[COMPLETE 2/2] Midnight musings

Amsteria picked up her pace as she heard the faint tapping of feet behind her. Of course he was going this way, it was his objective in the first place. She resolutely kept in her direction, care for whatever business Grim had gone from her mind, pushed to the back of her head out of the rear exit. She knew these halls. She knew how long and how many turns there are and knew that by the time she finishes the route of this path, the sun would have risen and routine could continue.

Why did I even bother, she thought to herself as her brisk walk took her though arches and haphazard corners and turns. The moment she starts to take an inkling or two in care, things like these happen. Tense moments, defiance. Always trying to rattle her cages.

Perhaps she was never meant to mingle. Her words from childhood to adulthood had always been direct, rarely sugar-coated. Her demeanor always offhand. She did not like it when people tell her to relax, or force her to relax. Shrugging, her pace began to quicken until all she could hear was the clip-clop of her boots.

Amsteria feels her phone buzz in the inner pocket of her blazer. Another reap order? Someone texting her? She ignored it. She was in no fit state of mind to properly produce a response that will not sound like her intending to kill the sender. Her focus was on her rhythmic pace, on the uniform pattern the moonlight produced on the marble floors. There were the sounds of other people coming from the many turns she could take, but she decides to avoid them and keep going straight.

The walk was doing her good. Her raised blood pressure from anger was being replaced by the increased heart beat from her fast pace, and the wind blowing in was cool enough. Her pace slows and finally she stops to lean against the banister lining the hallway, putting her back to the moonlight and staring down at her own shadow. She took deep breaths, and calmed down. Thankfully her head was still clear, the effect of the alcoholic drink she drank barely making a dent in her mental stability.

Amsteria figured that she could have been too quick to mistrust. Adding in the factors, she could rationalize that it was too late at night, and she had overestimated her own feeling of trust towards the German medic. It had been a backlash when she realized she could not bring herself to be drunk in his presence. Amsteria sighs loudly as she brings her gaze up to the ceiling instead. Absentmindedly, she pulls her phone out to see what the message was.

Amsteria's phone buzzed in succession as she sat on another section of banister, some further distance away from where she was before. Once again, she flips it out to see messages from Grim. So he was the rapid succession type of texter, eh? She was glad that her phone was constantly on silent, or who knows what beings would awaken from the repetitive sound of her message chirp.

[OK. No guarantee, but I will try to sleep.]

[I'll wait for you in the hallway.]

Amsteria stared at the screen and the messages for a little while, thumb resting on the main menu button on her keypad. What exactly did that mean? If someone were to try sleeping, but then wait in the hallway...did it mean he was going to sleep outside? Amsteria sighed, her shoulders heaving down with the exhale of air. She had no intention of coming back to the dorm as is. She already planned to bundle up in her space in the Pathfinders' office to sleep all day...she felt like breaking the rules of work for once, and just sleep in at work. If she were to return to the room, her bed would beckon and then her plans would go to dust until she gets another night reap order. She pulls her knees up closer to her chest and leans back onto the smooth arch behind her.

[As you please. I'm staying up. At least have a blanket on you.]

She flips her phone shut, and looks off into the night sky. Back in the city, the stars were drowned out by the city lights. Here, they wink on and on.

Amsteria's phone buzzed yet again, and she stopped star watching to flip it open. She did not bother to put it in her pockets anymore, considering how fast Grim was responding. Was this why teenagers were always stuck to their phones? Rapid texting?

[Mannnn, I left my keys in the room. No blankets, it's cold. :( Come back, won't you please?]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight, Grim. She was pretty sure it was just a ruse. He had left the room quietly, and she certainly did not hear a click when he closed that door. She knows it makes quite a loud 'TCHK' whenever it was locked or unlocked. Unconciously, she narrows her eyes at the text. She was about to reply to his remark with a curt 'I see thru you' when her phone buzzed yet again at the receipt of another text message from Grim.

[Amsteria, please come back! There's an emergency!]

Amsteria sighed. There were two burly, warrior men in their room, just separated by a door from him. Surely banging the door down like a maniac would wake even the biggest of logs. Well...that was to be proven, but she assumes that in a positive way. She lets her phone arm fall and lean back again, this time straight-lipped. Should she go back? There was really not much to be bothered by that prospect anymore, it was far too close to morning to even actually sleep in bed. Amsteria peeks at the time on her phone, wedged in the top of the screen in glaring white.

3.24am

No rest for the wicked, was it? It was too early to be 'past the point of sleep'. Amsteria gets up with a sigh and stashes her phone in her inner blazer pocket. She stretches, and then begins the walk back.

Amsteria's phone buzzed again, and she pulls it out as she keeps her pace. The halls were quieter now, perhaps the apprentices that were awake were now sound asleep. It was Grim, again.

[How about telling me where you are? I'll find you!]

Amseria scoffed before she could check herself. Grim would sooner find the abominable snowman randomly wandering these halls than actually find her, especially when she was moving around and not in a certain place with recognizable landmarks. She had not recorded this route on paper or phone for easy reference, and her steps here were mainly from memory and routine. It would be hard to explain it to Grim without actually seeing where he was in relation to her position.

She paused in her steps to reply to him, looking around her. She was near the bend that would take her to the last stretch of hall, where the arch she passed through -when the tensions were high- was. From that arch, she would just be some distance away from the dorm room and Grim.

[Just around the corner. Stay put.]

She could not think about emotes or cheeky retorts. It was easier for her to focus on the gist of a conversation in phone texting. She slips her phone back into her blazer's inner pocket as it sent the message, and in a few more minutes of quiet walking, save the sound of her boots clip-clopping on the marble floor, Amsteria passed through the arch and spotted Grim near the door of their dorm. She raised her arms in a wide, open arch, with a raised brow. What is it, her language asked Grim.

Amsteria had her arms wide open in a helpless gesture of wonder.

Grim instead seemed to have misinterpreted it as a welcoming gesture for a hug. Amsteria was taken aback by the slightly shorter blonde wrapping his arms around her, and she remained frozen in place as he patted her back and whispered in her ear.

Perhaps he was drunk from lack of sleep, she tried to reason with herself as she felt her blood pressure rise. She was purely uncomfortable, and perhaps also feeling something akin to claustrophobia. The conditions of her surroundings were entering her mind as fast as her increasing heartbeat. She fought the urge to punch the boy back, strong enough to free her and remove him from her personal space boundaries. However, the tense situation she had walked away from in the first place was keeping her instinctive action of self-preservation at bay.

Painstakingly, she peeled Grim's arms off of her, and with firm hands on his shoulders, pushed him back slowly to arm's distance. She evened her breathing, her eyes narrowed at the young man. She noticed the red bump on his forehead, with some fresh scratches. He isn't thinking straight, she concluded inwardly. With one hand on his shoulder, she raised her other hand and pinched his cheek. It was not a hard pinch, just one of those pinches people give to little babies or children with fluffy wuffy cheeks.

"Are you really awake, Grim?" Amsteria asks, pulling at his cheek. Maybe he was sleepwalking, thought she was his mother. Or lover. Did he have a lover? More likely a high school crush. Yes, crushes were a teen thing.

Could it even be a joke? Amsteria's grip on his cheek hardened slightly, and her narrowed eyes became narrower, squinting at the German.

"Be careful who you joke with, Schwarz," she mutters through clenched teeth before letting his cheek go, and letting her other hand drop from his shoulder. She took a step back, and looks to the side at the brightening sky.

She took her time sizing up the situation. Warm milk did sound like a good idea, and well he certainly did look like he needed some comfort in the belly. She shrugged.

"Sure, why not," Amsteria replied. She knew of a dispenser -there were so many of them in this place, wow and thank goodness- that dispensed hot drinks. She usually stops by it to get herself some hot tea, but perhaps it served hot milk and the like as well? She can only assume. Amsteria pats her own forehead while looking at Grim.

"Perhaps you should like...wipe your forehead, Grim," she says. It's just a small trickle, but it made him look like he got punched in the head. It reminded her vaguely of road accidents as well...and it was too early for that, given her last reap order. Nevertheless, she jabbed a thumb to point behind her, from the direction opposite where she had come from. "I remember there's a dispenser there for hot drinks. Hopefully it has some milk as well."

It was not far from the room, and there was less risk of getting lost or wasting too much time. She was not exactly tired, but Grim sure was.