Warning

As planned, after their morning class, William invited both Leonardo and Savannah over his apartment for what he described as "a fun little tea and talk time."

However the moment they arrived at the apartment building, someone already wasn't having fun.

"Hey, I used to live here."

Leo and William both turned towards the girl. Her boyfriend took her hand and frowned. "This is the building you got kicked out of?"

"Yeah. Didn't know you lived here, too, Will."

"You got kicked out??"

"Long story. Well, not really."

"She doesn't wanna talk about it."

"That's fine," William said quickly, noticing the obvious shift in the others' mood. "Sorry to hear that." Stepping aside, he gestured for them to go into the apartment. "You guys can make yourselves comfortable. Don't be shy. Go 'head and put your feet on the coffee table, doesn't bother me. Riley does it all the time."

"Who?" Leo asked.

"My girlfriend. Don't worry about it." He chuckled, closing the door behind him before making his way to the kitchen. "So what kind of tea do you guys prefer?"

"Didn't know you had a girlfriend."

"Well, you didn't ask," Will said jokingly. He faced the cabinets he had just opened. "So about the tea, I got all kinds. Savannah said you hated lavender, right? What about chamomile? I also have french vanilla, pumpkin spice—lots of the pumpkin spice, actually, I'm one of those people. You might have noticed the pumpkin spice candles on the windowsill."

"I have," Savannah nodded. "Smells delightful."

"Would you like to try the pumpkin spice tea?"

"May I??"

"You may. And you, Leo?"

"Chamomile is fine."

"Excellent. I shall prepare them posthaste."

As he did so, the other two made themselves comfortable on the couch, just as their host had encouraged; however, neither let their guard down fully. Without realizing the other doing the same, Leonardo and Savannah both began to scan the interior of the apartment with skeptical eyes, which was normal and almost instinctive for Leo, whereas Savannah so easily got distracted and even forgot momentarily that she was supposed to be on guard. She held onto Leo's hand to remind herself of this.

Truly, William did seem like a nice guy, and she wanted to trust him. Savannah had never suspected anything of her fellow music major before, but ever since she had grown so close to Leonardo, Savannah learned the foolishness in trusting so easily.

She couldn't lie, she wasn't fond of the feeling. Of being on edge around people she presumed were harmless. And this, she considered, must have been how Leo felt constantly for years. Being hesitant, afraid, even, to let anyone get too close, close enough to deceive him, to hurt him.

Savannah saw herself as the luckiest woman on the planet to have broken down those walls. Earning Leo's trust was a trophy no other could match.

"You fellas like to sweeten your tea?" William asked amidst his guests' silent examining of his apartment. "I've got honey, sugar, half-and-half-"

"It's fine, I don't need anything," Leo replied.

"Me neither," Savannah added.

"Snacks?"

"The tea is enough, William."

"Yeah, the tea is enough, William."

"If you guys say so," Will said and made his way over to the two with two mugs in hand. He then proceeded to set them gingerly on the coffee table. "Pumpkin spice for Savannah, chamomile for Leo. Aaand pumpkin spice for me as well."

He left and soon returned again, placing one more mug on the table, then lowered himself to sit on the floor. A little smile on his face, William raced the mug to his lips and took a careful sip. He hummed in delight.

"Nothin' like some good ol' pumpkin spiciness in the dead of autumn."

Leo looked at him strangely before taking a sip of his own tea. Savannah did the same.

And she tried to mimic Leonardo, to maintain a calm and relaxed demeanor without reacting much to the simple action of drinking tea, but the flavor of the pumpkin spice took her by surprise and sent signals to her brain that shouted, this is amazing!! You must be verbal about it!!

She puckered her lips. "Yes, good."

"You like it?" William asked eagerly, raising his eyebrows at the girl. "It's good, right?? I buy it all the time. You know that supermarket that's real close to our campus? The tea's real cheap there. Like two bucks for a box of fifteen tea bags."

"Oh, well, you can't beat that."

"Right? I go there for all my shopping. Well, except for produce. I get all my produce from a small, local market."

"Do you get it from Beverly's Market??"

"Uhm, yes??"

"Me, too! I went there all the time before I got kicked out, there's no better place for produce."

"Oh, absolutely, and the employees there are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Wrote the book of manners, I'll bet."

Their conversation was cut short by Leo loudly clearing his throat, his successful attempt to demand and receive their attention. Both Savannah and William sat back and held their heads apologetically.

"Sorry, Leo," Will chuckled, "didn't mean to leave you out of our riveting grocery talk."

"It's no problem," Leo said, though clearly unamused by the situation, "it's just I was under the impression that the reason you invited me over here was important."

"Saving money on groceries is important, Leo."

He straightway received a look of great disapproval.

"Right, sorry again." Shaking his head, William picked up his mug to take another sip, but there was another interruption just as the glass edge had touched his mouth.

A knock at the door.

Leonardo furrowed his brow. "Who-?"

"Probably Riley," William answered immediately. "She said she was stopping by, completely slipped my mind when I invited you guys over."

"Should we leave?"

"No, Leo," he insisted, "like I said, it's important. Riley won't be a bother, I swear."

With that, he hurried over to the door and opened it. His smile brightened at the person standing outside. Leo had his eyes fixed on the coffee table in annoyance, while Savannah peered curiously over at William hoping to get a look at whoever he was now hugging. Soon, however, she did, as William and this person re-entered the apartment.

"Leo, Savannah, this is Riley."

With little interest, Leo lifted his gaze towards the person standing by William's side. He had already prepared in his head to offer a small wave, maybe a hello if he decided to be particularly spontaneous. But he changed his mind on even pretending to be polite the moment he laid eyes on Riley.

He recognized her at first glance—and evidently, by this person's facial expression, she recognized Leo, too.

She was the person from that photo Oliver had sent him. Before, of course, she was exposed as being a liar. This was the person Leonardo had chased after, believing she was Blue.

"Uh, Will, who is this?"

"I'm asking you that." Leo stood up suddenly, almost in offense. "Who are you?"

"Leo, I told you this is my girlfriend, Riley." Perplexed by both of their reactions, William stepped between the two. "Why are you glaring at each other? C'mon, it's making me uncomfortable..."

"Will, this is the guy who ran out of that café and grabbed my shoulder."

"Leo, that was you?"

"I had a reason," Leo stated defensively. He continued to scan Riley's face in frustrated confusion.

"Is he your friend, Will?"

"Yeah," William nodded and gestured at Savannah. "And so is she. This is Savannah. Leo and Savannah are both in my music class." He paused for a moment, soon to shift his attention back over to Leonardo. "Uh, Leo, why did you...do that? If you don't mind me asking." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Riley told me someone sent you a picture of her...what's that about?"

"Someone was pretending to be her, it's nothing." Leo quickly dismissed William's question and fixed his eyes on Riley. "You, do you know someone named Oliver?"

"It's a common name," she replied, discomfort in her expression. "I don't have any friends named Oliver, though, if that's what you're asking."

"Oliver Wood?"

"Again, common name. But no. Don't have any friends named Oliver Wood."

It only further puzzled Leonardo. Before long, though, he considered that maybe Oliver had just chosen this photo of Riley randomly online. Or...

...she got her memories of Oliver taken, too...

"So, Leo," William's voice pried into his ears with its somewhat urgent sound, "can we change the subject to what I invited you here for?"

"Yeah, sure." I'll just have to ask Oliver later. "What is it?"

"I had some photos I wanted to show you."

"If these are pictures of me and you from high school, I'm gonna flip."

"...uh...what?"

"He's just tense, don't worry about it," Savannah said reassuringly as she reached out to take Leo's hand and pull him back towards the couch. "Just sit down, baby, please?"

He did so, but reluctantly. And Riley stood by, watching uncertainly as William disappeared for a moment, only to return with several photographs.

He breathed a soft apology to his girlfriend before once again giving Leo his full attention.

"Take a look at these," he said and handed Leo the photos.

In his hands Leo soon found himself examining several dark, low quality images of what appeared to be someone running—probably from the person taking their picture, Leo imagined. As he went through them, William explained what exactly the boy was looking at.

"These are a few years old by now," he began. "They were taken in Seattle by some people who work for my father. You see they...well, they were after this girl who had...blue blood. Never gave her name but I wanted to know if you knew her, Leo, since you-"

There wasn't a breath of hesitation. As if acting on the primal instinct of a wild animal, Savannah stuck out her arm in front of Leonardo and glared daggers at William in a way that sent cold, bitter chills down his spine. For a second, the unexplained action baffled him. But then he connected the dots.

"Oh, no, no, no, you got me all wrong, I'm not working for my father," he informed both of them, but perhaps at the moment, more so to Savannah, genuinely fearing something might happen to him if he didn't clear suspicion right away. "I swear, I hate what he's doing, that's why I'm telling you about all this. I wanted to ask if you knew someone with blue blood."

"I do, but no, I'm not telling you where she lives."

"That's perfectly fine," William insisted, sighing. "I wasn't going to ask where she lives, anyway. I just wanted to know if you knew her."

"Why?" Leonardo asked. "Do you have blue blood, too?"

"Me? Oh, no, of course not." For some bizarre reason, this drew from William a genuine laugh and thus urged the three others in the room to glance at him with concern. "Believe me," he went on, "if my dad discovered his own son had blue blood, or any color besides red, for that matter, I'd probably be locked up somewhere or sold online to some illegal institution."

It wasn't a joke. Even though the tone of the boy's voice might have suggested as such, Leo and Savannah both somehow knew that William was being serious about the matter.

"Your own father...?"

"Yeah, whatever," he waved his hand dismissively at Leo. "I'm used to it. He's always wanted me to help him with the dirty work, you know. Pays a hefty price, apparently. Blue blood. From what I've been told, even if you possessed just the smallest sample of it, all sorts of people would be shoving their money in your face."

Silence hung in the air after these words had been uttered. An unpleasant, almost nauseating silence.

"It's disgusting."

"You're telling me," Leo said after some time. He squeezed Savannah's hand. "But why...why did you wait till now to say something to me? It's been a while since people found out about me."

"I didn't think my dad knew," Will explained. "I haven't spoken to him in a while, I ignore most of his phone calls anyway. But I was just hoping he didn't know about you, that it wouldn't spread further than our college campus but I guess that was pretty dumb of me to assume. But then you mentioned about those people who hurt Savannah, 'cus they were after you, so..."

He must have felt Leonardo's demanding gaze intensifying on him, even without returning the gaze, because he held his head heavy in shame.

"I'm sorry, I should have said something earlier. But you were so hard to approach, Leo...and in case you didn't already know about it, I didn't want to scare you. It even scared Riley when I told her about it, and she doesn't even have odd blood or anything, it's just a scary situation you wouldn't think to be so close to. I'm sorry, Leonardo."

"It's fine."

He didn't want to be so understanding. It wasn't in Leo's nature to forgive so easy, especially with his history of being lied to and treated wrongly; however, deep down Leo could understand. And he wondered if that were the reason Oliver had waited so long to speak to him—Leo's being so hard to approach, as well as not wanting to add more fear to what he already dealt with on a daily basis.

"Am I going to have to be cautious around you, William?"

The boy in question raised his head at this. "Cautious?"

"You swear on your own grave you're not working with your father?"

"I'll swear on Riley's grave, too, Leo, I mean it."

"Hey-"

"Ray, I love you, but not now. Leo-"

"Don't make me regret believing you."

It was such a scathing tone, drawn from the depths of a jaded heart that William swore he could see beating in Leonardo's eyes.

Savannah's, too.

Leonardo was the first to get up from the couch and make his way towards the door. After uttering a terse goodbye, he urged Savannah to follow him out the door before stepping out on his own.

And the latter started to follow but stopped at the door to look back at Will. A warning fire in her usual, innocent doe-eyes.

"I'll believe you, too," she said, "because you're a good guy, Will. But if you do anything to change my mind, to change Leo's mind, to hurt him in any way, just keep in mind there's nothing I wouldn't do for him. Nothing."

She stopped again. Deep in thought.

"...thank you for your hospitality, Will. I'll see you tomorrow."