Chapter 564: Out In The Open

It was a bit of a walk for Owyn to get Arc to her room, with Snow and Raven having parted ways once their sibliary house dorm came into sight. The sun had already set, and he was grateful nobody stopped him because Arc was a rambunctious, energetic drunk, which was why, shortly after parting ways with their friends, he elected to just carry her into his room and use the trapdoor to let her climb up into her room.

Thankfully, Rikael was nowhere to be seen, so avoiding anything awkward would be as simple as closing the trapdoor...

"Hey, Owyn... come up here for a minute."

Owyn blinked twice. At first, he didn’t know if he’d heard right, since Arc said it as she flopped onto her bed. But she was staring at him so intently, he found himself climbing awkwardly up into her room, hoping he wasn’t too heavy for the wooden floor. Oddly, despite having seen some of her room, he’d never seen its entirety, and looking about gave him the firmest impression that Arc was a little... untidy.

Mostly it was paper, and he recognized one assignment where he’d struggled to place every one of the Conceptual Elements on a circle, but he had the impression that if she, like the merchant girls in his old village, had a bunch of clothes, they’d be strewn about too.

"C’mere," Arc called, patting her bed, and Owyn stiffened a bit along his spine as he remembered that he was in Her room. Being alone with a girl was more than enough to earn at least ribbing back in the village. At worst, it earned the wrath of protective family members, and Arc’s family could casually discuss things like bifurcating titans and monsters, which came up more than once over the course of the dinner. So he hoped, as he obediently sat on the bed next to her feet and tried not to look her too much in the eyes, that no one would find out about this.

Then Arc asked, "Do you like me?"

Owyn’s mind blanked as the words hit him. He’d been holding in the "threads" like Arc taught him all throughout the dinner, which seemed to work except that some of her parents became more interested in him because they couldn’t read him as well, but the moment she asked, his spiralling thoughts loosened his mental grip.

"I... uh..." He thought about kissing her, but she was drunk, and he wasn’t. He’d noticed her attraction to Raven as well, even if she seemed to not admit it, and if that was where she was taking the conversation, he didn’t want to embarrass himself by giving out the wrong answer and-

Arc leaned forward, planting her tiny lips against his in a way that made his entire body go rigid, except for the part of him that started kissing her back. His heart was struggling with the question, and now it thundered in his ears as she pressed her face deeper into the kiss. He closed his eyes, savoring the heat of her body, feelings of protectiveness filling him as he tried to remember that, metatron or not, she was one of the smallfolk. Her weight felt so delicate against him as she reached up and touched his chest.

Abruptly, Owyn pulled back, resisting the insistent pull of her presence in his mind, the want he felt to see how far they could go, how much of herself she’d finally reveal to him. "This isn’t right. We shouldn’t be doing this while you’re drunk."

She let out a groan, her face twisting in some unreadable emotion. For a moment, Owyn thought she was going to get angry, but then she leaned away from the bed and retched, letting out a stream of mostly wine right onto the floor.

Owyn swore, but knew there was little to do about it until she stopped, so he turned his body and started patting Arc on the back until the shaking in her body subsided. It was embarrassing, knowing that their first real kiss would be forever marred by the smell of wine and bile, even if it was better than having "kissed" her in a sewer.

Even after letting out her stomach, Arc was a mumbling mess. She tried to get up to clean it, but Owyn gently persuaded her to lie on her side, then went to her bathroom to find a towel. After sponging it up, he asked where her laundry went, and she pointed towards a tall, enchanted box near the door that presently had kneesocks hanging out of it.

By the time he turned around, Arc was gently snoring, and the self-cleaning magic of the floor had kicked in to remove the remaining traces of vomit and wine.

Though he was tempted to leave, Owyn looked around and decided he couldn’t bear to leave Arc’s room in the state it was in. Rolling up his sleeves, he started organizing the clutter and tossing her errant clothes into the laundry bin, though he did pause to sputter as his hand came up from just under her bed with a lacy black set of panties that left nothing to the imagination of their purpose, which was to be taken off.

That one he delicately put back, his face thoroughly heated by the time he crossed the room to start organizing her desk.

Figuring out which of her many scattered papers went with what took him a good bit of time, and just as he finished the pile, he heard Arc cough and turned to see if she needed any more help. Her still being fast asleep, he left quietly and pulled the lid of the trapdoor back into place.

*

The next morning, Arc was waiting for him the moment he opened his door, and so was Raven.

"Hi..." Arc said, not looking him in the eye.

"Hey, Arc..." he replied, scratching the back of his head.

Raven just crossed her arms. "Go on. Ask him."

Looking like she’d rather be anywhere else, Arc met Owyn’s eyes for a second before asking, "Last night... I know it wasn’t a dream, but... did you kiss me or did I kiss you?"

Owyn paled, partly because behind Arc’s back, Raven was idly levitating a ball of blood above her hand, the threat in her eyes clear.

"You, um... kissed me," Owyn confessed.

"Oh stars..." Arc palmed her eyes. "How much wine did I drink?"

"One-"

"Bottle?" Arc interrupted.

"...Glass," Owyn finished.

"And then you two kissed," Raven said accusingly. "What are your feelings for her?"

"I like her. She’s a great friend and-"

"Just a friend?" Raven interjected.

"Yes. I mean no! I mean... I’d be happy to get to know her better, but only if she also wants it."

Arc’s face was so red, Owyn felt embarrassed by proxy.

"And if she wanted someone else, what would you do?" Raven asked.

"I... don’t know. I’ve never been in a relationship before, but if Arc wants someone else, I don’t think it would be right for me to try to decide for her."

"Hmph." Raven stepped closer to Owyn, the ball of blood above her hand going beneath her heels until she was standing eye-to-eye with him. "You might be the most decent boy I’ve ever met. I think I’ve more than underestimated you as a rival. We should remedy that, now that everything is out in the open. A true rivalry, like what Arc and I share." She reached up and patted his snowy hair like a dog before turning on her bloodied heels and lowering herself back down next to Arc.

Then, with surprising speed, she grabbed Arc by the front of her uniform and kissed her deeply, bringing the flush in Arc’s face to a full, blooming red as they started making out in front of Owyn, though it was clear Raven was the one leading throughout the five or so seconds it took them to finish.

Then, with a slight shove, Raven parted from Arc, a thin line of drool breaking between them, before she glared up at Owyn. "Now we’re even. Let me know when you’re free later." Turning, she walked away, heels clicking lightly with every step.

Owyn resisted the urge to peek into the hall and confirm who might have just witnessed the event he was still struggling to process. "What’s... what’s going on?" he asked as Arc just stood there with her hands over her face.

"Raven came by earlier to check on me. We got to talking, and she found out about last night, and then she was just so scary and I can’t figure out if we’re dating now..."

"You and Raven?" Owyn asked.

"All of us!" Arc threw her hands up in the air. "I figured out I wasn’t big into exclusivity and she said she was more than okay with it because ’that’s just how my family is.’" She did an imitation of Raven’s voice that would have been funny if Owyn wasn’t dazed and confused, "And now she wants to ’test you out’ too!"

"Oh." A light suddenly went off in his head. "Did she just ask me out?"

"In a Raven way, yes!" Arc exclaimed. "Shit, she was nicer to you than when she told me. I just couldn’t tell her ’no,’ not that I wanted to, but- ugh! Things are so complicated now..." Arc smacked her hands back onto her face. "Oh stars, I’m becoming my Father..."

All Owyn could say was, "Oh."

A snort from behind revealed that they had company.

When did he get back? Owyn could have sworn the angel’s room had been open and empty not six hours ago.

Rikael leaned against the door to his room, smirking, before he opened his sardonic mouth.

"Smooth move."