Chapter Summary: Sunny would look great in a maid dress.
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The hum of the engine came to a stop as the PTV ground to a halt.
Nephis waited for the vehicle to settle before turning her head toward the driver and offering a polite nod. The Firekeeper behind the wheel returned it respectfully, and she opened the door before stepping out into the cold evening air.
The moment her boots touched the pavement, Nephis found herself feeling a strange sensation.
She had known what kind of house Sunny was looking for, and she was still surprised by his choice. She had almost expected him to choose an abandoned cathedral -not that there were any left nowadays- or build a dark castle from whose spires he could look down on the world below while cackling like an evil overlord in the end.
Instead, she was looking at a quiet residential street, rows of modest houses, and a faint layer of snow covering the lawns.
A part of her couldn't help but be shocked by the normalcy of it all. Maybe they could build a place like this one in the Dream Realm, once everything was done and they had nothing but a long life ahead of them to worry about.
Nephis shook her head at the thought. There was little point in dreaming about a future that may never come.
Lost in thought, she hadn't even noticed that her feet had already carried her to the front door. She took one final look at the strangely welcoming house and rang the bell.
She could have asked Sunny for a key, and he would probably have given her one. She had refrained from doing so.
This was his house. The first place in his life that he could truly claim as his own.
It wasn't a temporary shelter, a barren rock out of the reach of the Dark Sea, or a dark cathedral in which he had to tiptoe around a Nightmare Creature. Not even her mansion, where he had been invited to stay as long as he wanted but couldn't consider home.
This was his, and his alone.
Nephis didn't want to intrude upon that.
A long, keening sound dragged her away from her thoughts, just in time to see the door opening all on its own.
It did so slowly, and finished with a loud, sinister creak that she knew, through Aiko, had been done on purpose at his request. She had to admit that it made for quite the dramatic entrance.
She stepped inside and noticed a shadow tendril from the corner of her eye. Nephis felt her lips curving up a little. It sure was a convenient -and appropriately spooky- use of his Aspect.
Heat assaulted her the moment she closed the threshold, and the tendril closed the door behind her silently.
Nephis took in the house.
It smelled faintly of food and something sweet, probably the snacks Rain had brought. The walls were decorated simply, with little in the way of ornamentation. Everything looked functional and practical, exactly as Sunny had wanted, save for a few touches that she thought were quite fitting.
She walked toward the living room, where the bond was telling her she could find him, while she kept looking around.
As she approached, a voice suddenly came from the room.
"I'm sorry, foul creature, but I have someone to return to, and no one in this world can stop me from reuniting with my star. If that is my will, then who dares stop me?"
Nephis blinked, then she had to suppress the urge to laugh.
How had Rain managed to convince him to watch that terrible film again? She had assumed he would rather fight an Unholy Titan than endure another viewing of it.
Apparently, she had underestimated Rain. She had something to learn from her in the matter of persuasion.
Nephis finally reached the living room, and she had to suppress the urge to laugh once again.
Sunny and Rain were sitting side by side on the couch, lightly leaning against each other, with a bucket of popcorn resting between them along with an assortment of other snacks. Their faces were priceless.
Rain looked like she was having the time of her life, while Sunny looked like a man who had begun seriously considering the possibility of murder, likely that of the movie's director.
On the wall opposite them, the projector displayed the credits, followed by the post-credits scene, which promised a sequel that was apparently already in the works. She already dreaded what kind of horror would be born of it.
Sunny looked as though he wanted to crawl into a shadow and never emerge again as he watched it.
Still resisting the urge to laugh, she came closer, and they finally looked at her.
"Hey, Neph," he said first, a hint of embarrassment still lingering in his expression.
"Big sis," Rain said in turn, a dangerous gleam in her eyes.
She knew that look well, the kind that would lead to endless teasing and uncomfortable questions. Presenting Effie to such a young and impressionable teenager had been a terrible mistake in retrospect.
Fortunately, she had an excuse to get out of it this time.
"Is it time already?" Sunny asked.
She nodded. "It is."
It had barely been a little over a week since their assignment as the leaders and faces of the Song Clan in the Waking World, and she already regretted it. Public events were always a drag, and this one was especially tedious, given that it was a charity one.
She despised charity events. Everyone gathered in expensive clothes, solemnly lamented that their contributions were never enough, and promised to do more next time. If they genuinely wanted to help people, Nephis thought they should simply do it and spare everyone the performance.
Even worse, she couldn't leave early without 'staining' the Clan's honor, something her dear mother would be sure to comment on were it to happen. And she would rather go through her First Nightmare all over again than give the ghoul an excuse to scold her.
Sunny sighed dramatically and stood up. At any other moment, she would have found it exaggerated, but this time she sympathized.
Rain immediately looked between them.
"Aww, there were other films I wanted to watch with you two."
The disappointment in her voice was so genuine that Nephis almost felt sorry for her.
Almost. She knew that it was a trap.
"We're not going to miss anything worth watching," Sunny said dryly.
Rain pointed accusingly at him. "You take that back right now!"
"Never."
"My movie taste is impeccable!"
"It isn't."
"You don't even know which one I want to watch next!"
"I took a peek at the list. Seriously? 'That time I accidentally entered a third Nightmare Seed, became a Saint, and now everyone wants to marry me'?" Sunny's tone couldn't grow any drier.
Rather than attempting to win a fight she had no chance of winning, Rain wisely changed strategy and looked at her next.
"No," Nephis said preemptively, aware that giving her the chance to build up steam would lead to certain defeat.
The younger girl pouted. "Fine. You two are boring anyway. I'm sure that Serpent will gladly watch them with me."
Following Rain's command, the serpent left the girl's shadow right at that moment, a look of despair in its animal eyes that both Sunny and she chose to ignore. Better the poor Shadow than them.
"I should be back in a few hours." He pointed toward the kitchen. "You have dinner in the fridge, and Happy will remain here just in case." The shadow saluted brightly, as though saying, Count on me, boss!
Rain rolled her eyes. "I'm not five."
"You are fifteen, which is worse," Sunny retorted. "I know the kind of stupid things I thought at your age."
"Meaning that you stopped?" Nephis couldn't help but intercede.
He shot her a betrayed look. "No, but whose side are you on?"
Nephis chose not to answer that, much to his annoyance.
That action alone made Rain grin triumphantly before turning back toward the screen, with a very exasperated-looking Serpent joining her.
With Sunny still grumbling, they left the room and started walking outside at a calm pace.
It didn't take her long to notice the way that he too was looking around, though where she was just curious about the decoration, his eyes seemed more alight with some sort of emotion. One that didn't take her long to identify. Joy.
It had taken more than it should have, but he had something to call his own at last.
"What?" he suddenly asked.
"What what?"
"You are smiling."
Nephis was about to ask again what he meant, but then she realized that she was indeed smiling. The moment she did, it grew even wider.
"It's nothing," she answered slightly faster than she intended.
Sunny quirked an eyebrow. "It doesn't look like nothing."
"I'm just happy, I guess." Nephis had never expected to be able to admit such a thing so freely, or to mean it that honestly, but she did. "Seeing you like this makes me happy."
Sunny hesitated and then, for a brief moment, allowed himself a smile that looked nothing like the ones he usually wore. It was soft, warm, looking out of place and completely natural at the same time on his usually guarded face.
"So am I, I think," he admitted quietly, as though he didn't want her to hear.
Nephis smiled just a little wider and said nothing.
Cold air rushed over them the moment they stepped outside, though Sunny lingered briefly at the threshold, looking back inside before joining her in walking toward the PTV awaiting them at the entrance.
Though right as Nephis was about to get inside, Sunny stopped her with a hand on her arm.
She turned toward him, a question on her lips, only to feel goosebumps a moment later when she noticed the smile he wore. It was neither soft nor warm. If anything, it looked positively mischievous.
"How about we make a stylish entry?" he asked, his eyes glinting with what she swore was malice.
Nephis quirked an eyebrow and, against her better judgment, decided to entertain the idea.
"What kind of style are we talking about?"
His ideas tended to fall somewhere between brilliant and incredibly stupid, though oftentimes, they were both. Nephis still smiled whenever she remembered the 'Trojan ass' plan.
Sunny's smile widened. "Well..."
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Eunbin looked over the gathered people with barely concealed boredom.
Idly picking up a glass from a passing tray, she wondered whether puppeteering someone into starting a little ruckus would be worth it. She decided against it.
Amusing as it would be, it wasn't worth the nuisance it would cause, or Mother's scolding.
Taking a sip from her glass and internally grimacing at the poor vintage, she reflected that it was a close thing, still. She was beginning to wonder if Mother's scolding was really worse than another hour of this.
It was just that boring.
Located right in NQSC's most affluent district, the park could be considered one of the city's biggest attractions. Carefully maintained beds of roses and other flowers surrounded clusters of trees, gazebos, benches, and even a large pond stocked with fish. Apparently, there had been many attempts to steal the little things, what with how high a price they could fetch nowadays.
People mingled about: politicians, CEOs looking for a PR boost, celebrities, and athletes. Even one more Saint. Though the woman stood far from everyone else, accompanied only by her husband.
She couldn't quite blame Saint Tyris for her aloofness. If their moles within Valor were to be trusted, then this was to be her last public event before leaving for Eastern Antarctica to start preparing the quadrant for the incoming Nightmare Chain. Just like how Dire Fang had already left the day before for the Antarctic Center.
Maybe she should approach her to commiserate about the whole thing?
Better not; the last thing she needed right now was risking a fight breaking out. Although it would be entertaining…
When one of the cameramen approached, she made sure to plaster a smile on her face and make some small talk, proclaiming her support for whatever cause it was this time. Cancer? Poor air quality in the Outskirts? Children? Children with cancer suffering from the poor air quality in the Outskirts?
As the more... diplomatic one between her sisters before Shan's return, she had been the default option for events like these for a long time, and they had started blending together at some point. She had cared at first; she truly did. But there was only so much she could care before the misery and suffering got smudged together into a vaguely pitiable mix.
Just as she started considering making a drinking game out of someone saying 'sympathize with them' -forty-six times and counting, and it had only been five minutes since the event started- she heard a commotion coming from above.
She looked up just in time to spot a gargantuan dark shape diving toward the empty center of the venue. It was so fast that only an instant passed between spotting it and the creature landing with a surprisingly soft thud.
Eunbin looked with wonder at the monstrous, scaled eagle that was now looming over everyone present, its three heads raised with pride. A terrifying aura that made the surroundings feel much darker radiated from it. It took her a second to realize who it belonged to, and she smiled in amusement when she did.
Just as people started panicking and Sky Tide looked as though she was about to attack, Changing Star chose to show up. She jumped down from the creature's back, her expression as composed as ever, looking nonplussed by the hostility directed in her direction, though Eunbin couldn't help but notice the way the corner of her lips kept twitching upward almost unnoticeably.
The eagle began to shrink, its enormous body unraveling into streams of shadow. They flowed inward like a receding tide until the monster was gone, leaving a man standing where it had been. Sunless looked almost comically small after the transformation.
Sunless and Nephis sure knew how to make an entrance.
"Sorry, are we late?" He asked with a wide smile.
Changing Star's attempts at keeping her composure broke at last, and she chortled a light snort.
And here she had been, thinking about how bored she was.
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"Smile!"
Tyris' face did not twitch a single millimeter, and an uncomfortable pause later, the cameraman gave up and just took the photo.
She turned toward her husband when he felt his hand squeezing hers. His presence by her side was the only reason she could find the tediousness of this event somewhat bearable.
"I think we came up well," he said brightly. "We should show the photo to Telle when we get into the vessel."
Tyris nodded without making a comment.
"What city do you think we will get assigned?" Roan asked her.
"We will find out there," she answered plainly.
Accustomed to her laconic answers, he just smiled and squeezed her hand again. Though not showing it, her chest warmed a little.
Tyris watched the event unfold without a word, accepting the requests for photos despite how much she disliked being in one, and making small talk, or her version of it, as Roan liked to joke about, with those who approached her. As she did, her mind couldn't help but go back to what had happened months ago.
A part of her regretted her choice.
Failing to carry out her Sovereign's orders to apprehend Changing Star and her cohort had led her Clan to be exiled from their home and sent to brave the horrors that were sure to be awaiting them in Antarctica. The loss of reputation and, in consequence, business opportunities, both active and to be made, couldn't be understated either.
A far larger part drowned the smaller one without effort.
Tyris wasn't deaf, and had heard many of the nicknames the Awakened of the Chained Isles had chosen to give her over the years. Some were flattering, others insulting, and a few baffling. Among them, 'Bird Mommy', though rather… dubious coming from the one who uttered it, was the one she found fit her best.
Every Awakened who called the Chained Isles home had fallen under her wing, and she cared for nothing but their well-being. So when the time came to choose, it had been obvious enough what option to pick between obeying the orders of a tyrant that had already made her involuntarily participate in the imprisonment of one of her own, and someone under her protection.
Seeing that young woman, once so haunted and consumed by guilt, standing here now was enough to assure her that she had made the right choice. Changing Star's face was as carefully expressionless as her own was, but she was clearly -to her eyes at least- much happier than she had ever looked before, while she, Sunless and Beastmaster, dealt with the staff of the event and the other attendants.
A part of her would forever regret it for dragging her Clan along in her punishment. But a much bigger part thought that she had made the right choice.
Her eyes met Nephis', and in them she saw a gratitude that spoke more than a million flattering words. Tyris nodded in return, wishing that she could approach the young woman and talk to her one final time before leaving. She didn't, aware that it would make things worse for both of them if she did.
Tyris squeezed her husband's hand, and he looked at her, the same smile that to this day still made her heart flutter drawn across his handsome face.
"They grow up too fast, don't they?" He joked.
She nodded. "They do."
Tyris had done as much as she could. Now it was Nephis' time to do the same.
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Effie woke up with a groan.
There was a severe headache relentlessly pounding in her head like a jackhammer, her stomach rumbled like a dying beast, and her mouth felt drier than one of Nephis' jokes. Maybe that one last round had been a little too much...
She spent a good few minutes considering whether to get up or not before her bladder made the choice for her.
Groaning again, she got up and walked toward the bathroom while dodging the clothes and takeout food wrappers spread around her room. She should clean it at some point, or better yet, get someone else to do it.
Her feet carried her to the other end of the hall quickly, where the bathroom of the rented house awaited her. Maybe she should take a shower too, while she was at it? Sniffing at her armpits, she decided that yes, she should.
A few minutes later, she walked out, feeling refreshed and far hungrier.
Just as she started wondering what to order, she smelled it. Food. Good food.
Drooling a little, she crossed the distance between the bathroom and the kitchen faster than she had ever moved, all the while wondering what kind of thief was brave and stupid enough to try to steal from her. And why they would choose to cook themselves a meal while they were at it.
What awaited her there was a feast in the middle of being prepared, but also a particular shorty she wasn't expecting to see today. Or for a while.
"What are you doing here, and how long until the food is done?" she said, half question, half growl.
Sunny turned around just enough to shoot her a flat stare before returning to chopping some sort of meat.
"Hello to you too," he said dryly. "As for what I'm doing? Obviously, I'm cooking you something before you go ahead and start eating the walls. It should be ready in a few minutes."
Rolling her eyes, she leaned her back against one of the walls and observed him move around the kitchen, the smell wafting out of whatever he was preparing becoming more and more enticing.
Before she could consider making good on his joke, a shadow tendril extended from the kitchen counter and delivered her a big bowl of salad that could fill a person. She inhaled it in seconds and was left just as hungry.
"What brings you to my lovely home so early in the morning?" she asked to break the silence.
Sunny pointed at the window without turning back, the orange rays of the sun painting the world in a melancholic hue.
"It's getting dark, you slob," he replied without heat.
Effie blinked a little at that, then yawned. That last round had indeed been too much. It had been fun, at least.
"I wanted to be sure you were alright," he admitted a moment later.
"Awwww," she drawled in the most obnoxious voice she could come up with. "I knew you cared."
Sunny muttered something beneath his breath that she couldn't quite catch, but she was sure it was nothing flattering.
She smiled a little at that, then blinked upon noticing how spotless everything looked in the kitchen. Now that she thought of it, the hall and bathroom were clean too. She must have been more out of it than she thought if she could miss such vital details.
"Did you clean too?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.
He shrugged. "I had to burn time somehow, and it was either that, paying attention to a terrible movie, or listening to a very boring charity event. The choice was obvious."
"Any chance I can hire you as my maid?" She half-joked, half-asked seriously. "I bet you would look great in a dress."
A shadow hand emerged to lightly slap the back of her head, then Sunny scoffed. "No. Keep your weird fantasies to yourself."
Effie barked a laugh and fell silent, choosing to leave her cook alone for the moment.
Minutes later, they sat across from each other at the dining table, eating the feast that he had prepared.
Or, well, she ate while he looked at her with a vaguely horrified look in his eyes. It was his fault, honestly. If he didn't want her to eat it all, then he shouldn't have made the food so tasty.
Effie wasn't ashamed to admit she cried the moment she bit into the first dish. The food tasted heavenly. She hadn't been in the mood to cook after that day, and takeout just couldn't compare to what Sunny or Prin... Nephis could make.
Her mood dropped a little at that, but not enough to stop her from eating her fill.
Patting her stomach in satisfaction, she leaned back in her chair and took a look at Sunny. He looked the same as he always did, his shoulders a little lighter, perhaps, as though the weight upon them had diminished somewhat, but that could have been just her imagination.
"I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but what are you doing here?" she asked, her voice completely serious this time.
Sunny looked at her with complete seriousness. "I haven't seen you in weeks, and I can't get in contact with you. Your family keeps telling me that you don't want to see anyone either. Is it that hard to believe that I wanted to check if you were alright?"
The tension around her shoulders diminished a little, only to return twofold a moment later when an insidious thought came to the forefront. One that she voiced, lest she forever remain in doubt.
"Did she send you?"
Contrary to expectation, Sunny neither laughed it off nor flew off into a rage.
Instead, he sighed tiredly, dragged a hand across his overly long hair -that he kept muttering about cutting one of these days- and shook his head.
"No, she didn't." He smirked self-deprecatingly. "I might be her slave, but my leash is not that short." His voice dropped then, enough that she suspected she wasn't supposed to hear the next part. "For now, at least."
"For now," she echoed anyway.
Sunny was startled by her words, but quite tellingly, didn't refute them. He probably couldn't, what with his flaw and all.
A moment of silence passed between them, only to be broken shortly after.
"Are you alright?" Sunny asked, and she detected genuine concern in that question.
She sighed then and took a look around the dining room, wishing that there was something to look at besides the bare-minimum furniture to distract her. She hadn't decorated just yet, and if she was honest, neither did she intend to.
This wasn't home, just a temporary stop while she decided what to do next.
Effie considered making a joke, teasing him a little, throwing in a perverted quip that would surely elicit a hilarious reaction out of him. She considered it, and then decided against it.
Sunny deserved better than another joke. And, if she was being honest, so did she.
"I'm not," she answered, her voice quieter than she had intended it to be.
Sunny nodded gravely, accepting her words without trying to offer comfort or lighten the mood. She appreciated that.
Letting out a sigh, she decided to share her thoughts, lest they keep bothering her.
"I told you about my first Cohort, didn't I?"
"You did."
Effie picked up a fork and started toying with it, if only to give herself something to do while her mind worked its way through memories best left forgotten.
"Soon after their demise, Gunlaug came with an offer to join his host. His harem too, while I was at it." She snorted, feeling her hate for the tyrant burn as brightly as ever. "I told him to take his offer and shove it where the light doesn't shine. He decided then and there that if he couldn't have me, then nobody would."
He remained silent, waiting for her to get it out of her chest before saying anything. She was thankful for that, but also resentful; the memories really weren't pleasant.
"I didn't pay him much mind and still accepted a few invitations to join other groups. None of them ended well, but I always thought that maybe, if I did things well enough, that could be changed. Then the last one arrived. They were perfect, Sunny, so perfect. I was practically best friends with all of them, and they were so strong that I thought nothing could go wrong this time." She paused, her voice trembling a little before she steeled it. "And for a while, it didn't. Until one day, we went to hunt, and before I knew it, all but one of them were dead."
The fork bent under her grip.
"We were supposed to contend against an Awakened Monster, a Demon at most." She snorted, and the fork snapped completely. "Instead, we found a Fallen Monster that tore through my cohort like paper. To this day, I'm not sure how I'm still alive." She took a deep breath. "I sought answers from the other survivor, the one who had done the scouting and ran away the moment the battle started. She tried to be evasive, gave me half-answers, but in the end, I got the truth anyway. That... bitch sold our lives to Gunlaug so that she wouldn't have to keep risking her life in the Dark City. I killed her, Sunny. I killed her and then fed her corpse to the very same Fallen Monster."
Her eyes met his, and she found no judgment in them.
Effie thought about making a joke then, but she refrained. It didn't feel right this time, either.
"I cried for days after that, and vowed to never join another group so that I wouldn't have to go through that anguish again." She smiled a little, shaking her head in wonder. "Then a princess, a seer, and an angry midget arrived in my life, and everything else is history."
For once, Sunny did not complain about the dig at his stature. He was looking at her with the same seriousness as he had before she started talking, and she found a little comfort in not having to deal with an encouraging speech like the one someone else would have tried to deliver.
Sunny sighed, shaking his head. "Then you found out what Neph did, and it all came back."
"Yeah, you could say that," she admitted reluctantly.
Silence settled between them once again, but she broke it before it could get too oppressive.
"I'm sorry." She paused briefly before continuing, inclining her head in shame. "I was angry, and though I still am, that you didn't trust me enough to tell me, I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that."
Sunny smiled a little. "Apology accepted, though I cannot say I wasn't furious myself at your reaction."
Effie mulled her next words over briefly before voicing them. "What next? How do we move past this?"
"Well, there is the easy way and the hard way," he said lightly, though the tension in his voice was unmistakable. "We can just ignore that this ever happened and pretend that everything is alright. Or we can talk about it and hope we are still friends by the end of the conversation."
"Wonder which is which," she said dryly.
He snorted but didn't say anything, waiting for her to decide.
A whole minute later, she finally made her choice.
"You said you wanted to forgive. Was that true?"
Sunny hesitated only for a moment before nodding. "Yes, or at least I want to try."
"How?" she asked, raising her voice involuntarily more and more with each word. "How can you move past this? Forgive such a crime? Forget about the chain wrapped around your neck!?"
He didn't answer immediately, his gaze drifting toward the opposite wall as though it held the answer to the questions she had just asked.
In the end, Sunny shook his head and smiled. It was a complicated one, a mix of self-deprecation and unbending determination.
"The chain will be broken sooner rather than later. Forgiving is just something I want to try to do, not an assurance that I will. I can forgive, but I will never forget, so I won't really move past it. And as for how? Well, let me tell you something." Sunny chuckled, as though he himself couldn't believe the words that were about to come out of his mouth. "I hate her. I hate her more than you can imagine. But much to my bafflement? I love her even more."
Effie looked at him dubiously. "Is that even possible?"
"It is for me, I guess." He shook his head again. "So here I am, an idiot who tries to forgive despite the very idea being anathema to his very being."
She looked at him for a long moment, studying his body language, the crease of his brow, his slightly erratic breathing, and a thousand details more. All to know if he was telling the truth or not. She knew his flaw, but he had already proven time and time again his capability of lying by saying nothing but the truth, so she wanted to make sure.
The conclusion she reached was as expected, as it was shocking. He was indeed telling the truth.
Effie was silent for a long moment. Then she exhaled.
"Very well, let's try it then," she said, a wide smile drawing itself across her face.
Sunny blinked. "That easy?"
Effie shrugged lightly. "You said it yourself. I will try, but I can't promise anything." Her smile took on a dangerous edge. "Besides, if Princess goes against her word, I get to punch her again. I also owe Cassie one, now that I think of it, so it's all win-win in my book."
Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Sunny stood up.
"Good enough, I guess. I'll go ahead and tell the others to stop worry—"
Effie wagged her index finger right at that moment. "Ah ah ah. Not so fast. I have a condition."
"You do?"
Her smile became outright evil. "I heard from Aiko—"
"You talked to her and not us!?"
"—that you bought a house with a few spare rooms. And I could use a roommate who doesn't mind cleaning or cooking for me."
Sunny shot her an irritated look. "Are you asking what I think you are asking?"
Effie's smirk said it all.
"Damnation..."