Invisible String [t. s]

War, Tolerance and Peace

August 18th, 1922.
Manhattan, New York.

  The sunshine of the early morning entered through the white curtains. The light too bright for her tired eyes. Amélie breathed in sharply as she squeezed her eyes shut.

  She exhaled and opened her eyes. Her hand tried to find Theseus' chest but, instead, her hand found a cold spot on the pillow. She sighed. Had it been a dream? Was he really here? Amélie breathed in sharply and the woodsy notes of his cologne filtrated in the air. He had definitely been here, he's just...gone now.

She looked at her pocket watch that rested on the nightstand. 7:27 A.M. She sat on the bed and looked at the window. New York was already awake and buzzing. She got up from the bed and grabbed her suitcase from the ground. Last night she didn't have the time to unpack.

She opened the trunk and, with the flick of her wand, all the clothes started to move from the interiors of the suitcase towards the closet. When all the garments were settled into place, she placed the suitcase next to the desk she had in her room.

Élie proceeded to grab a dark grey suit and got dressed. Dressing pants, white shirt, black suspenders, grey vest, grey blazer. She put on her trusty boots and tied her hair in a low bun. She grabbed her dark grey knit-felt hat, and her coat. She made the bed, closed the closet, applied some makeup, splashed perfume over her skin, made sure to have the keychain in her pocket, and headed out of the bedroom. She was locking her door at the same time Theseus was locking his own. They turned around at the same time, and their eyes met.

"Morning." He greeted as Rosier placed her hat over her head and threw on her coat.

"Bonjour." She said with a formal head nod. "Where were you? I woke up and you were gone."

"I didn't shower last night, so, I came back to my room the moment I woke 'cause my clothes were over here." She nodded, understanding him. "Nice suit, by the way. I like it." She smiled.

"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur." He smiled. "I like yours too. Haven't seen you wearing blue suits before."

"Oh, well, I decided to try out some new stuff, you know?" She chuckled.

"I'm glad, it suits you." He smiled. "Matches your eyes." His heart skipped a beat at the compliment and his smile widened.

"Thank you." A pause as they entered the lift. "Did Tina tell you when we should arrive?"

"Nine sharp." He nodded and checked his pocket watch. She smiled when she saw the blue silk still tied to the golden chain.

"Well, we have time to catch breakfast. If you're down for it, of course." She smiled at his nervousness. And said nervousness increased because, from this side and his angle, her hat didn't allow him to see her face. Theseus remembered the night when they first met yet again.

"Sure. Lead the way." He released a breath of relief he didn't notice he had been holding, nodded and scratched his eyebrow. That's when Amélie noticed the pocket watch had a picture inside. "Wait, what's that?" She asked.

"What thing?"

"That thing in the watch."

"Damn." He whispered and smiled as the doors of the lift opened. "This?" He showed it to her.

"A cutout picture of me? Where did you get that?"

"I was at my mother's house a while ago, right?" They stepped out of the lift and eventually the building. "And I was looking around in my room and I found the yearbook of the Academy and there was this section that had all the honourable students from the Academy across Europe, I flipped the pages until I found the French campus and saw your picture. So, because I'm naturally a cheesy person, I cut out your picture and found a place to keep it."