'Cadere.'

With one simple word, the arrow fell to the floor. It had barely slipped out of Jos' mouth in time.

Instinctively, Jos looked to Julian, almost double checking that he was still alive. But, neither of them dared to move. Julian was more surprised than anything, and Jos just had no idea what the hell was going on around them.

'Let's go!' Jos took a tight grip on his wrist, beginning to pull him along. 'Quickly!'

Julian obliged, and Jos practically dragged him off. Much to his surprise, Jos appeared to deliberately avoid the crowds and any other people who seemed to linger about. If he were the one choosing what they were doing, his first action would be to hide amongst the crowds of people. It was what he had been taught to do from a young age.

Jos pulled him into a narrow lane, both of them grateful to be able to stop a breath for a second. They were only visible if someone was standing right by it. The cover worked well.

'Okay, wow... You really do have people who want to kill you...' Jos' normal upbeat tone had been replaced with one of panic. 'I feel like we should find Oliver. Where would he be?'

'Yes, oh lord, we should find Oliver.'

'Okay, but where the hell is he?' They raised their eyebrows.

Julian thought for a moment, before grabbing Jos' wrist like they had done before.

'I have an idea, follow me.'

Jos pursed their lips, but followed behind him anyway. Without communication between the two, Jos felt even more confused. Though, they found it reassuring how confident he seemed to become in the face of death. It made them wonder how many situations like this he had been in.

The streets were even busier than before, which Julian didn't seem to think was possible. He found that his heart was beating even faster than it was when someone had tried to kill him before. Of course, he was still afraid he was going to die, but now he felt like he had more to worry about. Strangely, he knew that he had to keep Oliver, Jos and Alice now too.

His train of thought was interrupted by a harsh shove to his chest from Jos. His first thoughts were that he had been betrayed, but when he finally refocused he realised the opposite. Thanks to the push, he had scarcely avoided another arrow to the head. Jos had saved him again.

'Hey! Pretty boy! Back to reality please! Someone's trying to kill you, and I could use all of your attention right now!' Jos waved their hand in front of their face.

'Pretty boy?' Those were the only words he could manage to force out of his mouth, he was still in shock. 'Sorry... Thanks... For saving my life I mean. It must be three times now?'

'No problem dude. It's what anyone would do.' Jos looked around, obviously on edge. 'But we should probably, most definitely, get to Oliver now. I have no fucking clue what we should do. So where the hell are we going?'

'Popcorn stand.' Julian took a couple of seconds to fully snap back to reality.

Jos was incredulous. 'The popcorn stand?!'

'Oliver loves popcorn.'

Jos suppressed a snigger. They really enjoyed the notion that Grouchy McGrouchFace loved popcorn. But they followed Julian, no matter how weird his logic was.

'I think I see them.' Julian went up on his toes to try and see further over the crowd.

'Move.'

'What?'

'I'm taller.' Jos nudged him out of the way and also went onto their toes. Oliver and Alice were in the distance, both enjoying a bag of popcorn.

'You're not taller. We're practically the same height! I mean, I must be taller but-'

'I'm taller, now come on!' Jos returned to being the one leading the way, and they ran off in an attempt to catch them.

'Oliver!' Julian ran towards him, breaking free from the grip which Jos had on their arm.

'Oh thank god! I never thought I'd be so happy to see Mr Grouch.'

'What the hell do you want?' Oliver looked over to them, annoyed.

'Someone tried to kill me again, but I guess that's just insignificant.'