She soon takes Beck up on the opportunity, sneaking out of the apartment alone to find Beck at the gym, absorbed in his own distraction. Sometimes they would talk to another, sometimes they didn't. Yet when they did, it was the type of idleness that taught growing friends information about each other.
Beck liked the trivial disc games they had in the park before the revolution. He been one of four friends that had been joined at the hip from the first moment they laid eyes on each other, as if they had been destined from the beginning of man's knowledge.
There were only three of them left now. Zed, Mara, and Beck had lost Bohdi to a Royal Army soldier when they tried to force everyone out of the park. All it had taken one shot, and the group had gone from four to three in the blink of an eye.
Which is why he joined the fight. More lives could be saved from the unjust actions of an army forcing themselves in and over homes and freedoms.
It made sense now.
And Paige found other stories that didn't have to do with war; like how her friends invented a game of watching the cars pass by on the way to school, or how her colleagues at the hospital told the greatest stories of things one couldn't even believe were real.
And for a long time, Paige forgot she was a spy. That she was, in fact, apart of the Royal Army and had been sent on a mission.
That is, until Beck arrives after her one night, looking deader on his feet than usual. He says nothing to her, instead making a beeline to a bench, where he plops down and rests his head in his hands. Paige stops, hand mid-air from where she had been reaching across for a weight, and instead watches him.
"Beck?" She draws her hand close, and he looks up as she approaches. "Is something...wrong?"
He doesn't answer for a long moment, allowing her enough time to sit down. Finally he sighs, and his form slumps.
"We got an interception that the forces out on the field had caught. From Clu's Army."
The Royal Army. She blinks. It could be anything…
"We have a spy in our midst."
Her heart stops, but she manages to pass it off as a deep breath. "Wow…"
"They've been here for some time now. They didn't state what the business of the spy was, or even their name or description. All they said is that they would know who it was by the tattoo of the sun on their shoulder."
Her shoulder feels as if it burns in reminder of the mark, and she resists the urge to reach up to her shoulder. Instead, she keeps level gaze at the side of Beck's head.
"Does that ring a bell to you at all?"
Paige shakes her head, feeling herself twinge as she lies. "No. I haven't seen anyone with a sun tattoo."
"Hm." He finally looks up, and seems to find nothing wrong with her expression. "We'll have to keep looking. And Paige?"
"Yes?"
"You can't tell anyone what I told you." He hisses, for he has leaned close after glancing around. "Not even Mara. I can't let this news risk being discovered by the spy. Got it?"
She swallows deeply, before nodding. "I understand."
He nods as well, before standing. "I'm sorry, I need to go. Have a good night."
She smiles as he walks off, but when he is out of sight, her smile fades as a heavy weight settles in her chest, one that she can't find the words to express.
If only you knew.