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Eli Monpress awoke late which was in character of him but rather unusual. As he expected, Josef and Nico were already awake, Josef had begun making breakfast. Just as he stepped out of the tent he had been staying in he felt an arm wrap around him.
“Josef” Eli huffed.
“Eli” Josef replied.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Eli said, sarcasm filled his voice.
“Nico has a question for the infamous Eli Monpress” Josef announced with a grin.
“I'm so sorry I really appreciate all my fans but I haven't the time” Eli assured.
Josef lifted him above the ground with one arm, much to Eli's dismay.
“You do now” Josef corrected him.
“Alright alright get on with it” Eli complained. Normally he'd be a bit more smooth but he was still waking up and wasn't ready for his crew's antics.
“Soooooo” Nico exaggerated “where were you last night?”. She already had a pretty good idea of the answer but this was more fun.
“In bed, why do you ask? I'd never cause problems not me Eli.” Eli was beginning to feel his face grow warm at the thought of last night. He thought it was stupid, after all it was just a small peck on the cheek, but maybe there was more he was pushing aside.
“Well I, as well as quites few spirits, saw you return to camp much later than usual" Nico declared triumphantly before sitting on a nearby tree stump. Eli reddened further, now to a noticeable degree. “So it was Miranda then?” Nico said matter-of-factly.
“Yes, it was Miranda” Eli rose his hands in defeat. “We talked at the Spirit Court last night”.
“Why the hell would you go to the Spirit Court Monpress?” Josef piped in. That was a stupid move even for Eli.
“It's fine nobody saw us” Eli said irritably. He didn't actually know this but he figured if there was any real danger Miranda would have sent Eril
“Idiot” Josef grumbled.
“Alright I answered your question, put me down Josef” Eli demanded.
“Actually I also have a question for you too Monpress” Josef said as seriously as he could.
“You said it'd be one question just a couple minutes ago and now there's two” Eli retorted.
“Well Nico had one question, I didn't say anything about me” Josef had a smug look on his face.
“Hey, will you stop being a smart-ass that's my job” Eli sighed “Just get on with it”
“What exactly was the great thief Eli Monpress doing with the Rector Spiritualist?” Josef questioned him.
“We were just catching up, nothing more.” Eli scoffed. “WAIT YOU ADMITTED I WAS A GREAT THIEF”
“That's not the point, there's clearly more than that or your face wouldn't be the same color as that girl's hair” Josef remarked. This comment stirred a chuckle out of Nico.
“Alright fine, it was mostly talking, but at the end of the night she gave me a kiss on the cheek. That's all.” Eli sounded frustrated.
“Well next time you kiss her first” Nico advised him, “Clearly you're interested”.
“What? No, what if she isn't?” Eli asked.
“Monpress, SHE kissed YOU, clearly she's interested” Josef reminded him, emphasizing who intiated the exchange
“She probably dropped a thousand other hints you ignored on top of that” Nico chimed in.
“I'd love to keep this up but if we wait any longer the food will burn” Josef finally lowered Eli to the ground and the three sat by the fire.
Considering that they were in the wilderness the meal was fairly well made. Consisting of a sunny-side up egg, a slab of pork from a boar Josef had killed, roasted mushrooms Nico had foraged, and some bread for each of them.
They ate in silence for a few minutes and eventually, after everyone had finished, began to scout out the outskirts of a nearby city planning a way in.
“So Eli", Nico spoke up, "what's the plan for the next meeting?”
“First Rule of Thievery: only reveal secrets if it's beneficial to you” Eli grinned.
“And it would be, because you clearly have no clue what your doing” Nico shot back at him, “We all know Miranda, and you especially know she won't fall for you the same way all the girls at the bar do so you gotta do this right, let us give you some pointers at least.”
Eli took a moment to mull over what she had said.
“Fine.” Eli sighed in defeat. She was right, Miranda was no ordinary girl.
Eli spent the rest of the night being corrected on just about everything he said. Admittedly some of the corrections were just Nico and Josef poking fun at him but the idea was made clear to Eli. He fell asleep that night a little more confident.