Of Mistakes Come Misunderstandings PV| M. Campbell

Is he avoiding me?

Nabi's bar shoes gently clunked against the corridor's stone floor, her steps thoughtful. A pair of gray eyes scanned the sea of students as her fingers touched the antique jewel attached to the waist of her uniform. Soft, distinct jingles were heard through the ruckus, like sharp metal against glass. Nabi hummed curtly, a tug at the corner of her lips cracked her expressionless mask.

Something was off.

But she did not know what.

Her fingertips tapped lightly on the cold white jade, the etched butterfly's wings like braille beneath her skin. Nabi's eyes narrowed as she walked through the crowd, observing the faces blur together. The faces did not belong to the person she had been looking for, the fool she had unknowingly held a wire for.

Her little broken butterfly.

Unbeknownst to her, the young Aamon was more of a broken marionette than a broken butterfly; his eyes and limbs nearly devoid of life, buried beneath the rubble caused by the whispered explosion in the Dungeons, left for dead.

Nabi's eyes squinted momentarily, a glimpse was seen, and a heart fluttered. Was it Aamon? Her legs would move, taking long strides as her shoulders grazed those of students passing by, but her attention remained at the corner where she would swear to Merlin, she saw Aamon round.

She had not seen him.

Her voice would call out the name of a hoped-for sight, it was soft, unsure, very unlike her. But the Athanatos had that effect on her, as if his charming stupidity caused her guard to falter. "Aamon?" Her usual formality felt foreign, as if she had always regarded the Athanatos by his given name. Her hair swayed as she rounded the same corner, but her pursuit would end in a sudden halt.

It was not him.

Her gaze would shift onto another familiar face. One she had not seen since the night at the dungeons. The angered voice, the feeling of his hand shoving a letter orchestrated by the boy of blonde hair, replayed in her mind. Her soft eyes would harden slightly, composing herself once more as she cleared her throat. "My apologies, Mister Campbell... I thought I had seen someone else..."

Nabi would give a slight smile, though her eyes carried a hint of something else. Disappointment perhaps? There would be a momentary pause, deliberate while she thought, observing him as she remembered how he reacted toward the boy of golden hair. Deciding to test the waters, she calmly spoke once more.

"It has been a while since we last crossed paths... since that night at the dungeons, I would say."