You're a... WOMAN?!

[Prince]

(Hunter and Prince 8 years ago)

A call had come into bounty hunter headquarters less than an hour ago regarding suspicions of gang activity hiding out in the Warfields of Thârey. Because the call was only an anonymous tip regarding a suspicion as best, Faun had decided to only send out two of his young hunters to check out the situation.

Ethan and Hunter, code names Prince and Crane, were his chosen pair to do this job. They already had obvious chemistry when working together as a pair, usually very in sync with each other on the job. Faun told them what the suspicions were and told them to check out the situation and report back. If the situation was enough for the two of them alone to handle, they should take advantage of that.

Faun then lent the two young hunters a pair of motorcycles that had that belonged to a couple of the senior bounty hunters who had given permission for the bikes to be used for missions. The two hunters then headed out together towards the Warfields to see if the suspicions were correct.

Prince wore a pair of dark blue jeans, a pale peach shirt and a red plaid button down shirt over top that remained open. Most of the time, Prince preferred to dress more formally; she usually went for a more casual approach when on missions, however, so as not to ruin her really nice clothes.

Since her chest started growing in a number of years ago, Prince had slowly figured out how to bind her chest so that her breasts wouldn't show through her clothes. She did this because Faun insisted on her being a guy. Any time she acted more like a girl growing up or showed even a hint of being such, he would get mad and take his anger out largely on her but also on everyone around him. To keep her father's temper to it's more minimal stage, she did all she could to be a guy instead of a girl.

Not wanting to make too much noise, Prince stopped the bike and climbed off of it as they neared the warfields. She stood there, staring towards the location they were told to inspect then looked over at Hunter. "We should probably just hide the bikes around here, Crane. They're good for getting here faster, but they'd give us away really quickly in there."

She then looked around them and walked her bike over into a set of bushes, removing the keys to keep with her. She rearranged the bushes around the bike to keep it hidden so that there was a low chance of it being spotted and stolen.

[Hunter]

"Yea-he-he-heess! Finally a ride...!" Being a 22-year-old young man, Hunter always gets excited whenever they were given bikes, he doesn't even care if it's just a ride for missions. It gets even more fun when he gets partnered up with his 'bro', Prince.

Prince had been one of the few people who he somehow can synchronize with. Ever since he had met the guy, Hunter finds it to be so easy to connect with him, however strange that may sound. But really, after living for over 2 decades without anything stable to lean on, Hunter inwardly appreciates how Prince can keep up with his usual gibberish.

So as their made their way to their destination, Hunter didn't pass up the chance to rant. He had already regarded Prince as his best friend of the sort, plus they're not inside the headquarters at the moment, so the cowboy just let out whatever's been occupying his head that he's unable to speak inside the building.

"I always wonder why you chose to have your room alone? I mean, I respect your privacy and all, man, but why coop yourself up in that one small room when you can easily get in the bigger room and just bunk with us! You, me and that lil' kid." Hunter presses his voice a bit to speak, in order to get his voice louder than the motors gearing.

He had adjusted his speed to be as fast as Prince's motorbike and just kept up with him by going steady right beside him. "I mean, like, whenever I had to go outside of Veyyard sometimes on some transporting businesses, which of course takes weeks, I always had to ask the old taxman next door to bunk in with the kid to keep an eye on him." Glancing sideways to look at his partner, Hunter chuckled a bit, happy to just ride and breathe right now.

He kept on ranting whether or not Prince responded to him, all the way until they finally reached their destination; the Warfield of Tharey. Hunter nodded in agreement of Prince's suggestion to hide their bikes and followed his example to park behind a few large bushes.

Once done, the first thing Hunter does is to check the bullets in his handguns. He has a nasty tendency in forgetting to reload his bullets before the mission even started, to the point that it resulted with him getting shot once due to his carelessness. After the incident where he got shot, Hunter's been trying to remind himself and adopted this habit of checking his bullets before anything starts.

"So..." he spoke up as he snaps his gun barrel close, "Refresh my memory on what we're supposed to stalk on and if I need to use bullets, because I forgot to bring some spares again."

[Prince]

Prince grinned slightly at Hunter's excitement and rambling. Hunter was the first person that Prince felt really comfortable relaxing around. Before meeting hunter, she was a lot more stiff when dealing with others and didn't really know how to relax and enjoy herself. This was mainly due to her strict father who happened to now be their chief, Faun, and how HQ has been running since she was young. Also, due to the fact that she was a woman in a sea of men who had to work extra hard just to try and blend in with them so as not to upset the order of things. Prince certainly had a lot of things to take into consideration and relaxing was not usually one of them unless she was alone in her room.

Although Prince did like the idea of rooming with Hunter and Zero, she knew that was impossible due to the fact that she needed to keep her true sex a secret. Living in a room with others, even her best friend and a kid she had started to consider like a little brother, was not an option to her. "Sorry, bud! I just like having my own room!" She said, partially lying, as she flashed a quick grin towards him while riding.

After hiding their bikes, Prince took a deep breath and looked over at Hunter who was checking his equipment over again. Prince let out a sigh and placed her hand to her forehead as he said he forgot his spares again. "Crane, you should be checking your equipment before you leave headquarters to make sure you bring spares." She said then reached into her own bag of spares, in which she packed often more than she needed, and handed him some.

"We're looking for possible gang activity here. There might be just a few people or a whole mass of them. We want to be stealthy so as not to be noticed and we will only engage the enemy if our position is given away or if there aren't more people there than we can handle."

"Come on." Prince said and began heading into the warfields, glancing behind to make sure Hunter was with her. "And try not to be too loud walking through here. We want to be the ones surprising them, not the other way around."

[Hunter]

A wide innocent grin meant to attract sympathy stretched across Hunter's face as Prince expresses his disappointment of him forgetting to bring spares. "Aaw, c'mon bro, don't be mad~ Why should I bring spares when I know you always have extras for everything?" Smiling as Prince handed him the spares he needed, the older man quickly reloaded everything with ease and dexterity.

Being rather knowledgeable and adept with weapons, it's not much of a surprise that Hunter is able to do everything without even looking at his weapons.

He eyes Prince the whole time as the boy explained what their roles are in this mission. "Mmkay," was his only response, almost sounding as if he's not even being serious, but that's just the outward appearance Hunter likes to show to people. Most of the other hunters dislike him being in their team mostly because of the frivolous attitude he lets out.

When Prince is already moving in to enter the warfields, Hunter followed up a few feet behind him. His comment on how he should be quiet made Hunter pout. "Are you still bitter about that last mission? Come on, I thought that thing was a rock, how should I know it's a freaking mine..." Shrugging at the memory, he tried his best to move quietly.

Stealth isn't really Hunter's strong point, but he does try not to be too useless in it. Suddenly, Hunter reached out his hand to hold Prince back on his shoulder, "Wait. ...How is it possible to be stealthy when there's practically no buildings here to hide behind..? We're like walking right inside a minefield..." He said, quietening down his tone a bit, when there's a sudden heavy fog emanating around the warfield.

"Oh you have gotta be kidding me..." He sighed, reaching in for the heat detector scope that was attached to his snipe so he could take a look through it. ".....Nothing. ..Yet." The inability to spot enemies is one of the things that Hunter greatly despises, most because he hates surprise shots out of nowhere.

[Prince]

Prince stared back at Hunter with a serious expression, a bit annoyed at him always relying on her over-preparing. "I may not always be around to give you extras, Crane. You have to learn to take care of yourself instead of always relying on your partner." She said in a serious manner, repeating the same kind of advice that Faun often says to discourage too much reliance on others.

After explaining their mission, Prince wasn't really phased by Hunter's easygoing response. She still gets annoyed from time to time over his frivolous attitude, but she's already started to get used to it especially since it has helped her to relax a bit more in certain stressful situations. She grinned very slightly at him before telling him to go with her and the grin fell back into her serious look as she headed into the Warfields.

When Hunter brought up the last mission where he managed to detonate a mine, Prince's eyebrow twitched and she brought a hand up to her forehead. She lowered it as she let out a sigh as they continued in. "Crane, it was beyond obvious that it was a mine. If you'd learned anything from training properly, you would have realized that."

Prince stopped when Hunter grabbed her shoulder to stop her. She looked back at Hunter as he spoke to her then, her eyebrows lifting slightly as if she hadn't really realized what he was pointing out. As a fog began to set in, however, Prince grinned slightly. "Well, I guess this answers your question." She said with a grin then looked out into the field.

"Most people can't see enemies in this kind of fog..." She said then looked back at Hunter as he was pulling out his heat detector scope and looked through it. "Just keep checking that as we go through, Crane." She said as she placed a hand on his shoulder and grinned at him, almost looking excited about the challenge the fog brings out. Having challenges in missions was one of the many obvious similarities that Prince had in common with Faun. The most glaring difference between the two was that Faun was louder and angrier and more aggressive whereas Prince maintained a calmer approach and was often more gentle and graceful.

"Let's keep going, Crane." She said as she turned again and continued into the fog, glancing back only to make sure Hunter was keeping up with her. "I want to be back before nightfall if possible."

[Hunter]

Hunter let out an airy chuckle at Prince's serious counter. There's something about that boy getting serious that makes Hunter likes to act even more annoying and stupid, "I'm just making full use for when I was granted with a partner. C'mon, I've been taking care of myself since the day I was born, I want to be taken care of too when I can afford it~" He glanced down at his company with a wide toothy grin.

Come to think of it, he had told Prince pieces of his past before, but he never knew much about Prince himself, other than his real name being Ethan, and that's it. Hunter looked back at his partner, staring behind his head as he wondered what exactly is he so afraid of to be so mysterious all the time about himself.

The taller man winced though when Prince responded to him about their last mission being apparent that it's in a minefield, "...Wait. Really? How should I know it was obvious, jeez, I'm not the smartest man in the block, okay?" Or the most attentive one in training. He's actually one of the most useless hunters in the organization, that's why he kept being asked to transport weapons instead of real missions, but when he was paired up with Prince, Hunter is surprisingly adept and does really well.

When the fog rolled in and Hunter became the eyes for once, he sort of inwardly panicked a bit, though having Prince patting him on the shoulder encouraged him. He saw that familiar sparkle in the boy's eyes before he began to stalk through inside the fog, with Hunter in tow behind him. "Dude, don't get too excited. I honestly have a very bad feeling right now."

His scope is small, so he was forced to turn a full 360 degrees to check in every direction before moving in forward with Prince. That made him kind of lagging behind a bit, so he tried to jog towards his partner when he stepped on something that almost made him fall. Hunter regained his balance before he stumbled, but now he has his eyes on the ground.

"...Prince.. Was it raining earlier..?" His eyes widened as the fog cleared up only to the height of his knees, allowing Hunter to see just how many footprints are there on the ground by the rain hours ago. It all looks so recent that Hunter is almost certain that all these many footprints belonged to the group they're stalking.

Slowly, the feeling of dread settled in Hunter's awareness. "I think we should turn back.." He whispered, turning his attention from the ground to Prince in front.