The kitchen smelled of potent and rich molten chocolate. It stuck to the air thick and sweet. When Kanako found out that Juniper occasionally liked to bake, she insisted that they do something together. Today’s attempt was chocolate brownies.

Except there were three chefs vying for culinary control as opposed to one, which meant the recipe may as well have been thrown out of the window.

Effy accidentally launched a large spoonful of brownie batter into the air, spilling it on Juniper’s, now messy apron, with a wet splat, leaving it sticky and slowly dripping off in gooey defiance.

“Effy! you can’t just launch the batter into the air, you're not anywhere near a launch pad.” Juniper huffed, attempting to brush the mess away.

“Relax, Ms. Perfect!” the jubilant girl grinned, her arms elbow-deep in her bowl, mixing with youthful fury. “It’s just batter, perfectly edible. No need to be as stiff as my principal.”

Juniper stared at Kanako who was mixing with focused intensity and surgical precision not a single drop of chocolatey goodness, near her station. Her whisk sliced through everything with laser-focused precision.

Kanako took a moment to glance at Effy, her voice calm and measured. “Effy, baking is an art form, not a brawl, you need to be firm but deliberate.”

Effy’s hands came to a stop. A comical moment ensued and she looked like she had the first epiphany of her life. Her eyes were practically glowing.

Juniper started shaking her head.

Effy disappeared into the kitchen cupboards, searching and looking for something. She returned to her station moments later. Dragging an oversized bag of chocolate chips with her. “I forgot about these! They’re perfect.” She started dumping an avalanche of them into her mixing bowl. And dropped several dollops of syrup into the mix. Her hand started blending.

Juniper’s eyes widened in horror. “Effy that’s not in the recipe!”

“Kanako said baking is an art,” Effy rebutted with a wide smile, hands on her hips like she discovered the culinary equivalent of a wheel. “I’m just expressing myself.”

Kanako giggled, walking to the girl to give her a high five, which she happily fulfilled. “Not a bad idea,” Kanako stated. “Messy but you’ve certainly got an artistic spirit.”

Juniper turned away to stare at her brother who shrugged while he leaned against the counter, watching the chaos unfold. Hoping he’d give her some backup.

“Effy you're making Juniper panic, don’t add too much or you’ll end up giving Juniper a stroke,” Remy said.

The girl stuck out her tongue. “She’s a buzzkill and a nerd.”

The two continued to bicker and argue over the right way to do things, voices mingling while Kanako and Remy chimed in occasionally. The kitchen was lively, with smudges and smears of chocolate, decorating everything in sight.

She should've laughed but her thoughts wandered away. Her chest was tight.

Her system had gone to ‘Power saving mode’ again. The notification came with a flickered dim flash and a slight humanoid hum that sang in her ear. ‘It was a fancy of saying, ‘Hey, Juniper, you’re on your own’. Until I wake up.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She clenched her fists. What if something horrible happened right now? Could she handle it? The system was not a good teacher but she was a great guide that got her out of any obstacle. Without the system, what was she?

She tried shifting her attention to the kitchen banter, but the ache of tension held her back. The laughter became distant, like warping and distorting radio. And then the ‘black phone’ buzzed in her pocket.

Drawing the curious stares of everyone in the kitchen.

“Um, I’ll be right back,” she muttered, forcing and smile and slipping away.

She closed her bedroom door, fingers trembling as she pulled out the phone. The message was like the Ten Commandments carved in digital stone.

It was a text from Arkangeal: Two days. I want you at the base. No more delays. Do what you need to do then cancel everything, and fall in line. Get a babysitter if you have to.

The edges of her vision dimmed. Her fingers curled around the phone, she wanted to squeeze the words away. Two days. Two days and she would have to throw herself head first into the capeworld, to face possible lethal challenges and problems.

The fall in line bothered her. Like she was some soldier, forced to live her life on the edge.

She bit her lip hard, hard enough to sting her. And closed her eyes.

What if she could backed out now? Give herself over to the SCRA, declare herself unfit to wield cape powers, and live under their umbrella for the rest of her life. It’d be so much easier than carrying all of this.

She couldn’t however.

She promised to find a way to help her brother and protect her sister, she had someone else she worried about too. Then there was Annemarie who'd have a reunion again soon. Heliogirl and whoever was monitoring her. Sys-chan, who can be a handful sometimes.

There was a quick knock on the door, it kept her from spiraling. Kanako stood at the door, expression soft, but curious.

“Something wrong? She asked, voice gentle but persistent. “You look concerned.”

Juniper shakes her head, tucking the phone away out of sight. “Nope, nothing. Just an old friend bothering me, nothing to worry about.”

Kanako’s gaze stayed unwavering. She stepped closer, eyes scanning Juniper like an incomplete puzzle that had to be built.

“Your hair’s messy, and it looks like someone ripped out a strand of hair. And that,” her voice peaked, looks like a bruise.”

Her hand trailed under Juniper’s collar before she could look away. “That looks like a claw mark. Done by nails.”

Juniper shoved her away. “It’s nothing, just marks from me and Effy playing rough.”

Kanako gave her a looking face. “Really? You want me to question your sister?”

Juniper’s face darkened. “No!” she said nearly snapping, her voice a lot louder than she intended. She exhaled, attempting to calm herself.

“Come on,” Kanako pressed, tone soft. At least tell me how it happened.…”

How could she? Every mark was linked to the dual life she’d started living, something she couldn’t share willy-nilly. What if it was a dealbreaker and Kanako pushed her away, she knew she didn’t like capes all that much.

She couldn’t tell Kanako the truth. Not yet. Not when everything was ready to fall apart. But would it be easier to get off her chest, it would ease the burden she felt. “I’m–

Effy ran inside, oblivious to the tension. She held up a different unmixed spoon. “Can I lick this?”

Juniper scolded her. “Nope, you’re mixing with that spoon. Nobody wants to eat your saliva.”

Effy teased her by licking the spoon. “You’re so serious all the time, June. It’s like you think you carry the world on your back, how weird is that?”

Juniper swallowed, the words hit closer than Effy could possibly imagine.

Kanako's shoulders relaxed as the tension eased. “My two really are like the sun and the moon,” she said, voice light but warm.

“Not everything’s a joke Effy,” Juniper muttered, forcing herself to sound firm. “You need to learn some etiquette.”

Effy shrugged dramatically. “And you need to learn to have fun.”

They trade insults again as if nothing was wrong but Juniper’s were already elsewhere.

She glanced at Kanako, who watched her with an unreadable expression, the weight of her lie hung between them. They both kept something from the other. Yet she wondered if would she be the first to break.

The normalcy she clung to felt like slipping sand. The day she’d become a full-fledged cape was drawing closer, the threads of her life pulling tighter and tighter.

She thought of the little godly alien fox, that never appeared again. The year ticking down like a bomb. She was unable to defuse. The urge to crawl in somewhere and never return was enticing.

But she couldn’t.

She turned her attention to Effy, forcing herself to engage in a childish diatribe. Anything to stay in the moment.