Dew finds out what Rowan meant by 'going out' the next day, when he is awoken by yelling.

"Are you kidding me?! What was last night, then?!" A female voice shrieks.

Dew rolls over with a groan, right off the bed. He drops a few feet, and the events of the previous day immediately come flooding back to him. Oh man, he got kicked out—and he's living with Rowan. Shit.

"I think you should leave," Rowan's deep voice echoes through the hallway.

Dew slowly climbs the bed to find a standing position, and sees Spikes asleep at the foot of his bed. Slowly, Dew makes his way to the closed bedroom door.

"What the fuck, Rowan?!" The female voice shouts, right as Dew begins to slowly open his door. "Are you seriously telling me it meant nothing to you?"

A glance at the clock beside Dew's bed reveals that it's about 7:30, but that's the last thing on Dew's mind as he opens the door and is met with a wave of pure anger. It sinks deep into his skin, his pores, infecting every molecule of his being until he can't help but feel enraged as well.

The hallway that the bedrooms are on has a profile view of the front door, where a woman is currently standing. She's facing away from it, her heated gaze on Rowan, who is wearing nothing but boxers. She is fully clothed, with a dress that would probably be more appropriate at a party and high heels currently grasped in her hand. She has smudged makeup and blonde hair, with brown highlights. She is positively shaking with rage, while Rowan just appears bored.

It doesn't take long for Dew to know exactly what's going on. Her thoughts and emotions settle themselves deep within him and he can suddenly feel everything she is. Yeah, this is the worst that his empathy has been in a while.

"Tracy, I have work soon."

She scoffs, and Dew is right there with her. Dew is so unbelievably pissed off, his hands are shaking. How could Rowan say that? After the sex he and Tracy had last night? She thought it was special!

"This is fucking ridiculous. You know what? Fuck you! I'm done!" Then she turns around and storms out. Sadly, the overwhelming anger does not leave with her.

Dew is pissed.

Dew closes the door behind him, and Rowan turns to look at him. "Oh, hey, Dew."

Dew glares at him, the pure rage resonating deep within his bones. Dew hasn't been this angry in a very, very long time, and it's all directed at this man. He slowly makes his way down the hallway. "'Hey Dew' are you fucking kidding me? How could you do that to her?!"

Rowan raises his eyebrows, then his eyes seem to flash as he comes to a conclusion. "Right. Empath." He mumbles, but Dew still hears it.

"Shut the fuck up!" Dew shouts, finally reaching in front of Rowan, who raises his eyebrows in surprise. "What is wrong with you? Why would you treat her like that? After everything you guys had?!"

Dew shoves his finger into Rowan's bare chest, eyebrows lowered in anger. Rowan has lost his mind if he thinks it's okay to treat Tracy like that.

"How about you slow down?" Rowan replies, examining Dew up and down. Dew doesn't give a flying fuck. Slow down? Ha! This man is seriously on crack if he thinks Dew is going to slow down.

Dew scoffs. "Slow down? Fuck you! Is that what you do? You just go around and treat women like trash—"

"Maybe you should let me explain?"

"Fucking explain then!"

"Tracy was a one night stand. She knew what she was signing up for." Rowan takes off his sunglasses to make eye contact with Dew. It sends a shiver down his spine.

"No! That's bullshit! Did you tell her that?"

"Yes."

"Then why does she feel so... betrayed..." suddenly, it starts fading away.

Dew shakes his head, taking a step back from Rowan. Tentatively, he rubs at his chest as he feels the anger begin to drain from himself. Dew blinks at the ground, then looks up at Rowan again. He's confused for a moment, before he remembers what he'd been doing.

Crap! He let the emotions get to him again.

Rowan raises an eyebrow at him, a slight upturn to the corner of his mouth. Dew immediately feels embarrassed, face flushing. Oh god, he just yelled at Rowan for a bunch of stuff that wasn't even his business.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Dew averts his eyes, rubbing at his neck.

"It's okay. You can't help it."

Ugh, he's letting Dew stay in his house and how does Dew repay him? By yelling at the man for some shit that he didn't even know the full story of. Yeah, Dew is unbelievably embarrassed.

Not making eye contact with Rowan, Dew points at the bedroom he's staying in. "I'm gonna go over there," and he gets the hell out of that situation. He rushes back to his room, and he's pretty sure that he can hear Rowan chuckling behind him. Whatever.

Dew basically sits in his room for thirty minutes, feeling humiliated, before there is a knock at the door.

"Dew? We need to do Origin work."

Dew sighs, uncovering his face with his hands. He walks over to the door and opens it, peeking his head through the crack.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes." Rowan responds, and there is an amused tinge to his eye. Evidently he finds Dew's embarrassment enjoyable.

Dew sighs, stepping out of the room to follow Rowan down the hallway. He's still having a hard time processing the previous events, mostly because he doesn't want to. Honestly, who knew Rowan was the type to have one night stands? He always seemed like deep down he wanted a committed relationship. At least, to Dew.

Rowan sits at the kitchen table, as does Dew. He takes note that Rowan isn't in his underwear anymore. Instead he's wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. It's some change from the uniform clothes he usually wears when he and Dew work.

"Okay, so we didn't find anything at the cave—"

"I don't know," Dew replies, his internal apprehensiveness for Rowan not telling him things rearing its ugly head. "You seemed pretty interested in those walls."

Rowan stares at Dew for a moment, then focuses back on the folders. "I think the next step is visiting the other nations so see if they know anything."

"No," Dew replies, because he's had enough traveling. Sure, he wants to go to Osiphia and Avia, but he doesn't think that this is the right reason. Why go in person when you can just send a damn email? "The next step is finding out what kind of creature we're dealing with."

"We already know it's a human."

"No we fucking don't!" Dew objects. "And I don't know why you're so hellbent on it being human just because King Marley says so!"

Rowan rolls his eyes—he rolls his eyes—and leans back in his chair. "I think I've had enough of you yelling at me today."

Dew's face flushes at the mention of the previous events, and Rowan fucking smirks. He smirks! That douchebag has lost his mind! Dew averts his eyes at that, ignoring his heated cheeks as he responds, "psh, what the fuck are you gonna do about it?"

Rowan raises a brow. "Nothing, I guess."

Dew squints at him, before leaning forward and crossing his arms. "It's not a human, I'm telling you. Humans don't live to be 170 years old, no matter what their abnormality is."

"Well maybe it looks like a human."

Dew just stares at Rowan like he's got a few screws loose. "It doesn't matter what it looks like! It matters what it is, and right now I think we're dealing with some sort of fire creature, since there was a pile of ashes in the cave."

"I don't think so."

What?! Why is Rowan being so difficult about this? Dew knows, he can feel it in his gut, that going to the other nations would just be a waste of time. He's not fucking doing it. They need to sit here and critical think and they will come to a conclusion. Honestly, it's almost like Rowan wants to waste their time.

"That's it, I'm looking up fire creatures." Dew pulls out his phone, typing mythical fire creatures in the search bar. The first link is to an encyclopedia website, and he scrolls down to the little list it has of mythical beasts associated with fire.

"Okay, so there are demons... hm. Do you know if the Bible is real?"

"No."

"Okay, well it could be a demon, or a dragon—woah! That would be so cool! If there was a dragon in the Westhem." Dew grins, while Rowan continues to look unamused.

"Chimeras, I don't know what that is." Dew continues.

"It's a lion-goat-snake. They aren't real."

Dew pauses. "Wait, but dragons are?"

Rowan purses his lips at that, and the vibes feel off. Hang on, did Dew just catch the Big Bad Captain Rowan Lux slip up? "They are!"

"That's not what I said."

"Hoooly shit, this is cool." Dew remarks, going back to his list. "Okay, and a Kapre. Don't know what that is, either."

"Tree giants."

"Are they real?"

Rowan responds, "no."

Dew still doesn't believe him, and he's having an absolute blast with this. Honestly, it's so cool! His whole life he believed that mythical creatures were a lie and abnormal people would burn, but within the last few months his life has drastically changed. What a time to be alive.

Rowan sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Dew is stressing him out. It's not Dew's fault that this guy sucks at covering up government secrets.

"Aaaaaand the last one, a phoenix. Hm."

Dew has Rowan's full attention, he notes. The man is seriously studying him. Dew leans even further across the table, folding his arms. Rowan has leaned back in his chair, so they aren't that close, but Dew still asks;

"Are phoenixes real, Captain?"

"I think that's enough for today."

Dew scoffs. Typical Rowan, cutting their investigation off right when it gets interesting. Dew will not stand for it. At least, not this time.

"No, there was a cave with ashes. Where does a phoenix rise? From ashes! I think we're looking for a phoenix. It would also explain all the light in the sky when the abnormalities happened—oh! Where would I go if I was a phoenix and I just—"

"Stop."

Dew freezes at Rowan's tone. Rowan hasn't ever spoken to him like that before. So... final. Cold. His tone leaves absolutely no room for questioning and Dew raises his eyebrows.

"We'll continue tomorrow. I'm going to work." The man stands up and walks to his bedroom. Dew honestly can't help but to feel sort of pissed off. Honestly, what is wrong with this guy? Dew can't help but to feel like he's seriously missing something here.

There is something very strange about Rowan.

Dew needs to find out what.

Dew just sits at the table until Rowan comes back out in his uniform. He doesn't say anything, just grabs some things off the counter. He addresses Dew;

"There is food in the fridge, help yourself. I should be back around 7:30."

Then, he leaves.

Dew just shakes his head, falling back in his chair. He leaves the files on the table and walks back to his bedroom. When he opens the door, Spikes is not too thrilled with him for leaving her. He's sorry, okay? He just doesn't want to be rude and assume his cat can roam around this place as she pleases.

With how much Rowan is pissing Dew off lately, though, Dew isn't sure he's going to care much longer.

Dew comes to a decision. There is something strange about Rowan, and he's going to figure out what. He knows what he needs to do.

Dew walks over to his suitcase and pulls out the files that were first given to him when he joined this Origin Hunting Club. Inside, he finds a number, then dials it. It rings for a few moments, before a familiar voice answers;

"Hello?"

"King Marley? I need to talk to you about Rowan."