A rare, energized bustle in the Gerudo marketplace crowded the streets. A new wave of visitors had arrived that morning making surveillance harder than Idri had wanted. She sat in her room by the window, looking down over the streets as she combed through her hair. No sign of Pire's tent or herself anywhere. Idri felt the weight of her decision dragging her to the floor. She knew she shouldn't have split the party and she did anyway. But that wasn't what really bothered her. Truthfully, she hated herself for taking the room at the inn instead of crashing with Smaude. It would've kept Pire in the vicinity and would've saved her the heartache.
But if she had done it, she wouldn't have cared about Pire and her mission.
Idri had stopped combing a while ago and was simply staring out the window into the flow of bodies. She tossed her comb into her bag and snatched it up, hurrying to the door. It'd be difficult to search in the surge.
"I have to find her before Sooga gets impatient…" She muttered to herself.
"Find who?" That low tone rings in her ears, causing her to shiver and hiss internally. Turning to meet Smaude's face, she scratched the back of her head. Smaude wasn't in her guard uniform that morning. She wore the casual, but stunning, common garb in a lovely purple color. Idri could feel herself getting red. Smaude's half-lidded, lazy gaze didn't waver.
"My uh… traveling companion," Idri answered, forcing herself to keep eye contact.
"Oh. You two didn't… share the room?" She asked, tilting her head. Her ponytail fell from her shoulder. The sweeping look Smaude gave her reeked of implication. Idri puffed, her styled, stray white bang hanging in front of her face flying as the air shot from her mouth.
"No. It was a single bed. I'm not sharing with some stranger." It wasn't the question that bothered her. It was that look. Smaude shrugged and straightened. She stood tall over the petite Yiga member.
"I'll help you find her then. What was her name, again?"
"Oh, that'd really help. Her name is Pire. She had to camp out last night." Idri answered.
"Camp out? Oh, then no need to look. There was a tent set up outside the walls this morning." Smaude said, pointing a thumb in its direction. That was all she needed to hear. Idri gave a quick thanks before racing out of the city. Sure enough, her tent was there. Still up despite it being well into the morning.
"Pire, hey it's morning. C'mon, the more we dawdle the longer we have to be here," Idri said, shaking the tent loudly, "or, ya know, you can just stay and I'll keep talking to Smaude… That's cool too." She paused for a moment and shook the tent again.
"I'm right here," Idri yelped and karate chopped Pire's arm. Pire held her arm and hissed in pain, "Ow, why?!" She rubbed the pain out of her tricep and grimaced. Idri glanced between her and the standing tent. There was weight when she shook it, what else was in there?
"What're-? Then why is your tent still up? And why weren't you in town?" She questioned. Pire furrowed her brow at Idri. She unzipped and pushed open the entrance flaps and tapped the boot of whoever was inside. There was a jolt of sudden waking and a yawn before some silence. Idri was curious, but there was a bit of her that was jealous. Jealous that her target had the freedom to sleep with people on the fly like that.
Then the figure exited the tent. Idri gaped as Sooga cracked his back and rubbed his neck, looking more refreshed than she'd ever seen. Seemed her jealousy wasn't going away. What gave him the right to sleep around when she is barred from it?
"What's the hurry? You said you needed the romance lessons, don't you have class today?" Pire said. Idri froze, parsing through everything they told the target over the last few days. Sooga's brows raised, waiting for her to backtrack through the accusation. Idri laughed quietly, wiping the sweat off her face.
"I-I do, I just… uh… I was worried about you! Yeah, worried. I didn't see your tent inside the limits, didn't- ah… didn't know you couldn't camp there?" Idri stumbled, folding her arms and avoiding her eyes. Pire stepped past her and knocked down her tent to put it away.
"Okay. Well, you go ahead, I'll keep on keeping on with my stuff." Pire said.
"Your stuff?"
"The reason I was heading here," she waved to them both and returned to the city limits, "have fun at class. And good morning, Sooga." Idri and Sooga stayed behind to watch her go. Once she was out of view, Idri reeled her arm back. A single, solid glare from Sooga stopped her from punching his arm. She growled and slammed her fist into her hand, sighing.
"Nothing happened." He grumbled.
"Sure. And yet it's nearly noon." Idri said, folding her arms.
"And you sent her to camp outside for no reason? I knew we shouldn't have stopped here. Gerudo City is poison to any mission with you," Sooga rubbed his temple, "You need to avoid distractions. Master Kohga gave us two weeks to convince her to join us."
"We can't just steal her stupid robot thing?" Idri huffed.
"No," Sooga paused a moment, searching the air before he continued, "he wants her to join us. To create more of those things for the clan." Knowing Kohga as well as she did, that was hard to believe. It wasn't his move to seek specific recruits. Idri's eyes trailed the sand, a memory of her entrance trial threatening to breach the front of her mind. She left it at that. Silently, she agreed to make friends with her partner's fling. She won't be happy about it, though.