Daphne put down the book she was unsuccessfully trying to read and put her chin in her hand, a thoughtful frown creasing her forehead. A single question. That was all it took to get Daphne riled up. And Daphne Grimm was going to find out the answer to that question whatever it took. Because if there was one thing her older sister had taught her, it was to never, EVER, give up. And that if you couldn't outsmart or outfight someone, then you could always outrun them. Daphne set off to find someone, anyone, who may be able to answer her question. She wandered around the house, somehow not finding one of the 9 people who lived there. She stumbled upon someone soon enough though.
"Hey, Daph, what's with the troubled face?" The man before her said. He had ruffled blond hair and a nose that looked to have been broken multiple times, in multiple places. His long trench coat brushed the floor and seemed to be made of pockets. His eyes shone and he seemed to ooze confidence.
"Uncle Jake, can I ask you a question?" Daphne said off-handedly.
"Well, you just did but I suppose you could ask another." He teased. Daphne looked him right in the eye, completely serious.
"What is love?" Surprise registered in her uncle's eyes as he considered the question.
"Well, love is a lot of different things. Love is what you feel for your family, or what you feel for your best friend. Love is what you base a relationship on. Love is a relationship really. Does that answer your question?" It didn't really, but Daphne just nodded and walked away. She would simply ask someone else. She found her mother next.
Veronica Grimm was striking and strong. She was also deeply in love with Daphne's father, Henry Grimm, who was just as in love with her. She would know what love was, right?
"Mum?" Daphne called. Veronica looked up from her computer, smiling brightly at her youngest daughter and brushing her dark hair away from her tanned face.
"Yes, Darling?" Veronica answered.
"Mum, what's love?" Veronica blinked in surprise and put her chin on top of her hands, which were linked loosely together by her fingers.
"What's love, huh? That's a tough one. Love is the strongest feeling out there, and a feeling that you can give willingly or unwillingly. It can be unconditional or earned. It can be built up over time and can only be broken by the most terrible of things. Does that help?" About as much as Uncle Jake's answer. Daphne shrugged and strode off to find someone else. She came upon her grandmother in the kitchen, concocting some other delicious albeit strange and usually an odd colored combination.
"Granny, what's love?" Daphne blurted. Granny Relda turned, surprised.
"Why, liebling, love is almost anything. It can be the smallest of things like a secret smile shared between friends or the proposal of marriage between two people. It can be a bond shared between parent and child or the friendly love of neighbors. It can be a simple 'Love you' as you leave for school or work or it can be the vows taken at your wedding." Okay, she was accumulating a lot of answers that suggested that the simple four letter word love was the single most complicated thing in the world. Daphne sighed and went off, thinking that she would never get a straight answer. Her father wandered in at the wrong time.
"Daddy, what's love?" Daphne asked, drawing circles with her finger on the dining room table. Henry's face turned a deep red.
"Why? What's happened? What's going on? Is it a boy? Don't listen to boys Daphne, in fact just stay away from boys altogether!" With that he stormed out of the room. That was even less helpful than the others, Daphne thought. She stood and trudged up the stairs. Her face lit up as she thought of something. There are still more people to ask. Someone's bound to know something. She burst into Mr. Canis' room. The old man opened his eyes from his spot on the bed, where he had been meditating.
"Yes, child?" But he was drowned out by the young girl's question about love. "Everything." He said simply, and closed his eyes again. Daphne waited for more but eventually gave in to the fact there was going to be no more information from the man on this subject. She shrugged and walked out, closing the door behind her. She spotted the door across the hall. It had beware signs all over it in atrocious (Sabrina had taught her that word) spelling. Daphne banged on the door for what seemed like hours but was really only 5 minutes before a boy opened it.
"What do you want, Marshmallow? I'm trying to train my highly deadly army of chimps to build glop grenades faster." He snapped. He had a mop of blond, curly hair that fell over the brightest green eyes that Daphne had ever seen. They barely came close to her sister's blue eyes though, but that was a completely different kind of bright. He was also completely and totally in love with her sister, even if he didn't know it yet.
"Puck, please, what's love?" Puck looked shocked.
"Love is the most evil force on this earth. It makes people get all mushy and romantic and disgusting, and you shall never speak of it at this door again." He slammed the door in her face. Daphne frowned. Well, that was a total bust. She thought to herself. She glanced around the hall and her eyes landed on her own bedroom door. The door to the room she shared with Sabrina. Sabrina. Of course! Sabrina would be able to answer her question. Sabrina knew everything! Daphne ran to the door and yanked it open. She darted into the room and jumped on the bed, where her older sister was reading a book.
"Hey Daffy." The blond said without looking up. Daphne grinned.
"Brina, what's love?" Daphne kind of expected to be shot down immediately, but instead, to her surprise, Sabrina sat up cross-legged on the bed and closed her book.
"What do you mean? There's lots of different types of love." She said.
"Well, like how Mum and Daddy love each other. Or Uncle Jake and Briar." Daphne elaborated. The older girl looked thoughtful as she stared into space. After a while she said something.
"Love is the little things, the small moments that you wouldn't trade for a million big ones. It's every smile you share and every time your heart speeds up when he walks into the room. It's every time your stomach flip flops when he talks or when you blush for no reason at all when he looks at you. It's when you stumble over your words because he's staring at you and when you feel like you could run a hundred miles when he smiles at your joke. It's when he laughs in your face at his own joke but you can't care enough to be angry just because he's laughing. It's when he makes you laugh at the littlest things because he had made a big deal out of it in the past. It's when you giggle randomly and everyone looks at you like your crazy because you remembered something really funny and embarrassing that he had done. It's when he blushes and gives you the tiniest smile when he stumbles over his words. Love is the most simply complicated, insanely simple, confusingly surprising, surprisingly confusing, most amazing feeling on earth that most people don't find, but the select few who do fight for it with their lives." Sabrina's eyes came back into focus to see a wide-eyed Daphne staring at her in awe. "Did that help?" She asked. Daphne nodded emphatically and ran from the room. It had helped, a lot. And little did Sabrina know, Daphne had recorded all of the answers she had received, including her older sister's. And that Daphne had elected Sabrina's answer as the best one of them all.