They found out he was excitable on the way out of the inn. The fight initially had nothing to do with them and their impromptu spectator service, but by the end of it Lenux was completely out of control and the original brawlers were bawling for a truce that wasn't coming.

It had been a pleasantly uneventful dinner. Nop had a bit of a nervous tick that was aggravated by crowds, but they’d secured themselves a booth and he had been able to stand the noise of the other diners. Ever since he was a child he’d tended to be overlooked. His parents often forgot to feed him. The anonymity granted him boundless chances for privacy, however, which he’d appreciated, and watching people was a pastime of sorts. It had become part of his job.

Working for Lenux was his big break. The man was reserved to a fault and disclosed nothing to his hired help, but he was polite about it. Nop and Ode opted to work for him rather than rob him. Instant gratification was one thing but a steady income had far more appeal. It was easy enough. Follow Lenux around Propos city and stand in the doorway to “cover his blind spots” and look mean. Their employer was low maintenance and minded his own business so there wasn’t any real danger to him.

First Lenux had just been watching the two men scuffle across the ground, safely put away in the open door frame with his companions flanking him. Their bodies blocked most of the light that came from the bar, but enough had filtered through to light up the outside. The rolling bodies knocked over trash cans with loud bangs and dents, scrapes that got tied up in the dark curses boiling out of the men's mouths. Hands flew on rubber arms and cracked the concrete when they missed their target. Down the back alley a small number of onlookers had come to see the fight, hidden in the black night but for various glints and glitters off their bodies. Broken and crumpled glass bedded the two men but they didn't express any acknowledgment of it under the circumstances. It just added to their anger.

That was the guess, anyway, that the two were angry at each other over something, and had taken the feelings outside to express in the garbage. The source of their stamina was unclear; after watching them punch and scream and thrash around for only ten minutes, Nop thought he would have been exhausted, yet they were still wild with energy. Then again, Nop had never been the physical type.

Nop couldn’t quite see what was so interesting about it that had Lenux captured. He had never seen any two people so absorbed in each other under any circumstances. It was as if the men were deaf and blind to everything but themselves. It was loud and rough and not something Nop would want to get entangled in. Hidden among the swears and roars were stray sensible words that could have explained what they were going on about, but the throats that expelled them were raw with air. One of the men got the upper hand and grabbed hold of his rival’s head. He bashed it against the ground as many times as he could before he was rolled over and pummeled with fingers and fists. Something about a bet, or a girlfriend. It didn't really matter anymore.

The reason they had taken the back exit of the inn was for the sake of discretion. Lenux was always stressing the importance of discretion, when he cared to stress anything. It had been part of what attracted Nop to the job. He was all about secrets and subtlety, slipping under the radar to come away from a situation untouched but owner to a wealth of new information. With the way occupied as it was, Nop was prepared to go back through the inn and take the front door if it meant they would avoid getting involved. There was nothing they could gain from this conflict. He glanced sidelong at his partner on the other side of Lenux to confirm the idea while keeping his face towards the fighting.

Ode was watching the brawlers with a tight grin. His heavy lidded eyes tracked the motion of the arms and legs as they swung wildly, banging a trash can and shattering a bottle. While he was usually a peaceful giant Ode could appreciate the energy behind the men’s violence. Unlike Nop he didn’t flinch at loud noises or sudden movements. If Ode hadn’t begun to follow Nop around Propos all those months ago Nop probably wouldn’t have made it for too long before slinking back to his drowsy hometown. Slowly Ode pulled his attention back towards Nop and looked at him directly, letting his grin relax a little. His brow twitched and furrowed. Nop's eyes flickered over Lenux's face, following Ode as the man lost his dreamy amusement.

Lenux stood between them with his arms at his sides and his back straight. It wasn't an unusual posture; the boys would have been more disturbed by slouching. What the brief inspection caught on were the eyes, dilating and contracting in quick succession, drilling into the granite beneath the fighting men's bodies. The stare wasn't interrupted by blinking.

When Lenux first hired Nop and Ode, they had been sitting in a bar. How the man had sought them out was a mystery. Something in them called to him, apparently. Even this late in their relationship the man sometimes looked at them as if they were new, committing every quirk and attribute to memory. It was a disconcerting experience for Nop to be paid such intensive attention to. It felt almost like being dissected. When he’d tried to share the idea with Ode the big man said he hadn’t noticed. Nop was alone in his paranoia. He begrudged the men who were so busy with themselves that they could not feel that uncomfortable pressure. If he were in their position, the stare alone would have stopped his heart.

Lenux let the scene before him pour into the passage of his eyes and overflow into the back of his head. It washed down his cheekbones and clawed through his gums in a slowly spreading, open-toothed smile. Nop and Ode exchanged another glance at each other to share their growing concerns- Ode was more confused than alarmed, Nop was getting ready to retreat- while their employer's mouth opened a few centimeters, just enough to part his teeth. Something had come out of that mouth, too quiet to challenge the noise of the brawl. Then he moved.

Nop acted too late to the change in Lenux's stance. The thought to intervene moved slowly in his head when in reality his reaction time had been one of the high points of his résumé. Ode was a little slower than him; he had other areas of expertise that had secured him his position. For that Ode made the time to give him an exasperated look before lurching off the step towards the tumble of men. His hands hovered uncertainly, though, and he stood with a tense body ready to spring but lacking a trigger command. He'd never been told what to do in this situation.

Although subtle, the quality of the fighting men's shouts had changed to fit the addition of an unexpected third party in their midst. What were still angry screams now had the timbre of surprise and confusion. The source of the anger had been shifting throughout the conflict and now sprung from indignation. Who was this guy, to think he could just jump into a fight and start knocking heads?

Nop had the uncomfortable feeling that he was supposed to be embarrassed for his employer, or at the very least concerned for his well-being. The man was clearly in way over his head. For some reason Nop couldn’t manage it, however. His initial shock had been replaced with something like horror. It was appalling, the way Lenux had so quickly become like one of the men, senseless and involved.

At the back of the alley the anonymous onlookers had thinned out to solid black, abandoning the scene. Soon enough an authoritative figure would be stepping in to put an end to the entertainment anyway. Nop hoped to have everyone in order before then. He kept a safe distance between himself and the dog pile to ensure that he wouldn't get caught up in the mess, feeling the dread build in his stomach. They needed to get out of there before anyone else saw them, asked them what was going on. Discretion was supposed to be everything!

Compared to the two men Lenux was a toothpick thrown against steel girders. It was his unexpected appearance that had given him an upper hand, however brief. A small body wrapped in a stiff suit, Nop noted, stood out very well against the tattered casual wear of the brawlers, but the differences were slowly deteriorating under the chips of broken glass and the sludge that coated those fragments. In all the time that Nop had been escorting Lenux, he'd never imagined the little man capable of breaking into a run, let alone flinging himself on top of a balled up fist and thrashing about like an angry fish. His hands -- no gloves tonight, Nop noticed absently -- were a flurry of slaps and slashes, heavy hits and occasionally balled up in whatever fabric was near to get his bearings. The men had adjusted quickly to the ambush, and were giving back as much as they could give between bouts of still strangling each other. For all the danger present Nop felt the tightening strain of a laugh in his chest. When things got this bad it was ridiculous. He kept the hysteria contained but it was more welcome to him than being dumbstruck.

It was difficult to find the right moment to step in with the bodies constantly rushing and rolling. Between Nop and Ode there was a good chance of being able to suppress the two men, but Lenux was in such a frenzied state that they didn't feel it would be fair to leave the strangers so vulnerable to a wild attack. More than that, Lenux seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

He landed a clenched fist on a dirty and sweaty forehead, and the thunking sound was almost audible even to Nop. In response an elbow jabbed up, cracking Lenux in the jaw. His head reeled back on seemingly disjointed shoulders and his arms opened to get some balance. Laughing, Lenux attacked more furiously and started jabbering.

"Fun! This is fun!" He banged on one of the men's backs until he writhed and recoiled, then came back with a long string of jagged slang. His ears were shut to the verbal assault, muffled for a long time now from the rush of blood in his veins. "I'm having fun! I want -- more!"

A heavily shod foot connected with Lenux's shoulder and trampled him repeatedly before thrusting him away. Nop swept into the fray and got hold of Lenux under his arms, then dragged him in an awkward backwards scoot until they were by the inn's doorway again. One man was lying on the ground clutching at himself and seething while the other, who had kicked Lenux, was lumbering on all fours to continue his barrage. Ode stepped in and grabbed the man hastily, pinning his arms behind his back. The action made the man slump forwards until his chest was against the ground. He struggled against Ode's hold with more noise than effort. Apparently the exertion was finally catching up to him.

While Ode was busy dealing with the incapacitated brawlers Nop surveyed the damage on their employer. His face grew more twisted with each pass of his eyes. They had done a poor job of being his security. Lenux's lower lip was busted wide open and sopping blood down his chin; the man was still smiling even when it dripped and seeped into the dull grey of his suit. His suit had helped to protect him from much of the debris that he had rolled around in, but any exposed skin was lit up red and hot, crisscrossed with scratches and the beginnings of what would be some gorgeous purple bruises. Where there were rips in his clothes there were wounds. Nop wouldn't go so far as to conduct a thorough inspection, but he guessed that there would be more tenderized areas all over that little body. One of the blows to Lenux's head must have broken the scalp as well, otherwise the thickets of hair clotting together were glued with one of the other men's blood and spit.

Lenux was vibrating with energy. He wouldn't be feeling most of his body's signals of pain yet. On the contrary, Lenux was eager to receive more battle scars, though he couldn't wheedle out of Nop's shackle grips on his arms. Instead he resigned himself to chattering blithely in a quiet, almost awed voice, unable to adequately express to Nop just how much fun it had been. Nop didn’t know how to handle him now. He was vaguely alarmed by the loss of composure. This was the same man who demanded secrecy and professionalism?

To Nop's relief his companion Ode returned and guided them back into the inn, pushing or pulling as needed, never once looking back to see what had become of the brawlers. As they fled through the belly of the inn they drew the eyes of many of the clientele. Nobody said a word to them, instead turning their heads away in a very decisive gesture: I'm not going to get involved.

They didn’t speak about the incident for the rest of the day until coming to the next lodging for the night. Lenux still couldn’t quite explain himself but he swore his two men to confidentiality. It was part of their job now not only to protect their employer from other people, but to protect him from himself.

“Just remember,” Lenux told them, “discretion is of the highest priority.” Ode agreed with him easily enough, still musing over the event. For Nop the comment struck him sour. They’d been outstandingly exposed. People watching was going to lose its appeal for a long while.