January 28, 2036
Every Monday morning felt like it had the alarm going off incredibly early, but that morning in particular felt earlier than usual. Unfortunately, Nah had been staring at her phone's screen for far too long by the time it was buzzing in her hands, and she had been dreading the sound the whole time. "Can't there be one week where I get an unexpected long weekend?" she asked no one in particular, as she silenced the alarm and slowly made her way out of the bed. "Like, I don't ask for a whole lot, Naga, but if you'd give me a snow day one of these weeks, I'd overlook some of the other things you've given me."
As soon as she stopped talking, the room fell eerily quiet, and she sighed. Her relationship with Naga, and religion as a whole, was more distant than it had ever been, but with the year of the dragon—the year for the manaketes—looming she'd been working on rebuilding that connection. Now the day was upon her, and she still felt like she'd been given no extra, beyond-the-normal favors by the deity she was supposed to revere above all others.
Okay, that wasn't the full truth, and Nah knew it very well, but she was still going to find ways to feel bitter about parts of the life she'd pieced together while having no influence from the goddess she'd been promised would take great care of her. Naga sure wasn't the one responsible for the house she lived in, or the love that she'd been so lucky to have for all these years, or the job that she was having to force herself to get ready for, or any of the other tiny details that she wasn't keen on listing to herself early on a Monday morning. Those were all things that Nah had needed to put her own work into, no religious influence needed. "I'm not sure how I'm going to get through today," she muttered as she flipped the bedroom light on and used it to peer into the large closet filled with all of her work clothes. "Starting before sunrise, ending far too close to midnight…maybe it'd be better if tomorrow's the snow day instead, so I can sleep in when I really need it."
She picked out a professional-looking outfit and went to shower before she changed into it, but when she stepped into the bathroom and turned the light on inside, there was a sticky note attached to the mirror. See you after work Monday, it read in handwriting akin to scribbles, and just seeing those five words made her smile. "The weekend's over, you'll be home after this and we'll be able to be together again," Nah said, reaching out and pulling the note down and pressing it close to her chest. "I still can't believe you got to travel doing what you love, but I wish I'd been able to go with you. Stupid last-minute planning getting in the way of letting that happen."
For almost a week now, she'd seen that note stuck there, taunting her with a reminder that she was alone for days on end. It really had been a sudden decision for Brady to need to leave Ylisse with the orchestra he'd casually been practicing with for years, as they needed a violinist to come with them to perform and he'd proven his talent a million times over. Nah distinctly remembered the day he'd been asked to go, he'd gotten so overwhelmed with emotion from the offer that she'd needed to accept it on his behalf, because he couldn't get through saying the acceptance. It was, by far, the longest amount of time they'd been apart in all the time they'd been married, and it had been the longest time in Nah's life that she'd been alone, outside of spending time with people at work.
All she needed to do was get through the work portion of her day, then she'd be able to get to be with her husband again for the rest of the day's activities, which she wasn't thrilled with being stacked as they were. But she needed to focus on one thing at a time, and right then it was getting ready for work and heading into the office for her shift. Given that it was a Monday, she didn't need to think anything about lesson plans or what kinds of groups she was going to be working with, which did make the idea of having to work slightly more palatable. Still, it was early in the morning and she had other things her mind wanted to focus on, so getting motivated to do her job was going to be hard.
A lot had changed since the last year of the dragon, besides the obvious bump in relationship status that she'd been proud of for the nearly ten years since she'd gotten married. While there were a lot of things that could have been different, or maybe should have been different, the biggest and most notable one was regarding the very job she was dragging her feet on going to. She was still working with special education children, and had amassed quite the caseload over the years, but she had one school that she called her home and she had a new title to go with the additional schooling she'd put herself through.
Being the director of special education at the secondary school level was not something she'd expected when she'd first graduated with her degree, but after a lot of talks with Maribelle about working in educating students caught up in legal matters, she'd decided that there was a different, overlooked group of kids she wanted to focus on. If they were making it to her school, that meant they'd been failed and pushed through the system by many years' worth of teachers, and those kids were beginning to feel helpless in their own education. She was teaching these older students things that she'd been teaching the primary school kids, and often they were needing a lot more repetitions before they began understanding, but seeing their growth and development made every hard day worth it.
And it also made every Monday, where she did nothing but submit paperwork and arrange her schedule for the week, between teaching kids and assisting the special education aides that worked under her, feel like it wasn't just a wasted day. While she showered, Nah kept trying to get herself focusing on work and what all was on her plate for that day and that week, but she kept having her thoughts drifting off to what her day's schedule looked like.
Work came first, naturally. Then, once she was done for the day, she would come home and get changed into something more comfortable, wait for Brady to get home, then they'd be going over to the manakete church for the year of the dragon celebration. It was a lot earlier in the day than it had been in past years, because the average age of the people at the church was well into the sixties and none of them were capable of being awake much past sunset on those early winter nights. Once that started to wind down, they'd head over to Noire and Laurent's house for dinner, before the whole group went together to Lucina and Gerome's for another manakete-inspired celebration. After that, it'd be home and back to bed for a full day of work the next morning.
Nah sighed, wiping water off of her face as she realized that she'd gotten herself highly distracted from getting showered and ready for work. "This water's too nice, I should just stay here and let them think something's happened," she mused, before dashing the thought and deciding that she was going to be a responsible adult and do her job as directed. Twenty-five minutes later and she was finally out of the shower, dried off, and dressed for the day, focusing on doing her hair and making herself look presentable for all of the dry and dull office work she was going to be doing. Naturally, that meant putting her short-cut hair into small pigtails and brushing her bangs to cover all of her forehead, before slapping some basic makeup on and covering that up with the glasses she needed to be able to see—a curse of growing older and doing a lot of work on computers.
With everything taken care of, she grabbed her lunch and her purse, put on her jacket and her shoes, and headed out to her car, which struggled to start in the cold morning weather but came alive after a bit of convincing. The school she worked at now was a lot further away from home than any of the previous schools had been, but getting this particular job at this particular school had not been planned for when they'd bought that house right around the time they'd gotten married. Now, of course, if given the opportunity Nah would gladly sell the home and buy something more conveniently located, because she felt that her job wasn't going to be changing and Brady's job wasn't one that had a set commute, but they loved their little house with its lack of stairs and amenities appropriately sized to accommodate both of their heights. If living there meant leaving for work long before the sun came up in winter, then that was exactly what it meant.
Just like she'd been prepared for, Nah's day was spent entirely in her office, putting logs into student records and coming up with cohesive plans for how she was going to teach her struggling students that week. The special education aides, all of whom did have classes and courses to assist with every day of the week, would pop in and make sure that they knew what they needed to do, and she was thankful that she had a team willing to check that they were doing things right. Their role was a lot different than hers was, and they weren't teaching a whole block of students at any point, but for them to know how to assist the kids that she would be pulling out for classes every other day was crucial for their success.
The hours in that office, even when broken up by people coming in to verify their jobs, were long and tedious, even if the work wasn't exactly difficult. The major problem was how much data needed to be input into screens with tiny text boxes, which even with her glasses required Nah squinting and trying her best at reading what was going on, since she couldn't magnify what was on the page at any given time. "I think, if special education gets a boost in budget next school year, getting access to a logging program that has bigger font might be a necessity," she grumbled after clicking off of the last file she needed to edit for the day. "Either that, or they're paying for me getting a bigger computer screen and seeing if that helps any."
After the data logging came the lesson planning, which was when she was able to get out of the office and see what was going on in the general education classrooms. Part of her role was to supplement what the other teachers were doing with targeted programs, and in order to be successful in doing that, she had to know what was being taught. The first year she'd been the director of special education, this was the part of the job that had taken the longest, because she'd been familiar with submitting data in her previous roles. Now that she'd been at it for a couple years, she was able to step in, see where the class was, and know exactly what subjects were necessary for success on upcoming tests, and which parts of the lessons could be safely skipped.
Once her rounds were done, she was back in the office putting together the agenda for the week, complete with breakdowns of what she was planning on teaching every day and when each topic would be covered. During her arranging of the schedule, one of the aides came in and watched her, taking notes on what she was doing and what her logic behind her choices was. "I'd like to know how to do this correctly, just in case I have to step in and do it myself," the aide explained, gesturing toward her notepad. "You're easily the best teacher I can learn from, Dinah."
"I understand that, but do you have to be so formal with me? Seriously, just call me Nah, everyone does it." Smiling up from her own calendar that was spread out over her desk, she looked at the aide who seemed shocked to have been told such a thing. "We go over this every week when you watch me, you don't need to call me my first name when it's not even what's on my school badge."
She pointed to the badge hanging from the collar of her jacket, which did in fact not have Dinah listed on it. If she'd been able to have her way, all it would have said would be Nah, but the administrators didn't want to open themselves up to any awkward discussions with parents if the director of special education had a one-word name on her badge. She'd then fought that they let her just keep it to being Nah Balakin, but the argument there was that her legal last name needed to be visible, because it was what was listed on the school website, and what parents would need to know if they were speaking with anyone at the district level. So she'd relented and said she'd accept it being on her badge, if the students could call her the name she preferred.
And that was the exact thing that the aide brought up. "Okay, but your badge also says that the kids should call you Mrs. Balakin-Hoffman, and that's not what you go by."
"Well, yeah, I didn't formally take my husband's last name because I wanted to keep using mine, but I didn't want to let his be ignored. Doesn't mean I want everyone throwing out that mouthful every time they're trying to talk to me." Flicking her badge, Nah waited for any sort of rebuttal, and when one never came she went back to doing her planning. "But, back on topic, if I wasn't the best person to learn this from, I wouldn't be in this position to begin with, now would I?"
The aide laughed, also returning to taking notes on what she was watching. "That's right, I'd be watching someone else, or maybe you'd be doing the watching. Who knows, really."
That was how the rest of the day was spent, making the plans and being observed in how they got done, and as soon as school let out for the day, Nah packed her computer just in case she didn't show up the next day (even though she knew she would, she always did), and headed out to get back home. Traffic was a nightmare leaving the school, and the drive back across town seemed longer than usual, to the point that she almost felt like it'd be a better use of her time to stop somewhere and wait for the roads to get less busy. She didn't let herself get distracted, though, and made it back home while there was still were peeks of sunlight in the sky.
She knew that the next thing she needed to go was go mingle with the manaketes over at the year of the dragon celebration, and she was a bit too overdressed for the occasion. That had her going back to her bedroom and exchanging her work clothes for something more simple, a casual outfit that she'd feel comfortable wearing to church if she ever bothered to attend anymore. It was while she was once again fixing her hair that she heard the front door open, followed by a call of her name into the house. "I'm in the room, I'm almost ready to leave!" she yelled back, and her response was met with fast footsteps across the floor of the house.
Within moments, there was the sound of something getting thrown down onto the bed, followed by a second person appearing in the mirror she was looking in. "You weren't kidding, you really are almost ready, huh?" Brady asked, leaning down to put his hands on Nah's shoulders. "Guess that means I should get gettin' ready too, doesn't it?"
"I mean, if you wanted to stay home and rest while I'm over at the rec center, I think everyone would understand and forgive it. But you'd have to be ready for dinner, and that's…who knows when that'll be." Nah smiled up at Brady, visible in their reflections, and he seemed to consider the suggestion she'd made, before letting go of her and swiftly stepping out to get new clothes to change into.
Nah glanced over to the room where she saw him switching what he was wearing, then back at her own reflection and the hair that she was in the process of trying to fix. She'd pulled out the dragon-wing clip that she'd gotten years ago, and was trying to figure out how she could manage to get it to fit into her hair, but with how short she'd gotten it cut the last time she'd done anything with it, the clip covered up any small pigtail and getting the hair into a ponytail was impossible. Eventually, she decided she'd just do what she could, pulled the top part of her hair up and clipped the wings up on top of it. It looked borderline tacky, and seemed more like something a child would do with their hair than a grown woman, but she liked the way it looked so she rolled with it.
"Oh, that's cute," Brady said when he saw her come out of the bathroom, him making sure that the shirt he'd chosen to wear wasn't too wrinkled for the occasion. "Isn't that the clip that Ma got for you?"
"Sure is, and I'd think it's the most appropriate accessory I can wear today." Nah gave him a once-over, shaking her head playfully when she was done. "Meanwhile, you still manage to look like you've just been trapped on a bus all day, but at least you don't smell like it anymore. Little things."
"Whoa there, if I still look like I've been on the bus, then I've gotta find something else to wear. Ain't that the point here, me looking like I'm put together or something?" He went to remove his shirt to switch it out, but Nah came up to him and wrapped her arms around him, getting him to stop.
"No, I think it looks authentic, and that's what we want. I missed you, by the way."
"Longest time we've been apart, and you had to do it all alone." One quick adjustment so that he was the one grabbing her, and Brady carefully lifted Nah up off the ground, just so that he could gently kiss her on her cheek first, then a bit longer on her lips, before setting her back down and pulling his hands back, one of them scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry about that, by the way. If I'd known that it'd overlap with…"
As he looked for the words he was trying to find, she shushed him. "Don't worry about it. I'm more concerned with how many manaketes are going to be asking about where they are tonight than anything else, but it's whatever. Your mom wanted to do something nice and her plans got wrecked and ruined a lot of other plans when she fixed them. Mom and Dad will figure out how to make things right with the church when they're back."
"So you're forcing yourself to go tonight to make up for them not going, right?" Making sure that he understood the reason for this step of the night's plans, Brady seemed unenthused when Nah nodded. "Sounds like you're doin' your parents' dirty work on this one, Nah. Maybe we could just skip it and go to dinner early…?"
She stopped mid-nod to start shaking her head. "No way, I already told Lady Tiki we'd be there, and since this'll probably be the last year of the dragon she lives to see, it'd be wrong of me to go back on my word."
"Got it. Then we should get goin' to get it all over with."
"You seriously don't have to go with me to this, I can just swing back by and get you before dinner. You sound like you need a nap." Nah stepped to the side, with full intention of walking around Brady to leave the room, but he stopped her by outstretching an arm and holding it in front of her. "What is it? I'm trying to go."
"And I'm comin' with you, but what's all this about me needin' a nap? If I need one, you need one too. You had to sit in your office and work all day, and I know that's not what you signed up for with your job." He had a point, and as much as Nah wanted to argue back that sitting in an office was more stimulating than riding a bus halfway across Ylisse, she decided that it wasn't worth the effort or energy.
"I swear, if you start falling asleep later, I'm telling everyone that I gave you the choice. Now let's get going, the faster we get there the faster we can leave."
They spent just over an hour at the rec center for the year of the dragon celebration, the elderly age of the majority of the attendees making them all want to turn in for the day way earlier than the younger folks. Nah and Brady mostly hung off to the side by themselves, made easier without there being any parental figures there telling them to get out and mingle with the others. At one point, Nah saw Lady Tiki and Say'ri come into the room from an adjoining one, and she rose from the chair she'd taken to go greet them, but got stopped by another manakete halfway there, who was far too curious about where her parents were and why they hadn't made their appearance yet.
"Uh, my parents are on a rescheduled cruise with my in-laws, it was supposed to be a holiday present but got pushed back to this week," Nah explained, trying to keep her eyes on where Lady Tiki was so that she'd get the chance to speak with her. "Mom was upset that she wouldn't be able to be here, but the tickets were non-refundable and my mother-in-law was not going to let her skip out for this."
"That's a shame, Nowi always brings an energy to these parties that we're sorely missing," the woman chuckled, reaching down to pat Nah's arm. "You've grown up to be quite the respectable woman, Dinah. Don't forget that."
"With how often I hear it around here, I don't think I ever could," Nah replied, before apologizing as she continued to walk toward where the manakete elder was. She wasn't actually sure what she wanted to say to Lady Tiki, or if she had anything to say at all beyond a pleasant greeting, but she knew that dodging talking to her would only cause trouble.
It was Say'ri who noticed her first, gently tapping Lady Tiki's arm to get her attention before pointing toward Nah as she approached. "Dinah has come to speak with you, it seems," she said, her voice soft as she spoke solely to the elder. "Do you care to say anything?"
"Oh, Dinah, what a precious girl," Lady Tiki replied, reaching out to where Say'ri was pointing, which was Nah's cue to hold her own hand out to take the leathery and aged one into it. "How are things? How is your mother?"
"Things are going as well as they could be, I suppose. As for my mother, you know she isn't here this evening but she will make it up to you all when she can." Squeezing the elder's hand slightly, Nah stepped closer, until she was right in front of the pair. "I felt it was only right if I came and said hello while I'm here."
"This is the ninth year of the dragon I've been alive for, did you know that?" The question was asked in such a way that Nah didn't know if she was supposed to answer or not, but she shook her head and said she wasn't aware of that fact. Lady Tiki smiled, squeezing Nah's hand on her own this time. "And this is the fourth you have lived. Do you know what happened when your mother reached her fourth year of the dragon?"
Nah's breath caught in her chest as she realized the answer that Lady Tiki was fishing for, and she quickly let go of the elder's hand. "It was the first one she celebrated with my father as a married couple, just like what I'm getting to experience this time. And I know that there are special things that non-manaketes are expected to understand about the traditions and culture, so…perhaps I should…go take care of that."
Stepping back a few paces, Nah thought she'd been able to get out of having any follow-up comments made, but then she heard Lady Tiki say, "Now, now, Dinah, you and I both know that isn't what I was implying."
"If it's not what you were implying, then I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Enjoy your evening, Lady Tiki!" Giving a small wave, Nah got herself out of there even faster than she'd tried before, and she crossed the room once more to return to where Brady was still sitting, watching her coming back in a hurry.
"Do I wanna know what just happened over there?" he asked, raising his non-scarred eyebrow as he spoke. "Can't say I've seen you hustle like that to get away from someone in a long time."
"It was just Lady Tiki doing Lady Tiki things, trying to get me to talk about something I don't want to talk about." Retaking her seat, Nah began to tap her fingers on the edge of the table, as she looked back at where the elder and her companion were still sitting together, in the throes of a conversation that had some lovely hand gestures attached. "At least, I think that's where she was going with that. For all I know, it could've been her trying to preach at me that my job isn't fitting for a manakete or whatever."
Brady's eyes tracked to where the two were sitting as well, and after watching them gesture for a moment or two, he nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I can't say I know a single thing about what's goin' on there. So I can't really blame you for wantin' to get away from that so quickly, seems like it's just a lot of crazy over there."
"She's old, and she's only gotten weirder over time. But like I said before, this is probably her last year of the dragon, so I can't exactly shut her own when she's been the elder for my entire life." The drumming slowly stopped, as Nah sank back against the chair and thought about how grand of a life Lady Tiki had been leading, to have existed for nine different years represented by the dragon. "When she goes, I don't know what'll happen to our little corner of manakete religion, but it definitely won't be the same."
"Maybe there'll be some up-and-coming young guy who can step in and take her place?" Brady suggested, before looking around and seeing that there weren't exactly any others there that were younger than they were. "Er…maybe not?"
"Her plan had always been to have Lucina take the role, but that clearly wasn't going to happen, and then I think she considered having me do it, but I…" Nah trailed off, thinking about all of the reasons why she would never, in a million years, want to give up the life she'd built to become a voice of Naga for an entire church. "Nope, it's still not something I have any interest in. I can name two reasons right off the top of my head, and that's without thinking about it at all."
"Am I one of those reasons?"
She paused, looking at Brady with her eyes slightly narrowed over her glasses, before laughing. "I mean, why wouldn't you be? There's a reason Lady Tiki and Say'ri aren't anything more than partners, that being that the manakete elder is supposed to live a life without attachment to anything except Naga. Keeps the Fell Dragon out of their heart."
"That sounds like there's the implication that only married people can fall into those clutches, but we both know that ain't the case. But whatever," Brady said, shaking his head, "this whole thing's a new level to the religion Ma tried shovin' down my throat as a kid, and I can't say I fully get it."
"Trust me, I've been a part of this stuff for as long as I've been alive, and I barely get it too. This is why it's better when my parents are around, because Mom can explain all of it in ways that make sense, and Dad cracks jokes and makes it fun to try and understand." For yet another moment, Nah wished that her parents were there at the table with them, but she knew that they were getting to enjoy themselves on that cruise with Brady's parents, building bonds that hadn't been explored in a non-professional sense. But then it dawned on her that if they were there, then certainly Brady's parents would've been dragged along too, and Nah wasn't sure how well Maribelle would handle being in a room full of people that worshipped Naga different than she did, where she couldn't tell them off for what she perceived as small flaws.
"Say, Nah, would you be too angry if I said I was thinkin' it's about time to leave?" Breaking her from her thoughts, Brady's question was a welcome surprise, and it was one that Nah was more than happy to answer.
In fact, she answered by standing up and motioning for him to do the same. "No one's going to miss us if we leave, we did our duty and it's not like this is all of the celebrating we're doing today," she pointed out, and if she was fine with going, so was he. Outside, the darkness of early nighttime was settling in, streetlights turning on and the world feeling much quieter than it did during the bustle of the day. That sense of peace ended as soon as they were out on the main road, where drivers adamant about getting home to their families drove recklessly and caused all sorts of honking with their poor choices. Thankfully, the drive to their next destination wasn't that long, and they made it relatively unscathed.
"Next time, how about you don't try brake-checkin' someone for riding so closely?" Brady suggested once he was out of the car and had looked at the rear bumper to make sure the incident hadn't caused any sort of damage. "Dude deserved it, yeah, but we've got places to be, can't get over here if we're sittin' on the side of the road waiting for the police."
"But we're here and everything's fine, so stop complaining," she replied, scrunching her nose as he came around to join her on her side of the car, so they could walk up to the front door of the modest house they were outside together. This was a house they visited every Monday night for dinner, regardless of anything else going on in their schedule, so the routine was there and their presence was fully anticipated.
They got to the door just as it opened and a small, scrawny boy with long hair curtaining his face was standing on the other side. "The camera thingy went ding and Mama said I could see who it was," he said in a very loud, confident voice that didn't match any aspect of his appearance, as he stepped out of the way of the door to let them inside. "I hoped it was you two! Mama, it's Auntie Nah and Uncle Brady, they're here for dinner!"
"Lor, don't make them stand outside forever!" they heard Noire yell in return, at which the boy motioned for them to come inside quickly, so that he could loudly slam the door to make sure that his mother knew it was closed.
"Do you need any help cooking tonight, Noire?" Nah asked, cupping her mouth to allow her voice to be heard clearly. "I can come help if you'd like!"
"I think I've got it, thanks! You just sit down and make yourself comfortable, I'll be out in a bit!" As Noire was answering, the boy in the room was cleaning books and toys off of the couch so that there was a place to sit. "And if you're interested, Brady, I think Laurent should be down in the study, he's been working on some game thing again."
Brady's eyes widened at the suggestion, and he looked at Nah right around the same time that she sat in the now-cleared spot on the couch. "You don't mind if I go and see what he's up to, do ya?"
"Honestly, I figured you'd be asking where he was from the moment we came in, so go for it. I'll just hang out with my favorite…" Nah paused, looking at the boy who was shoving all of his things into an already-overflowing bin in the corner. "Lor, how old are you?"
"I'm seven, but I'll be eight this summer," Lor answered, focused on his work. "Mama says that when I turn eight, I can start doing sports with the bigger kids if I want, or I can keep doing library programs. I think I'm gonna stick to the library, but I don't know yet!"
"I'll hang out with my favorite seven-year-old," Nah finished, nodding toward Brady as her final approval that he go see what Laurent was working on. Before he headed downstairs, he did lean over the back of the couch and kiss her on the cheek, telling her he'd be back before dinner was ready, something that she highly doubted, knowing the kinds of nerdy stuff the two men could get into downstairs.
"Auntie Nah, do you like coming over here?" Lor asked as he came back to the couch to grab more of his things and put them away. "You always come by, every single week."
"Well, do you like coming over to my house, because you're over there every single week too." Poking the boy right in the middle of his forehead, Nah laughed when she heard him humming as he pondered his answer, before not giving her anything at all except a laugh of his own. "But yes, I do like coming here, I like spending time with you and your parents."
"That's silly, but I'm okay with that." Lor looked at Nah, his eyes mostly obscured by his long hair, before he scurried back over to the bin where he was attempting to shove his things. "Mama says I let it get too messy in here, and I think she's right. I've gotta get better about cleaning things up."
Taking a moment to look around at what remained of the mess, which was a lot of books on science and building materials, Nah reached over and picked up one of the leftover toys to play with as she watched Lor continue cleaning. "If I remember correctly, your dad's always been bad about leaving things out while he's in the middle of working on stuff. I can only imagine what kind of mess he has downstairs right now."
"I'm not allowed to go down and see his mess," Lor said sadly, returning to the couch to scoop up everything else he had left to clean. "I guess it's for grown-ups, but they always call it a game and aren't games meant to be for kids? Why can't I know?"
"You know, if I know your dad well enough, and I do, then I know what kind of game he's working on down there and it really, truly isn't for children by any means." Still playing with the little stretchy toy she'd picked up, Nah grabbed it by its arms and made it dance in between her and the child. "It's kind of like a game that I used to play with your parents when we were all younger, but still very much adults."
"Then I want to play it even more. Let me play it!" With that one scream, Lor jumped onto the couch and began bouncing, wailing loudly about how he wanted to get to play, and Nah merely sat there, staring at him with her toy-playing slowly coming to a stop. The louder he got, the more aggressive his bounces became, and it got to the point that the whole couch was creaking under him, until someone rounded the corner from the kitchen with the sternest look on her face that got him to shut up at once.
"I know I don't hear someone in here being an entitled brat," Noire coldly snapped, followed by a motion with one hand that told Lor he needed to sit down and stop his behavior. "Whatever made you decide you're suddenly allowed to bounce on my furniture and demand things in my house, you can go ahead and forget all about it. Am I making myself clear, sir?"
"Y-yes, Mama," Lor replied, a timidity to his voice that matched his outward appearance. "I'll sit here and be quiet now."
"Good. Don't annoy Nah too much while you're sitting there, you don't want to be the reason she doesn't want to come over anymore." With that, Noire went back into the kitchen and the room became eerily quiet.
Rather than try to drum up conversation with the child, or try to figure out why he'd gotten set off so quickly, Nah decided she was going to spend time making sure the rest of the night's plans were still happening. She tossed the toy she was holding over to the bin, where it hit the top of the stack, then fell to the ground with a very soft thud. After that, she grabbed her phone from her little bag she still had over her shoulder, checking to make sure she hadn't gotten any messages informing her of schedule changes. The only thing she had was a message from her mother, reminding her to go to the rec center and socialize for a little bit. "Already did that, Mom," she muttered under her breath as she typed out the exact same words and sent them on their way.
It was possible that plans had changed and she just hadn't been informed, so she shot Lucina a quick message asking if they were still on for the celebrations that night. Almost immediately she got a positive response, which was a good sign, and it was followed by a check of who all was coming with her. "Hey Noire, are you guys still coming to the party tonight?" she asked out loud, hoping that she'd be heard in the kitchen.
"If someone can keep their behavior in check, yes," Noire replied, and it actually wasn't obvious who she was referring to with that statement.
"I'll let Lucina know that you three are a probably, then." There was no way that Nah wasn't going to show up, given what the party was celebrating, and if she was going, Brady had no choice but to go as well. That meant that the message she sent was saying two were definitely going and three probably were, but that they were all looking forward to the event and seeing everyone there. Because, as Nah realized while typing the messages out, she had no idea who all had been invited, and therefore she didn't have the slightest clue of who she'd be spending the evening with.
"Mama told me that if we go, I won't go to school tomorrow," Lor remarked, turning to face Nah with his head hanging slightly. "Which I like school, so that makes me a little sad, but if it means getting to see the other kids…"
Without thinking too much of it, Nah replied, "I wish I could skip going to school tomorrow just because we're at this party tonight. You're one lucky kid for getting that chance."
"But you're an adult, can't you just choose not to go?"
She looked at her phone, then at Lor, and then back at her phone. "I mean, that's correct, but that's also a bad reason to not go in. There's kids twice your age expecting to see me tomorrow, and I'd feel bad if I let them down."
"Then how about I get Mama so angry that she doesn't let us go, and then you don't go either, and then we both go to school tomorrow?" Lifting his head to show how serious he was about his suggestion, even though it was hard to see his expression behind his hair, Lor put both of his hands on Nah's arm and gripped it tightly. "Come on, Auntie Nah, doesn't that sound like a good plan?"
"Hm, tempting, but I think I'll go to the party and go to work tomorrow, even if I'd rather not." Sometimes being a grown adult was a lot of hard choices, and even though she would have loved to have humored Lor and gotten him to act on his idea, she didn't have any interest in dealing with the fallout of any of it. She'd rather suffer through a night of little sleep and a full day of actual working with students than skipping out on something that was partially happening because of her.
A few minutes later, there was the sound of footsteps coming up from the basement, and the two men who'd been looking at game stuff emerged from the depths, both of them holding plastic bins in their hands. "We're gonna take this with us, see if anyone there's interested in giving it a try," Brady explained, as he came to sit next to Nah on the couch. "Laurent's got it worked out pretty well, but now we've gotta actually test it."
"I take it testing it with three players isn't feasible, if we're needing to recruit others?" Nah looked at the bin Brady had, taking a mental note of the sheer amount of paper and dice sets it contained, before craning her neck to look at Laurent with a nearly-identical bin in his hands as well. "Are you sure this is going to work?"
"It is modifications of multiple already-existing systems, most of which have been antiquated and reworked in various ways by their original creators. I merely took the elements that I felt were most useful and combined them all into one single game, with straightforward rules and expectations that new players and veterans alike could understand without too much hassle." Laurent shifted his bin so that he was holding it under one arm, so his now-free hand could push his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I also went through the trouble of removing any references to dragons and dragon-folk being seen as 'evil,' outside of not-so-thinly veiled references to one singular grim dragon, who would be the canonical big bad."
"He's also changed up how dragon-folks work as player characters, so they're not meant to be dumb and aggressive." Since he was sitting down, Brady was able to get both hands off of his bin so that he could instead put them on Nah's shoulders, as she turned to look at him with her eyes slightly narrowed. "Hey, I know that was a huge issue you've had every single time we've tried playin' the legit stuff, so I figured you'd enjoy knowin' that."
Nah pursed her lips as she thought about how she actually felt about that news. "On one hand, it's nice knowing that dragons would be respected in this version of the game, but on the other, it was kind of great knowing that no one was going to do anything regarding dragons as long as I was playing."
"Except for me, right?"
Her slow blink at Brady answered his question, and he chuckled. "Okay, but you getting to play as a dragon was only because I wanted you to see me doing something nice for you and think about what that could've meant for us."
"I want to get to be a dragon," Lor interrupted, coming over from where he'd been futilely trying to organize his things in the corner to attempt reaching into the bin on Brady's lap, but he was sharply told by all three adults in the room to stop. "Why can't I get to know what's going on? I want to be included!"
Before anyone else had the chance to say something in response, Nah jumped in to stop a meltdown from happening a second time. "Lor, this is the game that we were talking about earlier. The one for adults, not for kids. When you're a bit older, maybe in like four or five years, we'll let you play it with us as a super special treat, but for now you just have to wait your turn."
The boy whined but didn't argue further, and after one more whimper about wanting to be a dragon he went back to his attempt at organizing his things. "That was a masterful shutdown there, Nah," Laurent remarked, his eyes fixated on how overly calm things were. "I take it that your years of working with children have taught you that skill?"
"Oh please, we all know that I've been doing that sort of shutting down for twelve years now," she laughed, before immediately gasping and grabbing her phone, almost like she was in a panic. "Ribbon! I wonder how everything's been going with her, I know that—"
"Dinner's ready!" Noire called out, interrupting Nah's thought and causing the entire dynamic there in that house to shift. No one was interested in caring about the bins of paper when there was a meal to be had, even if it was questionably cooked and tasted slightly like it had a few ingredients missing. It was always for the best to just let Noire do her thing and not say anything about it, in case it was enough to set her off emotionally. She seemed proud of what she'd made, even if her face contorted in disgust upon the first bite before playing it off as just biting down on her tongue instead of her food.
Maybe it didn't come as a surprise that halfway through dinner, she got up from the table, went back to the kitchen, and returned with a tray of formerly frozen snacks for everyone to eat as well. And while those were demolished in a matter of minutes, the rest of what she'd been making sat half-eaten and there wasn't a single person (Noire herself included) that went back to trying to stomach it. Even with the lack of interest in the home-cooked portion of the dinner, everyone said things were great and pretended that nothing wrong had been served to them.
Once what was edible had been eaten and the rest of the food had been taken care of in other ways, they decided there was no reason to delay leaving for the celebration any longer, and they split into the two vehicles and went on their way. Each car now had one of those bins in it, so that the men could be the ones carrying them into the house, and while Brady didn't know if what he had was the rules or just supplemental materials, he decided that it wasn't important enough to need to be there right away. That was how they ended up at a drive-up window getting some more food to make up for the lack of actual dinner they'd had, even though Nah insisted that there would probably be food at the party. "Sure, there'll be food, but is it gonna be dinner? No. This'll be worth it."
"Okay, but if there's stuff there and we clearly aren't eating it, then Noire might realize what we did and get mad, even though she didn't eat her…" Nah trailed off as she looked in the rearview mirror and saw a very familiar car sitting right behind them, and she sighed, shaking her head. "If she gets mad at us, then that'll be stupid, given that they're here too."
"What're the odds of that?" Also looking in the mirror, Brady ended up turning around in his seat and waving back at the car behind them, getting the three in the second vehicle all waving at him in return. "See, there's no problem at all. You're worryin' about nothing, just like always."
"It was a very valid reason to be worried."
"Until it wasn't."
Nah sighed again, shaking her head. "I mean, there's still the chance that there's going to be a bunch of food at the party that none of us are going to touch, and then that makes us look like we didn't care about the hospitality being shown."
"If Noire was a halfway decent cook, we wouldn't have been eating the food at the party anyway, so we're just goin' a little out of our way to still come to the same outcome. But let's be honest for a sec, would you really wanna be eating the food at a party with a bunch of kids running around? They're gonna have been getting their hands all in it and it'll just be gross to even think about." Brady gave a little nod, trying to get Nah to agree with him, but when she said nothing, he followed up with, "And you know what else?"
"Actually, I don't think I know what else. Go ahead and tell me." Nah was curious as to what Brady could possibly have been referring to, and yet his answer was not satisfying in the slightest; he merely leaned over and kissed her gently, before pulling back as to not distract her from being focused on not running into the car in front of them. "That's not something that goes along with what you were saying, just so you know."
"Eh, I honestly forgot where I was plannin' on going with that. Let's just get our food, eat it on the way, and then face whatever's waitin' for us there with a good attitude."
Even though they arrived outside the party's location several minutes before the other car did, there was no rush on going in until all five of them could go inside together. Despite everyone knowing what had happened on the way, no one said a word about the extra stop as they grabbed the bins and headed for the front door to the rather spacious-looking house in a well-developed neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. There were several other vehicles in the driveway and parked out front, showing just how many people had been invited to this gathering, and that made everyone all the more excited to be there.
Lucina was at the door to greet them with a smile, although she looked like she was in desperate need for some sleep. "I had to leave work early today to make sure everything was ready for this," she explained as they all came inside. "Seriously, me, leaving work early, that's not something I particularly enjoy doing. But I did it for the sake of making sure we could celebrate the year of the dragon appropriately."
"How, exactly, do you think you can celebrate it appropriately?" Nah asked, being the last one in the door and therefore not blocking anyone from coming in when she stopped in the doorway to look at Lucina with a curious expression. "That feels like something that you'd have reached out to others to find out details about."
"That'd be correct. Between Mother helping with some of the small things, and me reaching out to speak with Lady Tiki about bigger pieces, this was a group effort that I feel at peace with, now that it's in full swing." Clasping her hands together, Lucina looked at Nah and let her smile falter slightly. "I am worried about one tiny little thing, though."
Her mind immediately jumping to the more manakete-centric aspects the celebration could have included, Nah leaned forward, closer to Lucina. "What are you worried about? You forget to find a statue to remind everyone why they're here?"
"No, it's…there's a lot of children around here and—" A loud banging sound cut Lucina off, and she completely deflated, as the noises of screams and yelled apologies filled the air. All she could do was grimace and look at Nah with a glance that spoke novels about how that was what she'd been worried about.
"As long as they're not breaking anything related to dragons or manaketes or the like, I don't think it matters if they're clumsy and not careful," Nah said, trying to make her friend feel a bit better about the situation. "At least, I'd hope that's the case."
"There's only one way for us to find out, I suppose." With that, Lucina made motions to close the door, meaning that Nah had to move further into the entry hall so that she was no longer an obstacle. Then, once it was firmly locked (although it could easily have been unlocked once more by anyone inside), it seemed that Lucina wanted to have Nah come with her to go investigate the source of the noise. At first it didn't make sense why that would be the case, but then Nah realized that, as someone who was identified as a manakete and had been raised entirely in that culture, she was being treated like the star of the party, even though Lucina also had quite the manakete lineage she claimed as well. But Nah wasn't going to argue with the idea that she got to have the spotlight that night, so she went right alongside Lucina, down the hall and into the living space that was typically used for sitting around and watching movies.
In the middle of the floor was a card table, now snapped in half, with a group of children sitting around it, while two adults were standing off to the side against the wall, while everyone was looking down at what had happened. "Do I…want to know the details here?" Lucina asked, not giving her attention to the kids but rather to the two adults. "This doesn't seem like something any of these kids could've done on their own."
"I can tell you what happened!" screamed one of the girls on the floor, pointing a finger at the girl closest to the break in the table, who was looking around horrified and slightly dazed. "Tjana just threw herself onto the table and it broke, 'cause she's clumsy and always breaks everything!"
"I-I didn't mean to fall into it, I got pushed!" Tjana yelled back, pointing her finger back at the girl making the accusation. "And you saw that, Harlow, so don't even try saying I did this on my own! I didn't!"
"Group effort, got it," Lucina said, her eyes turning to the two girls. "Do either of you want to tell me who did the pushing, in a quiet voice? Or are we going to keep on yelling."
While those statements had been made, Nah was looking around to see if she could gather any evidence of her own, and when her gaze fell on how Lor had somehow managed to quickly get himself squeezed into a corner, hiding his face entirely, she began to piece things together. "Was it someone who just joined us?" she suggested, motioning with her head toward where Lor was sitting. "Or did you not actually see it?"
"Well, I didn't see who it was, I just saw Tjana falling into the table and it breaking under her." Harlow crossed her arms in front of her and huffed. "You saw the same thing, didn't you, Leilei?"
As if she hadn't been mentally in the room, Soleil's head and shoulders popped up at mention of her nickname from her older sister and her eyes darted around, her trying to make sense of what was going on. "Sorry, I don't think I saw anything at all," she admitted, causing her sister to roll her eyes and mutter. "What? I was thinking about other things."
"It was…um. Um…" Beginning to move her hands around to try helping her come to the conclusion she was looking for, Tjana grew frustrated when the name she was trying to think of never popped up in her mind. "You guys, I fell really hard and my brain's a little off right now, I can't remember his name."
"Let me try to help you, then," Nah said, squeezing past Lucina and getting down on her knees on the floor right behind Tjana, so that they were on equal-ish levels. Gently, she directed the girl's attention over to the corner, where there was just enough of a boy visible to make a guess as to who it was. "Is that who ran into you?"
"Yeah! You're so smart and good at this sort of thing, no wonder Auntie Ribbon loves you so much." The confusion and frustration that she'd been experiencing was erased, and Tjana's upbeat attitude was back. "It was definitely…that guy."
Lucina looked over to where the attention had been drawn and she shook her head. "You literally just got here and you're already causing property damage in my home, why does this not surprise me in the slightest. Out of the corner, Lor, you're not in any trouble if it was just an accident."
"It was," Lor meekly replied, pulling himself out of where he'd contorted himself to join everyone else. "I got excited seeing Atlas in here that I forgot to…walk carefully and I bumped into Tjana and she fell and I got worried that I'd get in trouble so I hid."
Having witnessed everything going on from the side of the room, Gerome took the opportunity to pull the blue-haired boy from off of his side and push him closer to the broken table. "Atlas also believed he would get in trouble, for whatever reason."
"I mean, it's my fault for existing, right?" Atlas asked, sounding like he'd just been scolded despite nothing of the sort happening. "I'll just head up to my room, that's a better place for a kid like me anyway."
He ducked out the other door to the space they were all in, right as Lucina was reaching toward him to try and convince him otherwise. Her hand dropped and she took in a deep breath. "Right, now I'll get to play mediator in this whole mess, instead of celebrating the night with my friends." She paused, then glanced over at where Lor was sitting, arms wrapped around his legs and his hair messily covering his face. "Loire, you come with me, if anyone's going to be able to talk sense into that boy it'll be his best friend."
"Oh, he got the real name treatment, he's in trouble."
"I'll real name you as well, Tatjana, don't even try me." The sternness with which Lucina spoke shut Tjana right up, as well as put an end to the whispers that the sisters sitting next to her were sharing. Before she left, with Lor firmly in tow, Lucina looked at where Nah was still kneeling behind the girls and sighed. "You…try not to get too wrapped up in this pre-teen drama in here, honestly I think it would've been best if we'd let others deal with it to begin with."
"No, no, I'm getting out of this if you are." It wasn't what Nah wanted to do by any means, but she knew that the point of the celebration was for everyone to get to be together and having fun, and she couldn't spend all of it hanging out with the children. She carefully got to her feet and went to join Lucina, but her friend had already left the room and the space was beginning to go back to normal, minus the broken table in the middle. "Right. Okay. I guess I'll find something else to do."
She wandered out of that room and down toward the spacious kitchen, where almost all of the other adults were gathered, standing around another table covered in different snacks and drinks. "You were actually here after all," Cynthia said, waving at Nah with one hand while her other arm was firmly holding a sleeping child against her side. "I was starting to think that Brady left you somewhere to come by himself."
"And I told you that she was probably just chattin' with others, like she tends to do," Brady retorted, coming to stand almost protectively at Nah's side. "You're gonna tell her that that's what you were doing, yeah?"
"I mean, I was, Lucina and I were finding out what that loud sound had been and we ended up in the room with all of the kids because that's where it came from." At that, everyone who had a child present that evening began clamoring for information, wanting to know the specific details of what had happened. Nah knew better than to throw all the names out in one fell swoop, so she merely said, "It was the typical suspects, doing exactly what they always end up doing. That is, forgetting what personal space is like and getting too close to others for them to not fall into things."
Giving a very weary sigh, Yarne stood up from one of the stools that had been brought out for the occasion, putting a hand on Kjelle's shoulder to keep her from getting up as well. "I'm taking that as Tjana being involved, so I'll go check on her."
"It wouldn't happen any other way, now would it?" she remarked, before looking at Nah to see if they were right. "Go on, you can say it."
"She didn't mean to do anything, it just happened that someone smaller than her forgot that running around can knock people over and that was the end of it." Pausing, Nah quickly glanced at Cynthia and added, "Plus, your girls were in there making matters worse with their finger-pointing and blaming and all that."
"Were they now? With their father in there and everything?" Sounding shocked, Cynthia once again adjusted the child she was holding, before walking past to go see what was going on for herself. "I'll go remind them what kindness is supposed to look like, thanks for the head's up on that, Nah!"
"You really show up in a room and make everyone clear out of the place, don't you?" With a laugh, it was then that Kjelle got off of her stool and came to stand on Nah's other side, playfully putting her elbow as close to Nah's shoulder as she could comfortably get it. "Well, I'm here to tell you that you're stuck with me."
Thinking about the implications of that statement, Nah couldn't come to a solid conclusion and she decided it wasn't a matter worth pressing. "Okay, well, in the literal five minutes I was in there dealing with kid problems, did you all decide you were going to do something I'm not aware of?"
"We're going to test Laurent's game once we know if anyone else is showing up," Noire answered, looking up from her phone across the kitchen. "And we kind of figured that you wouldn't be interested in trying it out here, since there's so much else going on…"
"I've been interested in it since day one, though?"
"But I'm here, and I'm sure as hell not wasting my night playing it." Kjelle used her elbow to nudge Nah a bit. "Which is why I say you're stuck with me. I'm thinking we find one of those cheesy horror-romance movies, sneak up to the guest bedroom, and watch it as long as we can before someone comes looking for us."
Brady leaned down to get a bit closer to the two women, chuckling as he did. "I might've pointed out that it's got a small player limit right now, since I was just lookin' at the game earlier, and I figured if anyone would be willin' to sit out here tonight, it'd be you. Since there's a lot more interest in the game than we thought there'd be."
"Who even is going to try playing it? I'm so confused, I don't know who else is here that would be interested in it." Nah's eyes were darting all around the room, looking to see who there could be that would bump her from the spot in the test round she'd been looking forward to. "I can't think of anyone else…"
At once, the world inside the house seemed to explode with excitement as multiple voices began ringing out from the upstairs floor, and that sound was enough to explain everything to Nah at once. "I think hearin' him being loud as always should probably tell you what you need to know, yeah?" Brady asked, standing back up to his mostly-full height. "Trust me, only reason I knew Owain was here was because everyone else told me, but I guess it makes sense. You know that the Nohrians he's wrapped up with find importance in the year of the dragon as well, don't you?"
"I knew that, yes, but that doesn't explain why he gets to play and I don't." With a hmph, Nah turned her head slightly toward Kjelle and pouted. "I guess I'll go find something to watch with you, it's been a while since we've done that. Might be a good use of our time."
"We'll miss having you playing with us, Nah!" Noire called out, putting on a huge smile as she spoke. "You'll just have to come over early next Monday to try it then!"
Rather than say what she thought on the matter, Nah waved it off and motioned to Kjelle for them to go find that guest room and get something on the TV for them to watch. So off toward the staircase they went, crossing paths with Owain and the gaggle he usually brought with him (which included his bonus child Nina but not her father, just like it always did). Pleasantries were exchanged, a couple hugs were given between Nah and the two girls that were with him—she wasn't sure why they both liked her so much, but she wasn't going to complain about getting hugs from either Ophelia or Nina—and then they went on their ways, as to not congest the walkway in the house.
As they passed the doorway to the room where the other kids were, it sounded like things were going smoothly in there, a scene unlike the one that had been taking place earlier. They even got a few waves from the children that were able to see them as they passed by. "I don't know why Lucina thought letting them all be here tonight was a good idea, but since everyone else has it under control, I am perfectly fine with stepping away and hiding from that responsibility for the night," Kjelle admitted, as they came to the stairs, both of them looking up to see Lucina and two boys coming down at the same time.
"Are you both trying to hide from everyone?" Lucina called down at them, before motioning for them to step aside to let them pass by. When she got down to the bottom and saw the smiles on the others' faces, she laughed. "Sounds about right. I've just spent time explaining to those boys that neither of them are in trouble, and I think they took it to heart, but they're now insisting on calling each other by their full first name and that's going to be a problem as soon as they go into that room and throw other names around. Which, admittedly, is my fault because I started it."
"As long as they don't call me my full first name, I don't think there's too much harm in it?" Nah said, before looking at Kjelle to see her smile faded and her eyes narrowing. "Oh, right, Tjana doesn't…"
"I'll go talk some sense into them before they start another round of drama." Stepping aside, Kjelle promised that she'd be right back, before she broke out into a run to chase those boys down and tell them what she felt they needed to hear.
"See, no one ever uses Atlas' actual name, so when I dropped it on him to get him out of his room, Lor overheard it, and started using it, then Atlas went on and started using Lor's full name, and I guess it never occurred to me that only adults can get away with using Tjana's full name without her getting upset." There seemed to be more to that thought than what Lucina said, but she was quickly distracted by the sound of the doorknob to her front door being jostled. "Huh? Did someone step out while I was upstairs?"
Because she didn't have any clue, Nah didn't answer, but she was quickly made to wish that she had, when the door came open and stepping inside from the darkness was a bundled-up man with deep blue hair that immediately struck fear into her heart. She was hidden just well enough behind Lucina that she wasn't noticed at first, but when the man came in and closed the door behind him, his sister quickly moved to approach him. "Hey, sorry I came over without warning, it's a long story and—"
"Morgan, you were supposed to be gone already, weren't you?" With open arms, Lucina grabbed him in a big hug, spinning him halfway around before setting him back down. "I thought your flight out was earlier?"
"—I said it's a long story, but the short one is that it got delayed to three in the morning so I decided I'd pop by and see you one last time before I left. Wasn't expecting all those cars out there, guess you're having a party or something?" He sounded different. More mature, perhaps? More like his life had gotten pieced together since the last time they'd been in the same place. But, despite how she felt about him, Nah couldn't help but watch the siblings interacting, even if there was the fear that she'd be noticed.
"Come on, make yourself comfortable, I guess you'll be able to see most of your friends before you go," Lucina was saying, grabbing Morgan's arm to pull him into the fray, but she didn't get very far before he was putting his feet down in resistance.
"Hey there, Dinah."
"H-hey there, Morgan."
The exchange took her back further than their last encounter; she was mentally transported back to the days of weekly get-togethers in his parents' house to play games and have fun, where they'd been friends and everything had been fine between them. He brushed his sister off, telling her that he'd come find her in a bit, and Lucina seemed hesitant to listen, but she heeded after he repeated the request. "It's been, what, almost ten years at this point?" he asked once they were alone, keeping his distance but having his gaze fixed entirely on her. "Haven't ever thought about seeing you again since I got uninvited from your wedding."
"I…never thought I'd see you again either after all that, honestly." She didn't want to see him either, but she didn't have a choice now that they were in the same place. "How are things? Lucina mentioned a flight?"
"Yeah, uh, life's been wild since we fell out." Morgan reached up and unzipped his jacket, taking it off and throwing it down right near the front door. "I got the help I needed, realized that I was just doing things in all the worst ways, spent a lot of time wondering if it'd be worth trying to rebuild friendships and decided I shouldn't waste my breath after everything I did. After that, I cut off the people steering me wrong and started getting my life in order. Got a job doing some big business planning stuff, moved up the ladder a bit, and now I'm leaving Ylisse, you know, later tonight to keep moving higher in my career."
Nah nodded as she listened to him, happy to hear about these positive changes but feeling awkward that she was hearing them from him. "That's so nice for you, I'm glad everything's going well in your life."
"After everything that happened back then? It's good to be able to say it. What about you? You…" He trailed off, giving a wild gesture in her direction. "You look like you're doing pretty good for yourself. Marriage still treating you well, I take it?"
He hadn't asked about her job. He hadn't asked how things in general were going. He'd looked right at her and instead wanted to know about how her marriage was going, which felt indicative that perhaps he hadn't changed all that much after all. But then, Nah realized that there was no reason for Morgan to care about anything else, because it had been her marriage that had been the final nail in the coffin of their friendship. "Yeah, it's all going fairly well. Year of the dragon's upon us, you can only guess how much pressure there's been to do something about it. And, well…"
"Your face has a glow to it I don't ever remember seeing. Not making any assumptions, but there's that for you." He forced a smile, before looking past Nah entirely and nodding. "I'm going to go find my sister now, but it was nice seeing you again, if just for a moment."
Whatever feeling Nah had on the matter, it wasn't that she felt it was nice to see Morgan again, and she couldn't muster another word in his direction, even as he passed her by. She did get a laugh out of hearing him scream when he saw Kjelle come out of the other room, as old fears never quite went away. "Please tell me that wasn't Morgan, and that he wasn't over here bothering you," she said when she came back to Nah's side. "I could've sworn that he knows he's not supposed to be anywhere near us."
"He's leaving the country, Kjelle, I'm going to let him have this one." In a daze, Nah started up the stairs, not sure what else she wanted to say or what she even wanted to do at that point. She'd been prepared to go watch a movie, but now she wasn't sure she was ready to do anything more than just sit and think. When she got up to the second floor, she slowly reached out to grab all of the doors she saw, not wanting to open them and find anything happening on the other side, but also not wanting to be out in the hallway like she was.
"Whoa, okay, time out." Coming up behind her and grabbing her shoulders to stop her where she was, Kjelle took in a deep breath before prompting Nah to do the same. "What did he say, or do, that's rattled you this bad? I'm not afraid to go remind him who he's supposed to be scared of around here."
As comforting as it was to be reminded that she had such a good friend willing to go inflict physical violence on someone for her, it wasn't what Nah needed. "It's just him being here. Existing in the same place as us. But he's not being weird or creepy, he says he's gotten help and that's what matters."
"If it was what mattered, you wouldn't be acting like this." Slowly, Kjelle was able to walk Nah over to the wide open doorway that led into a big guest living room, with an adjoining bedroom for people to sleep in, and she got her settled down on the couch. "I'm not leaving this room unless you need me to, or unless it's clear that he needs his ass kicked. Whichever one works for you."
Blinking a few times, Nah sank back into the cushions and let out a long sigh. "I saw his face and was taken back to when he was still my friend. A lot of things have changed since then, most of them good but some of them a little more unexpected. And he wasn't around or welcomed for any of them. But he's here, on the same day he was around twelve years ago, and it just…it's throwing me off."
"You're not about to let him ruin your night. Forget about him, forget about his face and his appearance and him being here, and let's do something more fun for both of us." Kjelle sat down next to Nah, pulling out her phone and swiping away all of her work-related messages before getting to a text chain that she pulled up, scrolled through, and pressed a picture on. "I know what'll get your mind off of this."
"Given that it's you suggesting it, and you're on your phone, can I take a guess that it's related to your sister-in-law in some way?" Nah didn't want to say it, but part of her thought process in that moment was how life had changed for so many of them in the past twelve years, not just in regards to her former friendship with Morgan. When she saw Kjelle merely show the picture on her phone instead of answer, and it was of Ribbon and her girlfriend excitedly holding a very small bundled baby between them, all Nah could think was that there was no way that her former student was old enough to have a kid of her own.
But she'd been her student twelve years ago, and time was a cruel mistress.
"If you'd sat me down years ago and told me that Ribbon would have a kid before me, I would've laughed right in your face," Nah said after giving the whole situation some thought, "because she's into women. I'm too young-looking to force myself through that, but that's not why I would've doubted it happening. Yet here we are, huh?"
"Something about these special years for these cultures brings out the strangest things possible happening. I can't explain it, but it's true." Showing a few more pictures, Kjelle ended up putting her phone down and grabbing one of Nah's hands. "I'll seriously go beat Morgan up for you if you'd like me to. He doesn't deserve to have the power to make you feel this way."
"No, it's fine, let's just do what you said and forget about him. He's not worth the energy, not when there's so much else to think about."
Nah was glad that she didn't get asked what she thought they should think about instead, because her mind was racing with far too much to have any suggestions. This was not the way she expected the year of the dragon to start, but she had faith in Naga that maybe, just maybe, this was a sign of a good year ahead.
A/N: are there unspoken implications here? yes.
am I able to come away from this epilogue at peace with my decision to not write more in this fic universe? also yes.
thanks for the past two years, I've enjoyed it.