Series: Children of the Red King/ Charlie Bone Series
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Pairings: mainly TancredEmma but a bit of CharlieOlivia and BillyOC
Disclaimer: If I owned COTRK, Charlie probably wouldn't exist and Tancred and Emma would be together already. I also wouldn't have a fanfiction account and wouldn't have wasted hours and hours of day-dreaming the rest of this story. So don't take down my story, 'kay? :)
Chapter 8 – The Extra Present
Dannielle watched Emma worriedly. The blond haired girl was sitting cross-legged on her bed with the three boxes in front of her. The fangirls had left a while ago, in the hope of talking to Tancred, which left the two girls alone in the room.
'Just open them, Emma,' murmured Dannielle.
Emma sighed and obeyed. Opening the bright blue box, from Charlie, Olivia and Fidelio, she found a keychain with a small white dove on it. She smiled, thinking of the image of Charlie and Olivia arguing over whose present was better and Fidelio sighing further back.
She put it down and picked up the pale green box from Lysander, Billy and Gabriel. Inside was a silver pacer with two dangling images of feathers falling from the top. She smiled again, contradicting the image of Charlie, Olivia and Fidelio's present, she could imagine the three not being able to choose a present.
Lastly she glanced at the pale blue box in front of her. Tancred was the only one who had given her a present on his own. Emma was hesitant. Did she really want to know what Tancred had given her?
With Dannielle urging her on, she reluctantly opened the pale blue box, only to gasp in surprise. Inside there was a silver chain and on the end was a small white wing with a light blue outline around it. The wing was perfect, not too detailed yet not too simple either. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
She placed each present back into their box and stood up. Dannielle watched her, knowing what was going to happen.
'You're not going to see him are you?' asked Dannielle, her pale eyes watching the older girl. Emma shook her head.
'I……just need sometime to think; I'll be back soon,' replied Emma and walked out the door with the pale blue box in her hand.
If any art girls in the bathroom were looking in the corridor, they would have seen a blond haired girl, with a bandage around her forehead and bandages on both arms, walking along the corridor as if nothing else existed.
Tancred hurried along the cold corridors of Bloor's. Wondering how Manfred could live here, he passed by the gardens. Suddenly he stopped. Was he seeing things? He could have sworn that someone was standing in the garden, staring at the dark, starless sky.
He walked back and found that he wasn't imagining things. True enough, there was someone standing there, their green eyes staring at the empty sky.
Tancred sighed. She was always slightly strange, but lately she was becoming completely weird.
'Em, you should go back before Matron finds you here and gives you detention,' he said, running a hand through his hair. Emma didn't respond, she just stared, unblinkingly at the sky.
'Em?' he put a hand on her shoulder. Only then did she react. She lowered her head and then turned to face him. Emotionless. That one word ran through Tancred's mind as he looked into her eyes.
'Yes?' she said finally, her voice barely above a whisper.
'Go back soon,' repeated Tancred. Her empty eyes scanned his face before she smiled.
A chill ran through Tancred. That smile…It was strange. It wasn't like the smile she had given him before falling asleep when she was in infirmary. That one was full of happiness, satisfaction and cheerfulness. This smile, which she had just given him, was full of pain, sorrow and regret.
He lifted his hand off her shoulder, while she turned back to the blank sky, and he took a couple of steps back. Had Emma always been so…cold? No. It had only happened recently.
Tancred took a deep breath before returning to his dorm, leaving the bird child to stare aimlessly at the night sky.
After an hour or two of tossing and turning, Tancred got out of bed and stared at the full moon, in the hope of calming himself.
'Huh?'
Tancred had glanced down into the gardens, only to see that Emma was still standing there. Watching the moon and the clouds which blocked the stars, the art girl was still, her face slightly pale.
Tancred, slightly panicked, picked up his scarf, wrapped it around his neck and quietly, on the lookout for Matron and Manfred, descended the stairs and entered the garden.
Emma, hearing the crunch of dried leaves, turned slowly to see Tancred, out of breath in his pajamas with a scarf around his neck.
'God Em, why don't you go inside already?' he gasped, trying to catch his breath.
She smiled again. The same smile, thought Tancred, the one of pain and sadness.
'Why are you here then?' she whispered.
'To make sure you go back to bed,'
'It's none of your concern,' that line again. Tancred grimaced.
'It is. When a friend has become so distant and won't explain why, it is,' he replied after a while.
'You…will understand soon,' replied Emma
'It's the soon that makes it the most irritating,' scowled Tancred.
Emma was silent. Tancred sighed.
Taking off his scarf he wrapped it around his crush.
Surprised, Emma's mouth hung slightly open. His actions were so gentle, it surprised her.
When the scarf was securely around her neck, Tancred took a step back. This time he made a pained face, which tore at Emma's heart.
'Go back soon,' he said, slowly. He smiled, this time full of regret. He turned and headed back to bed. Narrowly missing crashing into Matron, Tancred sighed and crawled under the warm covers.
Then he remembered something and, glancing through the window down to the garden below, he smiled, as it was empty. Emma was gone.
He wriggled into the warm blankets and went to sleep. The smile remaining on his face.
