Commissioned [completed]

Chapter 24 - wading in too deep

"Papa Terzo," you greeted, finding him outside the Cardinal's office. He was wearing something you'd not seen on him before; a plain black dress shirt and white slip in his collar. He looked like a priest, the most casual he'd looked for you. He was close to holy, save for the tightness of his pants.

"Pittore _____," he nodded with the same business-like countenance.

You weren't discussing yesterday, and it never happened. It would probably be easy to deny it today; your next painting session, however... was going to be very hard; you felt it already.

"You got the uh, thing?" He growled in a conspiratorial tone.

You frowned and looked around, "are the hallways watched or something?"

"Maybe," he ended with a smug face.

"Fine, I have 'the thing'. I showed Swiss, my thing this morning."

"Oh really? They, uh, all had a 'welcome back from hell' party last night; I'm sure they all felt really fucking happy to hear Swiss on a rant so early," he was grinning, thinking about his ghouls.

"That explains a lot; I almost tripped on Aether," you chuckled.

"Aether just goes fucking down at some point; you have to remember where or you'll fall over him in the morning, and Mountain?" His smile was sweet, "he's a Great Dane who thinks he's a lap dog. Small places—found him locked under a staircase once."

"Found him?" You asked in disbelief, "How can any door hold a person like that?"

"He probably could have broken it, but he didn't think to; he never fucking does. I imagine Rain ended up with Cirrus, Sunshine and Cumulus. They're all a little less, uh, feral(?)" He looked absolutely taken with his ghouls. "Hundred per cent more calculated, though."

The door swung open between you two.

"Eh," Copia was dressed in his red cardinal's robes. He looked the two of you over, "yes, come in," he waved a leather-clad hand to the two of you.

You looked from Papa to Copia and nodded before following him in. "Close the door, Terzo," he instructed.

Terzo did as he was told, ending up beside you while Copia offered tea before sitting in his chair across from you.

"I uh," Copia cleared his throat, "suppose you don't want to tell Sister Imperator because you don't trust her; I... also don't trust her. This room is safe; you may speak freely."

You almost spat out your tea and gave Terzo an accusatory look. 'How much did you freaking tell him?!'

"Hey, I just fucking said, 'Got a knife, don't tell Sister.'"

"He's right, and honestly, I shouldn't know much more than that; if you want to keep it a secret within this church, keep it as need to know as possible, huh?"

"I just told like four ghouls," you looked wide-eyed at Terzo.

"Eh, my ghouls," he shrugged.

"Yes, actually, might be the only ones you can tell, loyal to the bone. It's the way of the ghoul," Copia soothed.

"Sodo lied to you, taking care of me," you frowned at the wording. Was Sodo ever 'taking care' of you?

"Never actually lied, and did what I would have wanted anyway."

"And writing on a piece of paper and leaving it somewhere, that's not telling anyone," You supposed.

"Not my ghouls," Terzo said firmly.