"Your words are contradictory of themselves," Laurance says, a slight chuckle slipping after he speaks. He messes with my hair, rubbing his knuckle against the top of my head. I nearly punched him before I remember that Nekoette and Dimitri are right beside me and impressionable. "And inappropriate."

"You're inappropriate," I retort. My response makes little sense, and it's incredibly irrelevant, but it causes Dante to look down at the children and start a small conversation of his own. It's like he felt as though it was necessary and Laurance had some explaining that he needed to do.

"You're the one who swore in front of children."

I still want to punch him.

I shake my head, dropping my gaze down to my feet. Little tears prick against my eyes, causing the wind to bite harder against my face. Slowly, I'm able to look up at him again and wrap my arms around him in a desperate state.

Laurance doesn't laugh at me. He stands there for a few seconds, frozen in place. I don't know what's going through his head, or what expression is on his face, but I try not to think too much about it. It takes nearly a minute for him to wrap his arms around me one last time.

My emotions are on a roller coaster. Each new hill is a different emotion.

"I missed you. Why didn't you tell me you were leaving? Where did you even go? Was Vylad with you?"

I have too many questions, but he doesn't look like he wants to answer them. He only stares down at me. His gaze is warm, and I'm somehow able to find comfort within it.

"Vylad is back now. He's at the main square. Aphmau had found him, but Dante had found me."

I nod, looking toward the children. The small group of three looks ready to go, and as though they're waiting for Laurance and I to make the first move to leave. Laurance takes this hint and begins to walk through the snow back towards everyone else. I feel a small hand grab onto mine, and I look down to see Nekoette giving me a toothy grin. The corner of Dante's lips curve upwards in a slight smile, holding onto her other hand as we walk.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

"They were gone for weeks," I say, watching my foot sink into the snow.

Kandi walks beside me, little care about the world around us. Nothing is different. And with the trees remaining bare and snow masking the ground, there are little differences between where we were ten minutes ago and where we'll be in twenty minutes.

"Vylad refused to say where exactly they had gone," Kandi admits. Her eyes dart towards me. They don't show much emotion, but the tone in her voice alerts me that she isn't pleased with their actions. Trying to find out information is like pulling out teeth. Eventually, we gave up when Laurance became irritated. Even now, his emotions appear to be easily changed.

"Laurance refused to answer why he left. I gave up on trying to figure out where he went."

She hums. Snow kicks up from her boot, and her foot kicks it forwards in the air. Something within me says to drop this conversation, but she continues it.

"Laurance is avoiding me, so I wouldn't know."

The boys have been back for a few hours now. Reflecting back to when Laurance first saw Kandi, he turned away from her and started a conversation with someone else. That someone else just so happened to be Aphmau, so that most likely irritates Kandi more.

I don't remember the last time Kandi and Aphmau had a conversation where Kandi didn't become annoyed by Aphmau's presence. Frankly, I don't think it's been anytime recently. Even Aphmau gets on my nerves, but I try to tolerate her because of Laurance.

"I just don't understand why he left. Why he felt the need to leave and didn't want to tell anyone that he left," I say. "And if Vylad felt he needed to leave because of Laurance . . . I don't like not knowing."

Kandi nods her head. The conversation doesn't continue much longer. Neither one of us knows what to say, and it's clear the topic has caused some tension within the air. I know it isn't regarding me, but the feeling isn't comforting.

"I was talking to Dante earlier. He told me Aphmau was considering going out after Kenmur and Emmalyn's wedding to look for answers to what's been going on with her lately." There's a scoff within Kandi's voice before she rolls her eyes. "Funny, she claims to care so much about my brother, but she's doing everything but trying to find ways to bring him back. She clearly didn't look for Laurance."

This strikes a pang of hurt within me. The weather is going to lighten up soon. It's towards the end of winter, and it's been months since Garroth stayed behind in the Irene Dimension. I know Kandi is speaking out from her annoyance, but I don't have a response to this.