Cause I know it don't read that well. Who: Quen & Lav What: Checking in Where: An unnamed inn in the Commoner's District When: Lunchtime, after this Rating: PG Status: Complete
It was around lunchtime when Quen appeared at the inn in the Commoners District where Lav had said he’d be. Knowing that he intended to hide himself away in his room at this inn for the entire day, doubtful that he’d made any plans to eat at all, and having obtained permission to bring him food earlier in the week, she’d come prepared with a roast beef sandwich and a thermos of vegetable soup. Lav was a noble, which meant he was probably used to fancier food, but Quen thought that perhaps simple food was best, so she’d gone home and made the sandwich herself from the roast beef her mother had prepared the night before, and filled the thermos with the hot soup that had been left to simmer on the stove since that morning.
So provisioned, she arrived at the inn and asked the front desk to direct her to the proper room. The woman, realizing she was blind, immediately yelled, “HILDA!” and then to Quen, in her sweetest voice said, “Hilda will take you to his room.”
“That’s right,” Hilda had agreed, materializing and taking Quen’s arm. She sounded even younger than Quen herself, but led her up the stairs with a brisk, no-nonsense demeanor and left her in front of a door. “He’s in this one, Miss,” Hilda had said before returning to the tavern. “Holler if you need anything.”
So it was that she found herself in front of Lav’s door at the inn. She’d promised to leave the food, knock, and run away, and she intended to do just that, but when she was finally there, she found she simply didn’t have the heart.
She knocked and waited a few minutes, and when the door didn’t open, she knocked again. “Uncle Lav?” she called through the door. “It’s me! I brought you some lunch!”
“Uncle Lav?” she called a few minutes later when he still didn’t answer. “Are you okay?” She pressed her ear to the door and listened. She thought she heard shuffling, but she thought that perhaps she heard nothing at all.
She waited a few more minutes.
“Okay,” she said eventually, setting down the food. “I’m leaving it here. Please eat.” Then, after a beat, she added, “I love you.” With nothing left to do or say, she padded back down the hall the way she’d come, then took the stairs down and out to the Commoners District.
Her knock hadn’t come as a surprise, and not only because of footsteps across the rickety wood. But one thing had been certain once Lavitz had returned to the inn after his earlier visit with Leola: he wasn’t opening the door for anyone, not even if the whole force of the Knights of the Peace threatened to break it down. Not for Kiernan, not for Mag-- and not for Quenten.
The return hadn’t gone quite as planned. Zelda -- who, technically, had not been allowed, but an extra hundred gil had changed the proprietor’s mind -- greeted him with enthusiasm, but he couldn’t find the strength of will to pass even the threshold before finding solace against the wall, let alone return even a fraction of her enthusiasm. His spine ached, and much of the lower half of his body had gone numb, and yet he refused to move, back pressed into the wall and wrists propped on his bent knees. His most faithful, fluffy companion had settled by his side, unaware of what was happening, but reflecting her own loyal -- yet confused -- melancholy upon him.
Quenten’s voice drifted through the door, only a foot and a half away from where he sat, and all Lavitz could do was close his eyes, quietly willing her to take her leave as soon as possible. The gesture was kind, kinder than he deserved, but Leola had been right. She was always right.
Do you kill everything in your path? He dug nails into his knee. Are you a disease, Lavitz? A plague upon the city?
Closing doors, upon further realization, was safer than opening them, and the only way to prevent a disease from spreading was to eliminate it.
The telltale squeak of wood and the nearly missed I love you prompted him to still, to wait until there wasn’t a chance of her hearing him before he murmured a soft You shouldn’t.