Pinkgothic played:

Azur and Leonard Spigots

"Azur?"

The ecomancer pried his eyes open only with reluctance at the sound of Leonard's voice. The last thing he needed to deal with now was some new social disaster in a group already straining to hold together. "What?" He inched a bitter, introspective glance reluctantly over to Leonard, own hands flexing on the bulwark.

Leonard's expression came as a surprise; no discontent or anger was visible in it. Instead, concern seemed to dominate its features, and a strange flavour of caution that Azur couldn't quite place. An awkward silence rested between them for a moment. "You okay?"

The question caught him off guard. For a moment, he felt genuinely relieved - then dipped in a caution of his own. Lenny didn't chit-chat - at least not with him. A subtle tension wound itself up his shape, and with wariness colouring his tone, Azur responded: "She may not have been much to any of you, but she was my guide - and she died because I was paying attention to the wrong people." A pause. "No, I'm not all right." Another pause, followed by a shrug. "But that's not really what you're here for," he observed, a shred of him desperately hoping he wasn't on the wrong track and just being more stand-off-ish than he already was.

"Was, too," Lenny remarked, though without petulance in his tone, matter-of-fact about it. "Not the only thing, though. You have rites of mourning, I wanted to leave you to those. It's rough right now. I'll come back later?"

Azur's interest was piqued, however, and rapidly asserted dominance. "Stay and tell me what's on your mind," he spoke, aware there was a sliver of annoyance in his tone, product of feeling interrupted and slightly manipulated. A part of him argued quietly that latter required an intelligence Leonard did not possess.

Blatant hesitance morphed Leonard's motions into awkward simulacra. He didn't seem all that sure how to proceed. "I found something hidden in my room." Since it was more of a closet space, 'room' was of course a euphemism. On the other hand, so was 'found something' - but that was one part he wasn't going to share, come hell or high water.

Fingers fumbled and tugged something from the depths of one pocket.

Azur's heart stopped.

In Leonard's hand shone the deep blue of the Treasure of Andorus.