Somehow, Nate had managed to convince Eleanor to stay for the weekend. Deeming it to be essential for her safety or some crap like that. Despite refusing to tell her why she was actually in danger to begin with. Which was just plain stupid, in her opinion, because it was obvious that the ginger-haired lunatic wanted to include her in his abundance of martyred corpses (he seemed like the type to have a large collection) and that he was probably a relative of Liam's, if his appearance was anything to go by.

The whole thing was ridiculous. She couldn't shake the feeling that the boys were hiding something from her. Something massive. It was in the way they kept exchanging glances with one another, abruptly breaking into a completely random stream of conversation whenever she walked into a room. The way that Nate would ever so subtly glance at Liam at any point that she attempted to question why he felt the need to drag his friend into the whole death call business. Why Liam had even agreed to do it in the first place. But with every thread she tried to unpick, a new one was sewn. As a matter of fact, the three males seemed to think she was an idiot. She knew something was up. And it had something to do with that ginger-haired guy...Luke, she thought that she had heard them call him. And her death. Hell, it was most likely that this Luke guy was going to cause her death. That is if his general aura of creepiness was anything to go by. And...Brendan, maybe? Or that...they mentioned Fate a lot in their conversations when she was conveniently walking past. Fate. Who appeared to be a...person rather than a concept.

Eleanor let out a sigh, leaning back on the sun chair she was seated on and twirling the pen between her fingers. Notebook open with a blank page glaring up at her. She had found this part of the house around ten minutes ago, wandering aimlessly through the large building with her steps powering her thoughts as she attempted to get a grasp on all the new information she had learnt. She had ideally been looking for a library, or at least somewhere quiet where she could jot down some new lyrics. It was only when the house was gradually becoming more modern that she realised that she was most likely horribly lost. In the completely wrong place. The back of the household appeared to be some sort of extension, floorboards turning to white tile and ceilings turning to skylights. White, heavy looking doors positioned at either side of the corridor. Locked doors. She had been about to turn back when she had found it. At the very end. Two wide, glass double doors with hints of blue glimmering from the other side.

She had found the indoor pool to be the perfect place to settle down. Soft, glowing light provided by the small lights positioned under the utmost wood beams. Water shimmering as it slowly drifted over its own illumination embedded deep into the white tile beneath its surface. Almost pink light leaking in from the sunset captured in the skylight, casting a gentle glow over the whole facility.

Slipping off her shoes by the door, Eleanor had comfortably set herself down on one of the chairs evenly spaced by the side of the pool. In her entrancement of the tranquillity of the place, she had failed to notice the slightly ajar door at the other end of the pool, wet footprints littering the path to the object that had escaped her attention.

Which was why she fell off her chair with a surprised yelp when a figure emerged from the opposite side of the water, in the midst of pulling a shirt over his head as he shut the door behind him and entered the room. Blue eyes wide and seeming just as startled as she was to be in the presence of another human being. Blinking at her with a slack expression and dark blue shirt half pulled over his head. Hair darker from the taint of water and some of his body still dripping from the fluid.

Flynn pulled the shirt over his head so fast that he almost stumbled on his feet. Eyes still a lot rounder than they should have been as he continued to blink at the girl scrambling up off the floor and back onto the chair she had previously been seated on. He wasn't quite sure, but he felt a little embarrassed. He was a flirt most of the time, sure, but Eleanor had been off limits to him before he had even met her. And...besides, she reminded him a bit of his younger sister. He gulped. Running his hand a little anxiously through his damp hair as he tried to work out why this situation was so awkward. "Yeah...uh...hi. I was just uh...swimming and then I got changed in there." Well, obviously, Sherlock. "I...um...I'm not used to having anyone in the house other than the guys and...uh...I should have put my shirt on in the changing room. Sorry."

Eleanor shook her head with a small laugh, the pure absurdity of a usually confident boy stuttering taking away the previous embarrassment she had felt at seeing his bare chest Although she could still feel some heat on her cheeks. Thank god for the colour of her skin. "Don't worry about it. It's kind of my fault anyway, you didn't know I was in here." She was about to rise out of the chair, suddenly feeling intrusive for meandering about in a house that wasn't her own. That was, at least, until she saw the light catch against something hanging around his neck. A small piece of metal, it seemed. A...cross. She couldn't prevent the surprised jump of her eyebrows even if she tried. Immediately recognising the symbol to be that of a Christian's. I just happen to have a friend who's religious. Was that something the caller had said? "Flynn, are you religious?"

The blonde looked a little taken aback by the question, obviously not expecting that to be her line of inquiry as his hand subconsciously raised to fidget with the religious symbol, nodding once as a means of confirmation. He could tell by the flabbergasted expression on her face that she was shocked by the new information. It caused a small laugh to escape his mouth, shaking his head as he recalled girls' astounded looks at the end of a date when he announced that he was saving himself for marriage. He sat down on the chair next to Eleanor, swinging the towel he had been holding down beside him as he turned to face her. "What? Do I not seem like the type?" He grinned knowingly as he watched her attempt to stutter out an answer. 

"No...I...I...I just...thought...I mean...how...I...I've never seen your cross before."

He shrugged his broad shoulders...unable to hide his amusement as she tried to cover up the accusation as if she had just massively offended him. It was sweet, really, he supposed, that she thought she had hurt his feelings in some way. He was sort of used to not fitting into the stereotypical category of religion. "I usually tuck it under my shirt. Girls tend to not go on dates with a guy that they know is religious. Turns off the whole bad boy charm." She laughed at the playful wink he sent her, rolling her eyes as the stuttering boy was replaced with the cocky asshole that she knew him to be. 

 "B...but you...you flirt with girls."

Flynn let out a booming laugh at that, the cheerful sound bouncing off the walls and surface of the water as he let out all of the amusement the situation was causing him. "Flirting isn't a sin, Eleanor." He watched as her eyebrows drew together, appearing to process the information as her whole face proceeded to scrunch up into one of thought. It actually looked quite adorable. "Besides, it's not as if I purposefully flirt to leave a trail of broken hearts in my wake. I can hardly help being so darn lovable." The teasing tone of exasperation in his voice earned him a well-deserved glare, only causing him to chuckle to himself once more at the way such an adorable little female could attempt to be threatening. She really did remind him of his sister. "I only do it because I'm determined to find the one I'm supposed to spend the rest of my life with, and I can get through the rest of them a lot easier if I make the first move."

Eleanor narrowed her sightline dubiously as she tilted her head to the side, evaluating the way she had seen Flynn act around women and the motive he had described. It didn't quite...fit. The way he approached them wasn't the look of someone who was looking for all that...soulmate stuff. But...then again...what did she know? When was the last time she had actually met someone who was waiting for all that kind of thing? She knew for a fact that she had never believed in such a thing, preferring to fantasise about it in books rather than to actually imagine it happening to herself. She had always taken life as it came, not really ever hoping for something to happen so much that it would hurt her when it didn't. And she had perhaps thought that...that maybe Brendan could have been the one for her but he...apparently he wasn't the person she thought he was at all. "Really?"

Flynn frowned at that. What was he meant to say now? He supposed that he hadn't really lied, only avoided some elements of the truth. He did believe in the whole love of your life thing, as well as kind of sort of liking the attention he received. But the reason why he had started doing it in the first place? Man, he wasn't sure if he should tell her that. From what Brendan and Liam had told him, there were certain things they wanted to be kept a secret. "Well...yeah. I...also...uh...kind of like the attention I get from it. Gives the ego a boost if you know what I mean."

He got a smack on the head for that one, both participants of the party quietly laughing to themselves as they became slightly more comfortable around each other. The egotistical attitude assured Eleanor that Flynn was completely normal in his actions. Or at least, what she saw as normal for him. And Flynn was settled with the knowledge that he had kept the secret for a little while longer. "So...do you like...go to church and stuff?"

He shook his head, hand absentmindedly coming up to fondle with the chain around his neck again. He usually kept it hidden under his shirt, learning that it tended to be an off-putting factor upon his first attempts at his failed flirting. He almost turned bright red at the memory, remembering how he stuttered and faltered every single time he tried to ask a girl out. It had been a rather tiring exercise, turning to crappy romance novels so that he could at least attempt to understand what kind of guys girls fell for these days. And he had gotten...better at it...he supposed. So much that he kind of enjoyed it now, strangely enough. Even now that he didn't really have a reason to do it anymore. 

He could still picture himself sitting in this very room, bare legs dangling in the water as he twirled the cross around his neck in an attempt to understand what was so deterring about it. He hadn't necessarily been hurt per se...just...confused. "Nah...I used to go as a kid but...I don't know. The whole service thing never really appealed to me, I guess. I just...I just like the idea of it all. Of...of there being a big guy up in the sky who created everything and who just takes time out of his day to...to listen to me and...and hear me out, I guess. It's kind of...it's kind of my way of getting through things. Because...believing in all this religious stuff gives me something to turn to. Almost like...like I'm not really alone." He didn't mention that he had only fully turned to the religious side of things when he realised his dad wasn't really a real dad. Losing all of his confidants forcing him to turn to people who he wasn't even sure existed.

That was when he knew his family was really messed up. When someone who might not even exist seemed closer to him than his own parents. When an entity who might not even have the ability to hear him was more willing to listen to him than the people who brought him into the world. But he had come to terms with it, in his own...weird manner and it had...it had kind of stuck.

"I'm probably gonna go and have a shower or something." He stood up, pressing up off his knees and slinging the towel back over his shoulder as he turned to walk away. "Do you want me to lock this place up or are you gonna stay out here for a bit longer?"

"I...I think I'll stay here for a bit longer, if that's okay."

He shrugged. "Fine by me. Just let one of us know when you're finishing up."

Eleanor nodded in agreement but, as he fully turned his back to her, she noticed something. Something she had never had the chance to see before. Because, she realised, he had never once worn shorts to school, not even in the summer. But now...now wearing those knee-length jeans she...she could see it. A dark red web of lines reaching up right from his ankle and all the way up to the knee on his right leg. It...it almost looked like a burn scar. Flaming red skin encasing the whole bottom half of the limb. 

And she couldn't help but wonder what kind of situation he had been in to receive it.