So... I was hoping the second half of the school year would be better, but clearly it hasn't been. That said, almost six months between updates is unacceptable, even for me, so I will try to do better. :)
As a sidenote, if I have any Throne of Glass fans here, I'm working on a MASSIVE post KOA fic and some AU things for that, if anyone is interested. There's a survey floating around on my tumblr if anyone is. :)
14.
When she woke up the next morning, the house was eerily silent. Even Casper, who normally snored in his sleep, seemed to have decided it was safer not to and was somehow simply letting out barely audible whistles with each breath. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes and yawning a bit. She hated the quiet. The only quiet that she'd ever heard be this still was in the aftermath of a crime, and it made her uneasy.
She opened the bedroom door slowly, half unsure what to expect outside. But the house around her bore no signs of being a crime scene nor a battlefield, despite the stillness of the silence that suggested otherwise, and she slowly crept out of the room, down the hall, half expecting something, anything, to pop out and break the silence.
But nothing did, even as she descended the steps to the lower level of the house and almost tiptoed through it to the door. There was nothing there, and there was no sign of Artemis anywhere. She shut down the thought of where he could have been or what he was doing, and instead set to work finding what she needed.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
About an hour later she found herself on the doorstep of a different villa, this one much more the size and style of what the name had initially implied to her on arrival. She'd found what she needed in the house and a different bike in the garage, and worked her way around the island on it until she found what - and therefore who - she was looking for.
She parked the bike against the side of the house and approached the steps, stopping at the foot and taking a deep breath. She didn't know how to do this, nor what she would even say, but… it seemed a bit late - not to mention wildly counterproductive - to turn back now. She steelled herself, then mounted the steps and knocked a few times on the door before she could lose her nerve.
For a long minute, no one answered. Then, she could have sworn she heard a faint sound from inside before the door swung open.
Riley stood in front of her, his dark chocolate eyes barely open and bleary still with sleep. He looked like he'd barely rolled out of bed to answer the door, and his attire also attested to that - he was wearing nothing but grey pajama pants that hung loose on his hips, revealing the hem of his boxers and the beginning of that dark trail-
She forced her eyes up and away, feeling the blush coloring her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize-"
"-that I would still be sleeping at 7 in the morning? Imagine that," he drawled, although his voice held no malice. He rubbed his eyes. "How did you even find me?"
"I have my own sources." He quirked a brow at her, and she relented, "Artemis has a book…"
"Of course he does." Riley smothered a yawn. "Does he know you looked at it?"
"I don't know and I don't care," Holly lied, a bit too quickly. "Anyway, aren't you going to let me in?"
"Are you going to tell me why you're here?"
They stared at each other for a moment. Holly pressed her lips together in a thin line. "I'd rather have that conversation inside," she said finally, her voice quiet.
Riley stared at her for a moment longer before sighing, opening the door for her and stepping back to let her in.
Holly went in slowly, glancing around. The villa obviously wasn't where he lived, nor where anyone did, really; it was equipped with similar furniture to the one her and Artemis were staying in, but not extensively, and it was much smaller, and obviously underused. It was clear no one lived here most of the time.
"Where's your dog?" Riley asked, closing the door and walking right into the kitchen without waiting for her.
She followed him slowly, looking around. "I left him. He was still sleeping."
"I see." He walked over and started the coffee pot. "And why aren't you still sleeping?"
"I…" she stopped, not entirely sure what had woken her up. "I don't know," she admitted, after a moment's thought. "And I didn't realize it was so early, either. I woke up and the sun was up so I just assumed… that it was later, I guess." She didn't mention that in her rush to get out of the house she hadn't bothered to check a clock for the time.
The words seemed to be implied though, as Riley's face darkened a bit as he turned around. "Look, I don't mind you being here, but I don't know what I can help you with. Did he do something to you? Is that why you're here?" When she didn't answer immediately, he pressed, "I can get you out of here, Holly, if you need me to. But I can't openly go against him. And if you're just looking for a rebound, I'm not…" He trailed off when she started a bit and she flushed.
"Of course not! No, I…" she sighed, sitting down at the table. "It's not like that at all. I love him, Riley, and nothing is going to change that. Not even if he hurt me - which he didn't, by the way, not with anything more than words. I just…" she stopped, chewing her lip. "I don't know if I can trust him. I don't know how much of what he told me was true. I just wanted somebody to talk to… to be able to ask without them running back to him about it."
Riley rubbed his jaw, regarding her for a moment in silence. "I… look, you know as well as I do, he doesn't trust me that much. But, that being said…" He met her eyes. "What I know is the same as what you know. And as what everyone else does, from what I can gather."
"So he doesn't believe I'm still feeding information to the LEP and brought me here as collateral?" It sounded so stupid even still, saying it out loud, but she couldn't help the little skip in her chest the thought brought.
Riley sighed a bit, grabbing a mug and turning to the coffee pot again. "If he has any inclination at all that that's what's going on here, he hasn't shared it with anyone else."
She couldn't help the pure relief that swept through her at that simple statement, even as she felt utterly moronic for it. Artemis couldn't be hiding something, not from everyone in his company. He was a good actor, but not that good. He operated with a team, not alone, even if he alone was the brains. It was highly unlikely that he had motives that they hadn't been able to decipher by now. And while she was sure he wouldn't have told Riley, with his extended contact with Mulch and Butler, he would have certainly found out through them by now.
She was a moron. She should have trusted him. Even if he very well had reasons not to trust her, he'd given her no reasons not to trust him. Nor her mother, apparently, but she pushed the thought away. "That's… good to know," she said at last, more to herself than him.
"Can I ask what prompted this sudden questioning into his motives, or is that top secret?" He offered her a cup of coffee, and she took it, getting up to add some creamer to hers. "Did you have a fight?"
"Not exactly, I just…" She sighed, looking down. "Since he'd been gone… it all seemed so surreal. I was starting to question how real it all really was, and then he made a comment like he thought I might have played him to survive, and it made me question… a lot of things." She looked down into her coffee, avoiding his eyes. "It...just...my feelings are a mess," she mumbled.
Riley looked at her and sighed. "Look, as much as it pains me to say it… he cares about you, Holly. A lot. And from what I've seen, at least in these past several months, most of what he's done has been about you. About...well, things I really shouldn't say without his permission."
Holly nodded slowly. "Why don't you like him?" she blurted, unable to help herself. They seemed to have a rivalry, and from what she could see, it was one that was established sometime before she came around - either a very long time ago, or perhaps sometime over the period when she was gone.
Riley sighed, taking a long drink of his coffee before answering. "I… just…" He looked away, barely containing another sigh. "It's complicated. We come from similar but different circumstances, and I think… we both realize that we both have our own loyalties and best interests at heart, not each others'."
"So you'd betray him, is that what you're saying?" Despite her current situation with Artemis, her heart raced a bit at the thought.
Riley seemed to sense it, and he raised his hands in a placating gesture. "No, no. That's not at all what I said. If I wanted him put away, Holly, I could have handed all of them over months ago, and you know that." She did, even if she hadn't thought of it that way before. "I just… we came together because we could benefit from each other. It's a short term thing. I'm not part of this… group that he's built, and that's fine with me. We aren't best friends, and that's also fine with me. It'll just make it easier for us to part paths in the end."
"And when is this "end" supposed to be, exactly?" Holly asked quietly.
Riley just sighed a bit, giving her a look tinged with something between bitterness and sadness. "Whenever he decides he's done with me."
oOoOoOoOoOo
Holly left Riley's house shortly after that. She'd certainly found out what she wanted to know, and he seemed to have run out of things to say for the morning, good or bad. They had finished their coffee in relative silence, and Riley had walked out of the room without so much as a dismissal to her. When she finally finished hers and got up, she got hear the shower running from the bathroom, and decided it was better to leave than to wait until he got out. There wasn't much reason for her to stay anyway.
She took her time getting back to her bike and cruising back to their villa. She needed to see Artemis again - to talk to him, apologize, and just short everything out. He really couldn't afford to have this kind of drama going on in the midst of everything he already had on his plate, and she certainly didn't want to be the source of it, or any other troubles that might be plaguing him for whatever reason. That said, she wasn't in a huge hurry to get back and have this conversation, either. It needed to happen, but she wasn't exactly excited to admit what she'd allowed herself to think, either, even for a short period of time.
She was half-hoping he wasn't there when she arrived, but luck didn't have it that way. She parked her bike and went inside, stopping dead when she opened the door and found him sitting on the couch, staring at something far away and petting Casper absentmindedly as the dog slept on his lap. His eyes immediately snapped into focus at the sound of the door opening, and she froze when he turned his eyes to hers. He rose quickly, pushing Casper onto the couch, but made no move toward her, just staring at her, obviously at a loss for words.
For a long moment, they stared at each other in silence. Finally, very quietly, he murmured, "I'm sorry."
Stunned at the apology, it took her a moment to recover enough to answer. "You're sorry? Really?" He opened his mouth to continue, but she talked right over him. "Why on earth are you sorry? I'm the one who should be sorry. I am sorry." She hadn't known how to have this conversation, but faced with him now, his apology, the words just tumbled out. "I am sorry, and you have no reason to be, Artemis. Everything you said was completely reasonable, and I just… I panicked. I panicked at the idea that you didn't trust me, because I trust you, and I trust you implicitly, and for you to not reciprocate, for you to believe in any way that I could have not felt for you what I do… was just crushing. The panic was crushing, and stupid - any thought that you could have done anything to hurt me or anyone I care about or not trust me in any way was just stupid and awful and I'm such an idiot for believing it, and overreacting the way I did. And I always do, and it's never necessary - never right - and...and I know that now." She stepped up to him, running her hands through his hair and biting her lip. He said nothing, but closed his eyes and inhaled slowly at the gentle touch. "I am sorry," she repeated, even knowing she'd said it so many times already, because it just didn't seem like enough to convey the magnitude of what she felt. "Because I failed you in about every way that counted, Artemis. But you never failed me, and never doubted me, and now I know enough to do the same." Unsure what else to say, especially with his lack of reaction, she just stopped, looking down for a moment and then hugging him tightly.
For a moment, he didn't react. Then he pressed his face into her hair and inhaled deeply, and she felt his arms come up around her, pulling her tightly to him. 'Thank you," he whispered, his voice cracking slightly, and so low that she wouldn't have heard it had his lips not been right by her ear. "And I'm sorry, too, because I still should be, for ever possibly making you feel that way." He kissed her hair, then pulled back slightly. "Do you forgive me?"
She smiled a bit. "Yes, Artemis. I forgive you." She rested her forehead against his. "Do you forgive me?"
Artemis smiled back, cupping her face. "Yes. I forgive you too, Holly."
They stared at each other for a few minutes, not saying anything. Then he kissed her, suddenly, deeply, until they were both had to break apart to breathe, panting heavily and leaning into each other. And then he kissed her again, lifting her up, and then they were moving to the bedroom, Artemis carrying her in and laying her down, kicking the door closed behind them on the dog. There they stayed, wrapped up in each other, for the next several hours, until dinner time.