment in the world. He tried to tell himself that he just didn’t want to get himself killed by affecting her negatively, but he knew that it wasn’t entirely true. ‘Brotherly instinct?’ he wondered. It was true that she reminded him of Mika, but…he shrugged mentally. He disliked, for some reason, the idea of her losing her belief in honor and justice. Aiden shoved one thought away with a particular viciousness, not even allowing it to develop into anything more then a particularly impossible explanation, trying to destroy it. It went, but a strange feeling told him that he was probably going to regret that decision later. Ignoring the feeling, he forced himself into sleep, with years of practice under his belt.