For Services Rendered

NC-17 for explicit m/m/f and m/m sex. (Meg/Joxer/Autolycus and
Joxer/Autolycus)

This all is set sometime immediately following the episode "The Key to
the Kingdom", so you might not want to read it until you've seen
the episode. Not that it really spoils too much of anything.

Archine: only with my permission, thanks.

Disclaimer: not my characters, not my show. The following is written purely for fun, not for profit.

* * * * *



The King of Thieves wasn't sure what he was doing here, still
hanging around at Meg's Tavern. All this work the past few days,
and he had absolutely nothing to show for it.

Except for a new nickname: "Mr. Stinky". Wherever that had
come from. He was never lacking in the personal hygiene
department, as far as he could tell. He prided himself on as much,
so Meg's strange appellation for him was downright confounding.

No, he just had the itchy feeling that there was some sort of a coda
to put on this whole fiasco. Something that would get the bad taste
out of his mouth from being conned into that crazy scheme of
Meg's to steal a baby. At least no one was chasing him out of town
at tomenoment, and he didn't have any immediate plans to be
anywhere else. Therefore he figured on cooling his heels in the
area a while longer, hoping maybe a new proposition--a much
better one than his last--might come his way.

Besides, this place had its charms...in a seedy sort of way. There
were plenty of lovely ladies to admire, far from the least of which
was the proprietor, Meg herself. Yeah, true, she'd played him like a
bit of a fool, and was still calling him by that bizarre epithet. That
didn't do anything to detract from the fact that she was a damn fine
woman to look at. The resemblance to Xens uns uncanny.
Autolycus would be a liar to say he'd never had the stray lustful
thought about the warrior princess and plundering her very evident
assets. But that woman radiated a "hands off" demeanor and she
carried the weapons to enforce it.

Meg on the other hand...to say she radiated a completely opposite
kind of message would be putting it mildly. And she'd been giving
him enough looks that said she was picking up and not minding the
signals he was sending her way, too. If not for the fact that Joxer
was still around, the King of Thieves would be on her in a
flash. He just couldn't figure out what kind of relationship they had
going on. The kid seemed awfully protective of Meg, especially
the way he'd been keeping Auto from getting too "friendly" with
her when they first met. Yet here Joxer was at the tavern tonight,
mostly hanging out at the bar, lapping up the attentions of all the
other women in Meg's employ. They in turn were fawning over
him like he was, oh...Hercules or something. It was most
perplexing. And Meg was barely batting an eye over it.

"Hey, Mr. Stinky!" Auto was startled from his observations of Joxer's
antics by Meg's unexpected oachoach. "Didn't know you were still
around. Can I get ya somethin'?"

I'll take you for starters, he thought, admiring her up and down
in the revealing dress that she was wearing tonight. Not quite as
revealing as her faux-Xenawear, true, but less intimidating in turn.
"Oh, I'm doing all right for now," he answered instead, indicating
his half-full mug of ale. "Just sticking around until I can find a
new...use for my particular skills. One that will hopefully pay
this time."

Meg's lips twitched into a slight apologetic frown. "Sorry 'bout all
that, y'know. I didn't mean t'you you through so much for nuthin'."

"Eh," Auto dismissed. Maybe he could play up on her sympathies,
though, and earn himself a little something for his troubles yet. A
round of laughter from by the bar caught his attention and he
turned back to find Joxer at the center of it, the girls giggling and
hanging all over hi a d a decidedly fawning manner. "He must pay
real well to get that kind of attention," the thief muttered.

"Joxie? Aw no, he don't have to pay here anymore. At least not full
price. The gals just love him to death. I mean, how could you not?
He's such a cutie, don't you think?"

Auto squinted and tried to see particular charms she was referring
to. "I can't say that I understand the appeal myself."

Meg leaned over thele ale and in a conspiratorial voice asked,
"Maybe you'd like to find out, hmm, Stinky?"

Autolycus blinked, not certain he understood what she was
suggesting. And not certain that he wanted to understand. "Uh,
what exactly do you mean, Meg?" he asked warily.

"Whaddya think?" she answered with a smile and a wink. "You,
me and Joxie worked together pretty good. Maybe we could do
some other things together pretty good too."

The thief to mom moment to draw a long sip os als ale, trying to
figure out where this was coming from. He certainly wasn't
averse to spending a little more time getting to know Meg better.
But throwing Joxer into the mix? "He seems pretty protective of
you, and who you spend your time with. Why'd do you think he'd
be interested in something like, like that?"

Meg reached out one delicate finger and ran it along the back of
Auto's hand. Hlue lue eyes sparkled with mischief. "He was the
one who suggested it, Stinky. Yeah, he gets a little jealous of me
bein' with other guys sometimes. But not so much if he can play
along. I know he'd love a chance to play with you...just like I
would."

This was all more than a little--more than a lot--bizarre. "You
two sure have one interesting relationship, I've give you that
much."

"C'mon, Stinky...we owe ya somethin' for puttin' you through
what we did. Consider it our own special reward," she offered.

He had to admit it was amazing what she was doing to him simply
by caressing his hand. Or maybe it was the view she offered down
her dress, as she leaned further over the table to plant a light kiss
on the tip of his nose. She giggled at that and then pulled away,
standing up to walk over behind him. Leaning down, she said into
his ear, "Listen, I gotta keep an eye on the girls and the place for
another couple hours, 'till business slows down. If you're
interested, my room's the first one on the right, upstairs. I figure
you don't need a key. Be there when me 'n Joxie come up and I
promise ya, you're gonna be glad you stuck around."

He nearly jumped when she finished by nibbling lightly on his
earlobe, and he couldn't help but watch in admiration as she slowly
walked back towards the kitchen, her hips swinging suggestively.

Oh yeah. He wanted a taste of that. No question.

But...Joxer, too? r>


Cautiously, he turned back to glance at the bar. He was a little
disconcerted to find Joxer's eyes on him as well, the girls
momentarily, at least, forgotten. The young man's smile was
slightly bashful, but he didn't seem embarrassed about being
caught watching. He must've been keeping an eye on Meg making
her approach and was waiting to see what Auto's reaction would
be.

Not certain what he was feeling about this, Auto turned back away
without, he hoped, sending any "yay" or "nay" message
with his expression. He pondered what on Earth he should do.

It wasn't that he necessarily had anything against sharing a woman
with another man. That was nothing particularly new to him, nor
even doing more than that with another man. He lived for the
good life, after all, and was never one to deny himself the chance
to experience something different, especially when it came to
anything of a carnal nature. A man with his kind of looks was also
used to hearing all kinds of propositions and offers. But Joxer? The
stumbling wanna-be hero who couldn't even walk straight half the
time? He hadn't realized the kid was orinoring some sort of
attraction towards him. Would he go bragging from here to Athens
about scoring with the King of Thieves if Autolycus agreed to this?
Something like that wouldn't be good for his reputation.

Okay, the kid wasn't bad looking, Auto had to admit, as he dared
another glance toward the bar to check him out. Not that he'd thought
about the kid in that way until now, but he supposed Joxer
was all right, once you got past the terrible fashion sense. And,
well, Autolycus couldn't deny a certain curiosity over what Meg
might see in him, and the way the other girls seemed particularly
fond of him to boot.

"Well, what the Tartarus?" Autolycus supposed, the promise of
getting to know Meg a little better winning out over his concerns
over the Joxer part of this deal. This week's been pretty lousy so
far. Either I'll end it on an unexpected high note, or I'll walk out of
here tonight probably in no worse mood than I already am in.

Mind made up, he decided to take advantage of the few hours he
had to himself to stop by the l bal bathhouse. He couldn't help but
feel paranoid about his state of cleanliness thanks to Meg.

---

The lock was easy enough to pick, barely a five-second job.
Sometimes he wondered why people even bothered. He stepped
into Meg's room, uncertain of what he would find. The chamber
was pleasant, if nothing grand, but she seemed to try hard to make
it as attractive as she could. The ample bed was made with soft,
silky-sheets. "Probably the one thing she saved her dinars for,"
Auto thought slyly. There were fresh flowers strewn about, on the
windowsill, on the dresser, even at the head of the bed. A few
colorful scarves and blankets were draped over the simple
furniture, or hung upon the walls to liven up the room. Even more
promising, on the dresser he spied an ample array of vials of oil,
perfume, and other assorted items that showed Meg had a definite
appreciation for things of a sensual natur


"I guess I might as well make myself comfortable," Auto said, first
taking a few minutes to light up some of the candles about the
room, and then sitting on the edge of the bed to remove his boots.
He had more or less convinced himself at this point to just go with
whatever was going to happen next. For getting the chance to be
with Meg, he could put up with Joxer being involved. Maybe he'd
even be surprised fid find out Joxer had something he was good
at--besides falling down and being a general nuisance of himself.

He stopped his undressing once he was down to his vest and his
pants, figuring he'd enjoy letting Meg do some work finishing the
job. He sank back on the bed, finding it quite comfortable indeed.
The noise from downstairs indicated that the place was still
jumping and he probably had a while to wait before his
companions for the evening wouldjoinjoining him. With that
thought in mind, he let himself relax, and probably thanks to the
rich ale he'd been consuming earlier, found himself quickly
drifting asleep.

continued in the next part...