The Art of Cake

[Foxglove]

With Elena sort of out of audible range, Ezrael sighed slightly. The way Maren had her head on his chest was preventing him from moving at all, as everything he could do to stand up was pushing his upper body foward. He was trapped here. "Explain it to me," he whispered to Maren, just loud enough for her to understand. "With or without words," he added, refering to Valery, if necessary.

Knowing someone was listening, Maren reached out for Ezrael's hand, intent on delivering directly. As she touched his hand, his mind would be flooded with the events of the evening, though in a boiled down version that conveyed the happenings and not any emotions or thoughts that had been had at the time. The cake baking, the stroll to the beach, the small talk about Elena's work, the casual mentioning of Unschuld, and then going back to watch TV.

It would take him a few seconds to process it, but the most important information was the fact that Elena was spying on them. Because of that, he couldn't ask Maren directly about her intentions, or refer to any knowledge he just gained from her over Valery. He was just glad he didn't have to talk to Valery. The last time he did was already months in the past, and it didn't go out well. In fact, it was the time when she told him she would leave, and take Maren with her, taking the protection from him and his friends, which was the more polite way to express their immediate death, as they knew too much. Staring at the television screen, he decided to close his eyes. "I see. No words." In faux-annoyance sighing audibly, he turned his head to the stairs. "I was hoping you'd be more happy about me being here with you again, Maren." Just loud enough for Elena to hear it clearly.

She caught onto what he was trying immediately. Maybe it was just her knowledge about how he worked, but her intuition told her to go ahead with this. "I am happy to see you again. I just didn't expect you to go out like this. What if your wounds get infected?" she asked him, cocking her head slightly.

"Then you'd bring me back to the Apahanta as fast as possible. But no, don't worry. In the last few days the burnt meat has been completely replaced," he told her, as it would mean she could look at him again when he is undressed. "The nerves will take a while to adapt, though. So far it is making good progress. Maybe it's better in a week. Maybe in a month," he explained without wanting to go into detail. "I still have no feel in my hands and the arm."

"Hmm, alright. Maybe get physiotherapy for that?" she asked, wondering if Ezrael would even consider such a thing. For a moment, Maren's eyes flickered to the patch of wall that Elena was hiding behind.

"Yes, that will be a thing, but mostly on the Apahanta. The moment the nerves are connected again, I need to train my hands. That's the problem about this entire thing. anatomically, everything should be where it belongs, but the brain might need to readjust to it. Something was lost, and now it is back." Looking back at the screen, he saw a supposed-to-be-scary scene of the movie, but he was not deep enough into it to really notice anything. "I love you, Maren."

Leaning over, Maren gave him a kiss, not too much, since he was still tense.

Elena had only occasionally listened in to the occasion, as she was realizing there wasn't really much to listen to in the first place, and instead concentrated on getting dressed up again in her more casual clothes. What she however found out spying was that it was definitely her presence solely that had caused the weird atmosphere. Some other ideas had run through her mind, but she didn't want to jump to false conclusion.

Trying to make a different, more self-confident appearance, she closed the door to the bathroom again after having stepped out, and walked down the stairs. "Love is in the air", she meant with a telling smile. It was a pretty much put on cheerfulness though. Hopping back on the couch, she looked at him, then her, quite expectantly. It was definitely an odd change of mood.

Maren leaned back, wanting to enjoy the movie again. Assuming a more relaxed position, she put her head on her arm resting against Ezrael.

And just like this, Maren claimed her territory. "You're welcome to stay for the night, Elena. You don't even have to worry about weird noises coming from Maren's and my bedroom since no hands, no cookies," he said quietly, smirking at her for a moment.

She wasn't too sure whether she wanted to stay here, but on the other hand, stuff seemed to be more or less resolved now. "Well, as I already got the offer, why not take it?", she replied, giving him a brief smile back. "Only if that's really ok, though..." She still had her doubts all the conflict had been resolved, but at least staying longer would open up an opportunity to catch Ezrael on his own to get the answers to her questions.

"Really, it's fine," Maren said, reaching for the remote as she spoke. "Though could we watch the movie please? I'll rewind twenty minutes because I didn't catch half of what was going on there."

"Alright then," he said quietly, looking down to Maren first, then from the corner of the eye over to Elena. It would have been better if she would have left, but then again he wasn't too sure if Maren would let her go that easily. With him being present, he at least felt he was able to prevent the worst simply by being around. However, the entire situation was weird, and Maren still extremely intransparent.

One last quizzical glance at Ezrael, then Elena would as well turn her attention back to the movie, not having a real problem to catch up with the storyline as she knew it well enough. However, she realized she couldn't quite stay concentrated on the film, and every now and then would she look away from the screen and look down at herself, playing around with her thumbs from time to time. Wondering whether staying was a good idea, because the feeling something was wrong didn't let go of her. She seemed unsettled.

With that, Maren rewound the movie and nestled in to watch. She didn't have anything else to add here.

And so they watched the movie for a while, for quite a while. More than an hour later, the movie ended, and Ezrael finally got to stand up again, as he found the movie horribly outdated and bad, but then again, it was probably just his own mood not allowing him to enjoy something profane like a movie in this situation, with Maren on his chest and Elena almost behaving nervously. He often glanced over to her. Even if Maren wasn't right next to them, he just couldn't talk with Elena openly. 200 meters, if that was still correct. 200 meters of distance, at least, so Valery wouldn't be able to listen to everything. So he thought. How could he get away with Elena without it being suspicious?

Elena couldn't enjoy it really either, and she didn't attempt to cast a pell on that. She wouldn't look over to Ezrael and Maren, though, and almost getting into imagining them not even being there at all. When the movie ended, she just let out a pretty dissatisfied sigh, and looked over to her company. "That's what you call a screening with interruption, I guess", she commented on the circumstances, in an actedly jocular manner. She didn't really know what to feel about this.

"Sort of," Maren chuckled, looking over at Vertiga. "Cake?" She didn't intend to let them alone for long enough to do anything conspicuous.

"No cake," he replied. "Do we have something healthy here right now or should I not even bother opening the fridge and just get to the twentyfour seven?" he asked her, knowing Maren was the last person in Sirius to eat like someone who would care for their body. Her luck was a little blue thing in her body that took care of anything that was not appreciated.

"There are bananas on the stove," Maren replied, knowing that she liked eating them with honey.

"Bananas... I do think I quickly go to the twentyfour seven and get stuff for real humans," he said and moved up. "Do you two want something as well?" he asked them while slowly heading to the door. His KSR was still standing there.

"I could use some apples or other fruits", she replied quietly while watching him moving up to the front door. Vitamines weren't her most favourite thing, but she felt like some fruit sugar could help with her mood.

That wasn't what he would have liked to hear. If Maren would have stayed here but Elena would have joined him, they could have had their time to talk, but there was no way to signalize it to Elena without Valery noticing it. "Okay, I'll just bring a load of fruits over here," he told them, smiling. "Don't go full lesbian while I'm back!"

"I'll do what I can," Maren replied, aware she was still only wearing beachgear. She moved to stand and stretch, not going further.

She could only smile weakly at his comment. "Don't worry. Wouldn't be the one to initiate it." Then she would take a peek at Maren, or rather her body, and admitting to herself that at other times, under different circumstances, she would have probably attempted some things. But neither was she in the mood, nor would she do it when she knew her boyfriend was gonna come back soon enough. "Don't go up in flames on the way."

"You're not the boss of me," he gave her back before leaving with the KSR. And he intended to take his sweet time to think about all this.

Turning to Maren, taking a few seconds to observe her mien, she said: "Uh, well. That was curious, I ... guess."

"He had meanness powder!" Maren explained, turning to Elena just eith her upper body. "That's why you two did awkward things."

It didn't exactly win her over, and with a doubtful expressions did she have another look at Maren, then sat up straight on the couch, burying her face in her hands, sighing again. "Hm, and in a more serious way? This first seemed like some sort of serious crisis..."

"He has been a bit paranoid after the entire deal with Hussaini," Maren told Elena, siting down again. Leaning forward, she took the remote for the AC and turned it down a bit. "He's afraid he could face problems."

She cocked her head to the left slightly, narrowing her eyes again. Now they were back to that topic, but frankly, she shouldn't have expected otherwise anyways. "How much do you actually know about this all?", she just asked her in bewilderment. It really sounded to her like she and Unschuld had had some kind of afternoon tea party and chin-wagged about this and that.

"Well, what Ezrael told me," Maren replied, shrugging. "It's best to just ignore his antics, I guess. I'm not a psychiatrist, and he doesn't seem to do anything self-destructive, so it's best to let it slide." Half of the cake was still there. Maren considered packing up so it wouldn't spoil too quickly.

"Probably, yes", she replied, not necessarilly convinced, but minded to let the topic fall until she could exchange views with him personally. Until then, she would just act like nothing had been out of the ordinary. Folding her arms before her chest, she'd cast a glance at the TV. "He didn't even like the movie...", she said headshakingly, though in a not too serious way. Before Maren could pack up the cake, she decided to grab a small piece of it and stuff it into her mouth.

That came unexpected. Still, she took the platter and put tin foil over the cake, putting it back in the fridge. Returning, she slumped down on the couch. "If you want to, you can already go upstairs and brush your teeth. Just in case you want to. We've got those spare things dentists have that you can use."

After she was done munching away, Elena quickly checked her watch. It was around half past 8 by now. Maren's suggestion to brush teeth already hence was met with some surprise. "Well, I don't sleep much, to be completely honest. I'll wait with that", she gave back. She didn't really seem tired at all, though, but rather pumped. "How did you like it?"

"Like what?" Maren asked, not knowing what Elena meant. The cake? Or the evening they'd spent together. "I guess the cake was alright. I think the vanilla was a bit old, as you can taste it's not really strong in the pudding. Still, it worked out."

She had actually meant the movie, but alright. Never mind, she thought to herself. Pulling her legs up onto the couch and leaning against the armrest, she would have a quick look outside, seeing how dark it had become; the sun had already set some time ago. "Can you see the stars from this place?", she wondered loudly.

"Not often, no," Maren admitted, following Elena's eyes. "I guess there are a little too many light sources around." Rubbing her nose, she crossed her legs as she lay on the couch. "On Nuremberg, you could see them if you went into the savannah for ten minutes or so. The farther you got from the city, the more bright they became."

"When I think about it, I've been in the big cities my whole life", Elena said in reply, realizing she had spent her life either on Stuttgart or Manhattan, both highly-populated planets. "I guess a home like Nuremburg is considerably shaping a person, isn't it?" She moved one hand up to her chin, tapping at it whilst staring out of the window.

"Well, before the dark matter, it wasn't anything specialy," Maren meant. "It was usually pretty warm. Even in winter you needed to stay inside a lot, because you still got sunburns, even if it was minus five degrees or so, with snow."

"I guess it's too late to make a good trip there, with this whole dark matter ***** nowadays", said Elena. "A real pity when you think about it." A small yawn slipped out of her mouth, contradictory to her alert state. She spent some time looking around, then at herself again, then at Maren.

"Currently it's just people trying to get off the planet. Law enforcement struggles to grip the crisis and gang violence was on the rise when I left. I wouldn't be surprised if everything turned to some tribal wasteland by now." She yawned, in response to Elena. "Well, what can you do, right?"

"As far as I'm aware, there are people trying to tackle it. Organizations like The Seraphims, in case you heard about them. I'm sure you did", she said. "It's a whole lot of work, which is why they are still in planning phase to our knowledge. As soon as they get to work, so will my organization. After all they need contributors." A small smile flashed over her face as she spoke. "How much the system is worth the trouble it brings I don't know though."

"Funny that you mention it. I was the one to ask them to help Nuremberg," Maren said absently, humming. "Oh well. I guess all you can do is bring people somewhere else. The planet is gone and the atmosphere is dissipating."

"Oh, that is curious. You could or should give them a gentle kick in the butt then. I haven't heard of them for quite some time", she said, shifting her body slightly to the left, supporting her head with her arm which was resting on the armrest of the couch. "Well, also bringing supplies to those who are still there, and so on and so forth." She sighed, thinking about it. "But yeah. An ugly topic altogether."

"Well, I guess they know how to handle things," she replied initially. "Yeah, the topic is sort of dark. Then again, we can't help it, really. Not like you caused the dark matter cloud." She snapped her head around and gave Elena a piercing glance with one eye. "Or did you?"

She couldn't help but smile a little on that very confrontational question. "Uh oh, seems like somebody just unmasked me!", she said, a bit louder, as though she was actually surprised. "I'm the evil mastermind behind all of this, yes", she added with serious voice. "And now I'll clichedly reveal my plan to you in a neverending monologue like every villain does." A silent chuckle topped off her words.

"Do you think you could do it?" Maren asked her curiously. "Be a real life supervillain?" It was maybe a childish question, but Maren liked entertaining such notions, as long as one treated them with the utmost seriousness.

As childish as the question possibly appeared at first glance, it actually got Elena thinking about it on a serious note. She was quite well aware she wasn't exactly a Nomak, or even worse, a Hussaini, but she thought she probably had the potential to become a pretty ugly and mean person. If she wasn't already, she pondered. "I guess I could", she said, being a bit absentminded. "Then again, I don't really want to."

"Being a hero is pretty gay, though, you gotta admit," Maren said, wanting to not have the discussion become too serious. "Like, the entire good intentions thing has been done to death."

"In that case though, supervillains would be pretty much the same stereotypical bull, don't you think?", she replied. Then however a thought crossed her mind, one that painted a smile on her face again. "I'd dare to say you got a pretty gay lover then."

"I am almost certain that Ezrael had had gay intercourse," Maren stated matter-of-factly. Thinking back, she almost had no doubt about that.

"Screwing anything with a heartbeat", she added mumblingly, as he had pretty much made this impression to her back then. Knowing it wasn't very diplomatic, she still stated it. "Apropos, you know when he'll be back? I need apples. Badly." A lie, but oh well.

"Dunno, the store is only some five minutes away," Maren stated, looking at the door that Ezrael had left through. "Remind me: did you tell him that you wanted apples?"

She just nodded. "Yeah, else I'd be pretty *****. I need my fruit sugar and I need it now." Acting like some diabetes patient, it was merely a way to conceal the bewilderment that was still left. "Do you know that feeling when you want something really, really badly?"

Maren made a face. Asking that question to a Cardamine user seemed redundant, so Maren just chuckled. "A few times a day," she just gave back.

To be fair, Elena had completely forgotten about the Cardamine story when she had asked the question. With Maren's reply however, she was almost instantly getting reminded of it. "Oooh ... right, yeah. There was something." For a moment she looked almost embarrassed, but that changed soon enough again. Stretching it out, she made it herself more comfortable on the couch, hands folded behind her neck.

"Well, if I were a bad influence on you, I'd totally ask you to do drugs with me, but I'm not!" She tried querying for where Ezrael was right, wondering what took him so long.

"Buut, you couldn't make me", she just said, in quite a serious tone. Elena's drugs was what it was, and what it would always be - alcohol. Though she had tried Cardamine once, ironically in a restaurant being accompanied by Ezrael, she wasn't too fond of trying more of it. But she as well now was wondering what the hell was he taking so long. Not because she needed the apples so badly, though, but because she needed the answers, badly.

"I can't really take a lot of medicine," Maren admitted, obfuscating the fact of her better half. "Some medicine doesn't mix well with Cardamine. I can't take a lot of coughing syrups, funnily enough. Makes my throat sorer than it was before."

"At least it doesn't hurt your kidney, does it?", Elena gave back with a far-away mien. For the hint of a second, an agonized expression passed over her face. Altogether she wasn't very proud of her drinking problem.

"I have superpowers, yes," Maren replied with a tone that sounded like she was completely serious. "Reckon we should go after him and look what's going on?"

The hell was that remark about now, she wondered instantly. Elena had been alluding to her alcoholism and not to some superpowers. From time to time, this woman seriously tied her up in knots. Shaking her head, not trying to think further about that, she said: "Yes, maybe we should." Standing up, she quickly grasped the gun out of the bag. Secret-mongering about what she had with her was senseless by now anyways. "In case we need it", she told Maren, pointing at the weapon.

"That won't be necessary," Maren told Elena decisively. "You'll only get in serious trouble if you're caught with that. OSC goes to painstaking lengths to keep their customers safe, so if they found out you smuggled this past security at the spaceport..." She let the phrase trail out, letting the implications hand in the air. "I'll fetch a jacket real quick."

Elena briefly glanced out of the window, into the prevailing darkness, and only imagining to go out there without proper safety measures gave her a significant fright. Sure, there were no reasons to fear robberies and alike, as crime rate on Curacao was pretty much non-existant, but just so were her fears irrational. The problem was, she couldn't hide the gun anywhere, as she had no jacket with her to place it in. "You gotta admit though, when I was able to smuggle it this far, I'll probably be able to smuggle it further too", she almost argued. God, she just didn't want to leave without it.

"Trust me, you don't need it," Maren said, making a few steps towards the stairs to get a jacket.

She sighed, still not convinced, but it seemed impossible to convince Maren on this. "Oh well, if you really think so." As soon as she was upstairs, Elena hectically began to think about another possibility to hide somewhere. In the trousers pocket was far too obvious. Between her breasts? No.
Well then. It had to work without this time, she thought.

The very next moment the door opened. First a KSR with two cheap bags, then Ezrael, who looked at Elena and her gun. "Oh boy."

Soon after, Maren came back, wearing a jacket that made her shoulders appear much broader than they actually were. Seeing, Ezrael, she hummed. "And here I was going to go after you." It was his jacket.

"At least this time I don't point her at you", she told him, lowering it, then throwing it back onto the couch. Frankly, she was actually quite glad that he had showed up on his own, without them having to search for him.

"You look good in leather," he said, smirking at Maren. Then looking at Elena again, he wondered why she had the gun in her hand. Or now on the couch. "Why did you bring a gun here? It's Curacao."

"Meh," Maren just intoned, unzipping the jacket again and moved to sit on the ouch again, keeping the jacket on, though. The AC had made the air rather cold in the evening hours.

With his foot, he pushed the door back into the frame while the KSR brought the bags of curacaoan fruits to the kitchen counter just to get a basket for them. Ezrael however moved over to Elena and Maren, dropping himself on the couch, right next to his worse half.

If Maren had known that similie, she would have been offended.

She didn't, though.

She stammered a little, then said: "Uh, well. I got used to having it around me, to be honest. I know that Curacao is a safe place and all, but ... yeah." It seemed difficult to her to explain it, especially since she knew herself her reasoning was bull. "I just feel safer with it." Knowing it was best to just shut up now, she let herself fall on the couch again, putting the gun back into the bag. "We were about to take a look where you've been", she said.

Eyeing her moves, he smirked. "Well, you're right. Certain individuals might have access to Curacao. Better be safe than sorry." However no gun would be able to save her from an infectee. "I just had a little talk with the shopkeeper. Just small talk." A girl he knew from the pre-Maren era. No need to mention it, he thought. "So, pyjama party tonight? No pillow fights, right? I am crippled."

"I didn't plan to, though now that you mention it, it might be worth a shot," Maren quipped, just wanting to see his face, not wanting to follow through with it.

Grinning at her in an insolent way, he would have liked to fingerpistol her as usual. Sadly he lacked his fingerpistol ability right now.

She weighed her head to the right, glancing at Ezrael. "Pillow fights... that would be the first time since ages", she meant, being unsure whether she would like that, though. "Pyjama party sounds like a good plan. I could easily pull an all-nighter."

"Good, then that settles it. No sleep for the ladies tonight," he said like he ordered it in a restaurant. "How are your friends, by the way? Stenn and Fenn. Didn't see either of them for a while."

"Stenn is just like he always is, you see, blowing stuff up wherever he can", she answered. She noticed the awkwardness had been abating, luckily. A good sign, she though to herself. Without much of a expression, she kept looking at him, before a smile played around her lips. Thinking of Nick, and knowing what Ezrael thought of him, she simply couldn't help herself. "Well, and Fenn- she kinda retired from active duty." Clearing her throat, she leaned more into the couch, trying to ensconce herself. "Maybe somebody should make coffee for the sake of a night party", she suggested mumblingly.

Very slowly, Ezrael's head turned to Maren.

"Hi," Maren said, looking at him questioningly.

There was a slight smirk on his lips as he stared at her.

She reciprocated his look patiently.

For a short moment, he looked over to the kitchen, then back at Maren.

"I'm not cooking," she stated, having followed his look.

"I can't move my hands, love," he reminded her.

"I can break my arms too," she reminded him.

"Jeesh, I can make it as well. A coffee machine is a coffee machine, after all", Elena threw in with a shrug.

You damn lazy *****, Ezrael thought to himself as he kept grinning at Maren. "No need to, Elena. Maren is just ***** with me," he explained. "After all, she invited you here, so she'll gladly push a button on the coffee mashine."

"Of course I would. Whoever told you otherwise?" Maren asked while rising from the couch, moving over to the coffee machine. She didn't know if it had different settings, so she simply turned it on and set it to boil the first coffee there was, putting a mug under the muzzle.

Crossing her legs, she watched Maren walking over to the coffee machine to press the magic button. A curious couple, she thought to herself. Otherwise, she kept a neutral face.

While Maren was doing the very hard work, Ezrael turned around to face Elena again. He wanted to ask her many things, but he didn't want to ruin the mood. About her belly. About John. About Hussaini. Many things. "You should settle down on Curacao, you know. It's lovely here."

Clearly perceivable annoyance flashed over her face. "Oh, don't you get started with that again", she replied, making a threatening gesture with her hand, though it was not a serious one. Her statement however was. "You can't stop with this voice of reason, can you?", she asked. She kind of thought to know to which matter he wanted to get that way, and she was not amused about it. Listening to his voice of reason would have been good for you, something however told her.

"Voice of reason," he repeated, grinning. Then he turned around, looking at Maren. "I have a voice of reason, Maren!" Facing Elena again, he still grinned. "The air of Curacao is rich of oxygen. It's known for having a metaphasic effect on people, enhancing health. No *****. And you can afford it. Pretty sure I could get you a good apartment, I have good connections. So you can do it like Fenn and do the boring paperwork from here instead of roaming around in space, no?"

"Yes, I heard a lot about those good connections of yours already", she said, alluding to what Lily - or was she actually Lily? - had told her. "To some extent you're right, though", she had to admit. Doing the paperwork on their base a pain in the arse. On the other hand, paperwork was always a pain in the arse, recently even more than usual. "It has better air than Manhattan for sure. And in general, Curacao is a lovely place. Already spent hol--" She halted, staring at him with blank expressions for some seconds. "...holidays here once." She was leaving out the information with whom she had been there on purpose.

"Holidays," he repeated, smirking. "People do come here for that," he added, looking at her hands for a moment, wanting to see if there was a ring by now.

There was none. "Yeah, sure they do", she replied, unsure whether there was supposed to be some subtext in his words. In return, she gave him a smile back, which looked a bit forced.

"So, you were on the primary islands back then, with all the clubs and discos and casinos?" he asked her, not really knowing what else to talk about with Maren around. It still wasn't time to talk about the important things.

"Yep, basically. Clubbing, dancing, enjoying the view and beaches and sunsets and ... the people", she replied, all of a sudden appearing to be rather dreamy, as she wished those days back very badly. "I actually wanted to ask you for some hints about good places to visit, but kinda forgot it back then."

"Reminds me of the one time when I went over with Maren to show her a club and people non-stop hit up on her, and then she punched a guy in the face and, well, typical clubbing stories, you know how they end," he said with a serious expression at the end that would make it hard to guess if that was a true story or not. "How's the coffee, sugartits?"

"Punching guys in a club .... it's almost some kind of ritual if you ask me", she just added, not asking further if it was actually a true story. She thought it was. "The sounds machos make when getting hit is almost pleasing. It's some kind of 'oink'." A smile played around the corners of her lips. Funny stories came to mind.

"Oink!" After gifting her with an amused smile, he turned his head back to Maren again. "Everything alright, sugartits?"

She was waiting with rapt attention while brown liquid poured out of the machine and into the first cup. She figured Ezrael wanted one too. She herself didn't like coffee. "Yes," Maren replied slowly, looking back at him.

He didn't like coffee either, as tea was his coffee, and wine his beer. But he knew all too well how Elena was into coffee. If not even addicted. Some of her traits were rather extreme, now that he thought about it. "Alright. You're doing great!" Maren was weird sometimes, too.

Elena was about to say something when a weird vibration sound from inside her bag cut in her words. Puzzledly, she'd reach inside the bag and found it was her PDA which was alarm-vibrating. Switching the display on, her expressions would quickly change into a quite stern one, while she was keeping silent. Her eyes darted over the screen, as though she was reading something, up until a quiet "Son of a *****..." slipped out of her mouth. Thereupon she looked up into Ezrael's eyes, clamping the PDA with her hands, then raising an eyebrow and showing an artificial smile. "Can we talk for a few minutes? Under four eyes?" The message she had just gotten didn't necessarilly call for a one-to-one, but she deemed it a good opportunity to claim it.

"Sure. Want to take a little walk?" he asked her, knowing that otherwise Maren would spy on them anyway.

"You can go upstairs," Maren suggested, not wanting them to leave, for obvious reasons.

Damn! This was bad. Upstairs wouldn't make any difference, and if he would insist on the walk, it would be an active act against Maren's plan, if she had one. Which was obvious to him. Looking at Elena, he hoped she would make the right decision.

Elena found Maren's chipping-in a bit too fishy for her likings. Though she was not aware of her real-life superpowers with which she could easily keep the two of them under surveillance, she was pretty sure Maren would try to spy in in some way, just as she herself had done before. It was her bungalow after all, so secret cameras or mics could be placed anywhere, she thought "I guess I could really use some fresh - Oxygen-rich - air, though", she said, finding an excuse to why they could go outside, then standing up and stretching herself. Only this time she wouldn't reach for the gun, mostly because she confided in Ezrael to play a good bodyguard - once again - in case one of her irrational fears would come true..

That left Maren in a slightly awkward position. She was quite sure the two of them wouldn't stray further than 200 metres, which meant she would get the general idea of what they were talking about anyways. She could also just follow and nobody would be much wiser afterwards. Then again, why not give Ezrael this little victory? The game was pretty one sided like that, and she figured he couldn't simply tell Elena anything vital anyways without screwing himself over. Any way this could go, it was more than fine. "Alright then." She made a mental note to ask Elena about the apples she had proported to crave earlier, wanting to trip her up in that if she had forgotten it already.