The Art of Cake

[Foxglove]

Looking at the clock, Maren kicked back her legs on the couch. It was something she did increasingly often in the recent days, given that her fiance Ezrael was currently injured on the Apahanta, undergoing surgery after surgery in order to put skin back where it belonged. It wasn't anything life threatening, but it would take time and a lot of lost sleep for the doctor responsible.

The utensils for the cooking she had planned with Elena were neatly arranged on the counter of the kitchen, with the exception of the strawberries, which still needed to be taken out of the fridge. Maren briefly thought that it was sort of funny the way she had approached Elena about this. Since Ezrael had played superhero with his persona of Operative Red, Maren had an eye on Elena.

This was going to be interesting.

Getting up, she decided to visit the toilet while there was nobody there. Better than doing it while the prized guest was there.

At some point around the early evening - or at least around Curacao's early evening, when the sun was already crawling down the heaven's tent again, Elena would park her ship on the main and thus busiest of spaceports, and after she had hopped out of her pilot seat, would outfling her PDA with the location details of Maren's bunker.

After having bought a ferry ticket and launching for the island the PDA guided her towards, she would spend some time drinking in the fresh sea air. It was a welcomed change to the tainted air of Manhattan, she thought. And at one point, she even got a little excited about the meeting that was to come, warming up to the idea of dabbling with cake baking.

At the end of her short journey she stood before the entrance to a bungalow that evidently had to be the one Maren had talked about. Scratching her head, she rang the doorbell.

At some point or another, Maren had almost fallen asleep on the toilet. Having just closed the door of the bathroom, she heard the doorbell rang and it was evident who it was. Either the mailman or Elena. Probably the latter, since she hadn't ordered anything and anything Ezrael would've bought would've been delivered already.

She sensed the other person before she could see them. The body tempersture was higher as of that of a man, and from that she deduced that the visitor had to be Elena, or at least she believed so with conviction that bordered on certainty. She licked her lips before opening the door.

"Hi!" she exclaimed in her usually bubbly manner. Seeing Elena on the other side, she gave a lopsided grin. "Oh boy, you don't seem in beach mode. Got a bikini under that, or?"

Frankly, while she had been waiting at the door she had looked around a bit and contemplated the scenery, and thus would react quite off-guard by Maren's vivid welcoming. "My gosh, Maren", she gasped while taken a few deep breaths to lower her heartbeat again which had risen from this minor fright. Her aghast mien however would soon be overcasted by a smile forming on her lips. Yet it was obvious she wasn't exactly in a relaxed manner. "Don't scare me like that."

As a reaction on her other comment, Elena would look down herself, realizing that her outfit - sneakers, blue jeans, black top - indeed seemed a little off. She in fact found it weirdly herself suddenly that she had dressed that oddly, but in the end she just shrugged it off, pointing at the handbag she had with her. "There's some stuff in there, a bikini, some films, the usual stuff", she would return. Her voice sounded a little tired and drained.

Clearing her throat, she went on. "Anyways, hey! Can I come in?"

Maren contemplated asking for a password but thought that was too juvenile. "Yeah, come in." She stepped aside to admit Elena entrance into thr bungalow. It looked a bit dischevelled. Maren didn't like the KSRs and preferred to clean herself. That didn't mean the bungalow looked messy, but rather that it seemed as though the place was used. Homey. "Want something to drink? We got juice, smoothies, water and iced tea." She deliberately didn't mention any alcoholic drinks since she still assumed Elena was pregnant. If she were to pay closer attention, she might be able to dicern the lack of a second heartbeat and therefore that something was wrong, but there were too many background noises, with the door to the terasse open for air, and the distance between the two. "You can put the bag on the couch or somewhere on the table if you want."

While stepping in, Elena's sometimes fatal curiosity almost instantly kicked in - though it had been buried under a lot of ballast as of late -, and she would quickly start looking around the room she was led in. The untidiness however didn't bug her all too much, especially since she was used to far worse in her own room, that was before the extraordinarily gifted KSR had taken over. Leaving her handbag at the couch, she would walk up closer to the kitchen. For a moment she visibly stewed over what to drink, but still made a call pretty quickly. "Smoothies sounds good", she replied, arms akimbo, still looking around. It was actually a nice place, she thought, not what she had imagined when she had heard the words 'bunker' or 'bungalow'. "You are quite comfy here, aren't you?"

Maren couldn't help a vulpine grin thst she hastily hid again as Elena strode into the bungalow and she let the door fall shut. "It's a nice place," she replied, stretching. "There are two stories. The bathroom and the bedrooms are above, and the living area is below. It works well, considering the closeness to the beach. The sand stays down here mostly, you know." Going over to the fridge, she opened the door to take a look at thr smoothies, opting for one with red-ish color. She actually didn't know what was inside them but didn't rightly care.

Noddingly, Elena looked around a little more, not managing to hide a small smile herself, however this one was in fact a close to happy one. The place had indeed some sort of snug charisma that had a cheery effect on her, she realized. Pretty welcome it was to her. Not to mention that Maren was a very cheerful acquaintance. Moving a bit closer to the table with the couches, glancing at the terrace and the pool through the window, she smirked slightly. "And a sweet pool you got as well. I can imagine it's easy to stay and live here for a longer time without going insane."

"Well, there is only so much a pool will do to occupy you," Maren meant, figuring she spoke from experience by now. "It's little more than a big bathtub for me at this point." She carried over the smoothie as well as two glasses to the kitchen counter and poured in a little. She personally didn't like ice in that, but maybe Elena would. "Ice?"

Seeing the smoothie was ready, she came over to the kitchen counter again, waiting for Maren to fill the glasses with the red-ish smoothie. Upon her question she just nodded. "Yeah, please." Biting on her lips a little, she went on: "I can imagine chilling in that pool with 30 degrees outside during summer to be pretty relaxing, though. Procrastinating, uhm, is a thing too, no?"

"Well, from what, really," Maren just replied, alluding to the fact that she didn't really have anything else to do, and in order to procrastinate, there needed to be something to put off again and again. Turning around, she went to the fridge and opened the freezer, withdrawing a small tray with ice. Withdrawing the lid slightly, Maren slapped the plastic tray slightly against Elena's glass, making three ice cubes drop into her liquid. "Chin chin," she said, raising her glass in a motion as if wanting to clank their glasses.

Elena took her own glass, swaying it a few times and watching the ice cubes float on the smoothie while clinking against the glass. Then, similarly to Maren, she raised it just as much while almost staring into her counterpart's eyes, having one eyebrow slightly raised. Not yet actively clinking the glasses. "What do we toast to?", she would ask.

"To me, because I'm glorious." She was about to take a swig before holding up a finger. "And cake. That too." She chuckled, wanting to see Elena's reaction.

Her reaction turned out to be a quite startled one at first, however it quickly transformed into a genuine grin. "Oh, is that so?", she would ask a bit jokingly. "That almost makes me tempted to check it out for myself." She cleared her throat briefly. "The cake is more important here, though!" Letting out a small chuckle, she would then clink glasses with her. Being a bit baffled over her suddenly jokingly demeanor. Without the influence of alcohol it actually had been awhile since the last joke she had brought up.

"Alright, let's get the cake before we do anything else," Maren decided after having taken a few sips. It didn't taste awful, but the viscosity was something to get used to. "How much do you know about this kind of stuff?" She placed down the glass on the counter, motioning for the assorted materials on the counter.

It was tasting better than Elena had expected when she guided the glass towards her mouth and took some sips from it. Different to Maren, she actually enjoyed its viscosity a great deal. After having parked the glass on the counter as well, she rested her hands on the table, drumming her fingers on it silently. Then, a headshake. "Virtually nothing. I occasionally baked as a child, but ever since then I never really bethought it." Halting for a second, she thought about it. "I'd make a great assistant though."

"In scientific terms, not being able to bake is a necessary condition of a sufficient minimum condition for being my assistant," Maren mused, waving Elena over. "Alright, no problem. This isn't actually difficult, since we don't need to make any dough. We got a bottom here, and we'll put vanilla pudding on it, then cut strawberries on the pudding, and then we put glaze on the strawberries," she explained.

Coming over to Maren who stood behind the corner, Elena breathed a sigh of relief hearing her words. "No dough? Thank God, then even I could manage to do that", she muttered. While standing beside her, she clapped her hands and rubbed them eagerly. "Alright, let's get to work. Do we have to blend the pudding or have you already prepared that as well?"

"Well, if I had, it would be more of an assembly job," Maren meant, figuring that would be making it too easy. "No, we'll cook the pudding from scratch." She motioned for a smaller pot. "It's easy, really. See the vanilla beans there? Take a knife and cut them open by their length. Scrape out of the insides and put it in the pot together with 500 millilitres of milk."

Noddingly, she caught at the bowl full of beans while grabbing a knife with her other hand. It happened to be a job she wasn't exactly made for, as a knife, little things and her hands wouldn't go well together at all, but at least she tried, and besides some Rheinlandian swearing when she accidentally cut one of her fingers open slightly, she would be done with that task relatively fast, pouring the insides and the milk in the pot in the end. After that, she seeked out a plaster to put on her thumb. In the meantime though she was also getting reminded of why she generally disliked cooking - having to do stuff that painstakingly. "Would you call yourself a convenient cook?", she asked out of the blue curiously, wondering whether Maren conceived a dislike for it as much as she did. Even though she personally did, she succeeded in keeping a stiff upper lip.

"How do you mean?" Maren asked pretty certain that there was some error in the way Elena had worded her question. Convenient as an adjective didn't really fit. "I like cooking, if that's what you're asking. It's nice to create something with your own hands." While Elena had worked, Maren had separated egg yolk and white into two bowls. "Now cook the mix until it boils, then switch off the heat."

"Bear with me, I'm a Rheinlander", she replied, blushing immediately afterwards as she realized this wasn't a valid argument considering Maren wasn't native speaker either. While patching herself up with the plaster, she leaned against the counter, watching her company for a few moments. "I rather prefer being creative when it concerns my ships, I guess. But everybody their own, I suppose", she said, rather to herself, before getting back to work, putting the pot with the vanilla beans on the hotplate and switching the heat on.

"Ships?" Maren repeated again, not understanding where that came from. "Uh." Absently, she put the yolks and sugar into a small pout and stirred.

"You get creative when cooking, I get creative when working on my ships", she replied, staring at the pot standing there, just waiting for the milk to start boiling. "To everybody their own", she repeated her last words again. Crossing her arms, she looked over to what Maren was doing, then checked the milk again. Finally, when it began boiling, she promptly switched off the heat. "Anyway... what's next?"

"Oh, that's what you meant." Maren laughed a bit to bridge the awkwardness of her just not having understood the wording this time. "Well, I mean, it's just a nice way to do it. I like my ships. My Prosecutor is my baby," Maren went on, taking the pot with egg yolk and sugar that she had stirred until now and stepped closer to Elena. "We pour this in here, and stir it a lot. It'll become more viscous the harder you do."

Elena shook her head, hearing about the Prosecutor being Maren's baby, narrowing her eyes a bit, while she was carefully pouring the egg yolk into the pot with the boiling milk. She kept being silent for the moment, and was absolutely satisfied with staring at the pot and grabbing a spoon to stir the liquid with. It would indeed become harder to do the more she stirred it, but her conditions weren't bad enough for her to start puffing over it. "How long?"

"Until it becomes harder to stir," Maren replied, looking at Elena winding up about the stirring. "The sad thing about this part is usually that you know you're done when your arm hurts and you can't continue."

While at first it had seemed being plain sailing, Elena would quickly reach the point at which it went slower and slower, up until when she grunted faintly, even getting worked up on it. "So ... if this isn't harder to stir enough, I'm lost", she said while turning around to face Maren. "It's pretty hard to do by now."

Maren stood there with a small smile that looked as though it was leaking through Maren's attempts not to laugh. "Yes. Yes I think it's done." Before anything could come out that would even approach laughter at Elena's enthusiasm, Maren moved to the bottom that she had prepared. "Just pour it on there. Use the spoon to spread it evenly."

After she had taken the pot and moved it over to the prepared bottom, Elena took the spoon and bucked up. Different to the stiring, this seemed to be a pretty easy task for her. In no time the pot was empty and everything had been spread over the bottom, evenly to a more or less acceptable degree - it had unmistakably not been the work of a starred chef, though. The outcome raised a minor smile from her. "It's time for the strawberries now, right?", she asked Maren, already looking around for them.

"Yeah, but we need to clean and slice them," Maren replied, opening the fridge to pull them out. "How are things for you, Elena?" Maren asked lightly, wanting to get a bit of Smalltalk going.

She had virtually waited for that question, as she had expected it to pop up sooner or later. Facing away from her, Elena would star out of the window opposite to the kitchen, resting her elbows on the counter. Maren's question apparently found little to no enthusiasm at all, and it temporarily became silent in the room as no answer was audible. "Things are alright, I guess, just as always", she would say in reply finally, pulling a Pinocchio there, except of her nose not becoming any longer. A sigh would be followed by a hasty addition: "What about you?"

"Oh, I've been alright." Putting the strawberries into a sieve, Maren rinsed them under the tap. "Been a bit grounded here. Ezrael had had a small accident and he's staying on the Apahanta right now, which means that I'm pretty much unable to do anything, because I want to be able to come to him if I need to." She weighed her head a little from left to right.

That ironically made her turn around again, leaning against the counter with her back and tilting her head to the left, looking at Maren. "Oh, he had an accident?", she asked, more as a note to herself than an actual question. "I hope he's getting better soon again?" While her hands were resting on the edge of counter, she began drumming her fingers again, a manifestation of her still somewhat flustered state of mind. "Seems like fate is getting us all at one point or another", she susurrated to herself, normally not audible to Maren.

"Well, he's been burnt, so a lot of skin is not pretty anymore. He's currently getting artificial skin implanted," Maren replied, putting the sieve onto the side of the sink. "Help me chop the strawberries. Cut off the green on the top like this." She did. "And halve them afterwards." Continuing where she had started, Maren continued. "Well, I had actually thought that his superhero larping as Operative Red would've gotten him hurt sooner than I would've imagined the Apahanta to do it."

Coming over to help Maren, Elena took a knife and mimicd what she was showing her. Trying to not get hurt this time, she would do it slower, but with more precision. "Well...", she said, having to sort her thoughts, knowing pretty well what she was presumably alluding to. "He did not even do -that- much dangerous stuff as Operative Red, at least as far as I know", she went on, hoping to pour oil on apparently troubled waters that way, althought she doubted it. "It was mostly to keep his identity secret, I don't think he was trying to play Superman."

"Really?" Maren replied incredulously, though laughing. "He had a costume, Elena. All that was missing was a cape!" She put the cut strawberries into a separate bowl in front of them.

She quickly realized that the "trying-to-stay-anonymous" argument was pretty much *****, considering that he couldn't even leave his helmet on during the first official meeting between him and herself. That thought however made her smile a little. "Maybe you're right", she answered shruggingly, cutting the last strawberries and putting them into the same bowl as well. "But in that case, he would have needed a logo on his breast as well. A big fat 'V' in a circle."

"I imagine it more phallic," Maren mused, more to herself than to Elena. It wouldn't take long for them to cut the strawberries, considering they were two. "I would've been less annoyed by him playing V-Man if he'd at least invited me. I'm the best sidekick."

Elena would instantly start humming a tone, grinning. "Na na na na na na na na na, V-Maaan! And Maren. Would have been absolutely unstoppable", she said, having to suppress a genuine chuckle.

"What do you think would be my superpower?" Maren asked Elena humorously, taking the bowl after Elena had put the last strawberry inside.

She shrugged, however earnestly thought about the question for a few moments, looking at Maren, inspecting her, wondering what would fit her. For herself she waived the imagination of her having any kind of superpowers as absolutely hilarious, but she still wanted to give an answer. "Maybe... moving objects? That could come in handy in pretty much every situation, I guess."

"Oh my, here I thought you would have said something nasty, like controlling bugs, or resurrecting cockroaches," Maren said lopsidedly before taking strawberries and putting them on top of the pudding that was spread on their construction.

Controlling your boyfriend might be a beginning, she thought to herself, trying to come up with something nasty, however favored to not voice that consideration loudly. Elena as well would take some strawberries and help her spread them over the pudding. Their cake finally began taking actual, good-looking shape, she thought. "Already now I'm looking forward to eating that", she said as her mouth began watering alittle already.

"Well, we need the glaze still and then fridge it for a while," Maren replied a little absently as she spread the berries. "Nancy would've liked it too, I bet." The comment again had her call Nancy by her real name rather than by the alias Lily Austin. It was hard for her to keep up the switcheroo.

Elena looked over to her, a curious expression flashing over her face. "Who's Nancy?" As soon as she was done with spreading her portion of the berries, she would clap her hands again sighingly.

"Uh, a friend," Maren replied, rolling her eyes inwardly at having slipped up on this again. It really didn't get better. "Well, she's been busy lately and I haven't seen her a lot. Know what I mean?"

"Mhm", she responded, seemingly lost in thoughts herself. "I know what you mean, everybody has those kind of busy friends, I assume." She paused for a second. Her curiosity had been triggered again. "What does keep her occupied, though? I mean, usually you can find at least some freetime."

"Well, I don't know," Maren replied, shrugging. "I can't contact her. Hasn't happened before." Maren didn't rightly want to believe she was dead, although she had nothing to make her believe the contrary.

"You can't contact ... her?", Elena asked, bewildered this time. She was quite in for the surprise, for she was fully aware that somebody inside Maren's boyfriend's circle of acquaintances had gone missing. "What was her name again? Nancy?" She narrowed her eyes. Possibly it was just sheer coincidence, as the woman she was supposed to look out for was not called Nancy. Flabberghastedly she would stand still without saying a word, caught in her own thinking processes.

"Uh yeah." Stupid. "Well, anyways, the glaze ist just the eye whites with sugar and some gelatine," Maren said, wanting to retrieve the latter from the fridge.

With her arms crossed before her breast, Elena watched her taking the gelatine out of the fridge. The wondering about the missing person Maren had referred to and the question about Lily's whereabouts wouldn't easily leave hold of her mind, from the outside it seemed as though Elena had begun daydreaming all of a sudden. She would however bid goodbye to her thoughts before they'd drift away to far less pleasant topics, and concentrate on the here and now again. "Alright, let's get this done as well then", Elena said. "Anyhow. Uhm. How's it going with Leon?"

"Well, he's with Ez," Maren replied, figuring that that was what Ezrael had meant when he'd said that Leon was busy. "The Apahanta had a problem with the power flow, and a lot of stuff is fried, so Leon's gotta work, being the mechanic." She added sugar to the remaining egg white and stirred, adding the gelatine shortly after, then pouring it in the pot they'd used for the pudding to heat it up a little to make it more malleable.

She just nodded, having her question answered. Watching her working, she came a bit closer again. "Can I help you with anything?", asked she, looking over Maren's shoulder.

"Well, it's now just pouring," Maren replied, turning off the stove again. "It'll be flowy while warm, but once it gets cooled in the fridge, it'll become elastic." She paid a bit more attention to Elena's body language while talking, stroking over her dress, which was just plain white.

Her body language didn't say all too much, it was more or less a relaxed leaning against the counter, however in an awkwardly huddled way. She kept tapping on the table with her fingers, looking around every now and then, which could be easily interpreted as a sign of nervousness, which she apparently tried to downplay with her otherwise relaxed behavior. At times she also brushed over her face with one of her hands, which could be interpreted in many different ways though.

It struck Maren as nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn't anything strange that people tended to be nervous when at someone's home. "Are you waiting for something?" Maren asked motioning for the hand that Elena used to tap on the counter. Maren continued with the glaze for a few moments still.

She would instantly stop with the tapping, looking at the hand which she was now raising, then back at Maren. "No. Don't know, that's some kind of quirk I got, I guess. Doesn't mean much", she replied, resting the hand on the table again, however not starting to drum this time. It somewhat staggered herself that she had this absurd nervousness anchored in her mind, though it also reminded her of the gun in her handbag. As a measure of safety she had brought it with her, in case of a random robbery or other unpleasant events, of which she could imagine many. Thus, she briefly checked whether her bag was still lying on the couch, having to lean over the counter a little to do so, just to be sure - and it did.

"Oh well. Help me with the pot?" she asked before turning off the heat and lifted the pot. "Take the spoon there because this stuff might need a little coaxing to come out." Until now, Elena hadn't done anything that would make Maren suspicious. She could probably subdue her, but Maren was not the type to do anything unless she was completely certain that this was the most advantageous course of action.

Noddingly, she took the spoon and walked up to Maren again, using the spoon to make the glaze come out of the pot. This time, the spreading part of the job worked out a lot smoother, as it wasn't too difficult to spread it evenly on top of the strawberries. Elena didn't exactly bother about the situation because of her company, not considering herself to be threatened, but it was more of a continual state of tension that caused her nervous behaviour; something she hadn't been able to trash so far during the last days.

"Oh boy, now we're pretty much done," she replied after the deed was done. "We put this in the fridge for 45 minutes and it should be good to go." Putting the pot into the sink, she let water run over it while carrying the cake into the fridge. "By the way, there is a fair a few kilometres from here, in case you want to go later."

Tilting her head slightly to the left, she would pipe up. "A fair? Hmm. That sounds like it could be fun", said she, a little stiffly and without any real smile litting up her face. When she thought about it, it had been some time since her last activity containing crowds of people, thusly this fair could actually be a welcomed change, she thought. "Any ideas what we could do while the cake is in the frigde", she would ask, crossing her arms.

"How about I show you around the beach?" Maren asked, figuring that was simultaneously a nice idea and also a way to put Elena into yet another unknown environment. Maybe it was just her paranoia, but something seemed off the entire time. She tried listening to her blood pressure, but it was too loud here with the window open. The cooking smells also made it impossible for her to make out whether she was sweating, which shouldn't hapoen, given the air conditioning.

"The beach? Sure, why not", she responded. As she had had the pleasure of residing on Curacao in the past already, she knew well enough that its beaches verily were a sight for sore eyes. However, besides that she found it to be a good idea as well, her expressions kept being neutral. Even though there was some sort of enthusiasm about it gleaming inside her, she wouldn't let it shine. Besides a quite cheesy smile to not appear too indifferent about it. "Not in those clothes though, I guess?"

"Well, depends on whether you want to go swim," Maren replied, looking down at her white dress. It was more than likely that the white wasn't a good idea on a beach, because any sort of stain would be easily visible. "It's not like we need to return after 45 minutes sharp."

She looked down on her own outfit, deeming it to be not exactly fitting either. "Well, we could of course go swimming as well", she returned. "I'd be in for that. It's been some time since I've swum the last time."

"Right, then why not." Maren turned off the water and put the pot into the dishwasher, where the other utensils already waited, and closed it. "I'll be upstairs real quick to change. You can use the bathroom if you want."

"Right", she said, already walking over to the couch with her handbag on it, slinging it over her shoulder after she had quickly checked whether everything was still in there. It was a pretty paranoid quirk, and she was aware of that, but somehow she couldn't switch it off. Then, not intending to be impolite, she would wait for Maren to guide the way upstairs.

It would be interesting to see what Elena had brought, Maren felt, although this desire was merely spawned by Maren's wish to get to know her taste in movies. "Upstairs." Stretching her back, Maren ascended the small flight of stairs and showed Elena the bathroom. "Be right back," she said, intending to leave Elena to do her business.

After having locked herself in the bathroom, she would put the handbag on the toilet lid and open it, taking the bikini bottoms and bra out of it while having another quick gawp at the gun. She wouldn't feel to thrilled about having to leave it here, but it wasn't all too bad. After she had taken off her clothes and tidily placed them on the lid as well, she'd quickly don the bikini, having a look at the mirror afterwards to examine whether it was fitting. Though being of generally slight build, she definitely couldn't make a show of her dream body anymore. The once enlarged belly was still visible to a certain degree, but it wasn't too big anymore. At the mere sight of it, she couldn't suppress a deep-drawn sigh, but succeeded in stifling any kind of bad feeling. With her other clothes stuffed in the handbag and her shoes in one of her hands, she would walk out of the bathroom again, waiting for Maren to show up as well.

Maren hadn't known in which month Elena was, so the bump didn't seem out of the ordinary to her. She had expected one to be there, so her expectations weren't undermined, thus no suspicion.

Maren herself was wesring a red bra. She herself found it worked nicely with her hair, which was currently done up in a ponytail, because the water made it stick to her face otherwise, which she didn't like. "N'aww," Maren intoned when she saw Elena. She always thought pregnant women looked adorable. "I envy you, you know." She had a small bag, like you'd see in a gym maybe, slung across her back, which contained some necessities that Elena yet hadn't seen Maren needed.

Elena's bra was plain white and otherwise didn't look really special - it seemed to be a rather cheap model. Her hair was hanging down just as normal, she didn't really care about it currently anyways, visible through the sole fact that it could have certainly used some hair dyeing. Apparently she lately hadn't bothered to keep them look as freshly coloured as she usually did. A reaction to Maren's words came in form of a mutter, yet her expressions kept being quite emotionless. "No, you don't. Or you shouldn't", she plainly stated while walking past her. "You got some towels with you as well?", she asked in passing.

The reaction was strange, Maren found. Maybe Elena was h- No, that didn't work. Periods didn't happen when pregnant. It was in this moment that she wished she could discern hormones, but that was something she couldn't do. "Yeah, I got two, and my, uh, medicine." It came out smoother than intended. "Sorry if I make things awkward at times. I have a problem reading social cues at times, so just tell me if I become annoying, alright? I don't mind." Better to get this out of the way here and now than to have it become a problem later.

As she already seemed to ask for it, Elena had no objection against telling Maren which topic she should try to avoid at all cost. "Let's just ... not talk about all that kind of stuff, okay?", she said tiredly, however her words also contained something almost pleading. Going downstairs, she put the bag back on the couch, though pausing and keeping it clasped for a moment. Then, looking at Maren for a second, then back at the bag, she came to realize she had nothing to fear from Maren, and the chances of meeting a thuggish person equalled zero. "Alright, let's go."

Hmm, so there was something wrong. That sat uneasily with Maren since it was related to children, and if there was one topic that made her queazy, it was that. She couldn't have own ones, although she wanted to, and never really gotten over it.

Again, Maren noticed the flicker of Elena's eyes, though she wasn't fast enough to follow where she had looked. It didn't matter though. "Alrightee, let's melt in the sun like..." she needed a few moments to come up with a witty comparison, "marshmallows?" It sounded more questioning than anything else. "Uh, yes." She made a step towards the stairs, starting to descend towards the ground floor.

---

[Foxglove]

Looking at Maren, Elena would remember her speaking about some sort of medicine that she apparently carried in her own bag. It made a small smile crawl up on Elena's face. "Say, may it be true that you lots all got your own afflictions? One has burnt skin, another has cardiac problems, so what's your one?", she asked, alluding to the medicine Maren had told her about.

Maren briefly deliberated lying, though there was little use to it, she found. Even if she lied, there was no real gain from it. "Cardamine." She raised one of her hands. "My nerves also don't rightly work the way they're supposed to, but only around the hands and lower arms." She raised one of her hands. The sun of Curacao made the small lines of scar tissue that framed the hand all the more noticeable against the slightly brown tan. If Elena would see her other hand, there would be a similar pattern on scars, some natural, some from surger, it seemed.

That would leave Elena baffled for a few seconds during which she stared at her company, switchingly into her eyes and at the scars. "Huh. So you're an, uhm, addict", she stated, not meaning it derogatory, though it could very well be interpreted as such. With a raised eyebrow, arms akimbo again, she would add: "How bad is it?"

"Dunno. I get queazy after an hour without, unwell after two. It wakes me up at night every three hours but I usually have no problems falling asleep again afterwards." She looked at her hands. She really didn't like what the sun was doing to her skin. It made the acar tissue stand out, not to mention she found light skin more beautiful. "The nerves in my arms can cause seizures, but only if I exert them too much."

"Hm, alright. Sounds bad enough to me", Elena responded, pulling sort of a wry face. For a brief moment she thought about asking where she got the Cardamine from, thought it would come clear to her that she probably didn't even want to know. Asking her out about this nosily she nilled, maybe at another point in time she would ask more about it. Intending to go out of the bungalow, she would move up to the door. "Let's enjoy the sun as long as she's still there", she suggested.

Maren wouldn't have minded if Elena had asked. If she had, Maren would know that Elena put curiosity over tact, while if she hadn't, Maren would know that Elena either gave no further thought to the topic or intended to later. Either way, Maren learned something from it. "You can swim?" Maren asked, cocking her head while moving towards the terrace door, which would allow them to leave for the beach. She would slide the door shut before leaving, though, locking the two of them out. She had intentionally left the key inside so they couldn't go back.

Elena wouldn't catch on to that Maren had locked them out since she was distracted by the scenery around her, as well as the warm sun shining on her pallid skin that could really use some tanning. Out of her handbag she had also taken a pair of sunglasses which she had put in her hair for now. Looking back at Maren, she'd say: "Yeah, I can swim. It's been awhile, but you don't unlearn it." Sauntering about towards the beach slowly, she'd wait for her company to catch up. "You won't have me drown today."

"Aww yiss," Maren intoned as she saw Elena's sunglasses. "Well, at least one of us can swim, then." She led the two of them to a small hip-high garden door and the two of them left towards the beach. The closer they came, the louder the voices of people and the waves became. "I never really learned how to do it."

The scenery that presented itself to her revived plenty of memories of her past vacation trip on Curacao together with her boyfriend. To a degree, it saddened her, knowing those good times were gone and by what kind of circumstances they had been replaced. By putting the sunglasses before her eyes though, she tried to carry it off well and to maintain her composure. "You can't swim?", she asked with some surprise. "I mean, it isn't exactly hard to learn, is it?"

"Well, here we have tgis taught in school. It is hard finding an actual swimming course," Maren explained, having experienced it firsthand. The sand under her feet was warm. Almost too warm. "I was born on Nuremberg, and the waters there aren't really made to swim, given that there are also few of them."

Nuremburg. Uh. Elena wouldn't allow herself to get carried away by such segregating thoughts, but Nuremburg had this sort of image of a flophouse. Stopping and looking around, she would fold her arms before her again, squinting at the distant horizon. "Bathing in dark matter seas isn't exactly thrilling, I can imagine", she bantered. "Hasn't your fiance been a phys ed teacher back in the days, though? Hasn't he tried to teach you swimming by now?"

"No, he did biology," she meant while kicking a bit of sand lightly. They were now walking on the farmost side of the beach, some two hundred metres separating them from the water. The tide was low currently. "I guess he could teach me, though. Hasn't really come up yet, though. I usually stay in the shallow water so I only need to stand."

"Hmm", she replied, walking beside her while having her hands folded behind her back, and her head lowered to have a look at the consistency of the sand. "I hope you won't mind if I head for the deeper areas of the water?" For a moment, she actually found it amusing that her company couldn't swim. She hadn't expected that.

"I could come with if I piggyback you," Maren suggested, only half-serious. Elena didn't look strong enough to carry her. Turning right, Maren headed towards the water, intending to go into the water.

Going with her, her suggestion raised a smile on her lips. It was an interesting notion, she found, even though Elena wasn't sure how serious Maren had meant it. "I could try if you want to, actually", she said while cracking her knuckles in anticipation of jumping into the water. By now she had managed to succesfully repress any kind of thought concerning her recent loss, and as she finally felt the water on her skin, to her it actually seemed like everything was alright; for the first time since two tweeks.

"Really?" Maren asked, a little surprised that she actually proposed that. "What if I bite your ear midway, though?" She couldn't help but make this slightly meta joke, considering how dangerous she actually was for the girl.

Elena was already about to jackknife into the water, but halted when Maren voiced her 'warning'. A little puzzedly, she regarded her while taking off the sunglasses. Then, a shrug. "I think in deeper waters you wouldn't dare to do such mischief ", she replied with a grin flashing over her face. " You are the one who can't swim, right? Anyways, keep those glasses for me, will you?" With that being said, she would thrust them in Maren's hand and jump into the water. Ironically, she felt safer than usual as of late, as she had no idea by whom she actually got observed the whole time.

Maren didn't see them, but she knew there were exactly eighty four people in their near vicinity of two hundred metres. It was a beach, so mischief was expected. The loud voices even made it easy to mask an actual scream. "Hmm." She turned the sunglasses in her hands, using the bent glasses to see the reflection of the person standing nearest to them, maybe five metres. He'd swam before, so his breathing was loud and erratic. Maren placed the glasses on her hair and made a few steps into the water, making it go to waist level at first. She couldn't see Elena while she was diving but it was easy to guess where she was.

After a few seconds, Elena would come up again after the dive into the water. Her hair was pretty much all over the place, which is why she brushed it back with her hands before having a blinking look at Maren. She was about to urge her to follow her, but quickly the problem with swimming. "So, you wanna try your luck or not?", she shouted, making sure Maren could understand her.

"Sure your spine won't crack?" Maren asked back, more as a joke than anything else, given that it should be easier for Elena to do while underwater, or at least partially submerged. "Uh, how do we do this?" She sort of expected her to crouch so she could jump on her back.

"Uuuhm, wait, let me think", she replied before she had a similar idea to what Maren was thinking. Swimming up to waters where she could stand again, she would crouch a little, showing Maren her back for her to jump on it. "How much do you weigh again?", she asked jokingly

"I weigh as much as sixteen cats," Maren replied, not actually sure how this measurement would hold up. Cats weighed around three to five kilos, so she figured it was close enough. Seeing Elena submerge for a moment, Maren half-skipped to land on her back, wrapping her legs around her and using her hands to steady herself.

It was quite a jolt when she jumped on Elena's back, who had in the meantime stewed over how much sixteen cats would approximately weigh. "Oh dear", Elena uttered, trying to keep her balance. "That's gonne be interesting." As soon as she thought to be relatively stably standing on the ground, she would move further into the deeper waters, until she had to swim to buoy up. Maren would push her down quite much through her weight, but she managed to keep her head afloat.

The situation had something comical, really, Maren felt. Elena was quite literally being a boat. Only thing missing was a song that fit, though none about boats came to mind. "You sure you're not going to go under? I can feel your pulse on my thigh." That was a lie, but close enough.

In fact, Elena had a hard time to keep her head above water, and due to keeping two people afloat being a strenuous task, her pulse indeed fastened quite a bit. Puffing and blowing, avoiding to swallow any water, it proved to be slightly more difficult to speak than she thought. That had been a pretty dumb idea, she thought. Still, she kept her countenance. "I can keep it up a little longer, no problem", she said, huffing and puffing, which would make it hard to believe her words.

"I think that's a lie," Maren mentioned needlessly, the effects on the weight of the two on Elena easily visible. "Alright, I think we rode this joke to death. Literally. Just, uh, go back." There was a dude closeby who gave them a funny look before swimming further.

It was probably the wiser decision to go back to shallow waters before one of them was really going to drown by accident. Elena saw the dude as well, steadfastly staring him into the eyes for a second before concentrating to get back to the shore. Wasn't much of a trip anyways. As soon as she was on firm ground again, she would bend down to set down Maren from her back. "That was ... interesting", she gasped.

Maren simply relinquished her grip on Elena, splashing back, the water obscuring her satisfaction with herself. She was been able to feel across Elena while in the water like that, able to confirm her suspicions. The belly was too soft. It unsettled her, yet Maren didn't know what had happened, so she wasn't angry. She would be if it became apparent that Elena had caused the loss. "Well, that was enough sports," she commented, looking back to the beach, where she had placed their bag by a palm tree.

Still standing in the water, Elena copped a look at the scenery around her, all the other people in high spirits dabbling in the water, laughing and living the moment. And there was her, and although she had seemed just as eupeptic and cheerful as everybody else, her whole behavior felt far too staged and surreal for her likings, at least to her. With a suddenly pinched face, she would look back at Maren, then at the palm tree. "Yes, definitely", said she. "That palm over there seems to be a pretty nice leafy bower. Guess we could take our ease there?"

"Sure," she replied, not minding it if they stayed there. It would hopefully mean she didn't catch as much sun, since she disliked tan. "I got something to drink, too, if you need." She felt for the glasses on her brow, and was elated that they were still in their place. "I even still got your glasses."

As Maren mentioned it, Elena instantly remembered her company still had the glasses, promptly tilting her head and warily stretching out one of her hands to snitch the glasses right off her head. "I'd have almost forgotten about them. Thanks!", she admitted while putting them on her nose and after that wringing out her wet hair. "Wouldn't have been amused if they were gone. Anyways, some soft drinks? It's still pretty warm out here."

"Of course soft drinks. Like hell I'm going to drink water, you know," she said, stepping onto the sand again. Sixty people close. Under the palm tree, Maren opened the bag and withdrew two towels, holding out one for Elena.

She shrugged as she sat down underneath the palm tree and accepted the towel. With it, she cursorily dried her skin and after that laid it on the ground to have a lie-down on it. Steadying herself with her elbows, she watched the ever moving crowds of people. "Well, water is healthier, and slakes the thirst better, but who am I to give an actual ***** about this." Underneath the tree it was actually quite pleasant, the casted shadow prevented them from getting burnt by the sun. She was coming closer and closer to the horizon though, indicating that the later hours had already been reached, and thus the beach quite imperceptably emptied over time.

"Sounds pretty dismissive," Maren replied, wondering whether this was Elena's usual way of speaking or something else. Her tone had been nondescript. Maren only towelled her hair slightly before putting the towel down so she could sit on it. The water on the skin would be gone soon enough.

"Hm? Uh, hm, apologies", she replied, being surprised herself about the choice of wording she'd gone with. "Just ... slipped out, I guess." She would have to be more careful what to say, she thought, and to carry it off well. There was some nonsensical, pent-up anger flaring inside her, as though it was a reaction to watching the other people getting their jollies. To some extent she begrudged them. "Just pass me one." In the end, she dabbled with a smile, and it came off better than she had expected.

Rummaging in her bag again, Maren fished out a small bottle of fizzy liquid, passing it to Elena. "It's a weird drink, but sort of nice," she said, which was really nondescript, she knew, but it was difficult to describe. "I don't rightly know how to describe the taste."

"Weird, but nice", she would reiterate, casting a glance at the substance descrption, which would make her knit her brows, but ultimately, she shrugged. "Alright. Sounds good to me." After having unscrewed it, she would take a few sips to have a taste. It had a weird first taste, indeed, but the aftertaste wasn't even that bad, though kind of sour. It was still alleviating to water her dry mouth with it. A sigh escaped her mouth. "You're kind of living in paradise here", she noted, staring into the sun briefly.

"There aren't even mosquitoes," Maren gave back in a manner that made it seem like she was agreeing. "It's quiet. All you need is here, but it cam become agonizing if you want to have your mind challenged at times. Makes it all dull, this luxury," she explained, conveying some of her feelings. "It's a nice place to live, though. If only Ezrael were here, it'd be better."

She cocked her head to the left slightly, listening to Maren's words. "Mhm, too much luxury can make you lose the grip to reality", she replied, briefly looking down, inspecting her fingers. "I guess I'd feel similarly about it. Can't stand long periods of doing nothing either." The feeling overcame her that her company might need some brightening up since she had mentioned her boyfriend. And even though she herself somehow conceived her words as rancidly feigned, she would still utter them. "I'm sure he'll be back soon enough", she added with a smile. "He's a tough one after all. Doctors won't be able to keep him on the Apahanta for too long, I could imagine."

"Heh, it's funny, because he always cusses about how he can't keep himself from building tents with the hospital blankets when the doctors are working on him," Maren said, chuckling as she remembered the more unruly position the doctor had walked in on. "He's so stubborn. Insisted on walking me around the ship while being like this."

"Sounds pretty cute to me", she replied before shrugging and taking another gulp from the bottle. She would have wished it to be alcohol, actually, but there was no way she could perform such miracles and transform the soft drink into a beer. The thought raised a smile from her, though. "Or he just wanted to mime the badass while around you. You know, impressing females, it's inherent to men as I see it." Her last words would be long in coming, but probably the sincerest ones simultaneously, while a crooked smile played around her lips. "You got a good man there."

"Well, I rest easy knowing that I am the best that ever happened to him." That was a lie again, but Maren just convinced herself to be right. "But yeah, of course he's gloating about it. That doesn't mean he's not sincere. You should know that if anyone means that sincerely, it's him." She was referring to her having had contact with him. "How were your adventures with his superhero persona, by the way?"

That question instantly reminded her of various situations where she had met him with his suit, pleasant and unpleasant ones alike. The curious thing was the smirk she couldn't hold back when she thought about said situations, knowing far too well how exasperated she had already been about them before. Now, it was easier to look at them in mere apathy. "Those actually weren't real adventures, honestly", she replied, not knowing how much Maren knew. "Admittedly, besides some business talks, we had one m run-in that was a bit riskier once, but that's actually it." She downplayed the events back then well and properly, unaware that she wasn't telling Maren anything new at all.

"Hmm, yes, but those are the most interesting, right?" she pressed on, wanting to hear the story from her angle, now that she knew both Hussaini's, Vertiga's, and her own. "Come on, help a brother out here. I'm curious."

It felt like she was on the horns of a dilemma here. Any other person she would have probably just given a short version, with the delicate information cut out, but she had no idea how loose Ezrael's tongue had been about that. How much did he want Maren to know? "Well", she said, stumbling a little, searching for a proper description. "He offered to come with me to a meeting about delicate matters. It was actually my own curiosity that led me to this place, believing that listening to a pompous orator could prove informative or something." At that point, she couldn't hide a chuckle as she remembered the details. The whole deal seemed to be so far back. And her decisions so infantile. "He was my bodyguard, of sorts. It proved to be a good idea to have one. At first, it was really just that - talking, although pretty content-free. It was only when this preacher realized he couldn't convince me of his ideology that he whipped his killing squad out. Ezrael managed to get us out of there, though. Somehow. I still don't know how." The whole time, her voice kept being pretty neutral. The last bit was a straight lie again, but she doubted Maren had the means to find that out.

"He dropped a name," Maren replied, being quite aware of what had happened, though unaware that Elena had fudged the truth at the end. She knew what had happened, and Maren thought it was a fair assessment on Elena's part that she assumed more than just one precision shooter in their vicinity. "His eyes. Tell me about his eyes." Her grin was almost vulpine.

Due to Elena having lied about it, she knew far too well which name it was that had been dropped, and what meaning it had. It was visible that it scared her to some degree that Maren knew about that, and her grin didn't make the situation better for her. Neither did the mentioning of Hussaini's eyes. Almost instinctly she backed off a little, trying to not make it too obvious, though. "They were normal", she said bluntly. "Why do you ask?"
It bummed her out a little that Elena wasn't playing along, but she relented. "I just think it's so exciting that you were able to face him like that and came out on top," Maren replied, wanting to play a bit in favour of Elena's ego. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but her experience with her so far suggested that she was craving this kind of acknowledgement for her actions.

Even though Maren relented, Elena remained in a state of tension, as her hyper-cautioness as of late had got triggered. But at the same time she was utterly perplexed about it, trapped in a state of confusion. "It wasn't exciting, it was pure luck", she replied bluffly, staring into Maren's eyes unwaveringly, while her owns narrowed to slits. "What does that have to do with his eyes--?" She halted immediately, getting reminded of a sentence Hussaini had said and which she mumbled to herself now. "Except that they glow if he gets fed after midnight" Speechlessly, she kept staring at Maren, not knowing what to say. "What name was it that Ezrael mentioned?", she asked. Althought she knew the answer, that nonsensical question just slipped out of her mouth.

"Oh, I just wondered," Maren replied dismissively, now backpaddling a little intentionally, intending to manipulate Elena like this by stimulating her curiosity. It wouldn't even be bad if she accepted these words. She chuckled. "Fed after midnight." She leaned against the tree, the bottle of something between her legs. "I thought you overheard," Maren told Elena, cocking her head slightly as she posed her last question.

"What do you mean?", she asked baffledly, tilting her head to the left. Then however she shook her head, dismissing the question she had asked before again. But that Maren was referring to Hussaini's infection definitely rang an alarm bell inside her, especially as she had done in such a nebulous way. "Why did you ask me about that in the first place when you already seem to know about what happened?", she asked further, having switched from a laying to a crouching position, ready to follow her instincts any second.

"Well, I wanted to hear your story," Maren replied, unscrewing the bottle again to take a swig. "Ezrael has his way of making it dramatic. I really wanted to know if he had sparkly eyes."

She kept squinting at Maren. "I'm actually kind of surprised he told you", she said. "I for my part didn't tell anyone." Even though the situation seemed to be back to normal, something still appeared strange to her. "And? Did he have 'sparkly eyes'?"

"According to Ezrael," Maren replied, shrugging. "I haven't yet met one, so I can't tell if he's fibbing. I tend to not believe a word of it, though. Hell, I haven't even seen this Unschuld character. Only the voice, through a voxmorph."

"Aha, so 'Unschuld'", Elena returned, her muscles slowly beginning to relax again as she made it herself a little more comfortable. Talking about this topic in its details though, she couldn't really relax completely anyways. "I can't remember them to sparkle, but that's irrelevant I assume", she added. "So I guess you've met this figure, 'Unschuld', already? What's their attitude, if I might ask?" At that point, it was just her curiosity taking over again.

"As I said, I only heard a voice," Maren said, figuring Elena wasn't meaning 'met' as in face to face, but simply conversing. "Unschuld is to the point. It does have a sense of Humor, strangely enough. Makes me really wonder whether that's a remainder, or, well, normal."

"Unschuld and to the point?" slipped out of Elena's mouth with an sarcastic undertone. That description was different to what she had learnt about Unschuld herself, forgetting for a second that she was still pretending to not know about them. "Hmm. Interesting enough", she just said, covering up her prior sarcastic comment.

Maren wouldn't have caught on to what she was saying before if she hadn't been speaking with sarcastic intonation. Of course, being who they were talking about, she knew she had talked to Elena, but she couldn't say that just like that. "Hmm, did you meet it?" Maren asked, arcing an eyebrow. "Dunno, I guess its behaviour depends on how you approach it."

"One time and it was enough", she replied, although she really wasn't pleased how this conversation was going, and neither had she expected to talk about these matters with Maren out of anybody. On the other hand, she seemed to know a bit about all of it, which caught Elena's attention to some degree. She however was a bit recalcitrant as well, without a good reason to tell Maren the specifics. Not that it would have mattered, but she obviously wasn't aware of that.

"Hmm, so maybe that's why it mentioned your name," Maren mused, faking a thoughtful expression, keeping Elena's expression enough in her vision to see any changes. Up until now, Elena had played along nicely.

There were enough changes in her face to perceive for Maren, as her mien uncontrolledly derailed once again. Her heartbeat quickened and her blood pressure rose due to the stress reaction. As she spoke, her voice was faintly trembling. "Wha-What did it say?", she asked, completely unrattled. It woke up the fears she had had before the accident, of nomads and infectees, and especially of Hussaini and Unschuld.

The proximity made it possible for Maren to hear the heartbeat. Hussaini really picked a great location in the Freeport, free of many noises in the background. The pace of the beats let Maren knew that Elena was stressed. Good. It made her less perceptive to details. "Well, it just made a joke about you being Ezrael's pet," Maren replied, picking up on what she had said before about Unschuld having Humor.

To some degree that statement actually snubbed Elena, who naturally disliked being called anyone's pet. Not to mention that the so called 'joke' seemed weirdly skewed to her; had'nt it rather been the other way around? First and foremost though, her suspicions rose since Maren seemed to stay in rather close contact with this infected individual. Different to Ezrael, who had spent quite some time convincing her that he was no nomad supporter despite his connections, Maren delineated it as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Did you have an afternoon coffee party and gossiped on that occasion, or what?", she asked, noticeably still angered about the joke.

"I don't even know if they eat," Maren gave back, simply rolling with the statement Elena had made. "How about we look for our cake?" Maren asked, dropping the subject, convinced that she had thrown Elena off balance enough for now. She screwed her bottle shut and put it back into her bag.

Elena couldn't hide the relief as Maren decided to change the topic of conversation, as this whole talk about Unschuld had made her relatively uneasy. Some suspicion of why Maren had such contact with an infected however still remained, which was quite curious to her. Emptying her bottle, Elena would pass it to Maren again. "Sounds like a good idea", she said, still squinting at her.

"Then let's wonder while we wander," Maren replied, getting up, folding her towel, intending to put it back in the bag. "I didn't think that phrase to the end, so I just made it rhyme. Nifty, right?" She gave Elena another lopsided grin, wanting to appear like the careless girl that she was. She even gave a little thumbs up.

Given that the situation had been quite unrelaxed before, Maren's all too sudden mood swing towards high spirits would only confuse Elena more. Weighing her head to the left, she would gawp at her company with a wondering mien. Then however, she gave in, finally slacking off her muscles and letting out a sigh. It was probably really her own paranoia that made had her that wary just now. "Let's eat the cake, but for God's sake, don't let it be fake", she replied, as well attempting to rhyme her words, mostly to distract herself. Grabbing her towel up from the ground, she folded it as well, handing it over to Maren. "Alright, let's go. The next rhyme's gonna be pretty low." However, a bad taste would remain on her tongue. She couldn't exactly tell if it was the soft drink's or the former situation's fault.

Maren's tongue still tasted salt from the seawater she had accidentally inhaled when getting off Elena's back. "I really wonder, though: Is it cake or is it pie? I think pie is more creamy." Maren hummed as she slung the back across her back. "You wanna carry the towel, or?" Elena still had the towel that she'd used to dry herself with.

"Uh sure, I carry it", she replied, holding the towel beside her in her right hand. The other question - unintentionally - reminded her of a joke, though. A joke about maths, and though she had hated it at school, that one joke was stuck in her mind because of its stupidity. "Well. Pie are squared", she gave back, which basically already was the joke. She was in fact wondering whether Maren would get it. This quite helped to ease Elena's mind again.

Maren probably would have gotten the math joke if Elena had said 'Pi is squared'. The plural made her understand it as meaning actual pie. "Huh. I'm pretty sure that's not true," she said, humming briefly. Scratching her leg and plucking some sand from her skin, she made a step towards where they'd come from originally. "How did you like our toilet by the way? If you turn off the lights in the bathroom and you sit on the toilet, there are a few lights under the lid that light up, making your ***** shine."

A burst of laughter came out of Elena's mind as she imagined the shining ***** in the toilet, finding it pretty funny. Holding one hand before her mouth, she tried to suppress the giggle, though. It seemed like the old Maren had returned, Elena thought, which however made her wonder for a short moment how she would have described the one that was sitting under the palm tree - almost creepy, she'd have said. "No, I actually haven't seen that", she said. "But if so, I absolutely have to take a dump there as long as I still can." Then, she put the sunglasses on again, to have another glance at the beach, the horizon and the sun.

"Do warn me before though," Maren gave back quietly, in a manner that almost sounded concerned. The way back seemed almost too short. Because Maren had intentionally forgotten the keys indoors, Maren had to take the spare one which was buried in the earth beneath the third bush on the left of the door. "Yeah, figured I forgot the key." It had turned out she hadn't needed to 'forget' the key after all. With a motion, Maren beckoned Elena in.

"Uh, sure I will", she replied, beginning to wonder why she had to extra warn her to take a *****. Shruggingly, she walked up to where Maren was standing. Frankly, Elena was already looking forward to getting indoors again, simply because of the fact that's where her safety measure was still resting in her handbag. With the paranoia that had crawled up inside her, she'd want to see the gun before anything else. Eagerly, she stepped in.

While Elena passed her, Maren took out the Cardamine and looked at it briefly. It was a small breathing device, similar to asthma breathers, and worked the same. Taking two inhalations, Maren looked after Elena, letting her mind think about what she saw. Her mind, coupled with a bit of intuition from the outside made her connect a few strings. "You know, I just noticed that I don't really know you as a person," Maren was made to speak. "Where were you born?" She followed her inside, closing the door and placing the key on the kitchen counter.

Maren would see Elena quite hastily walking over to her handbag that was still lying on the couch, rummaging around it until she would let out another satisfied sigh. She apparently found what she had been looking for. It would make her feel a lot safer again, knowing she could easily shoot down any threat again. She didn't exactly view Maren as a threat, but her hyper-cautiousness played foul games with her. Turning back to glance at Maren, she'd say: "I'm from Stuttgart, originally. It's the best you can get in Rheinland, I suppose. Better than New Berlin and Nuremburg without a doubt. Good climate and all."

"I heard they got grass there that bristles and folds when you step on it," Maren meant, walking over to the sink to clean her fingers from the dirt. "I also need to find a new place to bury the keys now. Anyways!" A small pause and she opened the fridge. "How was life like being there?"

Walking up to the counter of the kitchen, she spent the time to think about the question, thought the answer wouldn't turn out exciting in any way. "It's been pretty easy, I guess that's the best way to describe it", she said, staring at the ceiling, almost lost in thoughts. "As a child or teenager, you don't have to worry about much either way, but it's true what everybody says. Stuttgart is the safe haven of Rheinland. Low crime rate, low jobless rate. And the broad acres where they cultivate crops are extremely beautiful during sunrise or sunset." With a lopsided smile, she looked at Maren. "Sounds better than Nuremburg, I suppose?"

"Sort of, depending on the time you take for reference," Maren gave back, thinking back. "Nuremberg was weird in that sense. You had a lot of really big cities across the surface, and a lot of forest or savannah in between. It was all pretty arid, so only a limited number of crops actually grew there." She took out the cake and removed the foil that she'd put on it. It seemed as though the glaze had become as squishily solid as it needed to be. "Imagine looking across a savannah, and you it's almost like the sea, where you can see the planet curve."

"Hmm." Elena cocked her head slightly to the left, having a quick glance at the cake. It looked pretty delicious, and to her own astonishment she actually had appetite enough to eat it as well. "Doesn't sound like a very inviting place. I prefer humid planets, not tropical ones, but you know, ones with a more or less stable, earth-like climate. Stuttgart comes pretty close to that, as far as I heard." Talking about this, another question came to her mind. "Say. Do you actually have any kind of job? Or are you just reaping the benefits of your fiance's wealth?"

"I'm not a gold digger," Maren replied, frowning at the insinuation. It was probably good for the social interaction if she, too, would act a little offended or unsettled at times. "I have been working with the Rheinland law enforcements before I found Ezrael. I quit the job afterwards, to move in with him."

"Oh, so you've been a cop?", she asked, barely able to imagine her in a uniform and actually doing serious work and obeying orders. Elena hadn't meant her question in a mocking way, and as she kept looking at the cake or at her handbag, she didn't see Maren frowning. Thus, no real apology.

"Sort of." Placing the cake on the counter, Maren took out a knife and cut out two slices of cake, then noticing she had no plates. Fetching them, she put the slices on the platters. "And you?"

"I tried to study at college, but dropped out of it fairly quickly", she replied, looking back at her own 'work career' which really wasn't that impressive at all. "I've been a waitress for some time, before I decided to travel around more through space, you know? Getting away from your boring homeplanet, having whole Sirius open to you." Retelling that, she couldn't hide a smile, a typically bemused good-old-times smile. "Was quite a cool time, and after a while I decided to look for work in space, true freelancer style."

"Hmm, pretty dangerous, ey?" Maren asked, figuring that was at least one aspect of her job that Elena couldn't honeycoat. With two cake forks, Maren returned to the platters and handed one over to Elena. "Let's move over to the couch, okay?"

***** you Maren, I know, she privily thought as she moved over to the couch together with her company. The smile on her face almost instantly vanished, making it obvious that Maren had struck quite a nerve there. After taking her plate, she would let herself fall down on the couch, sighing. "It's a bit dangerous, yes", she squeezed out of her mouth.

"You're really brave," Maren said, taking a bite of her cake. "I know that I wouldn't have the guts to go around shooting Rogues. I'm a pansy like that." She sucked on the fork a bit while the piece was in her mouth, humming.

The cake tasted pretty nice, Elena thought, and closed her eyes while chewing on the bit, concentrating on the taste. Another sigh became audible. After that, responding on Maren's question, she didn't look at her while saying it. Instead, she glanced out of the window. Not to mention that she wasn't convinced that Maren was really such a pansy, after all she was cop. "I prefer the term 'bold'", she said neutrally. "It isn't as positively afflicted, which I kinda like more. But yes. Probably." She didn't really seem happy about it.

[Foxglove]

"I wish I could do that. I'm more the type to hide behind others or bugger off if something is hairy. At least keeping a good distance, at least." It wasn't entirely true, as Maren didn't mind being close enough to see, while she did find it important to be out of reach, at least.

"Well, I'm not suicidal if you think that", she said, eating another bit of the cake, humming satisfiedly. "If I'm against the odds, what kind of madwoman would I be to stay there? Usually, I only fight when I know my chances are good to mediocre." As she thought about it, she realized that wasn't even true at all. However it hadn't been intentional lying, as it had crossed her mind after she had said it. "But I like to watch just as much."

"It's almost like you want to make me feel better," Maren replied. She lamented the fact that she wasn't clairvoyant to some degree to see what Elena had in her bag. The curiosity. "Then again, I'd be more worried about getting my Prosecutor scratched than actual fighting. Yikes."

"Being an 'Angsthase' has its perks", she said in reply. Elena wasn't really trying to reason with Maren, rather she knew that if she had been more gutless, she would have been spared much sorrow. Unwilling to think about it more, though, she tried to change the subject. "Where have you gotten that Prosecutor from anyways?" It was a question that had been in her head for quite a while already.

"I bought it from the Commonwealth," Maren said simply, as though it was the most natural thing in the world. "They sell their technology." She fiddled out one of the strawberries to eat it single.

Elena had never learnt the laws of Liberty by heart, but she was pretty sure it was restricted inside Liberty. She wasn't really surprised though. "Gotta admit, it has a certain beauty to it. Would love to fly one once", she gave back, playing around with her fork, then looking out of the window, apparently absorbed in thoughts. With her legs crossed and her head weighed to the left she resumed. "I probably shouldn't knock on their door, though. Else, heads could roll." A small smile passed over her lips. "I guess you've flown a Wraith as well, then?"

"Well, during training, once. The Wraith was new, so I mostly got the Vakyrie back then. I never was a space cop, because, well." She raised her hands, wanting to highlight the small scars on them. "I did deskwork most of the time." That much was true.

"I always wanted to fly a Wraith. Kind of a big dream of mine", she returned, finishing the piece of cake that had been on her plate. Partially a lie, since parts of that dream had already come true long ago; under less pleasant circumstances, though. "Sounds pretty boring, to be honest. But anyways. Huhm. How did you come to know Ezrael, then?"

"I demanded he call me Sweetheart," Maren said, tilting her head a bit to the side, then elaborating a bit more. "He was with the Core back then and I was in Omicron Delta often, by the Freeport. He patrolled in the vicinity, so we got to talking and, well."

"Huh, in Delta?", Elena asked curiously. "How comes you got there? It's a bit away from your office in Rheinland, after all. Don't tell me you took a vacation there."

Very perceptive, Maren thought besides herself. It seemed like Elena was very well able to spot divergences in the things she told her. It wasn't tragic that she'd asked this question, but it made Maren a bit more wary on what she'd say. Then again, she couldn't have lied about this without it being easily double-checked. There had been no way around it. "You could say that I was a bit of an adventurous type," Maren replied smoothly, giving a small laugh that sounded natural.

That didn't correspond with what she had told her beforehand either, Elena though. This mismatch however piqued her interest. "Delta and the Freeport always holds some adventures ready, yeah", she just responded, remembering only a few incidents at the Freeport that had been worthwhile. "Though I'm wondering now what made you turn into the pansy you are now, as you said yourself?" It all more or less was an attempt to find out more about Maren, since she seemed to her like a woman with many different layers.

"Well, there's a difference between adventure, and oh boy, I think walking around in that volcano is fun adventures," Maren meant, knowing it was enough of an excuse. "I don't regret it. Ezrael wouldn't have entered my life if I hadn't gone."

"Mhmm, right", she just replied. That was the moment when she realized she was pretty much bursting for a pee. "Uuh, you know what. I think I'm gonna have to check out those toilet lights you told me about quickly", she told her. "That was ... forewarning enough, I hope?" That being said, she put the plate aside on the couch and stood up.

"Yeah, I think it was enough." Chortling, Maren put down the platter on the table in front of them. "You need to push the flush a bit harder because it sometimes spazzes out," she told her before taking her PDA, wanting to check something while Elena was gone. It'd also give her the possibility to look at the bag. She didn't intend to open it, because Elena could see the difference, but maybe she could peek inside without touching.

"Alright, I'll be right back", she said, walking up to the stairs to move up to the first floor. Maren could hear a door being opened, closed again and then locked.

The bag had been sitting right next to Elena the whole time, which meant she hadn't cared about zipping it up completely. It wouldn't prove to be hard to peer into it with one eye. If Maren decided to do so, she would be able to see Elena's clothes stuffed into it, together with some DVD-covers of films she had brought with her, but also the tip of what could very well be a gun, based on kinetic bullets.

Maren spent a few moments looking at her PDA before standing up and moving around the table noiselessly to peer into the bag. There was nothing she hadn't expected. Given how much she'd scared Elena before, it was natural. Sitting back down, she opened another tab on her PDA, browsing movies.

After a few minutes, she would hear the flush, and the door to the bathroom being opened again. Elena who was obviously refraining from laughing came down the stairs, holding a hand before her mouth. "That looks so funky", she said, aluding to the glowing poop. "I definitely know what I'm gonna install in my own apartment next."` Plunking herself down on the couch, she would cough briefly. "That cake is delicious, by the way. Very nice recipe."

"Well, it's pretty basic," Maren said, putting down the PDA and yawning. "Oh boy, I really get tired when just sitting." Taking the cake, Maren gulped down a big chunk of her cake. "Wanna watch a movie?" It was almost evening. Given that it was 6 pm, she figured going out was a bit too late. "I guess you can also sleep here if it gets too late."

"Basic things still work more often than not", she gave back as a reply, grabbing another piece of cake and putting it on her place. She as well felt the fatigue crawling through her body, which is why she decided to lay down on her part of the couch. "Yeah I got a few in my bag", she went on. "I'm pretty nuts on old horror movies, to be honest. But you'll see." Putting the bag on her lap, she rummaged around it, then pulled a bunch of covers out, fanning them out demonstratively.

"Would it surprise you if I told you that I actually have little to no idea about movies?" Maren replied, taking a look at what her company had in hand. "Uh, can I defer to your wisdom on this?" Looking over to the counter, Maren stood up and fetched the rest of the cake, wanting to put it on the table with them.

"Actually, yes it would surprise me", she returned, looking through the range of films she had brought with her, searching for one that Maren could enjoy as well. In the end, she tended towards educating her a little, 'for her own good'. "Here, this one. I think that film is actually pretty valuable. I couldn't even find it on the Neural Net, it's -that- old. One of my favourites." She held up her hand so Maren could see its cover.

"The guy looks like he needs something really bad," Maren meant while appraising the cover. "What's it about?" She didn't want her to spoil the entire thing, just tell her the premise. Absently, she cut another piece of cake from the whole and put it on her platter.

"Well, it's about a family residing in a lonely hotel during a winter, and slowly, but surely going completely insane. It's basically a novel adaptation", she replied, trying to summarize the film's plot. She scratched her head, wondering whether this was a good description of it or not. "Besides that it's a good horror movie, it has quite a lot of subtext, in my opinion", she added with a small smile, then stood up, intending to load the film. "Interested?"

"Sure, sounds like something I could get behind." If anything, it would be a nice distraction. They had a TV on the side of the room, diagonally to the window, so it was in front of the people watching TV. Maybe not the smartest position for it to be placed, but better than having the light that poured in reflect off the screen.

If anything, it wouldn't exactly help soothing Elena's already somewhat strained nerves, but she wasn't caring too much about it right now. She had seen the movie quite a few times, which meant she knew what's about to happen. Maren's reaction would be funny to observe, she thought. After the film was loaded on the TV, she would hop back onto her place of the couch and stretch herself, grabbing a pillow to rest her head on. "How easily scared are you?"

"I am a stone if I want to be, though I hate jump scares," Maren replied, not actually lying there. It depended on her mood in how far she was susceptible to such things. Pulling her legs up to her side, Maren looked on at the screen, humming.

While the film began and the opening scene became visible, Elena tilted her head to the right to look at Maren. "As far as I can remember, it's not packed with jumpscares too much. I hate them myself as well." Especially in her current, quite jumpy state the movie would have been a pain in the arse otherwise. And the eerie music at the beginning of the movie didn't make that any better. "Uhh", she just uttered, staying silent otherwise

It was immediately apparent to Maren that the movie was quite old. The grainy quality it had to it made it seem strange compared to the other media that was consumed these days. She wondered why Elena didn't have a remake or something. She was certain that there would be such a thing. Still, given that there was nothing else to do, Maren let herself lean back and looked at the screen, wanting to enjoy the movie.

Maren and Elena may or may not notice the cab shuttle that was approaching the bungalow from behind, so they wouldn't see it, or hear it, with the movie on screen. Valery would know, though, as usual. Landing only a few meters away from the frontyard of his little investment here on Curacao, Ezrael would leave the cab, enjoying the second breath of the wind of his homeworld for quite a while as he had to stay on the Apahanta for his rejuvenation process. He still wasn't able to do much with his hands, but at least the burnt flesh was replaced. The wind was still warm, even with the sun already set. Looking back at the cab, he smiled at Sombra, who silently smiled back at him. There also was a KSR leaving the big cab, packed with their stuff. "The keys." he said quietly to her, slowly moving up his arms, which looked almost as if it was a great effort to manage, just to get fail at opening the zipped pockets of his black leather jacket. Without a word, Sombra moved next to him and opened one of the pockets, withdrawing the keys. "Be silent. If Maren sleeps, I don't want to wake her up."

"I'm silent as *****," she gave him back with a smirk before moving up to the door, looking through the window. Stopping, she looked back to him. "Looks like you won't be able to surprise them. They are sitting on the couch," she said quietly, almost whispering as he stood next to her a second later, seeing it with his own eyes.

"They?" he asked similarly quietly and then saw the blue hair barely shining in the dark. It took him a moment to realize it, and he stood there, frozen for this moment. "Sombra, go home."

"But I thought I-"

"Go home. Leave, take the cab. Try to be as silent as possible. Leave," he ordered her, looking at her. She was hesitating, looking down at her black dress, not really understanding. But it was obvious he was not joking. Handing him the keys, she nodded. And with that, she vanished in the cab, leaving Ezrael alone with the KSR. From the looks, it seemed like neither Maren nor the woman with the blue hair were noticing him, as they were focused on the screen. Adrenaline was rushing through his veins. If this was Elena, together with Maren, it wouldn't mean anything good. Not at all. Either she was already infected or about to. Either that, or Maren would kill her.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO OPEN THE DOOR, MASTER?" the KSR asked Ezrael in a typical KSR voice. Unnecessary loud, synthetic, and in this case, disturbingly surprising and unfortunate. Valery was aware of him, but now probably also Maren and Elena, if not already before. *****, he thought, trying to keep his breathing rhythm under control. He had no idea what to do now. He came here to surprise Maren with his neverending love, but looking at this situation, he hated her. Handing the keys to the KSR, Ezrael allowed the robotic servant to open the door for him, and slowly he entered his bungalow, glancing over to the two women on the couch with a neutral expression. They would see him there, wearing a black jeans, a white T-shirt and his clubbing leather jacket over it. It was easier to wear those clothes than trying to get his lamed arms and hands into his Apahanta suits.
[22.08.2017 22:33:02] Michael: Maren knew Ezrael was outside before he reached the door. Her first impulse was to call out to Elena and demand that she act like a zombie. Her second thought was that this was a recipe for disaster, so she just kept quiet. With the fork, she cut off another slice of cake, slowly.
[22.08.2017 23:04:53] Byron|Fabi: Elena didn't know, as she was quite engrossed in the movie they were watching she hadn't recognized the cab shuttle landing near the bungalow. What she however did perceive was the KSR, and her reaction could very well be described as paranoidally schizophrenic. Almost instantly would her instincts get triggered by the robotic voice, and the second after that, she sat up straight, turned around towards the entrance to the bungalow. She couldn't help herself but subconsciously grab the gun out of the bag and pointing in at the door "The *****!", she exclaimed, supporting herself on the couch with one arm, while holding the gun with the other. Judging from how her voice sounded, she had almost had an heartattack. She looked at the entrance, in a position in which she could run away any second if she needed to.

As she however saw who was standing in the door, she let out a gasp, her eyes widened in an almost horrified way. The fact that Maren and her were still dressed in her bikinis wasn't making it any better for her. Slowly, she let the gun sink down, looking down at it for a second, before she once again vacantly stared at Ezrael. Her lips moved, however at first no words wanted to come out. "Oh Jesus...", she finally uttered.

His look wandered from Maren over to Elena, then back to Maren, and with a silent gulp, he made a step closer to them, allowing the KSR to enter the bungalow. What a ***** situation, he thought, although his wording was more colorful. Why wasn't Maren saying anything? What was Elena doing here? In bikinis. "Maren?" he asked carefully, hoping she would answer the many questions in his mind. If the circumstances were different, he would have given Elena a clever response, but right now he was afraid this was sort of a trap set up by Maren.

"Hi," Maren finally said, turning her head while the movie rolled on. "Come, sit. The movie is pretty good." She was really curious what he was thinking. He was tense. Maren could see it from the slight creases on his brow.

"Okay," he said, obviously intimidated. One wrong move could let all this escalate, he knew. So he moved over to them, sitting down on the couch, right next to Maren. His heart was beating rather fast. "Hello Miss Voigt," he sounded as he came closer. To her it would be obvious something was wrong here. It was not just weird. It was uncomfortable, to him.

Besides the blatancy that Elena wasn't too pleased to see Ezrael again. Or maybe she was, but knew that didn't mean anything good. She still remembered what he had told her the last time they had 'met', and back then he had made it clear that such a situation was to be avoided at all cost. Slowly, Elena would sink down on her part of the couch again, still clutching at the gun in her right hand, however not too obviously. Her heart was thumping against her chest, while she was slowly recovering from such actually minor, but to her awful shock.

From the way Ezrael was acting, in such a business tone, so stiffly, she would instantly know that the situation was a troublesome one. While in the movie Jack Torrance was just slashing through the famous white door, wielding his axt, Elena kept looking at their sudden addition. It was a look that spoke of fear, but also of wonder, as she was discombobulated a great deal just as much. Grudgingly, since it was running afoul of her impulsive nature, she gave in to the play. "Hello Mister Vertiga", she said in quite a high-pitched tone of voice. The next words she would have to screw out of herself, literally. "A pleasure to see you again. But unexpected nonetheless." It felt extremely hard to her to keep that phrasemongering up, for she had loved to just yell at him what the ***** was going on here now.

"I didn't know you know my girlfriend," he said quietly, gulping again, almost audibly. "How comes?" He was actually quite sure Maren enjoyed this. Torturing him with this. Elena seemed to be sort of okay, but then again he didn't know whether she was already infected or not. Damn.

"Why are you talking to each other as if you didn't know each other," Maren asked. "I know about the Operative hijinks." She actually wanted to enjoy the movie, but well.

"We've met each other every now and then in Liberty", Elena plainly gave back as a reply, while still trembling with the hand with which she was holding the aforementioned gun. Maren however spoke out what she was wondering the whole time: Why was he acting like they didn't know each other personally? Maren hadn't seemed to have a problem with them knowing each other closer than business contacts. She would have loved to ask whether something was wrong, but she knew the answer anyways. For a second she glanced at Maren, who seemed to be relaxation in person, but then her gaze remained on Ezrael once more, an eyebrow raised, as though she wished to scream at him what the hell was going on. "I... don't know e-either, really", she answered to Maren, in quite a quizzical demeanor.

Scanning Elena with his eyes, he thought about what to do next. Good, Maren told Elena she knew about his alter ego. The question was now what her current role was. He hated it. It was once more one of those moments where he was reminded of his place. How unable he was to do anything. Maren was the person in control right now. It wouldn't be any different if he was able to use his hands. Analysing the situation in his head, he planned his strategy. He had to find out who knew what. Is Elena infected? Did Maren tell her she is infected? Did Elena tell Maren about the night on Corinth? Elena didn't look like she knew how to deal with this situation. Her hand was hidden in her bag, although he didn't see much, with Maren between him and Elena. "Alright. Welcome to our home, Elena. It's nice to see you again," he said quietly before looking at Maren again. Wait, Elena in a bikini, but shouldn't she have a big belly by now?"

"Relax." Maren elbowed him in the side. "I didn't bite her or anything." She eyed the cake. "Want some strawberry pie?"

"No, no cake, thanks," he gave her back. Didn't bite her or anything, she said. Was that her version of saying she wasn't infected yet? It was vague. Damn, Maren, was his next thought. Sometimes he wished they would have swapped roles. Ever since this entire thing with Elena started, Maren made it pretty obvious how invincible she was.

Elena indeed didn't exactly know how to deal the situation at hand, as it seemed to be a pretty weird one, and obviously out of her knowledgeable grasp. Else she would have known what this was all about. All she knew was that she felt like being pushed to the corner, and that there was something between Ezrael and Maren she herself apparently wasn't aware of. She couldn't ask him right here, right now, but she knew she would try to drill any information out of him sooner or later. For a second, she lowered her head, looking down at her bare skin, which made her feel even more uncomfortable since they weren't solely amongst women anymore. Abruptly though she realized that she was in the most perfect outift of all to reveal what she wanted to have revealed the very least. She could only guess what he was thinking, but she was pretty sure he had already noticed there was a big belly missing. She weighed her body to the right a little, supporting herself with her elbow, and scratching her frowned forehead with the hand that wasn't occupied holding the gun ready. A loud sigh, louder than she had wanted it to be, slipped out of her mouth. "And so it is nice to see you again", she said in an almost plastically neutral mood.

"Do you need to talk, or something? I can go take a pee real quick," Maren threw out there as an idea, wanting them to stop being babies.

As if that would make a difference, you creep, he said in his mind, not daring to say it out loud. "No, it's okay. It is just weird to be Ezrael and not Red when Elena is around," Ezrael said quietly, leaning a bit more into Maren. He was still wearing his jacket, so she would feel the warmed leather on her bare skin at the shoulder. Her legs were catching his attention for a moment, as she looked good in her bikini. If the circumstances were different, this could have been a very nice surprise for Maren and for him. Instead he had to deal with this little nightmare, and he didn't know if this would end well for either of them. Maren didn't invite her to be friends with her, that was obvious to him.

Oh, Elena would have truly loved to speak with him under four eyes, however she didn't decide to raise her voice. For that, she was actually too cowed right now, as she suddenly felt some weird cold on her skin that made her shiver. Whether it was because it was getting colder outside or because of the unpleasant situation she wasn't quite able to tell. Elena slightly crouched, though not because of the cold, but to hide her belly with her legs. The less they could see of it not being there, the better, she thought. It would be apparent to them she didnt feel comfortable in her skin right now at all.

What had been a more or less pleasant evening, despite some creepy moments, had turned, before she could know it, into an overly awkward situation. And the worst thing, she didn't know why. Was it because of Corinth? She couldn't really believe in that. "So, Maren told me you had some fun on the Apahanta lately", she spoke out, somewhat sarcastically. "I should've known though that that doesn't keep you occupied for long." At that point, she was just trying to converse in some way.

"Right, I was playing with fire. In a few days and weeks I'll be fully available again. Until then, Maren will feed me like a baby," he explained, not wanting to go into detail. If he was honest, he was thankful for Maren not making a drama out of it. He almost died, either by vaporization with the destruction of the ship or when he caught on fire in the engine room. The last months were horrible, and it just wouldn't get any better, it seems. "And you're fine with Forlorn and everything?" If Maren wasn't between them, he would have looked at her, but right now, it was impossible. And that while Maren is a head smaller than him.

Maren just lied her head against his chest and inhaled, apparently not able to see the movie. Or listen, for that matter.

"I'm absolutely fine, thanks for asking", she replied a little briskly, almost being able to keep a straight face despite the dirty lie. Her tensed tone of voice however would speak a more honest story than her mien. Covering things up and acting was usually not her problem, but what she tried to veil preyed on her mind too much to make any concealing attempts effective. Still her heart was pounding relatively fast, she didn't seem to get out of the state of intense stress any soon. Slowly her hand moved out of the handbag, though, and instead she folded her hands on her belly, as though to have another extra layer of security. "How's the matter with Miss Austin?", she would ask haphazardly,

And there it was. Ezrael's heartbeat got even faster as she delivered Maren the proof of him having had contact with Elena after their meeting with Hussaini. Not that Valery wouldn't notice it anyway, but having Maren's head on his chest, where she was likely to feel it, made it even worse. "It's unlikely we will see her again that soon," was his answer. He would have told her more, but right now it was important to reduce the damage she just created. His eyes focused on Maren's head on his chest. There was a constant feeling of goosebumps and chills rushing through his spine. "We can't do much more than hope for her well-being."

"I miss her," Maren just commented, trying to listen to what was happening on the screen of the TV. Her head rested right on his chest, making her acutely aware of his increased heartbeat. One hundred and ten beats per minute, she guessed. Adrenaline, though nothing pathologic. His body really was in good condition, barring the burns from the accident.

Though she could have certainly been aware of the blunder she had just comitted, as she was certain Ezrael had acted so stiffly because he knew they weren't supposed to meet each other again, the idea didn't suggest itself to her what secret she had just spilled. What he told her about the whereabouts of Lily however began worrying her slightly, visible through her expressionsless face. There were questions she would have to ask him later, but it was apparent he didn't want to tell her more right now, for whichever reason. "I'm sorry to hear that", she just gave back, drawing her own conclusions from the words Maren was throwing in.

"So what is this here about?" he asked both of them after a moment of silence. "Is Elena staying over night? The other bedroom should be unoccupied by now," he said, almost mentioning Nancy. It was creepy to have Maren at his chest, in this situation.

"I offered it," Maren meant, though being pretty sure that Elena wouldn't stay now. Given that Maren was unaware that Ezrael and Elena had apparently had some sort of agreement to never meet with her at the same time, Maren needed to work with what she had available to discern what was going kn right now. The only explanation she could come up with was that he feared she could have kissed the other girl. Though no. Not here. Not now, she thought.

"Weelll...", Elena responded, apparently for lack of words that didn't want to come to her mind. "I'll go dress myself up now either way, we take it from there, I guess?" It was basically a three-way attempt to cope with that situation. Way number one, sorting her own thoughts and getting rid of the problem that she had to hide her belly. She had come to the realization that she couldn't think clearly inside this ugly situation.

She stood up, flicking the handbag with her clothes stuffed inside it over her shoulder. "If you two excuse me for a moment, be right back." She regarded them with a brief smile, looking like a genuine one. Her behavior could almost remind one of an archaic fight-or-flight response. That being said, she would rush to the stairs leading to the first floor, soon being out of view for Ezrael and Maren.

Way number two; it seemed both of them had to exchange views on whatever Elena seemingly wasn't aware of. What would certainly be noticeable to Valery, and possibly to Maren and Ezrael as well however was the missing shutting-and-locking-up sound of the door to the bathroom. That was way number three; similar to the situation on Freeport 10 once upon a time, Elena's curiosity had become rampant again.

[Foxglove]

With Elena sort of out of audible range, Ezrael sighed slightly. The way Maren had her head on his chest was preventing him from moving at all, as everything he could do to stand up was pushing his upper body foward. He was trapped here. "Explain it to me," he whispered to Maren, just loud enough for her to understand. "With or without words," he added, refering to Valery, if necessary.

Knowing someone was listening, Maren reached out for Ezrael's hand, intent on delivering directly. As she touched his hand, his mind would be flooded with the events of the evening, though in a boiled down version that conveyed the happenings and not any emotions or thoughts that had been had at the time. The cake baking, the stroll to the beach, the small talk about Elena's work, the casual mentioning of Unschuld, and then going back to watch TV.

It would take him a few seconds to process it, but the most important information was the fact that Elena was spying on them. Because of that, he couldn't ask Maren directly about her intentions, or refer to any knowledge he just gained from her over Valery. He was just glad he didn't have to talk to Valery. The last time he did was already months in the past, and it didn't go out well. In fact, it was the time when she told him she would leave, and take Maren with her, taking the protection from him and his friends, which was the more polite way to express their immediate death, as they knew too much. Staring at the television screen, he decided to close his eyes. "I see. No words." In faux-annoyance sighing audibly, he turned his head to the stairs. "I was hoping you'd be more happy about me being here with you again, Maren." Just loud enough for Elena to hear it clearly.

She caught onto what he was trying immediately. Maybe it was just her knowledge about how he worked, but her intuition told her to go ahead with this. "I am happy to see you again. I just didn't expect you to go out like this. What if your wounds get infected?" she asked him, cocking her head slightly.

"Then you'd bring me back to the Apahanta as fast as possible. But no, don't worry. In the last few days the burnt meat has been completely replaced," he told her, as it would mean she could look at him again when he is undressed. "The nerves will take a while to adapt, though. So far it is making good progress. Maybe it's better in a week. Maybe in a month," he explained without wanting to go into detail. "I still have no feel in my hands and the arm."

"Hmm, alright. Maybe get physiotherapy for that?" she asked, wondering if Ezrael would even consider such a thing. For a moment, Maren's eyes flickered to the patch of wall that Elena was hiding behind.

"Yes, that will be a thing, but mostly on the Apahanta. The moment the nerves are connected again, I need to train my hands. That's the problem about this entire thing. anatomically, everything should be where it belongs, but the brain might need to readjust to it. Something was lost, and now it is back." Looking back at the screen, he saw a supposed-to-be-scary scene of the movie, but he was not deep enough into it to really notice anything. "I love you, Maren."

Leaning over, Maren gave him a kiss, not too much, since he was still tense.

Elena had only occasionally listened in to the occasion, as she was realizing there wasn't really much to listen to in the first place, and instead concentrated on getting dressed up again in her more casual clothes. What she however found out spying was that it was definitely her presence solely that had caused the weird atmosphere. Some other ideas had run through her mind, but she didn't want to jump to false conclusion.

Trying to make a different, more self-confident appearance, she closed the door to the bathroom again after having stepped out, and walked down the stairs. "Love is in the air", she meant with a telling smile. It was a pretty much put on cheerfulness though. Hopping back on the couch, she looked at him, then her, quite expectantly. It was definitely an odd change of mood.

Maren leaned back, wanting to enjoy the movie again. Assuming a more relaxed position, she put her head on her arm resting against Ezrael.

And just like this, Maren claimed her territory. "You're welcome to stay for the night, Elena. You don't even have to worry about weird noises coming from Maren's and my bedroom since no hands, no cookies," he said quietly, smirking at her for a moment.

She wasn't too sure whether she wanted to stay here, but on the other hand, stuff seemed to be more or less resolved now. "Well, as I already got the offer, why not take it?", she replied, giving him a brief smile back. "Only if that's really ok, though..." She still had her doubts all the conflict had been resolved, but at least staying longer would open up an opportunity to catch Ezrael on his own to get the answers to her questions.

"Really, it's fine," Maren said, reaching for the remote as she spoke. "Though could we watch the movie please? I'll rewind twenty minutes because I didn't catch half of what was going on there."

"Alright then," he said quietly, looking down to Maren first, then from the corner of the eye over to Elena. It would have been better if she would have left, but then again he wasn't too sure if Maren would let her go that easily. With him being present, he at least felt he was able to prevent the worst simply by being around. However, the entire situation was weird, and Maren still extremely intransparent.

One last quizzical glance at Ezrael, then Elena would as well turn her attention back to the movie, not having a real problem to catch up with the storyline as she knew it well enough. However, she realized she couldn't quite stay concentrated on the film, and every now and then would she look away from the screen and look down at herself, playing around with her thumbs from time to time. Wondering whether staying was a good idea, because the feeling something was wrong didn't let go of her. She seemed unsettled.

With that, Maren rewound the movie and nestled in to watch. She didn't have anything else to add here.

And so they watched the movie for a while, for quite a while. More than an hour later, the movie ended, and Ezrael finally got to stand up again, as he found the movie horribly outdated and bad, but then again, it was probably just his own mood not allowing him to enjoy something profane like a movie in this situation, with Maren on his chest and Elena almost behaving nervously. He often glanced over to her. Even if Maren wasn't right next to them, he just couldn't talk with Elena openly. 200 meters, if that was still correct. 200 meters of distance, at least, so Valery wouldn't be able to listen to everything. So he thought. How could he get away with Elena without it being suspicious?

Elena couldn't enjoy it really either, and she didn't attempt to cast a pell on that. She wouldn't look over to Ezrael and Maren, though, and almost getting into imagining them not even being there at all. When the movie ended, she just let out a pretty dissatisfied sigh, and looked over to her company. "That's what you call a screening with interruption, I guess", she commented on the circumstances, in an actedly jocular manner. She didn't really know what to feel about this.

"Sort of," Maren chuckled, looking over at Vertiga. "Cake?" She didn't intend to let them alone for long enough to do anything conspicuous.

"No cake," he replied. "Do we have something healthy here right now or should I not even bother opening the fridge and just get to the twentyfour seven?" he asked her, knowing Maren was the last person in Sirius to eat like someone who would care for their body. Her luck was a little blue thing in her body that took care of anything that was not appreciated.

"There are bananas on the stove," Maren replied, knowing that she liked eating them with honey.

"Bananas... I do think I quickly go to the twentyfour seven and get stuff for real humans," he said and moved up. "Do you two want something as well?" he asked them while slowly heading to the door. His KSR was still standing there.

"I could use some apples or other fruits", she replied quietly while watching him moving up to the front door. Vitamines weren't her most favourite thing, but she felt like some fruit sugar could help with her mood.

That wasn't what he would have liked to hear. If Maren would have stayed here but Elena would have joined him, they could have had their time to talk, but there was no way to signalize it to Elena without Valery noticing it. "Okay, I'll just bring a load of fruits over here," he told them, smiling. "Don't go full lesbian while I'm back!"

"I'll do what I can," Maren replied, aware she was still only wearing beachgear. She moved to stand and stretch, not going further.

She could only smile weakly at his comment. "Don't worry. Wouldn't be the one to initiate it." Then she would take a peek at Maren, or rather her body, and admitting to herself that at other times, under different circumstances, she would have probably attempted some things. But neither was she in the mood, nor would she do it when she knew her boyfriend was gonna come back soon enough. "Don't go up in flames on the way."

"You're not the boss of me," he gave her back before leaving with the KSR. And he intended to take his sweet time to think about all this.

Turning to Maren, taking a few seconds to observe her mien, she said: "Uh, well. That was curious, I ... guess."

"He had meanness powder!" Maren explained, turning to Elena just eith her upper body. "That's why you two did awkward things."

It didn't exactly win her over, and with a doubtful expressions did she have another look at Maren, then sat up straight on the couch, burying her face in her hands, sighing again. "Hm, and in a more serious way? This first seemed like some sort of serious crisis..."

"He has been a bit paranoid after the entire deal with Hussaini," Maren told Elena, siting down again. Leaning forward, she took the remote for the AC and turned it down a bit. "He's afraid he could face problems."

She cocked her head to the left slightly, narrowing her eyes again. Now they were back to that topic, but frankly, she shouldn't have expected otherwise anyways. "How much do you actually know about this all?", she just asked her in bewilderment. It really sounded to her like she and Unschuld had had some kind of afternoon tea party and chin-wagged about this and that.

"Well, what Ezrael told me," Maren replied, shrugging. "It's best to just ignore his antics, I guess. I'm not a psychiatrist, and he doesn't seem to do anything self-destructive, so it's best to let it slide." Half of the cake was still there. Maren considered packing up so it wouldn't spoil too quickly.

"Probably, yes", she replied, not necessarilly convinced, but minded to let the topic fall until she could exchange views with him personally. Until then, she would just act like nothing had been out of the ordinary. Folding her arms before her chest, she'd cast a glance at the TV. "He didn't even like the movie...", she said headshakingly, though in a not too serious way. Before Maren could pack up the cake, she decided to grab a small piece of it and stuff it into her mouth.

That came unexpected. Still, she took the platter and put tin foil over the cake, putting it back in the fridge. Returning, she slumped down on the couch. "If you want to, you can already go upstairs and brush your teeth. Just in case you want to. We've got those spare things dentists have that you can use."

After she was done munching away, Elena quickly checked her watch. It was around half past 8 by now. Maren's suggestion to brush teeth already hence was met with some surprise. "Well, I don't sleep much, to be completely honest. I'll wait with that", she gave back. She didn't really seem tired at all, though, but rather pumped. "How did you like it?"

"Like what?" Maren asked, not knowing what Elena meant. The cake? Or the evening they'd spent together. "I guess the cake was alright. I think the vanilla was a bit old, as you can taste it's not really strong in the pudding. Still, it worked out."

She had actually meant the movie, but alright. Never mind, she thought to herself. Pulling her legs up onto the couch and leaning against the armrest, she would have a quick look outside, seeing how dark it had become; the sun had already set some time ago. "Can you see the stars from this place?", she wondered loudly.

"Not often, no," Maren admitted, following Elena's eyes. "I guess there are a little too many light sources around." Rubbing her nose, she crossed her legs as she lay on the couch. "On Nuremberg, you could see them if you went into the savannah for ten minutes or so. The farther you got from the city, the more bright they became."

"When I think about it, I've been in the big cities my whole life", Elena said in reply, realizing she had spent her life either on Stuttgart or Manhattan, both highly-populated planets. "I guess a home like Nuremburg is considerably shaping a person, isn't it?" She moved one hand up to her chin, tapping at it whilst staring out of the window.

"Well, before the dark matter, it wasn't anything specialy," Maren meant. "It was usually pretty warm. Even in winter you needed to stay inside a lot, because you still got sunburns, even if it was minus five degrees or so, with snow."

"I guess it's too late to make a good trip there, with this whole dark matter ***** nowadays", said Elena. "A real pity when you think about it." A small yawn slipped out of her mouth, contradictory to her alert state. She spent some time looking around, then at herself again, then at Maren.

"Currently it's just people trying to get off the planet. Law enforcement struggles to grip the crisis and gang violence was on the rise when I left. I wouldn't be surprised if everything turned to some tribal wasteland by now." She yawned, in response to Elena. "Well, what can you do, right?"

"As far as I'm aware, there are people trying to tackle it. Organizations like The Seraphims, in case you heard about them. I'm sure you did", she said. "It's a whole lot of work, which is why they are still in planning phase to our knowledge. As soon as they get to work, so will my organization. After all they need contributors." A small smile flashed over her face as she spoke. "How much the system is worth the trouble it brings I don't know though."

"Funny that you mention it. I was the one to ask them to help Nuremberg," Maren said absently, humming. "Oh well. I guess all you can do is bring people somewhere else. The planet is gone and the atmosphere is dissipating."

"Oh, that is curious. You could or should give them a gentle kick in the butt then. I haven't heard of them for quite some time", she said, shifting her body slightly to the left, supporting her head with her arm which was resting on the armrest of the couch. "Well, also bringing supplies to those who are still there, and so on and so forth." She sighed, thinking about it. "But yeah. An ugly topic altogether."

"Well, I guess they know how to handle things," she replied initially. "Yeah, the topic is sort of dark. Then again, we can't help it, really. Not like you caused the dark matter cloud." She snapped her head around and gave Elena a piercing glance with one eye. "Or did you?"

She couldn't help but smile a little on that very confrontational question. "Uh oh, seems like somebody just unmasked me!", she said, a bit louder, as though she was actually surprised. "I'm the evil mastermind behind all of this, yes", she added with serious voice. "And now I'll clichedly reveal my plan to you in a neverending monologue like every villain does." A silent chuckle topped off her words.

"Do you think you could do it?" Maren asked her curiously. "Be a real life supervillain?" It was maybe a childish question, but Maren liked entertaining such notions, as long as one treated them with the utmost seriousness.

As childish as the question possibly appeared at first glance, it actually got Elena thinking about it on a serious note. She was quite well aware she wasn't exactly a Nomak, or even worse, a Hussaini, but she thought she probably had the potential to become a pretty ugly and mean person. If she wasn't already, she pondered. "I guess I could", she said, being a bit absentminded. "Then again, I don't really want to."

"Being a hero is pretty gay, though, you gotta admit," Maren said, wanting to not have the discussion become too serious. "Like, the entire good intentions thing has been done to death."

"In that case though, supervillains would be pretty much the same stereotypical bull, don't you think?", she replied. Then however a thought crossed her mind, one that painted a smile on her face again. "I'd dare to say you got a pretty gay lover then."

"I am almost certain that Ezrael had had gay intercourse," Maren stated matter-of-factly. Thinking back, she almost had no doubt about that.

"Screwing anything with a heartbeat", she added mumblingly, as he had pretty much made this impression to her back then. Knowing it wasn't very diplomatic, she still stated it. "Apropos, you know when he'll be back? I need apples. Badly." A lie, but oh well.

"Dunno, the store is only some five minutes away," Maren stated, looking at the door that Ezrael had left through. "Remind me: did you tell him that you wanted apples?"

She just nodded. "Yeah, else I'd be pretty *****. I need my fruit sugar and I need it now." Acting like some diabetes patient, it was merely a way to conceal the bewilderment that was still left. "Do you know that feeling when you want something really, really badly?"

Maren made a face. Asking that question to a Cardamine user seemed redundant, so Maren just chuckled. "A few times a day," she just gave back.

To be fair, Elena had completely forgotten about the Cardamine story when she had asked the question. With Maren's reply however, she was almost instantly getting reminded of it. "Oooh ... right, yeah. There was something." For a moment she looked almost embarrassed, but that changed soon enough again. Stretching it out, she made it herself more comfortable on the couch, hands folded behind her neck.

"Well, if I were a bad influence on you, I'd totally ask you to do drugs with me, but I'm not!" She tried querying for where Ezrael was right, wondering what took him so long.

"Buut, you couldn't make me", she just said, in quite a serious tone. Elena's drugs was what it was, and what it would always be - alcohol. Though she had tried Cardamine once, ironically in a restaurant being accompanied by Ezrael, she wasn't too fond of trying more of it. But she as well now was wondering what the hell was he taking so long. Not because she needed the apples so badly, though, but because she needed the answers, badly.

"I can't really take a lot of medicine," Maren admitted, obfuscating the fact of her better half. "Some medicine doesn't mix well with Cardamine. I can't take a lot of coughing syrups, funnily enough. Makes my throat sorer than it was before."

"At least it doesn't hurt your kidney, does it?", Elena gave back with a far-away mien. For the hint of a second, an agonized expression passed over her face. Altogether she wasn't very proud of her drinking problem.

"I have superpowers, yes," Maren replied with a tone that sounded like she was completely serious. "Reckon we should go after him and look what's going on?"

The hell was that remark about now, she wondered instantly. Elena had been alluding to her alcoholism and not to some superpowers. From time to time, this woman seriously tied her up in knots. Shaking her head, not trying to think further about that, she said: "Yes, maybe we should." Standing up, she quickly grasped the gun out of the bag. Secret-mongering about what she had with her was senseless by now anyways. "In case we need it", she told Maren, pointing at the weapon.

"That won't be necessary," Maren told Elena decisively. "You'll only get in serious trouble if you're caught with that. OSC goes to painstaking lengths to keep their customers safe, so if they found out you smuggled this past security at the spaceport..." She let the phrase trail out, letting the implications hand in the air. "I'll fetch a jacket real quick."

Elena briefly glanced out of the window, into the prevailing darkness, and only imagining to go out there without proper safety measures gave her a significant fright. Sure, there were no reasons to fear robberies and alike, as crime rate on Curacao was pretty much non-existant, but just so were her fears irrational. The problem was, she couldn't hide the gun anywhere, as she had no jacket with her to place it in. "You gotta admit though, when I was able to smuggle it this far, I'll probably be able to smuggle it further too", she almost argued. God, she just didn't want to leave without it.

"Trust me, you don't need it," Maren said, making a few steps towards the stairs to get a jacket.

She sighed, still not convinced, but it seemed impossible to convince Maren on this. "Oh well, if you really think so." As soon as she was upstairs, Elena hectically began to think about another possibility to hide somewhere. In the trousers pocket was far too obvious. Between her breasts? No.
Well then. It had to work without this time, she thought.

The very next moment the door opened. First a KSR with two cheap bags, then Ezrael, who looked at Elena and her gun. "Oh boy."

Soon after, Maren came back, wearing a jacket that made her shoulders appear much broader than they actually were. Seeing, Ezrael, she hummed. "And here I was going to go after you." It was his jacket.

"At least this time I don't point her at you", she told him, lowering it, then throwing it back onto the couch. Frankly, she was actually quite glad that he had showed up on his own, without them having to search for him.

"You look good in leather," he said, smirking at Maren. Then looking at Elena again, he wondered why she had the gun in her hand. Or now on the couch. "Why did you bring a gun here? It's Curacao."

"Meh," Maren just intoned, unzipping the jacket again and moved to sit on the ouch again, keeping the jacket on, though. The AC had made the air rather cold in the evening hours.

With his foot, he pushed the door back into the frame while the KSR brought the bags of curacaoan fruits to the kitchen counter just to get a basket for them. Ezrael however moved over to Elena and Maren, dropping himself on the couch, right next to his worse half.

If Maren had known that similie, she would have been offended.

She didn't, though.

She stammered a little, then said: "Uh, well. I got used to having it around me, to be honest. I know that Curacao is a safe place and all, but ... yeah." It seemed difficult to her to explain it, especially since she knew herself her reasoning was bull. "I just feel safer with it." Knowing it was best to just shut up now, she let herself fall on the couch again, putting the gun back into the bag. "We were about to take a look where you've been", she said.

Eyeing her moves, he smirked. "Well, you're right. Certain individuals might have access to Curacao. Better be safe than sorry." However no gun would be able to save her from an infectee. "I just had a little talk with the shopkeeper. Just small talk." A girl he knew from the pre-Maren era. No need to mention it, he thought. "So, pyjama party tonight? No pillow fights, right? I am crippled."

"I didn't plan to, though now that you mention it, it might be worth a shot," Maren quipped, just wanting to see his face, not wanting to follow through with it.

Grinning at her in an insolent way, he would have liked to fingerpistol her as usual. Sadly he lacked his fingerpistol ability right now.

She weighed her head to the right, glancing at Ezrael. "Pillow fights... that would be the first time since ages", she meant, being unsure whether she would like that, though. "Pyjama party sounds like a good plan. I could easily pull an all-nighter."

"Good, then that settles it. No sleep for the ladies tonight," he said like he ordered it in a restaurant. "How are your friends, by the way? Stenn and Fenn. Didn't see either of them for a while."

"Stenn is just like he always is, you see, blowing stuff up wherever he can", she answered. She noticed the awkwardness had been abating, luckily. A good sign, she though to herself. Without much of a expression, she kept looking at him, before a smile played around her lips. Thinking of Nick, and knowing what Ezrael thought of him, she simply couldn't help herself. "Well, and Fenn- she kinda retired from active duty." Clearing her throat, she leaned more into the couch, trying to ensconce herself. "Maybe somebody should make coffee for the sake of a night party", she suggested mumblingly.

Very slowly, Ezrael's head turned to Maren.

"Hi," Maren said, looking at him questioningly.

There was a slight smirk on his lips as he stared at her.

She reciprocated his look patiently.

For a short moment, he looked over to the kitchen, then back at Maren.

"I'm not cooking," she stated, having followed his look.

"I can't move my hands, love," he reminded her.

"I can break my arms too," she reminded him.

"Jeesh, I can make it as well. A coffee machine is a coffee machine, after all", Elena threw in with a shrug.

You damn lazy *****, Ezrael thought to himself as he kept grinning at Maren. "No need to, Elena. Maren is just ***** with me," he explained. "After all, she invited you here, so she'll gladly push a button on the coffee mashine."

"Of course I would. Whoever told you otherwise?" Maren asked while rising from the couch, moving over to the coffee machine. She didn't know if it had different settings, so she simply turned it on and set it to boil the first coffee there was, putting a mug under the muzzle.

Crossing her legs, she watched Maren walking over to the coffee machine to press the magic button. A curious couple, she thought to herself. Otherwise, she kept a neutral face.

While Maren was doing the very hard work, Ezrael turned around to face Elena again. He wanted to ask her many things, but he didn't want to ruin the mood. About her belly. About John. About Hussaini. Many things. "You should settle down on Curacao, you know. It's lovely here."

Clearly perceivable annoyance flashed over her face. "Oh, don't you get started with that again", she replied, making a threatening gesture with her hand, though it was not a serious one. Her statement however was. "You can't stop with this voice of reason, can you?", she asked. She kind of thought to know to which matter he wanted to get that way, and she was not amused about it. Listening to his voice of reason would have been good for you, something however told her.

"Voice of reason," he repeated, grinning. Then he turned around, looking at Maren. "I have a voice of reason, Maren!" Facing Elena again, he still grinned. "The air of Curacao is rich of oxygen. It's known for having a metaphasic effect on people, enhancing health. No *****. And you can afford it. Pretty sure I could get you a good apartment, I have good connections. So you can do it like Fenn and do the boring paperwork from here instead of roaming around in space, no?"

"Yes, I heard a lot about those good connections of yours already", she said, alluding to what Lily - or was she actually Lily? - had told her. "To some extent you're right, though", she had to admit. Doing the paperwork on their base a pain in the arse. On the other hand, paperwork was always a pain in the arse, recently even more than usual. "It has better air than Manhattan for sure. And in general, Curacao is a lovely place. Already spent hol--" She halted, staring at him with blank expressions for some seconds. "...holidays here once." She was leaving out the information with whom she had been there on purpose.

"Holidays," he repeated, smirking. "People do come here for that," he added, looking at her hands for a moment, wanting to see if there was a ring by now.

There was none. "Yeah, sure they do", she replied, unsure whether there was supposed to be some subtext in his words. In return, she gave him a smile back, which looked a bit forced.

"So, you were on the primary islands back then, with all the clubs and discos and casinos?" he asked her, not really knowing what else to talk about with Maren around. It still wasn't time to talk about the important things.

"Yep, basically. Clubbing, dancing, enjoying the view and beaches and sunsets and ... the people", she replied, all of a sudden appearing to be rather dreamy, as she wished those days back very badly. "I actually wanted to ask you for some hints about good places to visit, but kinda forgot it back then."

"Reminds me of the one time when I went over with Maren to show her a club and people non-stop hit up on her, and then she punched a guy in the face and, well, typical clubbing stories, you know how they end," he said with a serious expression at the end that would make it hard to guess if that was a true story or not. "How's the coffee, sugartits?"

"Punching guys in a club .... it's almost some kind of ritual if you ask me", she just added, not asking further if it was actually a true story. She thought it was. "The sounds machos make when getting hit is almost pleasing. It's some kind of 'oink'." A smile played around the corners of her lips. Funny stories came to mind.

"Oink!" After gifting her with an amused smile, he turned his head back to Maren again. "Everything alright, sugartits?"

She was waiting with rapt attention while brown liquid poured out of the machine and into the first cup. She figured Ezrael wanted one too. She herself didn't like coffee. "Yes," Maren replied slowly, looking back at him.

He didn't like coffee either, as tea was his coffee, and wine his beer. But he knew all too well how Elena was into coffee. If not even addicted. Some of her traits were rather extreme, now that he thought about it. "Alright. You're doing great!" Maren was weird sometimes, too.

Elena was about to say something when a weird vibration sound from inside her bag cut in her words. Puzzledly, she'd reach inside the bag and found it was her PDA which was alarm-vibrating. Switching the display on, her expressions would quickly change into a quite stern one, while she was keeping silent. Her eyes darted over the screen, as though she was reading something, up until a quiet "Son of a *****..." slipped out of her mouth. Thereupon she looked up into Ezrael's eyes, clamping the PDA with her hands, then raising an eyebrow and showing an artificial smile. "Can we talk for a few minutes? Under four eyes?" The message she had just gotten didn't necessarilly call for a one-to-one, but she deemed it a good opportunity to claim it.

"Sure. Want to take a little walk?" he asked her, knowing that otherwise Maren would spy on them anyway.

"You can go upstairs," Maren suggested, not wanting them to leave, for obvious reasons.

Damn! This was bad. Upstairs wouldn't make any difference, and if he would insist on the walk, it would be an active act against Maren's plan, if she had one. Which was obvious to him. Looking at Elena, he hoped she would make the right decision.

Elena found Maren's chipping-in a bit too fishy for her likings. Though she was not aware of her real-life superpowers with which she could easily keep the two of them under surveillance, she was pretty sure Maren would try to spy in in some way, just as she herself had done before. It was her bungalow after all, so secret cameras or mics could be placed anywhere, she thought "I guess I could really use some fresh - Oxygen-rich - air, though", she said, finding an excuse to why they could go outside, then standing up and stretching herself. Only this time she wouldn't reach for the gun, mostly because she confided in Ezrael to play a good bodyguard - once again - in case one of her irrational fears would come true..

That left Maren in a slightly awkward position. She was quite sure the two of them wouldn't stray further than 200 metres, which meant she would get the general idea of what they were talking about anyways. She could also just follow and nobody would be much wiser afterwards. Then again, why not give Ezrael this little victory? The game was pretty one sided like that, and she figured he couldn't simply tell Elena anything vital anyways without screwing himself over. Any way this could go, it was more than fine. "Alright then." She made a mental note to ask Elena about the apples she had proported to crave earlier, wanting to trip her up in that if she had forgotten it already.

[Foxglove]

"Good." Indeed good, he thought and stood up. "Maren, we're back in a bit. Don't fall asleep, right? Pyjama party, after all." Not wanting to show any signs of him rubbing it in, he headed for the door, opening it with an expecting look to Elena. "Don't forget your PDA," he reminded her, not wanting it to be left here alone with Maren.

As he said that, she just decided to take the whole bag with her, along with the gun. Flicking it over her shoulder after she had stuffed the PDA back into it, she walked over to the door where he was already waiting for her. Unlucky as she was, she had no jacket with her as it seemed, but she doubted she would have a problem with it. Glancing at Maren, she would give her a sweet smile and a wave. "You could check the Neural Net for some more movies, maybe. I won't manage another horror flicker." Looking at Ezrael, still having that smile on her lips that almost seemed excited, she would say: "Alright, let's go."

And like that they left. A few steps closer to the water and then along the coast line. It was still pretty warm, as it was the typical tropical climate of the curacaoan islands. The blue sun of Cortez was doing a good job. In the sky they would see the star clusters around the barrier nebulae, which were visible as well. There darkest nights were still the ones in Liberty and on Malta and Soledad. "I once read the old earth wasn't surrounded by big nebulae like the ones in Sirius. Weird to imagine," he said, wanting to begin with small talk until they would reach the two hundred meters.

Almost instantly after they had closed the door behind them, Elena's former sweet smile would vanish from one second to the other, as though it had never been a real one. Now with almost no expression, trying to keep a neutral countenance apparently, she would walk beside him, one hand clutching the strap of her back, the other stuck in a trouser pocket. She wouldn't look up to the sky, and even when he pointed it out, she just granted her a brief glance. "To be honest, most that is told about Earth I regard somewhat skeptically. Most things we know about it have without a doubt been sophisticated over the centuries", she gave back, while eyeballing him doubtfully. Was he really attempting smalltalk now? "Interesting topic", she added. Subtext: Aren't there more important topics than that?

"It's never dark on Gran Canaria. Maren wanted us to settle down there, because she likes the temperate climate more than the tropical. I mean, the first times she was on Curacao, she was a bunch of sweat covered by skin. But then again, Gran Canaria has insects. Big ones. Like, moths of the length of your arm. Curacao has almost no insects, because they aren't native here," he explained as they walked in the white sand. "But yes, Gran Canaria is always bright. Annoyingly bright. Two suns and the Barrier reflects the light. It's horrible. In some cities, they have domes to simulate the night, just like they do it on Freeport 10. Just in bigger scale."

Elena carefully watched every step she made, even though it wasn't too dark outside. Most of the time she kept her head low, and as soon as they had reached the beach, have a closer look at the consistency of the sand underneath them. It was pretty big guff what he was telling her, she found, and it just vexed her. Was he taking her for a fool? "Mhmmm, that is interesting. I was only once there, was pretty cold", she gave back as reply. She was noticeably hacked off, though she tried to carry it off well. Her voice of tone however was giving the show away. "Now that's all very well, but I think there's juicy stuff to talk about." Zipping the bag open, she'd take out the PDA.

"You're like a friend of mine, you know?" he told her, smiling at her for a moment before looking forward again. "Her name is Paige, and she currently runs a company here on Curacao and on Canaria. Maybe you heard of it, it's called HOT GEAR and currently pretty successive in the motorsport business," he explained in a slow way of talking. After all he had to buy some time. 100 meters, maybe a bit more left. "She is just as young as you are. Solid girl, stands on her own feet. Whenever we talk, she just can't wait to get things down to the point instead of having just a little small talk. One day I told her what my mother used to tell me when she was still alive. Good news can wait, and bad news won't run away anyway."

Slowly, but surely she came to the realization he was really doing it on purpose, for whatever reason. However she had already played such a game with him once today, so why just not a second time as well. Swallowing her anger with a loud gulp, she would take a few deep breaths, soaking the so-called healthy air of Curacao in, cleaning her mind from any frantic thoughts. "You once said I would kinda remind you of the people you value the most. And told me in the same breath you wouldn't tell me anything about them, though", she said, getting off the track herself as well. "Well, now I know some of them I guess, don't I? Really makes me wonder what you meant with that back then."

"Back then I tried to be professional. Alter Ego, zero information output, only input," he told her, looking at the sand to their feet while walking. "Maren is making fun of it all the time, but she never tried to understand why I did it. It's really funny. She is so over the top proud of her intellect, she doesn't realize when she acts stupidly," he said, knowing Valery would know he said it. It made him grin, as he also meant it. "But then I fell into old patterns. Women were always my weakness and strength, and your persistance made me loosen the cover. Now you know who I am, you know my girlfriend and you know my home. You even know my best friend, so there is nothing left to keep secret. You know me now."

"You weren't really effective to keep your mouth shut, let's say it that way", she replied, folding her hands behind her back and looking up to him briefly. She had heard Maren making fun about his LARP costume, but didn't want to comment further on it. "Women are usually more of a weakness than a strength, if you want to hear a woman's opinion on that matter." She seemed pretty serious about it. At the same time, his last words made her grin weirdly for a second, although it was merely artificial. "I'm no philosopher, but the term 'knowing' is too broad", she shot back, not believing one word of his. After all, she knew about at least one matter that apparently was more nebulous than she had thought. "So, what kind of 'knowing' do you mean?"

"The kind of knowing that makes you know my social environment, my home and my hobbies," he gave her back, smiling. "If you and Fenn wouldn't have flirted with me, things were different now."

"Right, I thought so", she said, turning silent for a moment. That was a kind of knowing that allowed enough secrets though, she thought. Which was find, everybody was allowed to have secrets. Still, the curiosity. "For better or worse, what do you think?", she asked, smiling at him. Fake, but for change it wasn't noticeable.

"Good for you, I guess," he replied quietly. "As otherwise who knows what Hussaini would have done with you in the meantime. Bad for me, because things are complicated now, thanks to my intervention. As you know. I need to be extremely careful now, and I can only hope either Unschuld doesn't know already you're here or doesn't mind it, as it wasn't me but Maren who invited you here. However, even here at the beach, where only you and me right now are, is no assurance that we're not spied on. So I'd be extremely careful about what you want to talk about."

"Without a proper bodyguard I probably wouldn't have gone there in the first place", she said, crossing her arms before her chest. A benefit of her constant caution, besides the painful stress level as a downside, was that she could listen quite closely. "How should Unschuld get wind of all that anyways?", she asked. It was an honest question. "Except of course your fiance is some sort of snitch and tells Unschuld as quickly as possible. Which I can't believe though, since she loves you." Through that she got reminded of the happenings on the beach, when Maren had given her a brief, but terrible fright. The more she thought about it, the more the whole idea of Maren and Unschuld exchanging views during afternoon tea party became weirder.

"Maren does love me," he assured her, although he himself was often not sure about it anymore. Two times he spared her life in moments when she expected him to kill her, and her reaction to his chivalry was always convincing enough to make him believe it was the case. But now with the entire thing of Elena and Hussaini and Ezrael's intervention, Maren behaved noticeable differently towards him. Way more intransparent. But probably it was the case the other way around, too. "There was a time when I didn't know anymore about Maren. The Auxesians started claiming her to be an infectee because of her weird behavior, and thus they started to think I might be a nomad supporter, if not an infectee as well. After all I have a battleship, very good connections and I am a billionaire. Would make me an attractive target. It went on for a while, a few months until I had enough, because Auxesia was so convinced about it that even I had my doubts about Maren. So I took her and we moved to the Auxesian Flagship, the Eidolon Wraith. Met Sapphire Raven in person, as well as Joshua Hunt, or Leviathan or Endurance or however you want to call him. They screened us, and Auxesia has the technology for that. They found nothing. Both Maren and me are clean." And that only because Valery temporarily wasn't part of Maren in that specific time. "A certain agent however seems to be well informed about me, though, no matter what I do. No matter what Maren does. Unschuld has his means to aquire information, and if he doesn't get those information himself, one of his inferiors does. Either that, or Unschuld has something else to get informed without being present himself. Whatever it is, it means he can't be fooled easily. And I am quite sure he is aware of you being here on Curacao."

Maren and infected. Huh. That was a possibility Elena hadn't so far thought about, or rather hadn't wanted to. There was no denial that her behaviour on the beach, especially the question about the eyes, had faintly been reminiscent of Hussaini's nebulous behavior. But if it was true, and Maren was an infectee, why shouldn't he be too? In that case she would be big in the shits. This whole thinking process only became visible as she instinctly took a discrete step away from him. "Why are you so dependent on that pesky little creature?", she gave back, feeling her thumping heartbeat against her chest. The topic was riding her. "No jokes, I can't imagine one single way how you've become a pawn on somebody else's, an infectee's chessboard. What the hell have you even done to become such an inferior of Unschuld yourself?" She was nervous, that was easily noticeable, because the more she thought about it, the more nebulous it all seemed to her. But the fact that she realized he, as a pawn, wouldn't have to say the truth either, made her wary how much trust was actually approriate right now.

"I am not a his inferior," he clarified. "We have an agreement, a non-aggression pact. I don't fight the nomads anymore, and in return, me and my friends are safe from them." It was a little bit insulting how she made a step to the side. He was the last person she needed to be afraid of, and the only thing he tried was to save her in a way that wouldn't result in his death or infection. "There is no point in fighting the nomads, Elena. Destroy one of them in space and they just regrow the shell. Kill an infectee and they just create a new incubus. And then again, they didn't start this war. Knowing those things, I don't see as to why waste ressources on something that doesn't make any difference. This treaty however does, as it at least protects a small amount of people, and all I have to give in return is, well, the same. Not attacking them, not interfering with them. I am not their pawn, if you think that." He had no idea whether it were 200 meters now or not. "I violated the treaty unknowingly when I protected you from Hussaini, and because of that, Unschuld is shadowing me to make sure something like that doesn't happen again. That is why I am pretty sure he knows about you being here and me being here. If the Commune can hide riflemen in the trees, they can do it a thousand times better." The entire topic made him look at the ground. He wasn't Unschuld's inferior, yet his hands were tied. "If I violate the treaty further, I won't be the only one to suffer the consequences. The moment my friends lose their protection, they will die, because some of them know just as much as I do about the nomads and infectee. Maren would die, Leon would die, my crew would die. I would. Or we'd be turned into infectees as well. I don't want to find out. I don't play with the lifes of other people."

Elena shook her head. There was so much weird stuff in his words that she didn't know where to begin. But maybe she would have to accept that this was a weird topic by nature. "You're breaking this treaty, this non-aggression pact right now, at this point. You said you wouldn't play with lives of others, still right now you are gambling. Whether Unschuld cares about this or not, you can't know for sure. So why didn't you just send me away earlier and instead stiffly played as though everything was more or less fine? Because both you and I know it wasn't. It would have been most logical for us to part as quickly as possible again", she meant. "Maren as well said you behaved that way because you fear the consequences. You would have reacted otherwise if you really did." She took a sharp breath. There were so many countless possibilities on what was going on here, that she didn't know where to put all of her cogitations right now. "I find it interesting, why did you tell me this story about Auxesia? Do you actually think that I think that...?" The rest of the sentence she left unsaid, believing he knew what she was alluding to. There was enough for Elena to actually believe in that, though. Maren saying she had superpowers in a serious demeanour, her vulpine smile when she asked about Hussaini's eyes, Ezrael's absolutely weird reaction when he had joined them. Still, this was absurd.

"Yes, I think that. It is the very first reaction of people who learned about us having to deal with them. When Leon got aware of all this, he believed it. Same with other people. Wait, you deal with nomads? You must be infected! It is always the same. Simply because the common people don't know anything about nomads but rumors and what they show in the news. I don't want to have the same threadmill start over again. Do you know what people do to you once anyone said you could be infected? The Lane Hackers are hunting me actively, Auxesia was spreading this bullshit all over Bretonia and Bretonia refused to talk to me until the point where I had Auxesia admitting their mistake. I'm tired of this." She would hear him sighing audibly. He was sure they hadn't passed the 200 meters. Stopping, he turned towards her. "I would honestly prefer if you would leave, but I won't send you away. That would be an interference. I have no idea why you're here, at my house with my girlfriend, but right now you're here because she allowed it. I had no saying in this. The decision has to come from either her or from you. Maren didn't get threatened directly by Unschuld, and she doesn't interfere willingly with their cause. However I am the person who got and who did. Unschuld's words were clear. If I see you again, my people will suffer for it." It was obvious his latter sentences came with a connotion of regret and resignment. After all, he liked her. "There are two ways we can deal with this. You can go back to Maren and talk with her about all this or pretend this talk didn't happen and try to have a fun pyjama party with her. In that case I won't return with you but go somewhere else for the time being. Or you leave us. That is your decision. Matter of fact is the less time you and I spent together, the better it is for me. Maybe even for you. I tried my best to protect you, but my hands are tied by now. All I can do now is protect me and my friends." The last sentence was more firm and his expression towards her was serious. The less she liked him, the easier it would be for them to avoid each other in future. It hurt him, but he couldn't allow himself to show any sign of this being a fassade.

"Wait what?!", she almost exclaimed as the anger that had been bottled up inside her suddenly erupted through a breach. "What the fuck did you just say? An -interference-? Sending me away would be an -interference-?! An interference?!" Taking gulps of air, she would aghastly stare at him, taking another step back to bring distance between the two of them. It was a reaction by instinct. She didn't plan to run away, but right now she almost felt threatened. "An interference in whose plans? -Theirs-?" She took another sharp breath. "I swear, don't you dare to tell me any kind of bullshit! That would only be an interference in what Maren has planned. Except of course..." At the very thought of it, she instantly became somewhat dizzy, and as she made another step back, she almost stumbled. "Unschuld told me it would keep an eye out on me in the future. Am I here for that reason?! It wants me to be here, doesn't it!" While he was keeping his fassade quite well, hers was derailing more and more. "What the hell are you people trying to do with me?"

Her emotion-rich reaction was a pain to bear for him. Not in an annoying way, but in a very helpless way. "Did you know I am Maren's boyfriend when you came here?"

"Of course I did, I'm nobody's fool", she gave back, taking a close look at his body language and mien. "She had told me you weren't around though, so I didn't think much of it." Her heart was thumping hard against her heart, and she gulped heavily. "I got lured in a bloody trap!", she shouted at him. "As though I didn't have enough crap already, now this whole Unschuld shit makes a reappearance!"

"It's not a trap. That I am here is pure coincidence. Unlucky coincidence," he clarified. "You however made another unlucky decision. I have no idea why Maren invited you over, she probably still underestimates the danger that Unschuld presents. After all she calls me paranoid, making fun of my security measures. But that doesn't matter now. Maren and me are not the people you need to worry about. What you should worry about are your future decisions. You shouldn't hang out with people who you know they have something with the nomads going on, while you also know the nomads are after you. Or the Commune, in your case. I have no idea what you thought when you came here, it but it was not smart. Sad truth." His eyes were mostly on her feet and the sand.

She tried to calm herself down, which only was possible to a certain degree though. "You didn't answer my question", Elena said, inhaling deeply and slowly to lower her pulse. Her temperament would have almost made her punch his face at that very moment. Though she didn't, he would see her clenched fists. "Look me into the eyes, and tell me in what you would have interfered by sending me away earlier. I want to hear it."

"I think you didn't get me rightly. With interference, I mean that I am not allowed to alter anything about your status. That includes where and when. If I'd send you away, it would be me who sent you away. Thus I can't." He sighed inwardly. "Make your decision. Now. Or do you want to drag me even deeper into this?"

She hesitated, hating this situation guts just as much. "I just wanted to have my answers", she said, still with a hint of anger, but also fear in her voice. Her next words would be quite bold, considering she gambled that one of her former guesses was correct. "I could leave now, but I'm sure you would be interested if I told you I can help you find Nancy." This guess being Nancy and Lily were actually the same person.

His resigning expression changed to a more serious one. "Lily, not Nancy," he corrected her. "What about her? Where is she?"

"Right, Lily. Apologies", she said, taking the PDA out of her bag again. "One of my Knights, the one who happened to be the last one to see her apparently, just now asked me for your contact details. He had told me Lily was on ground flights, which isn't true as we both now." Her face was expressionless as she told him. "Want to hear my opinion? Lily is deep in the shits. But I could give you his comm details, if you are interested."

"You can give him mine. The right ones," he said quietly. "What kind of deep shits, by the way? She's an OSC pilot, there isn't much one could do to get into deep shits."

"I don't have your right ones myself, remember", she just said, equally quietly. "Considering she apparently didn't tell you anything personally, but now one of my people who happens to know her concretely asks for your contact details, tells me that something weird is going on."

"I had many women," he reminded her. "It's not weird at all. I helped her getting her job at OSC, that's all. OSC contacted me about her disappearance, then I contacted you. Then I got a hint about her being dead," he told her. "If she isn't, that would be nice."

"The only way he could know I know you is through her, I'm sure. This could mean many things, though." Maybe Mason was to tell him she was really dead or something. "I'll send them over to him, then."

"Good. Thank you." And like that he remained silent, looking into the distance. It was her time to make a decision.

A loud sigh would be audible. "Well. I surely won't go back to the bungalow, now after all you've told me", she finally said. She still wasn't sure about Maren's real intentions, so it was best to not be around her too much, she thought. "You two can have a nice rest of the evening, I guess."

"I'm sorry, Elena." Giving her a last look, he would have liked to embrace her a last time, but his arms wouldn't manage it. "I really wish things were different."

Stepping closer to him again, she instead would take care of the embrace. Though strong, it was a little one-side, but she didn't care too much. Laying her forehead against his chest, she would sigh again. "Not only you do." It made her think of something, however. "A very long time ago, I once told a man that things won't be different as long as you don't make them different. A wish and an action are enough", she said, not sure why, but the words were spilling out of her mouth.

"If it was that simple," he said quietly, being actually happy she didn't blame him too much. "Now do what you said you would. And be very careful. I'll think of something to tell Maren why you left."

"The man back then said the same. You are less psycho than him, though. I hope. In my opinion, saying 'it's not that easy' is just a bad excuse for giving up." She raised her head from his chest, looking into his eyes. "You are a nebulous man, and I really, -really- hate you for that." Nonetheless, she would raise herself on tip-toes and give him a brief peck on the cheek. No blush was visible.

Sad truth was that there we no options. Any wrong move would result in the death or infection of the ones he cared for. But then his thought was interrupted as he head her lips on his cheek. Only a little peck, but enough to surprise him. For a very brief moment, he smirked. "Make sure John learns to dominate you. Maybe you don't get into trouble all the time then." A final smile, before his expression turned more stern again. "Now go."

Her face became more stern just as much, almost bitter. "Congratulations. You just ruined the goodbye", she said, and she didn't seem to be joking. Had he just not mentioned this name. Taking a few steps back, peering at him with strained expressions as though she had to control herself, she would say: "Good luck." She turned around, however faced him with her head a last time. "And, tell Unschuld I'm not a fucking toy of yours."

And just like that, their meeting ended and Ezrael moved slowly back to the bungalow. Seeing Maren was really the last thing he wanted to bear now.