Paint it Another Colour

Chapter 40

Joao - Portugal

Emil was crouched behind a bush, wedged in between Matthew and Joao, Milen a little to their right, Wendy nearby too, almost in the bush. He couldn't see or make out where anyone else was, it had all been a sort of last minute plan type thing, where names had been thrown at a hat, and then lobbed out again in groups of four or five, and then dropped on an ordinate survey map for locations. Not many people knew where anyone else was. As far as he knew, Arthur and Peter were the only ones who had an idea about the where abouts of everyone else.

Maybe, under different circumstances, the people he was surrounded by might have proved good company: different people to talk to. Of course, he'd talked to Matthew before, and Wendy was often around if Peter was, but he couldn't remember ever having a conversation with either Joao or Milen. He wasn't surprised at his lack of conversation with Joao. Lukas and Arthur had been reasonably close with him, they often met up after particularly hard or disappointing meetings for a drink, and then drunkenly supported each other home, but that was the only time he'd seen him, drunk, staggering and slurring the words to the Portuguese national anthem. Milen tended to stick around people he knew, and was rarely seen away from people like Elizaveta and Vladimir, and although Vladimir used to spend a lot of time with Lukas, Milen had never been around at those times. Under different circumstances, he would have definitely made an effort to make conversation. Once upon a time, their where abouts wouldn't have mattered - he would have stayed a mile away from all of them.

He shuffled about uncomfortably, drawing his legs up to the chest, ignoring the fatal dose of pins and needles that crippled them.

"How long do you think this is going to take?" Wendy muttered into the bush. "I have some bubble-wrap at home that I need to pop."

"It won't take too long" Matthew smiled weakly. "Hopefully."

"We can't tell" Joao shrugged. "It could take seconds, or a lot longer."

Wendy huffed and flopped backwards into the grass. "What are we even doing? We're just sat behind a bush. It's not like we're trying to blend in or anything, coz we're failing."

"We're waiting for a signal" Milen grunted. "I don't know who off, or when, but my thought would be that they're late in giving it."

"If they're late, that can't be a good sign can it?" Emil frowned and glanced behind him. Im Kyung Soo was only just visible behind a tree, Alfred, Heracles and Feliks nearby, also half hidden by shrubs. Somewhere far to his left, he'd once seen Vladimir. He wasn't sure though if he was actually there, or just checking on everyone. Other than those few glimpses of people he knew were there, none of them had seen any sign of life since they arrived at what Wendy was calling their 'post'.

As the wait continued, Emil became less and less sure about the whole idea.

Suppose they got caught? Imprisoned? Tortured? Killed? Matthew had said something about torture which had started out for an obvious reason, but then had gradually seemed to dissolve into a meaningless hobby to pass the time. What if they were caught and forgotten about? Like Francis, Matthew had said, slowly going insane in the dark with the strange blue bars that weren't there until you touched them. He wasn't sure what that was all about. It was probably some sort of magic, like Arthur's and Vladimir's and his. If the counterparts had magic too, that would mean at least four people with magic, maybe more, and that could turn out bad for any of them if they bumped into a rival. At least Loki was gone - one less person to worry about. How many of them were going to die though? As Elizaveta had said, they couldn't expect to just waltz right in and take over, or expect to be happily killed, or anything like that. They were going to put up some sort of a fight, and people would die then. 'Just like last time' Kiku had muttered when the point came up.

Emil glanced at the others. They didn't look to sure anymore either. The more they were kept waiting, the higher the chance was that they would fail, he was sure of it.

Just as he was starting to wonder if it would be best to slink away, dissolve into the darkness of the trees behind and run for somewhere he could trust, Arthur appeared next to them.

"We're going" he said, not sounding all to enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"So, where do you want us to go? Which routes should we take?" Matthew asked, pointing straight on towards where only a little bit of a roof jutted out from behind a tree, the only thing that showed them they were near a building of any type.

"Go straight up" Arthur said. "Or if you'd prefer to go around, that's fine. It doesn't really matter as long as you get there."

"You really haven't thought this through have you?" Joao smirked and buried his head in the bush.

"Shut up" Arthur snapped. "I'd like to see you do something like this as smoothly as you think you can do everything else."

"No need to get snappy" Joao said, the smirk still in his voice, face still hidden in the bush. "I was just pointing it out."

"Well... don't" Arthur sighed. "Let's just get going shall we?"

***

"There be people" Scarlett perched on a branch in a tree, peering down at the people below her.

"Why are you talking like that?" She glanced behind her to where Merlin was lounged against the trunk on a completely separate tree. "It's stupid. It makes you sound stupid."

"You're stupid" Scarlett giggled and then clamped a hand over her own mouth tightly.

Merlin rolled his eyes and uncrossed his legs, glancing down. "So there is. I recognise them" he nodded, standing up and walking along the branch to her to get a better look. "So, they did come did they? Oliver said they would."

"If Oliver said they would, then naturally, they would" Scarlett fell backwards off the branch to swing by her legs closer to the ground.

"Get back up here" Merlin grabbed at her and tried to drag her back up. "They'll see you stupid."

"No they won't" Scarlett grinned, but pulled herself back up and crouched on the branch. "Should we tell someone."

"Duh" Merlin rolled his eyes. "Of course stupid. If we don't tell someone, we could get into trouble."

"But they're in a meeting" Scarlett sat back down and started swinging her legs. "They'll shout at us."

"Not if we shout first" Merlin jumped up and ran along the branch, arms held behind him. "Come on stupid. They could move in a minute, and then we won't be able to tell the others about them."