Hello! I hope you're enjoying my stories so far, I'm definitely enjoying writing them! I just wanted to let you know that it looks like the site has been down for a couple of weeks (likely since mid-September), since I can't see any views, favourites, or follows on any of my stories, so I have no idea how well anything is being received. As always, thanks for your support, even with my lack of a posting schedule for writing or art! I also don't know whether reviews still work on your end, but if possible, please consider leaving one; they're always appreciated and currently my only way of interacting with my readers and knowing whether they like the stuff I post! Thanks, and enjoy! - Persimmon (20/10/23)

Chapter 3

Palutena hummed to herself as she flipped through one of Circe's books, little clouds of dust swirling in the air with each flutter of the brittle pages. For the hundredth time, she closed it and put it on the bookshelf. Nothing useful here either. She was determined to find some sort of lead to where Circe could have disappeared to, but it wasn't looking like she'd be successful before they had to leave. Maybe this would've been easier if someone could help me? She frowned in Dark Pit's direction when she saw him levitating some books between his hands and meticulously trying to stack them in the air without touching them. "Pittoo, what are you doing?"

"Nothing." She noticed he wasn't carrying her staff and panicked for a second until she saw it propped up against the wall behind him.

"Don't you see a way to be useful right now?" she asked pointedly, sifting through a ream of notes. These were written before Circe got banished. Also useless.

"Nope." That careless tone always annoyed her, but it was even worse in her voice. And Dark Pit didn't have the sense to even look at what she was doing before deciding his help wasn't needed. If she thought they were on the same page after their heart-to-heart, she was mistaken.

"Okay, look–" Palutena snatched the books out of the air and dropped them on a table. "We have to go soon, or Pit will start worrying again. Go look through these books you were so eager to play with."

"Why me?" he snapped, arms crossed over the golden sun pendant. "Look through them yourself."

"Because I'm busy looking at these books! Stop being so difficult right now!" Okay, calm down, he's only a teenager… but he's also one of the leaders of my army who currently has the responsibilities of the Goddess of Light. Never mind, he deserves it.

He didn't give up either. "You're the one who's being difficult! I've been saying we should leave for a while now, but you keep going 'give me a second'."

"If we don't check now, we might not get another chance! Why is that so hard for you to understand?" The words were out before she realized she might not have wanted to say them.

"Here we go again." He grabbed the staff, hair swishing as he turned away. "The great Goddess of Light is so incredible that no one has a hope of understanding her plans."

"Pittoo, stop! I never said that!"

"You stop! Let's go back home!" He stepped closer and they glared at each other with equal intensity. This is pointless. Why are we even arguing? Palutena would've apologized if she was the one who started it, but it looked like they were at a stalemate, so she had to do something.

"Fine!" She slammed the book shut and shoved it into the bookshelf. "Go ahead."

"You don't have to tell me." Dark Pit didn't wait for her before leaving. It wasn't like arguing with him was something new, but this time was particularly irritating. Shouldn't it be the most natural thing to help out at a time like this? When am I ever going to understand this guy? For once, she had to be satisfied without an answer.

Flying or warping would've been so much faster, but neither of them was willing to ask the other how it worked, so they just walked back in charged silence. For a long while, she walked a good distance behind him, and he didn't even turn to look back. But maybe that was helpful, because it gave them some time to calm down. They didn't bring up how Dark Pit gradually slowed down until they were walking side by side, and it wasn't long before Palutena felt a fleeting squeeze on her hand. She held on before he could let go and offered him a smile when she noticed his gaze.

"You'd better let go before we see anyone." Dark Pit usually made jokes with a straight face, but maybe it was harder to mask a playful tone in her voice. "This doesn't look natural in the slightest."

She laughed pleasantly. "If it wasn't for our situation right now, I wouldn't mind at all."

He elbowed her in the side. "Stop it. I don't want or need to hear my laugh."

"Does it really bother you that much?" Obviously, that just made her giggle more. "But it sounds so cute! Why don't I get to hear this more often? That's pretty much criminal!"

"Shut up!" he seethed. "It's not my job to act cute. I'm not Pit."

She eventually settled down for his sake. "Okay, I'll stop. You know how much I like teasing you two."

"You'd better not do anything stupid in my body, or I'm going to smite you."

"You'd smite your own body?"

"I'd figure something out, so don't try me."

Here we go. Finally. Palutena hoped her nervousness wasn't too obvious as they approached the temple's entrance. A shared glance at Dark Pit revealed that he wasn't any more at ease. They made it to Skyworld's central island without incident, but it all started falling apart as soon as they had to interact with people. She'd almost responded to 'Lady Palutena' in front of most of the Centurions they'd run into while Dark Pit ignored them for the most part, much to their confusion. But it wasn't like the Centurions or anyone else in Skyworld knew Dark Pit and Palutena as well as the angel waiting for them inside the temple.

She did a quick rundown of her appearance, not that it would help at this point. Bow, check. Laurel crown, check. Gauntlets, armband, scarf, fibula… I think I'm good. She took a look at Dark Pit just in case. Staff, crown, shield, and necklace. That's all he really needs, but something feels off… "Pittoo, your stance is intimidating."

He seemed startled. "How am I supposed to fix that?"

"Hm… maybe relax a bit, and spread your legs less." She reached up to adjust his shoulders and nodded when his posture became less uptight.

"Not my fault you chose an outfit like this," he mentioned, adjusting the fibula at his hip. "It's too revealing."

She felt her cheeks getting hot. "It's a traditional dress! And the slit was tactical, it was meant to make it easier for me to move!"

"Sounds like fanservice to me." She was about to argue when he patted her head. "Relax, I'm joking. You got so worked up that your feathers are literally ruffled." She didn't even notice that, and flinched when he placed a hand on her wings to smooth them out. "There. Let's go."

Palutena had barely pushed open the door when Pit dashed over, arms outstretched. "Welcome home!" Neither of them resisted the group hug he pulled them into, weapons and all. Suddenly being the same height as her little angel was disorienting to say the least, but she was relieved that nothing else was different about him. "Get washed up quickly, because dinner's already served! I got it ready myself."

Dark Pit didn't look at her for confirmation before commenting. "Colour me surprised."

Why would you say that? Pit blinked at him in confusion, and Palutena was forced to add on. I'm sorry, Pit. "Never thought you could warm up leftovers without burning the house down."

"Both of you? This is called teaming!" he complained. Wait, so he didn't notice that something's hopelessly wrong? "Hurry up, or the food's going to get cold!"

She shouldn't have been surprised. After all, they had to make sure he didn't notice before they got back into their own bodies. Even with those thoughts clouding her mind, the few minutes she got alone in the hot springs felt heavenly, and Dark Pit looked equally grateful when they parted ways to put away their weapons. Hopefully he remembers where to keep those. And now for what to wear… She opted for a simple tunic like Pit, mostly because she couldn't be bothered to figure out how to correctly tie a chiton so quickly. It looked like Dark Pit had a similar idea, since he emerged from the hot springs in one of her more casual dresses. "Forgot about my circlet?" she whispered, noticing his bare forehead.

"First get your wings out of the tunic!" he hissed. Oh. This is why I usually wear a sleeveless dress… He put the circlet on while she attempted to wriggle her wings out of the holes at her back. "Come on. He already whined about being hungry, like, three times or something." Palutena stifled laughter at the thought. Pit sidling up to the door to the hot springs and calling for her to hurry up so they could eat had been a common occurrence since he was four. Some things never change, do they?

She naïvely hoped that dinner would go normally. Pit waved them over to the table excitedly, and both he and Palutena started eating immediately. She grew concerned the longer Dark Pit stared at the plate placed in front of him. "What's this?"

No one in their family was a picky eater, but only being three years old chronologically, Dark Pit was still at the stage of being suspicious of any food he wasn't familiar with. And although they were usually considerate about that, Pit had no way of knowing that the plate he'd put a bit of everything on wasn't actually being served to Palutena. He rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Sorry if I completely ruined it. I didn't know how to heat it up evenly, so I kind of mixed everything together. But those are fried prawns."

Dark Pit nodded hesitantly and chose to eat the salad first. Palutena finished the pasta on her plate and was going to eat some of the omelet when Pit nudged her. "You ate all the tomatoes in that?"

"I… um…" Maybe her problem was that she got flustered too easily. "I was hungry. Espionage makes you work up an appetite. Not that you'd know." I'm sorry. Again.

The twins' arguing was so common nowadays that he didn't seem to mind. "So you're more comfortable than before, huh? See, I told you that you got your appetite from me!"

They were interrupted by Dark Pit. "Not bad," he remarked, chewing on a prawn. What do you mean, 'not bad'? I have no problems with those, and you're supposed to be me! He readily ate another one, and Palutena was glad that all three of them had similarly large appetites. Otherwise, figuring out how much to eat would have been a nightmare.

"I know, right? I was kind of worried they might have gone bad after four days, but it looks like your power of preservation is as strong as ever!" Pit turned to Palutena with a teasing smile. "When are you going to start eating seafood?"

She hesitated again. "Maybe when you stop pressuring me."

"Fair enough."

She didn't want to mess up more than she already had, and Dark Pit probably thought the same. Or he was just focusing on his meal. Whatever it was, they all lapsed into a rare awkward silence except for the clinking of cutlery on ceramic. Palutena kept her eyes downcast and only glanced over at Pit when he got up with a bounce for seconds. Maybe I should eat some more too. The last thing I want to do is starve Pittoo, but I don't think anyone who eats this much can count as malnourished… "Hey, are you guys okay?" Pit stood near the table, looking at them in concern over his full plate. "Both of you seem out of it today, so if there's anything I can do…"

Her pulse quickened. And we're finished. That didn't even take him twenty minutes. At least Dark Pit was still thinking straight. "We're fine, Pit. Just a little tired from today, but I'm sure we'll feel better after a good night's sleep." He's getting better at this. All she could do was nod in agreement.

Pit was clearly not convinced, but he nodded hesitantly and took a seat, sliding some food onto the plate in front of Palutena. "If you say so. Here, you should eat more. I know a good meal always helps cheer me up!"

"You rely on your stomach more than your brain sometimes," Dark Pit mentioned offhandedly.

"Now that's just mean! Sounds like something Pittoo would say!" If only you knew… or what if he does know? No no, stop panicking, Palu!

"But she's right," Palutena intervened, mentally apologizing yet again. "Imagine being named after your appetite?" That much was true. She distinctly remembered joking all those years ago that the newborn angel had to be a bottomless pit to fit so much food in such a small stomach, and the nickname had stuck ever since.

"You have the same name as me, so you can't say anything!" Pit pointed out. She shrugged in response. I'm not exaggerating this, right?

Dark Pit stood up almost too quickly, empty plate in hand. "Come on, let's get this over with and go to sleep." Clearly, both of them needed some more practice.

Cleaning up was easy enough, even if it was a little more hurried than usual. "Promise me you'll both go right to bed and be all better tomorrow, okay?" Pit wouldn't let them leave without agreeing, and they all wished each other good night before heading to their rooms. Palutena had just enough brainpower left to remember which room to go to, and forced herself to get ready to sleep as usual. She'd barely turned off the lights and let herself fall onto Dark Pit's bed before drifting off. Maybe it'll wear off by tomorrow. As if we'd ever get that lucky.

Palutena woke up in a sleep-clouded confusion, eyes darting between the slate grey walls, navy blue bedsheets, and the dark teal wings wrapped around her until the memories of yesterday flooded back. Of course, the spell hadn't worn off, but she couldn't tell if that had anything to do with Pit's confusion during dinner. She sat up and stretched, lazily unfurling her wings, and gazed bleary-eyed at the clock on the wall. Huh? It can't already be 7:30!

That was enough to get her out of bed. She was usually up bright and early, so it was probably Dark Pit's natural sleep cycle that made her sleep in almost three hours late. She was used to being up before the sun, but it felt strangely dark for later than seven in the morning. Pulling open the curtains, it looked eerily overcast outside, but she squinted and noticed that there weren't any clouds in the sky. The sun's light was just too dim to illuminate it. She instinctively reached for her staff before the realization hit that she didn't have it, and even if she did, she was nearly powerless. Oh no, does Pittoo even know he's supposed to do this?

Continuing to look outside while trying to get to the bathroom was a bad idea, because she almost immediately tripped on the edge of a desk and fell face-first with a thud. Palutena scrambled to wash her face while thinking up an explanation to give Pit if he came to check on his twin like they often did. For once, his concern was becoming an issue.

As it turned out, she was overthinking it again. After brushing her teeth, wearing one of Dark Pit's chitons, and getting rid of her bedhead without interruption, she peeked into Pit's room to see him still fast asleep and squeezing a pillow, blissfully unaware of his surroundings. That was a relief, but there was still the problem that there was almost no sunlight outside.

Palutena unapologetically barged into her room with a call of "Pittoo!" It felt uncanny to see her own body lying there, limbs splayed out and long braid flowing onto the floor, but it was also funny how easily she could identify Dark Pit from that position. He must have incredible willpower to get my body to stay asleep for so long. Even while I'm yelling at him. "Pittoo, wake up!"

Neither of the twins had any inhibition while they were half asleep. "Pit, go back to sleep," he murmured, gently tugging on her arm. Usually, it was cute, and she would have brought her camera. But she didn't have time for that now.

"So that's why I can never seem to get you two to wake each other up, huh? You just tell each other to sleep?" She poked his arm. "I'm not Pit, and you have to get up already!"

She could pinpoint the exact moment he understood what was going on and sat bolt upright. "What's wrong?"

"Have you noticed that it's a little dark outside? Hurry up and adjust the sunlight!"

"Since when do you make the sun rise?" he complained, fumbling for the staff.

"I don't, I just alter the intensity of its light throughout Skyworld and the Overworld."

"How?"

"Just…" She was at a loss for an explanation. "You'll know what to do."

"Thanks a lot," he sighed sarcastically, pulling open the curtains and holding the staff out towards the sun. It was understandable that Dark Pit didn't get it right away, but the way his focus never wavered as he tried was admirable. Until a blinding light flooded the sky. "Ack! Too bright!" Once he knew what to do, it barely took him a few seconds to adjust the intensity until it looked like any other sunlit day. "There we go. Crisis averted."

"Good job," she commended. "Now go get yourself ready." He propped her staff against the wall when she added, "I can't remember, but did you say you wanted to make breakfast today?"

"Does it matter?" he asked, clearly exasperated, disappearing into the bathroom. "We'll go to the kitchen together anyways."

Palutena nodded. One crisis averted, a million more to go.