A/N: Okay…look.

Did I think that when I sat down I would finish the new Violet/Xaden smut piece I'm working on? Yes. Yes I did.

Is that what my ADHD brain decided to do? No. It decided to not write smut. My poor little brain is tired…so tired…and it went to a silly place. I'll not apologize due to the effort for me to desperately try and keep these sassy bitches in character while doing something of an uncharacteristic thing.

I catch Mira from the corner of my eye as she slips into the sparring gym. It's early in the morning and there aren't many cadets at this time, so she finds my excited glance quickly.

Ever the stoic officer, she nods curtly and I move to join her while watching Imogen and Rhi desperately try and teach Sloane how to escape while pinned on her back.

Sleek, sly, and nonchalant, we stand shoulder to shoulder - well, my shoulder to the side of her arm as she has a good six inches on me, and attempt to look like we're not up to anything.

"Mission accomplished?"

She nods, "mmhmm," and we share kinked corners of our mouths turning to watch the first year's practice. Now, we wait.

I feel Xaden enter the gym without turning to look, his shadowy tendrils knocking gently at my locked tight shields which I instantly drop for him. His hand hits the small of my back, the warmth seeping through my leather, and the soft kiss he leans down to press against the top of my shoulder sends a tingle up my spine.

"You left early this morning," and I can hear a disappointment in his rumbly voice, still heavy from sleep as it echoes in my head. I can't stifle the hum that escapes my throat.

"Couldn't get back to sleep."

My answer was lame and I wince. The fact that I didn't immediately flirt back caught his attention, especially through our internal bond that no one else can hear. I feel more than see the turn of his head and know he's narrowed his onyx eyes to near slits to study the side of my face.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing," I respond. Probably a little too quickly.

"Then what are you up to?"

I pause for what feels like an appropriate amount of time, all light and bouncy with a delightful and innocent upward inflection to my answer. "Nothing."

"Violence," his warning grumble is aloud this time, and I see Mira flinch.

She leans behind me toward Xaden with a harsh whisper on her lips. "Look, she's a terrible liar. Just stop asking and she won't have to."

"Wait. You're both up to something?"

As if on cue, everyone in the gym flinches at Brennan's amplified voice that tears suddenly through the halls of Riorson House.

"Violet and Mira Sorrengail - get the fuck to the Assembly Hall. Now!"

The amplified lesser magic is typically reserved for vast teaching halls or the Basgiath flight field, so indoors is overkill and rattles my ears.

I share a glance and a smirky grin back and forth with my sister.

I pop up on my toes and press a kiss to Xaden's stubbled jaw before heading toward the door, Mira on my heels. With a dozen of my steps between where I am and where I left him, he catches up in three of his.

"There isn't a chance he'll…hurt you, right?" I hear a hint of worry wrapping around his curiosity, but I shoot him a look over my shoulder.

"That's why I roped in Mira."

I feel his sigh but he doesn't ask anything else.

Mira and I take the hallway with slow steps, well aware of the entourage fathered behind us. Despite the urgency in Brennan's tone, we walk as if we're two dainty ladies at a palace circling a garden in the spring air. While most of the first year's stayed in the gym from what I can see when I glanced back at Xaden, nearly everyone else has fallen into step behind us.

Another boom: "now!" comes from ahead, and Mira turns on me with a pointed finger and shining brown eyes.

"Do. Not. Break."

"I won't," I squeak.

"You always do."

I scoff, "I do not! You would always cave."

She scoffs, "no I wouldn't. I just knew when to back out of the fight, unlike you."

"Well…that sounds familiar," Xaden says straight into my brain causing me to turn and send an eye rolling glare his way.

I scoff again, "look - I won't break. But you'd better not go soft."

Her return scoff is one of deep offense. "If this goes badly, I'm blaming it all on you. He can't do anything to you with your boyfriend here."

I grin, "oh - it'll go badly. That's the idea."

"Woah, wait. Wait. You actually have a plan?"

His voice is still bedraggled and I groan into his mind, "stop using your morning sex voice."

All I can feel is a twinkle of laughter, but he mercifully backs off. I think it's probably only because of his curiosity.

The assembly doors are dead ahead and the dancing butterflies have nearly filled my stomach to my throat.

"Get in here and close the damned door."

I slip in first, Mira behind, and much to the chagrin of everyone in the hallway, the doors close behind us. I know the crowd didn't scatter, however. They aren't warded for sound.

Brennan's voice is still loud, but he isn't using magic any longer, which I'm thankful for. I'm not sure this would be worth potentially losing my hearing. We stop just inside the doors and I find myself trying to focus on the stained grain of the wood on the floors beneath my boots.

"Not going to look at me, huh?" His voice is all barely contained rage, a small tremor shaking the end of his sentence. "Stand at attention!"

The order is barked and Mira and I both respond with practiced ease as setting our feet a shoulder's width apart and folding our arms behind us, hands clenched together at the small of our backs.

I know I can't look, and with the angle of Mira's face, she's come to the same conclusion.

I know exactly why Mira called me on it in the hallway. I did always break back when we were kids. Any time the three of us were called to attention in front of Mom or Dad, all eyes would turn on me to be the one to give up the truth.

Well, not this time. I'm not that same, scrawny little girl, and I'll be damned if I break before Mira. Brennan's reaping what he sowed with his sour mood, early morning runs as punishment for lack of focus. I focus on a point directly ahead of me instead of making any eye contact with my brother or even look in his direction.

My braid is down today and the silver ends tickle my wrists. I didn't have the time to do it up into a full coronet at the top of my head only because of my need to get out of the room early to make all of this work.

The problem wasn't being able to get up early - I was trained as a Scribe and we're up with an ink pot and quill ready to notate with the rising of the sun.

No.

I had to get up before Xaden, else I'd still be in that bed.

And Brennan had this coming. As I begin to contemplate the punishment he's sure to dish out, his voice cracks a harsh laugh.

"This. This, girls, is too far. Why? By all the Gods, why?"

I decide to answer, for a reason I'm not sure exists. It was definitely rhetorical. "I'm," I swallow hard, "not sure what you're referring to, Lieutenant Colonel."

It's his turn to scoff.

'A lot of that going around today,' I think, trying to hold back a grin.

"Damnit, you know that was rhetorical. You…you expect me to think that you, Violet," I can hear his boots on the hardwood floor as they stomp my way, "you who's done this to me before doesn't know what I'm referring to?!"

"It's," I start, and I can feel his very rage-filled aura standing directly to my right as Mira holds her composure to my left. "It's 'to what I am referring'."

I correct his grammar and my sister…breaks. Just for a moment, but it was there. It happened.

My partner in crime. My rock. My steadfast, unwavering, unyielding, badass rider of a sister…laughs. It was light. Only one time. A soft little puff of air from her nose which she immediately shuts down, though as I chance a millisecond glance her direction, it's not hard to see the ghost of the smile on her lips.

I whisper, "really?"

Brennan stomps back toward the table. "You can't do stuff like this here! This was…is…the - it's the," he stumbles over his words, and the unbearable ache to turn my head is building up at the back of my neck.

'Don't do it,' I say to myself. 'If you look, you'll break. I'm sure that's why Mira broke. She looked.'

Brennan's voice is a deadly low rumble. "Violet? Look at me."

Oh no. Nope. Huh-uh. My head shakes just along with my inner thoughts.

"Violet. Sorrengail. Look me in the eyes." Though he said it nicely, it was very much a cold demand.

Mira breaks again to whisper, "don't do it," like I don't know the consequences.

I knew the plan.

I saw the outcome last night when I stopped by Mira's room so we could finish said plan.

I know for a fact right now that she has all of Brennans closet tossed in on her bedroom floor.

I know with lethal certainty that she left only a single outfit: specially designed flight leathers, in his closet.

Because I know all of this, I know I can't look.

He's on the move again, and I unfocus my eyes as he steps directly in front of me. He's a blurry blob with a mop of brown at the top, and though I want to look at the vibrant color below his pale face, I hold my head high.

"So you've got nothing to say for yourselves? Just gonna go with…with this?" He gestures grandly with his arms, and I see Mira shake her head from the corner of my eyes. "How about you run the mountain trail today?" His threat is a rough one seeing as we ran it yesterday and my shins still hurt from that one.

Bravery hits my soul once more, "well, it is a lovely day. The pink wildflowers higher up are gorgeous."

Another little chortle of air from Mira's nose tugs my lips upward, and her voice strains to double-down on my pun. "With it being so early, I'll bet the pinks of sunrise are still hitting the snow. It'll be a pretty run."

Brennan glowers, I assume, as I maintain my composure by closing my eyes and biting my lips together tightly. "Oh good. Yes. Get it all out."

I continue, "you're still not a morning person, eh? This was meant to…help your rosy personality."

Mira picks it up, and the giggling waver in her voice is my undoing, "it really brings out the color of your eyes," and I break, unable to hold the bubbling laughter in my chest any longer.

I turn my head and try to hold my breath and ground myself, but my sister's laugh does me in and it's a torrent I can't stop. It's as if I've flung wide the archive doors to Tairn's unstoppable power, only right now it's uncontrollable, light-hearted, stomach-toning laughter.

Suddenly Mira leans on my shoulder and I'm clinging to her arms as I let my eyes fall fully on our older brother standing with barely contained rage tinting his cheeks to a red just above the custom outfit we had designed for him.

The finely cut and measured leather was stained with a unique fuchsia pigment, and from head to toe, Brennan is donned in a sea of shiny pink. Though I didn't think it was possible, I laugh harder, doubling over and clutching my cramping side while attempting to suck air into my starving lungs. The vision of my bright pink brother blurs as tears fill my eyes, and I hear the thud as well as feel the pull of Mira tipping to her backside on the floor, still clinging to my arm and nearly taking me with her.

Our peals and cackles fill the empty chamber from top to bottom. Somewhere in the background of our delight I hear a door open, and Mira and I both catch our breath to see a stunned Xaden at the entrance, the door mostly closed behind him, though his hand still rests on the handle.

"Don't," Brennan demands, a threat in his amber eyes firing into the shimmering gold-flecked onyx depths that are having a hard time believing what they're seeing if the confusion written there is as easy for me to see as everyone else.

This is all a split second before another round of laughter tightens my eyes closed and tips me forward, one hand hitting my knee as the other wraps around my middle to hold my stomach.

"Wow," his deep rumble echoes, but his hand flings wide the assembly door as a smirk grows across his face.

A dozen pairs of eyes land on the Lieutenant Colonel as he hangs his head in defeat while donned in bright pink leathers.

Later in the evening, soaked in sweat and breathing in wheezes with legs made of putty, Mira and I make it to the bottom of the hill where Brennan sits waiting. She'd given up where she'd stashed his regular outfits, so unfortunately, he's no longer pink.

"One more should do it, don't you think?"

We groan as he points back up the mountain, the packed dirt trail made of snow-slushed mud and partly slippery ice as the late day shadows play against the setting sun. We both turn back up and restart the ascent knowing full well we'd earned the punishment.

"I don't even care if my legs fall off, it was worth it," I gasp my words like a fish out of water and Mira laughs, falling into step beside me while we make our way back up the mountainside.