Speaking to Nephis. Only a year ago, it was an event that came naturally, their conversations flowed from their lips like rushing water without pause. They understood each other in ways that they had never understood anything before. But now, times had changed.
They had changed drastically.
Having a conversation with her now was complicated for a variety of reasons. Firstly, being that he was completely naked, but the second that he frankly didn't know the words to say to her. An apology grew in his soul, but he quickly killed it.
After all, there was no point in apologising if you truly felt that you did nothing wrong. So instead, he went with the simplest form of conversation that he thought himself able to conjure.
"Hi Neph." He replied, his voice not betraying the redness on his face as he submerged himself underwater to hide his naked form. But frankly, there wasn't anything he possessed underwater that Nephis hadn't felt and experienced before.
"I have a feeling you don't want to talk to me. Not going to say I blame you; you don't deserve that. But at least tell me what's going on with the citadels." Her voice was low, almost pleading. She had been deprived of all quality time with Sunny for longer than she knew. Frankly, it was taking a toll on her.
"Ah, the citadels? How do I explain this. They're like trials I assume, you must solve puzzles, each of them is custom made for specific themes, and through doing so you gain access to a variety of things…does that make sense?"
Nephis nodded, the ambiguity of the rewards promised by the citadels completely noticed by her as she sighed with exasperation. It was already enough trouble enduring the hateful glares that all the Song sisters gave her, and now she would need to lead all of them into a completely foreign environment.
"How did you find out about the citadels? Have you conquered one?" Sunny nodded his head, a nostalgic smile arriving on his face as he looked up into the bright sky. "Yeah, Revel and I conquered one in the past. I'm pretty sure she conquered another one to make me my knives."
Thinking of Revel made a warm feeling spread across his chest, the anguish of loss completely smothered by the bright smiles that Revel gave him. Truly, no matter how long he spent away from her, they were never things he would forget.
"Do you miss her?" Nephis asked, seemingly the conversation had distracted Sunny from submerging himself underwater, almost laying on his back, his nakedness being hidden by the glimmer of sunlight bouncing against the water like a barrier against Nephis' perversions.
'If I could, I'd kill the sun.' She thought with frustration as Sunny finally gave his response. "Of course I miss her, but when she died, she looked content. If she was happy even in death, there's no point in remaining angry, no? She wouldn't want that for me." Those were his honest thoughts, then again, he had no choice but to be honest.
Nephis only nodded silently, allowing a pleasant silence to settle between them before Sunny quickly broke it. "The reason I'm not following you is because I'm going with Jet to find the two who ran." Raising an eyebrow, Nephis stared at him in confusion for a few moments.
He had no opportunity to know that they had ran or figure out the reason towards their disappearance and yet he knew anyway. It was always a quirk of Sunny's to figure out things like these inexplicably, so she didn't pry much.
"What do you plan on doing to them?" She asked, her voice betraying no emotion as Sunny dipped his head underwater, disappearing without even causing a ripple in the water before reappearing next to Nephis, half of his body still submerged under water.
"They're still stuck in the underworld; they'll be hunted by assassins for knowing too much till the end of their days. So, I'll get Eubin to erase them." He commented offhandedly, rising out of the water, he blurred from her view before she could witness his nakedness, returning with a short on as he ran a hand through his soaking wet hair.
"You ran across the water just to hide your…nudity?" Nephis commented, a slight smile on her face as she saw Sunny restrain a blush. Instead of replying audibly, he gave her a nod as he grabbed a nearby towel and dried himself properly.
"I'm leaving all the Song sisters in your hands, if you're careless in the citadel's, you will die. Almost everything there is poisonous. And if they die and you're still alive, then…" He trailed off, unable to finish the threat he was about to posit because he knew that he wouldn't be honest in his statement. In his heart of hearts, he knew it better than anyone else.
There was almost nothing Nephis could do to make him kill her.
However, Nephis took the statement in a much different fashion, staring at him with slightly widened eyes as Sunny turned around and began walking back to their makeshift house. "I'll lead you all to the citadel, then Jet and I will split off from there."
In the next moment, he had disappeared like he was never there. Nephis could only stare at the sky with a melancholic expression, saddened by the realisation that even the firmest bridges built could be burnt down in a matter of moments.
--
Currently, Eubin and Cassie were sparring, each of the sisters had taken turns sparring with the girl to improve her skill for reasons only they could discern. As they fought, they all could visibly see the blind girl absorbing techniques at a pace that none of them had ever expected from her.
As Cassie ducked below a wire that threatened to slice off her head, she grit her teeth harder than she had prior as she raised her hands calling the end of the duel. If the match continued any further, she might have lost her head. And to make things worse, even with echolocation the wires were so thin that she could barely see them.
There was something supremely insidious about Eubin's form of combat. Although wires were her preferred weapon one could easily tell she was much stronger when she stopped using them, and yet she did so anyway. Additionally, during sparring all her attacks could be killing blows.
No matter how hard she held back her speed or strength, the lethality was still present.
"Are you a prodigy?" Eubin asked, walking up to Cassie before groping her arms and stomach. "Ah! What are you doing!?" Cassie yelped as she leapt back, almost appearing like a cat that had been thrown into water against it's will. In fact, Clara could have sworn she heard Cassie hiss.
"I'm simply appreciating your body before Orion gets the chance to, there's nothing wrong with that!" Eubin exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Cassie "You're thinking of it right now! Stop blushing!" She exclaimed, causing Cassie's lingering blush to deepen as she turned away from Eubin.
"Become pure, oh dirty maiden!" Jessica exclaimed, clutching her sides with laughter as she rolled on the floor. Each of them proceeded to take turns laughing at the blind girl, teasing her for her taste in men. And yet her attraction remained unperturbed.
Their distraction also aided Sunny in easily slipping amid all of them, looking around and waiting for someone to acknowledge his presence before walking over to Cassie. "I didn't know you had a thing for Orion." He commented, standing only a few inches away from her.
His only response was a panicked shriek.
All their heads turned to the duo as Sunny stared at her in confusion, and finally, they had noticed his arrival. "How the hell did you—never mind look who I'm talking to." Clara sighed, before a smirk slipped onto her face as she witnessed Cassie take deep breathes to calm herself.
"Stop sneaking up on people!" She exclaimed, hand on heart as she looked him up and down. It was like she had seen (or Cassie's alternative) a ghost. "I didn't sneak up on you, I walked here like any normal person would and spoke to you." Sunny replied, feigning obliviousness as Cassie sighed.
"You know what you did."
"Anyways, setting aside the delusional girl who might be dating Orion." Sunny continued, only to be stopped by Cassie who stared at him with a look of shock riddled across her features.
"W-we aren't dati—"
"Anyways, I'll lead you all to the closest citadel. Nephis will be the one taking charge for reasons that I won't explain, and I won't be joining you for your expedition." Sunny explained, only to be paused by an inquisitive look from Eubin.
"Two questions. Why is she leading, it's not like she's the strongest, smartest or most competent out of us. And secondly, why aren't you coming?"
Before Sunny could reply, the sound of Nephis' footsteps made themselves known as she stared at Eubin with a smile that was so sickeningly sweet that it could rot teeth. "I mean, we can fight right now. That way, you won't need to doubt my abilities anymore."
Eubin cocked her head to the side, offering a smile in response as she flicked her fingers, a wire slicing through the air next to Nephis. "And once I win, will you call me a monster too? Or better, an unfeeling machine?"
"Oh! Maybe she'll forget you exist while you're being tortured!" Clara added, not missing the opportunity to rip into Nephis.
Before things could escalate further, Sunny cleared his throat, sighing with exasperation as his eye twitched. "Nephis is leading because all the citadels are designed by the immortal flame for reasons that even I don't know. Is that good enough? And Jet and I need to do something somewhere else, so it's better this way."
'I feel like a father now.' Sunny thought to himself as he turned around, his eyes scanning the environment for any sight of Jet only to find none. "Don't tell me she left while I was taking a bath." Sunny grumbled under his breathe.
Thankfully, Jet made her presence known just in time, breaking through the treeline as she swung her scythe in hand lazily. Her blue hair and wide smile only served to add to her allure as her eyes focused on Sunny.
"I'm at your service Lost from Light."
Before any actions could be taken, before some could even blink, Sunny was at her side with an indifferent expression gracing his features as he stared at the older woman with a neutral expression on his face, almost like he had words to say but no clue how to properly portray them.
"Don't call me that please. My name is Sunny." Was all he ended up saying, totally ignoring her shocked expression when he appeared at her side like he teleported. Steeling her features, she managed to supress the primal fear she felt when he closed the distance between the two and offer a nod.
Blonde hair came into view as Cassie enveloped Jet in a tight hug, a bright smile gracing her features as she stared the woman up and down. "Hi Jet! Where'd you go?" She asked, her smile never faltering for a moment as she squeezed tighter on the blushing woman.
"A woman's gotta train, no?" She replied with her own smile, both totally forgetting Sunny was standing next to them. Frankly, he did too. Instead, he was watching their interaction with curiosity settled across his face, feeling a strange emotion that had been foreign to him most of his life.
Envy.
'Is this how it's like to have friends?' Sunny thought to himself, a small frown gracing his features as he watched the two interact. He didn't have these sorts of interactions with other people, including Orion nearly enough to be used to it. And frankly, seeing them from an outsider's perspective didn't make him feel good.
A firm grip wrapped itself around him palm for a moment, causing Sunny's head to snap in their direction as he found himself being pulled into the forest. It was Jessica, her blueish white hair flowing behind her as she pulled him along without saying a word.
Finally, upon entering the treeline, hidden from view from her sisters who gossiped about what was going on with barely veiled interest, she stared at him for a moment.
"You're jealous, aren't you?" She asked, her tone calm and not betraying her emotions as Sunny stared at her for a few moments. "A little. Sometimes I find myself wanting these sorts of interactions. Wondering what my life would have been like if I was born normal."
Jessica stared at him for a few moments, not saying a word as her blue eyes locked with Sunny's onyx ones as the two stared at each other for what felt like hours on end. Suddenly, without warning, Jessica closed the distance between the two, pulling him forward as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
And she captured his lips in a kiss.
It wasn't overly passionate, although she had to resist the urge to slide her tongue into his mouth, she found herself enjoying it quite a lot. Especially when he didn't resist and kissed her back.
Pulling backwards, Jessica continued her streak of unexpected actions by pulling him into a hug, settling his head into her ample bosom before whispering a few words into his ear that broke all the walls he had built around his heart. "You've had it rough, haven't you?"
Those six words were all it took for him to break down crying.
He cried silently, tears pouring from his eyes like a fountain as he finally allowed himself to show grief for what he had lost. Grief that he couldn't protect his sister, grief that he couldn't protect Nephis from the underworld, grief that he couldn't save Revel.
Grief that he had been too into this life to enjoy what others saw as normal.
It took him five minutes to stop crying, sinking to his knees as Jessica held his head in her arms gently as she whispered sweet nothings into his ear as she ran her hand through his perfect hair.
"If you're broken, I'll fix you. If you're sad, I'll hold you. If you're confused, we can work it out together. Don't suffer alone, don't hold your emotions back, don't put on a strong face for us just because you don't want to see us cry for you. Because we will. We'll cry for you, we'll sacrifice for you, we'll do it all tenfold for you."
Sunny's clouded eyes turned to face her, his eyes meeting her own for a moment before he blinked the lingering tears away. "I don't know if I'll ever know what it's like to love again." He whispered, but Jessica caught it immediately. "That doesn't matter, we'll love you all the same. You've saved us three thousand times too much for us not to. So let us save you just this once, how about it?"
A smile, a real, genuine smile arrived on Sunny's face as the breeze blowed his hair slightly in the air as he locked eyes with her. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, suddenly a blush arrived on her face as she stared at his lips for the briefest of moments.
"C—can I kiss you again?" Without receiving an answer, Sunny pressed his lips against hers, with far more vigour than she once hand before pulling away. "You don't need to ask." He whispered, slowly rising to his feet as he pulled Jessica up with him.
Wiping his eyes, Sunny allowed his composed expression to return as he easily lifted Jessica to her feet before breaking the treeline. "If you're in danger, call me. I'll kill anything that's in your way." Sunny commented with a voice filled with so much resolve it was almost palpable.
Instead of replying, all she did was smile.