The Thief and the Globetrotter

Chapter Sixteen: The Globetrotter

He recited a passage from Amédée Lemozi's publication on cave drawing discoveries. In perfect original French. Without looking up from his book.

Rei could just imagine how her face must've dropped in that moment of realization. It was less tacky to be quietly brilliant. He didn't turn up to classes to prove to anyone how smart he was until someone intended to make an example of him. For the first time, Rei realized how infuriating she must've been in classes, always desperate for the opportunity to prove to everyone that she belonged there, that her family's money hadn't just bought her a spot into the program, that she was in fact good at something, despite the way her parents rolled their eyes at her passions.

Rei pushed harder to do well in that class just to reach the standard he set, not just in excellence, but in humility. When he left, Rei became top of the class. It was somehow an empty victory in a competition he probably never realized they had. She assessed him differently after that, considering the dedication it took to major in art history while the athletics department was on another campus entirely. Of course, through careful anthropological observation, Rei all but confirmed he had to be on some kind of team. In short, she spent too much time studying the curve of his biceps while he casually read in the middle of class.

Maybe now he'd reveal his damn mysteries to her.

She pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them as she waited.

He stirred, shifting against the wall. Rei sat up straight. A million questions waited on the tip of her tongue.

He blinked awake slowly. Sébastien had an innocent kind of face. It might've been his brown eyes. Maybe it was just how wide and bewildered they became when it he realized she was staring at him.

"Rei?" he asked, one realization quickly followed by a second. His hands were tied. He struggled only a moment. "You tied me up?"

"You broke in through my window!" Rei exclaimed.

Sébastien pursed his lips. That was a rather inarguable point. He had to at least know that.

"Did my brother put you up to this?" Rei asked.

"It's—no. Maybe? It's a long story," Sébastien replied.

"You're not going anywhere any time soon," Rei insisted, "and I have nothing but time."

He sighed. Now that he was conscious, the tiredness in his face was much more pronounced. Under those big brown eyes were even darker circles.

"I think Cheng's going to frame me for your kidnapping," he said.

It was Rei's turn to blink in confusion. She'd knocked him out. How was she supposed to believe he could kidnap her? How was anyone else supposed to believe it?

"I think that might be a relatively difficult crime to accuse you of, seeing as I'm here and you're the one—"

Sébastien shrugged his shoulders. He wriggled a bit before deftly bringing his hands over his head and in front of him.

Rei stared in awe. Her shoelace bonds were half-undone, knots still tied at his wrists, but a longer stretch of string bridge the gap from wrist to wrist. That kind of flexibility wasn't fair.

"Do you mind? I can't get the knot undone," Baz asked.

"You're not human," Rei said, but begrudgingly untied the shoelace bonds. They clearly weren't holding him captive. It was probably better that he wasn't. Rei wasn't acting as a very intimidating interrogator. She would much rather have a conversation about why he was in her apartment.