Freedom.

2

The room went completely silent, all of them aimlessly staring at the boarded up window. the room was suddenly taken over by a very awkward feeling, it made them all feel uneasy as if something terrible would go wrong if no one questioned it. Natsu quickly broke the awkward silence.

"Ah! Really?! That's great Alay! We can finally meet your cousin! And we can have that freedom you and big bro are always talking about!"

Alay flinched at the young girl's words, but almost instantly relaxed, turning to Natsu with a gentle smile playing on her lips. Natsu giggled and hopped off of the bench.

"Well then! if we're leaving! I might as well pack up!"

Natsu smiled a bright smile, it carried so much joy and hope that anyone around her couldn't help but smile along. Shouyou shifted slightly and smiled along with both of them.

"If you're going to pack, make sure it's only the most important things, ok?" he said gently.

Natsu squinted at him and whispered quietly, "My stone collection IS important, you're just not strong enough to carry it," sticking her tongue out as she quickly ran up the stairs.

Silence returned to the room once again, Alay lifted her head to meet Shouyou's gaze.

"So. Tell me how this is going to work," he said calmly.

Alay straightened up and inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she did so.

"Ok then, I got some info from the groups downtown, they said that there was some big celebration of sorts that was happening at the Royal Palace(™) and that there wouldn't be as many guards at the border tonight-"

"wait wait wait. if there is a celebration, that's special enough they need enough guards at the palace to leave the border basically unprotected, wouldn't that mean they should have more guards, in general, to protect the border from people wanting to gatecrash the celebration?" Shouyou questioned.

Alaya paused and then gave a shrug, "Eh, not my problem, the higher-ups have always been contenders for the dumbest award, they just finally decided to nominate themselves."

Shouyou gave a small laugh, the room relaxing slightly and the tension built up between both of them slowly faded.

"Anyway, so yeah, i don't know what the big celebration is about, but I do know that there is going to be certain holes in their defenses for the first time in a long time, and we will be able to slip through the cracks and hopefully find our way to the cities surrounding the Palace. And if we're lucky and all goes well, we may be able to find my cousin quickly. I only ever met him a few times when we were little, but he was the nicest guy and told me I was always welcome to visit him, its a shame I was a shy kid and never said much to him."

Alaya let out a big sigh, echoing around the kitchen as they both glanced at the clock hanging on the wall next to them.

"Well, I guess it's for the better in a way, if you were never a shy kid, I might not be here with you right now," Shouyou said with a sad smile strung on his face.

She quickly whipped her head back to look at him," Hey now, don't be like that. How about you go take a nap Sho, you look completely exhausted," she said smiling faintly.

Shouyou gave her a sad look, followed by a simple nod. Alaya walked up and patted him on the shoulder, "C'mon sho, we both know this 'freedom' mum and dad talked about was definitely better than whats happening right now, it can only get better from here," she said, her voice full of hope. (AN-yeah I'm Australian, this is how we spell 'mom' apologies to all other countries that our English will never be the same.)