Ah, yes. he catches her meaning instantly. He pales a bit, as if still threatened by her. Then - a grin. "Only if you can catch me, my lady." And here he runs off in the direction she'd indicated. His poor legs have been replaced by now, at least, so he can run without tripping and breaking something. That would just be the worst in this situation.
She takes off after him immediately, and they are just one more pair in the crowd, weaving through the many, many people that move about in the festivities. The night gets deeper around them, and the firecrackers continue. Setting off from rooftops to a thick and heavy haze of smoke and taste of ash. Easy to be obscured in.
Letting get him ahead of her in the thrall before she lengthens her stride to catch up with him. Less a playful weave as more direct. Sparing a glance behind her to check the rest of their team were coming up behind them. At a reasonable distance past the guards, she comes against his side. Catching him by linking her arm through his. Laughing breathlessly with the effort of running. "Well done."
Miles slows at that, grinning back at her. He sure enjoyed that little jaunt - and that arm linking, for that matter. He laughs a little in return. "I am nothing if not flexible," he says. "Where to next?"
She turns her face up and - as they wind up the street, their group slipping to their sides - they seem to go up and up. The streets that wind and turn until she can point up, looking over the rise.
"There - that is where we are going." And they weren't the only ones, many people were heading that way - as she pointed from the top of the hill they walked up, and before them like a snaking squall of lights, music and brightly dressed people - that were working their way to the Palace that towered up and above.
Ah. That is a hell of a place. Miles can't help but look a bit nervous
staring up at it. "It'll be a hell of a place to escape if you're wrong
about your friend," he murmurs. Not that he truly doubts Lakshmi, just.
Considering tactics.
"He won't. He will help us, he always looked after me when we were children."
She insists on it, she has too. Like the world is ever that simple, or that kind. Not self-aware enough, maybe, or her own brand of naivety. It will not happen, because she is sure of it. But even so, her hand absently grips to him tightly before she forces it to loosens. A face-masked in calm festivity.
It has to be better, it must be better, so many had given so much.
That ... seems a little foolish, admittedly. But what can Miles do but try to believe her? He certainly doesn't have a better plan. "All right," he says with a soft sigh. "But I'm preparing for the worst here."
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Letting get him ahead of her in the thrall before she lengthens her stride to catch up with him. Less a playful weave as more direct. Sparing a glance behind her to check the rest of their team were coming up behind them. At a reasonable distance past the guards, she comes against his side. Catching him by linking her arm through his. Laughing breathlessly with the effort of running. "Well done."
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"There - that is where we are going." And they weren't the only ones, many people were heading that way - as she pointed from the top of the hill they walked up, and before them like a snaking squall of lights, music and brightly dressed people - that were working their way to the Palace that towered up and above.
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Ah. That is a hell of a place. Miles can't help but look a bit nervous staring up at it. "It'll be a hell of a place to escape if you're wrong about your friend," he murmurs. Not that he truly doubts Lakshmi, just. Considering tactics.
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She insists on it, she has too. Like the world is ever that simple, or that kind. Not self-aware enough, maybe, or her own brand of naivety. It will not happen, because she is sure of it. But even so, her hand absently grips to him tightly before she forces it to loosens. A face-masked in calm festivity.
It has to be better, it must be better, so many had given so much.
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