The Atonement of a Writer

21. The Unaware

He was humming a small tune. "I'll stay here until you fall asleep, okay?"

She glanced up at him. "Do you really think I'll be able to fall asleep with you here?"

"Why not? Are you not comfortable around me?"

She laughed. "No, it's not that. Under the moon, your hair is so shiny it's like a nightlight. How am I supposed to sleep like that?"

"Hush," he scolded, putting a gentle hand over her eyes.

Despite what she said, she was asleep within minutes. He smiled fondly down at her sleeping face. Because he was not a creep, he quietly left the room through the balcony, leaving nothing behind that would indicate his presence.

~*~

Lili actually made it through the winding streets and back to the inn. She had only gotten a few seconds headstart, so she wasn't sure she would make it, but somehow, she managed to find her way back. She supposed Julien didn't know the streets well either, or she would've been cornered a while ago.

When she finally saw the inn, she turned back, gasping for breath. Julien was still behind her--for some reason, he had donned the mask again. What was with that, anyway?

He'd stopped following her, though, when she went through the doors of the inn. As it turned out, she'd guessed correctly--with his whole getup, he didn't want to attract attention, and following her into the inn would be garnering attention.

A lot of attention. She winced as every gaze in the room turned to her. To be fair, she hadn't been exactly keeping quiet when coming in, and it probably wasn't every day they saw a noble lady's face flushed and out of breath.

"Arielle!" She turned to find Killian running towards her. Well, Killian didn't run, so it was more like power-walking. He reached her and checked her head to toe with a professional eye. "Thank goodness you're alright--where were you? What happened?"

Behind him, Clovis came up at a slightly slower pace. He smiled at her, relieved, then his expression quickly turned into sad puppy dog eyes. "Arielle, you went out to play without me?"

She flushed in embarrassment. "How about we bring this...somewhere else?"

What she meant was anywhere but here. They were making quite a scene, and there were a lot of prying eyes and ears.

They went upstairs to the suite Clovis was staying in. Once the door closed, Killian immediately spoke. "If you wanted to go out, you should've told one of us. We would've gone with you."

"I even invited you, but you rejected me to go out on your own," Clovis was pouting again, "Am I really that bad of company?"

"No, of course not," Lili said quickly. She was at fault here--she was always pulling the disappearing act, but most of the time, it was out of her control. "I really wasn't planning on going out. Things just...happened."

"Like what?" Clovis asked, eyes lighting up with curiosity.

"I...saw the bakery and got hungry. But, you know, the streets were bustling with life. Some other...womanly stuff caught my eye, and eventually, I just lost track of time." Lili lied through her teeth, smiling sheepishly. Even she wouldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth.

"You didn't come find us?" Killian asked skeptically.

"Would you be interested in that kind of thing? I wouldn't want to drag you out of something you want to do just to bore you," she pointed out reasonably.