Thea, Milo and Luana arrived at Niall's office about ten minutes before their meeting. Since Niall was out with Julian at some other meeting, the three sat at the couches in the waiting area, with Mrs. Railer sitting behind Thea at her desk near the door.

Despite Thea's racing mind, she didn't fail to notice Luana, who was sitting at the couch opposite to Thea, looking at her with an expression of suspicion, and after trying to ignore it for some time, Thea rolled her eyes and looked at her. "What? What did I do?"

Luana's look of suspicion turned into a little smile. "So... you and Niall... two nights in a row... alone..."

Thea had already told Luana about the events of the night in Kiriyu the day before when they were driving to the prison together. Now, as she pouted, she was beginning to regret it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Luana's smile began to grow. "I thought it was strange that the General insisted on coming to help you alone."

She felt her cheeks warm. He had insisted?

Luana then shrugged, holding her hands up too. "I mean, I thought I would be a good wingwoman and allow it, but that was with the expectation that you'd tell me what happened."

"Nothing happened," Thea knew she was blushing and was grateful to her darker skin for assisting in hiding that blush. "We spent most of the night at separate ends of the filing room working individually."

"But then you went to his place!"

"And nothing happened," she looked away. "I was in the guest room."

Luana eyed Thea for a moment longer. "You can't blame me for being suspicious, not when you straight up said that you thought the General was incredibly handsome, right Milo?"

Milo, who was sitting next to Luana and reading through his notes, his specs low on his nose, didn't look up. "I'm staying out of this one."

Smart.

"The General is incredibly handsome," Mrs. Railer surprised everyone by saying.

Thea turned and looked at her, a smile on her face. Good, someone was on her side. "I know right?" Thea responded.

Mrs. Railer, who was looking down at her own work, was smiling to herself. "He's a handsome young man, I don't see why you'd disagree, Luana."

"Thank you!" Thea said, turning to face Luana with a look of superiority.

"Mrs. Railer's opinion doesn't count," she said, crossing her arms. "She's practically his work mom, and just like a real mom, a work mom will always find her baby to be beautiful."

"Miss. Kharan," Mrs. Railer started, "frankly I don't appreciate you dismissing my opinion like that. Just because I'm much older than you lot doesn't make my opinion invalid."

"Do you deny that you are his work mom?"

"Well, no–"

"Argument invalid."

Despite Milo saying he would stay out of it, that made him chuckle.

"I disagree," Thea argued. "Mrs. Railer has no blood relation to the General, so she has no reason to feel the need to think he's beautiful no matter what. Therefore her opinion is valid."

"But Mrs. Railer's status as work mom makes her incapable of having romantic feelings for the man–"

"Roman– Romantic?" Thea scoffed, blood rushing to her head in utter embarrassment. "What on earth makes you think that I have romantic feelings for him?"

"Thea, you proclaimed yourself that the General had pretty eyelashes!" Luana stated. "Who the hell, other than someone who is in love, would say something like that?"

Even Mrs. Railer laughed at that one.

Feeling suddenly cornered, Thea crossed her arms. "That was just an observation," she argued. "It doesn't mean anything other than just being a true statement."

"Pretty eyelashes?" Luana repeated, looking as if she was not ever going to let that one go. "Mrs. Railer, did you know that Thea is attracted to older, brooding men who have pretty eyelashes?"

"I don't blame her on that one," Mrs. Railer agreed. "I also do love myself a mysterious man who broods."

"But pretty eyelashes?" Luana pushed.

When Thea looked at Mrs. Railer, she hesitated. "Well... I've not thought about that detail before."

Luana grinned, looking back at Thea. "You don't need to be embarrassed, Thea. There's nothing wrong with being attracted to the General–"

"I'm not!" She leaned forward on the couch, straightening herself up, her face incredibly hot. It was hard to deny something when she knew, deep down, that she was attracted to him. But Thea wasn't going to admit that, knowing damn well that Luana would continue to link a tiny infatuation to a full blown romance, so she focused on dismissing her.

She focused so much so on dismissing her that she did not hear the door click, or Mrs. Railer clear her throat as an indicator to end the conversation.

"Listen, Luana," she said, firmly, also not noticing Milo's eyes widen. "Anyone would be incredibly stupid to deny that the General is in fact incredibly handsome. Anything else you're trying to invent here is just in your head and that's that. All I've said is that he's a handsome man and yes, you can make fun of me all you want, but he does have pretty eyelashes, and I'm standing by that as a statement of fact."

Milo was gawking, his mouth wide open, and Thea assumed that it was simply because he was surprised that she was being so stern.

But when Thea looked at Luana, the amused look on her face was enough for Thea to realize that Luana had thoroughly, intentionally, fooled her.

Thea turned her head slowly, first seeing Mrs. Railer looking down at her work, and then seeing the General standing at the door, looking directly at her, Julian standing behind him with his brows raised high on his forehead, despite looking down at his papers.

"Sir!" Thea stood up quickly, feeling both humiliated and wanting to pass out.

Luana was snorting, trying to hold back her own laughter but failing.

Thea was going to kill her.

The General raised a brow and then lowered it again.

Thea's eyes began to water, that was how embarrassed she was.

The two looked at each other for what felt like an eternity before the General let out a breath. "I appreciate the sentiment, Thea," he responded. "But how about we all start this meeting?"

It took absolutely everything in Thea to stop herself from collapsing and dying from embarrassment and Luana let out her laugh, roaring loudly.

"Luana," the General called sternly without looking at her as he walked towards his office. "That's enough."

She covered her mouth, but that didn't necessarily stop her from laughing.

Milo stood too, gently touching Thea's arm and giving her an apologetic expression.

"I'm going to kill her," Thea whispered, her voice squeaking in the process.

"This time around, I'll help," Milo responded.

When they made their way into the office, Thea took a seat with Milo in front of the General's desk, and Luana stood at attention next to Julian behind them, though she was still holding back her giggles.

Thea did not fail to notice that the General refused to make eye contact with her as he pulled his own chair out and sat down. "I know it's only been a couple hours, but any updates?" He asked, leaning to one side and resting his chin on his knuckles.

Thea was too humiliated to answer, so Milo spoke up, saving her the trouble. "We focused on trying to figure out what made him join the Crows... we thought that would be a good place to start. We think, at least from what we've found so far, that he was using his poetry in some way that got him into trouble, which led to his brother's death. We think this may have been the trigger that pushed him to the Crows."

"That's good progress," he responded. "Keep working at it."

Both Thea and Milo nodded.

"We have less than a week left until the meeting with the leaders," he started. "I'm sure Miss. Rhaanan would agree that our focus should be Rue this week. We can put a hold on all the other men you are interviewing."

Miss. Rhaanan. Thea thought. She had been demoted once again.

"I'm assuming that Rue is going to stick to his word and not say a word to you, but still maybe head down the prison for half an hour or so and see if you can get anything out of him," he said. "If he persists, don't push it. Come back and continue your work with Milo."

Thea nodded. "Understood."

"Good," he said. "We'll meet every morning at the same time for the rest of the week to keep everyone updated. If there is nothing else, then I won't keep you long. Let's not waste time."

"Yes, Sir," they all said together. But just as Thea stood up and everyone got ready to leave, the General looked at Luana. "You. Stay."

Luana hesitated before frowning.

To this, Thea smirked.







When Milo and Thea left, Niall looked at Luana in silence with a raised brow as Julian took one of the now empty seats.

She hesitated. "Sir..."

"What was that?"

"It wasn't me, Sir."

"I'm not stupid."

Her frown deepened. "I didn't say anything!"

"We need Thea focusing on this project, Luana," he said. "Not being humiliated by her friend."

"It's all fun and games, Sir," she said. "She told me a while ago that she thought you were handsome so I was making fun of her, just games between girls."

He felt his cheeks warm. She thought he was handsome?

"It's all just fun, I promise."

"Well stop it," he said. "Keep those games outside of work. You should know better, you're a State Officer."

"But–"

"And as punishment for your misbehaving, once you drop Thea back at Achlis after her shortened time at the prison, you will go back alone and you'll spend the time you two usually spend in the prison beginning the filing process that Thea and I spent nearly all night working on."

"But, Sir!"

"No but's," he said before muttering, "I let you get away with things way too much."

"It was just a joke!"

"You know what else is a joke?" he asked. "Your sense of humor–" Julian chuckled at that, "–Now get out and go inform Kaya of what she missed. She couldn't make it because she had another meeting scheduled."

"Niall..."

"I won't repeat myself, Kharan."

Luana sighed before rolling her eyes. "Yes, Sir."

He frowned at her. Any other superior would have fired her for that eye roll alone. Sometimes he did believe that it was unfortunate that he liked the girl so much.

When she was gone, Niall sighed and leaned back in his seat.

"Well," Julian started. "What do you think?"

"About what?" Niall asked.

"Thea thinks your eyelashes are pretty."

When Niall looked at him, he saw Julian looking back with a silly smile.

"It's a fact," he added.

"Shut up," was the General's response.







Despite the time crunch that they were in, Thea could not help but cringe every single time she thought of what had happened before the meeting. When the memory would pop in her head, she would want to drop everything and fall into a fetal position and pull her hair out in embarrassment.

Stupid Luana.

Of course, Luana had come to them after her conversation with the General and told them that she got in trouble for what she did, and though Thea was incredibly satisfied with that, that didn't take away from the fact that the General now knew that she thought he was handsome... and that he had... pretty eyelashes.

Even now, as she walked back to the office after getting back to Achlis from her half an hour of silence with Rue, she wanted to drop down and cringe.

She wondered how long it would last.

But just as she sighed, trying to push the thought out of her mind, she felt an arm grab her.

The hand was cold, and she didn't need to turn to know who it was, so almost instantly, she tried to pull away, but the man was stronger than her

Railand pulled her towards him so that she was facing him before pushing her against a wall, and to her surprise, she saw the smirking Phyl standing a short distance away, looking amused.

She didn't have time for this, that was all she could think of. She had a man's life in her hands right now. A man she actually cared about. She didn't have time for these silly games. "Leave me alone," she hissed at him as the two looked down at her with their usual defiant look of superiority.

"Wow, two nights with a powerful man and look at the nerve you've grown," Railand said.

"What?"

"You're fucking him, aren't you?" Phyl asked, stepping closer.

Her brows shot up. "What are you talking about?"

"The General," he said. "You're sleeping with the man. You like your men powerful, don't you? And don't try to lie, everyone has seen you come in with him two days in a row. I heard you went home with him last night too."

Enraged but also engulfed by an odd feeling of defenselessness, she wondered who the hell it was that was feeding them this information. Why were they watching her? And why did those jerks have nothing better to do? But as the thought flashed through her mind, she realized, it didn't matter.

She had no reason to explain herself to them.

So she used all her strength and both her arms to push Railand back as hard as she could, so hard that he slammed into Phyl. When she had created a distance between herself and them, she glared. "Even if I was, it's none of your business," she said. "I have no reason to explain anything to you or anyone else."

Though Phyl looked genuinely surprised, taking a step back even, Railand looked incredibly angry, but for once, the anger on his face didn't scare her. Instead, it made her just as angry. She was tired of being toyed around with by these men who thought they knew her. By men like these two and Vetori and Kinny and Adrien.

She was especially tired of Adrien.

She was tired of the fact that somehow he was still a part of her life, even when he was nowhere in sight. That needed to stop.

It needed to stop today.

Railand stepped forward again, though Phyl tried to stop him. "Hey man, leave it," he said, surprising Thea but also making it clear to her that these men were more cowardly than she thought.

Railand ignored him. "You've got quite some nerve–"

"Yes," she snapped. "I do. I've got the nerve to tell you that you need to leave me alone. I'm not afraid of you, so stop thinking that you can scare me–"

He tried to grab her again but she kept her distance. "You–"

"I swear to god, Railand, if you keep this up I will make sure I report you to General Killian," she said, confidently. Sure she wanted to deal with him herself, but at this point, she knew she couldn't. And so using the General's name seemed to be the best option. "One word to him and he will deal with you." And before he could argue with her or say something otherwise, she turned around and rushed off.

She was not going to be bullied by these people anymore. She had more important things to do than deal with children.







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