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The cave is barely sheltering him from the storm outside, it couldn't have been more than ten minutes since he went in, and yet the weather changed so drastically. The wind picked up considerably and is sending the rain in waves, that much he can tell from the sounds, because he can barely make out anything with his eyes, the clouds suffocating the moonlight.

A huff to his right makes him flinch. It’s the horse. It must have come to shelter from the storm, it almost gave him a heart attack.

"Haa... You scared me there."

He reaches out to the horse, petting it from its jawline down its neck with unusual enthusiasm.

"Gosh the weather has gotten... Aggressive..."

The wind only gets stronger, and soon Cyrus starts hearing thuds accompanying the intensifying rain shower... it’s a hailstorm. It seems he is stuck here for now. The horse walks a bit deeper to avoid the stray hail bits and the splashes.

"....Well that's troublesome..."

He walks back as well, following the horse's instincts as he wonders what he should do next. If he stays here for long, they'll definitely come looking for him, and if he uses the cave entrance to the house and somehow sneak in without getting caught, they'll question why he isn't wet... So he decides to stay in the cave for now.

Living up to his expectations, It’s not long before he hears a noise unlike that of the storm.

He turns his head to the source of the noise and raises his guard...

"..oo...........i.er..oo!....................mister redwood!...."

The voice is muffled by the loud rain, but he is steadily getting closer, until you can see the tiny light of his oil lantern.…….. ‘How come he spotted me before the lantern’s light reached me…?’

Yohei is huffing as he rushes in to take cover in the cave, he slips halfway through but catches himself and pretends it didn't happen. You notice that he changed from his crutches and instead put on a wooden prosthetic. One hand is busy holding the lantern while the other is holding an umbrella, it didn't help much against the raging storm though and he is fully drenched.

"Whew! Mister Redwood! What were you doing?? When I saw the horse missing I thought you left!"

He catches his breath while folding the useless umbrella, there are holes poked into it from the hail. Cyrus can see now thanks to the lantern, despite being a poor attempt at lighting their surroundings, it's a huge improvement from the momentary lightning flashes.

"I was looking for the bag. Something startled the horse so it took off running with it... But then I couldn't leave the cave because of the storm." He scans him once again, taking note of what he chose to take with him on this weather. "You're drenched. Are you alright?"

Yohei doesn't answer him immediately, he seems to be assessing what Cyrus said and he is less subtle about it, looking a bit out of it. "..Yeah yeah, I'm fine fine.." Yohei glances at the inside of the cave for a millisecond, then at the horse- it started shifting and huffing aggressively again.

"..........." Cyrus looks at the horse, then looks back at Mito and... Smiles. "Strange. It was fine just a few moments ago."

Yohei's heart almost jumped out his throat, he didn't expect him to be so fast with it.

"Oh yeah? Hm, perhaps it’s scared of the thunder." He tried to keep a casual tone, but the panic in his eyes was evident. Cyrus's ‘Got you’ smile gets on his nerves in the end and he goes on the offensive. "By the waaay, you're completely dry?"

Cyrus chuckles quietly, almost in a small scoff before he takes a deep breath and goes back to his usual noble poker face.

"Yes. I found the horse here when I was searching for it, and unfortunately that’s when the rain started. I should have been faster..." He puts a hand on his hip as he looks around the cave. "Quite a fascinating cave you've got under your house."

Yohei was looking into Cyrus's eyes while the later was explaining himself in an attempt to discern any lies, but at that last bit his eyes widened and he made an irritated face. He is so frustrated that a stranger found this cave not even an hour of arriving at his home- ‘AND DID HE JUST SMIRK AT ME??’ Hold on, did Cyrus leave his bag behind on purpose..? Did Vargas send him to investigate his home?! Rude bastard……. hmm, no. No that’s stupid, Vargas could simply ask Yohei to draw a full plan of his house, and he would have no choice but to oblige. Right, he is not exactly sure Cyrus saw the stairs anyway.

The horse stomps and threatens to escape from nervousness, it only calms a bit after Yohei quietly steps away to the opposing cave wall.

"...........Horses don't like me." He admits.

“So it wasn’t the thunder that made it nervous?” Cyrus mocks, tilting his head slightly towards Yohei as he raises his eyebrows. “Oh well, that’s not the biggest problem at the moment. We need to find a way to get back.”

‘A way to get back.’ Yohei just sends him an unimpressed look. ‘Aaaaaah what a pain...’ Yohei then looks out into the storm, weighting the minuses of just heading back through the stairs and exposing his secret entrance even if Cyrus really didn't know... a shiver runs down his body, he's getting cold...

"Are you willing to keep a secret? You don't look the talkative type." Yohei says at last.

“It depends. I’ll decide after I find out the secret.” He shrugs then grabs the bag again, making it settle on his shoulder. “But if it gets us out of this cave then I will consider it heavily.”

"Try harder.” He stares annoyedly at Cyrus and crosses his arms. He says that, but it is him who's going to get sick if they stay here for longer..

“What, you want me to beg?” His indifferent face makes it almost impossible to tell if he’s joking or not, but Cyrus is having the time of his life. This is the most fun he’s had for days, if not months.

"......" It’s been a while since he's had to deal with someone so difficult…. Then, he seems to make a decision, and gives him a victorious smirk. "Alright then, guess I'm not telling you. Have fun waiting the storm out." He turns around and heads straight for the stairs, then pauses, turns around, puts the lantern down on the floor, then turns again to leave.

“You’re leaving the guest’s horse here? No wonder it doesn’t like you.” Cyrus glances at him. So he gave up on keeping that a secret huh? “Ah, you have a separate abode here?”

"That is none of your business. Don't follow me or I'll consider it trespassing." Yohei says nonchalantly, tone victorious. "You can use the lantern to get back. If the storm ever lets out that is hehehehe"

“Ah I see. Thank you for the lantern.” Cyrus bows his head and picks it up gracefully, then leans against the cave wall next to the horse, crosses his arms, and relaxes.

"???" When met with no resistance, Yohei found himself utterly confused. He expected him to try to follow him at least. He pauses to look back for a second, then disappears up the stairs, leaving Cyrus behind.….... not even half the flight later, he comes back, tired of his conscience, and stands on the doorway.

"...........................Come on! Come with me. We still need to look through your belongins."

"Ah but I'm afraid of trespassing..." He pets the horse's fluffy mane without looking back at Yohei, teasing the poor man one last time.

"I'll allow it so long as I'm with you. Don't go sneaking into my house in the future..." He can always lock the doors but that limits his options for a quick escape, and its just too much trouble. "Oh and if anyone asks, tell them we came in from the kitchen door. And we can't have you being dry, step out for a bit."

"That's unnecessary isn't it? You do have an umbrella on you, despite all its 'flaws'." He refers to the umbrella with the multiple holes in it that was pretty much useless against the hail. But deliberately going in the rain is something Cyrus is NOT going to do, not in a million years.

"What umbrella? This is but a corpse now. No one will believe that I'm all drenched while you're completely dry, here, at least get some of the water on yourself. And let’s hurry before they go out looking for us.” He extends his arm with the tattered umbrella.

"...I'll simply head straight to the bath instead." He's doing his best to keep his face from slipping and showing how much he hates the idea of getting wet. He doesn't take his arm nor the umbrella.

< What do you mean take his arm??? When someone passes you an umbrella you don't grab the arm lmao -Algae >

< Let's ignore it. Please. -Pookie >

"Miss Konran might still be there, and I still have to change the water... go to one of the guestrooms instead, I'm pretty sure Dimitri is sleeping anyway. I'm most worried about Miss Briony, she is rather.. curious.." He starts climbing the stairs.

"I can tell. But frankly, even if she suspects anything I doubt she'd come to any conclusions." He follows after Yohei, balancing the bag over his shoulder while holding the lantern with the other hand. This is too tight... And the horse...

‘Did YOU come to any conclusions?’ He doesn't say anything, it’s not like Cyrus will give him a real answer. He just keeps on scaling the steps with practiced ease.

⋅⋅⊱༻ • Yohei roll to determine if Briony sees you ༺⊰⋅⋅

Roll Request: [d20]

Dice results: “ 13 ”

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⋅⋅⊱༻To be continued༺⊰⋅⋅