(Takes place after the dream dive before Simone’s death)

Simone absolutely hated when Lewis went for overnight jobs or worse day-long jobs. She found herself absolutely bored without him. The bed was cold and she missed his snuggles. Snowball did his best to keep her preoccupied inside the tower but she ended up venturing out with Jack to play games on more than one occasion. This was all a ploy for Jack to make sure Simone ate, Lewis had threatened him that if she didn’t eat he was going to do something… Jack wasn’t about to find out what that something was.

“Mmm…” She was getting better with her poker face as she won a hand. Snowball was on her shoulder as she debated whether to fold her hand or not. He gave a chirp and Simone shushed him. “It’s cheating if you help me.” Snowball grumped as he looked at the pile of birdseed. “It’s all going to be yours regardless you know.” She turned her head to him. “You’re spoiled.” He chirped again as if to say: You’re one to talk.

There was a loud commotion as a group of acolytes came in. Simone perked up a bit and was immediately uninterested as she saw the group didn’t contain Lewis. “Still a day away Simone,” Jack chuckled a bit as he won the pot once she folded.

“I know but I can hope…” She sighed and knew that Jack didn’t understand the relationship the two had. “Why are they so loud today?”

“Heard some big shot came back…” Jack dealt the next hand.

“I have a name,” this decent-looking boy sauntered his way over and spooked Jack. “It’s Markus. Who’s she?”

“Ah, that’s right you’ve been gone for so long you haven’t had the chance to meet Simone,” Jack introduced her and Simone was wholly uninterested as she looked at her hand.

“She doesn’t look like one of Lord Raith’s,” Markus kicked the chair out and got a glare from Simone as he sat next to her. She detested how cocky this one was. Lewis was cocky but he had won her over somehow. “She your girlfriend?”

“NO!” Jack yelled as he looked at Snowball. “Hear that? I said no!” Snowball chirped and nodded as his eyes moved to Markus now.

“So who do you belong to?”

“Guess,” Simone got a bit snarky, “If you can guess I’ll let you keep talking to me.” She wasn’t supposed to be talking to the other acolytes unless they were safe. That was a rule that Lewis had drilled into Jack’s head. He was trying to get Markus’s attention but was failing, at least Snowball was keeping tabs.

“Well… We can immediately cross Lewis off the list.”

“Why’s that?” Her eyes flickered over.

“You aren’t his type. You are a bit plain… I bet he likes a big bu–”

“AND I REALLY NEED YOU TO SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!” Jack yelled and clapped his mouth shut. “Now… Simone… You wouldn’t real–” He looked and saw how pissed the small girl was. Oh, this guy was going to fucking get it from Lewis when he got home.

“I have this trophy down at the beach Jack… Huge. I got it as a prize for the job I was on. I’m going to need you and the boys to go down and get it… You can leave this little one to me…”

“No, I can’t. I choose life. Simone, we can…”

“No… I can go back to the tower by myself,” Simone pushed herself up and left without much fuss.

“…WAIT,” Jack got up. “Lewis is going to fucking kill me. SIMONE WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR DINNER?!” He chased after her so he could get her answer.

They ended up not being able to bring the trophy back from the beach. In the middle of the night, there was panic as fire exploded down below. Markus was panicking. “MY TROPHY!” He was trying to get buckets of water to put it out but it was burning too hot. It was causing chaos well into the morning.

Once Lewis entered the temple Jack ran up and fell on his knees grabbing Lewis’s shirt. Markus was watching. “I swear to god I tried to get her to eat! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! She was pissed beyond belief. I’ve never seen her so mad! You gotta let me live! She’s been in the tower since yesterday I tried to give her dinner and she didn’t answer last night.” He was panicking just like everyone else around him.

Lewis walked into the main hall of the temple and looked around. Normally he would have gone straight up to the tower, but there had been quite the commotion outside. From what Lewis could understand, someone’s junk on the beach had caught ablaze. He wasn’t sure whose it was, other than it was an acolytes.

“What…the hell?” Lewis said as he stared at a panicking Jack. There was an angry acolyte who was watching on, but Lewis ignored him. The assassin knelt down, and put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. With a strange, hollow voice, Lewis spoke with a forced smile. “It’s okay Jack…I believe you.” He stood up, keeping the forced smile, and walked towards the angry acolyte. Jack whimpered.

“Your name was…” Lewis thought for a moment. “Right, don’t remember. Why are you looking at me…”

Markus scoffed, “Lewis. With your high and mighty attitude. Your deign yourself worthy enough to bask us in your presence?” There was obvious venom in his voice. “While you were out doing Raith knows what, I was fulfilling the wish of our Master. And I would have had proof, but-”

“Ah, so it was your junk that caught fire,” Lewis replied. “What a terrible loss.” The assassin started to walk away.

“Say, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that new girl…what’s her name, Simone?” Markus replied. Lewis stopped dead in his tracks. “She seemed quite the catch. Supposedly she’s attached to someone here, but I couldn’t get it out of Jack. Seemed super panicked when I started talking to her.”

Lewis glanced back, “Markus…I’d advise you to stop chasing women who are taken. One day…you might get burned…”

At once, Markus charged forward and grabbed Lewis by the collar. “Funny choice of words, brat. I know it was you who did it. What is this, some sort of punishment for ‘talking’ to your girl? You’re pathetic if you think that’ll stop me from taking he-”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Markus. I was quite literally on the other side of the continent last night…” Lewis’ eyes narrowed. “But if you think that you can take Simone from me…you’ll find it real hard to do so without hands…”

Simone heard from Snowball that Lewis was home. She got all changed and rushed out of the tower with the bird on her tail. Once she made it to where Lewis was she squealed, “LEWIS!” She ran up and saw the situation. Immediately she was glaring and not only smacked Markus’ hand until he let Lewis go but shoved him down. “LEWIS!” She jumped into his arms. “I missed you!”

“You… little.”

“I’m sorry who are you again?” Simone looked with a bored expression before she clung to Lewis again. “I can’t remember who he is. I feel like he said something… that upset me.” She thought about it. “Oh. Right. He called me flat-chested.”

“I DID NOT!”

“…You totally did,” Jack spoke up. “You didn’t say the words but you said Lewis liked big busted girls…”

“Thus, he is dead to me and I missed you.” She squealed again and hugged him.

“I have business with Lew-” He tried to get up and Simone kicked him back down. Her expression was scary.

“Stay the fuck away from my Lewis. He didn’t have anything to do with your stupid trophy,” Simone seemed awfully up to date on current events. Snowball finally landed on Lewis and chirped at him. He gave Lewis the low down on what Simone had been doing.

It was Simone who lit the trophy on fire and she had made a mess in the tower getting the oil explosive enough.

Lewis gave Simone a dead stare once Snowball told him what had happened. “You…made a mess in the tower to do it…” He let out a hefty sigh. “Jack…if you clean the tower I won’t kill you for letting her skip a meal.”

“RIGHT AWAY!” Jack said as he immediately ran off to go tend to the tower.

There was someone in the background who noticed what was about to happen, and he started talking with other acolytes. A rather tall boy for his age, Darren. “Placing bets now…” he called to the others.

“What are you-” Markus said angrily as he looked over at Darren and the others. “What the hell are you betting on!?”

Lewis looked over to Markus. “A little birdy told me that you’ve been bad. You were warned even…so you have no excuse. I’d take the trophy as a loss and be done with it. Maybe then you’ll stop messing with what doesn’t belong to you.” The assassin broke into a sadistic grin, “Or do you need another lesson…something else to lose? It could be your hands…your legs…if you want to test me, could even be your head!”

“Could take his balls,” Darren called out. “I’d make a fortune if you-”

“Shut up Darren,” Lewis said. “Take your pick…”

Simone went over to Darren patted at her sides until she found a small coin bag. “Forty silver on Lewis. I don’t have anymore though… I spent it all on books,” Simone held up her arms in a shrug.

The small girl made her way back over and took Lewis’s hand with a smile. She was aware he was threatening someone but she scooted over and put her lips to his ear whispering a whole bunch. Snowball looked embarrassed as he covered his face with his wing.

“What the fuck are you whispering?” Markus’s eye was twitching as he watched Simone.

“…What I want him to do to me…” Simone said it innocently enough. “You know better than to actually challenge my Lewis. It doesn’t matter if you know me or not. You should walk away.”


Markus let out a groan as he threw his hands up. “Fine, your little girlfriend fucking wins. Don’t think I’ll forget about this.”

“Forget about what?” She smirked a bit. “I haven’t done a thing wrong.” Markus stormed off.

“…Why would you ruin a bet you bet on?” Darren looked disappointed.

“I wonder…” She gave a smile as one of the cleaning girls came over and Simone handed her something. She was whispering to the girl and the girl was giggling. “Think you can do that?”

“Oh, absolutely… He’s a dick.” The girl giggled some more before wandering off. Simone had come to know a few of the girls who washed their things.

“…Bet is still on!” Darren was curious about Simone and what she was doing but it was clear that Simone wasn’t telling Lewis not to… She was telling him not yet.

“I bet the tower is going to take a bit to clean… Why not a bath?” She was still he would still want to see the mess she made.

Lewis’ bloodlust dropped off the moment that Markus left, and he watched as Simone walked off to talk to Darren about the bets. There were a few people that Lewis tolerated her talking to, and Darren was one of them. Much like Jack, Darren had made the mistake of hitting on Simone when they first met, but Darren wasn’t stupid. The moment he learned that she was with lewis, he backed off. If anything, he thought she was good for him. The sociopath needed an outlet and she was doing a fantastic job at it…

“Fine…a bath would be nice,” he said after he glared at Darren for a second. “If you make any silver off of me, I better get a cut…”

“I’ll treat you to a nice dinner,” Darren replied with a wink.

Lewis and Simone took to the baths, and soon were both soaking in the warm waters. As per usual, Lewis reserved the whole section for them, meaning no interruptions. He sank into the warm waters, and sighed with what could be assumed content…though it sound more annoyed than anything.

“I was gone for a day…”

Simone floated in the water by him and looked up at him as her head hit his chest. “Well, yes.” There was a flustered look on her face. “But I can’t go running to you for help every time someone hurts my feelings.” She had heard his sigh and she gave him a frown as she stopped floating and snuggled up to him.

“I was minding my own business and someone tried to ruin it.” She puffed out her face in displacement. “I don’t like being told I’m not your type. Or that I’m flat-chested. Or that I’m plain. So… Just bear with me for this. After tomorrow, you can do whatever you want to him.”

There was a smile from her. “Because he’ll find us once he gets my surprise.” She put her head onto his chest and relaxed a bit. “I don’t want to just depend on you… I want you to depend on me too. I’m capable of defending myself.”

“After tomorrow, then?” Lewis said as he wrapped his arm around her and started to stroke her hair. “Fine..I guess I can wait that long.”

Twenty minutes passed and the two finished up, heading back to the tower. It was still a wreck, but there had been significant progress made on the oil spills that had been splattered across the floors and carpets.

“I made sure that, at minimum, the tower won’t blow up if you decide to light a candle,” Jack said as he wiped his brow. “Just uh…try to be careful anway?”

“Whatever,” Lewis replied. “Just finish up tomorrow. Or have the staff do it. I really don’t care.”

“So then you won’t-”

“Maybe,” Lewis replied. “Simone, did you eat dinner last night?” He gave her a look. “Be honest…”

Simone snuggled into him as he stroked her hair. It felt good to her and she made a few happy noises as she calmed down. She missed him. Looking up at Lewis she looked at Snowball, “No, I didn’t eat. I was too busy blowing something up.”

She crossed her arms and tilted her head, “It’s not easy looking through your books on how to light something on fire to the point where it can’t be put out.”

“…When did you even leave…” Jack was staring at her.

“Oh, I scaled the tower from the outside,” Simone shrugged.

“YOU WHAT?!” Jack was staring at her in disbelief.

“I climbed the tower walls… It’s not that hard,” She looked between Jack and Snowball. Snowball knew she had done it but hadn’t gotten around to telling Lewis just what she had been up to. “What? I know how to climb.”

“She’s your trouble,” Jack waved it off. “I’ll be back tomorrow.” He left the two of them alone.

“Am I in trouble?”

“That depends on your definition of trouble…” Lewis said with half smirk.

—

As it turned out, Lewis was more proud and turned on that he was pissed at what she had accomplished. He had spent the night ‘rewarding’ her for her brash behavior, while also reminding her that while it may have been impressive and surprisingly effective, that she should have never done it. Putting herself in danger was the thing that worried Lewis the most…especially with her rebirth ability in play.

The next day, Lewis was in the training hall, practicing with one of the many weapons that he held little to nos kill with. Today was a spear, and he clumsily tried his best to deflect bows from the weaponmaster that had been tasked with aiding Lewis. For the fifth time today, Lewis found himself knocked on his ass.

“I don’t see the point in doing this much longer. It is obvious that I will never be able to use something so…annoyingly long.” The problem was that Lewis couldn’t handle the length of it. Every time he tried to maneuver, he slammed the butt of the spear against the ground. This, of course, threw his whole stance off and left him wide open.

Lewis stood up and dusted himself off, looking over to Simone. He had started taking her everywhere with him, which she barely complained about given how long she had been locked in the tower. “Didn’t you say something was happening today?”