w o r r y w a r t || the promised neverland

XIV - the possibility of a lifebuoy

"So, let me just get this settled because my head can't comprehend this..." Emma scrunched her nose while her lips formed a straight line. An expression that clearly shoved reverie. "Ray was the spy...?

"Yup." Ray uttered an answer, almost like releasing an arrow. Its head pierced through Emma's heart sending out a sharp pain. But it wasn't physical whatsoever, the ache was mental. It hurt knowing a burden like that was weighing down the boy's shoulders. Emma placed her hand over her heart and gave the other girl a questioning look.

"Y/n, why aren't you surprised?"

The mentioned girl just smiled lightly, a gust of wind entangling in her hair before proceeding away from the farm, into the outside world - the goal of the children. She chuckled quietly before finally giving an answer. Maybe it was a way to buy her time in order to form the least suspicious reply, or she just simply thought what she would utter next was funny in an indescribable way.

"I suspected him from the very start." Y/n smiled, sarcasm drenching her tone. "You know me and my amazing deduction skills."

The leaves of the forest rustled as if they were chuckling with the girl herself that uttered the comment. Three pairs of eyes snapped in her direction but not even the smallest of smiles reached at least one of those pairs. Everyone was equally confused by her words but suspicious of them to different degrees.

"You didn't deduce a shit." Ray finally snickered, and by that firing up the vivid emotions between the four kids that were gone just now.

Small smiles started to dance on everyone's lips. Well except for Norman's. He scoffed in frustration when not managing to cover Emma's ears in time and prevent her from hearing what Ray said.

"You done with your foul language?! A warning won't cost you anything."

"I'm done-" Ray said, averting his eyes from Norman whilst a cheeky smile was plastered on his lips. "At least for now."

Emma, seeing that the white-haired had started to compose yet another comment, stepped into the conversation quite plainly destroying what Norman wanted to say next.

"Anyway." She began and saw that she had now earned everyone's attention. Emma, the girl who Y/n loved to call her all-year sunshine, approached Ray and gripped his hands tightly. Her eyes were slightly covered by the orange hair, almost like clouds covering the sun during sunsets.

"I don't know if you experimented with the trackers at the expense of others." Emma halted briefly, and with that pause gave Y/n enough time to snap her eyes at Ray. She rose her eyebrows deliberately, sign for him to better mark Emma's words. "Were some of our siblings sent out earlier than initially planned because of your 'research'?" Emma continued tugging on the boy's hand with even more force.

But Ray? He could just stand there, his mouth opening up a few times remaining in that position a short span of time before closing it again.

"I-"

Emma shook her head slightly, cutting his train of thought that he dearly didn't want to spill. "Nevermind Ray, just... don't do that again, okay? We are here to help you."

The boy's eyes traveled to Y/n, who mouthed a sentence that reminded him of the girl's assurance from earlier.

'Told you so'

"Okay everyone!" Emma exclaimed, letting go of Ray's wrists. "Now that we have the scolding off our agenda... I want you to meet someone."

As soon as the words were out in the air, Y/n broke into another rush of laughter that clearly hit her insides so hard that she had to bend over while laughing out.