Wings

Chapter 22: Moonshine

When I woke, it was to the sound of voices. Louis, Liam, and Harry were already up, dousing the fire and rolling their blankets up to strap to the tops of their packs. I sat up and stretched, my own blankets falling from my shoulders. Wait, there were two? Someone had added a blanket over my own while I was sleeping. I pulled it from my shoulders and felt the material between my fingers. It was a deep red, a burgundy, the same color Harry's blanket was. I glanced to where he was packing up his bag; there was no rolled blanket attached or near him.

Folding up the quilt in my arms, I stood, carrying it to Harry. "Thank you," I said quietly as I handed it to him. I was graced with genuine, bright smile. I was taken by surprise but the expression disappeared as soon as it had come. I almost didn't believe it had existed.

We left camp within the hour, hitching the wagon to the horse once again and heading down the path.

"I hope we get home before lunch, breakfast was the last of our food," Niall mumbled beside me as we strode along.

His worry was unneeded however. We arrived back to the hotel with our final load of supplies (it had taken two trips to bring it all from the edge of town to The Recovery since the wagon couldn't be brought into London without attracting too much attention) just in time for lunch.

Our ragged and tired group wandered into the dining hall just as those at our table who weren't on the raid were sitting down. Perrie stood and rushed to embrace Zayn and Ed gave a friendly wave, tossing his apple to Harry who snatched it from the air and took a crunching bite. "How was it lads?" The ginger asked.

"We got a good load," Liam told him.

"Got some...interesting items," Niall elaborated, an insinuation to his voice. Ed gave a quizzical look but didn't ask for clarification as Simon had just walked over.

"Everyone in one piece?" He asked, eyes sweeping over the group, assessing each of us.

"Went perfectly," Liam told him as he pulled a chair out to sit, not even having gone to get food yet. I was sitting too, needing a moment of rest for my legs.

"Good, we'll do inventory after lunch," he said, turning and heading back to his own seat.

"We'll have to get it back to our room before lunch ends," Niall began to plan immediately.

"Get what?" I asked, thoroughly confused.

"The ale of course!" Niall explained. "Simon will just give it to Lou for cleaning wounds or something, but I have bigger and better plans for that barrel."

Of course he did, the Irish in him was really coming out now. "What will happen if Simon finds out?"

"Simple: he won't," Louis said as he settled in the seat beside me with a plate of food. "We're good at keeping things secret around here." There was a note of playful mischievousness to his voice, something he carried rather naturally.

"Well as long as you guys manage to keep it a secret, I'm content," Liam said, beginning to push his chair back. "Just don't get us all in trouble."

Louis nodded sarcastically.

"Now I need food. Kari, you ready to get some too?" Liam asked. I pushed back my chair to join him.

The scraping of another chair on the worn floors sounded and I glanced back to see Harry leaving the table too. He did a little half jog to catch up to us us as we made our way to the food but didn't say anything. I smiled to myself.

Louis and Niall managed to get the barrel of ale back to Niall's room towards the end of lunch and they came back with some of the most mischievous grins on their faces.