Keeping Things Hidden {Tulio}

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Chel burst into the room that wasn't technically hers. She sprinted across the floor, her feet barely touching the ground. Well, actually, her feet barely touched the various bits of clothing that covered the floor, which were an eclectic mix of women's and men's wear. She nearly slid on what she was pretty sure was a skirt (though she wouldn't put it past any men who lived there to be wearing kilts if the situation called for it) as she rounded a corner. The resulting slide made her collide with a counter, which made a vase that she was pretty sure belonged to Henry wobble for a few moments. Chel paused to steady it, taking several deep breaths as she stared. Another deeper one, and she took a step back.

It was around this time that the shouting in the hallway grew in volume. It was hard to make out exactly what they were saying, but a few key words stood out: "she" "went" "that" "way," along with "pretty girl," and "thief."

"Well, at least they got a few things right," murmured Chel. She looked around the floor, considering. Maybe if she threw on a pair of pants they wouldn't notice? Guys were a little... what's the word... unobservant. Or really observant, when it came to Chel. She subconsciously adjusted her top, which certainly wouldn't allow for that one key mistaken identity.

An idea struck, and she snapped her fingers. "Always works. Well, the opposite's worked, so this should work. Probably," she looked toward Tulio's bed. The noises were getting louder, and Chel decided to take the chance. She dove into Tulio's bed, shimmying under the covers with entirely too much practice, soon becoming little more than a lumpy shape.

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It was around eleven in the morning on a Saturday, which was far too early to be awake in Tulio’s mind, but when nature calls you have to answer. Clad in a pair of boxers and intending to go right back to bed, he walked out of the bathroom just as three strange men burst into his room. For a moment they all just stared at each other.

“Where is she?” one of the boys demanded causing Tulio to raise his eyebrows.

“Who are you again?” he asked, but these guys were having none of it.

“We saw her run in here, the little thief,” one of the others said. Ah, well, that explained a few things. Luckily Tulio was used to rolling with the punches so it didn’t take him long to click in and play cover up.

“I think you have the wrong dorm. The girl’s dorm is just right across the courtyard if you’d...”

“We know she’s here,” the first guy spoke again, though he didn’t sound as certain as the words suggested.

“Does it look like there’s a girl here?” Tulio asked as if that was a preposterous idea.

The third guy, who had been silent this whole time, chose that opportunity to speak, and oh how Tulio loathed him for it. “I ‘spose this is yours?” he held up a rather frilly, rather colourful skirt. Tulio looked at it, then to each of the men in turn before sticking his pronounced nose into the air and sniffing indignantly.

“I like the feeling of freedom it gives me.”

None of them appeared impressed with this answer.

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Despite Chel's best efforts, she found herself giggling under the sheets. Her hand was up to smother the noise, and she was a bit of a quiet giggler anyway. Mostly. But that didn't stop her from shaking slightly. She had to hand it to Tulio: he knew how to roll with the punches. His reasoning made sense for the most part. You know, right up to the part where he mentioned the skirt.

Chel sighed, running her hand up her forehead, jerking back some black locks. What option did she have now? She looked around, not seeing much under the sheets. Wait, that was a shirt, likely Tulio's. Thankfully, none of the El Dorado trio were exactly known for their cleanliness. Which likely meant that the shirt smelled of stinky man. Oh well, better than nothing. Chel stretched, snatching it and pulling it in. There was a lot of movement while she shifted, jerking her hair up and tucking it away. Soon, she was rolling out of the bed and yawning.

And wearing nothing but Tulio's shirt.

"What is it, honey?" she drawled, walking up slowly. She came up to Tulio and smiled lazily at the people gathered. "Hey, you just woke me up. I was exhausted after last night," her eyes flicked to Tulio, and then back to the gathered group, hoping this worked.

Well, they were stunned if nothing else. that was progress.

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The giggling was audible in the following silence and all four males present turned their heads toward the bed and stared. The bed was moving or, rather, the sheets covering the bed were moving. None of the boys spoke, but Tulio’s eyes got progressively larger while those of the other three boys narrowed just the same amount. Then Chel rolled out of bed in nothing but a man’s shirt and all four gaped at her. Before long she was calling Tulio honey and insinuating things that had happened in his dreams had really happened and he was left with a goofy grin and an almost giggle.

“So, um, clearly I was lying about the skirt,” he felt the need to point out, just in case any of them had bought his stellar cover up.

“She, uh... you, er... thief!” one boy managed to so eloquently say, pointing a shaky finger at Chel.

“Thief? Her?” Tulio feigned shock. Throwing an arm around Chel’s shoulders he caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Look at this face! Does this look like the face of a thief to you?”

Maybe not the best question to ask. Moving on!

“Besides, she was here. All night. With me,” he pointed out, looking rather smug about it too. “You know how it is.” Pfft, these losers probably had no idea.

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"He does need a lot of room there. You know," Chel wiggled a finger in the general area indicated, "that area. Lots of room."

She practically purred the words. At the least, they'd thrown their, okay, her accusers off balance for a few moments. the looks on their faces were definitely worth it. Just to make things extra convincing, Chel nearly draped herself around Tulio. She managed something akin to a yawn, then nestled her chin upon his shoulder. He did the defending, while they all looked to her, looking very much like the lynch mob they so closely resembled. Tulio had thrown an arm around her shoulders, then actually lifted up her chin, displaying her. Fulfilling her part, Chel widened her eyes and stuck her lip out a little.

"Yep," she said, sliding an arm around his waist now, "all night, and then some. Just got up," she yawned again, raising her free hand to pat at her lips. One eye went to the guys, who looked skeptical, but not quite willing enough.

"It was probably another dangerously attractive girl running through the boys' dorms. You know how many of those there are," she said, waving a hand dismissively.

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It was as if the three boys all shared one brain as they are all moving as one. Their eyes followed all of Chel’s movements from her hand to the general area of Tulio’s anatomy that she was indicating and back up to the couple’s faces. It was getting difficult not to laugh at them, though having Chel suddenly draped all over him kind of helped with the not laughing.

Also almost laughable was her ‘innocent’ face. Sure, anyone who didn’t know her might have bought it, but she was just built for naughtiness and sin. Lots of it. A whole night of it, and then some.

These thoughts were making Tulio wish he was wearing a little more than a flimsy pair of boxers right about now.

Overall, though, he thought they were putting on a good show and they almost had the boys believing them... until Chel had to go and say that last bit about scads of attractive girls running around the boys dorm and blow the whole thing out of the water. Tulio let out a nervous laugh.

“Loads of them, it’s ridiculous,” he replied, dropping his hand to Chel’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “But not this one cause she was busy. With all the sex that we were having. Now if you’ll excuse us and continue your search elsewhere we’d like to get back to it. The sex, not the search. And I’m sure we can trust you gentlemen to keep this to yourselves. You know how the faculty is about stuff like this.”

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"So many sexy women," agreed Chel, waving a hand. "Not here though. Just us. Having lots of sex. with his big, well, you know," Chel said, holding out her hands and widening their eyes. While the searchers might have been quite determined, and likely still more than a little suspicious, Tulio and Chel's combined efforts were creating something of a zone of discomfort. It wasn't too far from accidentally walking in on your parents, to be wholly honest. They were already mumbling excuses and backing away. A couple were giving Chel appraising looks, and Chel thought she caught one giving him a thumbs up.

Soon enough, they were away, and Chel was pulling the door shut. The moment it clicked into place, she let out a giant woosh of breath. Then came the giggles, then some jumping up and down. "That was great!" she finally finished. Without thinking, she threw her arms around Tulio, hopped up onto her toes, and planted a kiss on his cheek. She held the position for several seconds, before realizing precisely what she was doing and how she was situated.

Talk about a zone of discomfort.

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Whether the boys actually believed their show or not Tulio wasn’t sure; it was likely things had just gotten so awkward that they were willing to lose whatever Chel had stolen just to get away. Either way, the end result was all that mattered, and that result was that the boys left.

Tulio’s giant woosh of breath was synchronized with Chel’s, though the comparison stopped there. He most certainly did not giggle and jump up and down, though he did much enjoy watching her partake in these activities, particularly the jumping. Then suddenly she had her arms around him again and there was kissing. Alright, so it was just a kiss on the cheek, but it was a lingering one and Tulio wasn’t sure how he was supposed to react to this, especially when she suddenly froze, still pressed against him, as if she’d suddenly realised maybe this wasn’t the best course of action to take.

“Yes, well, we always did make a good team,” he muttered, still unsure what to do with his hands. He settled on giving Chel an awkward pat on the back. Because ‘awkward’ was the word of the day, apparently. Even his words felt awkward. couldn’t he have thought of something much cooler to say? Something smooth or witty or... something other that what he’d said? But it was just so hard to think of anything other than how good she smelled and how she obviously wasn’t wearing much of anything under his shirt as she pressed up against him.

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Thankfully, if it was one thing Chel was good at, it was plowing through uncomfortable situations in a manner that embarrassed everyone around her. "Of course we do," she purred, swinging a hip to nudge Tulio's. She giggled again, turning and prancing a few steps further into the room. Her hair swayed behind her, and she reached up to make sure it stayed more or less in place.

"I don't know if they actually bought it though. It was more like they didn't want to stick around to see if all my bragging about you was true," she blew a kiss over her shoulder, before turning. Within moments, she was plopping onto a chair, sprawling in a manner that looked far too comfortable. She also happened to do so with a knack for not revealing anything, despite her current clothing situation. She looked almost to still be in motion, as though the success of what they'd managed was fueling her.

"It's not like I stole their precious family heirlooms or something," she said, again waving a dismissive hand. "I'm not even sure what I nicked from that bunch. Say," she leaned back to look at Tulio in an upside down fashion, her hair hitting the floor, "did you hear about that huge army thing? What are we gonna do about that?"

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Tulio let out a deep breath when Chel danced away, giving him some much needed space. Still, the urge to follow her and run his hands through that long, silky hair of hers was almost too much to resist. Almost. His hands twitching at his sides, he resisted the urge to just go crawl back in bed and pull the covers up over his head. She would probably only take that as an invite, and he wasn’t sure he had the willpower to stop her if she did. Then things would get complicated, and he hated complicated.

Right, because things were just so simple now.

“Well, if people are going to talk about me, I can think of worse things for them to say,” Tulio replied, deciding a seat in the chair opposite Chel’s was his safest bet. He tried to throw himself casually in it and look every bit as relaxed as her. Nobody could ever look as relaxed as her. “Whatever you took it couldn’t have been too important if they gave up, though maybe you should be a little more selective and careful next time.”

Not that he was admonishing her, but she seemed to take the ‘snatch and run’ approach when it came to thieving, it was how they had first met. He had hoped she had learned to be a little sneakier by now, but apparently not.

“We? Aren’t going to do anything. I’m perfectly happy to just stay out of the way.”

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"Mm, maybe I should make sure they do," teased Chel, chuckling darkly. She knew the power of rumor all too well, and also happened to know her share of Tulio's secrets. She would quite possibly reveal them as well, given a decent enough reason to do so. Part of her still firmly believed that Tulio deserved it, and much worse.

Chel shrugged. "That was my plan," she admitted, "and then they were all like 'if you've got skills in espionage and stuff.' Just made me think was all. I kind of like it here," she looked around for a moment, before her gaze settled upon a window. She really didn't like the idea of actually doing any fighting, nor did she think that either of them was really worth it. In fact, she was seriously considering just making a dash for it. Not like she had dozens of people keeping her here.

Really, it was just the one.

"I'm just surprised you don't have some brilliant plan for taking advantage of the situation, that's all," she said, looking down at her nails as though they were the most interesting thing in the world.

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Skills in espionage? Well, there was that, but while Tulio was good at the whole conning racket, the best part about it for him was that he did it for himself. He didn’t have to answer to anyone, didn’t have to worry about anyone else but him and his partners, so why would he want to throw his lot in with anyone here against an attacking army? He definitely didn’t care that much about this place.

“Alright, you want a plan?” he asked. Staring up at the ceiling, he tapped his hands rhythmically on his chest while he gave it a thought. “How about this. We wait out the first wave and once all the heroic princely types mount up and march out...well, that leaves all their riches behind, ripe for the taking. If ever there was a time to rob anyone, that’s it.”

Sounded like a brilliant plan to him. They could load up on all the gold and jewels they could find and hightail it out of here before anyone even knew anything was missing.

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"See, that's what I'm talking about!" said Chel. She followed that up with a decidedly girlish giggle, kicking her legs a few times. She could really see the two of them plundering and pillaging the empty dorm rooms while all the brave hero types were out doing the brave hero thing. Even better: it was something that Tulio thought up, which meant that if she said it was good, he'd be obligated to take her along. Not that she was looking for a reason to spend more time with Tulio. And so what if she was? They were partners; it totally made sense for them to be hanging out with one another.

Totally.
That was definitely it.

"What's with you and hitting yourself to come up with a plan anyway?" asked Chel, her voice conversational now. She'd moved on from her fingernails to her toes, the joy making her nearly hum between words. "This is actually a good one though. I definitely like it."

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It was impossible not to stare at her legs when she was kicking them like that so Tulio didn’t bother to try to resist. Eyes were drawn to movement and all that, or at least that was his excuse. Legs aside, he was definitely pleased with her reaction. Any ego stroking was good stroking in his book, especially when it came with such enthusiasm. He unconsciously puffed up his chest a little.

“It helps me think,” he replied as if that made all the sense in the world an required no further explanation. In his mind it didn’t, it really was that simple, but exactly why it worked he couldn’t explain.

“So in the meantime I figure we just lay low, offer to do something that keeps us around here, and then strike when the timing is right.” Of course leaving afterwards might be a bit of a problem, but who said they had to go home again? There were plenty of other little towns they could retire to and live of their spoils.

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"I can think of a lot of things that could make you think," retorted Chel. Just to punctuate how very serious she was, she stuck her tongue out at Tulio. It didn't hold for long, fading into a smirk as Tulio outlined the rest of their plan. It certainly did sound like something of a plan. It also sounded... familiar.

Che frowned, she turned to look at Tulio, pointing, "Didn't you tell Miguel to lay low back in El Dorado?" she asked, figuring this needed to pointed out sooner rather than later. "Because that clearly worked out."

Not that Miguel had exactly made himself known lately. In fact, Chel couldn't recall actually seeing him since she'd gotten here, and that had been, what, months ago now? Tulio had insisted that Miguel was around, but Chel was really starting to get the idea that the blonde had wandered off again. She loved the guy like a brother, but he had the attention span of a five year old.

Which might have been why they'd gotten into trouble. But who's to say they couldn't now, even without Miguel in the picture? Chel really didn't want to think about it, that was for sure...