“Alright, alright,” Crow held up his hands when Penelope brushed him away. “Calm down, I was just checking.” He stopped, realizing that he was speaking rather harshly to the knight. Normally he wouldn’t have cared, but since she wasn’t acting like herself, he was trying to tread lightly around her. He didn’t want to do something stupid and ruin the friendship they had just begun to form. He cleared his throat awkwardly and averted his gaze, “Anyway… You are most certainly [i]not[/i] fine, and I want to know why.” The thief cursed silently. He knew that his words and tone of voice were curt, but he didn’t know how else to speak to the knight at that moment. [i]I really have to get this empathy thing down…[/i]

[color=fff79a][b]“Olivia showing up just threw me off a bit...”[/b][/color] Penelope responded with false confidence. [color=fff79a][b]“You think the king would have informed us of back up.”[/b][/color] Crow stared at her without response. He could tell that she was lying. Twisting the truth was part of his trade; he was an expert at it, so he knew the signs when someone else wasn’t honest with him. Well, that and the amount of time he had spent learning how to read the female knight helped too. Whatever was going on with her, she obviously didn’t want to talk to him about it. He let the subject drop.

[color=fff79a][b]“Well, you must be enjoying her showing up,”[/b][/color] Penelope spoke up again. There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. [color=fff79a][b]“She seems to have taken a liking to you... for some strange reason.”[/b][/color]

“Yeah,” Crow agreed vaguely. He looked over at Olivia. She glanced back at him in the same moment and smiled. He averted his gaze, not wanting to upset Penelope any more than she already was. He still didn’t know what was going on with her, but he wasn’t completely daft. It had something to do with the other knight. He decided not to tell her about Olivia’s physical interest in him, or about their conversation and plans. “She’s a friendly one, alright,” the thief said, attempting to lead Penelope off track. “It’s a nice change from how most other knights talk to me—apart from you, of course, love.” He smiled and leaned in close to her, speaking in a hushed voice. “Don’t tell the others, because they’ll just be jealous, but I like you the best.”