10 Nothing to See Here...

'Oh, crap.'

Jessie backed away from the door as quietly as she could. Maybe if she stayed silent and pretended no one was home, her cousin would go away.

"Open up, cuz," the male teenager's annoyed voice came through muffled by the door. "You know I'm a 4th Rank Cultivator. I could hear you breathing on the other side. Just let me in and we could have a talk."

A few seconds ticked by and Jessie remained motionless. An exasperated sigh expounded from Adrien and he continued. "No one knows I'm here and I'm alone, alright? I just knew that this was the first place you'd go to after that kerfuffle last night."

"Kerfuffle? It was a shitstorm."

The one-liner exited Jessie's mouth before she realized it. She did a mental facepalm and groan before rolling her eyes at herself. Damn her impulsive wit.

"I stand corrected." The exasperated annoyance was still there in his voice, but it was lightened. "Now come on, let me in. I promise to make it worth your while."

Jessie fumed and went to unlock the door to reveal the straight-laced face of her cousin standing in the doorway.

He strolled inside the apartment without even a glance at his cousin. He was definitely Lucinda elda Diamante's son. All the trappings of a noble, but no real class, Jessie mused to herself with a tight lip.

Adrien's attention was more focused on the apartment itself as he moved past the half-wall to sit down on the couch in the living room. "There really should be more privacy measures put in to avoid cultivators from listening to their neighbors, but I guess that's what you get for a place in the slums."

Jessie rolled her eyes at that one while locking up the door again before finding a seat in the same chair she was in last night. "This is an alright enough neighborhood. It's not like they raised livestock in the back. But then a pig like you showing up could really bring down the market value."

"Ah," Adrien smiled as he scratched the chin of Idvys, his cat still sitting on his shoulders. "Definitely not going to miss that tongue of your's at the dinner parties, cousin."

Seeing his smug face was really starting to screwing with Jessie's good mood. She had just finished refining a Furnace Komodo! One of the Raede's lost secrets! And now this jerk had to show up and ruin her day.

She missed the days when they were younger. They were friends. He was a crybaby then, but at least, he was still nice.

The purple-maned girl leaned in from the back of her seat and put elbows to her knees. "What do you want, Adrien? Your mom can't be too happy with me right now and you suddenly showing up doesn't exactly make me feel easy," she said bluntly.

Something that she had learned from Mel. When it comes to talking to people you don't like and don't have a particular need for, just cut through the bullshit and go straight to the point. Makes life easier for both parties.

Her cousin put his hand down from his cat to his lap and gave Jessie a nonchalant shrug. "I'm here to honestly do you a favor, Jessaphel.

"Like you said, my mother is not happy with you. And neither is the Garrin family, I have to add. The way I see it, you have few options. Go back to the family now and take your much deserved lumps or wait for Great Grandfather to get back to bail you out."

Jessie scowled. "What if I don't like either of those options? What if I was to run away all together and give a big 'fuck you' to the whole Diamantes?"

In truth, she was just going to wait for Great Grandfather to come back and help her resolve the sudden betrothal problem, but seeing Adrien's face and the way he phrased it got under her skin. She had just said all that running away thing just to be obstinate.

"I knew you would say something like that," Adrien's smile grew wide as he looked at the frowning Idvys's face. "I told you."

Then he went back to addressing the girl in front of him. "The Jessaphel elda Diamante I know is too stubborn and headstrong to bow down or wait for someone to rescue her like a damsel in distress. So I got a proposition for you."

He sat back up straight. "I've been making some investments here and there around the provinces -- you know, something to help build up the Diamante family instead of just wasting the money away like a wastrel. I got a place in Coldspark City that you could use. It's out the way near the edge of the territories so no one would know you out there. And it's all in one of my many shell companies' purchases, so the chances of my mother finding you through me is virtually nonexistent. You can run far, far away and no one will be able to find you. Except for me, of course, but I could give less than a care about you."

Jessie's face turned blank. It was a tempting offer. Coldspark City was one of the last cities out before the wild frontier of the uninhabited parts of Tyraede. If she wanted to get away, it would definitely to be near a place where the adventuring lifestyle is happening. Plus, her penniless self would have a place to squat at until she could get on her feet. With what she knew of Adrien too, if he said that he wouldn't tell the family where she was, he would not. Her cousin might be smug, arrogant, entitled, narcissistic, selfish, rude, headstrong... Wait, she's getting off topic here. He might be all those things and much -- *much* more -- but he's honest. If Adrien says that her secret spot would be safe with him, it would be.

It is a tempting offer, but...

Jessie's eyes narrowed as she pursed her lips. "What's the catch?"