Lewis flushed when she apologized, and he glanced away. “Well…apology accepted. It’s the least I can do for my…” The word felt so strange to him still. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t anything he ever expected to be saying. “Girlfriend.”

Awkwardly, he stepped forward and gave her a quick hug. “Now let’s…get food. You probably haven’t eaten anything today.” He was more than likely right, and started out the room. He looked at the door, and sighed. “And…put in another work order for the door….”

Set up

Simone was humming as she dusted the lower part of their home. Lewis was away for the morning and he had done the thing again where he kissed her cheek without thinking about it. A blush came across her face as she skittered from one end of the tower room to the other trying to tidy up. They were… exclusive. That was what Dala had told her. That meant he was hers and she was his.

The knock on the door made her jump as she came over, “I have your breakfast, Simone.”

Snowball flew over on her shoulder as she opened the door. “Thank you. OH! You remembered the extra strawberries.”

“Of course, how’s Snowball?” Jack gave her a smile.

“All better!”

“Surprised Lewis let you keep him.”

“Snowball is a traitor. Don’t let his looks deceive you. He is working for Lewis as his evil partner.” Simone pet Snowball’s head as she took the tray of food.

“Oh, this came in for Lewis.” He passed her a note and she took it.

“Thank you!” Closing the door she put the tray of food down and watched Snowball pull his own seeds out of the strawberries. “Aren’t we a little spoiled now.” Snowball chirped up at her and she chuckled.

Opening up the note Simone got really quiet for a moment. There was visible sadness on her face as she dropped the note on the food and went upstairs slamming the door. Snowball hopped around and took the note in his beak. Obviously, Lewis needed this.

Lewis was only out for a half day. The particular role he was playing was more reconnaissance than anything else. He had all the information he needed to make the next move, and so that meant he had the rest of the day free. He wondered what to do for Simone. Since they were…together now.

The first stop on the way back to the keep was a flower shop. Girls liked flowers, right? But what to get her. There were poems about all kinds of flowers, and in the end he more or less just asked the shop keeper what they recommend. Lilacs were apparently the way to go for a ‘first love’ situation.

“Sure, whatever. As long as she likes them,” Lewis said as he tried to hide the fact that he was turning red. Next was a sweets shop. This was a little bit easier to do, as everyone liked chocolate. It was just a universal thing. As he walked out of the shop, though, a small white fluff ball bumped into him.

“What the hell…?” A very flustered snowball landed on his shoulder, and dropped the note into Lewis’ hand. “A note?” He opened it…

“Deer Lewis. You owe me for the last night. Four hundred slivers. Love, Nern.” Lewis blinked. “Who the fuck is Nern?” He held out his hand and Snowball landed in it. “The hell are you bringing me a random note from a woman I don’t even know?”

Snowball started to chirp angrily, and Lewis nodded along. “Right. Right. Okay. That’s normal. And then she read the note and got really quiet?” The assassin sighed. “Let’s go then…” He stepped into the alleyway, and opened a gate into the main common area.

Without hesitation he marched up to Simone’s door, and knocked. “Simone. What’s wrong?”

Fuck off!” she said, her voice muffled through the door. This was far too familiar of a scene, but the assassin pressed on,

Lewis took a deep breath, and sighed. “Open the door.”

“No!” It was like deja-vu.

“Fine.” With a swift kick, the door snapped off of the hinges, and Lewis walked in. “What. The hell. Is wrong.” Once again, the door was busted. Having to explain that was going to be a royal pain.

“SERIOUSLY?! What is with you and kicking in this door? Why do we even have them put the door back up,” Simone threw her hands up? She rolled on the bed and got the covers over her. Sure the bed wasn’t used anymore but she still made it daily.

“How would you feel if you got a note that said I went to the brothel!” Sure, Lewis hadn’t been home last night but he told her he was on a job. HOW DID SHE KNOW IF HE WAS? “You can’t even stand another guy talking to me!” She was upset. “Now, you are going back to the brothel? What am I not good enough?”

Snowball was on Lewis’s shoulder jumping around and tweeting angrily.

“NO, I DO NOT WANT BREAKFAST SNOWBALL!”

Lewis rolled his eyes, “He said you’re an idiot for believing a stupid note.” The assassin sighed, and pulled out the note. “Where did the note even come from? I wasn’t at the brothel. I haven’t been to one in…” He paused. “Actually I can’t remember the last time I went…” He sighed. “First….the brothel I went to was named the “Canary” and was run by a lady named Helga. It was 200 silver a night. Second…” He threw the note at her. “Mistresses at a brothel tend to be well educated and can spell. Whoever wrote this note…” He paused.

“Wait…” He marched up and looked at the note again. “That handwriting…” Lewis sighed. “I recognize it…” He sighed. “I can’t remember though…” There was more angry chirping from Snowball. “No, he’s too stupid to write. Can’t even do basic math. But Chess might have done it.” Another tirade of angry chirps. “No, you’re right. Chess is far too up his own ass to think about anyone else…”

“It came in the mail for you today with breakfast,” Simone sat up and looked at him with a displeased look. Lewis threw the note at her then took it back. AND THEN he spoke with Snowball. Simone got a displeased look on her face, “It suddenly makes a lot of sense how Snowball tells on me and how you are so good at knowing when I don’t eat.”

She opened her mouth and closed it before flopping back down on the bed, “First off, I didn’t even realize it was misspelled because I read over it. Second, we’ve never discussed your sex life before. Third, I’ve never even been to a brothel so I don’t know anything about them because until you I was a virgin. Fourth, why do you have lilacs?”

Lewis stared at Simone, and crossed his arms. “Well if you took the time to open your mouth and actually TALK to me, then none of this would have been a problem.” He pointed a finger at her, which Snowball landed on. “You read SO MUCH, that it should have been a clue. Never thought I would be the one saying that. Two, you should have asked me….I could have told you this letter is bullshit. Third…well, you don’t ever need to go to one. So…that’s good. I guess.” At every point, Snowball made a triumphant chirp.

“Last…” He looked down at the lilacs. “The…lady at the shop told me it meant something about ‘first love.’ So…” He thrust them towards her, along with the chocolates. “Just…take it. If you even like this kind of stuff….”

“Why are you both ganging up on me,” she made a face. “I am allowed to be emotional.” She threw her hands up. “I never said it had to be logical. I’ve never been in a relationship before.”

Once he brought up the lilacs and the chocolates she took them and smiled, “I love things like this.” She smelled them and looked up at him with a blush. “I’m sorry I overreacted. I’m just scared of not being good enough.” It was easy to point out that flaw in her traits. “So I thought you had replaced me already. Cause… I would have replaced me I mean.” She got sad for a moment and looked away with a guilty face.

“If anyone knows who wrote the note it would be Jack. He delivered it.”

Lewis leaned over and put his finger under her chin, tenderly pulling her face closer to his. “I won’t replace you…” His eyes locked with hers for a moment, and his breath caught. He wasn’t ready to deal with what was to come, and he knew it. For a moment, his eyes softened, but before Simone could notice he pulled away. When she mentioned JAck’s name, though, both he and Snowball made a sound.

“Aha!” Lewis said with his monotone lifelessness. “It was Jack. That’s who’s handwriting it is.” He looked at Snowball, and then to Simone. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Need to go have a quick talk with Jack…”

—

Jack was sitting at the table with three bottles and a vial. The task he was given was simple. Mix an antidote for the poison that was in the vial. This would be his third attempt to make the correct dose. The first time, he had added too much solvent, and the antidote had become more like a lethal acid.

“Huh, that looks oddly familiar,” Lewis said in Jack’s ear. The novice potion boy jumped, almost knocking the table over in the process. Luckily, the vial didn’t spill. “Seems like a poison I’ve used before. Kills in about three minutes…”

“The hell Lewis!?” Jack exclaimed. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Lewis looked at him with curious eyes. “I never really understood that phrase…”

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh. Came to put in an order for a door…”

“Again?” Jack asked. “You know I don’t-”

“You see,” Lewis said as he picked up the vial of poison. “Someone wrote a note to frame me. Simone was very upset. So…I had to break the door down to talk to her. You see…” He started to play around with the vial. “She gets quite emotional. But…once she calms down, it’s really easy to talk to her.”

“O-okay?” Jack said nervously as he kept an eye on the vial. “What does this have to do with me?”

“Oh. Nothing…” Lewis set the vial down and started to walk to the door. Without warning, he spun around and tossed a dagger, which crashed into the vial and spread the poison all across the table and Jack.

“Oops. My bad. Thought I saw a spider…but you can make an antidote. Right? Should be easy enough….” Lewis shrugged, and walked out of the room.

Jack was panicking as he looked at the mixtures. “Shit, shit…shit!”

Love at First Loss

Lewis trusted Simone not to run away now and that meant that Simone was allowed out and about. Though briefly. Under the supervision of Snowball. The little white bird was on her shoulder as she went to the library. “Here you go,” Simone handed off the books to the librarian. “I also have Lewis’s books too that he took out.”

The books from Lewis were research material for how to kill people… and hers were poetry and romance novels. It got a look every time she turned stuff back in. She returned five books in total.

“Now,” Simone pulled out a piece of paper with a topic for Lewis. “He asked us to get some books on various poisons.” Snowball hopped in assertion. This was important as it was for Lewis. He was out on a job today and she wasn’t sure what type of job it was.

Going to the section she needed to be in Simone immediately went up and down the ladders trying to find a couple of good books to bring back for Lewis. Simone looked adorable as she got a frustrated look on her face once in a while as she read up on the ladder. The things he had asked her to find… turned out to be way more difficult than she thought it would be. She was avoiding stepping on her dress so she didn’t fall down.

Every time she had come to this part of the library recently she got plenty of looks. Lewis’s little prisoner and he was letting her out and about finally… With a white tit. “I don’t know Snowball I can’t find it. This particular poison he wants isn’t in a lot of books.”

She put it back and grabbed another one flipping through it. “Oh here it is,” she showed it to Snowball. At this point, she had spent hours looking for it and Snowball was starting to get impatient. If she waited any longer she was going to be outside the tower for longer than Lewis tended to like. At this rate, it was for her own good that she stayed put away. "We should find one more to bring him though. Just in case."