NAOMI HAD SINCE DROWNED I HER OWN TEARS WHEN SAINT FINALLY WOKE HER UP. The basement was dark and quiet. She hadn't even realised it was him until his familiar voice spoke to her, a little lower than a hush, maybe a whisper. "Hey," he said and when she leaned up, his palm wiped her cheek. That's how she knew she had indeed cried herself to sleep. If she was honest, she didn't remember doing it. Of course, she remembered the feeling of pain as something inside of her twisted and the hold of asphyxiation as her throat wrung out whimpers, but the tears themselves were a blur.

But there was a distinct wetness against the boy's hand. "Morning,"

She blinked and her eyes scanned the room. Not a single light was on nor a single person awake. "What's going on?"

He was sat across from her on the floor, one leg sprawled off and another bent upward to support his arm. In the darkness she caught him shift. "Nothing. I was just thinking, we're heading out tomorrow and you're practically a wanted woman now..."

"Am I?" Now she was awake.

"Well, your face is on every light post in Riverside."

Her eyes adjusted to the shadows and she finally saw the whites in his eyes, then, the harmless smile on his face and she remembered where she was. Naomi came out of her sleeping bag. "I still can't believe they did that." She almost said she was sorry but what did she have to be sorry for? Someone needed to be apologizing to her now.

"Oh, parents?" his voice dipped, "the most tricky bastards. They'll act like they don't care then, all of a sudden, they do. Can never tell which side you're getting when."

Quietly, she thought if the boy was speaking from experience. "And just when you do, they switch up," she added.

He scoffed, and Naomi wished the darkness would move away, just a little, so she could see the expression on his face. For a while, they said nothing else and Naomi wondered what Saint's parents were like. Did he have parents? Softly, he said to her, "I'm sorry we were so hard on you last night."

She scoffed. "I wasn't expecting them to do that, you know. I was just as surprised as you. It sounds messed up but I really thought they'd just...forget about me."

The silhouette of Saint's body sank. "Like you said, they switch up."

"Yeah," she drawled.

Another silence. Saint shook his thoughts back on track. "So," he began again, words drawling, "I was thinking, if you're going to be with us, you should to at least look the part."

Naomi's head cocked. "You mean..."

It was clear. His teethy smile, though shadowed, confirmed her thoughts. He stood up. "Let's go."

She couldn't see him very clearly, but Naomi stared anyway. In the dark of the small basement, it felt like they were sharing secrets. She supposed if she told him everything, spilled her guts without ever stopping, no one else was awake to repeat it. The stars would turn their backs and the moon wouldn't shine too brightly on them.

From the shadows, Saint outstretched his hand for her to take.

She took it, and for the first time in a long time, Naomi felt like Riverside was finally on her side.

Naomi carefully and quietly managed herself out of her sleeping bag. Saint had turned away as she slipped into a loose pair of sweatpants and undid her hair. Creeping, she followed Saint all the way to the corridor. But, before she ascended the steps and left the basement, she threw a final look over her shoulder. There was a slight ruffle from a mid-sleep's comfort but everything else seemed dead. Naomi subdued the wild smile tempting her mouth and followed Saint up and out through the trap door.

The both of them jogged over to the patio of Tio's Tacos where small bright things, stars and pepper lights, finally found them. Saint motioned over to the bar and the two of them moved there. Xiomara of course was slouching atop a stool on the other side of the shined counter. Earphones in, watching her phone horizontally, she seemed a little busy until they neared her. She took out one earbud.

"Slow night?" Saint asked her.

"Riverside's asleep," she commented. "You guys heading out or something?" Her eyes went back and forth between Saint and Naomi. Twice.

"Just us," Saint told her, "Naomi here, is finally getting her mask," he finished nonchalantly.

Xiomara watched them thoughtfully. Then, she glanced downward, opening her palms innocently. "Alright then. Bikes are in the shed," she said, pretending to hide the smirk on her face. She handed them a bunch of keys and slid back in her earbud, her eyes wide with amusement as she returned to staring at her bright phone screen.

When Saint took up the keys and was searching through them, they turned their backs and walked off. Naomi asked him, "You don't think she thinks that we're..."

Saint chuckled, "Oh, she definitely thinks that. Xiomara is kind of a romantic, she'll rather rot than tell anyone that though."

Naomi exhaled. She shut her eyes briefly to shake her head. It was disappointment more than anything. She had only been there a day and people already had the wrong idea of her. Amidst the darkness floating on the insides of her eyelids, Naomi saw the faces of people she'd forgotten began to resurface. Or, more accurately, their backs as they leaned into huddles to whisper some untruthful thing that might as well not have been a whisper at all.

Saint glanced at her, "Well damn," he whispered, "it's not the end of the world."

She smiled helplessly. "Don't be offended. You know that's not what I mean—"

The hurt was a little clearer in his voice this time. "Oh, I know what you mean! You, Naomi Morgan, think I'm second rate!" He gasped. "Are you ashamed of me?"

Naomi pushed his shoulder as the laughs fumbled from her mouth. It didn't really move him much but it was worth the effort. When she sobered up she rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you're right. You are second rate. You know what? I'd much prefer, like, Cairo instead."

Saint stopped in his tracks. His head turned to her.

The moment she caught the look on his face, she perked up along with him. "No, no, no! That was a joke!" she got out quickly.

His eyes widened.

"I was kidding!"

He smiled, a dangerously infectious thing. Then his mouth formed an 'O' and he sang like he had just gotten the best piece of gossip in his entire life.

"Stop!"

"I'm telling him this, just so you know." He was laughing now, another dangerously infectious thing, but worse.

Naomi grabbed after his arms but he dodged it. "Saint!" He took off then, in a fit of laughter the rest of Riverside must have envied, and she went after him. The shed wasn't far off from the bar but they couldn't seem to get there. The two of them were stuck running in circles, back and forth, and back again. Naomi tried hushing up Saint's teasing, but he was too quick and normally Naomi would've quicker but the smile painting her face and the beat of her heart put him just out of reach. Eventually she stopped to stare him down.

The Tiger stepped backward to the shed, his laughs now evolved into out of breath huffs more than anything else. Saint was undoing the lock by the time Naomi made it to his side. "Oh, you can have Cairo's bike."

"Shut up."

He swung the door open and quickly grabbed his own bicycle, wheeling it out of the darkness and brushing dust off the leathered seat. "Actually," Naomi took in the rest of the bikes all lined up and, for the first time, took in the colours of each, "I don't know how to ride a bike."

Saint stared at her for a few seconds. "You're just full of surprises, huh?"

Naomi was never, ever full of surprises. She was the most monotonous person on the planet. But Saint thought otherwise. The sentence stuck to her ears like sweet honey sticking to the mouth of a hungry bear.

"We're definitely going to have to change that." He locked the shed and threw the keys in his pockets. "Get on."

Naomi Morgan swung her legs over Saint's bicycle and she quickly realised this was the fourth time she was on one. She decided, as they took off into Riverside, that starting now she would lose count. Her arms found Saint's waist and her chin rested lightly on his shoulder. There would be many, many more times like this.

They had gone through the scantier parts of Riverside for about thirty minutes before ultimately parking on the sidewalk of a mostly empty street. No masks or main roads, Saint had told her. Now more than ever, The Guise needed to avoid unwanted attention and keep a low radar. The Riverside Police Department were wising up, especially at night.

"See that?" Saint pointed. They had stopped on a slope of land just shy from the road, where a plaza of unpopular stores were scattered below. Naomi followed his finger beyond the empty parking space to a particular store with frilly costumes flooding the windows haphazardly. On the door, right above the laminated 'open' sign was 'B&H Costume Rentals and Sales'. "That's our hit," he announced, sliding off the bike.

Hit? "Wait, you're going to steal it?"

"It's not stealing Naomi," he said matter of a factly. "It's renting." A smile, resembling one of Lia's best, lit up his face as he moved forward. Before she followed, she stood and wondered if all this time, he had been the one that taught Lia to smile in that mischievous way she always did.

Naomi caught up to him. "You can't just...take it."

He looked at her, puzzled. "Why not?"

She gaped. "Because it's wrong."

"Naomi, out of every wrong thing happening in this world, no, Riverside even, one missing mask is the least of anyone's problems. Remember what I told you yesterday? About the things we do? If you're having a problem with this you might as well leave."

She swallowed. He was right...right? She thought of the thousands of homeless teenagers America ignored. She thought of Aspen as her father's hand went straight across her face. She thought of her father's tongue in the mouth of a complete stranger.

She grit her teeth.

Together, Saint and Naomi pushed the door open.

Inside the narrow space, someone was already waiting for them. The store clerk was dressed just as the costumes surrounding them, with splashes of mismatched colour and ideas.

"Hey, my name's Lilac!" she had the coloured short hair to match. "Welcome to our costume shop! How can I help you?"

Naomi wondered how long it took her to fake that smile enough for it to look so real. Saint answered on their behalf, "Yeah, um, do you have any animal masks?"

Her eyes narrowed, as if she was just now seeing them. "Sure, right this way," she said. Lilac led them through the store to a small portion of a wall covered in masks of all sorts. A few of which were animals. "Can I ask why?"

"Oh, we're throwing a Guise themed party at my house," Saint said nonchalantly. "Pretty cool right?"

Lilac nodded in realization. "Yeah, sure. But be careful, you know. Not everyone in Riverside wants the best for those kids."

He briefly told Naomi to pick whatever she wanted, then re-engaged Lilac. Shock and confusion crowded his eyebrows. "Really? But why?" he asked. Lilac huffed as Saint pulled the conversation to the front of the store and left Naomi to tare at the wall.

Owls, Wolves and Zebras were all intently peering down at Naomi Morgan. Glossing her eyes over each of them, it was increasingly harder for her to pick. She thought of which animal represented her the most. Then she realized nothing good could come from that. She started over, this time, thinking of which animal she wanted to be like the most.

A lion was the one she saw first. She took it off the rack and into her hands to feel the cool indents of it and the strength of the plastic. It felt right. Saint came next to her. "She's gone around the back, we have to go now."

Naomi looked back at the mask in her hands and tested it on her face, pulling the strap over and on her head. She turned to the Tiger and cocked her head thoughtfully. Through the small holes in the eyes, she saw him smile at her. "Very...daunting," he purred. She smiled.

When she took it off and examined it a little further, Saint asked her if her mind was finally made up. She nodded. He made an approving sound and the two of them began making their quick escape through the exit door of the costume store. But, before they got there, Naomi looked back one more time and saw that next to the full rack of lion masks there was a lone mask hanging from its own, barren rack. She ran back for it at the exact moment the back door of the store swung open. Lilac came out from it. Naomi held her breath but did not even spare the clerk a look. She grabbed the lioness mask from its place and dashed out the door Saint had been holding open for her.

The screams of Lilac reverberated in their ears and Saint laughed just as loudly. Naomi watched him, the look in his eye like lightning striking across an otherwise dim sky. He took up the bicycle and got on. "Take that capitalism," he shouted back at Lilac.

Then, in laughter, the both of them rode off.

Author's Note

Ah, yes. I really loved writing this one.

This week's dedication goes to the comment-crazy Stormfly789 because holy moly. She just started my book and has commented on almost every single chapter, letting me know alllll her thoughts and theories! Her engagement is crazy and I can really talk to her. Tbh that's all I want from my readers :( I love y'all and I just wanna interact. I promise I don't bite. But hugeeeeee shout out to Stormfly789 for just being so gotdamn active I LOVE YOU. Remember folks, if you vote and comment and show lots of love the next dedication could be you!

So, Naomi and Saint hehe. Thoughts? Feelings?

Better yet, where do you guys see this whole thing with The Guise going? Let me know in the comments below!

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER...

The paint blasted from the nozzle. Chyna smiled at the mess it created. "The Mayor is finally acknowledging us."

Another voice came. "It would be rude not to show up," Sully said a little seriously before grinning with Lia.