Criminal

I awoke and smiled down at Idril's sleeping form. She was lightly snoring and and curled up into my chest. I can't believe she saw right through me. No one has ever done that before, it's astonishing. I will just have to be unpredictable. Maybe I'll be nice most of the time but then randomly switch to being cold and irritated. Perfect! Irdil yawned, breaking my concentration, and cracked her eyes open.

"Good morning, beautiful." I smiled at her. She snorted.

"Hi." She grumbled. She sat up and stretched, I removed my arms from around her and went to put my clothes on. She grabbed the heap of thin fabric she called clothing and headed off to the washroom. I felt bad for her, she would freeze out there, unlike the plants that are used to the cold.

I took the opportunity of her being out of sight to use a small, undetectable amount of magik to turn my extra set of clothes into a warm coat, a long sleeved dress, and long leggings that would keep her warm. Hopefully her current shoes are warm enough because I don't have an extra pair to transform, and conjuring would use too much magik and it would alert the guards. Those stupid pegasilhounds are trained to sense when magik was used. She came out of the washroom rubbing her naked arms and shivering.

"Here," I said and handed her the set of warmer women's clothes. "I saw your clothes were far too thin for being outside. So I traded for some warmer ones."

"I can't take those." She frowned at me. "You're not allowed to spend your money on me."

"I didn't, I simply traded some old clothes for some new ones." She sighed and shook her head. "Take them. You'll freeze to death, and you're just starting to get interesting." She scoffed at me and I smirked.

"Fine, but just because I do not wish to become a giant cube of ice." She ripped the clothes from my hands and stormed back into the washroom. Once she had finished changing I lead her out to the field. First we picked up our tools, then we headed out to our designated row and started our work. Well I started, Idril sat there and looked clueless.

She went to grab the plant from the vine, then screamed and pulled her hand away. "It shocked me!" She yelled.

"I told you they were special magik plants, they aren't going to just let you take them." I chuckled. "That's why they gave you protective gloves and sleeping powder." I walked over to her and stood behind her. "Put your gloves on." I instructed and she did as I said. "Now grab some sleeping powder, and I'll show you the method." I pressed my body against her and grabbed her wrist with one hand, and set my other on her hip, and showed her the proper way to sprinkle the sleeping powder. She looked back at me and blushed.

"I think I've got it now." She coughed nervously, I laughed and backed away. After a couple plants she had the method down. We stayed silent and worked hard for about two hours before she called my name. I walked over to her.

"I have a plan." She half-whispered. "I want to mess with Corinth." I smiled deviously.

"I like that idea. What do you have planned?"

"Well, she appears to be the jealous type. The really jealous type." I like where this is going. "So I was thinking we could be obnoxiously clingy and 'in love'. And it was all because of her, we fell in love because of that thing you did last night."

I nodded and continued her story of our love. "You didn't know how I felt, because even I refused to believe how my feelings. And when that... erm... thing happened, we felt awkward but got all sappy and confessed our love. It's perfect! And look there she is. Here let me help you get this plant." I did what I had done before. Except, this time I pressed even closer to her and rested my head on her shoulder. Instead of grabbing her wrist I grabbed her hips.

"Look at how angry she looks." I whispered in Idril's ear, a shiver ran down her spine. Corinth was glaring at us with her arms crossed over her chest. I looked back at what Idril was doing.

"No stop!" I yelled. "If you do it like that it will-" I was cut off as the plant exploded, covering us head to toe in purple magik goop. A smirk surfaced on Corinth's face. I started laughing and Idril followed my lead. I let go of her hips and turned her around to face me.

"You look ridiculous!" I laughed. Then I wiped a little of the goop and tasted it. I felt my magik being replenished and empowered. I have to be careful, if I eat too much the pegasilhounds will be able to smell my magik, and that would be bad news.

"But you taste good!" I giggled like a love struck teenager. Corinth howled in rage and stormed inside. I chuckled and started heading back to my work.

"This is going to be fun." Idril said and smirk. She looked devious and... Attractive, or at least more attractive than usual. I smiled and returned to work. Over the eight more hours we worked I caught her looking over at me quite a few times. But to catch her looking at me I had to look at her... It was definitely because I felt her eyes on me... Not because I was looking at her.

When dinner was served Idril and I sat right next to each other, and Corinth sat next to a burly monster of a man across from us, looking smug.

"She's so jealous." Idril said with a loving smile to mask what she said.

"I know it's great!" I copied her smile. We fell silent to shovel some of our meals into our mouths. We only got one and a half meals a day-half being the snack break around lunch time-but the pay was extraordinary, and worth being on the brink of fainting all day.

Once I devoured my first plate I wiped my face and looked at Idril. She was had also just finished her plate, and I saw the perfect opportunity to annoy Corinth even further. I placed my hand on her cheek and used my thumb to remove a bit of the purple goop she had missed earlier. Then I let my hand sit there and cup her face. She froze and slowly turned to look at me. For a minute I felt trapped in her eyes. She had a vulnerable look glued to all of her features, had I been a better actor I would have kissed her right there, but it didn't feel like the right time.

The right time? What am I saying? I have never once believed in a 'right time' to kiss a woman. I always just go for it. That's how I weed out the easy women from the stubborn ones. Most girls will let you kiss them and feel terrible about it later, others will punch you. I don't care how the women feel layer because, if all goes well, I'll have disappeared before that time arrives.

Why do I care if its the right time to kiss Idril? She would allow it to happen because she is on a mission to make Corinth jealous. Maybe I don't wish to kiss her because I refuse to leave her in this city alone with no buffer betwixt her and Corinth, so later when she feels terrible for what happened I will actually be present. Yes, I do believe that is it. I do not want to kiss her because I don't want to leave her. No... I mean leave her here... With Corinth on the loose.

What's wrong with me? Has my mind not accepted that I have to leave Idril at some point? I get my money from easily seduced women, and the act of seducing said women will be hard to do with Idril constantly hanging around me. Of that isn't enough to convince my mind, how about the constant danger? She would always be at risk of being captured and killed just for being my acquaintance.

Idril pulled me from my thoughts by taking my and in hers and press her lips to my fingers. She pulled back and smiled. "Welcome back to Peltumbe, Elessar. How was your trip to the clouds?"

"It wasn't really that great." I shrugged and she chuckled.

"You looked deep in thought for a moment. You had that cute crease between your eyebrows and everything." She suddenly smirked. "What has you so preoccupied up there?" She poked my forehead as I had done to her only a day earlier.

"Well, I'm not sure. Everything I guess." I shrugged and she gave me an unimpressed look. "How about we go to bed. I want to leave by tomorrow night but if we had to I suppose we could spend another day."

"We'll see." She said. "It all depends on how much money the two of us make and if I feel like irritating Corinth anymore." I nodded and we headed to our room.

Part of me wanted to stay and pretend to be in love, I mean irritate Corinth more with Irdil. The other part knew it was dangerous.