Oop, and I forgot to add this when I first published it lmao, but-

__curiosity__ made a lovely phone background based on a Kit Pouliot quote from the previous chapter, and it's so good and I'm so warm and giddy about it, again, thank you so much <3

'Curiosities'

Friday

11:43 AM

Scene I

SUNNY FINCH IS NOT A GOOD HIDER. So Kit, sighing haggardly because Marigold Duplin is approaching- her timetable was impeccable as if she hadn't stopped following through it for three months - and he sends one, quick final text that Kit, watching intently at the girl hiding behind the bush, sees she actually follows through.

Sunny reads it, blinks, then stops trying to hide conspicuously. She sits a little straighter and pulls out a pen; flipped a page and began scribbling.

At least this way, he thinks, she looks busy.

"I don't remember."

Kit looks up and sure enough, Marigold Duplin is smiling down on him. Dark hair, pearls, and a perfectly placed grin. Not a hair out of place, not a wit misplaced.

Kit almost sighs as they meet eyes, but he offers the seat next to him and asks, "All of your past or just the three months?"

"You don't beat around the bush."

"What would that get me?"

"Everyone else is." She sighs. She is sat primly, her posture erect and perfect, but something about her demeanor felt different. Older. "It's a polite cocktail of pity, curiosity, and fear. Either of me, my mother, or the possible reality a three month amnesia could mean."

"No one thinks it's a lie, huh?"

Marigold smiles and looks at him. Properly. "Do you think it's a lie, Kit?"

Kit copies her smile. "I have no idea."

"Why would I lie?"

"I have no idea either."

Her smile widens. "So this is about Sunny." She turns her head forward, zeroing on his best friend with her notebook on her lap, scribbling away furiously. Her mess of a hair has waterfall-ed over her forehead, spilling on her lap and notebook. "What is she doing all the way over there?"

"I have no idea." The lie is crisp but he delivers it effortlessly. 

Marigold snorts. "Now that's a lie if I ever heard of it. Unless you two had a fight. Did you two have a fight?"

"You didn't answer my question first. But since you clearly know who I am and who Sunny is, it means you've only lost your memories of the past three months."

"Just the three," she admits. "I remember driving somewhere. Why or where I was going, I don't know. I woke up, three months later at a hospital out in Alberta. Apparently, I had no withstanding bruises or maladies but I also had no recollection of what happened in the apparent three months. The doctors said I stumbled upon a clinic just a small town north of the main city. The morning nurse saw me, walking wobbly, and asked if I was alright. Then I passed out."

She turns to him again, fully. Familiar brown skin, familiar brown eyes, familiar pinkish colored lipstick. But there is something different Kit can't pinpoint.

"And now I'm here, back in Phryne Touk, back in school. My mother wanted me to wait a couple more weeks, but it's not like there's anything physically or mentally wrong with me. I just don't remember, that's all. And forgetting isn't a big illness, is it? Does that answer your curiosities, Pouliot?"

Kit nods, standing up. "Prenez soin de vous. Pouvez-vous garder un secret?"

Marigold smiles. "Ce sera notre petit secret."

"Thank you."

Her hand stretches, as if to grab him, but stutters and folds back on her lap. "Wait." She clears her throat. "What is it that she wants?"

"What do you mean?"

"Her," Marigold nods at Sunny. "Asking about this?"

Kit sighs. "What else? Curiosity. Boredom. She thinks you're a breakthrough."

"A breakthrough to what?"

"Something fascinating."

When Marigold laughs, a surprised sound, that's when Kit realises what's different about her. "Sorry to disappoint her then. But the next time you come asking questions, she should ask me directly. I don't think Sunny's ever asked me for anything."

"She's too shy. I'll see you."

"Goodbye, Kit Pouliot."

Kit walks up to Sunny, nodding his head, almost too quickly, mechanically. Sunny scrambles to pick her things while Kit swoops down and takes her bag, taking the things she had gathered and shoving them inside.

"What is it?" Sunny whispers, staring at Kit intently. "You found something, you did. It's written all over your face."

"It's nothing substantial."

"Tell me."

Kit is hesitating, unable to grasp the right words. "She sounds... tired. Which could just be because of the circus of it all, losing three months worth of memories."

"... but you don't think that."

"It's like she's hollow." Kit doesn't realise it, but he's picking up the pace, forcing Sunny to half-run to match him. Without notice by either parties, an unconscious movement on both their parts, Kit throws her bag on one shoulder and grasps her hand in the other. "Like she's just... done."

"Where are we going?" Sunny asks after a while. Lunch is almost over and dark clouds are moving fast and unforgiving. Rain is going to pour soon. Fast and hard. Sunny idly remembers she didn't bring an umbrella but she has a rain coat kept in her Vespa.

"I have no idea," he admits. He didn't like it. The way Marigold had felt. Almost cold, but more... empty. It scattered pins and needles all across his body in a way that made him want to walk away. Made him want to get out of her vicinity. She seemed honest in her story enough... but something is wrong, Kit can feel it gnawing at the back of his throat.

Sunny stares at his face some more. Then nods. "Okay, okay. Let's go wherever your legs take us. But there are no people on the rooftop... and I remember that you still have the key from that time."

Kit grins. Sunny stares at it; it's somewhat of a Kit grin. A wry rather than a normal one. She'll take it.

12:08 PM

Prenez soin de vous. Take care.

Pouvez-vous garder un secret? Can you keep this a secret?

Ce sera notre petit secret. It will be our little secret.