CHAPTER TEN

Behind his Façade

Allowing Karou to watch him feed had been her first insight into his vampirism. It was significant that she’d also seen where or rather whom he harvested it from, but both were so sterile and civilised compared to how he’d growled at her. Karou had seen a glimpse of the feral creature blood lust could turn him into; it might as well have been him standing there naked at the bathroom door. Maybe, at last, she was reacting how he thought she ought to because when he’d growled, she looked frightened. Another quandary arose because now Warren wasn’t sure he wanted her to.

For the rest of that day, Warren worked. He needed to get his mind refocused and onto something less stressful. Ironically, work was the perfect mediator since living with Karou was becoming more complicated.

That night he hadn’t dared leave this office and missed his scotch and his relaxation time. He waited until Karou had gone to bed to sneak past her room and get some sleep, but his night wasn’t that restful, and when his alarm went off, he groaned into his pillow. Ugh, I really don’t want to get up.

Karou heard Warren’s alarm too and stirred like she usually did, but when she heard the second noise that came from his bedroom, she chuckled - Karou knew the sound of someone unwilling to get out of bed.

Quietly sneaking out of her room and into the bathroom was easy, but she heard Warren call her name from within his room on her way back.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Are you outside my door?”

“Mhmm, I just went to the bathroom.”

“Come in here?”

Karou edged nearer his room and peeped inside. It was dark, and with the black-out blinds down over the unit’s only windows, she could barely see his outline in the sheets. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. I have something to ask you, that’s all.” Warren flicked on his bedside lamp and propped himself up against the headboard. These days it didn’t feel significant to not have a shirt on in front of her, and Karou had gotten better at not staring and hiding her blushes.

“Is it - why am I up so early on a Saturday morning?” Karou asked gingerly, entering the room to stand at the foot of the bed. “Because what’s weirder is that you’re not at work yet...”

“Yes, that is weird, but I’m considering giving myself a day off; I worked late yesterday.”

“Mhmm, I know. You didn’t leave your office until after I’d gone to bed.” Karou nodded and looked at the floor with a close-lipped smile; she’d figured he was avoiding her.

“Karou, do I frighten you?” Warren asked, straight to the point.

“What? No, of course not. I’ve told you before.” Taken aback by his question, she didn’t understand why he’d suddenly asked. Instinctively her limbs shifted to indicate that she’d been inclined to climb onto the bed. She’d wanted to comfort and dissuade him from the idea that he was frightening. It took her mere seconds to think it through, and she thought better of it; it would’ve been too familiar. Embarrassingly, it was too late to retract because her movement made her intention obvious. A wildly vivid blush spread her cheeks when she looked at Warren apologetically.

“You can sit down if you want.” He allowed. The passive ‘almost smile’ he made steadied Karou’s nerves. He created enough space for Karou to sit near him by sitting up fully and crossing his legs. “Yesterday, at the bathroom door, I didn’t frighten you?”

“Uh- no, I mean, I’ve never been growled at by a person before, but -” Karou explained as she crawled up the bed and sat cross-legged too.

“You looked shocked, and I thought I might’ve scared you.”

“Well, you looked like you were gonna burst in and ‘take a snack’, but that wasn’t... what I mean is I- I was naked.” Picking at her fingernails like she did when she was feeling anxious, Karou stared down into her lap, recalling the look on his face and how it had made her neck feel red hot, imagining him there.

“You looked scared because you thought I’d wind up seeing you naked?” Warren asked in disbelief. He wasn’t sure that being seen naked was worse than being exsanguinated.

“Yeah, exactly.” Karou nodded, but Warren still looked at a loss, so she decided to jog his memory. “It was the same morning when we woke up, y’know, how we did…” Karou was careful not to say cuddling in case it somehow bothered him. “Anyway, you couldn’t remember if anything had happened and said if it had, it would’ve been a ‘terrible mistake’… and that it was ‘ridiculous’ to think that anything like that could’ve happened.” Karou’s eyes remained trained downward as she rambled. With her shoulders hunched, it made her look smaller, meeker somehow.

“My words really stuck with you?” Warren had noticed that when her self-esteem was low, she would try and shrink herself physically. He’d also recognised that he often made her act that way.

“They sometimes hurt too; I don’t know why… Nobody has ever told me otherwise, so I don’t know why I think you should be any different.”

“What do you mean by ‘nobody has ever told you otherwise’?” Warren angled to face her now that he was asking deep and prying questions. “Karou, you’ve asked me to look at you when I’m talking to you, so would you extend that courtesy and look at me?”

“Nobody has ever expressed that they might ever want to be more than friends with me.”

Seeing as he’d asked, she looked at him, but when he did that thing with his eyebrows, she looked back towards her hands because he looked so handsome, and she couldn’t bear to blush so blatantly the moment she met his eyes.

Warren had only furrowed his brow in confusion. “We’ve been here before, and I’ll tell you again what I told you then. You wouldn’t notice even if someone did. You blew off that boy right in front of me, and you haven’t been on any more dates with Ebon either.”

“Pft, Ebon doesn’t need a girlfriend; he’s in love with himself already. I heard him talking to one of the others, who I thought was my friend, and apparently, his only fascination with me is that I’m mortal,” Karou grumbled. “He was curious to see how easy I’d be to control. I guess he thinks I’m weak. He’s right, though, I am weak, and I am mortal.”

“Hmph, that’s demons for you... He’d only have to live with you for a day to know you are practically impossible to control, though.” Warren scoffed.

Karou forced a smile, but her mood didn’t pick up; she just sighed and let the silence linger.

Although it was a conversation he didn’t want to repeat, Warren could tell that Karou was still feeling down and out, especially regarding how helpless she felt living amongst the compound’s eclectic mythical community.

“You’re still hung up on being sired, aren’t you?” He asked, trying not to roll his eyes.

“Every time I talk about it, you get angry.” Karou stopped picking at her fingers but still needed something to soothe her anxiety; consequently, she pulled her hair over one shoulder and began braiding the dark brown strands together.

With Karou’s hair out of the way, he had access to stare at her neck. You’re toying with me again, and you don’t even know it. He thought while he said, “You ask me for things I can’t give you, Karou.”

“Like kisses?” Now her gun-metal blue eyes focused on Warren, wide, beautiful, and glossy looking; she was upset and feeling sorry for herself.

Whenever she looked at him that way, it felt like something shifted inside him; it almost moved him toward her. Instead, he pulled back against the magnetism and drew in a deep breath, only to be taunted by her scent. Choking back another thirsty growl, he managed to say, “Wasn’t one enough to put you off?”

“There were two actually, and… No...”

“Karou, you make living with you so hard sometimes.” Falling back into his pillows, Warren ran his hands back through his hair with a defeated sigh.

“Well, you don’t care about hurting my feelings, so if the thought of doing it again is too gross to consider, you can just tell me.”

“I never intend to hurt your feelings, and I try not to lie to you, but navigating what I’m supposed to say while keeping both of those things in mind is fucking a minefield. Did anything about the way I kissed you lead you to the conclusion that it repulsed me?”

Karou could see that maybe she’d pushed him too far. He wasn’t angry, but he was undoubtedly annoyed that she’d brought it up again. In a last-ditch attempt not to fight, she tried to lighten the mood and grinned over at him, hoping that she could make amends; she joked, “I wouldn’t know, would I? I’m not an expert.”

Later on, when she tried to recollect it, it would all blur together into flashes of moments without context or chronology. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but one second, she was sitting cross-legged, grinning at Warren, and the next, she found herself pushed back into the bank of pillows behind her and Warren’s face looming over her. Their eyes locked, so when she saw Warren’s were clear, Columbian blue, she knew she couldn’t put what he did next down to bloodlust.

Gently she felt his fingertips brush over her lips. That was when they lost eye contact because Warren watched how her lips trembled instead. He mumbled something, but the audio of her memory had lost the words. The trail his fingers traced over her cheek and jaw felt to be tingling in his wake until he combed her hair away and cupped the side of her face. The image of his face flickered away when she closed her eyes to savour those tender sensations.

How can such a cold touch be so warm? She thought.

Cautiously Karou reached out to rest her hands against Warren’s bare chest. When he didn’t flinch away, Karou sighed, relieved that she hadn’t spooked him. It was extraordinary to Karou that he allowed her to feel over his collarbones and shoulders when Warren usually kept his distance. Curiosity encouraged her to venture towards his neck, and the embossed texture of his scarred skin suddenly made sense to her - they had once been fang bites, trophies of his raw moments as a victim to another vampire. Karou wondered if she’d ever convince him to give in to her and gift her a set of similar scars. She was fascinated to know what it would feel like but couldn’t fathom why – deep down, she knew it made her seem crazy. Regardless, she imagined there was something intimate about it. All she’d known in place of love was neglect, so perhaps biting could be her segue. Since Warren warned her that feelings during feeding could be akin to sex, and that was something else she wanted to experience, she couldn’t persuade herself to be scared of his fangs. Could she dare hope that he would be willing to deliver on that wish too?

The curious way Karou tilted her chin toward him prompted him to continue. The action had been an involuntary invite on her part, but he had taken it as her consent.

The last time they’d kissed, he’d been quite deliberate in exploring the inside of her mouth, but this time he took his time finding just the right way for their lips to meet. A few times, he lightly pecked at her before changing the angle of his head or the pressure behind his lips until he was sure he’d teased her enough.

Sure enough, she made that whine of pleasure and impatience. Her lips opened against his without him having to prompt her; she was learning. With their lips locked together, Karou’s rapidly beating heart pounded a strong pulse that he could hear. He felt her fingers reach about the back of his neck as if she were desperate to keep him close.

It was hard to deny that he was equally desperate. Warren had often daydreamed about this, but Karou was much sweeter in reality. This was only a gateway to darker pleasures, though, so the instant he felt his fingertips twitch with the urge to roam down her neck, and the possibility of her chest and waist beneath his hands seemed within reach, he knew he would have to stop.

Warren knew he had to pry himself away from her right then, or he wouldn’t be able to. So, setting his hand onto her shoulder, Warren did it gently by stroking up her arm towards where her hand had splayed into the back of his hair. Gradually, he pried her fingers from him and began his retreat. The whimper she made when she knew the moment was dying was heart-wrenching, and he immediately mourned the absence of her lips. As a comfort, Warren took Karou’s hand in his and held it to his chest. He didn’t know of her other wants, her eagerness to explore the lustier things he was staving off, so for now, he didn’t push his luck and possibly ruin the moment they’d shared.

Inches and silence were the only things between them as they simultaneously calmed down. Warren pondered why it had never felt like that to kiss someone before, and Karou feared that she might never be kissed like that again.

Karou let Warren release her hand and watched him move away. Silently, he left for the bathroom while she lay there staring at the ceiling, gathering her thoughts. There had been so many words said before, and now there was silence. What had happened was both real and simultaneously not.

The man staring back at him from the bathroom mirror was familiar, but the signals his body had sent to his brain weren’t. He knew lust, but it was apparent that he wasn’t thinking with that part of his body when he glanced down to his pelvis. His chest ached, his head felt fuzzy, and everywhere inside and out felt to be on fire.

A cold shower grounded him back into reality. He continued his ablutions and was set to go about the rest of his day without having any more to do with Karou than he usually would. Except, when he left the bathroom, distractedly rubbing a towel through his hair, he discovered Karou was still laying on his bed. She’d fallen back to sleep, curled up on one side of his bed. When he glanced at his alarm clock, he saw that it was still early for her. Karou looked to be out cold and peaceful; the expression on her face was content.

Confident that he wouldn’t wake her, Warren dropped the towel from his waist and dressed, but the closing of one of his dresser drawers accidentally stirred Karou. Blinking her eyes open, she caught sight of him zipping himself into a pair of jeans. At first, it was hard to believe; she’d never seen Warren dress in anything other than formal office wear and pyjamas. So naturally, she rubbed her eyes to wake them up and refocus.

“You’re not going to work today?” Karou asked drowsily.

“No, I meant it when I said I’d have a day off. I don’t often give myself a break.” Warren answered and was glad that there seemed to be no awkwardness about their having kissed again. But for now, he was happy to have enjoyed it for what it was and didn’t want to tarnish the memory of it with deep discussion and dissection.

Karou propped herself up and scooted to the edge of his bed. The lazy braid she’d made in her hair earlier now had flyaway strands sticking out this way and that, and her cotton pyjamas were creased from sleep, yet there was raw and tangible serenity about Karou.

How she looked climbing out of his bed changed how Warren imagined he wanted to spend the rest of his free day, so he made an unlikely request; “Why don’t you go shower, and we can have breakfast? That is unless you have other plans for today.”

“I don’t have plans. I never do. I’m not like you; I don’t plan anything.” Karou joked.

Warren rolled his eyes and went back to getting dressed. He grabbed a long-sleeved shirt from one of his drawers. It suited him and had a simple embellishment; a column of four brown buttons down the front contrasted the fabric’s cream shade and tight waffle weave.

“I’ll... go shower and see you in the kitchen then.” Seeing that she wasn’t impressed that she’d poked fun at him, Karou hopped from the bed and was on her way to the bathroom when she stopped in the doorway. Her head tipped to the side in that cute way of hers when she asked, “Uhm, what is for breakfast?”

“I feel like pancakes,” It was a treat; he usually stuck to toast and eggs because they were as adventurous as he could be bothered to get in the kitchen most mornings.

“Uhm- I’m not sure I can eat pancakes. I’ll just have toast?”

“I think by now I can make pancakes that you can eat, allergies and all. As annoying as you are to cater for, I’ll make you pancakes, okay?” Warren smirked and ran his hands back through his drying hair; today, he wouldn’t style it and wandered past her down the hall and into the kitchen without further discussion.

He’s so friendly today. Karou thought as she hopped into the shower. Ugh- Don’t get used to it! It’ll probably wear off.

Breakfast was served on the kitchen island. As promised, coffee and pancakes, but also a bowl of yoghurt and fresh fruit.

Karou had dressed for the day in cropped jeans and a shirt made of a floaty mint-coloured material. When she came to sit across from Warren, he was sitting waiting for her before starting to eat. Karou cast her eyes over the breakfast spread and tipped her head to the side. “So, is everything safe for me to eat?” She asked, noticing what appeared to be yoghurt in a bowl. It occurred to her that sometimes people didn’t realise how many foods were dairy.

“Yes, everything is dairy, soy, and nut-free. I made your pancakes with oat flour and oat-based yoghurt.” Warren peered at her through his clubmaster-style reading glasses over the top of his newspaper with an accomplished, if not slightly impish, side smile.

“Wow. Y’know your stuff.” Given the ‘all clear’, Karou proceeded to tuck in.

Pancakes were an especially yummy treat, and it was refreshing that nowadays, her allergies didn’t hinder her life quite as much. Warren could afford pretty much anything she required and never asked her to compensate him.

“Hmm, these are so good...” Karou mumbled despite her mouth being full. “I’m a little disappointed I can’t have the chocolate ones, though.” She eyed Warren’s plate with a fake pout.

“If I had to choose between anaphylaxis or blueberry pancakes, I think I’d choose the blueberry pancakes, no? While chocolate is nice, it’s certainly not worth any nasty consequences.” Warren reasoned he was always sensible, so Karou had to agree.

“But yours are regular pancakes and yoghurt?” Karou enquired while peeping over the brim of her coffee mug.

“Yes. If I’m going to bother eating at all, I prefer the real thing.” Warren’s eyes remained fixed on his newspaper.

“I guess that makes sense. I had wondered why you eat.” Karou was going to keep him talking, at least until her patience ran out. “Uh – also, why do you wear glasses? Isn’t your eyesight essentially perfect?”

“I like the ritual and routine of eating. There are certain foods I would miss the taste of. As for the glasses, they reduce the strain on my eyes. I usually read all day, every day, both on paper and screen.”

“Right, that makes sense too,” Karou replied with a nod concerning his glasses. “And the food thing, I get that but not having to go to the bathroom ever again sounds like something I could live with.”

“Ha, I’ve never thought about it like that. I guess I appreciate the ritual and routine of that too.”

Warren and Karou mutually tittered at his potty joke, but he quickly returned to his newspaper. That was until it struck him that there had been nothing usual about their morning so far, so he decided to continue in that vein and chose to do something unusual; he sparked a conversation.

“For a long time, I clung to what remained of my humanity for my sanity’s sake, but eventually, I learned to let certain things go.”

“What did you let go of?” Karou asked. After finishing her pancakes, she pushed her empty plate aside and ate her yoghurt-smothered fruit.

“Mostly people, mortal people, that is. They continue to age and eventually die while you’re destined to linger, frozen in time. It’s hard to maintain a meaningful relationship with someone when your expiry date is on hold for the foreseeable future and trying not to consume them when every fibre of your being drives you to. You’ve glimpsed some of the things I’ve had to do to survive, and there are plenty of worse things I’m not proud of. You have to let go of your previous life’s moral compass if your sanity is going to remain stable.”

Karou reached over the kitchen island to his newspaper, and she pushed it down, lowering the shield he’d put between them. “Is that why you don’t want to be my friend?”

“No. I’m not lying to you about who or what I am.” Warren started. “You know I’m a vampire. You know I’ll outlive you, and you also know I’ve got an ugly heart that I don’t go to great lengths to hide.” He allowed himself one of his side smiles that made Karou grin. For now, he chose not to state the truth too strongly, but he and Karou’s relationship was unique; she was the first mortal who knew his true nature and hadn’t been a victim of his fangs.

“Well, one of those things is definitely true and always will be, but I still don’t believe you’re a monster... and y’know, I could outlive you if I get what I want.” Biting onto her lower lip, she tried to make her eyes appear as big and innocent as possible.

“Wasn’t I naive to think we could make it through breakfast without you bringing that up?” Deflated and slightly annoyed, Warren huffed and slapped his newspaper onto the countertop. Consequently, that freed his arms which he crossed over his chest to show his displeasure.

“Persistence is a talent of mine.” Karou looked pretty pleased with herself despite his offensive reaction. “I could be persuaded to make a deal. Say, if you spent the rest of your day off with me, I won’t mention it again today?”

Karou knew she was pushing her luck because this was the only day off he’d spontaneously taken the whole time she’d known him. She highly doubted he would agree to spend his free time with her.

Warren offered his hand to her over the kitchen island, initiating a handshake. “Deal.”

With surprised wide eyes, Karou took his hand and shook it to seal the deal. “Just like that, you’re agreeing?”

“Yes, there doesn’t appear to be a catch, so I agree. Is that so hard to believe? I mean, what am I going to do otherwise? Sit and watch TV all day?” Warren had finished every morsel of his breakfast, and Karou had had enough, too, so he began clearing away their dishes. “Please don’t tell me that is what you want to do; it would be a waste when we’ve put on day clothes.” Warren turned on the faucet and pushed his shirt sleeves to wash up.

“I haven’t thought about what we should do. I didn’t expect you to say yes.” Karou hopped down from her chair, grabbed a dish towel and insinuated she’d dry while he washed.

“How about we leave the unit and see where our feet take us?” Warren smiled down his shoulder at her and passed her the first clean bowl.

Karou smiled back, and together they washed up. It was a perfectly ordinary act, but it was almost special to Karou. For a moment, she dared to daydream that this was what it must be like to be in a long-term relationship.

Warren and Karou left their unit and started walking. Inevitably they ended up in the woods but decided not to go to the tavern because that was too ordinary a way to spend their day. A brook ran under the small bridge on the trail towards the tavern, and Karou had always been curious to find where it went but had never dared to take a walk alone. Today was the perfect day to go on an adventure in the safety of Warren’s company. They strayed from the dirt track and trekked through the ferny summertime undergrowth, following the water.

“You really ought to have worn the boots I provided if you planned on walking over this sort of terrain.”

Karou glanced down at the flimsy canvas shoes she was wearing. “But they would’ve looked so bulky, and besides, it’s sunny today...” She appreciated that Warren was being practical, but she still wanted to look nice. Against her better judgement, it mattered to her how he saw her. He always looked so pristine and effortlessly flawless.

“They look nicer than a broken ankle, I assure you,” Warren grumbled. He couldn’t truly relax when he had to watch her every step just in case something befell her.

“Hey! I’m not that weak. I won’t snap like a twig, y’know? Remember I managed to get here in November in just tennis shoes?” Looking over her shoulder, she stuck out her tongue at him when making her point, even if it was childish.

The expression she made amused him, and he smiled a toothless grin. He only shook his head by way of reply, thinking to himself. Hmm, yes, I remember the night you arrived very well.

Stepping between shade and rays of sunlight as it flickered through the canopy, Karou had a wonderfully satisfied smile on her face. It felt like they were alone in the wilderness, with nature as their only companion. The aura of the woods was peaceful. Birds sang. The wind moved the trees and made the branches creak and leaves fluttered. The brook they were following babbled over the bedrocks. It was easy to become down when confined to a place like the unit, with all its cold concrete, dark colours, angular furniture, and sterile atmosphere. Yet, out there, there was a palpable sense of freedom; you could practically smell it.

Regardless, the only thing Warren could focus on scent-wise was how the sun warmed Karou’s pale skin and filled his nose with her sweet aroma - the grass, foliage, tree bark, dirt, and water all mellowed in comparison; she truly smelled like sunshine itself.

As Karou roamed ahead through the trees on the brook’s bank, Warren’s thoughts also wandered. His daydreaming was cut short when suddenly Karou took off sprinting through the undergrowth until she came to an abrupt halt - the Compound’s south wall came to be stretched skyward before her. The water she’d been following escaped her when it split through a metal grate at the base of the Compound’s outer wall and meandered off into the unknown.

“Damn it! I wanted to see where the steam led. I thought there’d be a pond or something.” With her palms and fingers splayed over the concrete, she peered over her shoulder at Warren with a frown.

“If I’d known that’s why we were walking this far, I’d have told you sooner,” Warren said. “I’m sorry you’re disappointed. The water leads to a small lake about a mile from here.”

“And you couldn’t have built the wall a mile further that way?” Karou whined and set her back against the concrete; sulkily.

“I’m sorry I didn’t consider your wishes prior to building the Compound four years ago,” Warren smirked wryly, then turned away from her, initiating a new direction to walk in.

Karou traipsed after him, but now rather than walking ahead, she lingered beside him, looking up at his profile every so often. “Is that how long you’ve lived here?”

“I’ve lived here since construction was finalised in 2008.” As they walked on, the south gate’s watchtowers became visible through the trees a short distance away, but Karou was too busy looking at Warren to notice.

“And you’ve lived on your own that whole time?” Karou mused. “Where did you live before?”

Warren shot Karou the side-eye. “You’re asking a lot of questions.”

Shot down just for attempting to start a conversation, Karou felt put out but had been about to apologise when he interrupted her.

“I’ve lived alone since about 1961, and all over the place… New York, France, England, Russia, and Italy, before I moved here.”

“Whoa, that’s… fifty years. Fifty years is a long time to be alone. Don’t you ever get lonely?” Karou couldn’t imagine being by herself for that long. Even if she’d never had a lot of friends, she disliked the idea of isolation.

“I haven’t often felt loneliness, no. I think it’s a matter of perspective. From time to time, I’ve been known to pay for company to stave it off.”

“Ew, gross...” Karou pulled a face.

“Charming. So, you don’t bat an eyelid when I show you what I keep in my basement but readily judge me for succumbing to my male urges once in a while?” Warren gave her an incredulous sort of look, which worked and made her feel a little guilty for her reaction.

“I guess I assumed you’d have girlfriends for that sort of thing.”

“Women don’t stick around for long. It’s probably because of the kind of person I am. My moods. My work. It’s all off-putting, and I’m not particularly good at commitment.”

“So, why’d you wear a wedding ring?” Karou asked as she looked at a tree, suddenly fascinated by it for the sake of escaping his eyes.

“Hm, you’re observant as well as judgmental, I see,” Warren muttered.

Usually, he wouldn’t have been so willing to explain why he wore it. Frankly, he believed it was no one’s business but his own. Still, he wanted to let Karou know that there wasn’t anyone he was officially involved with and tried not to think about his reason for that for too long because it made him feel shameful and deluded.

“I never actually had the chance to marry her. Remember I told you I was just engaged? In the 1920s, men didn’t wear engagement bands, but Cammy thought it’d keep what remained of my chastity intact for her on our wedding night.”

“It didn’t, did it?”

“No, of course not. I was younger and stupider then.” As Warren explained, Karou smiled, not because what he had said was particularly pleasant, but because it was rare to find someone who so openly admitted their flaws. “I think I still wear the ring as a reminder to steer clear of matrimony.”

Karou hoped, against the odds, that he was saying that with the feelings of any potential love interest in mind. Warren hadn’t given her any inkling that he was that selfless; still, there was one part of his excuse that she felt didn’t ring true; “Why do you think you’re no good at commitment? You seem totally committed in other aspects of your life, like your work...”

“I don’t think I’ve ever found someone I liked enough to try.” Warren stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Karou with an almost sad expression. It shocked him that he’d made his admission so readily while in her presence.

Karou felt Warren fall behind. She stopped, turned around, and looked at him. She could see the surprise on his face, so she quickly asked another question to save him from embarrassment. “Uhm, Magnus knows about you and Ellis, right?”

“Yes, he’s always known, but it’s just sex. We’re not compatible in any other way, not anymore.”

“Warren, that’s really sad,” Karou whispered sympathetically; as always, she was excessively kind.

Amidst the quiet tree’s Warren and Karou stood and beheld each other. Slowly but surely, Karou’s persistence and patience with him was paying off, and their bond grew as they shared more and more of themselves. There was something else between them, though… Chemistry. Warren denied its existence and Karou wasn’t brave enough to admit she felt it, but that didn’t mean the pull wasn’t there. It had been since their first meeting.

“Would you like to see the lake?” Since she looked so sorry for him, his motive had altered; he just wanted to please her, to see her smile again. That was his intention and reason for leading her this way. He didn’t want her sympathy; it was ill-placed anyway because most of his troubles resulted from his shortcomings, not misfortunes.

“Once the war is over and I’m allowed beyond the wall, I can, right?” Karou smiled, making a light-hearted comment to lift the mood. She could feel how it had dulled but wouldn’t have minded continuing their heart-to-heart despite the melancholy; at least Warren was trying to open up.

“What if I get the guards to open the gate? We could be there and back before dark.” Warren nodded towards the watchtowers that loomed overhead.

“What if I run?”

“Please don’t. You could still break an ankle in those shoes.” Warren glanced at her feet before making a more sincere point; “That and I’d have to chase after you. With all the exertion and adrenaline, who knows what I would do when I caught you.” A suggestive grin pulled the corner of his lips as his eyes panned back up her body before he met her eyes again and smouldered.

“Hmm, good point. You do look thirsty.” Karou returned his sultry sentiment and looked up at him through her lashes. “But I promise I won’t run. I do like living here, y’know?”

“I can’t imagine why...” Warren turned away from her and set off toward the guards and the watchtower.

“You’ve never met my parents,” Was all Karou said by way of an explanation.