Ariel, meanwhile, had already crossed the chalk line without waiting for anyone's permission, throwing both arms around Tarik's neck in a hug that was several degrees more enthusiastic than the moment really called for. "Aww, don't be such a sore loser, Tarik~ I thought you looked very brave getting your little knife stolen."
"Uh- thanks? I think?" Tarik said, going slightly stiff as her hands lingered a beat longer than a simple congratulations needed to.
Ty barely noticed, too busy catching his breath and resetting the knives back onto the rack, but Halvren did. He watched the exchange with a small, tight frown, the kind of look that didn't ask to be noticed but clearly wanted to be.
Once Ariel had finally peeled herself off a visibly uncomfortable Tarik and wandered over to go bother Cata about something else entirely, Halvren drifted closer to Ty, keeping his voice low.
"Hey, uh. You've known Ariel longer than I have, right? Does she always get that... touchy with people?"
Ty shrugged, not thinking much of it. "She's just friendly. A little much sometimes, sure, but she doesn't mean anything by it. Why, did it bother you?"
"It bothered Tarik, from the look of it. And it's not really my business, but..." Halvren hesitated, choosing his next words carefully, like he already suspected they wouldn't land the way he wanted them to. "I don't know. Something about her just feels like it's going to end up being a problem for somebody eventually. Call it a bad feeling."
"A bad feeling," Ty repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Hal, she's a little flirty and a little dramatic. That's not exactly a crime around here, have you met half the people in this place?"
"Maybe," Halvren said, though he didn't sound convinced. "Just... keep an eye on it, yeah? For all our sakes."
Ty waved him off with an easy laugh, already turning back toward the rest of the group. "You worry too much, you know that? Ariel's fine. We're all fine. Nothing's gonna come from a hug."
He didn't think much more of it after that, too pleased with himself over the match to let Halvren's quiet unease sit with him for long. Looking back on it much later, Ty would remember that conversation as the first time anyone in their little group had tried to warn him about anything at all. At the time, though, it felt like nothing. Just a small, easily dismissed crack in an otherwise perfectly fine foundation.
The rest of the evening passed easily enough, the five of them trading jabs and stories back in the commons area until the lights along the ceiling dimmed to signal curfew was approaching. Ty walked back to his room that night still riding the high of besting Tarik, half convinced that whatever year lay ahead of him inside that underground facility, it couldn't possibly be all that bad.
Lying in bed that night, staring up at the government-standard forest green ceiling, Ty found his thoughts drifting back to Halvren's quiet warning despite himself. He told himself it was nothing, the same way he'd told himself plenty of things over the years that turned out to be very much something. Ariel was just Ariel. A little touchy, a little dramatic, more bark than bite. Surely a few overeager hugs weren't anything worth losing sleep over.
Still, some small, usually-reliable part of him, the same part that had kept him alive and uncaught through two years of theft, nagged at the back of his skull long after he closed his eyes. He ignored it. He was good at ignoring things, after all, especially the ones that were inconvenient to believe.