Room 407: Early Monday Afternoon

[thatsamilkshake]

Arthur's room had been empty, and Francine hadn't been especially surprised by that after getting through the entire crazy graduation ceremony more or less intact had left them hoping, then this morning had brought... this morning. Still, she was hoping the knock on the door to Merlin's would produce something besides silence. "They're not here

Comments

[thismaskiwear]

Katchoo had leaned in to put her ear against the door, to no avail, and shook her head. "Nope."

She, however, had no compunction about putting her hand on the doorknob, giving it a twist, and then nudging the door the rest of the way open with her foot. Hadn't been locked; that wasn't much of a surprise either.

And because she could cover the morning's events, the sight of the empty room, and the question of where the hell the guys were all in one succint little syllable: "Damn."

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine was three seconds from losing the stack of dishes into a glorious mess of roast chicken and potatoes and chocolate cake that would make Merlin's carpet smell lovely but probably not improve anybody's mood, which was the point of the exercise, so she nudged the door open and went in to set the food down on Merlin's desk.

"Still 'hunting,' I guess." Now that her hands were free, she could do the air-quotes, though what they were air-quotes for, Francine had only the vaguest guess. She kind of assumed in this case that hunting meant stomping around the woods and punching trees. "I wish..." Sigh.

[thismaskiwear]

Which was what she'd be doing in the same situation; Katchoo moved over and reached out with both hands to take one of Francine's.

"I know, honey," she said quietly. As bad as she felt about the whole thing, she didn't want to let them go, either, and then there was feeling bad about that: it was a recipe tailor-made for a good brood.

[thatsamilkshake]

"I wish I knew what to do for them," was what Francine settled on, squeezing Katchoo's hands with her own. It sounded less selfish than it was.

To distract herself, Francine glanced around at what was left of the room, with Merlin's possessions mostly stripped of it. "I wonder if he packed the Book," she muttered inanely. "If he didn't, he should. Not like I can't buy another."