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An archer unlike any ever seen before, invisible in the shadows, no one knew who he was, how he shot, or from where, but his mission was clear to the village: to protect the forest of that ancient, medieval South Park at all costs.
It was said that he wore green robes, that he was agile, that he was strong, that he wasn't human— in truth, so many things were said about him that nothing was believable anymore among the medieval and primitive society. But all the children's thoughts were focused on that famous saviour of the village.
Every time a thief fled from the facade of the main building, that is, the palace that was in the middle of the city, an arrow would fly across the countryside for many kilometres away, leaving the thief trapped with some part of his clothing on the brick wall of the castle and keeping what he had stolen by jumping from the building, usually money, which he would distribute among the poor and miserable people, the great fortunes were held by the monarch and his family, with a little luck the bourgeois society of the high nobility and the high church.
Thieves working for themselves or a small gang of two or three were hunted down by that heroic archer... A fugitive from the law who freed the economic prey of the few wealthy people. People thanked him and prayed, unaware that he hid among them in the clothes of an innocent and clumsy peasant, and that, when he least expected it... they would discover him, and that would happen much sooner than he anticipated.
This archer had a close companion, the village princess. Despite her title, she helped the young green hero with his task of freeing the treasure for the people, ignoring the cruel scoldings from his lord, the Wizard King. For her, helping the hero free the money for the people was worth more than the absurd reprimands of her King.
But what the archer wasn't aware of— and couldn't predict— was that on that full moon night he wouldn't be able to stop the thief from escaping with the money. For the first time in his entire life— since he'd trained to be the best—, he'd missed an arrow aimed at a being who was against the law, taking him and all the other thieves in the country with him. He was agile and seemed to have trained for that day and to be able to face him.
At that moment, he feared disappointing the entire village and in an attempt at heroic overacting in front of several people assigned to the window and by being too clever with the arrows— all of which unfortunately missed and to his surprise…
He was left without any, cornered in one of the dark alleys and that armed robber in front of him with a good knife of his own or possibly stolen from some vendor, pointing the gun in his direction.
He feared that his chivalry as ‘the archer and saviour of the people’ would end there, in that alley, eaten by rats or hungry dogs, or even tortured there or kidnapped by someone, mutilated or... Okay, he was exaggerating the point…
But no, no matter how much he defended himself with punches against the thief, which didn't do much damage, but he knew how to defend himself well and managed to get rid of his weapon, the dangerous and agile thief ended up knocking him to the ground with a sudden gust of wind, a kick to the stomach to be exact, putting a foot on his chest preventing his escape or his getting up, which made the archer feel even more vulnerable in that aspect.
"Who would have thought it?" he crooned in a terribly dry but secretly cheerful voice. "I defeated the young green archer, the people's hero..." The slippery thief laughed, the dark brown money bag slung over his shoulder. He approached, as if searching for light to see who it was, lifting the green hat that partially obscured his eyes. "I wonder who you are?" he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and mischief.
He tilted his head to one side. In the night, the only light who could provide a clue was the moon, but it was hidden among the clouds. And to tell the truth, the archer wondered the same thing: Who could have managed to bring him down after all this time?
But just as the palace guards' torches, hearing the commotion, discovered them, the fire's illumination was minimal but sufficient for both the thief and the archer to discover each other's identities and vice versa. And gasp in surprise.
But they gave nothing, only a surprised look and without words.
They were in shock after that, they just fled along different paths and got lost in the forest. With a dry scream of adrenaline and panic in their bodies, and with enough resonance to echo through the forest and make several birds flee.
Indeed...
Neither of them was aware of the other's affair, and that was indeed a severe blow to the couple.
They never realised it; they were both good at hiding it... But now it was time to talk seriously about it…
They were both in trouble…
Things would take time to resolve, or maybe not…
Since both Tweek and now Craig were wanted by the law, one for longer than the other, but either way, they were going to be caught at any moment, not just as a clandestine couple but as criminals...
The next morning they both woke up in different parts of the house, not in bed. They found themselves in the first place they happened upon entering through the different windows: one on the sofa and the other in the bathroom.
They lived together as if they owned the shop downstairs— in fact, they did— and they lived upstairs, hiding their forbidden love back there.
And when they saw each other in the middle of the room, they exchanged a look that was both serious and surprised. They calmly took the matter in stride. There was no need to get upset.
"I don't think silence is the best thing after what happened last night, we need to talk," Craig said.
The other nodded.
Sitting on the sofa, the silence captivated their eyes, and they simply stared at each other for a full minute, pausing and carefully considering their words.
"Are you the archer no one in town knows about?" Craig asked before the blond could speak. He nodded and lowered his head, murmuring:
"I’m sorry" whose reason Craig didn't understand.
"Why would you be sorry? Is it wrong to recover the king's stolen fortunes and return them to the people?" Tweek looked up, confused by the other's tone: happy and proud of him.
"I thought you'd be angry with me for breaking the law," he muttered under his breath.
"We are anyway," he said, cupping his cheeks
He leaned in and kissed him, releasing his cheeks and taking his hands, one in each of his own, which remained in his lap throughout the kiss. They parted with a slight smile.
"Even if we don't get caught as thieves or as the ones stealing the king's wealth, we'll get caught as a clandestine marriage in the village, and you know what they think of people like us..." Tweek rolled his eyes. "That thoughtful look scares me," he chuckled. "Besides, if you're the saviour of the village, I'm the king's nightmare. After all, I'm the thief who's taking away all his economic power..."
“And mine too, don't remind me that you beat me” Craig let out a sarcastic laugh.
"You ran out of arrows," he pointed out. "It was an unfair fight..."
"True, that's a very good point, and I need more..." He made a move to get up, but the raven-haired stopped him, taking his hand to prevent him from leaving. Tweek looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"I want to help you with what you're doing..." he asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“To protect the people, to steal the king's wealth, to give it back to the poor…”
Tweek seemed to ponder it for a few moments, but then he smiled a little and, getting up from the old sofa, extended a hand, as if he were going to form a friendly handshake.
“I, Tweek Tweak, accept you as my partner to protect the people from the evils that anyone can cause them, to end their poverty and almost perpetual misery, and to prevent social inequalities in the country…”
The other man smiled too and took his hand, also getting up from the sofa.
“I, Craig Tucker, accept to protect the town from the evils that any person, animal, being or non-human entity may cause, to end their poverty and misery and to prevent us from being together in public” and after taking his hand and finishing his speech, he brought it to his mouth and placed a light kiss on the blond's knuckles, which made Tweek blush a lot, he looked away, shrinking his hand once he managed to let go of the older man's grip.
He chuckled a little at his shyness, but it was a loving and tender shyness; perhaps he hadn't expected the kiss...
"But that's at night, now it's time to work," Tweek said, shaking off his head, his face was burning, and winked at him, making him look away so that he could laugh a little at the situation.
“And the arrows?” asked Craig.
"And the job?" the blond one countered, approaching the stairs on the ground floor, to the small merchandise stall they both had.
"I don't even know why I'm asking," he muttered to himself, approaching him so they could both get off together.
With the obvious concern that they didn't have the green night-hero suit or the thief's outfit, they prepared everything necessary. Right on time, the shop opened as usual.
As night fell and the shop closed, the village hero in green robes appeared from the shadows to recover everything the king had taken from them that day and return it to the people. Now accompanied by his utterly loyal— and by that I mean it was obvious he wasn't going to betray him— partner, a professional thief trained to get past anything, dodge the famous archer’s arrows, and steal every last coin from the monarch, even though he knew someone would probably catch him. He didn't care; his mask protected him, and Tweek covered him wherever he went, always watching his back to prevent anyone from harming him.
THE END