Killing Butterflies - Empires SMP

Eight - Thorn

They didn't get the pleasure of seeing who it was that was at the door, but if they tilted their chair back and cocked their head ever so slightly then they could make out the sounds of the door opening, a hum of faint, incoherent talking, and the thud of the door closing.

With a huff, they leaned back and crossed their arms, eyes tracking the door. Nobody came in, but there was a fair bit of noise coming from somewhere, even if they couldn't exactly figure out where.

It continued for what felt like half an hour, and at this point, Xornoth was starting to get bored. Their wings ached from being pressed against the chair for so long, and by now the food was definitely cold. Theirs was completely untouched and Scott's was left half eaten, knife and fork in an awkward position with a few grains of rice dotted on them.

They narrowed their eyes. Surely he wouldn't notice if a fork went missing would it? It would look suspicious from their side, especially since they had hardly touched their cutlery, but they could perhaps gaslight Scott into thinking he dropped his on the floor and it rolled away. After all, he did drop them quite hurriedly

Their gaze trailed back to the door. The murmuring continued, but it didn't sound like anyone was coming in any time soon. Before whoever was on the other side could change their mind and walk in, they leaned over the table as far as they could, rocking on the legs of the chair ever so slightly, and swiped the fork into their hands. There was still a grain of rice on it and they made sure to carefully flick it off before yanking it towards them.

They hesitated. Where could they hide it? Their clothes had no pockets and the sleeves would be too obvious of a hiding spot. However, there was quite literally nowhere else to hide it.

They reluctantly slid it under the sleeve of the jumper. It was better than just holding onto it at least, and the jumper was designed in such a way that it wouldn't slide down unless they moved really vigorously. Their darling observant brother probably wouldn't notice it, and that was good enough for them.

Sounds of 'socialisation' continued to echo in from outside. If they were to be honest, they honestly hadn't thought that anyone would even want to come to Scott's house. He was bad company and the building was shit.

Okay, maybe they were overexaggerating. But in all fairness, there was no reason why anyone in their right mind would visit this place.

Footsteps creaked towards the door until they were right outside of it and they narrowed their eyes, keeping a careful watch for the moment the door handle moved. It was fueled by nothing but unreasonable paranoia and it wasn't like they could do anything even if they saw the door open, but they did it anyway. Surprise was fucking wank.

Another hum of noise, this time more discernible. Scott's over-saturated accent followed by a shrill, high pitched voice and an almost deep voice laced with one of those Grimish accents.

They did their best to connect the dots, but as it turned out they didn't need to, because the door was already opening. On the other side was the Count, soot somehow clinging to every aspect of him even though his clothes were passable enough to go to some kind of ball and Scott's stupidly tall frame. And wait- just behind Scott, standing on her tiptoes and still barely being visible, was that tiny gnome.

Disgusting.

They shot their brother a 'why the fuck are there other people in the room' look and glared, trying to see if they could scare them away. Sadly, it did not work.

He awkwardly fidgeted in the doorway. "Are you sure you want too-"

"Yeah." The Count interrupted. "I wanted to ask them something."