“Aurora, up here!”

He didn’t need Daniel to call for him to know just where the two of them were. The giggling and stifled laugher had been plenty to give away just where they were above the streets. Evander looked up, spotting the two sitting on the part of the roof that sloped down enough to where they could sit comfortably. He’d been up there before, a place the three of them had often gone when the weather wasn’t too horribly bitter to be out in.

Evander frowned at the sight of Daniel grinning down at him, the same grin that he recognized as the one that appeared when the two whispered words to each other. He never cared to listen nor had he been interested in what they were saying, but the sight still put him on edge.

“Climb up,” Elizabeth called.

“Why?”

She sighed heavily in mock annoyance. “Come on! Your arms aren’t broken anymore, are they?”

Looking at the building where the wall jutted out in a series of jagged ledges, he grabbed a handhold before hauling himself, with some difficulty, up to the top. He knew the moment he’d seen them up there giggling about a joke he didn’t know about that he was going to regret reaching the rooftop.

They were both nice enough, he’d come to realize, but just how friendly they were, as strange as it sounded, made him uneasy.

“Up you go,” Elizabeth chortled, offering him a hand once he reached the ledge.

She led him over to where Daniel was sitting, pulling him down to sit beside her while she plopped down in the middle. He winced, sitting down heavily and pulling his knees up to his chest, resting his head on the pile formed by his arms.

“What were you laughing about?” he mumbled, glancing sideways at Daniel.

“It’s nothing…we were just-“

He broke off laughing.

“Was it about me?”

Daniel suddenly looked alarmed, eyes going wide and light again while he shook his head. Evander wasn’t sure why it didn’t take much at all, a careless bark of laughter, but his temper snapped the instant Daniel laughed a second time. Elizabeth snatched for his arm but he was already on his feet and in front of Daniel before she could stop him. He reached down, grabbing him by the short and hauling him to his feet.

“Aurora, no.”

Elizabeth was between them then and Evander huffed before returning back to where he’d been sitting before.

“Stop it. I’ve had enough with this. You know,” she said, hands on her hips as she turned towards Evander, “I was even thinking of a better name for you, a shorter one. I thought of Rory but now I think Ror suits you better since you’re always so vexing aggressive.”

It was the first time he’d heard her swear and while she was utterly serious, he found himself smiling lightheartedly.

“Oh, don’t you smile at me,” she scolded. “You can both stop fighting or you can get off of my roof and out of my inn.”

Evander laughed, shaking his head. “You can’t do that. Your father-“

“Will believe everything and anything I said,” she quipped back to Daniel, “now, start getting along or you can both get off the roof.” Her eyes narrowed. “Apologize too.”

He huffed again, mumbling something vaguely about being sorry before he brought his knees up again in the exact same way as before.

“What were you laughing about if it wasn’t about me?”

“If you must know,” she paused, looking down at the street, “and you can avoid killing each other, we were laughing about them.”

Elizabeth nodded to the street, the bustling and scattering of people as they made their way down the road towards whatever destination, unknown to the three on the roof. She smiled again, throwing her arms over their shoulders and gazing down at the street once again.

“Can you not do that?” Evander grumbled. 
She ignored him. “Oh, what about that one?”

Evander glanced sideways, scanning for the man that Daniel was studying, eventually settling on a well-dressed gentlemen with a hat that seemed much too tall to actually be practical.

“He comes from the capital, that’s for sure. Probably here on…business? He doesn’t like it here and would much rather be at home with his cats-“

Elizabeth snorted with laughed, arm moving from off his shoulder when she went to cover her mouth. “Does he look like the sort who would have cats?”

Daniel just shrugged.

“I think he looks like someone who wouldn’t like others digging into his personal affairs. He claims to have been born into wealth, hence the clothing. He’s making a statement that he’s worth knowing about. No one comes from Aldyra to a place like this on business. He’s likely here to visit family, nothing important.”

“What makes you say that?”

Evander shrugged, mocking the same response Daniel had given earlier.

“Do you think he was part of the Dravara or did his family buy him out of it?”

For a moment, he considered ignoring Daniel’s comment but when he looked back at the man, the fool jumped at a ragged alley cat that scrambled across his path. He half smiled, sitting upright and shaking his head.

“That man would have died the moment he set foot in the east.”

Elizabeth beamed, motioning next to a tall woman with a cloak shown over her shoulders, concealing a mess of reddish hair much like Elizabeth’s but far less tamed.

“Her?”

Evander started forward, seeing Daniel do the same once Elizabeth gave them another poor townsperson to read. The woman was careful in the way she walked, keeping her eyes downcast and face mostly hidden by the fabric. She reminded him of Silas, in a way, just how she kept to the side and never allowed anyone to get too close to where she was walking.

He swallowed, wondering why but looked up to see Daniel had stopped staring and since taken to watching him study the woman far below. “She’s scared, not from around here.”

“As in, someone’s following her?”

Evander looked over again only to find she was gone.

“I would doubt that.”

“Perhaps, we could find a less sad one?” Elizabeth suggested, still smiling.

Daniel pointed across town to a young woman, this one standing beside a lamppost and chatting with a boy who appeared to be a few years younger. They were laughing, faces creased with amusement but the sound was all but lost to the ears of the three on the roof.

“Them?”

“I believe it’s your turn,” Evander mumbled.

The other runaway nodded sheepishly, squinting at the two across town. “He’s a runaway and she’s annoying.”

“That sounds vaguely familiar.”

Elizabeth threw her arms around them again, pulling the two towards her. “Oh, why do you have to be like that?”

He struggled for a moment, shrugging her off. “I’m going back inside.”

“Why?”

Evander got to his feet but stopped then.

“Why are we sitting here? We are just going to draw attention to ourselves and I certainly would love to avoid that if I’m leaving soon-“

“You aren’t really leaving,” Daniel laughed, stopping when Evander shot a glance backwards.

“How would you know?”

Elizabeth groaned. “We both know you aren’t leaving so soon. You might not want to admit it but you actually like it here.”

He shrugged, kicking at the snow on the roof. “I do. That’s why-“

“And you can’t bear to leave us,” Daniel added, hand on his chest and a grin plastered across his face.

“Now you’re starting to act like her,” he muttered, watching as Daniel’s smile disappeared. “And that’s a stretch.”

“Oh, he’s just being a grumbler. You aren’t leaving,” Elizabeth said, still smiling unlike Daniel.

Evander waved their comments away, turning and starting back down the roof again without a word. He didn’t want to leave, even if the two never left him alone, but he was afraid of what would happen if he stayed. The inn was, for the first time in a while, the place he actually was beginning to feel safe in.

“He’s not really leaving, is he?”

“No,” Elizabeth assured, “he won’t.”

~ ~ ~ ~

“It’s getting late.”

Daniel gave a small nod, eyes focused on the ground. The other runaway made him nervous with the way his eyes seemed to be always slightly narrowed, always on edge and always giving off the impression that he didn’t trust a word that came out of his mouth. He’d smile but his eyes never did his eyes match the expression on his face, holding a sort of emptiness that Daniel found sadder than he did intimidating.

His eyes, no matter what, always told a very different story.

“Goodnight,” he said after a moment.

“You’re not really leaving, are you?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora replied simply, moving off towards his room.

The door to his room had closed before Elizabeth spoke again. “Something is bothering him but I don’t know exactly what it’s. Is he really going to leave?”

Daniel stood up with a shrug, unsure of how to answer her. “I have a feeling that if he was actually leaving, he’d be gone by now. We know nothing about him. Where does he come from? You thought it was the east but he’s made it far if he is. Something about him just isn’t right.”

“Where are you going?”

He looked down at the ground, sitting again and sighing. “Nowhere.”

The fire crackled and hissed but Daniel barely heard anything beyond his thoughts of Aurora. His feelings about the inn, the lack of safety despite the fact it had been the safest place he’d been in a while, worried him. There was no place of true safety as long as they were running and that realization, as horrible as it was, made his skin crawl.

If nowhere was safe, what was the point in running?”

He hated being known as a runaway, the title alone enough to bring shame to him. His father had told him, both long ago and not so much, that running was for the cowards, the fools who wanted to deny a reality that everyone had to face. Daniel didn’t know why he’d chosen or rather, he knew but he didn’t even understand his own reasoning.

Perhaps he was a coward after all.

“He tried telling me something when he first woke up. I think he was trying to argue about his name but I stopped him before he could,” Elizabeth said after a while in silence.

“I’d believe it. But what’s his name then?”

She only shrugged and Daniel nodded in understanding, not really expecting her to know the answer.

“Doesn’t it worry you that he’s hiding so much that he won’t even say his own name? You don’t think he did something horrible, do you?”

“How should I know?”

She stood, walking closer and sitting down in the chair beside him, reaching out for his hand and clasping it in hers.

“W-what are you doing?”

“You worry so much about him and about what he could do. I don’t think he means to hurt anyone, Daniel. I don’t think he ever does.”

Daniel swallowed, nodding and turning his head to hide the red rushing to his cheeks. Over the past few weeks, Elizabeth seemed to be the only person able to get close enough to Aurora without him lashing out. She could get him to smile, a feat in itself, while he was left too afraid to get too near.

He cleared his throat, pulling his hand away from her. “I’m okay…but thank you.”

Elizabeth frowned. “Is something wrong, Daniel?”

Shaking his head, he cleared his throat and folded his hands in his lap. “Nothing is wrong it’s just…I’m afraid.”

“What of?”

Daniel got to his feet, looking back towards Aurora’s room and reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. Elizabeth put a hand on his arm, taking his hand again and pulling gently as she sat back in her chair.

“Sit down, Daniel.”

For a moment, he stood there looking down at her, unsure of what to do or think. He was briefly afraid that Aurora would be mad at him if he knew they were talking about him without his knowledge. He gave a small nervous nod, sitting down beside her wordlessly.

Elizabeth leaned her head against his shoulder the way she’d done with both of them countless times, squeezing his hand reassuringly.

“Is something wrong with you too, Daniel?”

He shook his head, rubbing at the back of his neck again.

“N-no, of course not.”

“You’re acting awfully nervous,” she replied, looking up at him.

Daniel didn’t answer, chewing at his lip and shaking his head quickly.

“If Aurora is some sort of a criminal or a murderer, my father would hate for me to be around him,” Elizabeth said quietly.

“Your point?”

“But you’re not like him, are you? You’re,” she paused thoughtfully, “different?”

Daniel looked away, chuckling nervously and only shrugging his shoulders.

“Yes, but different how?”

She closed her eyes, sighing contently. “I’m not sure.”

After a moment of his uncomfortable silence, Elizabeth leaned her head off his shoulder and smiled, running her hand up his arm. Daniel stared down at her, confused by just what she was getting at and stiffening when she leaned closer.

“Jackson wouldn’t mind me being around you though, would he?”

“Elizabeth, I’m not sure…”

He trailed off, staring at her as her head tilted right in front of his face. “Oh, I really thought you’d stop me.”

“I don’t understand,” Daniel mumbled vaguely.

She stood up, shoving him back gently. “I really don’t want you to be offended, but I don’t think either of us can-“

Daniel followed, standing with a series of nods. “I know. Aurora and-“

She laughed. “Oh, I see. Is this about him for you?”

“What?”

Daniel couldn’t bring himself to look at her, hands coming up behind his head as he continued to back away until the two stood practically across the room from each other.

“Neither of us can…be like that,” he cleared his throat, “for anyone. Aurora and me, we aren’t safe to be around. I can’t do this and,” Daniel swallowed, “he can’t either.”

“Why are you bringing him up again?” she asked with a grin.

He thought for a moment, shrugging his shoulders. “Because, it’s true.”

Elizabeth nodded slowly, looking in the direction of Aurora’s room before her face broke into a smile. He thought she was going to say something from the way her grin parted, but she only laughed.

“Goodnight, Daniel.”

“G-goodnight.”

Daniel sat down heavily in a chair again when she was gone, hands moving to run rapidly through his hair. It had been the right thing, he told himself, and he’d only said what they all three knew was true. Grumbling, he looked up when he heard a door open and watched as Aurora came stumbling tiredly into the main room.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

Aurora sat down away from him, leaning his head on a table.

“No.”

“Me neither.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 9