Sin had walked quite far with Dez and didn't quite realize it until she spoke up. "Trouble in paradise?"
Sin stopped walking and let go of her hand. He smiled bitterly as he turned to face her. "I guess you could say that."
He looked down at her hands and spotted the tiny bouquet she was holding. "I never pegged you as the type of girl to go around picking flowers." He chuckled.
Dez looked down, immediately becoming flustered. "This...This isn't—I was just—ugh...while you were gone I went to visit your mom...she was really worried...I mean...understandably so. So I wanted to do something to make her feel better."
"Why? When I left you two weren't particularly close."
"Well, one of my crew members got in touch with me recently and told me something kinda interesting. Before you found me, we were actually plundering and destroying navy ships on the pretense of piracy...but in actuality, we were sailing around that area to prevent the navy from causing trouble in Antalya. You see, Antalya has an issue with people in higher positions abusing their power. It was especially bad for the fishing communities along the shores because they were poor. My crew and I grew up there in the slums. We never had any kind of parental figures but the villagers took really good care of us. So when we saw how the navy would mistreat them, we knew we had to do something.
So we became pirates. The only ships we'd ever attack were navy ships. For a while, it worked in dissuading them from trying to mess with the villages but it got really bad one day when they brought an even bigger fleet, some of which served as a distraction so the others could make it to the shore. They took one of the villages hostages basically. They would always impose incredibly unreasonable taxes on us and because of my crew, they hadn't been able to collect for a while. So when they captured the village they said that we'd have to pay up or they'd slaughter everyone. I said we'd give them all our treasure in exchange for the lives of the villagers and they gave us a two day deadline to collect all of it and bring it to them.
That same day I found your ship and well...you know the rest. The other day my crew mate sent me a letter saying that he finally had time to get in touch. Apparently, your mom had done her research because he said that when you let the rest of the crew go and he returned to the village, her troops were already occupying it. Apparently, she not only got rid of the navy presence but she also helped build hospitals and improve living conditions for the villages.
Usually, there were many people who would be disease ridden or simply dying in the barren streets without any kind of help because of how poor we were, but when he got back, that was not the case at all. I wanted to thank her for helping my family back home...live...in a nutshell. She ended up teaching me how to make flower crowns and she told me stories of her time as a pirate and what not...so yeah."
Sin listened to Dez's story quietly. Perhaps it was his want to forget his own troubles, but he was more than willing to keep the conversation focused on Dez and not him. "Wow...I had no idea about any of that...it's good news though!"
"Yeah...so um...I guess I should apologize for being kinda mean when we first met. It's just, I've never had a good relationship with people in authority...as you now know. Plus...I uh...didn't want to get too attached because well...I honestly was going to just try and steal some stuff from here and split. Definitely wasn't planning on staying this long."
Sin laughed weakly. "Don't worry about it."
Dez looked up at him and it was plain as day that the man in front of her was completely drained. She reached up and brushed the hair out of his face. "You really do look tired...maybe you really should go get some rest?"
"I'm fine. I just...a lot happened...ugh man this sucks." Running a hand through his hair, he heaved a long, heavy sigh.
Dez looked down at the flowers in her hand and then back up at Sin. She took one of the flowers and tucked it behind his ear. "If you'd like, We could talk about it after you get some sleep," she said with a smile.
Sin was slightly surprised by her actions. She was usually never the one to initiate such contact with him. It made him smile. "Alright then. It's a date."
•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Astrid rolled over in the grass. The canopy of the hanging garden ruins prevented her from clearly seeing the stars that had began to shine in the night sky.
"It was good to see you again," she whispered tiredly.
"Yeah. It's a dream to finally be with you too. All those months apart really just makes this moment that more special."Albus laced his fingers with hers and she smiled.
Their little rendezvous came to an end when Tobi called out to Astrid from the entrance to the ruins. "Astrid! We should get back before people start getting suspicious."
Astrid propped herself up, slipping her cloak back on. Albus got up and fixed himself up as well. He extended his hand for her to take and that she did. He helped her up, steadying her as they walked. Tobi was waiting on his motorcycle for her. He had his arms crossed and shot his best glare in Albus' direction when he saw them coming.
"Funny how I leave you alone with him for just an hour and all of a sudden you're having trouble walking," said Tobi.
Albus and Astrid looked at each other. He laughed nervously as he helped her over to Tobi, who helped her onto the cycle. Astrid sat down and watched as Tobi got on in front of her. She waved goodbye to Albus one final time before they rode off.
When they arrived back at the palace, Tobi snuck Astrid along, back to her room. When he was sure she was okay, he left. Shutting the door, he turned only to be met with a pair of blazing ruby orbs.
"You guys came back a little late," Ri-is mused. "Where did she run off too?"
Tobi flinched back away from the Prince. He remembered that Astrid had asked him to not let the others know about Albus. As if she needed to ask him to cover for her. "Oh! Uh...she wanted to take a drive around the hanging gardens so I took her out."
Ri-is narrowed his eyes. "Hmm...that so...okay...so do you know about the letters in her room?"
Tobi nearly choked on his own breath. "Not a clue. Sorry."
"...We read them-"
Before Ri-is could finish speaking, Tobi swung a hand around him and began walking off. "Oh, I know! You can't sleep right! Then lets hand out for a while!" He said, eager to distract Ri-is."
Ri-is found himself unable to put up much of a fight as Tobi swiftly whisked him away.