OH MY DARLING! || LOUIS

7 | LAPDOGS.

"Do you know how late you are?" Aasim's voice interrupts whatever else Louis meant to say. Jamie startles in her spot. She and Louis were used of the latter's cold shoulder. The way he could just, snap, at times. Especially when the matter concerned them but this time, it stung a bit more. "You do realize that this is our food, we're talking about."

"I..." Jamie gulps. "I know, Aasim. I just slept in late."

She shouldn't be lumped in with Louis. Jamie tries to do her best whenever they went out to hunt. She really did! And she wasn't one to just ditch it all together. But when Louis started to come around more often, she found herself distracted too many times for Aasim's liking.

"It's always excuses with you two." Aasim mutters under his breath. She and Louis share concerned expressions, feeling like two siblings getting scolded by their mother. "Whatever, let's go. Just—"

Aasim pauses to take a deep breath, probably to calm himself down. "Just try to not get distracted and start doing your...thing."

Jamie makes a face. She wants to ask 'What thing?' but she's smart enough to know that she should wait until Aasim has rightfully calmed down before asking. Louis doesn't get the memo and was about to question it himself but she manages to silence him with a quick, light jab to his side.

Not now. She mouths to him.

He leads them out of the gate, with the help of Ruby opening and firmly shutting the metal gate behind them. Louis and Jamie follow in silence, too afraid to even breathe too loud after being scolded so harshly.

"So..." Louis whispers, once more than a several minutes have passed since the little moment by the gate. Aasim looks less stiff now, but not quite relaxed, . He's never relaxed when they go outside the gates. Always a stickler for safety. None of their traps were set off; none of the ones they've passed, anyway. "What happened to your forehead?"

Jamie's eyebrows knit together. Her forehead?

Louis seems to note her confusion and points up at the spot over the corner of her forehead. "There's a bruise. It wasn't there last night."

She pauses, thinking hard of when this bruise could've come up. "Oh. I fell off the bed this morning. Guess I bumped my head."

Louis chuckles at her answer. He lifts his hand up to point at a spot on her forehead and it hesitates slightly. There's a moment where Jamie just stares up at his hand, waiting with bated breath before he quickly drops his hand.

"You two are doing the thing again." Aasim calls out from in front of them. He doesn't look back but Jamie could picture the look of disgust in his features. His scold was enough to shut Jamie up. He was close to Mitch and so, by proximity, she often stuck by his side. Maybe it was the reason Aasim tended to cut her some slack. By some, she means the barest of slack.

"What thing are you talkin' 'bout, man?" Louis finally asks and she watches with wide eyes as he sauntered over to Aasim's side. Louis drapes his arm on Aasim's shoulder, tugging the man down with him. "Listen, you need to learn how to loosen up. Right Jamie?"

The two boys turn to look back at her and she raises her hand in surrender.

"Nope, I'm not getting sucked into this." Still, she picks up her pace to match with the two boys, taking the empty spot on the opposite side of Aasim. She hears him sigh more than actually seeing it as he slaps Louis' arm from his shoulders.

"This is a matter of whether we eat tonight or not. Of course it's a serious matter." Aasim replies dryly. "Jamie, I wish you wouldn't let this idiot influence you so much."