CLATTONIA

When we arrive back at the hideout, the three of us find Valentina sitting on the couch with Simon between her and Aeryn while the three of them watch a movie -- Valentina with her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees as her eyes are glued to the screen intently, Aeryn with her legs on Simon's lap and her elbow on the armrest of the couch as she leans her cheek against her hand, and Simon trapped between the two of them, not seeming to mind much.

Meanwhile, a clatter comes from the kitchen and a surprised yelp from Juniper.

"June?" Reece calls out and quickly places his jar down on the nearest end table, rushing to the kitchen to help her.

"Sorry, I just dropped one of my pots," Juniper laughs nervously as Reece rushes through the kitchen door.

A warm smile of approval forms on my face at this. Leave it to Reece to put loved ones before the mission. He doesn't always show it to everyone's view, but he truly cares deeply about all of us. That's easy to see for me and I know it in my heart.

"Oh, hey, you're back," Valentina says as she finally notices we've returned.

"Welcome home," Simon says and glances in our direction briefly before going back to watching the TV.

"Welcome back, or whatever," Aeryn mumbles and crosses her arms against her chest, but smiles slightly.

"Thanks," I chuckle slightly.

"How did it go?" Valentina asks.

"We found some of what we were looking for," I explain after a brief pause, "But we're going to need more information on Nightshade's alchemy. I'll explain all of it when all of us are together."

"Alright," Valentina nods and smiles as we walk passed her and into the kitchen before she goes back to watching TV.

"Oh, hey, Clattonia," Juniper beams as the two of us enter the kitchen, "I added the extract to the cookies and baked them while you were gone."

"Thank you," I nod towards Juniper.

"No problem," Juniper beams back before turning her attention to Jace.

Beside her, Reece crosses his arms against his chest and leans against the counter. Meanwhile, I take my jars and place them up in the nearest cabinet before taking Jace's jars from his arms and putting them in the cabinet as well, now only needing the one that Reece placed in the living room.

"Dinner should be ready," I say as I look at Jace, "You may as well stay, since you're already here, but you don't have to if you don't want to."

"I'll stay," Jace says almost instantly, "I actually was hoping to stay."

I nod and smile in approval, secretly elated that Jace wanted to stay in the first place, meanwhile, Reece snorts and glances off to the side, his expression softening when he notices Juniper smiling at him sadly.

"Then I guess we'd better get ready," Reece says quietly and pushes off from the counter, going to grab bowls and items.

***

During the dinner, I sit next to Reece while Jace sits on the right side of me and Juniper sits on Reece's left. Meanwhile, Katsuro sits on Juniper's left and Lucian sits on Katsuro's other side at the end of the table. Across from Jace sits Caliber while Essence sits next to her. After Essence sits Indigo and Ink, followed by Valentina and Aeryn. At the other wooden table in the dining room that's placed across from ours sits Labyrinth, Simon, and Kai.

"Sorry there's not more room over here," I call out to the others as we start adjusting our plates, silverware, and glasses.

"It's fine," Simon calls back as Kai lights a cigarette and Labyrinth simply huffs out in a sense that she doesn't care.

As soon as Simon looks back and notice that Kai lit a cigarette, he frowns, narrows his eyes, and smacks him upside the head, making Kai grumble in displeasure and rub the back of his head, pulling out his cigarette and snuffing it out grudgingly. In turn, Simon smiles smugly in being victorious.

"Let's do introductions, shall we?" I say as I tilt my head to the side slightly and smile, "To make Essence feel more at home, considering we already introduced Jace a while ago. I'm Clattonia Cessair."

"She's being extremely nice," Ink whispers as he leans next to Indigo, who nods in return, "It's kind of unnerving."

"Reece Maverick," Reece says as he sits at the table with his arms crossed against his chest, looking at Essence with an expression that reads, but you already knew that.

"Juniper Wells," Juniper beams and waves at Essence.

"Katsuro Magnanimous," Katsuro nods at Essence and smiles slightly.

"Lucian Adley," Lucian sighs and leans his cheek against the palm of his left hand as his elbow rests against the table.

"Caliber Imperil," Caliber turns to face Essence and says.

"Indigo Iodine," Indigo smiles shyly.

"Ink Kerosine," Ink says and grins as he winks, sticks his tongue out slightly, and makes two peace signs, "And occasionally Kaian Kerosine."

Essence tilts her head slightly and raises a brow, confused by Ink's comment.

"I, uh," Ink rubs the back of his neck and chuckles bashfully, "Have a second personality, but you'll know it when you see it, trust me."

Essence's mouth forms in the shape of an 'o' as the revelation comes across her and she nods slightly before smiling.

"I'm Valentina Berndtsson," Valentina beams before stuffing a cookie in her mouth.

"Aeryn Diadem," Aeryn smiles smugly as she flips her long, black hair over her shoulder.

"I'm Labyrinth Crypt," Labyrinth says from the back table and waves a hand in the air.

"I'm Kai O'Shea," Kai cuts Simon off and smirks as he throws an arm around his shoulders and ruffles his hair, "And this is Simon Berndtsson."

"Excuse you," Simon glares at him and attempts to elbow him in the ribs, "I could've introduced myself."

Essence seems to laugh a little bit at the scene as bowls of food get passed around both tables, the chocolate chip cookies being placed in two bowls and the rest of the food residing on platters and in dishes. Bottles of soda, water, and lemonade get passed around the tables for diversity in case one person doesn't like the other two options, and they get poured into wine glasses or tall, regular glasses. Reece smiles at Essence's warm expression and I give him a sideways, knowing smirk, to which he raises an eyebrow at me after he catches me staring at him out of the corner of his eye. I go to say something to Reece, but Jace bumps my arm and gains my attention instead, my head whipping in his direction to look at him with my eyebrows raised.

"Hm?" I inquire and tilt my head slightly as my eyes bore into his.

"Nothing," Jace shakes his head and pauses slightly, glancing away for a few second before meeting my eyes again, "I'm just, really glad that I met you."

My eyes widen slightly in surprise and a smile works its way onto my face as I nod in agreement.

"I'm glad that I met you, too," I smile softly at him and he smiles right back before turning his attention back to his food.

Beside me, Reece has a displeased expression on his face, but refrains from snorting, surprisingly.

"Hey! That's mine!" Simon shouts from the other table and reaches in vain for the cookie that Kai took off of his plate, colliding into his side and waving his arms in front of Kai's face, who holds up the cookie and laughs.

Meanwhile, Indigo and Ink tease each other and Indigo squeals as Ink pokes her in different places repeatedly before grabbing a cookie and shoving it in her mouth, grinning as she blushes and attempts to look frustrated, but fails miserably and ends up almost making a pouting expression.

I chuckle softly to myself as both of our tables continue to be lively with chatter, warmth, familiarity, and life. Perhaps things really will work out after all in the end.

***

Late at night, after Jace has gone home and Essence has settled into one of the guest rooms, which will eventually become her own, a knock appears at my door as I'm shuffling around papers at the mahogany desk in my room, which resides up against the wall with a black desk lamp and a few books and trinkets, as well as sentimental items, placed on the wooden shelf next to my desk on the left, just a few feet from my half bathroom. A system of shelving hangs on my wall above the desk as well and consists of an ancient style clock with golden and bronze metal twisting around as the frame in gear like fashions with roses engraved into the framework, the hands of the clock itself being made of black metal and the numbers in the form of Roman numerals, courtesy of Reece, who got the clock for me a few years ago. A small keychain with rose petals and black and white feathers, as well as makeshift diamonds and rubies, hangs off of it and drapes down so that it hangs against the wall and stops just a few inches from my desk. I flick off the lamp and my eyes gaze across the locket that Kaden gave to me, which resides next to the lamp on the desk, and I smile in reminiscence before standing up from my black, metal stool that has red padding on it in the seating area. I make my way across the dark brown, wooden floorboards, getting closer to the door with every step. I raise a brow in curiosity when I open the door and find Caliber standing on the other side.

"May I come in?" She asks as she cups her hands together and fidgets them slightly.

"Sure, yeah," I nod and step aside to let her in, closing the door behind her once she is.

"Thanks," Caliber smiles slightly as she steps around the room tentatively.

"What's up?" I ask as I lean against the door with my arms crossed against my chest, "You can have a seat on the bed, you know."

I motion towards my bed, which has two dark purple and two black pillows along with a purple comforter and a giant, white blanket, as well as a fluffy, almost fleece -like, black, thinner blanket underneath the white blanket, and has a canopy up above it that's held by curving, dark brown, wooden posts, and Caliber hesitates for a few moments before going over to it and sitting down on the edge by the end of the bed.

"You told me that if I ever wanted to talk about Kazuki, you'd be there to listen. I'd like to talk about Kazuki," Caliber says.

"What would you like to tell me?" I ask as I push myself off of the door and walk over to her, sitting next to her on the bed.

"I often miss him, well, more often than not, actually," Caliber starts, "And sometimes I wonder if I'm wrong to miss him. Sometimes I wonder if that perhaps it's wrong of me to miss somebody who abandoned me and left me completely alone after always being there for me, going back on their every word and promise to me. But, deep down, I don't hate Kazuki, I never could. I was upset whenever he left -- heartbroken, shattered, sad, angry, confused, hopeless, hurt, and utterly betrayed. Words can't simply comprehend the amount of emotions that I went through and the spectrum that they're on. And with him suddenly being around again, especially as an enemy, it brings distraught to my heart that perhaps we might face him, might end up injuring him or severely harming him, even killing him in the worst case. But, I also feel hope -- hope that maybe he'll come back. Hope that maybe he'll see he still has me waiting for him. Hope that he sees the brighter side. But I tell myself to not get too hopeful, because I've already been let down by him once before whenever I felt as if I never could be let down by someone I admired and put so much trust, love, devotion, and loyalty into. It felt as if a dagger was plunged through my heart straight through my back, but he stabbed me up front, in a way, because I could sense that it was coming. I prefer to be stabbed in the front. At least that way I can see it coming."

"And you know that you'll be fine without him," I say as my eyes drift to the locket that's resting on my desk, "But that doesn't make it okay. That doesn't mean that it won't take time. That doesn't mean that it'll ever fully heal. That doesn't make it easy. He was still a big part of your life and then he was suddenly gone. He cut you to ribbons, not only you, but your heart and your mind. And you still want him to come back, still want to see him one more time, talk to him one more time, have millions of one mores of anything that you can with him, and for him to never leave you again, to restore your trust and faith in him."

"Yeah," Caliber nods, "Exactly like that. It's exactly like that..."

"Look," I sigh and glance back over at Caliber, "I can't tell you what he'll do. I'm not going to tell you to pine over the fact that he could come back, either, because we don't know if he's going to leave or if he's going to stay, or if he'll even see things our way. But I promise you that I'll try to keep him as safe as I possibly can, alright? I know that he means a lot to you and I wouldn't want to rip that from you. But if it comes down to it, you do know what might have to happen, don't you?"

"Yeah," Caliber says quietly, "I know. My heart aches for him though."

"I don't blame you," I smile at her sadly, "Do you mind telling me a bit more about Kazuki? I know his general story, but..."

"Kazuki," Caliber pauses for a few moments, "Kazuki Rin was born into a family of mercenaries in Akihabara, living with his father and his mother. Kazuki's mother was terminally ill due to her Supernatural genetic coding not being fully coded the way that it should be and she was treated ever since she was born. Kazuki always spoke highly of her memory. Kazuki was eight years old when his mother died from her illness and that was when him and his father moved from Akihabara to Shinjuku. Kazuki's father had a mistress in Shinjuku, which both Kazuki and his mother were unaware of, Kazuki only finding out after he was forced to move with his father after his mother died. Kazuki's father's name is Iori, and Iori's mistress also had a child of her own, which you know is Ryouichi. Despite being the same age and having done nothing wrong to him, Kazuki despised Ryouichi for being the son of his father's mistress who he used to cheat on his mother with. Kazuki and Ryouichi became step-brothers two years later whenever Iori married Ryouichi's mother. After Iori married Ryouichi's mother, he revealed that the two of them actually had a child together when Kazuki and Ryouichi were two, who was hidden in Akihabara with Ryouichi's aunt, who had introduced Iori to Ryouichi's mother. After finding out about Mitsuko, the daughter of his father and Ryouichi's mother, Kazuki became disgusted and finally had enough, fleeing to Osaka at age ten to become a jaded mercenary of his own rules who refuses to kill innocent women or children. I was childhood best friends with Kazuki after he moved to Shinjuku because we moved in next to my family and we were well acquainted with Iori's mistress and Ryouichi, and it really hurt my heart when he ran and abandoned me with my parents."

"I'm sorry," I frown and place a hand on her shoulder, "I know how your family life was, and what Kazuki had to go through was horrible."

"Yeah," Caliber nods solemnly, "Kazuki understood my will to become a mercenary just like my parents, but they only wished for me to be married off into another wealthy family to combine with ours and make a powerhouse family. I had no interest in being a trophy wife or in being married off at sixteen just because my family wished for it in order to increase their already elite status. Ryouichi understood too, but with Kazuki it was...it was different."

"Even the most synchronized pair will eventually fall out of step, the question is whether they come back stronger or not at all," I say as I stand up from the bed, "And perhaps those on the brink of madness are truly the sane ones, driven mad by all those who are fake, but we can't let those things define us."

"I'd expect nothing less, coming from you, Miss Cessair," Caliber smiles softly up at me before she runs her hands down her thighs as she stands up, "Thank you."

"I'm always here to listen," I smile to her tiredly yet warmly as she makes her way to the door, "Never forget that."

"Trust me," Caliber says as she opens the door and pauses in the doorway as she glances off to the side, "I won't, and I don't think anyone ever will. Not when it comes to you."

Not when it comes to you.