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The garden outside the cabin was slowly beginning to spread. Each plant was thriving under Aria's obsessive care, but every time she tended to them, she knew it wouldn't be enough for what she needed.
Medicine was a difficult thing to acquire, especially for serious wounds. They were kept under lock and key with cameras and cautious eyes in shops and medical facilities. Sneaking out of the cabin to steal small amounts here and there was difficult. Even if that wasn't the case, Aria could feel Alex look at her strangely as her disappearances grew more frequent. There were only so many times she could go for a stroll before it was obvious she was lying.
No, these herbs would have to do for now. She could squirrel them away with the medications she had collected. It was better than nothing.
A shadow appeared overhead, blocking the sun off. "What are you up to?" Klaus asked suspiciously.
Aria blinked up at him, raising dirt-covered hands and hoping she looked as confused as she should. "Gardening."
Klaus squinted at her, clearly not buying it. He was an open book. That seemed like a flaw for an Elite, but it was a sweet quality. "The Elites are already losing their minds over what we did. If we do it a second time -"
"I'm not asking you to do anything," Aria broke in. "And I don't see what going through that a second time would accomplish anyway."
It wasn't a lie. Aria had no intention to do the same thing twice. She did plan on doing something, she just wasn't sure what yet.
"There's no way you're not thinking of doing something," he accused. "You've been way too calm about things not going our way after we leaked that footage."
Aria tried to focus on propagating the yarrow in front of her. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Klaus, but her current idea was barely that. He'd disapprove, maybe even tell the others out of concern.
Klaus flicked dirt at her when she didn't say anything. She crammed a leaf into his mouth as revenge.
He scrambled back, wide-eyed and spitting, torn between shock and disgust. "You little shit!"
"I think I'm a couple of months older than you," Aria said dryly.
Klaus grabbed a handful of dirt, rearing his arm back to throw it when Eli emerged from the path. "You were right about Aria," Klaus told her in lieu of a greeting. "She's awful and we should throw her out into the woods."
Eli's jaw was tense, the look in her eye reminiscent of the time she interrogated that Hunter. Even though she was looking at Klaus, Aria was overcome with the sudden urge to run. Instead, she wiped the dirt off her hands and stood up, eyes darting between the two.
"I made soup," Aria said. "It's on the stove if you want some."
Eli nodded without looking at her and went inside.
