A couple of days have passed since the day Harry found the book. Alouette hid it in her bag and made sure to always bring it with her when she went out, but he never brought it up. She's starting to think that maybe it isn't nearly as important as she thought it was.

She's cooking, now. Cooking is a bit of a stretch, actually. Making something that is hopefully edible would be more fitting. It truly isn't her fault considering she was never much accustomed to kitchens, given she was never one of the cooks at the Revolution. She only knows the basics, which is rather scary when she's hopefully not destroying the kitchen for someone like Harry, but she finds reassurance in knowing that if she's bad at cooking, he's probably worse.

She did consider buying pre-made food or something that doesn't need to be cooked, but it's been a month, and she can't keep buying unhealthy stuff that Harry regularly leaves there.

"What next?" Harry asks, leaning against the kitchen table. There's an entertained edge in his voice, like he's having fun seeing her try to come up with a plan.

"We stay here for now," she replies, not lifting her gaze from the carrot she's cutting. She takes a slice and puts it in her mouth, it tastes a little like cardboard and desperation. She misses the food of the Palace.

He raises an eyebrow. "So you have no plan."

She doesn't speak.

"My offer is still standing, you know."

She rolls her eyes. "I have no intention of accepting your proposal."

He tilts his head. "Never?"

"Not now, not ever."

"Don't be so definitive," he says, sarcasm in his voice. "You never know what will happen next."

She looks up at him. "You—" There's a slicing pain on her finger and she lets out a hiss. She looks down; she's accidentally cut her finger. "Fuck."

Harry rounds the table and takes her hand, putting it under the running water of the kitchen sink. He turns the tap off and wraps a paper napkin around her finger, quickly and methodically. "Rule one of using a knife: always look at your target," he tells her. He lets her hand go instantly, and she sends him a confused but intrigued look.

"Thanks."

He doesn't reply and she goes back to the cutting board; despite the pain and interruption, there are no red stains on it. She throws away the carrot and puts everything else in the sink anyway.

She turns to look at Harry. "What about I go buy some eggs and make some pancakes instead?"

•     •     •

Elijah is waiting in the street near Alouette's mother's apartment. He's checked the area routinely many times in the past couple of days, but he's never crossed paths with her before. He's starting to think he has it all wrong and she's never come here in the first place. Or maybe he remembers the address wrong. The possibilities are endless.

His phone rings and he picks up. "Yes?"

"Elijah."

He lets out a sigh. He isn't surprised to hear from Ezra. The time he was given is getting dangerously shorter. "I still have some days," he reminds him.

"Not why I'm calling," Ezra says.

"Why, then?"

"Heard of what's happening in the west?"

"Hard not to. Everyone in the Whitsen section was talking about it."

Ezra hums. "Visited our storage? Remind me to bill you for the car you've stolen."

Elijah lets out a chuckle. "No need to, I'll bring it back in one piece. Why are you calling?"

"We're endangered and the situation is critical, and big problems require big solutions. Are you still going after her?"

"I am."

"Good," Ezra replies. "When you do find her, I need you to deliver a message from me."

"Which is?"

"I have a proposal for him."

Elijah can immediately tell who he's talking about, and a chill runs down his spine. "Tell me everything."

•     •     •

It doesn't take Alouette long to find a small supermarket selling eggs. She buys a small box of four and shoves it in her bag, and then she's good to go.

The walk back to the flat is uneventful as well, and she starts to think that, maybe, she'll be able to pull this whole thing off. She'd like to stay here a little while longer, after moving around so much.

She visibly relaxes when she turns into her street, and crosses the road towards her building.

"Al!"

Somebody grabs her arm and she spins around, her hand already reaching for her gun. There's a flash of familiar eyes and then she's pulled off the street, to the half-hidden safety of the sidewalk in front of the apartment.

"I've been searching for you for so long."

Alouette wrestles her arm out of her attacker's grasp and her fingers curl around the grip of her gun. It takes her a few moments to recognise the man standing in front of her—he looks so him but so out of place that for a second the ground collapses under her feet and she can't tell what's real anymore. It's been almost two months since she last saw him, which should be no time at all, but it is. His dark hair is longer than before and there's a five o'clock shadow on his chin; dark bags are under his eyes. She almost can't believe it.

"Elijah?!"

He smiles, as if he's right where he should be. "Hey."

"How... Why..." Her voice fades away and she looks around the street, her eyes wide. Elijah is Revolution. If he's here, everyone else has to be not far behind. They found her. How could they find her? She was certain no one knew about her mother's apartment—no one but Elijah. But he wouldn't tell them, he wouldn't betray her—and yet he's right in front of her, now.

He reads the uneasiness in her eyes easily. "I'm alone," he tells her. "This isn't a trap. I've been looking for you since the attack on the Palace. I didn't even know you were here, I took a lucky guess."

Alouette lets go of the gun. She's a little reassured, now, but she's still worried. Even though he came alone, there's no way to tell he wasn't followed, even without his knowledge. Why is he here? But, more importantly: does he know? Does he believe her to be a traitor just like Ezra does? Is his loyalty to the Revolution deep enough to crack the ground between them, or does he have hope she's doing this for a reason instead?

She doesn't know what she'd do if he turned his back on her. She's done too many things in the past months just to be able to see him again.

Elijah lets out a sigh and a smile curves his lips. "God, Al, it's been so long. I missed you."

She missed him too, but he's Revolution and she can't stop thinking about it. Is he following Ezra's orders, or has he betrayed the organisation just to chase her? Guilt comes over her. Now that she knows what it means to go against Ezra's decisions, she feels sick just thinking of what might happen to Elijah simply for being here, in front of her, in this very moment. "Are you disobeying orders?" she asks. She looks around again, but this time it's too make sure the Revolution isn't about to attack him instead of her.

He shakes his head. "I had to argue with Ezra quite a lot to convince him to let me look for you." He lets out another sigh. "Amina was so worried, Elodie too, and nobody knew what had happened to you. I couldn't stay there and do nothing. You aren't safe so far away from home."

Alouette hisses in a breath through her teeth. "The Revolution will kill Harry. I'm not going back." He seems to be momentarily stunned by her words, and she continues, whispering the truth only for him to know. "It was my choice not to bring him back. This isn't the way—" Her words stumble out of her mouth, fuelled by her need to make him understand. She needs Elijah to be on her side. At least him. "If we kill him, we'll lose all the leverage we have and we'll be back to square one. The Palace won't obey our orders, they'll just elect a new President, and it will all be for nothing. There has to be a better way to do this, I'm sure of it, I just need—" You need to admit you don't want him to die and it has nothing to do with convenience, a voice whispers in her head. Stopping his heart would shatter yours too. "Time," she ends, her thoughts too loud to find the conclusion she was working towards.

"I understand," Elijah says, with no hesitation, and all her tension fades away and she could cry. It's hard to think she's going mad when he shares her same opinion. "But this is why I'm here," he continues. "Ezra has a proposition for your President. He thinks you might find it interesting."

Alouette frowns. "A proposition?" The last time she met him because of a proposition, he ended up attacking her and then she was kidnapped by Harry's personal guard. Ezra and proposition are two words that just don't go well together in her head.

Elijah nods. "Can we...?" he asks, looking up at the apartment, but she shakes her head. She doesn't need to explain why she doesn't trust him in the same room with Harry, though, because he says, "I understand." He tugs at his necklace—an odd stone she found once on a string—as he searches for the right words, a sigh of nervousness she quickly recognises. "We have a problem," he ends up saying. "And by we I mean the Revolution, and the country, and you too."

Alouette stills. "What kind of problem?"

"It started in the west, but it's spreading now." His dark eyebrows curve into a frown over his hazel eyes. "We don't know who they are, but they're quickly becoming a problem. They're attacking every city in their path, destroying stores, homes, setting buildings on fire, stealing all they can. The casualties are limited, but the damage is... we've never seen anything like this, not even during the war nine years ago."

Recognition sinks in Alouette's mind. She knows what he's talking about—they saw them too. The ghosts of the cities they left behind, their organisation that seemed to find them wherever they went. A few weeks ago she asked Harry what they should do, and he was unwilling to act—now she knows she asked the wrong person to help. He's never cared about the people—not like the Revolution does.

"They've taken over half of the old country, and they're simultaneously marching towards Northfair, Greenside and Dacran. Do you know what it means?"

"They're a lot," Alouette replies, and he nods.

"If they get to any of the major cities, the damage will be inestimable. The entire country will fall into chaos and no one will stop it, because nobody is leading the Palace at the moment, and they know. We can't allow that to happen."

Alouette imagines Northfair falling prey, the blues and pinks of its advertisements marred by the flaming golden of the fire, buildings falling and people screaming and dying and the streets stained of red. She feels sick. "The Revolution has to stop them."

"That's the issue," Elijah tells her. "According to our calculations and what we were able to find out, their numbers are near to ours. But they're violent and trained, and our soldiers aren't nearly as many. It's been over nine years since the Revolution had a proper troops. They'd wipe us off the face of the earth in no time."

Alouette is starting to see where he's going, and she's quite certain she doesn't like it. "What's Ezra's proposition?"

Elijah pauses for a moment, as if he can already tell how she'll react. "An alliance."

Alouette stills.

"He believes that with the President on our side, we'd have no problems fighting against them—whoever they are. We could subdue them and take back our lands."

"Harry is a clever man, but he isn't going to win against several hundreds, if not thousands, of people on his own," Alouette replies.

"He intends for the President to go back to the Palace."

"What?!" Her gasp is so loud a passerby is bothered enough to send her a glance as they walk past. "You can't be serious—"

"Ezra wants an alliance," Elijah repeats. "They sign a mutual no-attack agreement, set up the conditions, then the President gets to go back home, and we do too. He brings in his military, we bring in our strength and intel, we'll destroy that organisation. And then we go on, mutually looking after each other's interests."

"This is madness!"

He shrugs. "Is it, though? It sounds pretty close to what you were planning on doing to me."

"You don't understand—he'd never sign it!" Thinking of making a deal with Harry is crazy. She tried, and she still remembers how awfully it went. When he makes agreements, he does them on more than one level—even if he does seem to bow to them at first, he'll find a way to screw them over lately. That's what he does. And this—this isn't nearly enough to win his interest, let alone his compliance.

"He would," Elijah says matter-of-factly. "With the way it's going now, he might have no country to lead by New Year. If he cares about his Palace and his wealth, he has to defend it. That's our leverage. What are a few rules compared to the destruction of an entire country?"

"This seems—" Alouette can't find the words.

"Crazy? I agree," he says. "I would've never thought I'd be talking about letting the President go back to the Palace, but here we are. The truth is, we need his power and influence, and he needs all the information his guards could never find—we can't do it on our own, but neither can he. It's a perfect ground to build an alliance."

I don't make friends, I make allies, she remembers Harry telling her once. Alliance is the only type of friendship you'll ever need.

She now sees how right he was. And this just might mean that it could work. After all, if he's so accustomed to building alliances out of convenience, who would say he wouldn't come to terms with the Revolution as well? Among all the allies he could make in the country, they're one of the most powerful. And she knows he cares about his country at least enough to want to save it.

There's potential, and where's there's potential there's also a way.

"Promise me you'll tell him," Elijah says. "We are running out of options. We need all the help we can get. Ezra wants you back, too. And so does Amina. She misses you so much."

Amina. Something breaks inside of her. It's been so long since she last saw her sister. For a moment, she lets herself think about a world where she can stay happily by her side and Harry isn't destroying the country from within. Now, that world could happen. It's so close she can almost touch it. This is exactly what she was waiting for, but she's uncertain. After all, she knows Harry. If they don't pull his reins tight, he'll find a way to slip free. This could be their freedom and undoing at the same time.

But it's too tempting not to think about it.

"I have something for you," he adds, and then pulls out something. It takes her a moment to realise it's a phone. He sees through the worried look on her face instantly. "This is from me, not Ezra. He doesn't know about it." He puts it in her hand. "If you ever need my help, you can call me with this. I've already saved my number in it in case you don't remember it."

Her fingers close around it. She has no intention of using it, but it still feels good to know that she could. That she has a way to contact him if something goes wrong. It makes her feel less alone. "Thank you."

Maybe things will be okay.

"Come back home, Al." Elijah smiles. "It isn't the same without you."

The tattoo on the side of her rib cage burns, she can almost feel the shape of the bird sting into her skin. This is them. He's right, it has been too long. She's played with powers she's never thought she would cross, but maybe now it's time to fall back into the lines that were written for her. She should let the deal take place and Harry go back home, and then she should go back to where she belongs. The only issue being, the Revolution doesn't feel so much like home anymore.

Elijah, unaware of the thoughts going on in her mind, keeps talking. "I was so worried when Ezra made you go to the Palace. I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong, Amina kept asking questions I didn't know the answer to, and the stakes were so high and I was so far away. And then the attack happened and you disappeared and I could've died. I was so scared I'd never get to tell you all the things I need to tell you—"

Alouette chuckles. "Are you finally going to admit it was you that stole the chocolates from my nightstand when you were nine?"

He shoots her a look. "No," he replies, "and for the record, I only stole one."

"Did the others catch flight?"

"That's not what I was talking about!" he says, an exasperated edge in his voice, and she laughs.

"Then what else was so important you were losing sleep over it?"

"Other things."

She lets out a long hum. "Other things like what?" There's a smile playing on her face now; she enjoys teasing him way too much. It's always been like this with them—they take turns, one time it's her, the other it's him.

"Like... like..."

"Like?" she says with a laugh. "Like... you adore—"

Elijah leans forward and presses his lips against hers.

Alouette's breath hitches in surprise. The kiss is warm but somewhat unfamiliar, and it's gone as soon as it comes.

She's stunned, and he tenses up. She doesn't know what to say. She hasn't hated it, but—he's not Harry. He could never be Harry. "Elijah, I—"

He raises a hand. "Don't say anything," he tells her, seeming to be gathering his courage before speaking his next words. "I like you. I've liked you for a long time, and it killed me to think something could've happened to you. I don't expect you to say anything—not now. Just... think about it."

"Think about it?"

Elijah nods. "You can tell me later. If... if you want to... you can find me at the Revolution." He shoots her one last smile, and then crosses the street. "I'll wait for you!"

Alouette is frozen in her spot. Only when he's gone she finally turns around and enters the building, still shocked.

Elijah kissed her. What?

She can't make sense of it—the more she thinks about it, the crazier it gets. It doesn't make sense for Elijah to do that. He wasn't supposed to do that—they've been friends since forever. He wasn't supposed to like her.

She's so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't even notice she's walking up the stairs until she's in front of her door.

When she enters the apartment, Harry is standing next to the window.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter x
Miki