Christine breathed out slowly and followed Keefe she stayed hidden and dared not make a noise. "wow he's hiding a bit of stuff" . She feared she said it out loud but by Keefes expressions she had not.

-

Christine followed Keefe to the woods and stayed low and out of sight. She was amazed at what he was saying. All along she thought rich people had it best now she knew they didnt.

Fiddiling with a piece of grass she wandered whether she should make him aware she was there. He looked like he needed someone to talk too that would listen. But on the other hand he could get really angry at her for earsdropping. She wanted to comfor him but they didnt know eachother. She couldnt hold it any longer, "who cares if he gets angry, means i dont have to marry him if he does" she said softly. Fixing her messy hair she walked out from the tree with a guilty look on her face.

Keefe stared at the sky for a while, slowly plucking at the strings, almost absentmindedly, playing a quiet melody. He had always been treated like dirt at home, painted gold in public, and was just broken inside. He may pretend to be all swagger and confidence, he may talk back, but after 20 years of abuse he was shattered. When he was alone he didn't put on either of his masks. He didn't pretend to be the rich boy that his parents wanted him to be, and he didn't pretend to be the confident man that he wanted to be. He was just.. broken. Useless. And now, when he thought his life couldn't get any worse, his parents were forcing him to marry some person that had as bad of a life as him if he could guess, and then they would both be succumbed to misery for the rest of their life. Sounded great. His head jerked up as there was a Crack in the brush. In one swift motion he put the guitar to the side and stood, putting a hand on his pocket where the hilt of a knife could be seen. As soon as Christine came out he blew out a slow breath and quickly brought his hand away from the knife. "It's just you..." He sounded almost relieved. "Why are you all the way out here?" He asked quickly, standing up a little straighter as if to try and fix himself, put himself back together for the moment. "Aaaand why were you spying on me?" Keefe asked slowly, his gaze flitting around to the woods. They weren't that far from the mansion, so he hoped his parents didn't catch them.As he looked back at her his eyes widened slightly, like he just realized something. "You look great for a tramp through the woods. Don't take that the wrong way." He smiled wrly as he held up a hand before leaning against the tree, genuinely looking curious, though an underlying uncomfortable look showed through. He almost looked nervous.

Christine realised the mess she was in. "ok this time i'm telling the truth as i'm a terribly liar. I ... i.. was. um just trying to work out what type of person you are.." that sounded so wrong but it was out. Christine frowned at his comment but let it pass. "yes i was spying on you, trying to figure out what kind man this aunt of mine is trying to put me with". she frowned again and sat back down pulling her legs underneath her. She could tell he looked uncomfortable and realised it was a stupid desicion to try and spy on him. She sighed and stood up, "i'm sorry, i'll go now". For a split second she thought she saw something in his pocket but didnt think too much of it.

Keefe lifted an eyebrow, but at her explanation he laughed slightly. "Smart. Knowing most rich people, if I were you, I'd have placed video camera in my house already." He grinned with a small shake of his head. It was crazy how the world worked these days. "I really don't blame you. I would've done the same thing." He answered with a slightly amused sounding voice, but it seemed to be covering up something. He glanced at her as she stood, and for a split second emotion flashed through his eyes- loneliness, sadness, even a bit of fear. "You don't have to be sorry- and if you don't want to go you don't have to." He paused. "You can go if you want to, though. You probably want to. It doesn't matter, sorry for keeping you." He mumbled quietly, grabbing his guitar.

Christine smiled and felt a bit more comfortable. She couldnt help laughing when he mentioned the cameras.

"honestly i'd rather stay, i have nothing else to do and I dont want to go back home" she said whincing. She sat back down and fiddled with the ground. She montioned for him to sit. "c'mon sit down" she said in a bossy voice, giggiling. "you play the guitar? what else can you do?"

Keefe paused as she spoke again. He felt like he should leave. Everyone he had ever even remotely cared about had left, so why would Christine be any different? She would just see him as another rich idiot that didn't know how the world worked. He waited for a couple seconds to see if she was joking, which it seemed she wasn't- which was weird- then slowly turned back. "Join the club. I don't want to go back *home* either." He snorted slightly, knowing the mansion wasn't that far away but not caring. Cassius probably wouldn't want to step on, dare he say it, dirt. At her words he hesitated a moment before sitting down a couple feet from her, leaning against a different tree- they were all clustered so tightly around here. At her question he looked amused. "Not much. As you probably heard I suck at singing. I'm pretty good with drums but they are waaay harder to hide than a guitar, and shocker, my father would probably half kill me if he saw me having the slightest bit of joy in my life. I've found I'm not half bad at basketball, buuuut that won't really help me in life. In any case, what specifically were you asking about?" He explained with a small grin. "Aaaand what about you?"

She draw her hand up to her hair and messed with it. It was annoying her, again. She looked towards the forest her dark blue eyes standing from the green trees. "you dont sound too bad, i mean i dont even know how to sing, do you do anything special like are you apart of any special band or something like that? I dont sing, i mean i honestly dont know what i can do havent ever really thought about it." It was more of her Aunt wouldnt let her think about anything she was good, at but Keefe didnt need to know that. She flicked off an ant that had managed to crawl onto her clothes. Looking around she listened to the beauty of nature, the birds singing, the pretty plants trying to grow around bigger ones, it was all just splendid, yes that was the best word she could use to describe this beauty.

"this is such a pretty place, perfect to get away from the horrors of this world" she felt as though she was opening up a bit too much so stopped speaking and enjoyed the sent of forest.

Keefe let out a slow breath, rubbing his sleeve covered arm absentmindedly. At her words he arched an eyebrow. "That's hilarious. I don't know how I don't sound bad, but I'll take your word for it- thanks." He half joked, then tilted his head. "My *beloved* father would NEVER let me do anything like that. He hates me enough to want me never to have any joy, and he'd be able to know if I joined, or started, some sort of band." He paused, looking at her carefully. "Hm. I'm sure you have a great voice." His tone hinted he wanted to say more, but he kept his mouth shut on the matter. He had seen her aunt. He could tell a little what her life was like, much like his own. He knew she probably just didn't try anything. Buuut he wasn't going to say that. Keefe leaned his head back against the tree and stared at the sky for a couple moments, silent, thinking about ... things. As she spoke quietly he had a feeling she hadn't meant to say it, but he nodded anyway. "I guess that is an upside of living on a lot of land. You can escape for a while... but not too long. My father would find me. He always does." He smiled sadly, staring at the green trees, his ice blue eyes fixated for the moment. "At least you can run away, if you wanted to badly enough. Your aunt may look for you, but she wouldn't be able to find you if you hid. I can never leave. Never hide." He dropped his head to his chest as he mumbled under his breath, too low he thought she didn't hear, his gaze flicking to the earth.

Christine sighed, "sounds like my Aunt she's always trying to ruin the fun out of everything for me, I didnt realise how hard it is for you, i'm sorry you have to go through that". she paused and caught her breathe "have you ever tried running away? maybe you should...". "You could run away now" fearing she overstepped a boundary she stopped talking and looked towards Keefe. He looked so sad and miserable. She wanted to help but she didnt know how. "if you do need anything, i'm happy to help, i'm a queen at escaping" she giggled and looked toward a bird that had perched on a nearby tree. Its blue wings shinning in the afternoon sun. If only she was a bird everything would be normal.

Keefe snorted. "Yeaaah. Sorry for that. And don't feel bad for me. You have to go through most of the same stuff, I'm guessing." He answered quietly, running a hand through his hair at her question. "Uhmmmm.." He trailed off as she continued. His gaze darkened just slightly. Not angrily. Sadly. "I can't. If I even tried to leave my Father would pretty much buy the entire army and have them all searching for me. There'd me a nation wide man hunt within hours, and I can't hide from all of them." He mumbled quietly. "It sucks being rich." He shook his head slightly before looking at her. "Good thing you're good at escaping. I can never escape." He laughed drily before looking up at the sky. "I'm sorry for dumping all my worries on you- you have enough of your own." Keefe offered a weak smile. "So, well, if you want to leave because nowwww I'm being weird that's fine." He grinned a little, though it was half hearted.