"Speaking of which, when are you planning to get your promotion, now that you have your Fourth Star...?" Coralie asked, looking at her back.
Seraphina raised her head from her sister's shoulder and met her gaze.
"I'm not going without you," she firmly declared while shaking her head from side to side.
Hearing what her clingy little sister had to say, the hazel-haired young woman stared at the ceiling and sighed.
"We've already gone through this many times..." she said disapprovingly.
"You can go there on your own. It's only a few days away from here, and you're a big girl now."
"Please~" the silver-haired girl pleaded as she looked at her big sister with teary puppy eyes.
Usually, this cutsie act would easily get her what she wanted from her sister, but this time, the effects were different from what she expected.
Instead of giving in, Coralie's lips pressed into a firm line.
"Don't cry, don't cry..." Coralie whispered, gently patting the silver-haired girl's head. "I'm sorry, I really can't come with you this time."
"So how about this? If you can obediently go to the Cathedral by yourself, I'll do whatever you want when you get back." She proposed to her.
"It can be anything."
Seraphina instantly perked up when she heard this. Her teary golden eyes turned into bright stars.
"Anything!? Really?"
However, the little girl was somewhat doubtful. After all, anything was an extremely big word that included both good and bad possibilities.
Coralie nodded, "You heard correctly."
"..."
Seraphina paused to think it over. While her sister's offer was alluring, she was not really interested in it...
Reaching this conclusion, she muttered:
"I don't want anything from you, sister..."
"...Being with you is what I want."
Her sister spoiled her a lot and would almost always accept her requests. In Seraphina's ears, this offer sounded a bit like a scam.
"So you're really not going?" asked Coralie.
"Nooo!" the little girl stubbornly said.
Seeing that Seraphina refused to travel witouth her, the hazel-haired woman gave up and comfortably laid down on her back, preparing to sleep.
Her promotion was an important matter that should be handled as soon as possible, but if she could not convince the person concerned tonight, she would just have to try tomorrow.
'She's so feisty...' Coralie thought with closed eyes.
Although her little sister was so stubborn, she was still her little bunch of cuteness and love. The girl would also only act like that around her, which Coralie found very endearing.
It was precisely because she cared that she insisted that Seraphina go.
Just when she was about to enter Dream World, the hazel-haired girl suddenly recalled that her spoiled sister would only change her mind if she was threatened!
So, with half-closed eyes, Coralie opened her mouth to mutter words that she thought could change Seraphina's mind.
"Starting tomorrow, you're sleeping in your own room..."
This immediately earned a reaction from the still-awake thirteen-year-old.
"Wha—no! Please no!" she cried out while shaking Coralie, hoping she had misheard what her sister had just said. "I want to sleep with you!"
*Whistle~*
The hazel-haired girl's chest rose and fell, with her slow breathing producing a faint whistle-like sound.
Seeing that her sister had fallen asleep, Seraphina knew she could not get any answers, and she began breaking down in tears.
"Does t—tthat mean you don't love me...*sniff* anymore...?" she muttered, her lips wawering under the weight of emotion.
The child's soft cries echoed through the house in the middle of the night like a ghost's wail.
Minutes passed, filled only with the muffled sounds of sobs.
'Sorry, Lil Sis...'
Hearing those heart-wrenching cries, Coralie felt like a monster and silently apologized to the silver-haired girl inside her heart.
Eventually, her cries did die down, replaced by soft sniffles that went on for the entire night...
...
By the time silence finally settled over the room, morning had already begun.
Warm sunlight filtered through the curtains of their bedroom, and with it came the early birds' chirp.
The bed rustled, and silky hazel hair moved across the pillow. The girl lazily furrowed her brows before opening her brown eyes and blinking a few times.
Coralie's internal clock was very accurate as she had just woken up at the same time as the sunrise.
*Yawnnnn~*
The older sister straightened up, stretched her arms and back, before letting out a long and deep yawn.
She seemed to have had a not very healing sleep...
This was because a little silver-haired girl in a black nightgown was tightly hugging her waist like a koala, not wanting to let go. No matter how she tried, her little sister kept a tight hold over her.
"Sigh..." Coralie's gaze softened at this.
She brought her lips closer to Seraphina's face and planted a gentle 'good-morning' kiss on her little sister's cheek.
"Hmm..?"
Feeling all this movement in bed as well as this familiar expression of affection from her sister, the silver-haired girl tiredly woke up. Instantly after, a flash of urgency sparked in her reddened golden eyes, and the girl became wide awake.
In the next moment,
"Sister, please don't abandon me!" she said, meeting Coralie's gaze. "I'll go if it's what you want, but don't leave meeee!"
The hazel-haired girl laughed when she saw Seraphina's crying face.
"Hahaha...You silly, silly, baby," she paused to wipe the tears flowing from those adorable golden eyes.
"You have such a big and bright future ahead of you, it's you who's gonna abandon me, not the contrary."
Seraphina's head turned an angry red when she heard this. "That's a lie..! I—I would never leave you."
"So am I~" she playfully shot back, "I never said I would leave you, don't worry about that."
The silver-haired girl sniffled a few times before nodding.
"If you get it, then you should know what to do to make me happy, right?" Coralie asked while cupping her little sister's cheeks.
"Hm!" Seraphina nodded as the hazel-haired girl pulled her face closer. "I will go to the Capital, but...but..only if you include what you said about doing anything I want"
Coralie smiled as she nuzzled herself against the golden-eyed girl's face.
"Alright, that's a deal then."