All the Colors of the Wind [Kyros]

Lochlann never fell asleep in front of people.

Up until today, he thought he was incapable of such a transgression ever occurring. Lochlann rarely slept well above the surface. It was too loud here, and his thoughts seemed to weigh too much. It was worse here, too, on this damn island in this damned box with it's damned walls.

And it was worse, because Lochlann kept dreaming of her.

When Lochlann picked his head up from the table in the common room, he thought She was here, and a flicker of something shot through him. He didn't know if it was fear or lust or hatred or excitement. It was just sudden and painful and grew stronger once he'd noticed it, much like pressing his hand to a hot stove and realizing it hurt only after understanding what it was he'd touched.

His mouth still thick with sleep, he'd said, "It's you."

But it wasn't Guinevere Haze.

It was Dani.

It took him a minute to realize where he was and what had happened. The stack of papers and box of art supplies sat untouched, except for the mess of where he'd been resting his head on the papers.

"Dani," Lochlann said, and somehow saying her name managed to push the dream from his mind and ground him more in the present. "I...what time is it?"

---

Lochlann blinked at her.

Who else would it be? He didn't know how to tell her. He didn't think he should tell her.

He'd been asleep for an hour. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and then set his palms flat on the table.

"Why did you let me sleep so long?" he asked her. He squinted at her drawing, and then he teased. "If you'd woken me up, I would have been able to tell you that your flowers are unusually colored. I don't think plans exist in that color combination on this plane."

He still felt groggy, but it was nice waking up with Dani right there. For a moment, he thought it'd be nicer to wake up with her in his bed, but he quickly pushed that thought aside. She hadn't mentioned the kiss for a week now, and Lochlann was hesitant to bring it up. He didn't know what it meant or why he hoped it meant anything at all.

It took him a minute to search her body language and decide that she was messing with him.

"It's the curse of being fae," he said. "We can imitate but never create."

He shook his head and clenched one hand into a fist in a dramatic gesture. Melodramatic was probably more appropriate. It was meant to be silly.

He picked up a pencil and a sheet of paper from the table and started to doodle. He'd never been good at drawing people, but he was okay with simple geometric designs and things of that like. For now, Lochlann was drawing a goldfish. It was cartoony and a little out of proportion, but he liked the feel of a pencil in his hand.

It helped him not to flinch too hard when she asked what he dreamed about.

He realized, for the first time, that he could be honest with someone.

She knew what he was.

Ergo, she knew what he'd done.

"People I miss," Lochlann said. He rubbed his face with his hand. "I was dreaming about a horrible woman. I think she might have something to do with me being here, but I can't prove it."

He looked at her, and wondered if he should tell her what was on his mind.

Lochlann chewed on the inside of his cheek.

"I heard something, today."

Lochlann hesitated.

He didn't know how to tell her this without it going south.

"She is very beautiful," Lochlann told her. He hesitated and said, "You look a little bit like her, sometimes. Only, I definitely don't think you're horrible, only that you're beautiful. "

He put his face back down on the table.

Telling a girl she looked like another woman was bad enough. Telling her she looked like a woman he'd just described as horrible was worse. Lochlann groaned. He didn't know how to find the words to tell her what he meant.

He lifted his head back up and propped it up on his left hand, his elbow resting on the table and creating a triangle of space between it.

He drew another fish.

"I heard a juicy rumor about you," Lochlann said.

He held the information hostage.

Lochlann tried to push Guinever Haze from his mind, but even when she wasn’t present, that damned woman was haunting him. Lochlann was drawing a third fish. Their tails and curved body looped around each other in a trinity knot. He drew bubbles coming from their mouths. He picked up a blue crayon and started to fill the page with the color of homesickness.
“Yes, you’re quite the talk,” Lochlann said. ”I lingered too long in the hallway and almost got caught when I heard them say your name not once, not twice, but three times.”

He’d stopped coloring for a moment. The crayon stood still in his hand.

”You’re getting out soon. There’s a committee hearing on your progress in the morning,” Lochlann said.

He was happy for her, but it was tainted. Lochlann was reminded of biting into a sweet fruit and tasting rot in the center. He stared at his drawing and then finally looked back up at her.

Now, Lochlann had only known Dani for a few weeks, but he'd been with her almost every day since they'd met. That led him to form a perception of Dani in his mind that'd been relatively stable. Dani was quirky, kind, but for the most part, normal.

He had come to suspect that her story about robbing a bank was false, and she was really here because of a paperwork error but didn't want to stay here without any kind of street cred.

Then Dani lost her shit.

If Lochlann had been awake, he probably would have joined her like an enthusiastic dog.

Instead, Lochlann stood there, wondering if he'd been in a dream.

When they dosed Dani and took her away, the wheels in his mind started to turn. One of the orderlies caught the look in his eye and shook his head.

"Don't even think about it, Cabyll," he said.

Oh, but Lochlann thought about it. So, so many thoughts.

He waited until it was dark, waited until he heard the doors click, and then he waited some more.

He slid from his bed and then went to work on the hinges of his door. They expected you to pick the lock. They did not expect you touch the hinges.





He wouldn't tell her how he did it, but Lochlann got out, and Lochlann found his way to where she was at. Isolation.

It was dark, the cameras where on, but Lochlann walked in like he belonged there. He'd stolen a clipboard and a white coat and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose like he needed a cup of coffee, and he knocked on the door to the isolation room.

"Dani," Lochlann said. "We need to talk."

Lochlann relaxed a little when he heard her speak.

He'd spent a lot of time in isolation. He was actually surprised he wasn't still there, or back in the wing they'd shoved him in when he first arrived. That was horrible.

Regardless, he was happy they hadn't gagged her, too. Maybe they'd treat her better because she wasn't actually an animal like he was.

"Looking for you," Lochlann said. He glanced down at his clipboard and flipped a page, even though there was nothing on it but a folded up crossword puzzle. For a brief moment, he rested his forehead on the door.

"They didn't hurt you, did they?" he asked. Concern hinged heavily on the ends of his words.

He was looking at the door. It wasn't one he could take apart. He doubted he could kick it down. The wards here were probably stronger, and there wasn't a lot he could do stuck as a human.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek.

He was probably going to have to sleep with someone to get this door open.

Maybe.

He hoped.

"That's good," Lochlann exhaled a sigh of relief.

His relief didn't last long, because Lochlann glanced behind him and down the hallway. He couldn't never relax. He could never forget where he was. The second he did, it was all over.

Her question surprised him.

"To get you out, obviously," he said.

He had an uncomfortable question, one that made his voice tremble even to ask. "Are your hands free?"

He tried the door, but of course, it was locked. He needed to get her out. They needed to get out. He wasn't sure what he could do to free her without damning himself in the process and getting them both locked up. He ran through every idea in his head.

Lochlann made a small, strangled noise in the back of his throat when she said she was wrapped up.

Like a burrito.

Lochlann bit his tongue and tried to separate Dani and Food into two separate categories.

"No," he told her. "Not without you."

He didn't ask the questions he wanted to ask, namely, Dani, what the fuck.

"I won't let them do this to you," he promised. "I'm going to go do something stupid, I think. I'll have you out in a jiffy, I promise. Well, maybe not about the jiffy part, but I will get you out."

He didn't understand.

She kept saying no. Lochlann just stood there.

At some point, he realized his hands were limp by his sides and the clipboard was dangling awkwardly from one of his hands. His posture had sort of folded in on itself. He looked very much like he did not belong there.

Lochlann took a deep breath and then held it.

When he exhaled, all he managed to say was, "Oh."

He tried to straighten his posture, tried to look again like he belonged there, but Lochlann was feeling even more and more out of place. If he kept this up, he was going to get busted.

"You're right," he said. "I don't understand....but if that's your decision, and it's your family, I will do right by you."

He didn't like the way the words tasted. Lochlann was anything but a quitter, and this felt entirely too much like giving up.

"But I think you should reconsider."

He was already out of bed. They weren't letting him out of here anytime soon.

What did he have to lose?

"Please, reconsider, Dani," he said. "We'll take your sister with us."

He couldn't trust his leg completely, but he could probably at least overpower one guard before the other one overtook him...