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A Study in Scarlet: Part Nine

Paris, France, The European Federation

It felt like they were in the courtroom all day although it has only been a few hours. Scarlet felt most relieved when the judge told her she could go back to her seat. Sure, she almost fainted while coming out of the witness box but she was more than excited to be done with the questioning. She's been struggling with her family problem a lot more in the past few days than before and now she doesn't mind. Struggle didn't make her a better person. It wore her down but made her mature. She doesn't have to suffer to be a badass. She isn't her parents or their mistakes. She's everything learned from those errors.

As for now, outside the courthouse, Scarlet sits in the middle of a park bench with Émilie on one side and Wolf on the other. They have cups of partially melted ice cream in their hands as they watch the normal life of French people happen around them. Nobody would know that they just came out of a courtroom. To them, they're just three teenagers enjoying their lives and skipping class.

"Émilie and I used to come here as kids," Scarlet tells Wolf. "I was born in Rieux but moved to Paris after my mom left."

Émilie nods. "We would buy some ice cream and run around the fountain. Whenever we were wearing our galoshes, we would jump in the fountain just to make our curls as heavy as possible."

"We'd jump out when the cop would come and scold us." Scarlet smiles nostalgically, looking down at her ice cream. She takes another spoonful as she looks at Wolf. "I'm sorry your first experience of France was this."

"No, no," Wolf says, shaking his head as he puts an arm around her. "I haven't been out of a country since I left Luna as a baby. This was an interesting trip."

Scarlet's mouth drops. "So, this was basically your first plane ride? And you were alone? Your mom let you go alone?"

Wolf sighs in a way that says Scarlet should've asked a different question. "Ma just wished for me to have fun on my school trip."

Émilie holds back her laughter as Scarlet straightens her posture and smacks his leg. Émilie holds up a hand behind Scarlet for Wolf and he high-fives it. Scarlet frowns at Émilie for supporting this but her friend shrugs, excited about this more than she is.

"You lied to your mom and now you're in a different time zone?" Scarlet asks. "And to think that you called me the impulsive one in our relationship. Hypocrite…"

Wolf gets up to throw away their ice cream cups in the nearest trash cans to avoid having this conversation with her. Émilie mutters to Scarlet how Wolf is now more wonderful than she already thinks he is and Scarlet rolls her eyes. Scarlet hops up, putting her hands on her hips as she looks at him squarely. When Wolf turns back around, he wipes his hands on his jeans and watches as Scarlet's frown turns into a small smirk.

"Did she get you?" Scarlet eyes Wolf's enchanted expression. Her hair is being tossed around by the wind.

"Get me?" Wolf asks. "Who would get me?"

"France. She looks like she got you."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he says, hiding a smile.

"She got you before you landed. That's why you're here. She did the same for me."

Scarlet feels faint as she gazes into his eyes. She laughs as he wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her towards him. He starts to kiss her tenderly and she stands on her tiptoes to reach him better, but this time, he lifts her in the air. Maybe a part of falling in love with someone else is also falling in love with yourself.

Émilie weeps. "Oh, my Scarlet has such a life in Commonwealth."

"Émilie approves of you, by the way," Scarlet tells him.

"Oh, I noticed," Wolf replies.

"Can I ask you something?" Scarlet says. "How in the stars did you afford a plane ticket to France? The government covered mine."

"Let's just say that if my aces gets dragged back to Luna on behalf of the Blackburns, it's because I'm repaying a debt."

-o-

Commonwealth, The Earthen Union

In a coffee shop, Thorne and Cress have taken over a table with their school books to study. This was a study date except Thorne put an emphasis on the date whereas Cress was more focused on the study part. Cress was trying to help him in math because Thorne was almost failing the course but in all honesty, Thorne couldn't care less about what x equalled to (especially because they weren't solving variables in math anymore). He was more interested in what Cress wanted to do on the weekend. Cress wasn't amused about that at the moment (he should've asked that later).

"Thorne, I'll be honest with you," Cress says to him, putting a supportive hand on his forearm. "You'll fail this test. I love you so much but there is nothing we can do now."

Thorne shrugs empathetically, throwing his pen on top of their notebooks in an accepted defeat. "If only watching you study is the same as actually studying."

"You're not even watching me study."

"Ah, spades…" He mutters. "You got me there."

Cress smiles a little. "Hey, I have a question for you."

"Is it math related?"

She laughs as she shakes her head. Thorne is relieved. It wasn't until a few seconds ago that he realized they were doing math. He thought they were doing chemistry or something like that. Wow, he'll really fail.

"Hypothetically speaking, if I did run back to Luna, would you run after me?" Cress asks.

Thorne grins at her. "Babe, I'll be the one picking you up from Luna's airport."

-o-

Kai walks down an aisle of the grocery store, whistling to himself as he picked up a package of cookies from the shelf. He continues walking through the grocery store, following a small list that Torin's wife, Mallory, told him to pick up. The benefit of being alone is that you only need to shop for his personal needs and could even indulge in personal desires. The only downfall is, well, being alone. Thank the stars he has Torin's family.

Kai spots Wolf's mom in the store as well. She sees him as well and doesn't think much of it at first. Then, when she walks up to him to say hello, he instantly remembers that Wolf is in France and his whistling stops.

"Hello, Kai," she says in a welcoming tone.

It was like Kai forgot how to communicate in that moment of time. He isn't sure what part of his brain let him say this. He blames his mouth for taking it right out of his head right before his mind could put that sentence in the "don't say" bin.

"Wolf went to France to look for Scarlet," Kai says to her. "She ran away and all that, but don't worry. He's fine and so is she."

Kai closes his mouth and wants to flee from the situation. He watches as Wolf's mom wraps her mind about what he said. He can't back out of this one now. Kai crosses his fingers, wishing the stars that Wolf's mom will laugh it off as a joke but she doesn't. Instead, she looks to be thinking everything over and she eventually believes it because her son is that boy. Kai curses to himself as Wolf's mom does the same in Hebrew.

Maybe Kai should just run away to France now.

-o-

Group Chat - Locating Scarlet Expedition Squad
Members: Captain Thorne, Cinder, Cress, Jacin, Kai, Scarlet, Winter, Wolf

Kai: Hey, Wolf, coming home anytime soon?

Wolf: Why? What did Thorne do?

Captain Thorne: I'M FAILING MATH *crying emojis*

Jacin: *endless laughing emojis*

Cress: It'd be a miracle if he passes.

Jacin: retweet.

Cinder: Remember, Thorne, you're allowed to use a calculator.

Cinder: and not the one on your phone *laughing emojis*

Jacin: re-spading-tweet.

Captain Thorne: *glaring emojis*

Wolf: What. Happened.

Jacin: This ought to be good.

Kai: So, Wolf…

Kai: I ran into your mom at the grocery store and may or may not have revealed that you were actually in France with Scarlet.

[chat goes dead]

[chat comes back to life]

Winter: We expected this from Thorne.

Captain Thorne: Even I expected this from Thorne. *single laughing emoji*

Scarlet: Well, spades, his mom hates me now.

Winter: Lol you should just stay in France at this point.

Wolf: Forget about her hating you, I will never be able to leave the house again!

Winter: I just offered the idea of staying in France.

Kai: Sorry…

Wolf: No, don't be.

Jacin: It's because Lunars have this gift or something where they hypnotize you into revealing your secrets.

Wolf: EXACTLY!

Cinder: That's ridiculous.

Winter: We totally do. It's why Artemisian people are so unfazed by everything. And basically everyone else in Luna.

Cress: Some of us don't even have to try.

Captain Thorne: *coughs* WINTER *coughs*

Scarlet: retweet.

Kai: actually, yeah, I believe that.

Cress: So, Scarlet, everything good with your dad and all that?

Scarlet: I don't know. I did my part. I'll let you all know when I hear anything or decide to run away again.

[If you spotted the foreshadowing in there, I applaud you!] [2020: Took me a minute to figure out what it was.]