"…I don't know about this."
"Listen, I know you are worried after… last time, but I'm here to make sure nothing can go wrong."
"..."
Chapter 75: Sig's Ultimate Apology
Sig wasn't used to feeling like this, to have this cramping feeling in his stomach, this perpetual sense of dread. Figures that Uncle Stan decided to leave the house so that Sig would have to do this alone.
It's not as if he wasn't looking forward to having a certain harlequin over, far from it, it usually always made him happy to be around her. To feel the warmth radiating from her more and more, as she grew accustomed and comfortable with her life in Primp, but his uncle just had to play into that… again.
The ringing of the doorbell signaled that his totally-not-girlfriend-by-now-friend had arrived. Sighing, the boy took a deep breath as he opened the door, being greeted with the sight of a familiar mask covered in snow.
"Hey, Sil."
"Thanks for the invite, didn't expect that, Sig!"
Nodding Sig led Silvana into his house, so she could remove her thick winter coat from her person. Looking over her she wasn't wearing anything fancy, which even as much as she did care about her looks, wasn't surprising. After all, it would have had little effect on Sig and it's not like he was wearing anything outside his usual wardrobe himself.
"So, what do you wanna do?" The girl asked as she redirected her attention to the spacey boy.
"We could go to the living room couch, it's warm there."
"Sounds good to me, especially with that snowfall out there." She said with a smile, taking the lead towards their desired destination.
Sig followed, his lips finally curving into a gentle smile for the first time that night. He always wanted any of his friends to be happy, but something about making Silvana smile was different, in a way Sig both could and couldn't place.
Perhaps it was the circumstances of their meeting and knowing that she had worked so much to claw herself out of that hole of being a spiteful Arle doppelganger, but Sil always found a way into Sig's mind and it only got stronger as the two became closer.
"Uhm Sig, you okay?"
"Huh?"
Finally having snapped out of his thoughts, Sig noticed that Sil wasn't in front of him anymore. Turning around he soon discovered that he walked past the couch, something that Silvana could only giggle at as he made his way to her. For once his quirks came in handy, otherwise he would have likely had some actual question answering to do.
As he sat down by her side Sil removed her mask, feeling comfortable enough knowing it would be just the two of them. Gazing the front of the table next to them she perked up, there was a basket of freshly made bread rolls, with a pack of butter and sliced cheese and sausages next to it.
"My, how thoughtful!" She squeed while taking in the fumes of the freshly baked goods.
"Thought you would like it."
"Oh, you know very well how much how much I love this stuff!"
As if in the biggest rush of her life, Silvana swiftly grabbed a knife to slice open one of the bread rolls, with Sig doing the same at his own pace.
"So how was school today? I won't be able to come this whole week, gotta do some things for the circus."
"It was alright. Glasses and Raffine had a fight again."
"What else is new?" Sil couldn't help but throw out rhetorically, as she placed a few sausage slices onto her bread roll. "What was it this time? Did it escalate into a Puyo fight in class again?"
"…Someone knocked over one of the candles the teachers set up for decoration. Raf was in front of it and it burned her butt."
Silvana couldn't help but smirk, taking a bite out of her roll to mask it, classic slapstick and Sil always got a kick out of messing with the pink-haired snob.
"…Well, Glasses teased her about it later and she gave him a kick in...places." The boy spoke the last word slowly while wincing a little, it took Silvana a little to realize what he meant, before bursting out into laughter, nearly choking on her food.
"Man, that's even better! Sure gave a more threatening tone to the term Jingle Bells!" All things considered Sil did feel a little bad for Klug, on average the two got along fairly well, but he should have known better. Even Sig would never even try to comment on Raffine's bizarrely frequent source of humiliation.
"Go figure I'd miss something like that." Taking a few breaths she slowly regained her composure, noting Sig's neutral appearance, then again that was a normal look on him.
"Anyways, how's Liddy doing?"
"She's fine. Her and Tarutaru are going to spend Christmas together."
"That's good, glad she's got someone then."
"…Say, how's the bread?"
"Huh?" Silvana was more than a little caught off guard by the sudden change in subject, staring blankly at Sig, who in return starred right back.
"Uhm, it's good, like real good. Why do you ask so out of the blue?"
"…I made it…"
At that moment Sil's body stiffened, almost threatening to let her food slip through her fingers, not that Sig could blame her.
Still, as good of a reason as she had for it and as expected as it was, there was still something painful about the reminder of how severe the… other incident was.
"Me and Uncle Stan did it together… he made sure nothing went wrong and we tried some before…"
Hearing that calmed down Sil a fair bit and it was true, if this was anything like the curry incident then she would have already been on the floor. Yet this still didn't answer some questions.
In a surprising moment of awareness, Sig caught in her expressions that she really wanted to ask some things. As she should, in his mind.
"Uncle came up with it and I did want to make up for… last time…"
His tone of voice did not do a good job of masking a tinge of sadness that dribbed out of his words like water drops leaking out of a water tap. It was something that, while not entirely foreign to Silvana, still felt wrong coming from him.
Wasting no time, Silvana scooted closer to Sig, putting a hand around him to be as comforting as possible, while the boy in turn, preferred to avoid any eye contact.
"You still think about this? Sig, you know I'm not mad at you about it."
"I know… bu-"
"No buts." Silvana firmly silenced the boy, putting a finger on his lips.
"Sig, all that matters is that I'm here now and I only got a chance to be here because I met you… Never forget that."
With those words the girl pulled Sig into a tight embrace, one that the boy eagerly returned. It still surprised him that Sil was so quick to brush the whole thing off, one had to wonder if living your entire as someone's clone just inherently would desensitize you to a lot of horrors.
What she said did ring true though, she was still there. Sig could still hold her close. Hear her voice. Just be with her.
He could only hope that this would never change...
warelander's Notes:
Yo, here's the original writer of 'In the Grasp of the Doppelganger', here to bless (?) this fic with his presence.
Ended up a bit short, partially due to real-life work-related obligations and me going heavily back-and-forth on the ending. I like to think that Sig would remain mindful of the Curry incident, but at least now Sil knows that it's still on his mind.
Not much else to say but please continue to support this fic, kirbymanx has done a banging job at expanding on where my fic left off and I'm happy to have posted it, just for knowing that this sequel came out of it.
kirbymanx-huskynator's Notes:
Yeah, this fic is blessed. Give it up for Ware folks, I think he did a good job. I barely altered it it was so good. No complaints. Top shelf, I felt something. I usually don't feel the heartwarm-y stuff.
I offered him this chapter because I felt I had nothing new to add to Sig and Sil. Sig is an important figure to fic even if he's not always there. So I thought that I give it to him.
And it happened on a milestone too. Chapter 75, that's a quarter away from Chapter 100.
Sorry for keeping you away from 'Bonds That Last'. Go read that.
Next up: Actual Christmas Day at home.
