"So trade that typical for something colourful,

and if it's crazy, live a little crazy."

–The Other Side, The Greatest Showman

Lia hadn't left her room, since we returned from the Disappearing.

At first, no one questioned it. The freakiest thing I'd ever experienced was watching myself vanish like that. So, it was understandable that she'd need a minute alone.

That minute dragged into three hours. And I was beginning to worry. It was typical of Ophelia to shut herself out when things got tough; however, it didn't feel right to leave her for so long in a place we were unfamiliar with.

"So," Axel kicked at nothing in particular as we walked, "physical contact, illegal, huh?"

"Things got pretty rough over the past year," I explained. It was true. Not every country had the Nightwatcher situation. But as ours did, many people began to resort to abusive behaviour. Pushing people outside after sunset. Many other methods of harm.

The new law fixed nothing. At this point, laws like these were just a way for the government to look like they were doing something useful, when in reality they were very very useless.

"Still," Axel shrugged, "that's intense."

"Agreed," I nodded, then turned my head to get a proper look at him. "Hey, thanks by the way."

Axel looked up, confused.

"For letting us stay here," I continued, "I still don't like you, but it's appreciated."

"The feeling's mutual," he said nonchalantly, "but you're welcome. I mostly didn't want Pia whining for the next few months, if I hadn't let you stay."

"Hey!" Cassiopeia shoved him in the back. She'd been walking behind us in silence for a while, listening to us bicker with a bored look on her face. "At this point, I might just go hang out with Neo, since my own brother seems to hate me so much."

"No, you're not," Axel said firmly, "go talk to Aurora."

"Aurora's probably with Neo."

"Go talk to a book then," he suggested, "not Nereus. He'll brainwash you again."

"I'm not opposed to that."

"Hey," I held a hand up to silence them. "Do you hear that?"

A low muffle was coming from a room a couple of steps ahead. Ophelia's room.

Rushing towards the door, I ignored the other two's questions. It was closed, but there was obviously someone crying in there.

"Lia?" I called, as Axel and Cass ran up towards me, "Lia are you okay? Can I come in?"

She wasn't responding, all that I got was a few short breaths. She was hyperventilating.

"Oh God, she's dying," I whispered in panic, "Lia!" I knocked on the door. I was even considering trying the handle before Cassie shoved me out of the way.

"Ophelia, sweetie," she said in a soft voice, "it's me. Knock on whatever's closest to you twice if you're okay with me coming in."

Two knocks.

"Wait here," Cass said, "don't go in until she says otherwise."

Axel and I shared a look, bonding over the fact that we had no idea how this girl's mind worked––but we were extremely grateful for her quick thinking.

Slowly, Cassiopeia opened the door and closed it behind her and we heard some rummaging around, things being moved around, a bed being made?

"Come in!" Cassie's voice called. Immediately, without hesitation, I shoved the door open and practically tripped over my own feet as I sprinted towards my friend.

There she was, on a perfectly made bed, crying her eyes out and taking short uneven breaths. Cass was sitting beside her, holding her hands and gently talking to her about who knows what.

"Solis, you take over for a second, just try to distract her," explained Cassie, "I'm going to grab her some water. Axel, you know what to do." Beside me, Axel nodded with a set face and pulled up a chair from Ophie's desk.

"Look," he started, looking her right in the eyes, "we're gonna steady your breathing okay. Can you hold your breath for as long as possible?"

Ophelia nodded and did as he said. In less than a minute, he was guiding her through her breathing and brought it back to a normal speed. Usually, I would make a joke about how he was secretly Batman or something, with a bunch of secret powers. But the time wasn't suitable. So, instead I sat down beside Lia and began a verbal montage of all the funniest moments since we were six. Nothing had ever been easier. Every single one of those memories played in my head like we had lived them a thousand times. Anything with Ophelia did. And it was worth talking until my voice went hoarse, when I heard her laugh and slowly forget about what had just happened.

Even Cass and Axel seemed to be enjoying themselves, listening to my stories.

"Sorry," Ophelia wiped away dry tears, "sorry about that."

"Hey, rule number one of being a Nightwatcher," Cassiopeia grinned, holding a finger up, "never apologise for anything. Everything is legal here."

"Please don't take that seriously," Axel said, eyes widening with fear, as though Cass had said that before and it ended badly, "a lot of things are illegal. Having a panic attack isn't on the list though."

That brought another soft laugh from Ophelia. Good.

"Was it the Disappearing?" I asked, quietly. A short nod proved me right.

"You know," Axel said, eyes gleaming with excitement, "the night after Astell's first Disappearing, he stood in front of a mirror for twelve hours straight. Just staring at himself, 'cause he was too scared of vanishing again."

Cassiopeia rolled her eyes at that. "That's the story we tell Axel if we ever need him to crack a smile for more than a millisecond. Works like a charm."

"It was the best day of my life, total silence," he said dreamily, "you weren't chatting my ear off, cause you were too busy trying to get him to leave the mirror. He wasn't being annoying. And Rora was just completely verbally attacking him. Heaven."

"You had known the guy for one night," Cass snorted.

"A night was more than enough."

Beside me, Ophelia was grinning wider than I'd seen her smile since we got here. Part of it was forced. The other part was just amusement.

One day, I was going to make sure she never had to force a smile again.

"Axel, why don't you show Ophie the music room?" Cass suggested, "Solis and I were gonna take a trip down to the library, an extended tour, you know?"

"Were we?" I asked in confusion. She glared at me. "Oh–oh yeah, we were. I um, want to read about, er, racoons."

"Smart boy," she said with the flattest look on her face.

"Why am I stuck touring?" Axel asked, "I have stuff to do."

"Thanks," Lia said.

"Sorry."

"Woah, would you look at that," Cass put a hand to her chest in shock, "you actually apologised to someone. See? You get along perfectly, now shoo. Let the girl see the not boring stuff here."

At that, Axel grunted in annoyance, but made his way towards the door with Ophelia following closely behind.

"Have fun reading about racoons," Axel teased, calling out from the hallway. Cassiopeia turned towards me.

"Racoons," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"You could have warned me about the library thing," I mumbled, feeling extremely stupid.

"You've already hung around Neo too much," she shook her head, walking out of the room.

"I guess Axel was right then."

"Don't ever say that about my brother again."

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

The library in this place was the most heavenly thing I'd ever stepped into. A gigantic crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the room, an even huger table right beneath it (one of those tables that you could dramatically open a map on to reveal your adventure plan), and the walls were made of bookshelves. There were even rolling ladders. Rolling ladders.

Cass was clearly unfazed, having lived in this place most of her life. Calmly, she strolled through the library and began gliding through the shelves––on the ladder, of course––and pulling out books of various heights and thicknesses.

"There," she dumped the huge pile on the table. "These should be enough to start with. Just records and history, light stuff. We might find stuff about your mum, or my parents."

"This is light?" The pile was the same height as I was. She only gave me a smile that proved we had a lot more research to go through.

"Better now than never, I guess," she shrugged, and promptly opened one of the books to begin reading.

After about three hours of research, I decided that I would never walk foot in this place again. Never in a million years would anyone be allowed to bring ink on dead trees near my body again. I was allergic. My arm was beginning to develop a rash, I was pretty sure.

Finally, Cassiopeia broke the silence by slamming the thickest history book shut––which almost made me fall out of my chair, by the way. "This is useless," she flung her hands in the air in exasperation. "We're not gonna find anything here.

"Where else are we supposed to find information?" I laughed, "up my dog's nose? Yeah, don't think so."

She gave me a bored expression.

"Right, we're too tired for sarcasm. Got it," I cleared my throat nervously.

"There's not gonna be much inside the mansion, anyways," she rubbed her temple wearily, "we might as well be looking for Axel's sense of humour. Let's try again tomorrow, someplace else."

"Gotcha," I gave her finger guns, masking just how much I wanted to flop on my bed and cry. I missed the sun. I missed being able to go to sleep after a long day, instead of just taking a nap whenever I got tired. The Disappearing gave the same effect as sleeping, but nothing beats actual sleep.

I'd get used to it, though. Ophelia and I had each other, and I'd never leave her, never let her leave me. I was doing everything in my power to avoid that.

We'd get through this, we always did.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

"So, is there any kind of amusement for Nightwatchers," I asked, as we all hung out in the common room.

"Oh yeah, plenty," Aurora said, watching Neo play with Fish and Cat on the floor.

"It's more fun to break into daytime places, though," he added, grinning up at me.

"There will be no breaking and entering tonight," Axel said, not looking up from his book, "not after last time's incident."

"Bro, I told you that I wasn't the one who blew up the––" But Neo was cut off by Cat deciding that it was a good time to try and jump out the window.

"I bet we could get them into the art gallery," Aurora suggested, leaving Nereus to wrestle the racoon in the background, "right Cassie?"

"We could try," she shrugged, "but they need disguises. And we'll need Axel, he's the only one with the code to get in."

"There will be no breaking and entering tonight," Axel repeated.

"Okay, I guess we can just take them to the aquarium instead. I know the code and Neo could lead––" Axel broke her off with a loud sigh.

"There will be breaking and entering tonight," he rolled his eyes, getting out of his chair, "get the disguises ready. Nothing stupid. I'll see you at the entrance."

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

"This is so stupid," I laughed out loud while Nereus took out various props and costumes from the cupboard. Aurora and Cassiopeia had dragged Ophelia somewhere else. Apparently, 'disguises' meant the most ridiculous costumes anyone's ever laid their eyes on.

Neo grinned up at me. And I realised that it was going to be extremely difficult for me to get used to the fact that no one had any colour.

"What do you look like?" I blurted out, without thinking, "oh god, sorry, I mean––your colour. Sorry."

Neo laughed out loud at my embarrassment. "You wanna know what colours I had, before the draining?" He beamed, still rummaging around for costumes.

"I mean, yeah."

"Hm, okay," he said thoughtfully, "Well, I was really hot. Like, I remember everyone seeing me and being like WOAH."

"That wasn't my question," I facepalmed. Of course, I'd only known the guy for two nights, but he was obviously a joker. One of my kind.

"Right yeah, got off track," he said, "I guess, it's nothing you can't already tell. I was kind of pale, my hair was practically black, as it is now. I was always cold, so it kind of looked like I never stopped blushing. Rora teased me a lot about that. My eyes were blue, a dark blue. Also, kind of irrelevant, but I spent a lot of time at the beach, swimming. Still do, so I pretty much always had sand in my hair and shoes. Bugged me."

I smiled widely. It was so freaking cool, how all these people lost so much by becoming Nightwatchers, but embraced it with their whole hearts. The way they talked about their old lives so lovingly, but their current ones even more so.

"You wanna know about the others?" he asked, noticing my curiosity.

"Sure."

"Well, Dawn––I mean, Aurora. She had this super light blonde, almost white, hair," he explained, "it glows in the moonlight. I remember, 'cause the day we met each other, she was walking home and it was practically shining, blending in with the snow," he smiled to himself, as though he was reliving an amazing memory, "she was also terrified when I walked up to her; pretty sure she thought I was a serial killer. And you know her eyes, they kept their colour. She would always wear blues, whites, and silvers. Very cold, cold colours." He looked up at me for a moment, before continuing. "Her friend––our friend, Ishani, was pretty much the opposite."

"Where is Ishani?" I frowned, not recognising the name. Neo gave me a sad smile.

"People come and go, Solis."

I decided not to push after that.

"And Cass, Axel. Well, I didn't know them before I arrived. I only came here, like, two years ago, a couple of months after I turned eighteen. But I've seen their colour."

"Wait, what?" I frowned. "How?"

"You'll find out another time," he waggled his eyebrows, obviously knowing something I didn't. "They're both very similar, looks wise. Well, of course they are. Twins, you know? Dark hair, dark eyes. Except Cassie's eyes give more of a homey feeling, and Axel's always look like he's about to kill you. Both of them have brown skin. Cass is obsessed with the colour pink, and I've never seen Axel in anything but black. Or dark grey, if he's breaking out the spring colours."

I laughed. "That's great."

"Yeah, well," Neo shrugged, "they're my family. My entire world, to be honest. Wouldn't trade it for anything."

"There," he said, placing a hat on my head, "see for yourself."

I turned to the mirror and immediately went into hysterics. I was dressed in a pirate hat (with a fake parrot perched on top), ninja mask, a huge trench coat with a yellow feather boa wrapped around my neck, and my shoes were covered in pink glitter. Neo himself was wearing a similar outfit, except a whole lot more...fabulous.

"Axel's gonna kill you," I shook my head.

"If he's gonna kill me, it won't be for this. Plus we're matching," Neo chuckled, then made eye contact with me in the mirror, "hey, you're family too. You know that right? From the second you and Oph found us in that bush, you became family."

Family.

I'd only ever used that word with two people. And only one of them stayed.

"Family," I repeated, trying the word on my tongue, "I can live with that." I grinned.

"You'd better, 'cause now you're held hostage," he joked. Then, without warning, he picked up one of the toy swords, chucked it at me, and took one for himself.

And he jumped on me, knocking us both to the floor.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" I yelled, swishing the sword about as we both died from laughter. It was as though I was a kid again, pretending to be my favourite character from a movie and jumping off the sofa, as though it was the highest cliff.

"Is that the best you can do?" he mocked me, "come on, Moore. Don't let me win easily."

"That is, if you win," I shot back, poking him in the side with the tip of my sword.

"Wanna bet?" he asked, "whoever pins the other to the floor first has to take the blame for our outfits."

"Bet."

And before I even had the chance to think of a move, Neo shoved his leg into the back of my knees, making me lose my balance and fall to the ground.

"Good luck, mate," he grinned, pinning me down by the shoulders and pressing the fake sword to my throat, "it's been nice knowing you."

"And you," I rolled my eyes.

"Boys. What in the world is wrong with them?" Cassie stood in the doorway, arms folded, staring down at us with disappointment. Aurora and Ophie stood behind her, looking as though they were biting back smiles.

"Imagine knowing one of them for over a year, before coming here," Aurora said.

"Imagine living your whole life with one of them," Ophelia said, staring at me with a look on her face that showed she wasn't surprised.

"Hey!" Neo and I said in sync, clambering back off. I dusted off my clothes, glaring at him for beating me. All I got in return was a smug smile.

We all walked out of the room, Cass taking the lead.

"Looking good," Lia snorted, looking me up and down. She was dressed in someone else's clothes. Long jeans, hoodie, a mask and sunglasses. She also had a hat on, to cover her hair. Cassiopeia probably stole them from Axel, since they were all black, so that Ophelia wouldn't stand out due to her colour. God, Neo and I were so stupid. His clothes at least turned monotone along with him, mine didn't.

"You wish you looked like me right now," I joked, "I should have worn something like this to the school dance last year."

"Yeah, you would have blended right into the bowl of juice you fell in."

"I thought we weren't gonna talk about that."

"Nope." She looked up at me, a real smile painting her features. It made my heart full again. Or maybe that was just the adrenaline rush from my fight with Nereus.

But for now, we were having fun.

And that was all that mattered.

☀︎ ☀︎ ☀︎

Neo and I were under a coat. No, not under. He had an arm in one sleeve, and I had an arm in the other, and we zipped up the coat. It was punishment, Axel said, once I'd done my end of the bet and explained what happened. Axel just knew that Neo had something to do with it too.

"We need to hide Solis' colour," he had said, and threw me the black coat, and pulled the parrot off my hat. Just as I was about to put the jacket on, he made Neo share it with me.

"What? Why?" he asked in frustration, "I didn't do anything this time."

I cleared my throat.

"Too bad," Axel shrugged, "you both got us into this mess. Share the coat, and we can laugh at your suffering."

So now, Neo and I were trying to get through art gallery security, while being stuck beside each other, as though we were conjoined twins or something. I even heard Aurora suggesting to Cass that they use it as a 'get along coat' for Axel and Neo one day. Ophelia, of course, was having the time of her life, watching us argue over who would walk through the door first, tripping over each other's feet and trying to walk in sync. She was enjoying herself, though; that sort of made it worth it.

"Oh my goodness," she gasped in awe, when we were finally in. "It's beautiful."

"It would be even more beautiful if I wasn't stuck next to this idiot," Neo jabbed a thumb in my direction.

"This idiot happened to take the blame for your mistakes," I whispered, cackling when he shushed me, afraid of Axel hearing.

The next hour or so was magical. It was such a normal mundane thing, walking around an art gallery, trying to be quiet and failing miserably. Watching Ophelia, Cass, and Aurora seeing who can spin the longest without falling over. Making fun of Neo as he tried to imitate the expressions in the paintings surrounding us. Even Axel seemed to be enjoying himself, leaning against a wall with a small smile playing on his features. Because I could tell, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, he loved these guys. Even Nereus. He loved them and loved seeing them happy.

"Hey," I tried nudging him in the arm, but failed when Neo made a sudden movement. I huffed in annoyance. "You okay?"

Axel raised his eyebrows in confusion. But to my surprise, he gave me a look that resembled a positive emotion. Happiness, was it? Nah. He was content.

"Yeah," he said, sounding shocked even as he said it. Axel focused his attention on his sister again, before turning back to me.

"Yeah, Moore. I'm okay."

a/n – hey !!!! sorry it's been ages since the last chapter. but the chapters in this book are so much longer than in my others, and it hasn't been my main project :( hopefully i'll have another out soonnn. quick question though, is there too much dialogue in this book, compared to description? because i'm trying to balance it out, but the characters are such yappers i cannot get them to shut up for the life of them. anyways, thanks for reading. please leave a vote/comment if you enjoyed it !!!! love ya <3