[It is almost a Herculean effort not to panic when she hears the guards shuffling around outside and comparing this footprint to that slightly-warmed area, but she keeps her expression as poker-faced as she possibly can and is relieved when no shouts of "It was the brat!" reach her ears. They can fuss around outside all they want as long as they don't find him, for all she cares.
It's a good sign, too, that she doesn't hear anyone issuing orders to check Kaoru's room. It will give him more time to get back and make it appear as if he has been soundly sleeping all along.
...which isn't something she can do with this guard; he had been too close to opening the door for her to retreat under the futon covers. She looks up at him with narrowed eyes for a long moment or two, unspeaking, and then tosses her head and looks away from him. She isn't engaging in her earlier verbal taunts, either; instead, she's just... deciding that his question isn't even worth an answer, apparently. A different method of taunting.
Outside, the guards continue their poking around, and she's sure she even hears one crawling around under the floorboards. She is so glad she has long since retrieved the bag of food Kaoru went to such pains to put together for her, because if they had seen it dangling down there they would have figure out very quickly that someone was helping her, and she doubts any of them would immediately believe that she could have won over a servant so quickly.
What does concern her is when one of them growls out, loudly enough for her to hear, "What if the brat was the one sneaking around out here?" No orders come to go check his room just yet, and Sen's expression remains the same as it was before in case the guard who had opened her screen is looking for a reaction, but she hopes and prays that Kaoru has already made it back and that he has enough time to get under the covers and banish the pre-dawn chill from his skin and his hair. If they do check on him, if they feel that chill, they'll know he was outside...]
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It's a good sign, too, that she doesn't hear anyone issuing orders to check Kaoru's room. It will give him more time to get back and make it appear as if he has been soundly sleeping all along.
...which isn't something she can do with this guard; he had been too close to opening the door for her to retreat under the futon covers. She looks up at him with narrowed eyes for a long moment or two, unspeaking, and then tosses her head and looks away from him. She isn't engaging in her earlier verbal taunts, either; instead, she's just... deciding that his question isn't even worth an answer, apparently. A different method of taunting.
Outside, the guards continue their poking around, and she's sure she even hears one crawling around under the floorboards. She is so glad she has long since retrieved the bag of food Kaoru went to such pains to put together for her, because if they had seen it dangling down there they would have figure out very quickly that someone was helping her, and she doubts any of them would immediately believe that she could have won over a servant so quickly.
What does concern her is when one of them growls out, loudly enough for her to hear, "What if the brat was the one sneaking around out here?" No orders come to go check his room just yet, and Sen's expression remains the same as it was before in case the guard who had opened her screen is looking for a reaction, but she hopes and prays that Kaoru has already made it back and that he has enough time to get under the covers and banish the pre-dawn chill from his skin and his hair. If they do check on him, if they feel that chill, they'll know he was outside...]