“Back so soon,” Stare grunted, eyeing him up.
He arched an eyebrow. “Wonderful to see your usual merry self back amongst us, my dear,” he said lightly.
Striding over to the far side of the room he used his spare hand to grasp a chair. Then, sweeping it off its legs in the most elegant manner possible he began to carry it back over to where Stare and Desian were. It reminded Stare of the times he used to do so back in her old room, in the Hollow. Of course then they had a very different relationship and new so little of each other. Now … now.
He planted down the chair and sat in it. Then, with no pause and no indication that that was what he was going to do he gestured for the basket of food. Desian handed it over without hesitation and he nodded at her.
“I will handle this now, Desian. You can go back to your normal duties. I thank you for the assistance.”
The kitchen cook eyed up Stare with caution before bowing to them both quickly. Then she twisted around and shot out the door before anyone could tell her to do otherwise.
There was a short, tight pause.
“Did you want to finish, Stare?”
Her eyes flickered back to him and this time she did show her irritation. In his hand was a fork and on the end of it a slightly warm hunk of pork.
“Desian said to wait for you to return before she had permission to release me. Now you are back here, I'd like you to hurry the fuck up and-”
“You're language is still volatile, your mood still unpredictable. My dear, I'm not letting you go until you completely understand what it is that our relationship is now.”
He looked entirely unamused. Stare still glared though.
“Well I'm pissed off that you didn't ask me.”
He dropped the fork into the basket and leant back. “You would have refused, no matter the negotiation. I know you that much, Stare.”
Shaking her head she looked away, fury fuming from every pore.
“Well? I speak the truth do I not?”
She locked her jaw.
“Well?” His voice sounded a little heated, and if there was one thing she knew about Vitruvion it was that he liked his direct questions to be answered.
“Yes,” she huffed, “But it is a dispicable act. You could have … hinted. Done it slowly. I don't know.”
She heard the sound of him putting the basket on the tiled floor.
“I have already confessed I acted out of pure selfishness. And I am proud of what I did, whether you like it or not,” he said, his words harsh but true. “It was the only way that I could, in the short time that I had, come up with. I had three days or so in which to sort it out. Any longer and you would have been incorrigible to deal with in the fact that I disappeared, and you missed out on the adventure with the ape-orcs.” He paused. “I did not lie, by the way, they are all gone.”
