The verbal lashing Kjelle received that night for what had been revealed that she'd done wasn't too terrible, all things considered. As Camilla was trying to tear into her, breaking from her motherly persona to get downright angry, all she could think about was how she'd experienced far worse come from her own parents, who had never tried playing nice with her and were always ready to chew her out if they'd found out she'd done something wrong. In her mind, as she was hearing the accusations of being horrible and rude and a disgrace to the people of Krakenburg, were visions of her mother giving her the same exact list of things she'd done wrong, with her father there adding in whatever he felt necessary, before they'd start laughing and stop taking everything so seriously.

She knew there wasn't going to be any laughter after Camilla was finished with her, but maybe a hug and a reminder that she was wanted there, and that was completely acceptable. This wasn't the same as being punished by her parents, even if she appreciated their methods more than these ones, and she was fully understanding of that fact. "You are beyond lucky that you haven't done anything news-worthy to get yourself removed from this place," Camilla told her, her voice going back to its typically sweet and sultry sound. "I wish that you wouldn't have picked fights with who you did, but alas what you've done you can't exactly take back. Leo has forgiven you completely, that much I know, but he expects you to pay him back somehow for your mistreatment of him."

"And what if I don't do that? What if I decide I don't want his forgiveness?" It wasn't something she actually wanted, but Kjelle was fond of testing waters to make sure what boundaries she had in a situation. "Am I going to get kicked out then?"

"No, Vani, you won't be kicked out, but Leo has my permission to make things difficult for you as long as you refuse to play nice." That was when she opened her arms for her traditional hug, a gesture that Kjelle wanted to refuse but knew that refusal of would just lead to guilt-tripping by Camilla. "But let's not think about that possibility and move on with our lives, there's so much we can focus on that's happier than petty squabbles with my younger brother."

When she went into the hug she fully expected to be smothered in Camilla's chest, but she was given the opportunity to stand tall in the embrace, rather than be pushed downward. It was different than previous hugs, but she was certain that the difference came in the timing of it all. Not like she minded, she hated the close facial contact with someone else's chest and was thankful she wasn't having to endure that again, but at the same time she wondered how much it was bothering Camilla to be respectful of someone's boundaries on that matter. "Uh, I don't mean to interrupt quality time, but someone's at the door," Beruka said, poking her head into the room with her eyes laser-focused on where Camilla was standing. "You two can hug it out later. They're demanding that you come talk, Camilla."

"That I come talk?" she repeated, letting go of Kjelle quicker than she'd intended to so that she could bustle past Beruka in the doorway and check on who was visiting them. "I'll be back in a moment or two, play nice while I'm gone ladies." Her delicate wave as she disappeared out of sight was laughable, but when Beruka walked into the room to take the place she'd vacated, the air in the whole place changed. Gone was the motherly feeling that had been present during the whole punishment, replaced with the cold presence of someone who didn't seem to want to be where she was.

Yet, when Beruka said something next it was as if she'd wanted to be there the whole time. "I have something I want to ask you," she started, catching Kjelle's attention with her blunt way of bringing up her intentions. "It's about your backpack next to your bed. That's where all your belongings are stored?"

"Yeah, I didn't really bring much with me when I left home and decided to try to make a life for myself around here." Kjelle could count on her fingers how many outfits she'd packed when she'd originally left Ylisse, and even since becoming part of the Krakenburg family she'd maybe inherited one or two more outfits. She looked at Beruka, trying to figure out where she was attempting to go with this question, before telling her, "I didn't have much back home anyway, so really I packed exactly what I needed. Why do you ask?"

"It seems like more than enough space for everything I've seen you wear. Where did you hide everything else you had?" The question came as Beruka got right next to her and stared into her face, unblinking as she did. "You didn't have anything illegal that you had to discard before entering Windmere, did you? Weapons, perhaps?"

Up until she gave her suggestion for what had been hidden, Kjelle had begun to worry that Beruka had somehow put together her background and was trying to figure out where all of her stuff she'd originally had was left before faking her new life. Now that she knew where she was going with this interrogation, though, she could breathe easier. "I didn't have anything else, don't worry, and definitely no weapons. Why would you jump to that conclusion, do I look like the kind of person carrying around knives or guns in my bag when I go somewhere new? I've got my fists, thank you very much."

"I saw the bag had a holster built into it and wondered why that was. Nothing important." Backing up a single step, Beruka saw the look of confusion overtake Kjelle's face, her trying to place where the holster she was referring to was. "It's inside, on the back of the bag. A perfect place for a concealed weapon. That kind of bag would've done me good when I was…you know, using weapons as part of my job."

It was hard not telling her that the bag had been used by someone who'd regularly carried a gun with them, because she didn't know how likely a position like that would've existed in parts of Nohr. "I don't know where the bag came from, my mother ended up with it one day and it sort of became mine after that. She might've gotten it from someone expecting her to have a gun on her, or maybe she got it because it was cute." Shrugging, Kjelle hoped her lie of an explanation was believable enough to get Beruka to accept it.

Whether if it was or not, she was more hung up on the fact that it had a holster than anything else. "Your mother might have been a militia woman behind your back. That's the way most Nohrians get their hands on weapons, through the military. It's all done in secret, though, as our government leader doesn't want uprisings happening against him." Whatever Beruka was focusing on, she'd started drifting away from her, shaking her head after a few moments to reorient herself in the conversation. "It's part of why the siblings here keep ex-criminals around them, because we know how to fight if needed."

"And you thought I was here because of that, didn't you?" Beruka nodded, and Kjelle felt herself relaxing more now that she knew she wasn't digging herself a hole she wasn't going to be able to escape from. "Ha, I've never actually fought someone with any kind of real weapon in my life, just my fists and my words. Camilla picked me because she saw something else in me, I guess."

"You're a strange one, Vani, but I think I see what she sees in you. A spirit that'll…" Her voice trailed off as she heard Camilla loudly yell something excitedly in the other part of their home, and she chuckled. "It'll do us all good in the end, I feel it. Either that, or it'll help us get to where we're going."

Her head swiveling towards where Camilla's yelling was continuing, Kjelle wanted to make a comment on what Beruka had just told her but decided it wouldn't do her any good to try and unpack that statement. "She sure sounds excited about something out there, whoever's at the door must have had something really important to tell her. Did you see who it was before you told her they were there, or did you send her out there blindly?"

"I knew who it was before I sent her. It's fairly obvious who would come calling at this hour, or at least, it is to me. Would you be interested in seeing who's there?" It was a question that didn't need an answer, as Beruka had started towards the other room while she was asking it, and naturally Kjelle was there to follow her, curious about who Camilla was speaking with. As they entered the other room, it became clear that they weren't going to get a direct view of who was there without being noticed, but as Camilla would move around excitedly as she spoke they could catch glimpses of the person at the door. "He hasn't come around as much since the arrests happened, but it's good to see him again."

Mouthing the name of the man she knew she was looking at, all Kjelle could think back to was the conversations she and Odin had had before they'd come to Nohr, about how they were looking for his cousin and that was their primary goal. The man standing there wasn't who they were looking for, but he was the person they'd find him with, so being so close to Xander without any idea of if his companion was there or not was frustrating at best. "Seems like he's a loving older brother if he checks in on his sister like this," she said after several split-seconds of being able to see him looking stone-faced while he spoke with Camilla. "Do you ever get to talk to him yourself, or is this about as close as you get?"

"I've spoken to him a few times, but not recently. Something's happening, we all know it, and he's having to focus on it. I'm waiting for the day where he lets his partners roam free once more, but until then I'll be patient." Her words were uninspiring yet cryptic, and Kjelle could tell that Beruka was hiding something that she knew with them. Before there was a chance to ask about that, she was going back towards the large bedroom, motioning for her to follow. "We'll get our chance to speak with him properly someday, let's leave the siblings alone for now."

"That's fair, I guess we can do that," she replied, casting one last glance in Xander's direction and committing his stern face to memory once more before she met up with Beruka in the bedroom, getting commanded to sit on the bed with a silent finger. "O-okay, what did I do to make you angry? Did I cross some line asking you what I did?"

"Of course you didn't, I'm curious about something else about your bag."

The holster that she'd seen get used a handful of times hadn't been something Kjelle had expected to hear about, so she wasn't sure what else Beruka would have to ask about. Aside from its clear former life as a police officer's bag, there wasn't much remarkable about it, and if there was then it wasn't going to have a fun story attached to it like the holster could have. "Go ahead, I can tell you as much as I know about it but like I said, my mother gave it to me. It was hers before it was mine."

"So she'd be the one who attached the patch to the front of it?" The question hit Kjelle harder than it should have, because now she needed to come up with an explanation for why, exactly, her supposedly Nohrian mother had given her a bag with a patch belonging to a foreign police force on it. Beruka noticed that Kjelle's mind was coming up with some far-fetched reason but didn't call her out on it, giving her time to find her words before pushing harder for an answer. "I've never seen a patch like that before, and I've spent a lot of time going through things smuggled into the country. Do you know what it says on it and what it means, or were you never told?"

"The patch on it? You mean that wasn't part of the bag originally? I never knew." She did know, she knew that she'd been in the room when Cordelia had sewn it onto the front of the bag for her, she knew that her mother had given her that as a gift not all that long ago. But she couldn't say that without ruining what she'd been doing so well at keeping secret—although now she could turn the conversation away from what she had and to why Beruka knew she had it in the first place. "Wherever it's from, I really can't tell you, but why do you know I have it? Have you been going through my stuff?"

"I might have been, but don't worry about me taking anything. I was merely checking to see if you were some Hoshidan spy, or here to try and destroy our lifestyle from the inside out. That doesn't mean I thought you were one, I was ordered to do it by someone." There was no reason to distrust what Beruka was saying, but hearing her talk about how she was ordered to snoop through someone's belongings did feel wrong. "Everything is exactly as it was when you put it there, I am thorough in my investigating without being disruptive."

Even if she wasn't going to label Beruka as a liar for what she was telling her, it would have been wrong to claim that Kjelle wasn't hurt by what she'd heard. This was someone she'd trusted and begun considering a friend telling her that she had been ordered to go through her things to make sure she was who she said she was—which she wasn't, but there was no way that they'd find that out with what she had in her bag. All of her electronics and incredibly personal belongings had been left in Hoshido under Subaki's care, and the only thing even remotely personalized was her bag itself, which she'd been able to successfully lie about. "Whoever told you to do it, I hope you were able to go back to them and tell them I'm exactly who you all think I am, because why would I hide anything from you guys?"

"Trust me, you'd be surprised." Beruka's answer was short and sweet, but didn't give any clues as to what might have happened in the past to warrant this sort of behavior. "Now let's figure out what we're going to do while Camilla's still occupied, there's no telling how long she'll be speaking with her brother."

"Because we've always got to be doing something, I get you." There was something that Kjelle wanted to do right then, but it wasn't possible given that it involved listening in on that conversation happening in the front entrance to their little home, and the last thing she needed to do was raise suspicion by being insistent on doing that. The best she could do was let Beruka take the lead and plan whatever they were going to do next, and go from there.

It had been over a month since the trip was supposed to have ended, since two people returned home from Hoshido when four should have. Cordelia had excellently played the role of being unaware of what had happened to cause the other two to stay behind, and Severa had tried her best to keep up with the idea that they'd snuck off while at the airport and there had been no time to find them, but her smug facial expressions told everyone that there was more to it than what she said. No one could get a straight answer out of her, and she'd direct anyone who asked too many questions to her mother to talk to her instead, which meant having to face Cordelia and her insistence that the story she and Severa were telling was the whole truth.

One thing was for certain: the two had stayed behind in Hoshido for some reason, and now they needed to be brought back in any way possible. With a former Hoshidan prince on their side, it would've been assumed to be pretty easy, but when Takumi consistently refused to contact anyone for help (because, as he'd remind them, they had bigger problems to worry with than a couple of missing teenagers) it wasn't going to be as easy as thought. "It's to be expected, we've been looking for my brother for ten years, even with Takumi assisting us, we shouldn't have jumped to the thought that he'd be able to do much more this time," Lucina said with a sigh to the people sitting around the makeshift table at the police station, not a single one of them on duty but rather using the place as a good meeting area. "We're never going to get any leads on any of this, and whose fault might that be?"

"I'm willing to guess you don't want to blame the people who went missing," the woman sitting right next to her replied, rolling her eyes as she spoke, "which would honestly be the best thing to do. They chose to pull this stunt, they're the ones who we should be blaming for them being gone. But no, you're going to blame everyone else because you can't blame your family for doing things wrong."

"That's as far from the truth as you could get right now, Morgan, please don't talk like that. I know that Inigo screwed up when he ditched me way back when, and I know that O'wain and Kjelle screwed up staying behind this time." Tapping her fingers together in front of her face, Lucina looked around at the people that had gathered there for the meeting. Morgan and Cynthia had been mainstays at these meetings for as long as she could remember, having been close friends with Inigo back when they were young. As usual, there was a single representative from two different families that had also found somewhat close ties with her brother, this time being Brady and Yarne (although the four siblings they had between them were also around, just not at the meeting). Severa had been present for a little bit but had scurried off when the topic of going to Hoshido themselves to investigate had been brought up a little while earlier.

And lastly there was Takumi, looking unhappy with what was being discussed but also wanting to be supportive for the woman he cared about. "I'm glad you don't blame my people for this behavior, you know as well as I do that they didn't do anything wrong here. I mean, it might have been one or two of them that had done some convincing, but we can't prove that."

"If anyone convinced my brother to stay there, it'd be some lady, which makes sense knowing him! It's just that I don't know who'd be able to convince O'wain to abandon his mother and stay in Hoshido, and Kjelle…that girl's been through enough as is, her making this choice doesn't make sense." Lucina's fingers folded together as she brought her hands in closer to her mouth, closing her eyes as she thought about any possibilities that might have been overlooked. "I just don't get it, they were both happy here in Ylisse and were just going to Hoshido for a visit, and now they're gone like Inigo is."

"Why'd ya have to bring O'wain and his mom up, now all I can think about is how she keeps goin' over to Ma's and cryin' at her for hours, then Ma comes over to my place and cries at me about how she can't do anythin' to help." Brady's words came with a sniffle, as he rubbed at one of his eyes just thinking about his mother crying. "I hate seein' Ma like that, and it's all that kid's fault. Don't ya think he should've thought about how his mom would handle him bein' gone before he left?"

"He was his mother's world, she's really distraught without him around," Cynthia added in agreement, looking towards Brady with a smile to hopefully keep him from crying too much over what he'd said. "I know that we all enjoyed watching him grow up and be this goofy little guy, but his mom loved him most of all and she's the most hurt by what he's done."

Lucina opened her eyes a crack and glanced at the two who had spoken, before letting her lids flutter shut once more. "Trust me, if she isn't spending her time crying with miss Maribelle, she's over at my parents' house trying to piece things together with them. They all share that connection, losing a son to a trip to Hoshido, and it's rough for all of them. For my parents for having to live through this again, and for Aunt Lissa because she's living through it right now."

"At least they have a support system that's nearby," Yarne remarked, his hands tapping all across the span of table directly in front of him. "My mom keeps calling and telling me that she's getting calls a couple times a week from Kjelle's parents, just because they're so far away from everyone else and my mom's the only one they really trust right now about all of this. I guess no one even told them that she was going out of the country, so they found that out by her coming up missing."

"It's strange that they weren't told about her leaving beforehand, but I don't think anything's suspicious about that." Morgan wasn't even bothering to acknowledge who'd spoken, her eyes on Lucina and Takumi rather than anyone else. "I mean, if I was going to leave the country, unless I thought something seriously wrong was going to happen I might not bother telling my parents either, and I live in the same town as them!"

An offended gasp came from Cynthia, who seemed to not like hearing her sister be so rude, but it was Lucina who spoke once more. "I disagree, I think that it's quite suspicious that she didn't bother telling them a thing. Especially since she'd just been to see them not long before leaving, there was plenty of time to let them know what was going on. I firmly believe that not telling them was an intentional choice, but what it means is—"

"Hold on just a minute, you probably know her parents better than any of the rest of us, wouldn't you say that Kjelle telling them that she's leaving the country would result in a huge disaster and argument, maybe with punches thrown and lots of screaming?" Not even caring that she'd offended her sister with what she'd said before, Morgan was completely focused on verbally settling this issue with Lucina. "Hell, I've gotten to spend a bit of time with her parents before and I know that telling them anything they don't want to hear will end with someone feeling hurt."

"—I'd agree with you, but the people we knew as her parents aren't even close to the people they are now, from what I've heard." Her eyes opening once more, Lucina shifted her gaze upward so she couldn't see any of the eyes resting on her. "I mean, we're all aware of the incidents that led to Kjelle deciding to leave them to live in Ylisse, I doubt she'd have made that decision if her parents were the people we'd known them to be."

"So you're telling me that they wouldn't have minded if they'd known she was leaving the country? Somehow I doubt that's possible."

"Morgan, I know you want to think that you're right, but you need to be open-minded about this. Let's not pigeonhole her parents as these aggressive people who'd pick a fight with their own daughter because she's doing something potentially dangerous. They want what's best for her, and if she wants to travel I don't think they'd stop her from doing so, which is why it doesn't make sense that she wouldn't tell them she was going." Lucina looked at Morgan with a solemn expression, getting anger in return, but refused to back down from her stance on the matter. "It isn't as if this is the issue at hand, though, we just need to understand why they stayed in Hoshido and where they're going now that they're there."

Takumi raised a hand to draw attention to himself so he could speak. "I've said this to you before, Lucina, but I don't think they're actually intending on staying in Hoshido. We know without a doubt that Inigo isn't there, who's to say they haven't tried replicating his journey in an attempt to find him?"

"Because who would know his journey well enough to replicate it," she replied as calmly as she could, while everyone else present tried not to laugh at the absurd suggestion. "Everyone had no idea where he'd gone and what he'd decided to do, remember? That's why he's been missing for ten years."

"I know, but it was an idea. People could've lied to us about what they knew when we asked." Lowering his hand now that he was being shamed for what he'd said, Takumi tried scooting away from the table but Lucina reached out to grab him to keep him where he was. "I'm sorry, I might've just ruined the seriousness of what was being said with my laughable idea, I should go."

She shook her head. "Where would you go? I think Freddy and Sil were going to try and get the copier to work, and Bud was talking about getting food ordered, and who honestly knows where Kitte is right now, so would you just wander around until you found someone you know?" While she raised a good point that he didn't have a direction in which he'd be going, she'd left out many possible people he could talk to, something that he was going to keep to himself until he could get away.

"Just let him go, he's right that he ruined how serious we were trying to be," Morgan said, sounding like she meant business with her words. "He can go play copy-bitch with the others or something, who really cares what he does? I know I don't."

"Would you shut up for five seconds and stop being rude, he might have just said something dumb but it doesn't mean that he should go." Immediately apologizing for being so snappish, Lucina turned to face Takumi and saw him pushing his chair further from the table, rather than feeling wanted by what she'd said. "Are you really going to leave us? I just yelled at a friend for you and you're still going to go?"

"Don't worry, I'll be back soon enough. You all just keep talking, it's not like I'm much use to you anyway." Flashing a grin that masked how negative he was being towards himself, Takumi waited until Lucina had turned back to face everyone remaining at the table before standing up and walking towards the offices there at the station. As a civilian, he shouldn't have been allowed to go into that areas without accompaniment, but as a former prince and someone closely linked with an important family to the station, he could do exactly as he pleased without complaint. The offices were mostly locked up, the officers that used them either out for the day or around doing something else entirely, but the one he was looking for in specific had its door sitting wide open.

"Did something get brought up out there that you feel our attention needs to be drawn to?" Cordelia asked without looking up from the papers she was organizing, a pen in her hand as she jotted down notes here and there. "Or are you here for some casual conversation?"

He laughed, scratching at his arm awkwardly as he stood in the doorway, looking between the woman at the desk and her lookalike daughter sitting against the wall, throwing a ball up into the air. The next time the ball came back down to her waiting hand, Severa held onto it as she said, "I think it's probably the first one, Mother, since why else would Takumi want to come talk to you? I bet they're out there badmouthing Hoshido or something."

"That isn't exactly right, but you wouldn't believe how much they don't want to listen to the truth." Coming into the office and closing the door behind him, Takumi saw Cordelia put the papers down and focus on what he had to say, while Severa stood up to look more interested. "I mean, I didn't tell them the exact truth, I just might have made a comment about how people could have lied about knowing where people were and none of them wanted to believe me about it."

"Why would you try telling them that people were lying about knowing stuff? That doesn't make any sense, and it implicates you in things even though you weren't directly involved in…most of it." Her head tilting to the side as she smiled at him, Cordelia watched as Takumi shifted uncomfortably against the door, reaching for the handle he'd latched on himself. "Oh please, you know that none of them would call you out for being involved in the mess in the ways that you were, but at the same time, they might not be thrilled with you once they know that you set some events in motion."

"When Sakura approaches with a request, you don't ignore her, even if it's a silly request. I'd do what I did again in a heartbeat, if it means that she gets what she wants." He glanced towards Severa, the image of his younger sister overlapping with the physical presence of the girl standing there in his mind. Sakura had been right around Severa's age (a couple years older at most, he recalled) when she'd approached him asking him to help arrange someone safe crossing into Nohr, despite the countries being on unsteady ground at the time. He'd had to do it before, when people had wanted to go across the border for family reasons, and he wasn't going to tell her no this time, but when he'd asked why it was so important she didn't give him an answer.

Had she said why this was something she was asking for, he might have refused to do it, but at the time there was no reason to tell her no. Within a year's time he wouldn't be in Hoshido anymore, they'd be motherless and their brother would be ruling as king, and the poor guy he'd helped get across the Nohrian border was now trapped there indefinitely due to the closure of all border gates. Things had changed since then, that much he knew, but the guy was still missing, and he couldn't tell the woman he loved that he had helped her brother disappear into nothingness. "You didn't do anything wrong though, Subaki did, for asking Sakura to help with his silly task. I know you'd been part of how we'd gotten across the border for our grandfather's sake, but you never had to do this for Inigo."

"Thank you for the reminder, Cordelia, but the fact that it was Sakura of all people asking me to do this made it impossible to say no. I had no choice but to make the border crossing happen, but I didn't know what would happen after. That was one of my last tasks as a ruling prince, you know." The memory of finding out that their mother had been murdered by Nohrians and that the border was now locked as a declaration of war was one he hated lingering on, yet there it was, fresh in his mind. That was the final straw to convince him to leave Hoshido for himself, to get away from the royal mess that his life had been up to that point, to follow the woman he'd fallen in love with rather than convince her to come stay in Hoshido with him.

He couldn't help but wonder how much different life would have been had she been the one to uproot herself for the sake of a relationship. Lucina had a happy life in Ylisstol, working there at the police station in her father's footsteps, but she was haunted by the disappearance of her brother—something that she clearly carried on her shoulders as a large burden. She had to deal with so much emotional baggage because of him going missing, even though the search for him had brought her so many good things, Takumi himself being one of them. If they had chosen to live in Hoshido, he could've kept his royal title and she would have been able to attain one, and they'd be able to be hands-on with the search for her brother.

Except if they'd decided to be in Hoshido rather than Ylisse, this second disappearance would never have needed to happen, because he knew that the two teens had gone missing in search of Inigo. If they'd been there looking for him and never giving up on finding where he'd gone, those two wouldn't have felt the need to go do the same. "I know you're thinking about what you could have done to stop this," Cordelia said, breaking Takumi out of his staring at Severa, who'd gone back to throwing the ball in the air, "but listen to me. You did what you felt was best for you, and you didn't need to consider what anyone else would choose to do. Those two going into Nohr to find Inigo only happened because O'wain wanted to do it, it wasn't anything to do with you."

"It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't made it possible for people to cross the border easier, getting that forger into Hoshido wasn't exactly easy, after all." Takumi sighed, thinking about the market square and how many times he'd been there to make sure the person doing illegal acts there hadn't been faced with legal troubles. "It's a miracle that Ryoma or Hinoka, or even Sakura, haven't said something about that guy holding a shop there. Maybe they think the control at the border is just as dumb as I did, when I was allowed to have an opinion about it."

That comment got them talking about politics as a whole, moving away from the specifics of their one situation to focus on the entire political climate between the neighboring countries half a world away. It was a topic that was a large time-sink for anyone getting involved in it, and by the time Cordelia had said her piece about how she felt the governments could handle themselves better more time had passed than Takumi had expected. He excused himself from the office without much of a reason for why he was leaving so quickly, and as he walked away from the reopened door he heard Severa make some remark about how he was being weird and that he needed to chill out. Cordelia's responding laugh was enough to make him feel like she was on his side, even though she was most likely laughing in agreement with what her daughter had just said, and that feeling of belonging carried him back to where the meeting was.

He was greeted by the sight of Yarne on the phone, nodding along to whatever was being said to him, while Lucina had her head buried in her arms on the table. "What did I miss out here?" he asked, inwardly hoping that someone would tell him that the missing people had been found so he could stop living with the guilt of being partially responsible for everything. "What happened to all the talking?"

"Apparently some of the Feroxi big-bosses are coming down here to meet with people, so that they can figure out how to handle this situation better," Cynthia explained, while Morgan rolled her eyes, fiddling with her phone in her hands as she listened to her sister. "And after Lucy got called about that, that's when Yarne got called by his mother, and who knows what that's about. So that's what happened to all the talking."

"Feroxi bosses? You mean like police bosses?" Takumi got to see every head that wasn't buried or actively on the phone nodding, and he saw that they all looked rather grim at the idea. "What's it for, did something happen that we're not aware of? We are at the police station and no one could tell us there's a crisis happening out there, is that what you're telling me?"

Lucina lifted her head and turned to face Takumi, her lips pursed together in the straightest line he'd ever seen someone's face be in. "No, that's not what they're telling you. What's happening is that the Feroxi police force has been involved in this whole situation from the start, and because it's been so long with zero leads, the heads of the force are going to pay our station a visit to see what they can do to help us. This is bordering on an international crisis, and once the Feroxis know that the girl that's missing is in Nohr, there's no telling what they might do. Declare war on a country half a world away? Completely possible."

"Girl, okay, so this is about—wait, how do you know this is about her? Isn't your cousin from there too, wouldn't they also care about him? I think this would be about both of them, there's no way they'd declare war over one missing girl." Takumi sat back down in his chair from before and moved it back up to the table's side, while Lucina buried her face once more. "H-hey, what are you doing? Why're you hiding your face again?"

"I cannot believe you'd think that his father knows about what's happened to him. Aunt Lissa has made sure not to tell him a word about where O'wain went, the only way he'd know anything happened is if someone else told him. Which I guess could have happened if this really is blowing up to this size, but I hope for their sake it hasn't happened." Her voice was muffled due to her face being pressed against her arms, but her words were clear regardless. "At any rate, I know they're coming because my father called me to tell me what was happening, because Kjelle's parents are apparently coming down to speak with him as well about this."

"It's not just them coming into town over this," Yarne said, having just signed off of his phone call with a brief farewell. "That was my mom, she says that they're coming to be part of the conversation as well. It's going to be one huge reunion around here in a few hours once everyone's here, don't you think?"

Lucina winced at his read on the situation, but ultimately lifted her head and gave a small nod in agreement. "It's a reunion none of us want any part of, but it seems we don't have a choice on the matter. Let me go tell everyone here at the station what will be happening, so that they're not taken by surprise by all the familiar faces dropping by. Takumi, care to join me as I go?"

"Uh, yeah, I can do that," he replied, unsure as to why she'd made that request but once he heard the others at the table mention that they probably should let their parents know what was happening to make it a true reunion, he understood her intentions entirely. "There's not too many people here right now so this shouldn't be too hard, but I'll go with you."

"Thank you. Everyone, let's not let what's going to happen get us down, no matter what the Feroxis want we're not going to send a single person to Hoshido to go look for them, because the last thing we need is to start a war because of my brother and cousin." Standing up from her chair and motioning for Takumi to do the same, Lucina gave a weary smile at the four people still sitting at the table. "The second-to-last thing we need is everyone converging here on the station, but it seems that's something that'll be happening soon regardless."

"Go tell everyone what you need to tell them, we'll be around waiting when you're done," Morgan said, waving for them to head towards the offices. "And who knows, maybe more people will be here by then, and maybe they'll be people you have to tell all this to too."

The sly look on her face was an indicator that perhaps she hadn't quite gotten over their minor spat earlier, and Lucina was wise to ignore it, turning to head for the furthest offices to start informing people there first. Takumi trailed behind her a few steps, not sure why he needed to accompany her but not going to ask her if there was any specific reason for it. Deep down, he knew without a doubt what the reason was, and he was proven correct when, a little while later, they walked into an office with its door wide open, the officer inside at her desk going through paperwork while her daughter was throwing a ball towards the ceiling.

This time, there in Cordelia's office, there wasn't talk of how much people knew about what had really gone on. There wasn't friendly banter, or light arguing, or any chance of being able to verbally regret what had happened. It was two officers talking about what was going to be happening there in their station in a matter of hours, the senior officer going pale when she heard of some of the guests who'd be in attendance. "I think this might have been planned, Lucina," Cordelia muttered after glancing towards the calendar on her wall after hearing the news. "Why else would two people who'd made the choice to stay far away from this city come to visit unexpectedly, except to make a plea as to where their daughter might be, on her birthday, no less?"

"I, er, hadn't realized that was today, perhaps you might be onto something with that." Lucina bowed her head in respect for a second, before her eyes shifted towards Severa, who'd stopped throwing the ball when she'd heard what her mother had said. She looked to be frozen in horror, almost as if she'd just been told something she'd never considered possible. That girl had to know more about the situation than she let on, but grilling her about it in front of her mother wasn't going to happen, and there wouldn't quite ever be a suitable time to make it work.

This was something she lamented about to Takumi after they'd left the office, and all he could do was pretend like he didn't know how right she was. Their relationship was built on a foundation of lies, and it was getting harder to keep a straight face when it came to hearing about them. Having all of those people looking for answers he could've given them around wouldn't be an easy task, especially not when he was introduced to the parents of one of the people he'd indirectly aided in going missing. Lying to them was infinitely harder than lying to any of the other parents, because they hadn't had a clue about what was happening until it had all gone wrong, and they so clearly were angry and upset about what had happened.

If he could've sent a message to the people he'd once known in Hoshido, telling them to get those foreign kids out of Nohr and send them home without completing their task, he would've done it right then and there.

Sighing as she lay flat on her back on the bed she had been swapping with Beruka, Kjelle's eyes were focused on the ceiling, nothing interesting up there to keep her mind from wandering too far from her current situation. When she was accompanied by at least one other person she could do a pretty good job of not thinking about how where she was and what she was doing there was a bad idea, but the moment she was alone that was the only thing she could think about. The previous night was no exception to that, when Camilla had decided she wanted to share her bed with Beruka, and that meant that she got to sleep alone in the other bed.

Her sleep had been disjointed and barely qualifying as actual rest, as her mind was racing with all the things she'd done wrong in her life, all the times she'd made poor decisions that had ultimately ended with her being there in that room. A fair majority of those decisions related back to someone else, though, and whenever she'd get to thinking about him, she'd drift into dreaming about the first time they'd properly met, a memory that she held onto because of how everything fell apart after it happened. She could vividly see the looks on her parents faces when they found her talking to the kid sitting alone at the airport, him seeming so happy to have someone there roughly his age to talk to, even though their interaction had started with her yelling at him for being in her way as she was going somewhere. Their demands that she leave him alone were impossible to not remember, because she was young and ignorant and didn't know why they wanted her away from this kid so badly.

It became a crash-course in over a decade's worth of drama that she didn't care to hear about, but only listened to because her parents were so insistent on making sure she knew the full story before going back to talking to the lonely kid. That was the first time she'd actually heard about most of what had happened before she was born (and, really, before he was born as well), but it didn't deter her from wanting to keep him company until it was time for his flight out of Ferox to go back home to his mother—a woman she'd just heard some negative things about, although some positives were given with them.

She sighed again, closing her eyes to visualize her parents' faces once more, not as she'd seen them with her young child eyes but as she'd seen them when she'd last visited. They deserved a lot better than what she'd done to them, and she could only hope that they hadn't acted too brashly whenever they'd found out she was gone from the country they'd last heard she was in. Of all the losses and hardships they'd had to face as a family, nothing would compare to her disappearing out from under everyone's noses, and she feared that they'd do something stupid to try and bring her home, whether it be come hunt for her themselves or, worse, only have one of them make the journey overseas to try finding her.

"Vani, are you awake in there? There's someone at the door for you," Beruka's voice called out, sounding just as neutral as she always did, but her message came as a surprise to Kjelle, who jumped off the bed and changed into something that wasn't her pajamas before going out towards the front door, meeting her friend right in front of it. "So you were awake, I figured about as much. Answer the door, he's getting impatient with this waiting game."

"Why does it sound like you know who's out there already?" Kjelle asked, not getting an answer from Beruka as she stepped backwards to let her get in closer to the door. She shrugged and went to open the door, but the possibility of it being someone she didn't want to see crossed her mind as her hand touched the knob, and she pulled back as if it were heated. "You have to tell me who it is, I'm not opening it if it's your pal Niles or someone like that."

Beruka shook her head, denying an answer once more. "I was given strict directions not to tell you who it is. Camilla knows, I know, now it's your turn to find out." When Kjelle looked back at her almost to plead for a real answer, she was given the tiniest of smiles, almost as if she was at her limit for resisting saying who was there.

Knowing that it didn't give her any clarity as to who the visitor was, Kjelle hoped that maybe Beruka's positive attitude towards it was a good sign, and she went back to opening the door. As soon as she'd pulled it open Odin came barreling in, grabbing her in a hug that lifted her off the feet as he spun her around a couple of times. "Happy birthday, you old woman!" he told her once he'd set her down. "Come on, come on, we've got things to do, places to go, fun to be had on this special day!"

"What are you talking about, I can't just go with you wherever you want to go, birthday or not. If Camilla needs me, I've got to stay around here." After straightening out her clothes from the surprise attack, Kjelle once again found herself looking towards Beruka for some kind of answer, and all she was given was a dismissive wave. "Uh, isn't this the part where you tell me that I'm right and that I have to stay? I haven't seen Camilla this morning and you usually tell me what we're doing when we see each other after we wake up."

"Take my silence as an assurance that you can leave with Odin. He approached Camilla the other evening to ask if he could borrow you for a bit of time today. She's in the bath right now, otherwise she'd be here sending you off as well." Beruka gave her wave a second time, this one more forceful than the first had been. "Go with him, you have a strict lunchtime return to achieve and you don't want to miss it. I'll be here when you get back."

"Thank you for letting me know that, and thank Camilla for me too! I'll not be gone that long, I promise!" Excitement building within her now that she knew she was going to be spending time with her best friend, Kjelle more or less ran out of the building and had to wait outside for Odin to join her, him looking less pleased and more rushed than anything, something she felt she needed to address. "What's all this about?" she asked him, as he took the lead in where they were going. "I get that it's my birthday, but if you knew you could just snatch me from under Camilla's finger before, why hadn't you done it already?"

"I didn't know I could do it, I was talking it out with Leo and he said that if he knew his sister as well as he thought he did, she'd let you out for a few hours if I asked nicely. So I did that, and she said that was fine, and now here we are!" Odin seemed impressed with himself, to the point that he was walking with a bit of swagger in his step, and he turned his head slightly to look at Kjelle behind him, her face scrunched up at the name he'd mentioned, something he wasn't aware of the reason for. "Why do you look like you're mad that I dragged you out of there? We've got something important to do today, trust me!"

"Nothing, nothing, I'd just prefer never having to hear about Leo if I don't have to. Dude's an ass to me and I didn't do anything to deserve it." The threat that had been made to her about being nasty towards him was always on her mind when she was talking about him, and the last thing Kjelle needed was for Odin to go running back to him and tell him she'd said anything negative in his direction. "If you can, could you please not talk about either of your little boyfriends to me?"

All at once, the spring in Odin's step disappeared into nothing and he stopped moving forward, causing Kjelle to nearly knock into him. "Who told you about that?" he asked, panic in his voice. "Whoever is talking about that needs to—"

"Talking about what?" Taking a step back so that she wasn't right on top of her friend, Kjelle gave him a once-over, looking from head to toe to see his almost timid posture, the way he was hunched over slightly for some reason. "That they're your boyfriends? Aren't they, though? Like, isn't me saying that just me stating a fact?"

"—no one is supposed to know that, Kjelle!" Covering his mouth the moment he'd yelled out her actual name and checking their surroundings for anyone who might've heard him, Odin gave her a panicked look once he'd accepted what he'd done. "I just…Leo said that it would be damaging to his image if people knew what was happening. How did you find out?"

"I didn't find out anything? Unless this is your way of telling me something, anyway."

The panic on Odin's face did not fade even remotely, as he mentally through all the stages of accepting what he'd just done. "I guess I'm telling you now then, but you have to not tell anyone a word of this. Promise me you won't? You have to promise me about this, Kay, it's life or death if you say something to someone."

"I'm not going to talk about either of them willingly, I can't stand hearing about them as is and…wow, you really are freaking out about this, aren't you?" She could see him shaking, his hands lowering from his mouth as he'd come to terms with all parts of what he'd just done. "Chill out, if there's anyone you can accidentally announce your relationships to, it's the person who's known you like guys longer than anyone else. Your secret's safe with me, no worries." That was a scene that Kjelle would like to forget if she could, because it had involved a lot of awkward conversation and swearing up and down that she wouldn't out him to anyone, despite having zero interest in doing that to him.

"I know I can trust your word, you haven't failed me yet." He took a few moments to collect his breath and reorient himself on where he was aiming on taking them, but soon Odin was leading the way once more, pretending that nothing notable had happened there on their way. Even still, he was being oddly silent compared to the normal Kjelle knew for him, and no matter how many times she asked him where they were going and what the point of this birthday excursion was, he wouldn't say a word. That changed when they came up to the back door of the rec center, which if they entered it would put them inside the library. "It's a long story about how this came about, but there's someone waiting on the other side for us."

A list of possible people crossed Kjelle's mind, but when she saw how unworried Odin was to have made that statement, she knew that it couldn't be someone that had no reason to be there in Nohr. "How did you make this happen?" she asked, glancing around the door to check to see if there were cameras of any kind watching them. "Have you, uh, talked to them for yourself to make sure they're the real deal?"

"I highly doubt the person who helped me out would lie about who they convinced to meet up with us for a little bit today, we just have to believe!" All of the fear and worry that Odin had been expressing earlier was long gone, something that put Kjelle's mind at ease a bit about what was going to happen. She had no idea who he'd asked to help him out, nor did she really want to know in case it was either of his boyfriends, but she was beginning to feel excited about opening that door. "Let's get through this as fast as we can, don't need anyone wondering where we've gotten off to if we're out too long."

Even though he was speaking confidently, Odin was still nervous as he opened the door, pushing it open and stepping inside, lingering by it until Kjelle was through before he closed it behind them both. "Fancy seeing people come in that way, figured that door was a hidden secret no one had bothered to investigate," a voice said from somewhere in the library, catching them both by surprise until the speaker appeared from around one of the shelves closest to the door. "You two must be the ones I was asked to speak with?"

Watching reactions was the only thing Kjelle felt comfortable with doing in that moment, because the only time she'd actually met the person this was supposed to be was when she was an infant. Odin, though, knew who he was supposed to be looking at and was inspecting him from head to toe, checking to see if the person standing in front of him matched the person of his memories as best as he could. "Er, I wasn't expecting to be inspected like this when I agreed to this," the man said, shrinking back away from Odin. "You may want to explain yourself before I allow you to continue with this."

"I'm sorry, I just…give me a moment, will you?" Instinctively, because it was something he'd grown up doing and knew that it was something that would be recognized, Odin raised an arm up until his hand was about an inch from his face, covering it from view but showing off the scars that covered his arm. "I feel like I've been reunited with a ghost from my past, a shadowy figure that I never expected to meet with again in this world."

The man stopped his retreat, choosing instead to lean in closer as he tilted his head, his own inspection beginning. "There's no way that there's more than just the one person I know who'd act like this, but it's impossible. O'wain was just a kid last I saw him, he wouldn't have traveled here to find me."

"The person you speak of is no more I'm afraid, but in his place rises the glorious Odin Dark, like a phoenix from the ashes of immaturity and bad parenting choices!" Moving his hand so that his face was unobscured once more, Odin pointed towards the person he was speaking to with an upturned palm. "And I have taken it upon myself to put an end to the questions of where my long-lost cousin has disappeared to, for the sake of his parents and sister!"

His eyes snapping to the hand that was in front of him, the man exhaled a shaky breath before turning his attention to the other person present. "You're certainly not someone I recognize, unlike this guy here. How'd you get roped into all of this, you dating him or something like that?"

"Ugh, yeah no, you could not pay me enough to be interested in Odin, sorry." Kjelle wasn't sure how she was supposed to act right then, given that she hadn't ever talked to this person before and the one time she'd seen him, she had zero personality traits to speak of. "I'm here because he wanted a friend to come with and I was the only one available. You might remember me, you might not, I sure as hell don't remember you, but I'm Kjelle. Name ring a bell for you?"

The man once again gave a long breath, this one less shaky as the previous one but more drawn-out. "The only person I knew by that name was an actual baby the one and only time I met her, but it's such an uncommon name that you can't be anyone but her." There was fear in his eyes, fear and concern for what was happening around him as these two figures from his past—one of which he hadn't even seen in nearly eighteen years—were standing there in front of him in the Krakenburg library. "How did you manage to get here and find me, hm? I suppose someone who knew ran their mouth?"

His defenses were dropping, he wasn't as worried about what kind of trap had been set for him as he was trying to find answers, and that was when Odin lost all control over himself and began rambling out everything he could think of to explain the situation. Everything, from how the disappearance had shaken everyone to their cores, to how people had been handling it with yearly pleas for his return, to how he'd gotten the idea to find him himself after talking with people who knew a thing or two about the truth. And by the time he was done recounting their journey to Hoshido and Nohr, he was crying and so was his cousin, although at two different intensities. "The first time you see each other in like ten years and you're bawling like babies," Kjelle teased, watching the two and their tearful standoff. "You're hopeless, both of you."

"You'd be crying too if your family had been looking for someone for so long and you found him out of never giving up hope!" Odin choked out in return, not bothering to mask how emotional he was. "I knew I'd find you for them, Inigo. I really did."

Blinking away tears now that the initial brunt of the emotional onslaught was over, he shook his head. "I haven't gone by that name since I first traveled to Nohr. Address me as Laslow, it's what everyone here knows me as and I…cannot go back to my old name, not while still within these borders. You understand too, don't you, Odin?"

"Not really, I happened to be looking for an excuse to get rid of that old name. Kay over there, she's not fully sold on her fake name still so she wouldn't understand either." Odin took a step closer to Laslow, with outstretched arms that only seemed to be getting wider, but he remained closed off and ignored the gesture. "What's the matter, this reunion had all the tears and stuff already, now we've got to hug it out and leave this place!"

"I'm not leaving Nohr anytime soon," Laslow said, his stance shifting so that he was leaning even further away from Odin's arms. "There are matters I have to finish attending to here, and even after those are taken care of, there's little chance I could make a break for the border without being caught, given my role as assistant to the future leader of the country. Even going past that, I assume you're here to take me back to Ylisse for whatever reason, and I have zero desire to go back on anyone's terms but my own."

"Then it's a good thing we're here to take you back to Hoshido then, not Ylisse." That was a lie, but Odin seemed to have been rehearsing what he was going to say, so there was no reason for Kjelle to call him out on that. "We met Hana before we crossed the border, Subaki took us to meet her to give us a good reason to bring you home. You've got to go back for her, for her and for Soleil!"

Time seemed to freeze there in the library as those words hit Laslow's ears, and his eyes slowly shifted around, as if he was thinking about what he'd just heard for an extended period of time. When his thoughtful gaze brushed over Kjelle, she could feel the iciness that he was trying to get across to her, and she could only hope that Odin would notice the same when his eyes crossed his path. "The two of you met her, hm?" he quietly asked, and neither of them were sure which her he was talking about until he spoke further. "If anyone back home found out about her, they'll…be so disappointed in how I turned out. Soleil deserves the world, not what she's been given."

"And that's why we want to take you back to her and her mother, not back home to everyone else!" Odin's voice was raising, not out of anger but out of insistence that he was doing the right thing. "Come on, it's been so long since you've been back that you—"

"I cannot leave right now, you have to understand that. Me staying here has been mostly due to commitments I made when the border closed on me after I entered the country." Now Laslow was stepping further away from where his cousin was trying to be so persuasive, as if he felt threatened or simply bothered by what he was being told. "Once those are handled, and they will be soon, I know they will, I can attempt to set my story straight with Xander and leave, but there's no guarantee of success."

"Odin, knock it off, there's no use in trying to keep convincing him to leave." Able to read the situation and understand that it wasn't going well for her friend's argument, Kjelle hoped that she was able to talk at least a little sense into him. "You can't change his mind, he has reasons for staying and you're not going to magically make those go away."

"She's right, you know," Laslow said in agreement, glancing towards Kjelle with a small, almost thankful smile, but she shrugged it off as if it was nothing, something she came to regret the moment he spoke again. "As for the two of you, my reasons for staying should be your reasons for leaving Nohr as soon as possible. The last thing you need is to be locked within these borders permanently, and if you linger trying to convince me to leave that might become your reality."

One of her eyes twitched at hearing that, and she immediately began glaring in Odin's direction, while he processed what had been said and chose to laugh it off. "You think we're going to leave without you, Laslow? We abandoned everything we had back in Ylisse to make this happen, we're not leaving without you!"

"And you're making a mistake for that decision. Listen to me, I know what is going to happen here in Nohr soon enough, the last thing you need is to be caught up in it."

None of this was anything Kjelle wanted to hear, not on her birthday of all days, and even though she loved Odin and everything he did most of the time, this was one instance where his stubbornness and refusal to back down from the challenge was not something she agreed with. "If that's the case, I'm out of here," she said, turning on her toes and heading back towards the door they'd entered in. "Somewhere in that thick head of yours, the old O'wain should be begging you to give up, but this Odin guy just isn't going to do it, and if you get in trouble for it…not my problem."

"Kjelle, you can't abandon me when we've gotten this close to what I've been trying to do!" One of Odin's hands began wilding gesturing towards Laslow, while the older man shook his head and muttered something to himself about his cousin's immaturity. "Remember everything we went through to get to this part? Are you going to let that all go to waste? We're right here, we know where he is, we've almost finished what we came to do!"

She reached for the door, not bothering to look at what her friend was doing after that impassioned explanation that only ate at her soul. "No, we're here almost finishing what you came to do, I never wanted any part of this from the start. This was all you and Severa doing the planning, I only got pulled in because she couldn't come." Talking about Severa made her heart hurt slightly, the memories of her almost-sister making her miss home more than she had at any point since she'd come to Nohr. "I'm going to find my way back to Hoshido, with or without either of you, because I'm done with this stupid mission."

The second the door came open, the scene inside changed because there was no guarantee that there weren't people waiting on the outside, people who would ruin all of their lives if they knew what had been being discussed. Now Odin was calling after the completely-fake Vani, while Laslow most likely disappeared into the depths of the library or left from the other door, and Kjelle couldn't actually be bothered to care about what either of them were doing anymore. She wasn't going to allow herself to be trapped in Nohr when she hadn't been interested in coming in the first place, and she wasn't going to continue staying around when it was clear the person she'd been dragged there for wasn't leaving. Now all she needed to do was convince Camilla to let her go, and she'd be set.

Unfortunately, there was not going to be any chance of Camilla setting her free, not without serious action having to be taken first. That became clear after she'd walked back across the Complex to the living quarters and found that both Camilla and Beruka were still in the room, both ready for the day and seemingly waiting for their third person to come back. "I hope your time with your little friend was all you could have asked for and more," Camilla said in greeting, voice sickeningly sweet. "Usually I don't allow for someone else to come pick up one of my girls, but it's your birthday and I felt it deep within my heart that Odin wasn't exactly interested in you for anything but your friendship."

"Something like that, sure," Kjelle replied, trying not to let her bitterness of what had happened show too much. "He's not into people like me so no worries there, he just wanted to do like we'd do back before we ended up here and spend some time together on my birthday. Nothing important."

"Oh yes, it is your birthday, isn't it?" Tutting as she shook her head, Camilla held out a hand, expecting Kjelle to grab it, but when it was ignored she took matters into her own hands, approaching the blonde girl and grabbing her into a large hug, complete with her chest pressing up against her hard. "Happiest of birthdays, sweet Vani! We've been so blessed to have you here with us as part of our family, and had we known today was your big day we'd go out to celebrate it with you! Alas, it's too short of notice to do anything, so we'll just have to save it for when we go out next month for Xander's birthday, if you don't mind."

As much as she wanted to get out of the hug, and get out of her contract there with this overly-affectionate woman, Kjelle knew that fighting that fight right then was just as hopeless as the fight Odin had been fighting before. "I don't mind at all, I wasn't really expecting anything to happen this year. It's only turning eighteen, how special does that need to be?"

"I don't think you know what Camilla means when she says we're 'going out' to celebrate a birthday," Beruka chimed in, watching the strangling hug from a distance. "Any age is special when you go out with her, especially if you're legal and can have fun."

"Should I be afraid of what kind of fun you're talking about?" Worst-case scenarios were beginning to enter Kjelle's mind, as if Camilla was going to sign her up for something dangerous or deadly. The last thing she needed was to be trying to get away from the place and have something happen to her that would keep her there against her will, but the silence on the matter she received from the pair was more telling than they knew.

Being stuck there in Nohr, after fighting with the one person she genuinely liked over the reason they'd shown up in the first place, was a worst-case scenario in itself. How much worse was it going to get?

A/N: so, uh, good news bad news? good news is that I have started the next chapter, bad news is that despite loving what scene comes next I have zero motivation to write it. I'll get around to it when I get there, I suppose?