The cabin was very small, and it made Salvar uncomfortable.
On top of that, in less than a second when a gun appeared from behind Silas's coat with the practiced ease of someone for whom carrying one was as automatic as breathing.
It pointed at Salvar's head.
Salvar looked at it, speechless. His instict kicked in and before he knew, he twisted Silas's wrist inward, the specific angle that made holding anything impossible regardless of how strong you were, and the gun transferred from one hand to the other with a clean efficiency that took approximately two seconds and required no commentary.
Silas's expression did something, well, if raising eyebrows are counted as expression.
Salvar looked at the gun in his own hand and then at the toilet.
He wasted no time, and took the immediate decision.
He dropped the gun in it and watch it sank to the bottom with no drama whatsoever.
Just sitting there, fully visible, fully wet and fully retrievable by anyone willing to reach into a primary school toilet which was its own specific category of commitment.
Salvar closed the lid and sat on it.
He crossed his legs, his expression unreadable.
He looked up Silas.
Silas looked at the toilet lid. Then at Salvar sitting on it with the composed energy of someone who had made a decision and found it reasonable. Then back at the toilet lid.
Then he tilted his head and smirked.
It was not a reassuring smirk. It was the smirk of someone who had just had just encountered M&M's into their boring diet and found it interesting rather than inconvenient.
"Are you a spy?" Silas asked. "Why are you everywhere."
The question landed in Salvar's chest and stayed there.
Because it was also his question. The one that had been sitting behind his sternum since the elevator. Since the lobby. Since he had turned around in a primary school admission queue and found the universe had the audacity to do this to him again.
Why the fuck are you everywhere, Silas!?
That was his question.
He arranged his face.
"I apologize." His voice was steady, and politely confused.
It was the voice of a man who had never done anything interesting in his life. "I hold other duties rather than spying."
Silas looked at him.
The red eyes did the thing they did which was move across a person's face like they were reading something written there that the person hadn't intended to leave visible.
"What is your name."
"I am sorry but I cannot reveal my personal info-"
What happened next happened really fast.
Silas's hand closed around Salvar's collar.
The other hand found the back of his neck with a grip that had done this before, that knew exactly how much pressure was required to make a point without making a mess, and Salvar found himself being directed toward the open toilet with a speed and efficiency that left no room for objection.
The water was very close.
A few centimeters of air between Salvar's face and the surface of the water on the toilet.
The gun sat at the bottom looking up at him, giving him a look of mockery for treating it like a shit.
"ANSWER MY DAMN QUESTION."
The shout bounced off every tile in the cabin.
"M..." Salvar's voice came out wrong. He cleared it. "My name is Salvar Beladore."
"Who are you."
"I am the butler of the Beladore family."
The lie arrived quickly and cleanly because he had already been living it for weeks. He had already practiced the posture, the deference, the specific way a butler held himself in a room that wasn't his. The mentality had done the work before the words needed to.
The grip on his neck loosened.
Not gone, just reconsidered.
"Do you know me."
"No sir."
Silas pulled him upright and turned him so they were facing each other in the very small cabin with the gun still sitting in the toilet between them like a moderator nobody had asked for.
He looked at Salvar's face for a long time.
"Then why do you seem so afraid."
"Because," Salvar said, with complete sincerity, "you look like you could kill someone."
A pause as Salvar licked his lips before he added with a sweet voice.
"Sir."
Something moved behind Silas's eyes. Not that they softened, more like recalculating.
Then Salvar's face crumpled.
It happened with the speed and commitment of a professional performance. The eyes went first, filling with the specific shine of tears that had been manufactured from pure survival instinct rather than actual emotion.
Then the bottom of his lips quivered. Then the whole architecture of his expression collapsed inward like a building that had been waiting for permission.
He wailed.
Softly, tragically and with full of fake sincerity.
"Why are you doing this to me mister."
Silas stared at him.
"I am just a butler." Salvar pressed the back of his hand against his eyes and sniffled. "I was just doing my job. I have never done anything to anyone. I just want to do my work and go home and..."
"Is there a problem in there?"
A voice from outside the bathroom. Calm. Professionally concerned. The voice of a school staff member who had heard raised voices and was now doing their due diligence.
Salvar's teary eyes moved to Silas. as his hands covered his mouth.
They looked at each other over his hand.
Salvar blinked slowly. His eyes still wet.
His expression above Silas's palm radiating the specific energy of someone who was being muffled in a primary school bathroom and had opinions about it.
Silas waited.
The footsteps outside paused. Then moved away.
Silence returned.
Silas removed his hand.
He looked at Salvar for a long moment in the way he had looked at him before, like he was reading something, like the text was familiar but the language was one he couldn't quite place.
"What happened today," he said quietly, "stays between us."
Salvar stared at him.
Then he wiped his face with the back of his hand, and sniffed, the tears departed as efficiently as they had arrived.
He looked at Silas with an angry pout then lightly pushed him.
Not hard enough to hurt. Hard enough to create distance.
Silas didn't argue, he moved away.
Salvar opened the cabin door, stepped out, and with one smooth motion locked it from the outside.
The click was very satisfying, with the fact that Silas was still inside.
He walked to the basin, turned the tap on, washed his hands, checked his reflection, found it acceptable, and walked toward the bathroom exit.
In his background, he could here Silas thumping against the door to let him out.
Salvar completely ignored the voice and pushed the bathroom door open.
Outside, he walked until he reached the open area hummed with parental conversation and fake laughter and children somewhere beyond the doors doing whatever children did when adults weren't watching.
He straightened his collar.
Walked back into the world.
Whereas, inside the toilet cabinet, Silas muttered curses under his breath as it was beyond his calculation to retrieve the gun.
He hands went towards his pockets to search for his phone and...
It was gone?
WHAT THE FUCK.