Gears and Steam

Augustus Black Continued

Jules

"Well, Jules, you have officially lasted a week and three days with Edmund Silvane and are dawning on your eleventh day. I'm impressed," Theo said, clapping me on the shoulder. We were sitting at the table eating breakfast, Edmund was nowhere to be found.

"I'm dragging Edmund into town today," the racer continued. "If you want to come too."

"Why are you going into town?" I asked.

Theo shrugged. "Wander around, celebrate moving on in the Grand Prix, flirt with some girls."

Freddie flicked Theo in the head.

"Ow!" Theo exclaimed.

I laughed. "You're bringing Edmund...to flirt? Really?"

"Hence why I used the word, dragging. Freddie won't come, but Edmund reluctantly agreed when I promised not to step foot in his shop or room for the next two days."

"Speaking of Edmund, have you guys seen him? I checked in his room and the shop this morning, and he's not in either of those places."

"Probably on the roof, he'll come down in a minute."

As if on cue, Edmund stumbled into the kitchen. He slumped into the chair across from me. The mechanic was already wearing his dark grey vest and had changed out of his filthy work clothes. I had been expecting to work today, I would have to change my clothing before Freddie let me out of the house.

"Edmund, how late did you stay up last night?" Freddie asked, inspecting the dark circles under his eyes.

"Not late, but I woke up at four–watched the sun rise."

"That's not good for you," Freddie huffed.

"I know, and I don't care. At least I'm already dressed; you should be happy about that!"

"Your face is still filthy." Freddie licked her thumb and used it to wipe the smudges off Edmund's face, much like a mother would do to a small child. Edmund pushed her hand away, but she persisted until his face was clean.

I held back a laugh. "I'll go get changed, then we can head off, yeah?" I didn't wait for an answer before returning to my room to change. I chose a grey shirt and a black button-up vest covered with silver designs. I figured it would meet Freddie's standards. I washed my face last night, so I didn't need to worry about any leftover grime.

Theo and Edmund were waiting for me by the door. Theo had tied his dark brown hair back into its usual ponytail, though I thought that he might have put a little more effort into making it lay flat than normal. It looked like Freddie had insisted on trying to fix Edmund hair, but it was still a mess.

"Out the door!" Theo exclaimed, charging out onto the street. I quickly followed. Edmund lagged behind, walking slowly with his eyes fixed firmly on the ground.

I dropped back so my pace matched his. "Hey," I said. Once again, we had stopped talking after the first Grand Prix race, other than what was needed for us to work together.

"Hey," Edmund responded, not even looking up. "What do you want?"

"Just to talk."

"I'm not really in the mood for talking."

"Yeah, and you haven't been for the past week."

"I'm never in the mood for talking."

"You talked with me on the bench in the rain and before you fell asleep on me."

Edmund froze. "I told you not to bring that up."

"No, you told me to not bring it up to Freddie and Theo," I corrected. "Theo's out of earshot, and Freddie's not even here. You said nothing about talking to you about it."