Neo wasn't sleeping when he heard a knock on his door one fateful night. After all, he hardly ever did. Yet, he was rather curious when it happened to be at six in the morning. The only people up at that time were nightshift guards and maybe some early risers from the kitchen preparing breakfast for her majesty.
So, when the three solid raps came echoing across his chambers, he looked up rather sharply from the book he was mumbling out loud to himself. It was a surprise, but not enough to startle him. He furrowed his dark red brows - dark enough to be mistaken for black - at the entrance. Standing up and folding the corner of the page he was reading to mark his place, he closed the book and set it down.
Walking towards the door, he opened it, one arm up to lean on against the frame. What beheld him was nothing of what he expected. The queen, wearing a black nightgown that hung just about her knees and dark slippers with little puffs of white fluff on her toes. Her face was twisted in a scowl as always when she saw him, but he knew she wouldn't have knocked for no reason.
"Yes?" Neo inquired.
Quilliene frowned. She hated that he refused to refer to her properly, and it confused her every time he did it. So desperately she wanted to be called by her proper title, but he seemed to not care. She straightened her back, rolling her shoulders as she gazed up at him.
"Were you sleeping?" Quilliene more or less demanded an answer.
"No," He said. "I was-"
"Good," She interrupted. "Then come with me."
Neo watched as she twisted on her heels and strutted down the hall quickly, right to her room. He frowned, glancing back, but decided he didn't need his shoes or flannel. He had on his socks and gloves, of course, but they were a necessity. He was rather used to feeling covered by everything, anyway.
With a sigh, he walked out into the open hall, closing his door behind him quietly. He followed as she waited by her open bedroom entrance, which she promptly went through. Coming in behind her, he was able to see why she was awake - and soon came to notice the darker circles under her deep brown eyes.
Her bed was half covered with a tack board with papers and maps of places around England and Scotland. A few newspapers were around it all as well. She had apparently set up sticky notes on each paper, sometimes multiples of them on a few. He heightened his eyebrows at it all, looked at her, then the manic mess again.
"Close the door," Quilliene ordered, and he did. She raised the board to face him. "I found who killed my parents."
"What?" He asked sharply. "You've been researching on your own?"
"Yes," She said.
"You should've had investigators on that," Neo glared. "You realise how much danger this puts you in? Their killer could easily know you're after them now."
"I was the only one capable of this task," Quilliene said with confidence.
"You should have at least asked for help!" He practically yelled. "From me - or someone else - and definitely not taken up your time to sleep."
"You are my bodyguard, not my caretaker," She hissed, putting down the board. "Do not tell me how to live my life."
"And you're a queen now," He motioned with his hands. "You can't be acting like you don't have more important things to be doing."
"Are you saying that finding out who led a rampage throughout my mansion is not important?" Quilliene raised a daring eyebrow.
"I- No-" Neo shook his head. "That's not what I meant at all."
"Then what did you mean?" She challenged.
He paused, then sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Whatever. What did you find?"
Quilliene held her head high at winning the argument, then pointed to the board. "For one, the Wyvern was a ghast."
Neo frowned. "What's a ghast?"
She squinted at him. Was he truly so clueless? "A ghast is a spectre of a creature - real, mythical, fantastical. Only very powerful spell casters can summon them, and even then, they are unpredictable. The only reason the Wyvern didn't eat all those bodies in the throne room was because it had no internal system to digest them."
He crossed his arms and smirked. "Well, at least those things aren't real, yeah?"
Quilliene's expression grew dark but she quickly moved on. "Next off, there is a terrorist going about called the England Ignitionist. They are blowing things up at random - no patterns around it. Except," She took a map and pointed. There were places marked with letters above them. "Each of them starts with a letter. Those letters spell Artya."
"And?" Neo urged when she went quiet.
"And," She continued. "Artya was a small company that made books. They shut down. One of the places attacked was called First Station. The clue is obvious - we go to the first warehouse built by Artya."
He seemed to think, then nodded. "Great. So we tell the bobby and they take care of it."
Quilliene frowned. "Do you not remember what I said? I said, I will tear out their heart and turn them to dust. That is what I will do. I am doing this."
"What?!" Neo shouted. "You can't possibly-"
"And you are coming with me," She continued.
He struggled for words momentarily. "Liene, you're a queen. You can't possibly expect to be allowed to go chasing not just a murderer, but a fucking terrorist? Are you mentally insane?!"
Quilliene squinted, throwing the paper back on the board. "How dare you insult your queen as such? I could have you put to death for that."
"You're putting us both to death by having us go after this guy!" Neo yelled, stepping forward.
"I saw how well you fight, and your powers!" She continued in the sharp tone, pacing towards him. "You can handle it. My magick is more powerful than anyone's in the world. I will be fine, and so will you!"
"I am not going on a hunch!" He shouted. "How do you even know this is the right person?!"
"It is a feeling!" Quilliene returned, stepping towards him quickly. "A hunch, if you will! I know they are the one, because why else would they leave such a clue on purpose?!"
"So it's a trap? You can't expect everyone to just let you walk into a-!"
Neo paused. For some reason, he found how close she was right then to be… strange. She was centimetres from his chest, and his nose could have been touching hers if she was taller or maybe he was shorter. He felt his face heat up rather quickly as he stepped back, and he saw her cheeks gain a bit of blood while she turned around. She had apparently noticed as well.
"You will come with me," Quilliene said sharply. "And you will tell no one of what our plans are. Do you understand, Neo?"
He grit his teeth, the embarrassment quickly turning to anger. With a huff, he simply answered, "Whatever."
"Whatever, your…?" She urged, glancing at him coldly.
Neo glared. "Get some sleep," He hissed.
Turning on his heel, Neo grabbed the door handle and slammed it shut behind him loudly. Quilliene seethed quietly, scowling at the entrance before turning to the tack board. Slipping it off her bed, she slid it under her mattress, finding herself… angry. Alas, also confused. Why had she gotten so close to him, and how had she not noticed sooner?
Just to emphasise, She thought while gritting her teeth. It was nothing. Nothing… so why are my cheeks so warm?