To Lyger 0: I imagine it depends. Some, like Plagg, would be happy for their holder but want to make themselves scarce; others, like Tikki or Barkk, would be absolutely ecstatic. Then you have Xuppu, who probably makes fart noises from the walls for the duration!
To armadas: After the last couple of fics, a little fluff seemed like a good idea!
Replies to Reviews of "Brightest Days" Chapter 14:
To Lyger 0: They really needed a win after everything they went through. And adding another couple miraculous to their arsenal will definitely prove beneficial against the Tarasque eventually…
To Anon2018: The title for "Darkest" was actually where the idea for the title of "Brightest" came from! The two work really well together as a unit. But there will absolutely be more HOUK stories coming.
To armadas: Glad you caught up! (aside from "Patrol Logs")
The tent was silent. Outside, Sabrina could hear a few people walking past in either direction but no one came near the tent. Sabrina sighed. She had been back in the camp for almost a week now, and while the heroes had outwardly accepted her, she still sensed their nervousness and mistrust. Although most of them tried to hide it, she could sense the tiny spike of anxiety from many of them when they saw her around the camp. Her stomach clenched. For as useful as her miraculous could be – especially under the circumstances – it brought with it some very powerful drawbacks. This was something she had not realized when she agreed to take up the Butterfly Miraculous: she could feel every emotion of the people around her. Most of the time, that wasn't a problem. But most of the time, she hadn't just turned on her friends, joined forces with a monster, and attempted to take the miraculous.
Now, more than ever, she was grateful that they had taken a tent near the very edge of the refugee camp. The rest of the Heroes of Paris were in the tents closest to theirs – Marinette and Adrien, Alya and Nino, Mylène and Ivan… They almost formed a buffer between her tent and the rest of Hero Town. Sabrina had been staying in her tent most of the time since her return, trying to avoid notice as much as possible. The other heroes had been… less forgiving, though they had accepted Ladybug's decision.
A small spike of sadness and grief appeared on the edge of Sabrina's consciousness, coming from the direction of a few tents near the center of the refugee camp, next to the dining tent. Sabrina's breathing hitched, and she closed her eyes, concentrating on the fear and tracing it back to the source. A boy several years younger than her sat behind the tent in question, hugging his knees and sniffling. Moving her attention back away from the boy, Sabrina scanned the nearby tents for other people. There were a few nearby, but none seemed to have noticed him. Her stomach clenched, and she started to sit up, but the emotions shifted and the boy's grief diminished. Sabrina sighed, lying back down on the cot.
"What is wrong, Mistress Sabrina?" asked Nooroo, stirring her out of her reverie.
She looked over at the simple cardboard box that Chloe had claimed as a nightstand. Aisha had found a set of paints somewhere and started decorating the sides, including pictures of all the Heroes together – Sabrina's stomach still turned on seeing Aisha's painting of her and Max holding hands in front of the Eiffel Tower. Nooroo hovered directly above that painting, looking at her. She let out a breath. "Just… thinking," she explained. Her shoulders slumped. "If Max were here right now, what do you think he would say?" Nooroo cocked his head in a question. "About me, about this camp, about… about anything?"
Kaalki scoffed, tossing aside the top of a carrot. "He would say that it is time to get up, get out there, and collect data. Everything has a scientific explanation, so there is a scientific solution to any problem."
Sabrina cracked a weak smile. "Yeah…" She sighed wistfully. "If only it were that simple." Someone hit the tent flap on the outside, and Sabrina nearly jumped. "H–hello?"
"Um… Sabrina?" Nath's voice came through the canvas. Reaching out with her senses, Sabrina felt Marc standing next to him, nervousness and anxiety pouring off of both of them in waves. "Uh… is it okay to–"
She sat up, pulling her feet up onto the cot and hugging her knees. "Yes – you can both come in." The tent flap drew back slightly, and Nath stepped inside, followed by Marc. They stood nervously near the doorway, turning and looking around the small space in surprise. Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "What can I do for you?" she asked. Her breathing hitched, and her gaze dropped down to the ground. "Do you also want to know why?" she whispered bitterly.
"No." Nath shook his head. "I don't really need to ask – I don't need to know, but I already have a pretty good idea. After my Opa–well–you saw how angry I was, how much I just wanted to lash out. And I think I was actually even a little bit prepared when that happened. For you and Max?" He squeezed Marc's hand. "I was about ready to go off the deep end when Marc got tossed like a ragdoll, and he survived!"
Sabrina finally looked up at them, her eyes finding Marc. "How is your back?"
Marc winced, rubbing the small of his back. "It's… still sore," he admitted. "Hato Gozen and Olivet – and Mão Curadora, for that matter – have all tried their healing magic on it, and it feels a little better each time. But every treatment seems to help a little less now, if that makes sense. So they say it's still going to need time to heal on its own."
Sabrina nodded. "That–that's good. I'm glad it's feeling better – even if only a little."
The silence stretched on for a long minute. Finally Nath cleared his throat. "Um… so… where's your 'girl gang'?" he asked. Sabrina raised an eyebrow. "It seems like I don't see you without Chloe or those other four these days."
"Oh." Sabrina smiled, though the smile ended at her mouth. "You saw the UK heroes leave the other day, right?"
Nath and Marc both nodded. "It looked like something happened when they were taking off – did they ever figure that out?" asked Nath.
Sabrina shrugged helplessly. "Ladybug isn't telling me too much, but Chloe said it was some sort of misunderstanding: someone threw chi-putty, someone threw punches…"
"What is with those Dark Acolytes?" Marc wondered. "They just – they're obsessed!"
Nath hummed. "That's as good a word as any for them."
Sabrina nodded, thinking back on her few conversations with the Heirodeacon. She shrugged. "But that's where two of them are. Then, since we sort of have an idea of what to do against the Tarasque, Chloe is off meeting with the leaders of the other European hero groups to explain it – your friend the Knight should be there, too," she added. Nath cracked a smile, chuckling. "Hoda is helping Biladurang with some repairs on the other space-plane, since it was damaged in the fight."
Marc cocked his head in confusion. "But… I thought that they repaired all the damage to both planes when we all arrived in Angola."
Sabrina frowned, looking down at the ground. Her shoulders slumped. "Not that fight."
"Ah."
Sabrina shrugged. "And Aisha… She was going to stay, but I told her it was okay for her to go and see her brother. She had hardly seen him since the end of the fight, since she spent so much time here with me." She frowned. "To be honest, I didn't really want her to be around right now; I've have people around constantly for so long… I thought I wanted to be alone. There's been activity and noise all the time… I thought I needed the quiet."
Nath shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Embarrassment bloomed within him, and he shifted toward the tent door. "Um… we can go, then…"
Sabrina shook her head. "No!" Nath started, and Sabrina swallowed guiltily. "No… I–I thought I wanted to be alone… but it's too oppressive."
Nath dropped onto the other cot, followed by Marc, and placed his elbows on his knees. "We can stay."
Marc nodded. "You don't need to talk if you don't want to… but you're not alone."
Nath smiled. "Considering how much you helped me after my Opa… I'm happy to return the favor."
Sabrina's stomach clenched and unclenched. Slowly she drew in a deep breath and released it. "Thanks."