" What is it like, out there where they glow? "
"Don't you think setting up a specific time for your so called runaway only limits you?" Ryder asks as she crosses over the shallow creak with just a stretch of her long legs,only looking back over her shoulder after she hears his footsteps halting.
"Is that so?" After a few seconds of critical calculation, Riddle follows the gesture and despite his stature, he does it well enough that Ryder smiles up at him with approval. Although a second later, she realizes she's smiling and stops herself.
"I don't believe I asked for your opinion." He says, grey eyes snapping up almost as if in a challenge, which was ridiculous. Ryder is pretty sure she could take him in a fight any day.
Still, in an act of good sportsmanship,she lifts her hands in surrender then shrugs.
"I'm just giving you food for thought. If you wanted this to be easier on you, giving up the lantern festival is in your best interest."
"The lantern festival is the very reason I'm here in the first place! And as I've said numerous times before, I am not running away. I'm simply..." His voice trails off here, finding words to describe this little endeavour.
"Betraying your dear mother's trust?" Ryder offers with a small grin which Riddle returns with a sharp glare. His cheeks suffusing. He looks ready to yell at her but then he turns away.
"I must get to the festival before my birthday because they only appear on that date after that they're gone until the next year..." Riddle says this with an emotion Ryder instantly flinches away from and she was seconds away from a snarky response when she catches the forlorn look on his face. What exactly about those lanterns matter so much to him? For all she knows, they were just lanterns. Yet, here he was looking as if the very thought of giving them up would end him.
Ryder sighs, shaking her head slightly. She doesn't understand him. And yet...
"...and then you'll go back to your tower before your mother does." When Riddle finally turns to her again, he looks somewhat hopeful more than anything else. Ryder then claps her hands together before flourishing them open theatrically and goes, "Right! Easy enough for a prodigal master thief like me!" She then gives Riddle a playful slap on the back before her signature grin takes over her expression.
"She won't even know you were missing."
