Babs' goofy grin seemed cemented to his face as the tavern's customers subtly tried to shift away from the newcomers. A couple of not so secretive angry glances and some chairs were knocked over the process. Arya naturally paid it no heed and was poking at the ugly dry bird on her plate with some suspicion about the grey blotches on the thighs. However he was more wise to what was happening. An obvious high lady treating the local sacred tavern with as much condescending posture as she did would generate some ire. So he was honestly not surprised when a fist landed on the table with a resounding crack.
Arya jumped, as did her plate. The dark, weird smelling broth that the bird had been served with sloshed onto the table with the sudden vibration. It immediately dripped onto her uncovered dress and her anger flared, despite the cheap dress being easily replaceable. She made to stand, her mouth opening to start her tirade of snappy insults but Babs was quick to interject. He grabbed her wrist tightly under the table, so tightly it hurt yet she knew it was a warning. She was physically pulled down and immediately snapped her mouth shut. Her eyes ventured a peek at her travelling companion. His easy-going, bored expression still held, yet his eyes were serious as the drunken men began their slurred speech. Experience had taught her that when the worldly Babs was serious, it was time to keep quiet. At the very least, she could wrinkle her nose. The men were clearly intoxicated from the smell, one of them was even swaying, his half lidded eyes leering at her.
Though they were drunk, their threats were not baseless. There was five of them, and one of him, his little bird would only succeed in aggravating a fight further and he didn't want to chance dragging her into that. Babs shrugged nonchalantly at the bald man covered his face in spittle. His hand still held fast to Arya's wrist and he eyed the half broken door they had entered with as he formulated his response. Yet there was no need. Another man, this time an exotic looking creature had intervened. Now he looked surprised; his eyebrows shot up and then noted he had just been one of the few sharp eyes watching them the second they entered.
His grip on Arya's wrist relaxed and released as this tall, and dare-she-say handsome man made his threats. She stared on surprised as the drunken hooligans recoiled, but the shiny-headed bald one spat onto the floor and snarled his rebuttal. "Yer a foolish man to think ye can take on the five of us." He poked a finger into the middle of his chest, pushing him back ever so slightly. Behind him, his friends seemed to swarm. "Men alike and women like her need'ta know their place, and we'll be sure to make you be put inna' that place."
At that point Babs had enough. This was reaching critical mass on the danger scale for him. He stood rapidly, knocking his stool over. "Fella's." He began, his sword coming out as fast as single exclamation. "We'd all like to not shed blood over this." The men recoiled immediately at the sight of his sword, but he simply turned it over, side to side, as if inspecting the sharpness. "So if you don't want the pointy end, me, my daughter and my associate will be leaving. Seems like our dinner is ruined pretty much anyways." Babs glanced to the man who had come to their aid; it was a toss-up whether he would back down or not. But he gave him a slow nod nonetheless and then sheathed his sword again, smiled, then proceeded to leave, giving Arya the gentle push that was necessary for her to rapidly leave the situation.
The sun had sunk nearly below the clouds and long shadows hung at their backs when they walked out into the road. Babs glanced up, exhaled loudly and looked to Arya who was far more curious about the inside of the tavern more then the incoming and sleepless night they were going to have. She craned her neck, trying to get a good luck at the exotic man who had intervened previously.