Gu Ning jumped at the sound of Barto's voice. Her first instinct was to duck and hide, to find some hole to crawl into.
Seeing Barto here was like seeing a ghost.
Philinos held her still.
Gu Ning struggled on the Little Fairy Bird's lap for a few moments. Finding nowhere to hide, she simply buried her face in his chest, silently chanting, 'He can't see me, he can't see me.'
Barto took a deep breath, smelling the mingled scents of Gu Ning and Philinos all over each other. Through clenched teeth, he ground out, "Get out of there!"
Philinos said, "We have things to do. We're leaving."
As he spoke, he went to roll up the window.
With a sharp SLAP, Barto slapped a ticket onto their car. "You just try driving away."
Philinos said, "This is Alex's rental car."
"...Hah." Barto grabbed the edge of the car window. "You're the one who was breaking the rules. You can explain it to him yourself."
Philinos said coldly, "I wasn't breaking any traffic laws."
