As they walked back to the other knights, Crow felt much more at ease. He was glad now that Penelope had forced him to tell her what had been on his mind. If she hadn’t, he probably would have gained quite a bit more resolve in his decision to end things between them, and he might not have listened to her when she told him that he was wrong. The thought made him shudder. He had come so close to making the biggest mistake of his life, all because of a ridiculous and unfounded insecurity. Now that the knight had reassured him that his fears weren’t true, he wasn’t going to let them get in the way again.

Eventually, Gavin and Olivia came into view as he and Penelope caught back up with them. The thief noticed right away that Gavin was looking over his shoulder as if he expected him to waltz back up with Penelope’s dead body in tow. He rolled his eyes. Even though he had come to terms with the fact that the knight would never trust him, he wished the man would at least understand that he wasn’t out to harm Penelope. It was annoying how worried he got every time Crow went anywhere alone with her.

Fortunately, since they had gotten such a late start into the day, Gavin didn’t waste their time by questioning them about what they had been doing. Instead, he simply held Penelope’s gaze for a moment before giving a curt nod and turning to keep walking towards Aramoor. Crow followed after him, just as eager to get to the village and get the interrogation over with so that he could lay down. After two poor nights of sleep in a row, he was hoping to go to bed early and make up for what he had lost.

However, while Gavin was focused on moving forward, Olivia wasn’t as easily distracted. She fell in step beside the thief and looked him over observantly. “So,” she smirked, reaching up pull a blade of grass from his long hair. “Found time to fit in a quickie, huh?”

“No,” Crow snorted, brushing her hand away. “That was from yesterday.” Having been tired the night before and not caring much about his appearance—he was already ragged enough after living in the woods for two years—he hadn’t bothered to clean all of the grass from his hair and clothes after his ‘walk’ with Penelope. “Why do you care so much, anyway?” he asked, eyeing her curiously.

“Because this mission is boring as hell, and getting dirt on the two of you is the most fun I’ve had since we left,” Olivia sighed dully.

“Is that so?” Crow’s lip curved up in a sly smile. “Are you sure it’s not because you’re jealous?”

“Jealous? Of what?” Olivia scoffed. “Sorry, Crow. You may be easy on the eyes, but I’m not jealous that Penelope managed to win you over to her side.”

“That’s not what I meant,” the thief laughed and then nudged her, lowering his voice. “You’re jealous because [i]Alistair[/i] isn’t here.” The knight’s confident expression wavered slightly, and he grinned, certain now that he’d struck a chord. “You’re not as subtle as you think. You’re disappointed that he isn’t here too, aren’t you?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Olivia snorted, though a blush developed on her cheeks despite her uncaring words. “Sure, we have fun sometimes, but I couldn’t care less if he was here or not.”

“That’s not what your face is saying,” Crow snickered, elbowing her in the side. “You’re smitten, aren’t you?”

She shot him a red-faced glare and then turned away again, tilting her chin up haughtily, “I’m bored of you two. You can walk by yourselves.” With that, she trotted ahead to harass Gavin instead.

Crow chuckled to himself and looked down at Penelope with a proud grin, “Hopefully that will teach her to stop pestering us so much.”