~When Eight Becomes Two~

She knew it had to happen someday. It was only logical, after all. Humans weren't like them. They were weak, fragile, subject to breaking down with age. Of course they would reach a point where they'd simply stop moving altogether.

She knew that, and yet here she was before him, crying like it had been unexpected when the truth of the matter was that both of them knew it for quite some time. Then again, perhaps, he should've expected this as well. She was always the more emotional one. She cried at the funerals and passings of everyone else that they knew, why then would The Fool's death result in a different reaction?

No, he supposed, it made sense when he thought of it like that—not that it helped him understand any better. Despite all these years of living with and amongst them there were still some things about humans that just…completely eluded him.

He scoffed mentally to himself. If The Fool was going to up and die so suddenly in his sleep, the least he could've done was teach him what you're supposed to do with crying girls. Normally, or at least had he been asked ages ago, he wouldn't care at all. What business was it of his to care about the emotional responses of those around him? Let alone someone like Protos Heis? It wasn't any of his business nor something he'd particularly care about.

However, nowadays he supposed such a reaction wouldn't have been very "brotherly" of him, now would it? He would've deigned to smirk, but instead he just frowned. Honestly, what was that Fool thinking, making them siblings of all things? The idea was preposterous then and it still baffled him now. Plus, he left without properly telling him what to do in this situation. When the others had died, The Fool was always there to dry her tears and console her, always going on to him about how he and Protos Heis were siblings now and how this was why they were supposed to take care of each other. All good and nice in theory—except for the part where he'd neglected to tell him how he was supposed to do that.

At some point unbeknownst to him—really when did he actually become so lax around her? Ridiculous—she'd moved and was now hugging him, rather tightly by the glance he was able to get of her hands in the poor excuse of a shirt he wore. And still crying. Always crying. But now it was into his chest and he didn't necessarily have to look at her, which was nice—but he could still hear her.

Honestly, the Amarcian and her twin halflings had done an impressive job. The thought had never occurred to him that he could even have his own body again. It'd been eons since he was alone in a body all his own, not a shared or stolen one. In one thousand years he'd gotten accustomed to being either bodyless or stealing the bodies of other living beings. To have one that was entirely his again after so long still admittedly felt strange and foreign…but not entirely unpleasant. This was a parting gift from The Fool, he supposed.

It'd been a foolish and unprompted suggestion. Well, maybe not entirely unprompted. It'd only been suggested when the Amarcian had sent a mass message to everyone rambling on about how she'd figured out the missing pieces of the lost art of humanoid making. That was when The Fool suggested the mere idea of him having a new body made for him. She hadn't even built a proto-type, but The Fool had asked her anyway after getting a rather nonchalant answer out of him. That was about thirty years ago. Still, despite that, this body was suitable. Nostalgic, really. These humans were strange and amusing with their ideas, giving him a new body that looked like an aged up version of the one he had long, long ago. Sometimes it was almost too much for even him to truly comprehend.

He was startled out of his reverie by hearing his name come from the girl. Ah, that's right. He still had a crying…sister to deal with.

"Pro—," he bit his lip. He'd tried to stop referring to her as that when The Fool had reprimanded him about it one day. "She's your sister now," he'd said, "so you need to start calling her by her actual name!" but some habits die hard, as they say.

"Sophie," he tried again, "it's been months. Why are you still crying about this?"

Indeed, it'd been about three months now since The Fool had passed away. He'd been in this new body for a little less than that too, since The Fool had requested it be done as soon as possible after his eventual death. The twin halflings had arrived to facilitate it a week or so later. The funeral had been about a month ago, so really the reason for Sophie's continued tears was completely eluding him.

The response to his question came in the form of a head shaking negatively, though still against his chest, and a muffled "I'm…I'm not crying about that…"

This surprised him, since lately the only things she cried about anymore were memories of their friends or when one or more of her flowers died unexpectedly. He glanced at the window in his room and remembered suddenly that it was late at night, not that he'd been sleeping really.

He gave a mildly exasperated sigh before asking,

"I see. Was it a dream, then?"

A nod this time and a slightly tightened grip on his shirt. Good grief, this girl…how The Fool even dealt with this for all the decades he did was truly commendable. Or even that other Fool, Richard, since he vaguely recalled times when Sophie would run crying to him instead of The Fool who was their "father".

"You…You left. You, and Aslyn, Michael, Alex, Camellia, Stewart…everyone left…a-and I was alone and it was dark and lonely and—," a sob cut her off, but she didn't continue speaking anyway.

He hummed in acknowledgement, honestly not sure what to say to that. She used to do this to The Fool all the time, he recalled. She'd come into the bedroom and quietly wake him up to tell him about a dream she had if she didn't do it at breakfast the next morning. Usually her dreams were silly or happy…she rarely, if ever, had dreams of that nature that left her, well, like this. He searched his memories but honestly couldn't recall any time from before that was like this one. If they happened, he must've been truly asleep when they occurred.

"Well," he started finally, "as you can see, I'm clearly still here. So what is the immediate problem?" She was still crying, after all. Surely she shouldn't still be crying if his presence or lack thereof was the concern.

"You are," she agreed, sniffling before moving her head now to look up at him, "but for how much longer, Lambda?"

Well, he certainly hadn't expected that. This night was shaping up to be quite an interesting one with many surprises.

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?"

Because really, he'd still been here for those nearly three months, hadn't he? And it's not like he had anywhere else to go or the desire to go anywhere else at the moment. He'll have to go by The Fool's grave later and admonish him for leaving him ill-equipped for these situations—wait, that would be just as foolish. He'd be talking to a slab of stone with names on it.

Her features changed into that of a pout, tears still brimming at the edges of her eyes.

"I mean…you weren't always that particularly happy about being in this family, so…" she tilted her head a bit to the side, a frown and worried eyebrows returning to her face, "So now that Asbel's…gone…there's not really anything to keep you here…right?"

Ah, so that was it. She worried about the silliest of things, though he supposed her concern was valid. After all, he hadn't exactly been the most enthusiastic participant of this family of theirs. It seemed even that she spent far too much time around The Fool.

"Hmph…it seems his foolishness somehow rubbed off on you. So it was contagious…" he quipped, getting a startled "Hey!" as a response which produced a light chuckle out of him.

She'd gone back to hiding her face against his chest, mumbling "You're mean," loud enough for him to hear.

He chuckled again before finally answering, "It is true what you said, but your logic has a flaw. As I recall, that Fool tasked me with making sure you weren't left alone, always worrying and doting on you as he did. So, I'm afraid, even if I wanted to I can't exactly leave. Nor do I really care to at the moment,"

He paused, unsure what else to do or say. She wasn't exactly crying anymore, though he could still hear the occasional sniffle coming from her, and her face was still hiding in his chest. Vaguely, he recalled a time when Aslyn—the Fool's brat—had fallen from a tree and scraped both of his knees. He'd cried and whined even after Cheria had healed his small wounds with her artes, but he'd stopped when she hugged him and pet his hair. Perhaps that was the secret key. Did it work as well on girls as it did young boys?

"Besides," he added, lifting his hands now to mimic the motion he remembered and smiling when Sophie jumped a bit in his arms, "we made that Friendship Pact after Fodra, did we not? It won't get any easier, since they're only humans and will have to eventually die as well. And their children too. You know this as well. Still…even if I do end up physically leaving one day, it won't be permanent."

He turned his head away, though still kept his arms around her and absentmindedly stroked the back of her head as Cheria had with Aslyn.

"The Fool assigned me the role of your big brother, after all. It would be unwise if I ignored his order. In fact, that Fool was so insistent on it, I have no problem imagining that if he could, he would manifest himself just to admonish me. It'd be rather unpleasant, to say the least," he smiled despite himself.

He was only half kidding, honestly. For all his centuries of hatred, being forced to live with her and be around her constantly without having to fear for his life made her start to grow on him. Life, he admitted, would be rather dull without her. Good thing they'll both live forever, then.

Her head moved which prompted him to remove his hand and look back at her.

"So…you won't leave? Even if…when everyone else does?" she was staring up at him, her eyes shimmering with either more unshed tears or hope, he wasn't quite sure. Perhaps both.

"Yes."

She smiled then and released one hand from his shirt to wipe at her eyes.

"That's good then. I…I feel better now, so I should go back. Thank you, Lambda," she removed her hand from her face and continued to smile at him which only made him turn away and mumble under his breath.

She giggled while removing herself from him before heading towards the door that had been left open from when she ran in here.

"Sorry for disturbing you like that. Good night, Lambda," she said over her shoulder.

"Mm, next time you have a nightmare, do try to knock, will you? Surely The Fool taught you better than that."

She only giggled again before closing the door back and leaving him in silence once more. He lied back on the bed, despite the fact sleep wasn't exactly a necessity to him, even after all these years. As ill equipped as he was, he supposed he handled that well enough. At least she stopped crying. He could just hear that Fool praising him.

Staring up at the wooden ceiling, the thought of visiting Asbel's grave crossed his mind again. On second thought, maybe he will admonish that stone, foolishness be damned. He never did finish telling him just how much of a Fool he had been.

Yes, he thought while closing his eyes, he'll do that tomorrow…after shopping for better clothes with Sophie.

Well, this wasn't the second part I'd been hoping to write, but it's the one that ended up being written and it belongs in this collection of stories so here it is. I have a lot of feelings for Sophie and Lambda as siblings, I wish more people wrote about them like this ; w;. Especially after the original cast dies and it's literally only them and the descendants of their friends. There'll be more Sophie and Lambda sibling shenanigans in this collection, too, but not as depressing as this one.

I hope everyone enjoyed it! I'm sorry for the year plus break, writing takes a lot of motivation for me to do. I hope I can write more frequently.

Also for clarity since their names were brought up: in the HC that all these stories take place in, the main cast has children. Michael and Alex are fraternal twins and the oldest kids of Hubert and Pascal's. Stewart is their youngest. Aslyn is Asbel and Cheria's biological kid and Asbel's heir. Camellia is Richard's daughter and his heir. They'll be brought up or shown sometimes in this collection, though it'll probably mainly be Aslyn and Camellia since they're directly related to Asbel and Richard.