22: Falling

Balthazar and Mehar had managed to get themselves on the other side of the bed once they got a grasp on the situation. They were crouched on the floor, ears sharp for any hint for what was to come when they noticed how close they were. 

Balthazar was taken aback by how her eyes gazed into his, the way her eyebrows were scrunched together in surprise. She always looked so sharp and he can't deny that it did things to him, but this unexpected softness and astonishment on her part was doing something else altogether.

It shook him even more when she grabbed him by the wrist and started pulling him towards the door. She reached up to open it, trying to stay down and off the course of their firing. Another bullet whizzed through and she managed to get her hand down in time. She turned to look at him, her eyebrows scrunching together even more... 'Did she not know the things her eyes could do?' he wondered. 

She reached up to pull on the handle a second time, falling short of a couple inches again. Mehar found an arm reaching up and pulling it open. She turned to look at Balthazar who was reaching for it in her stead. His arm created an enclosure, she found herself leaning against the wall adjoining the door to make space. He looked at her, his face reading an expression she had not seen before...even though she didn't know what to make of it Mehar couldn't say she disliked it. 

They inched the door open by its base and Mehar checked to see if the coast was clear. No one had rushed over yet, but they could hear the approaching footsteps and hushed whispers of the security as they tried to locate the room that was shot at. They could hear the personnel yelling through the microphone to the perpetrators outside to surrender. There had only been two shots so far and judging by the angle the bullets came in from, Mehar knew it came from afar. 

Mehar was out the door, tugging at Balthazar and rushing down the staircase. As soon as the door fell close behind them, all the noise outside lulled. The clacking of their heels echoed through the hollow cylinder filled its absence. Mehar exited the stairwell abruptly and Balthazar followed. She opened up a room near the staircase and shut the door after him. 

"How are we any safer now?" He asked.

"This room will be overlooked by the camera and anyone would think we are rushing downstairs. When they check the cameras they'll notice us go into the stairwell but there'll be no footage of us coming out. We'll basically seem to have disappeared- at least till they figure it out," she explained, trying to discreetly clean up the place. 

"What is this place?" He asked

"I got a room here for the mission I was carrying out," she explained, cutting the conversation short before he could pry into said mission further. He already knew too much. 

"What's this?" Balthazar asked when he noticed a towel on the bed vibrating. They both leapt for it, not the towel but what lay underneath, at the same time. Balthazar got there first though, having been closer. He holds it up against the light, a smirk in his mouth. 

"You were literally almost killed you idiot, don't mess with things you shouldn't mess with!" she managed, a blush creeping up her cheeks. 

He lets it drop, to try and catch it again, but she was on it too. She managed to get ahold of it before him and he wound up with his hand around her wrist instead.

He let go immediately, and stepped away. She hid her hands and what they clasped behind her back. Then she suddenly paused, and noticing the switch in her composure, Balthazar stood up straight. They could hear footsteps edging closer, approaching the door from the other side. And then there was a knock at the door. Their eyes found each others, what now?