CHAPTER TWENTY
That night was a blur. Xeno couldn't relax, and fell asleep a full hour later than he usually did (which he, himself thought to be a sign that his consciousness was unravelling).
All he could think of, long into the night, was how badly he had messed things up with Aruda.
Worst of all, he'd timetabled a full two weeks of them being free together, so there would be barely any downtime where she could cool off.
He had texted her a few times, but she didn't pick up her phone at the best of times.
Naturally, she hadn't replied. Not that he was surprised, just.. disappointed?
When he woke up the next day, groggy, he could only think that he and Haiden needed to talk to Mr. Crossley sooner rather than later. He didn't even really remember what the man looked like; he only had a vague recollection of the name.
He composed a text to his Watson; he essentially wanted to convey that he wanted to have a nice, calm, civil conversation with the man. He ended up typing "We need to find Mr. Crossley. TODAY. We need to talk.".
Haiden replied as he was getting into his car.
Clearly more level-headed than him, he wrote back.
"Noted. We're all free at eleven today. Please be nice to him; let me do the talking.
We can meet up for a few minutes beforehand if you want.
I'll see him in the morning, so I'll ask him to come to my office around then. "
This satisfied Xeno, whose anger was sated as he began the drive to the museum.By the time he had almost reached the museum, Xeno realised he had been so lost in his thoughts that he had forgotten to put any music on in the car.
His CDs sat on the deck untouched. He thought about it only for a second, though, as he put on an old Paramore CD.
Coming through the Astronomy entrance, he thought about how lucky he was that he didn't have to walk across the whole museum.
Astronomy was the department that was furthest away from the large wooden doors at the front of Willowheath Museum, and Xeno could drive his Zoe to the back entrance, come in the doors and basically be at his office.
It was a shame that he'd have to fight through traffic at the end of the day, but he thought it was a necessary evil.
For the next two hours, he typed up the basic paperwork the museum made all of his colleagues file.
He had noticed a recent uptick in its amount, noting that he had seen a large increase in the volume of interpersonal "studies" he had been made to do by Mrs. Pepper, no doubt busywork caused by the "sabotage war".
Finally, ten fifty rolled around. He began the long walk to Palaeontology, coming through the astronomy halls.
As he came into the main hall, he noticed Mrs. Pepper giving two very guilty-looking botanists a lecture.
Perhaps they had used the Astronomy-Palaeontology feud to their advantage, or used it as an excuse to slack off entirely.
Or, he hoped, it could be something completely unrelated.
He tried to slip past Mrs. Pepper. Even though she was nice, she had a tendency to make conversation that lasted hours, and that was time Xeno absolutely did not have at that moment.
Luckily, he could get past her without suspicion.
However, when he was going through the opening for the department, he caught her eye.
She gave him a look of suspicion, but then her gaze softened.
He knew she trusted him, even if what he was doing looked suspicious.
The same couldn't be said, however, for the palaeontologists of the department. Every one of them eyed him with a look so accusatory he wondered if he was carrying spray-paint and just didn't know it.
His office was mostly as he had originally remembered it, save for the two extra chairs in front of Haiden's desk. If he hadn't wanted it to feel like an interrogation, he had utterly failed.
Haiden perked up when he saw him, having evidently been lost in thought before. "Hey, he's gonna be here soon." he said, motioning for Xeno to sit down on one of the empty wooden chairs in front of his desk.
"I feel like he'll realise that we're questioning him." he ventured, sitting down in the chair. For bare wood, it was actually surprisingly comfortable. For a brief moment, he considered asking him where he had gotten them.
"I know, but I didn't want him to stand.
I know it's embarrassing, but.." Haiden looked away for a second before looking back at Xeno.
"I think I've said, He's like my work-dad.
He's tough on the outside, but he's nice deep down.
He took me under his wing when I started.
He helped me make friends, and in return I fixed his computer.
And trust me, it needed fixing." Haiden chuckled at that last part before looking back at him.
"Despite that, I've got a Plan B if it goes south. I know you wanted to be here, but when I've asked him about the past before, he's gotten angry."
Before he could ask him what his "Plan B" was, the door swung open.
And there he was.