Ceilie POV.

She had been avoiding Lone since her slip of the tongue. The uncanny thing about just being around him that seemed to grant skills was just a good luck charm for a bit until she, May, and even Aaron talked to each other about their gaining of abilities in the few years around Lone. At first, they all thought it was the group of children and how exceptional their unlocking had been but quickly noticed that these skills only popped onto the system windows when the boy was around.

Lone had been around when she had unlocked

'Mother's Voice' skill which is a skill that will soothe the intended target and make it easier to manipulate. the ability plus was that there is a greater efficiency on younger or lower level targets by 10%. Intelligence/wisdom stats above your charisma by a certain percent will be immune

Getting the skill was a good benefit when dealing with the kids, especially Malcolm. The boy was a little jerk when he was younger, but now that he was ten and her skill could fully affect him. It was like having an obedient puppy waiting to fetch something on her command. If only it worked on the under ten kids as well. System restrictions were a drawback when the children were unaffected by the skill that would most help when dealing with them. The funny thing was that it felt different when she was around Lone, she felt something every time she used it on him, as if it was working a little but at the same time resisted, which was impossible by all common sense. First, he was under ten, and that was a wall that mental skills rarely breached. Although some special ones got through like 'lullaby', that was a resting skill that sped up healing and recovery as the user made music or sang any tune, but those healing skills were about the only thing that got through. Any mental trick or attacks were canceled for anyone under ten. Those were the facts. It wasn't like you'd need them for children anyway. Scaring them or tricking them was easy, so why bother.

She had been avoiding Lone by using her 'silent step' to walk around the church and keep an ear on the kids' conversation. She listened as her ears flicked at every note about Lone's excursion outside the gate.

'He's lying about something? What is it, though? Is it about the guard or the fact he was able to see the Eastgate?' She thought

The food was done, and it was the boy's turn to do the dishes so the girls could bathe first before bedtime. Ceilie decided to wait till the boys went to bed so she could have the tub to herself, making sure she heard May say, "Get to sleep or I'll get you to sleep the easy way!" Signaling that if they didn't stay in their rooms, they would have a sore bottom in the morning. Finally, she could relax, knowing that Lone won't be interrogating her about his weird skill boosting activating ability. It wasn't bad that he found out about it... necessarily. It was that it was decided that he wouldn't be told about it until he was older and more could be confirmed about it. She just didn't want to be the one that spilled the beans.

'Well, that bird is out of the nest.' She thought

She took a wash cloth, dipping it in the water, wiping the back of her neck, rubbing it down her clavicle stopping just between her two favorite assets. The water was hot enough to steam the room earlier but had cooled to just the perfect temperature, making it a very relaxing bath. She stretched out her legs and back in the large tub, feeling her hair spread out in the water, floating out in all directions. The churches soap potion smelt of flowers. She had got this version just for herself the last time the churches merchant came to post town. Something acted as her own guilty pleasure. One thing about being a cat eared person was that they could smell you yes but it was hard to smell themselves and that drove a fear in most beast kindred women the fear of being the smelly person in what ever group they were in. On the other hand though the men kindred were liked for there more natural sent and most didn't mind a natural woman ether it was just that in mixed race couples girls would be more conscious of it and it trended in the human and beast capitals.

Back to her main problem, maybe she could curve the damage a bit, or she could avoid him till he asked May or Aaron about it.

"Lone! Hurry up and get clean! I don't wanna be up all night." May called

"Yeah, I'm done with the pot, I'm going. I'm going." Lone replied, sounding from just outside the door to the bathroom

Panic ran through Ceilie as she realized what she heard. The situation drastically against her favor. This being the most unfortunate outcome. She got up looking for her dry towel.

'Why!?! How is this happening now? Wait... why am I afraid of a child? It's not like he can punish me for something. And! it's not like i can't just tell him to,' her brain froze as the door opened.

There stood the kid that was on her mind for the last couple of hours. He glanced at her, looked down to adjusting his towel, and then his head shot up eyes wide, clearly not ready for the surprise in front of him. His eyes were meeting hers, trying to get into the right state of mind. Finally, he said, "Didn't think I'd literally catch you with your pants down."

'How is this little shit like this in front of a naked woman?'

Lone's POV

Lone had formed a sentence with his mouth but wasn't sure how to continue from there. The nun in front of him was standing naked in the bath, and if he had to describe her, she was a stunning woman. Yes she was pretty in the face, but her body was fit and... balanced. The one thing that kept him from making a fool of himself was that even if she was this distractingly beautiful, she still felt just a bit young for his personal taste. He had most of his memories back, but he didn't remember his name, race, or age, but he felt older than her... mentally, at least.

She sat down quickly, covering her chest with her arms, her face red with embarrassment, which looked kind of cute to him. She glared at him with deep green eyes through her darkened wet hair.

"Hey brat! Enough! Get out or I'm gonna give your bottom bright purple hand prints!" She said grinding her teeth obviously trying to keep quiet.

He realized that she didn't what to bring May into the bathroom for some reason, which brought on a devious smile to his lips. Ceilie saw his change and bared her teeth which was very intense if he didn't know that she was the cornered mouse in this situation. Seeing his undeterred face she doubled down and her ears flicked back like a cat hissing. This gave Lone an idea he wasn't sure would come across but it tickled his funny bone so it didn't matter if he was the only one to get the joke. He raised his eyebrow, cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy and crouched down and in a very cat lover way said "Psss pss psss ppssss"

The next moment he was dodging a wet cloth thrown with super human strength. Ceilie was well-known to be a high leveled nun for her age and her base stats made her stronger than any average men from the old world but the addition of magic gave her more bang for her buck emphasized by the wash cloth denting wood wall behind him.

"Whoa there! You don't have to go full power over a bad joke. What if you brake the gold mine you value so much. I don't even know about it and your going to take my future from me like that." He said in a half teasing half serious tone looking to see if she was grabbing more ammunition to throw his way. He saw that she had a bottle in her hand raised over her head, ready to throw, paused as if thinking if it was worth wasting her scented potion. He knew how much she spent on it and how long she'd have to wait for the next church merchant to come through. He'd guessed that it was somewhat his luck that put that in her hand rather than something less valuable.

"So does this mean you'll tell me about this skill mine I am or whatever?" He said

Her ears flicked, and she said, "What gave you that idea? I could just have your punishment extended and call it a day."

"Yeah, but you seem to not want the other two to get involved. So..."

Her face was redder now than when she dropped herself into the water. Then she said, "You don't act your age, you know? It's spooky how you talk sometimes. Like you know how some things work but ask dumb questions about stuff most adults know and then you find those things interesting. Your not some kind of monster are you?" She asked almost seriously.

"What do you want me to say? I like what I like. As for how I talk maybe I just have a wisdom based skill waiting for me. Not much else I can do about it unless you want me to baby talk you." He had planned for these questions coming up with the most simple answers. He knew he wasn't much of a method actor so he new he'd have to explain in away that didn't sound so farfetched and was basically true.

"See! Your seven! How is it that you just have that kind of response off the tip of your tongue. Your weird!" Ceilie let out.

Did he misjudge his response? Did Lone over compensate with quick witted answers? He was never good at mind games, in the old world and this one he felt the same. Finally he snapped.

"Jeez! All I what to know is about me! I don't know why you get to decide what I should or shouldn't know about myself! Your acting like it's the end of the world if I know. Just tell me about me. How hard is that?" He finished, out of breath and huffing.

Ceilie was now sitting silent her ears back looking at the surface of the water, trying to decide something.

She faced Lone looking him in the eye then said "Fine. It's not like you haven't guessed most of it yourself anyway. Can you bring me the wash cloth before you clime in, I want to cover up a little bit before I start spilling everything I know."

Lone was a little dumbfounded by the 180° she had in her tone.

'Really? That's it?' He thought.