Author's Note:
In case you haven't been following my other story, 'Shadow of Shadowmoon', Reevan is Vaala's fussy older brother. Just to clear up any confusion :) Thank you for your lovely reviews!
...
It had been a perfectly good night until the phone rang at an hour that was so late it was almost early the next day.
Reevan Dawnstrike didn't even bother to check the number. There was only one person who still called him at unholy in the morning and couldn't care less about consequences or common sense. Instead of 'Hello?', he answered with, "What did you do this time?"
"I need you to bail us out," came Vaala's voice from the other end. "Don't worry, Varian will pay you back in the morning."
Reevan's mind went over each word twice on the off-chance that he was still dreaming and his sister had simply called to ask how he was, even though he knew he'd heard every damn word perfectly. "Can't you ask Wrynn to bail you out?" he groaned.
Vaala coughed. "Not while he's in here with me."
"My first question still stands, then," Reevan said flatly.
There was a brief moment of silence, then, "Speeding, obstruction of justice and indecent exposure. Don't worry though, that last bit wasn't actually me."
After a second or two of pondering, Reevan decided he didn't want to know. "Where are you?"
"Where are we?"
"How should I know?"
"I obviously wasn't talking to you. Hold on."
There was a muffled conversation on the other end. Reevan began to drum his fingers on the top of his nightstand. Leave it to Vaala to find new and creative ways to get in trouble. At least on Azeroth, she could solve most of her problems with a boot to the face of whoever was suicidal enough to get in her way. Not so much in this world, it seemed.
"Still there?"
Reevan rolled his eyes. "No, I've teleported to the Golden Gate Bridge."
"Where's that?"
Reevan's fingers paused in the air. That question had caught him completely off-guard. He'd just blurted out the first place notorious enough to come to mind, but where was that bridge, anyway? And more importantly, why was he even - "Were you able to figure out where you are?"
"Well, Varian says it's the same place as last time." A pause, then, "You do remember where that was, right? We're down to our last quar-" The call was cut off abruptly.
Reevan did remember where that place was, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to flitting around in search of an all-night ATM and then driving to the other end of the city only to be greeted by the aftermath of whatever 'speeding', 'obstruction of justice' and – ye gods, he couldn't get himself to actually think of the last one. There was no question as to whether he'd do it or not. After all, she was his sister.
The sight that greeted Reevan some two hours later was certainly one he hadn't expected. His sister was cuddled up against Varian – who she'd repeatedly claimed annoyed her to death – with her head on his shoulder and apparently asleep. The once and future King of Stormwind didn't seem to mind. They almost looked normal together. Reevan decided he really didn't want to know.
Once the formalities were taken care of – with the utmost bureaucratic inefficiency characteristic to this world, much to Reevan's chagrin – they were finally allowed to retrieve their car and drive away. Varian had insisted on driving this time, and Vaala didn't argue, which was uncharacteristic of her. Stranger still, it didn't take long before she turned to Reevan and said, "Thanks for that."
Reevan shrugged. He was too tired to grill her for whatever she wasn't telling him this time. "You're welcome," he muttered. With a little luck, he'd be home and asleep soon, and this whole incident would become 'that one time, when you went and got yourself arrested and I had to bail you out in the middle of the night...' Hell, he couldn't settle for it after all. "How did you two manage to-"
"Three."
"-pardon?"
"Three," Vaala said smugly. "You'll never guess who we ran into when our car broke down."
There was a growl from the driver's seat, "Our car?"
"He gets very territorial sometimes," Vaala said under her breath. "Last week, he-"
Reevan sighed. "Focus. Please. Who did you run into when y- when Varian's car broke down?"
Vaala grinned and... giggled? The end of the world was nigh. "None other than the Sun King himself," she said. "And you'll never guess what he-"
"Kael'thas?" Reevan said, blinking. "He's... here?"
"Who else would haste-buff a car and then pretend he'd 'accidentally' cast the wrong spell when the cops pulled us over?" Vaala said sweetly. "Oh, and in case you were wondering, that 'indecent exposure' thing was him. He-"
"I wasn't wondering, but thanks for that," Reevan said quickly.
The sarcasm bounced right off. "You're welcome."
They didn't speak much after that. The sky was starting to turn a milky white by the time they reached Reevan's apartment building and he bid them both good night, wondering whether he should be worried at his new turn of events. For one, Varian and Vaala seemed to be getting along rather than bicker over every little thing. And then, if Kael'thas Sunstrider really was here – because really, who else would haste-buff a car? - then that brought the total of Azerothians in this world to an all-time high, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing. At some point, the whole of Azeroth and Outland had felt too small for all of them, and this city was infinitely smaller than either world.