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────016, a fault in the stars.
THE PLAN SEEMS EASY ENOUGH━━though perhaps that should have been a foreboding omen to Cleo.
Still, she and JJ make their way back along the beach, onto the main concrete path that leads from the beach towards the hotel, and onward to the rear-end of the building. The illuminated porch still littered with a handful of partygoers who look for a moment of respite in a more tamed and secluded part of the hotel, lounging in the armchairs and against the railings mulling over fine glasses of mead and other mixed drinks, amicable chatter and laughter buzzing in the air over the muffled sound of the band's music coming from just around the bend. Cleo notes the security guard stood at the top of the stairs on the porch just before JJ does, a taller brooding man that Cleo recognizes in passing as having worked at Lorelei's hotel before.
"Quick, hold my hand," Cleo murmurs to JJ, leaning into the boy's side as they approach the porch. "It'll look less suspicious if he thinks we're an actual couple."
JJ quirks a brow, his lips unfurling upward into a mischievous smirk. "Not gonna punch me again if I try, are you?"
He's met with a roll of Cleo's eyes, though he certainly doesn't protest her excuse; instead, he reaches down between them defiantly and slips his palm into hers, raising their clasped hands part way in the air between them. The metal of his rings feel cold against the heat of his palm, digging into her flesh and sending a feathery jolt to her heart, though Cleo doesn't mind and is made even less aware of it when JJ grins knowingly as he twines his fingers with her own and gives her hand a small squeeze. Then, he lets their hands drop between the two of them and pulls her closer to his side as they climb the stairs to the porch. The security guard only looks up briefly, eyes fluttering over the pair indifferently.
JJ, however, shoots the man a friendly smile and a short nod as he walks on past, murmuring a brief, "Evenin'" on his way.
Clearly, as it would appear, JJ is far more wary of entering the party than Cleo is, though his apprehension is made clear when they waltz into the heart of the party together after traversing the porch and spilling out onto the lawn where the arbors are. JJ tenses at some point as they make their way through the crowd, hands still clasped between one another, and Cleo wonders why before following the boy's haughty gaze towards Rafe, Topper, and Kelce further down in the crowd with two other friends of theirs; but he tears his glare away in the next second, eyes now scanning the rest of the crowd, no doubt in search for the Kook princess.
"Where did you last see her?" JJ asks.
"It was a while ago," Cleo admits. "But I think━━ Wait, there she is━━"
