-Break-

Location: Fanalis Village

Φ As all of us kids return on the back of the beast, I say, “What an eventful day.”

Suzuka replies, “I cannot wait to reach that much tomorrow.”

Dillion then says, “We don’t have any school tomorrow.”

Suzuka's face instantly fills with despair, and I try my best to hold back my laughter.

“But you don’t have to worry, it is almost dinner time,” Dillon says as he points towards their little village which seems to have a lot of people gathering in the centre.

Suzuka runs forward and we follow behind her, and when we reach the overpopulated village, we see there is a giant pot in the middle of the village and from that pot a heavenly smell emanates.

Beside us, we hear, “It seems the Aisachta up and died, so they are cooking it all tonight.”

“What? I thought we would have been able to get more out of it.”

“Well what use is there complaining about it tonight, it won’t bring it back from the dead.”

“I guess you're right, so let’s simply party today to make up for all of our missed opportunities.”

Hearing this I start to feel incredible amounts of guilt as I realize what I have taken from them, but Suzuka pays them no mind and simply drools over the smell.

“You do realize that is a bug?”

Suzuka wiping her mouth, says, “I have bested it in battle so it no longer counts.”

“You’re internal rules are so confusing.”

“Well it isn’t your job to understand, it is time to dig in.”

As Suzuka runs forward she is grabbed by the head, and I am too. Turning to face the person who grabbed us, I see Abbán.

Sweating I say, “How’s your day been coming.”

“YOU FOOLS!”

-One earful later-

With our legs folded on the ground in a dark corner, Abbán says, “DO YOU TWO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE inconspicuous!”

“Sorry!” We say in unison.

“I should kick both of you out over this, but my brother is partly to blame so I will let it go, just tell me you didn’t do anything that will make you guys stand out.”

All the memories of the last day pop into my head, so I repressed them and all of my emotions and say, “We were completely normal, to others we were simply air, truly unnoticed. Right, Suzuka?”

“Right!” She says with vigour.

Abbán takes off her fake fox head and then looking into her face, he says, “Is that true.”

She instantly breaks, and with tears in her eyes, she says, “No it isn’t. We picked a fight with someone who looked really fancy, and then we embarrassed him multiple times throughout the day, beat up his guards and stole all of his food. His friends left him and everyone in the school made a big deal about it and was super interested in us!”

Abbán steps back and then smashes my face into the ground saying, “YOU IMBECLILE!”

“Hey, why did you only hit me, what about Suzuka!”

“She told the truth, and she is a girl.”

“THAT’S UNFAIR!”

He slams my head into the ground again, then says, “Life is always unfair!”

Suzuka says, “I think Dillion is in trouble!”

Abbán turns his head to him and says, “What do you mean!?”

“I can hear his thoughts going crazy, they are almost overpowering everyone else’s!”

“you can what?”

“It is a long explanation, just trust her. Suzuka where is Dillion.”

Getting up she runs, and we follow her, and eventually we get in between two houses, and then before we can rush in between that gap Suzuka stops us.

In the gap we see both Dillion and Melissa his crush, so Suzuka extremely excited says, “I think he might be doing it.”

“No way, my brother would never be so bold.”

“Well after beating up that member of the redbranch he must be feeling confident.”

“My innocent brother did what!? You bastards must have polluted his mind!”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Hey, we just made him stand up for himself.”

“Mess with one of those rich bastards you mess with all of them, this is going to be trouble!”

Suzuka says, “SHUT UP YOU TWO BASTARDS!” And then biting her nails she looks at Dillion and Melissa.

“You seem oddly excited.”

“I wasn’t allowed to interact with people, but I was able to read their minds so loved hearing people confess their love to each other. Because before they ever said anything their minds would constantly go crazy, and when they finally did it their thoughts would go even wilder, it was one of my only sources of entertainment.”

“I see, then let’s shut up and watch.”

Dillion in the distance is shaking and then says, “Melissa, we have known each other for a long time.”

“Yes, we have for years now.”

“What do you think of me.”

She looks confused for a moment then says, “I used to think you were a winey crybaby, who couldn’t do anything without his brother.”

Dillion falls to the ground in shock and Suzuka says, “His thoughts are filled with despair.”

Abbán says, “I see I guess we have to kill her.”

Suzuka says, “Agreed.”

Grabbing them both, I say, “Let her finish!”

“But I saw a completely different side of you today. You were brave and stood up to those annoying bullies, and then you shared your food with all of us, not to mention your fighting skills. I found it really cool especially when I found out you are always taking care of your two cousins.”

“Cousins,” Abbán says.

“SHH, I will explain later.

“So Dillion, I think you're really awesome, and I feel safe knowing you will be our next leader after Abbán.”

Dillion gets up full of energy, runs up to Melissa and then grabs her hand, following this he says, “Melissa, I love you, I think your nose is adorable, your fur is adorable, your voice is adorable, your smile is adorable, you are adorable! I want to be with you forever and I hope you do the same, so will you become my wife.”

In the distance, all three of us look at him with our mouths open in surprise. Dillion that was way too much and way too soon! But Melissa looks like she is happy to hear this, so maybe it all worked out?

Jittery, Melissa says, “Dilliom thank you very much, but I am sorry I can’t go out with you.”

All of Dillion's happiness falls to sadness so fast that I swear it made the ground shake.

Holding back tears, he says, “Would you be able to tell me why.”

“Because I am in love with Iancu!”

“Huh,” all of us in the area say.

Then as Suzuka and Abbán look at me, I scream, “HUH!”

“I knew it the moment I first saw him that I would one day become his wife, it was love at first sight. And even though I do think you are a great person, Dillion, I don’t think your face is one I could wake up to every day, but Iancu’s is one I definitely could to.”

Abbán grabbing my head, says, “See what you have done to my little brother!”

“How is this my fault, she fell in love with the mask you made!”

“That girl must seriously have something wrong with her if she would ever pick Iancu.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a girl who is forever alone.”

Suzuka strikes me right into the open so Dillion and Melissa can see me.

“Hi,” I say trying to break the tension in the air.

Melissa seeing me starts to blush and Dillion runs forward and jumps into the sky prepared to strike me.

-One minor fight later-

Crying beside me, I say, “Dillion again I am sorry.”

“I don’t want to hear that you beautiful bastard!”

Abbán walking over to us with two plates in his hands and gives them to us.

Smelling it, I say, “This is wonderful, you should enjoy this food as well Dillion.”

Grabbing his plate, Dillion starts to cry into the food and asks, “Will this make my pain go away big brother?”

“I promise it will.”

“But you also promise that people will like me if I just talk to them.”

A bit shaken Abbán says, “I know a said that, and it is true who wouldn’t like my little brother.”

“Melissa doesn’t. I thought if I just said how I feel everything would turn out alright, but everything got worse and now I feel stupid for trying.”

Abbán pauses for a moment and says, “I am sorr-.”

Cutting Abbán off, I say while carefully destroying the food, “I think that a really one-sided way of looking at things. My kind isn’t really liked all that well on the surface by the humans.”

“Really?” Dillion says.

“Yeah, humans can be pretty hateful to others and themselves. So they rejected people like me, and in turn, I rejected them back, but that wasn’t right. Others took their rejection like the Lebensbaum family, and fought to change it to acceptance, which is one of the main reasons humans even put up with me. So I don’t think giving up and being afraid of rejection, is the right choice.”

Abbán asks, “But what if they keep rejecting me no matter how hard I try?”

“Then keep trying because the alternative is to live as outcasts for the rest of your life, and if I have to do that I might as well keep trying to change my situation.”

“You are actually a lot smarter than you look, Iancu.”

“Nah, I just have a rather great that, a heroic mother, a crazed sibling, and three idiots who all take care of me. Though I guess thanks to a stupid wolf I have a bit more than that now.”

Dillon taking his plate starts to eat, and after he takes a bit, he says, “It is delicious.”

“Then I guess Abbán must not have cooked it.”

“Is there some kind of problem with my cooking?”

Suddenly the beetle brothers dash into us and knock our food out of our hands.

Turning to them, Abbán says, “Fighting in the middle of us all, do you two even know what self-control means!”

Frightened, they say, “SORRY ABBÁN!”

I notice that Suzuka is nowhere to be found.

-Break-

Climbing the top of a building, I say, “There you are?”

“What are you doing up here Suzuka,” Asks annoyed.

“Looking for you?”

“So I see you have also turned into a stalker.”

“Don’t worry I have better things to do than stalk you.”

“Then why are you here?”

Sitting down diagonally to her, I say, “All the voices were too much for you.”

She looked amazed, then with her head down she said, “With everyone this tightly packed I couldn’t be here without a giant headache.”

“Well looks like I planned well,” I say taking out three plates of food.

As she smells them, she starts to drool and says, “What are these for?”

“You moron.”

“Really!” She says with an ecstatic expression.

With haste, she starts to eat, and I say, “They're all really merry, I could have never seen this if I was back in Skydust.”

“I understand as well. Before, celebrations like this were something I could only dream of but now I get to see them really often, it makes me really happy.”

“I guess I need to thank Orb next I see him.”

“I know what you mean, and I guess I will share some food with him.”

“You might want to rethink that because everyone gets two servings only, so if you give him yours no more food.”

“But I have three here.”

Getting embarrassed, I turn my back to her and say, “I gave you one of mine.”

“Huh, why?”

“As I thank you for covering me with your tails this morning. Despite what I said, it did help me, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And since I am sure a kind and caring person I will allow you to stay up here with me.”

“No, sounds like a pain,” I say walking away.

In a surprised voice, she says, “Ehh, what, umm wait!”

“No, I would rather leave, you're kind of annoying.”

“WELL, I HATE YOU TWO SCRAM!”

Glancing at her, I see she looks really upset, so I say, “Well I guess my feet do hurt, so I will stick around for a little bit.”

Happily, she says, “Well you should prepare yourself because spending time with me will shorten your life span with how fun it is.”

Sarcastically, I say, “Oh how I can’t wait.”