"STOOTS!" Arthur had come thundering across the bar, pushing ahead and directly into Will's path before the man could reach the door. Will, who'd already called up the stairs that he was heading home to Clio, had stopped short, bemused.
"Summat wrong, mate?"
Art had blanched – just for an instant, panic flitting through his eyes – before recovering with a smile that was trying hard to be casual but mostly looked manic. Maybe that qualified as casual for Art. "Wrong! Nah nah nah nah, bruv, just Marian and me's playing some bridge and we needs a third player to make it even, like."
Will had furrowed his brow, trying to parse this. "You need four players for bridge."
Art had blinked. "...yeah, I know that. Think I don't know that? Thing is, though, it's, I'm playing on a team with meself, two hands, right? Left hand, right hand, see, haha! So that's technically on'y one more we need."
Will had really just wanted to get back to Clio. He was doing his best not to hover over her. She'd made him promise not to go neglecting himself, so he took himself to work every day and he made stop in at the Fox at the Parsonage, and as the weeks had gone by he'd stopped startling at every phone alert, and his heart had stopped thudding so hard every time his texts went unanswered for longer than five minutes. He knew he was being dumb. She was protected, and she was pretty much never alone.
But those nights after endless nights of coming back to an empty brownstone were still stark in his memory. Starker still, the nights of being stirred away by her tossing and turning, holding her close to him while she clung and sobbed into his shoulder. He worried.
Art had fixed him with a pleading expression, though, and Will had forced himself to concede that he was being clingy, and Clio would be alright hanging with Thalia a while longer, and maybe she wasn't the only one struggling with being alone just now. Will could understand needing to be around family, especially when you'd spent so long without. "Alright, mate. Couple of rounds."
And Arthur had shepherded him away and up the stairs to Marian's apartment, leaving the back door's various locks and bolts undisturbed and the array of tripwires unsprung.
They were into round five – or possibly six? it was hard to tell, the way Art played – when Robin's familiar call sounded downstairs. Art sprang to his feet, scattering cards everywhere as relief bloomed across his features. "Rob's here!" he exclaimed, shooting a glance to the door he'd insisted on locking and barricading, and then back to a confused Will and Marian. "It's alright, guys, Rob's here! OI, ROB! UPSTAIRS!"