(Trigger warning: there is a mention of abuse and suicide in this chapter. Read at your caution)
Chapter 2: New Friends and Acquaintances
Violet woke up on the couch at Kaeyas house since Viox is staying there. I found out last night that it's Keaya that was courting her, I wasn't too happy about that but she's happy so I'm not gonna say anything and try to be civil. I sat up and stretched letting out a small yawn. I heard soft giggles coming from the kitchen. I swung my legs off the couch and got up walking to the kitchen. I leaned against the door frame as I saw Viox and Keaya making breakfast together, I smiled softly at them before frowning at the memories it brought back ones that I'm trying to not remember. I cleared my throat softly.
They both looked up from what they were doing Keaya lost his smile but Viox smiled brightly at me.
"Hey, sis! Slept well?" Viox asked.
"Yeah, got any coffee" I asked my voice slightly gruff from just waking up. She just chuckled and went to get me a cup. Viox has long pink hair and green eyes, she's also fair skin and petite. If you looked at us you wouldn't think we were twins, where she has small breasts to the point where it doesn't look like she has any, while I have DDs. I got my vision and she hasn't gotten her's yet. I take the coffee that she offers me. I sip some of the coffee while sitting down at the table.
"Thanks for letting me stay here while we get the house ready," I said, taking another sip of coffee.
"No problem, when will the house be ready?" Keaya asked
"It should be ready today," I said, yawning a little. He nodded his head. Viox smiled a little as she finished making breakfast. Keaya sat across from me looking at his own coffee mug. I leaned on the palm of my hand with my elbow on the table while I circled the rim of the coffee mug with my index finger on my free hand. Neither one of us know how to start a conversation with each other. We both just awkwardly sat in silence waiting for Viox to finish with breakfast.
"So, you're courting my sister now?" I asked awkwardly.
"Uh, yeah" Keaya said just as awkwardly. Thankfully Viox came to the table with our breakfast. She placed the food in front of each of us then sat down next to Keaya.
"Dearest sister of mine, why didn't you tell me Keaya was courting you?" I asked her with my arms crossed and a slight frown. I didn't care that she and Keaya were together, no I cared about that she didn't tell me at all. She looked at me with a confused expression.
"I sent a letter home telling you guys about it, you didn't know?" She asked
"I knew someone was courting you, I just didn't know who" I said thinking about it. I sighed before saying "Mom and dad must have left that out when they sent word about the news", she nodded her head sighing as well. After that they ate in silence the awkwardness diminished slightly. After she finished she got up and stretched before taking her plate to the sink.
"Well, i'm gonna head out and see where the house is at and where my team is." I said before heading into the bathroom to quickly change into a black skirt, white lace tank, and a black underbust corset with some thigh high heels.
I walked out the door taking a deep breath of fresh air. I walked around the town trying to locate my team. It was about noon when I gave up and decided to head to the tavern. Once I walked through the door I heard the familiar laughter of Alex. He always sounds so full of life when he laughs it's so different from when you talk to him or fight with him. I walked over to their table, I smiled as I took a seat next to Viper. They all said hi to me when they noticed I was here. Jules got up and went to the bar probably to order another drink.
"How are you doing Vi" Alex asked me with concern in his eyes.
"I'm doing much better" I tell him with a smile. He nods his head. Jules comes back with two cups she places one down in front of me, I mouth a thank you to her and she just winks at me. I took a sip of my drink and smiled.
"What's the plan for today?" I asked leaning back in my chair.
"We're gonna go to the house and set up there then meet up with Jean" Jules informed me. I nodded my head. Diluc walked up to our table and sat down.
"Good afternoon Master Diluc" I said smiling softly at him.
"Good afternoon miss Violet," he replied. I chuckled softly
"Just Violet is fine" I told him. He just nodded his head at that.
"So Vi how are things with Viox and Keaya?" Jasmine asked. I rolled my eyes at the question
"They are doing good, he seems good for her. I never saw her this happy before even when she was courted by Viper" I answered with a smile. They all smiled at me with a smile that I didn't like.
"Out with it, you guys know I hate it when you look at me like that" I spat downing the rest of my drink. Diluc silently grabbed my cup and walked to the bar with it, he filled it up and handed it back to me. I smiled politely at him taking the cup
"Well you and Keaya courted so we wanted to make sure you are okay" Jules said cautiously. I sighed, placing down the wine.
"Look I'm fine. That was a long time ago besides there was…" I stopped talking because Diluc was here. They nodded their heads in understanding.
"So you courted Keaya?" Diluc asked leaning forward in his seat a bit with an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't detect.
"Yeah I was 18 when that happened, I don't think he was really interested though" I said with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Interesting" was all Diluc replied with.
"Yeahhhh" I replied not knowing what to say to that. Everyone was silent for a while not knowing what to do or say. Diluc was the one to break the tension in the air.
"So Violet, why did you become a knight?" He asked, seemingly curious.
"Well I went into the knights shortly after I got my vision, mainly because my parents wanted me to so I would be able to protect Viox…" I started to explain before trailing off.
"There's a but isn't there" he asked with a slight smirk on his face. I sighed and nodded my head not knowing if I should continue or not. He looked at me patiently waiting for me to say more. I took a deep breath and nodded my head.
"But i really wished i didn't, don't get me wrong helping people is great and i love it, but i could do so much more if i didn't have to follow so many rules…" i said looking down ashamed. I wasn't worried about my team getting hurt by this. We already talked about it and we all agree. We all feel like this. Jules didn't even want her vision but she got it and her abusive ex who was a knight forced her to join, probably so he can publicly beat her and just label it as sparing. Viper's family shipped him off to become a knight as soon as he got his vision, they never wanted him to begin with so they used that as an excuse to get rid of him. Jasmine ran away and thought being a knight was the only way out from getting killed by her people, for being female with a vision. Alex lost his entire family from a house fire, he tried to live on but it got to be too much so he tried to kill himself but he got his vision which saved him, he wandered around till another knight took him in and trained him. Alex is the only one out of us who is okay with being a knight but i believe it's because there's a chance he'll get killed.
"Your parents made you become a knight to protect your sister?" He asked, slightly confused. I chuckled a bit
"Yeah when we turned the age for courting we were supposed to do a dance, she was practicing but an abyss mage appeared and shattered the ice she was dancing on she almost drowned…" I explained before sighing "but i don't think that's the real reason, when i was younger i got into a lot of trouble always wandering off into hilichurls camps or starting fights with other kids, i always loved to fight and i had anger issues so i think my parents sent me to the knights for them to deal with it so they didn't have to" I said with a sad chuckle. Viox was always the favorite of our parents, yes they are protective of her cause of what happened, but she got to do what she wanted with her life. I just got used to the fact I will always be second in my parents eyes. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I heard a chair scraping against the floor and a gasp. I looked up and saw Jules standing looking at the time with panic in her eyes.
"We have to go, we're gonna be late for the meeting" she said rushing to the door, the others followed while i stayed behind downing the rest of my drink. I stood up as did Diluc.
"Welp I gotta go, I don't want to keep the Dandelion knight waiting," I said with a chuckle. I handed the money to Diluc who accepted it and as our hands barely touched I felt the faintest spark. I walked away and headed to my team. Together we made our way to the knights headquarters.
When we entered the room we saw Jean standing in front of her desk. She looked at us with a smile on her face.
"We need extra security around here but you guys will also be getting sent out on a mission, sometimes as a team and sometimes with other people or solo" Jean said getting straight to the point of this meeting. We all nodded our heads in understanding.
"Okay now that is out of the way, here are your keys to your new home" she said handing us each a key, we took them and placed them with our other stuff.
"You are dismissed," She said going around her desk and sitting down to do paper work.
We walked out of the building and started walking to our house. From the description we got it's a two story house with four bedrooms, two baths, and an attic. We already decided who goes where, Alex and Viper get the rooms on the first floor, Jules and Jasmine get the rooms on the second floor, and I get the attic as my room. Once we arrived we stood in front of a beautiful house that had vines growing on the sides. It had red tiles on the roof and the walls were a beautiful cream cover, it even had a balcony. I already knew the girls would be fighting for that room. We walked inside and it was even more beautiful than the outside. To our right was the kitchen with black marble counter tops and white cabinets there even was an island with four silver bar stools on one side. All the appliances were a stainless steel color and the draws were all stocked with what we needed so where the cabinets we would just need to buy food. To our left was a fully furnished living room, the couch was a sectional the color was white, the coffee table was glass with a black border, the entertainment unit was also black, the rug was a cream base with streaks of blue, green, purple, red, and white outlined in a light blue.
We all went our separate ways to put our things away. When I got to the attic I was happy with how it looked. The bed was in the middle of the room with night stands on either side of it. There was a chest at the end of the bed. It had a wardrobe on the left wall and a full body mirror on the right wall. I started putting away all my clothes, putting the ones that can be folded in the chest and the ones that needed to be hung up in the wardrobe. Once I was done with all my clothing I headed down to the second floor to put away my toiletries. We decided that the girls would get the bathroom upstairs and the boys will get the bathroom downstairs. After everything was put away I walked downstairs and headed to the kitchen. I saw Alex sitting on a bar stool at the island so I hopped up on the island and took my seat there while we waited for everyone else. We sat silently not needing to talk. I heard a door open and close before seeing Viper. He sat next to Viper. Finally the girls came down and took their seats at the island.
"So what's the plan for the rest of the day?" Viper asked
"We need to get groceries but i can do that you guys can do what you want" i said jumping off the island counter.
"Come on Jules, let's explore the town," Jasmine said taking her hand and running out the door. I giggled softly. I wonder when they are gonna start courting i thought to myself, turning to the boys.
"What are you guys gonna be doing?" I asked them with a raised eyebrow. They shrugged their shoulders
"I'll probably just head to my room," Alex said sliding out of his stool and walking to his room. I sighed then looked at Viper.
"I'm gonna go back to the tavern," He said, also getting out of his seat and walking out the door.
I walked out the door as well and went to the market. I looked through the section of fruits and veggies and picked out the best ones I could find. I did the same with the meats and i bought premade food cause i know well be lazy and not want to make something to eat or go out. After I bought everything I was carrying the bags back home. I walked past some guys not paying them any mind till I heard them start walking behind me. I cursed softly knowing where this is going.
"Hey pretty do you need help with those" He said with a lecherous grin
"No thank you, I'm fine" I said continuing to walk down the road.
"Awww come on don't be mean and let us strong men help you girly" the other one said.
"I said I'm fine so kindly back off before I make you" I said my patients wearing thin from these two. They both snickered at me i rolled my eyes
"Oh we are so scared, what are you gonna do little girl" The first guy said, pretending to shake as the second guy tried to grab me but a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed his wrist. We all looked up to the person who just entered the scene.
"Diluc?" I said confused. He just nodded at me.
"Why don't the two of you leave her alone" He said in a growl. The two guys backed off real quickly once Diluc let go of that guy's wrist. We watched them run away before any of us said a word.
"Thank you but I could have handled that" I said adjusting the bags I was carrying. He noticed this and took one of the bags
"I know you could have, but I was in the area and I couldn't have walked past without doing something" He said with a small smile. "Besides your interesting and a mystery that i want to find out more" He continued like what he said was normal
"What do you mean 'a mystery'?" I asked confused
"Well from the conversation at the tavern i say you are hiding something" He said smirking. I stopped walking for a hot second before sighing and continued walking.
"Aren't we all hiding something?" I asked softly. He tilted his head in ponder
"I guess we are but I want to find out what you're hiding," He said as we stopped in front of my house. I took the bag from him, we stood there in silence for a bit before he brought his hand to my face and moved a piece of hair behind my ear.
"Till we meet again Violet" He said as his parting words walked away. I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. I shook my head and headed inside quickly putting away the groceries before heading up to my room and collapsing on the bed.