More Than Imagined

Chapter 17

It was obvious enough with all the fidgeting and blabbering that Rhoawyn had taken a liking to Eli. Whether it was because of his devilish charm or some odd sense of dependency he hadn't quite decided. Either reason for her falling for him was fine, inevitable really, but he was still curious.

It made him even more curious when he heard a meek knock at his door. He couldn't lie, he was a bit annoyed by it because he was smack in the middle of folding an extra trench coat for the mission they had been assigned to.

He stopped his folding and moved to unlock the door. It slid open to that unbearably innocent face. The face of his little squirrel as she stood in his doorway, her arms clutched behind her back. Maybe taking a break from mission prep wasn't so bad?

"You know you can't just show up to your captain's room unannounced, right? I could have been trying to strategize or something," Eli quipped.

Rhoawyn looked over his shoulder, spotting the open drawstring bag and the semi-folded trench coat next to it.

"Looks like you were just trying to feed your supervillain obsession again to me," Rhoawyn said, dipping one of her feet over the threshold of his doorframe to test the waters.

Eli moved to the side, extending his hand to invite her in. She kept her back turned away from him, something clearly held in her hands as she plopped down on his bed—making a mess of all his hard work.

"You're lucky I'm not one of those captains that believe in discipline for petty actions," Eli warned, but his smile was ever-present as he yanked his coat from beneath the swell of Rhoawyn's butt.

She gave him an obnoxious grin and slipped something smooth and cold into Eli's hand. He didn't recognize what it was, but he quickly closed his grip around the object, bringing it around to look at it. It was rectangular—small—much like his cards, and when she handed it to him, he snorted at the fluffy squirrel's tail etched into it.

Rhoawyn had mentioned offhandedly that she had an artsy streak, but she didn't get to exercise it as much as she would have liked when she was still living in The Apex. He's never considered he would have a physical representation of that passion in his hand.

"Not that I don't like getting random sculptures of cards, but why am I getting this one?" Eli asked.

"I just thought, since I won't be going on the first mission," Rhoawyn hesitated, "well, I thought maybe if I gave you this then you could take it on the mission with you, and it would be like I was there too. Like I'm not being left behind," Rhoawyn mumbled, kneading her hands into the tops of her thighs.

Eli hadn't considered how not being able to go on this mission would affect Rhoawyn. He knew about her need to be able to manifest, but even after telling her about Cienna, the thought of her actually caring about completing an Imaginary's duties never crossed his mind until now. She had always been obsessed with Departing, getting it all over with as quickly as possible. Eli didn't expect her to want to be involved any more than she had to be.

Eli clutched the card a little tighter, a silent vow to help her manifest in any way he could. But that could only happen after the mission. "And here I thought you hated the nickname."

Rhoawyn scoffed and pushed his shoulder gently.

"I do, but you seem to like it. And you say it so much that I just thought this made sense," Rhoawyn said, averting her eyes to her lap. "And maybe I thought I could make something nice for you as a thank you for The Athenaeum..."

"You're so cute when you're grateful," he cooed. This time Rhoawyn full-on hit him.

"Just keep it as good luck and don't bring up that I made you something ever again," Rhoawyn groaned, hopping off the bed and toward the door, hands curled in frustration at her side.