Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I wanna see a giraffe! I wanna see a giraffe now!” Emma moaned out, flipping left and right from her bed mumbling other nonsense in a more sensual voice. The bed sheets were a complete mess from her entire body shuffling frantically every five seconds. She seems to have cooled down after mentioning giraffes. Anna rearranged the bed sheets and tucked everything in after Emma knocked herself out again.

“Oh god, the drugs are talking for her.” Ray facepalmed dramatically. “Hey Anna, are you sure you gave her the normal dosage—”

“Of course, Ray. The laws and regulation regarding painkillers exist for these matters.” Anna laughed. “The doctor isn’t here today but he’s entrusted me to you guys so you have to listen to me today!” Anna made a proud pose, with her medical uniform on and a stack of papers hanging loosely on a clipboard clinging between her hips and arms.

Being the only person awake, Ray congratulated her with light claps and cheers, which sounded more sarcastic than congratulating. However, living and spending her entire childhood with Ray, Anna knew he meant it.

Anna was done checking up on Emma and Ray for the morning. Next was Norman, who was still sound asleep. Ray peers over to Norman—his sleeping face dons the innocence of a newborn baby, his chest heaving up and down softly.

Ray plopped himself down the bed, raising his left hand up in the air, twisting his wrist in various directions while testing out his fingers’ limits in movement.

“Ray, try not to move your fingers too much! They’ve just started to heal.” Anna called from Norman’s bed, her expression was slightly worried.

A tiny murmur came from Norman as he stirs a little in his sleep. His eyes opened slowly and immediately squinted at the morning sun (even though the blinds are doing their best to let at least some natural lighting in).

“Norman! Good morning!” Anna cheered enthusiastically. She continued to coax Norman in a soft voice, making sure he doesn’t freak over the place he woke up to. Even though the possibility of his freaking out is low, taking precautions was her highest priority.

“Ahh….Good morning, Anna.” Norman said hoarsely, rubbing his throat in circles, the little marks on there still haven’t gone away completely. Anna carefully sits Norman up, propping a pillow or two behind his back to support him. After that, she left to fetch him a cup of warm water.

Ray turned and saw Norman staring at him.

“Good morning.” Ray paused and managed to pass out a little smile. “Norman.”

Norman smiled back warmly and pointed to his throat. Ray nodded to understand what he meant.

After gulping down the warm water that Anna had given him, Norman sighed loudly to express his relief.

Breakfast didn’t start until later at nine, which gave time for the drugs to wear off on Emma, at least giving her a more conscious mind to work with.

Anna reassured them by saying they didn’t need to head down to the cafeteria for breakfast since they are still considered being at risk for any sudden changes in their body functions.

The three of them happily ate their breakfast. Emma started joking and laughing with the two like it was a normal day.

It really did feel like a normal day, but this time they finally were here in the human world.

Everything they have done to this point was so they that didn’t have to keep running away anymore. They had nothing to fear about but society itself now.

The truth was hidden from the public, although there were some suspicions from the minorities, thinking there was more to what had happened. The fight that happened when Emma and the others were trying to remake the promise was immediately covered with news coverage of a scandalous attempt from a small country trying to take over the newly founded oil reserves to boost their power and influence.

Emma, Ray, and Norman were informed about everything that had happened since they were at the hospital since day one.

All the major changes were done by the human cattles—now coined as something taboo to say, since they technically no longer exist under that name anymore. Everything that’s left is the cleanup work the adults had to do in order to completely make sure the demons never sprout up again to threaten the human race ever again.

The demons who were exceptions to the promise were allowed to keep living peacefully in the demon land with no disturbances to the human world. The split world between humans and demons continued to stay sealed off.

Right now, their main problem would be how to assimilate into the society that they dreamed of being part of one day. Everyone who used to be human cattle were given absolute freedom under the condition that they would attend lessons to educate themselves about the basics of how society is currently like. Other than that, these past human cattle are just regular humans who have had quite the history in their lives.

Everyone had parted from each other, even the Grace Field orphans. They all wanted to start over, with a clean slate, although everyone still wants to stay in contact with each other.

After much thought, Emma, Norman, and Ray had decided to stick together. In terms of age, they were still able to attend high school for at least two years. They still had to give it some thought about it.

That was all, the government had deeply expressed their condolences to them. Whether their sympathy was fake or not, they have promised to give each “victim of the cause” aid to get them started on their lives.

“Emma, what do you want to do when we get out of this hospital?” Norman asked, sitting on a wooden bench in the hospital garden.

“I told you! I want to see a giraffe!” Emma said excitedly, plucking out a few dandelions from the ground. “Maybe even….ride one?” Emma reached for her crutches and propped herself up to sit on the bench, and started to blow on the dandelions.

“Giraffes?” Ray said, not looking up from his book. He sat on a wheelchair closely settled next to Norman’s bench.“I thought the doctors told you that they’re already extinct, or extremely endangered right now.”

“They did,” Emma replied softly. “Just a look at them and I would be more than satisfied.”

When Emma had mentioned the giraffes to the government authority who was assigned to check up on them for monthly updates on their health and conditions, she received an unexpected answer.

“Many presidents all around the world are extremely grateful to you three. Of course, the others had a huge hand in helping, and we’ve made sure to have their wishes granted.” He had replied, then he turned to Emma.

“Emma, you are considered one of the important figures in this revolution. You’re a war hero, after all. No matter how endangered they are, giving you a chance to meet them is a price we would be able to pay.”

Emma couldn’t hold in her happiness and yells after that, causing quite a ruckus inside their hospital room.

/

“Whoa...that’s a real giraffe?!” Emma flattens one of her cheeks onto the glass that separated them and the giraffe.

“Hey, Emma. You’re dirtying the glass.” Ray made a face at Emma, which was quickly covered up by Norman.

“Ray!” Norman whispered harshly. “No matter what she does, let her do what she wants! She knows her limits.”

“Wha—so you  do  understand how I’m feeling and you let that slide cause she’s—!” Ray grumbled loudly and stared down at Emma who was too busy absorbing every single word the staff was telling her.

Her lone standing strand of hair was moving all right, pointing and even bouncing a little. It made him actually feel relaxed that Emma’s having such a good time. He sighed and decided he would let Emma pull him and Norman everywhere today—

“W-wait. Emma! Your crutches!” Ray yelled, gripping onto the crutches as if it was his own lifeline. Norman laughed from behind, following the two.

/

“It was so big!” Emma made a sound of awe as she dug into her panna cotta, beaming happily when she started talking about the giraffe again. “I wasn’t able to ride it but seeing it up close….without it actually….” Emma shivers in both fear and excitement. “Without it kicking my guts hard—it was such an experience.”

“Congrats, Emma!” Norman said happily. “Your wish is granted.”

“But is it alright? For you to just waste it like this.”

“It isn’t a waste, Ray!” Emma responded defensively. “Besides, there isn’t much I want to do out here anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Norman asked.

“Being able to spend time with you guys like normal days is something a wish can’t grant.” Emma smiled, her eyes a bit glossy.

Ray and Norman were silent, not because they were not appreciative of what Emma said, but because they appreciated the answer too much.

“Ah, speaking of wishes, do you guys have anything you want?” Emma spoke up.

“Nah. Not really.” Ray said, resting his head on his hands, stirring his coffee. Emma turned to Norman and he also shook his head.

“Then...should we go to school?” Emma suggested.

“School?” Ray immediately lifted his hands off, his eyes widening.

“I mean you guys don’t have anything you want here right? Might as well get us a house nearby or something in the meantime and maybe attend our last few years of school!”

“True.” Norman nodded. “I don’t really care if I’m with you guys...Ray?”

Ray blows the lock of hair that covered his left side of his face, staring at Emma and Norman who were currently staring him back intently, waiting for answer.

Ray scoffed. “I mean, with that begging look of you two, I can’t really refuse.”

Emma clapped her hands together happily with Norman and Ray smiling at her. “Then it’s decided. We’re going back to school!”

Chapter Text

The physical rehab is going smoothly for Emma and Ray. Without too much lasting injuries himself, Norman took the time reading various books that were available in the hospital and moral support to Emma and Ray (by moral support Norman meant embarrassing them by making little excited cheers and good job ’s). The little lessons that were supposed to give them a better insight into the current society was no different than it was thirty years ago.

Nothing much has progressed in society as a whole but technology seemed to have been booming with improvement. School systems still remained all the more the same, which put them at ease when they were told that.

They were told to not involve themselves with current technology until after they’ve mostly recovered.

So after they were discharged from the hospital, the anticipation coming from Ray was more than visible. As the three reached the hospital gate, government authorities greeted them politely to announce they were going to be the ones to take them to their new home.

Norman and Emma made little whoa’s and wow’s here and there and chatted excitedly about the tall office buildings and pedestrians walking around the city. Ray stared out the window the entire time, taking in the entirely new environment they were going to live in now.

“When can we go shop for some colored clothing?” Emma sulks, gently knocking her head against the van’s window. “Norman! Ray! You two need something new to wear too!”

Norman raised his hand up slightly to calm Emma’s rapidly firing suggestions to shop. “We can go after we settle down, okay?”

The only thing they have worn were hospital given clothing that was plain white with soft sky blue outlines at the tips of their long sleeved shirts and pants.

The house they’ve gotten was fully furnished and probably cleaned for already, but they have moved in with their own clean bedsheets and other little things to make themselves feel more at home.

Emma and Ray helped retrieve their four pieces of luggage from the back of the van as Norman asked with one of the authorities a few questions.

When the authorities were finished talking with Norman a bit more on the house, they handed over four identical house keys and then excused themselves after.

After taking a little look around the medium sized house, they stood at the front door.

“This is a bit nerve wracking.” Emma hides behind Ray, clutching on his both of his shoulders.

“What, are you scared?” Ray teased.

“Am not! It’s so surreal right now I cannot believe we’re actually here. ” Emma replied.

Norman took a deep breath. “Okay then, here we go,” He slid one of the keys inside the keyhole, turning on the knob after. The door clicked and opened.

It was a home that has two stories, the hallway that greeted them before the bigger room emerged suddenly felt like a long tunnel.

A few big brown boxes were resting next to the empty three story shoe racks a few steps before the door.

“Are they from the mayor?” Emma asked, pointing at them as they walked in, rolling their luggage with them slowly.

“They must be. Maybe extra stuff to get us more settled.” Ray said.

“This is a touch screen phone?” Ray asked, uncovering the contents inside the boxes.

Their lessons were pretty much over but if anything was needed before they start school in a few months, the three were told that emailing them is just a step away—

That is, if they could figure out how to set up their technology.

“So they leave us with a house, money in the banks, all to let us do our own exploring?”

“You think the government would hold our hands the entire way through this when we turned over an entire demon race? I don’t think so.”

“Emma, Ray, let’s just see if we can set out this laptop first,” Norman said, interrupting their little banter.

“Right, right.”

The laptop sounded loudly when the screen turned white, causing Emma to beam with curiosity. Her eyes were practically sparkling, although it was just the bright laptop screen that was reflecting against her eyes.

Ray took over much of the work that was needed on electronic devices while Emma spent her time gawking at everything Ray was typing and scrolling about with admiration.

After they have decided which bedroom would be theirs and basic house rules, everything was pretty much done. At the end, much of the rules were the ones they were used to back at Grace Field. It brought up slightly disturbing memories of the night Conny had passed and everything that happened after. But other than that, the eleven peaceful years they have spent at Grace Field was something they couldn’t throw away. Their love and care for each other still never changed.

Everything was decided and sorted out then. Now they have two months to spend freely before they attend a brief new student orientation. Then two weeks after that, the school year would officially start.

“What do we do now?” Emma sighed, rocking herself back and forth on the giant green bean bag chair, already finished with her portion of the work. They were all in the small library, claiming places to shelve the books they have brought with them. It wasn’t big, but it had a central space where they could lounge around at. The walls were light green whilst the simple decor around the room made the room seem like a little peaceful forest.

The last thing on their list to reorganize and stack was to reshelve all the books they had in possession. They finished in a relatively short time.

“Ray knows the book authors and titles by the back of his hand he didn’t even need to look at it twice to shelve all of them.” Norman laughed, placing the last book onto the bottom shelf. He glanced at the owl wall clock across from where he was sitting. “We finished earlier than we expected.”

Ray was slouched on a giant cushion that was shaped like the last remaining part of a tree that was left alone. He continued to flip through the pages of his book lazily, which was titled the History of the Roman Empire .

Emma scoots towards Ray and glanced at a few lines on the current page he was on.

“Reversed latin...it brings back memories,” Emma said softly.

“What are you guys looking at?” Norman asked, pushing the empty boxes to the side. He stood up, stretched after kneeling for so long and headed over to them just a few meters away.

“The Roman Empire?” Norman looked confused. Ray took his time explaining their entire experience with the reversed latin manuscripts, in which only Norman was the one who could focus intently on every single word that has left Ray’s lips.

“Ah, she fell asleep,” Ray said. The girl was hovering over Ray’s legs, her two arms slouched over, head facing the ground.

“Why is she on my legs.” It wasn’t a question of course. Emma slept there because she literally just felt like it, when the tree cushion was right next to them. Ray’s face darkened, but he doesn’t seem to be pushing her off anytime soon. Instead, his expression softened for a moment before he feels another set of weight on his shoulders.

Norman nuzzled onto Ray’s right shoulder, slowly nuzzling his face towards his neck.

“Good night, Ray.” Norman yawned.

“What. No wait. We still have to go clothes shopping—” He heard Norman breathing coming in and out softly, the little breath hitting a small part of his neck.

Everything was still for a few moments. Ray looked over and saw the visible dust flying in the air that was illuminated into the room from the one and only giant window.

“You guys—a pain in the ass you know that?” Ray sighed. Ray raised his right arm over behind Norman’s back and brought him closer. Allowing his cheek to rest on Norman’s soft platinum hair, his eyes traveled back to Emma, who was completely still besides the movement of her breathing making her abdomen heave up and down.

Ray reached over with his free hand, brushing past a few locks of Emma’s hair, revealing the place of where her ear should have been. It’s been so long, but the escape just felt like yesterday. Seeing definite proof of the night they escaped really let him relive everything that happened from the start, to how they ended up here, in this very library of their new home.

He continued to softly brush through Emma’s hair. Then Ray turned and took one last whiff at Norman’s faint vanilla scented hair before drifting off into dreamland himself.

Chapter Text

The sun was already up by the time Emma woke up. Lazily pulling herself out of the covers, Emma peeked outside the window blinds.

The neighborhood they were settled in was peaceful and quiet, although their neighbors are quite chatty in the morning. Many people were already up and off to work it seems, since last night many of the cars parked outside weren’t here anymore.

Emma could hear some muffled noises already coming from downstairs. After she washed up and went downstairs, the cheesy aroma of a sauce for entered Emma’s nose, instantly making her stomach do the rumbling noise.

“Good morning, Norman.” Emma yawned as she quickly speed walked to see what Ray was cooking up for breakfast.

“Good morning, Emma!” Norman greeted her with a big smile, and Emma returned it back to him.

Ray raised his voice before Emma could greet him. “There were only packages of these noodles and some dairy products in the fridge.” He continued to look over the pot boiling the noodles and started finishing up the sauce. “Expecting us to collect our own stuff right at the get go. Knew that was gonna happen.”

“I was planning to have Ubereats deliver our meal but—” Norman said behind them, he was on another counter, tinkering with the coffee maker. He made a look of anger and pointed at Ray with shaky hands and a disappointed voice. “But Ray wouldn’t let me.”

“We have food at home. And you have an ama~azing chef right here.” Ray retorts. “You’re not appreciating me enough. Hmph.”

“Ubereats? That food and delivery business?” Emma asked.

“Mhmm.”

“We literally just got our personal phones and laptops yesterday,” Ray said. “Anna probably told you about Ubereats and now you’re bragging.”

“Am not!” Norman stuck a tongue out at Ray, who had his back turned onto him anyway.

After gathering the three sets of plates and utensils for breakfast for Ray, Emma went and snuck a few little cups of coffee creamer when Norman wasn't looking. Then she settled herself at the round dining table, satisfied and started drinking them one by one.

“Huh. Hey, Emma.” Ray turned around after taking one good look at the cooked pasta in the pan. “Can you get me th— what are you drinking.”

Emma bit the little rim on the creamer cup, staring Ray’s fake gagging expression down with her own glare.

“I’m obviously drinking the coffee creamer,” Emma said, with the cup still between her gritted teeth.

Norman looked over to the stove where Ray was, almost done with his own job.

“Ray, can I help?”

“No. You two sit down quietly and don’t make a ruckus.”

Norman sat down with a quiet grunt next to Emma. He started smiling when he started warming both his hands with the hot mug of coffee. Emma swears she could see bubbles and sparkled around Norman when he smiled like that. She looked down and got started on her second to the last cup of creamer.

The smell of the pasta and sauce became stronger, piquing Emma’s stomach to strike with more noise. She immediately punched her stomach but it instinctively hardens from the impact. Emma knew her face was red.

Norman almost spat out his coffee and looked away—when Emma looked up to see Norman trying his best to not smile, she could spot the tiny stream of coffee trickle down his mouth.

“Norman! Stop that!” Emma stomped her feet repeatedly onto the wooden floor and slapped the table with one of her palms. Wiping away the little mess from his mouth, Norman held his hand up with a half-assed apologetic look.

“This happens so many times but I still can’t— pft !”

“Okay, pipe down idiots, breakfast’s ready.” Ray set down the plates of pasta in front of them.

Emma stared at the sheer whiteness of the pasta sauce and noodles plus the little two greens accompanying the dish.

She played and slowly mixed the sauce with the noodles. “Is this….edible?”

“This is so delicious what the hell…” It was like a taste bud inside him burst from the deliciousness that Norman suddenly jumped in his seat.

Emma tried it as well and was shocked to hell on the taste of the dish.

He turned to Ray, who was unbothered by the commotion and drinking peacefully. His half-lidded eyes looked dead as he flipped through the pages of the magazine calmly, not touching his plate yet.

Norman and Emma continued to egg Ray on to start talking.

“Ray, did you not sleep well last night?” Emma asked worriedly.

“Well, that’s understandable since it was our first night here.” Norman said.

Ray sets down his mug, and hands Norman a small envelope already cleanly cut open.

“Goddamned government guy waking me up in the middle of the night just to deliver me this in person. You two were snoring away like angels.”

“Was that supposed to be a mean or nice statement to us?” Norman laughed, accepting the envelope. “You probably stayed up pretty late checking out the laptops didn't you?”

After a quick read, Norman set the letter aside.

“It’s your turn today?” Emma asked, touching the left side of her neck that was still bandaged.

“Yeah,” Norman said, taking another bite of the pasta.

“So nice of you to volunteer to be the last one,” Ray said, reaching to feel his neck as well, no bandage though.

“I wouldn’t say that’s nice , but at least the kids got it off first. Best for them to forget about that quickly,” Norman scratched his chin.

“After this, we head to the mall right?”

“Yeah. Emma, you should wear a collared shirt today just in case—it still hasn’t healed yet right?”

Emma rubbed her neck again. “No, it’s still a bit red so I’ll keep it on for a day or two.”

“Seriously, why did they have to make the stupid numbered tattoos so hard to remove.” Ray groaned. “My neck was sore for a good while too.”

“Mine too…”

After they had cleaned up and washed the dishes, Emma and Norman went upstairs to change and prepare to leave. Ray was the only one who was fully dressed, he lazily dawdled around the house, resuming his little tour of their new house. When he heard a beep outside, Ray quickly changed into his pair of black and white sneakers.

The car that welcomed him was a simple grey colored van. Ray took a seat in the back and waited for Emma and Norman to finish up.

The van’s engine came back to life when Norman rushed into the back seat and settled down with the other two.

“Hey, Norman did you lock the house?”

“I did!” Norman said.

Ray folded his arms and looked out the window, still suspicious.

The ride to the lab was a fifteen minute ride but the scenery of a quiet neighborhood slowly shifted into the giant four-way intersection roadway in the center of the city.

There were plenty of youthful people who looked like Ray’s age, hanging out and laughing for a split second before the van passed them. Shopping malls and food stalls were plentiful here, which excited and scared him. He might get lost after all. Ray glanced at Norman and Emma, who were huddling against the window opposite from them, making little sounds of awe. They might get lost faster than him.

/

The process started right after Norman took a seat across from the staff that was going to remove the number from his neck. The woman scientist got started after a brief introduction and small talk.

Ray and Emma waited inside the van, making the first few plans for the day.

“So, which one are we going to first?” Emma held out the foldable map of one of the malls they have chosen to go to.

After taking a few long glances at one shop to the other, Ray pointed to the one on the second floor.

“Clothes first, obviously.”

“Then why were you thinking so hard?” Emma chortled.

“I need to see which clothing place was the closest to the ice cream place...” Ray mumbled.

“Huh? What was that?” Emma teased.

Ray cleared his throat loudly, hoping that’ll help stray them away from the current topic.

“Nothing. Which one do you want to go?”

“The food court and that stationary shop right there.” Emma pointed to the numbered suite a few shops away from the food court which was on the third level. “Want to check out the drinks they have at the court. You’re fine with that?”

“Eh. Sounds good.”

The van’s door opened, revealing Norman with a collared shirt, a brief view of the new white bandage showed as he stepped to the back.

“Oof.” Norman settled down in the middle of the back seat.

“Did it hurt?” Emma asked.

“No. The lady was super nice.” Norman smiled.

“No way .” Ray scoots closer to Norman (even though the space between them wasn’t that great anyway).

“Is it the blonde lady?”

“Huh? Yeah, it is.”

“She was this close to strangling me, I could see it in her eyes.” Ray shivered.

“Me too.” Emma made eye contact with Ray, her eyes filled with fear.

Norman was all the more shocked at what they had experienced from the same woman. He could only look right and left frantically, not knowing what to do next.

“You two….what did you did to her in your previous life?”

“Nothing!” Both of them said in unison.

Ray explained the first few shops they wanted to swing by first, while Norman pointed out a few other shops he wanted to visit himself.

The van took them to their destination, but after that, they’re on their own now.

When they headed into the mall, the designs and placement of decor on the walls and grounds were instantly relaxing. Even though there were so many people outside, the inside of the mall was quiet but at the same time, there were a lot of people scattered all around and walking by (not too much to overcrowd every hallway though).

After many adventures on the first floor, they had with the mannequins wearing clothing in weird poses, the clothing shop that Ray wanted to go to was finally in view as they traveled on the escalator for the first time. Emma made excited noises while the escalator rises, swearing to ride it again.

“I think I want five new cardigans,” Norman said seriously, rubbing his chin.

“Five?!” Emma and Ray exclaimed in shock. Ray stood there baffled, holding his two black wool sweaters stilly.

“I mean, the dress code may be a bit strict, but lenient enough to allow other clothing brands and certain colors.” Emma reminded them. Norman tugged at the cream-colored cardigans, his expression like a hungry dog.

“We have money, and we’re here to waste it,” Norman smiled innocently at the clothing tag that stated the price.

Chapter Text

Emma was the fastest to pay after five minutes of browsing each section quickly. She ended up with some decently priced sweaters and cardigans, unlike what Norman was trying to buy. The school uniforms were already bought for them so there were no worries.

Ray was second. He spotted Norman still trying out the cardigans after he made his little purchase.  After he saw a glimpse of the one jacket that he had seen before, (it was by no means cheap at all) Ray rushed to him, whispering harshly. “NO, Norman put that one back !”

“Two hundred for one designer cardigan? Norman, can you please calm down?”

“The students at school might steal these if they know….”

“Awww…. alright.”

Norman’s cheeks puffed up, his hands parted slowly from the cloth, disappointed.

“Well, these should be enough I guess!” He said abruptly and headed over to the cash register and Ray and Emma followed.

“Do you have a Starry rewards card?” The young man at the registered beamed as he scanned the barcode of each piece of clothing, taking off the clothing racks swiftly.

“Rewards card?” Norman looked puzzled.

“Just say no,” Ray whispered.

“Ah, no I don’t.”

“Would you like to sign up for our program?” The man asked, finishing up with the remaining clothes.

“Um, no it’s fine, t-thank you.”

Ray tugged onto Emma’s sleeve and they both stepped a meter or two away from Norman so that couldn’t hear.

“He just stuttered,” Emma whispered in shock.

“This is an event that deserved to be recorded down in this household.”

“Write it down! Write it!”

“I am, I am!” Ray pulled out his brand new smartphone and tried to type as fast as he could. He still wasn’t familiar with the keyboard in there.

“Okay, where are we going next now?” Norman finished paying and Ray quickly slid his phone away in his front pocket. “The ice cream place.”

/

The mall was a maze. Even though they have read and learned so much in stories about malls and shopping places in general, being there in person was overwhelming if the interior of the mall is literally identical in every four corners of the six level floors.

But that was just for a small moment though, Emma quickly realized that she could just remember the suite number of each shop and follow the map.

The three of them have agreed to regroup at the ice cream shop Ray wanted to visit, who changed his mind last minute to eat ice cream at the end of the day.

Emma went on a food tour, going on the uppermost levels and found many little stalls handing out free samples.

Everywhere she went, as long as she purchased something, Emma was welcomed by a generous and kind employee at the cash register. They kept trying to egg her on to sign up to their awards program, which of course she had to politely decline.

The stationery shop Emma looked through had a variety of supplies for offices and schools, which she didn’t really need. She doesn’t see the appeal of the cute erasers or pencil boxes. Will she get bad mouthed for not following trends? For cute or cool stationery items that were probably an elementary and middle school thing. For now, she’ll just have to keep watch when they finally attend school.

The thought of school sent ripples of excitement into every part of her body. She’s heard the good and bad things about schools since, for her entire life, the schooling she experienced were just daily tests and independent reading sessions with Ray in the library. She wonders what new things could she learn….wonders and wonders...and she almost lost track of time.

/

Ray ended up at a simple pet shop. He petted the  bunnies through the cage for a few minutes after. Now he was sitting in the ice cream shop, savoring the multiple scoops of colorful flavored ice cream. He checked his phone every five minutes, making little tch sounds at the time that seemed to be moving slower every time he checked.

Speaking of time, he had plenty of time to waste. The thing is, he spent so much time with them , thinking to do things himself felt like an odd thing to speak of.

What did he like to do when he’s by himself—reading, mostly. But he’s currently at a mall. Instead, he headed back to the regrouping place and entered the ice cream shop. He stood in line behind the two customers that were in front of him. It wasn’t busy right now, but Ray’s sure this place would be extremely popular in the summer. They had a huge menu of flavors for ice cream, which stimulated Ray’s brain for a good moment.

He was in a dilemma. Unable to choose a minimum of five scoops, he pointed to the first few flavors with names that appealed to him in terms of adjectives used in there.

The coldness of each little spoonful of ice cream soothed him, making him drift off and wander around in his mind, although his eyes were mindlessly looking out the glass window. People walked past the shop left and right, Ray felt like he was trapped in time.

Without Norman and Emma by his side, it was like time stopped just for him to discover things for himself.

He stared at the window for a good while with puffed cheeks before contemplating to order another few scoops.

/

“Would you like to sign up for our rewards progra—”

“Um, no it’s fine!” Norman said abruptly and immediately sent an apologetic look for cutting the employee’s sentence off too early.

“Having a rough day?”

“No, not really. It’s just my first time at a mall, it’s a bit…” Norman trailed off, hoping the employee would get it. He had five other medium-sized bags full of good resting next to his legs. It’s going to take him a while to reach the ice cream shop.

“Thank you for shopping here!”

Norman forgot that many of the entrances to these shops had automatic doors, and he jumped at the glass doors opening themselves. He hoped no one, especially the employee he was being unintentionally rude to see that embarrassing sight.

Norman walked slowly to balance the heavy weight of the six bags together. As he approached near the area he was supposed to regroup with Ray and Emma, he heard loud chatters in front of the ice cream shop.

“There is absolutely no way that the staff there would let you buy a hundred cups of ice cream!”

“You won’t know until you ask!”

“There is no way I will let myself look like a fool when you ask them this, Ray!”

After Ray had finished his ice cream, Emma pulled him out of the shop before he got to ask his absurd question. He wanted to a hundred dollar order to the staffs, which Emma was sure that they didn’t have this much in stock, especially during winter.

“Can you guys please help me with the bags?” A voice shot up from behind Emma and Ray. Norman was standing there a few meters away with six bags that were half stuffed with goods sitting on the ground. He looked a bit hesitant and shy to ask. Norman became even more nervous to wait for their answer once his eyes widened to realize how empty handed both of them were.

Emma dashed to Norman and picked up two of the bags easily without many complaints. Instead, she smiled and assured Norman that she did purchase some things, she just ate it along the way. With a deep sigh coming from Ray, he walked over slowly and lifted the other two bags that were on the ground.

It was almost four when they left the mall. Emma wanted to catch a taxi to ride back and they did just that.

“Are we going home now?” Norman asked Ray, who was currently buying a few meat skewers from a shop.

“When you’re done with your own shopping you wanna go home now?”

“I mean—! You two didn’t have anything you wanted to buy, right?”

“Then I’ll buy two of your cardigans from you for half the price,” Ray said nonchalantly.

“You are getting nothing from me!”

Chapter Text

Today was a day that Emma had decided to laze around in the house. There was plenty of food available and everything at home just screams lonely. Ray and Norman went out for an errand and won’t be back in an hour or two.

She could surf the internet, but right now, that idea just doesn’t seem appealing to her (she still cannot maneuver the mouse and keyboards well—neither of these three could). Right now, all her basic needs are met and in simpler terms she’s bored.

Being bored wasn’t a luxury she had back then, it felt weird to even feel like this. Even so, she’d have to get used to this feeling soon.

A delivery came by earlier as well, so after giving up on trying to fall asleep, Emma decided to open the box and look at the uniforms that came in.

Emma took a look at the uniform that they were supposed to wear for school. There were three sets of uniforms stacked next to each other. Two sets were Norman’s and Ray’s. The other was Emma’s.

For the girl’s uniforms, they consisted of a standard two-piece outfit. The top part was a light grey color and a white collar was sewn at the top. It had a simple thin colored bow in the top middle. The colors seem to vary between students in different grades. For Emma, a second year, she’d be yellow.

The bottom part of the uniform was the standard grey skirt. Emma specifically ordered the skirt to be a bit longer than the shortest length available but still a bit shorter than the knee.

The boy’s uniform basically consisted of a white collared shirt and a thin navy blue outer jacket. The pants would be navy blue as well. The colors of these uniforms might be subjected to change in the second semester though.

Even though the thought of uniforms still reminds her of some past memories, they were in the past now. No way would these memories taint what she had now.

Emma felt the left side of her head where her ear should be—her left ear was there, although it’s 3D printed one. Her hair does an extremely good job covering her missing ear, but it made her a bit nervous if people were to find out.

After closing the box of uniforms so she could spend time chatting with Norman and Ray about them later, she was once again left with something to do. Sometimes, this world bored her so much that a selfish and dark thought often lurked in the back of her mind. So many what if questions.

Emma swiped the remote control off the table and turned the TV on. She browsed through the channel until she found interest in a channel that featured a skating competition broadcasting live.

The skaters glided through the ice gracefully and jumped as if they were trying to reach for the heavens. The music playing during their rounds created even more impact.

Getting so absorbed into the show, her ears overlooked the sound of the front door unlocking and Ray’s annoyed voice to something Norman had laughed over.

Emma snapped her head up and greeted them with a warm smile.

“Welcome back,” Emma said happily.

“We’re back.” Norman returned the smile. Ray did as well, with a simple pat on Emma’s shoulder.

“Can we go ice skating?” Emma suddenly asked.

Norman looked puzzled for a moment before realizing what she meant.

“Ice skating? You mean—”

Emma pointed to the TV with the channel still featuring a few cut scenes of skaters skating through the ice. Ray and Norman stared at the scene that unfolded on the TV screen.

“Ooh. That sounds really fun…” Norman stared at the skater that flipped into the air and spun three times before landing perfectly with ease.

“Right? Right!?” Emma’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Are those our school uniforms?” Ray pointed to the box resting next to the TV.

“Yeah, I looked at it already.”

Ray walked over and opened the box, making little hums as he stared at the uniforms wrapped in plastic that was still unopened.

He reached in and opened the one that was labeled his name. Then, after that Ray stood in front of the floor mirror to compare the uniform.

“Hm. I can already tell you look good in this uniform.” Norman said with his hands on his hips, his head tilted upwards.

“You think?” Emma asked. “My hair—doesn’t match with grey at all…” She made a sulky look and twirled the ends of her hair.

“It’s growing longer, your hair” Ray commented, still comparing his current look to the uniform. “And, your hair is fine. If anyone talks smack about it I’ll give them a beating for sure.”

“Ray!”

“Let’s go ice skating, then,” Ray said.

“Jumping from one subject to another so fast, are we?” Norman sighed.

The rest of the day and the eventual evening turned into a commentary about the goods and bads for the uniforms. When they finally concluded the conversation about the uniforms and set them aside in the corner until the orientation, dinner preparations were needed.

Time seemed to be flowing at a greater speed whenever they were together. It was almost jarring to her when Emma finds out hours have passed since they started talking.

“Still, I wonder how the others are doing.” Emma sighed, peeling the potatoes that Ray had requested.

“The little kids—they’re probably having the time of their lives right now.” Norman laughed. “More friends to play with.”

“The little ones will probably forget what they saw back there. Or even just think it was a dream.” Emma said.

“Well, no more sad talk about this anymore!” Ray interrupted them. “Emma, are you done with them yet?”

Emma lifted the basket of peeling potatoes up on the counter for Ray and he accepted it.

After the prayers and routine they do at the dinner table, the three of them dig into their dinner. This was one of the many precious moments Emma wanted to engrave in the back of her mind forever.

Chapter Text

The day they were going to the ice skating center, Norman had completely forgotten to tell Ray and Emma that he had to report to the science lab again, where they removed the numbers on their necks. A routine checkup regarding the chemicals they used was needed at least once to see if there were any infections or scars and whatnot. Norman said the appointment won’t take too long so Emma and Ray went ahead to the skating center.

After purchasing tickets and rented two pairs of skates, they entered into the skating zone. The temperature in the lobby and here changed drastically. It would make the exposed skin of anyone’s shiver.

“Ray, are you nervous?” Emma asked, after stating their shoe sizes to the attendant.

At first, it half-shocked them that they had to state their shoe sizes. Luckily there was a number on the bottom of the sneakers they were given.

“Scared, I guess. I have no clue how this is going to go since—” Ray turned around and pointed at the giant skating rink behind them. “I may have eaten ice alone before but skating on one? What the hell.” It was like an unknown territory looming over them, almost like a giant wall to overcome, which really reminded them of the time they had escaped from Grace Field. Any misstep could get them into trouble if not careful.

Emma laughed in response. “That sounds just like you.”

The attendant returned with the two pairs of skates they asked for, and the two settled down a nearby metal bench to switch.

The metal was cold against the bottom half of their body, even though they had pants on that weren’t too thin either. By the time Emma was done putting on her skates, she stood up to test her walking.

“Whoa!” It was surprisingly easy to walk in these on the carpet. Although the blades in the middle of the skates felt weird at first, it didn’t bother her much after walking some more.

Emma stood timidly on the ice in her skates. The ice felt like an easy button to push for instant death, really. To slip first thing the moment she made contact with the ice was nothing but embarrassing. Emma made her way inside the freezing rink by grabbing onto the even more freezing shiny metal rail, as if it were there to tease her. After seeing Emma fall, Ray felt taken aback and looked down at the ice again. He then went in more cautious of his first step onto the ice and managed to not slip like Emma, slowly entering the rink and held on to the rails. Emma slipped again while she was trying to turn around to Ray.

“Need a hand?” Ray extended his hand. Emma accepted it silently with a small thankful smile, trying to focus on her balance as she stands up.

Her left leg lost balance and Emma impulsively grabbed the rail with all the fingers that she could reach. Her grip on Ray’s hand didn’t let go, causing Ray to tumble down The ice that was shaved off and start piling on the sides by other skaters drowned the side of Emma’s black pants, slowly soaking into it.

“Emma, you did this on purpose didn’t you?!” Ray rubbed his knees that hit hard onto the ground.

“No, I swear! It’s an accident!”

“We barely entered the rink and you fell three—”

“Don’t finish that sentence!” Emma slapped her hands onto Ray’s mouth hard, her face flushed red.

They pulled each other up slowly. Emma’s gaze and posture looked more confident than before as she resumed pulling herself forward with the rails. Ray followed behind her.

Emma spends her time getting to know how her feet’s movement against the ice, trying to balance herself as she attempted to walk a few steps without holding onto anything. She leaned forward and pushed herself ahead with brief contact with the rail.

“Emma, if you don’t get your hands off the rails you’re never gonna learn.” Ray teased as he skates by. He stumbled a little but regained balance just as quickly, striking another nerve in Emma.

“I’m trying, okay?! It’s only been half an hour!” Emma whined as she squatted down again, the skates were moving on their own on the slippery ice, making her even more afraid to move.

They both started at the same time, yet Ray is improving way faster than her. Did he do some research beforehand? Very likely. Emma looked at Ray, who only needed the rails to push forward. Other than that he could balance pretty well. The skaters who have skated past her quickly had exceptional control on the ice. Emma suddenly felt like she lost even though she knows she’s new to this. As Emma caught up to Ray who was not that far behind her, she continued to look around at how each skater was doing. Some were probably new skaters just like them, and some were able to jump and skate backward in extreme speed.

“Ray, did you see how that person skated?” Emma pointed to the one who traveled across the rink effortlessly. They barely made any showy moves and only continued to skate past people, something that can be compared to the people who take morning strolls and runs in the park, not giving a care to anyone in the world.

“Hah! Yeah, was trying to copy their foot movements the whole time. Harder than I thought.”

“We should try and do that in an hour.” Emma pointed to the skater again.

“An hour? Sounds barely doable. I can barely walk without the rails right now,” Ray said, baffled.

“Then we should get started now!” Emma pushed Ray forward enthusiastically, completely not caring what’s going to happen next.

/

The checkup went quite smoothly, with no interruptions whatsoever. There were no infections or any nasty things threatening to form, so the appointment ended earlier. After a short five minute ride, Norman made his way into the ice skating center and waited in line to purchase a ticket that was still in session. His face felt the most at the sudden drop in temperature when he entered the area where the rink was.

He waited for the attendant to pick up his skates at the counter. Then, Norman’s body finally adjusted to the room’s cold temperature, making him shiver a little. He looked all over the giant skating rink and people who were loitering around at the bleachers and those who were actually skating in the rink.

As Norman started to put on his first skate, an orange mop of hair briefly crossed his line of vision. Then, someone called his name. Scratch that, two people did.

“What took you so long?” Ray leaned forward against the entrance. “We were getting tired f waiting, you know.”

“Stop lying, Ray! You were having too much fun trying to outrun everyone!” Emma crossed her arms.

Ray scowled at her for saying that, but immediately regarding composure and gestured for Norman to hurry up, who was busy watching them argue. Norman got the message and quickly puts on his second skates, and hurried forward. The skates’ blades felt strange at first when he stood up, but Norman was sure everyone felt like this so he didn’t comment on the feeling much.

Right now, he was about to step into a completely new world. He knew ice was slippery, he even read it in books before, but experiencing it personally was a wholly different thing.

Grabbing onto the rails when he entered the rink, Emma made little cheers as Norman made his first few steps on the ice.

“Just so you know, once you learn how to move without the rails, things get easier,” Ray said.

Norman turned and observed Ray and Emma who could stand and glide over the ice like normal.

“Weren’t you guys here for only an hour?”

“Yeah.”

“And you managed to skate like that in an hour.”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe it’s nice to be not ‘normal’ for once,” Emma said, looking down at her hands. “Learn things twice as fast than others.

“Emma, twice as fast is an understatement coming from you.” Ray lifted his arms and smacked Emma’s head with a chop. “Even I can’t learn as fast like you, what the hell.”

“Oh? Are you jealous?” Emma scooted closer to Ray, staring upwards at him with a witty smile.

“Am not!” Ray pushed Emma’s hair down, successfully booting her out of his bubble. He pushed forward and offered Norman help. Emma also rushed over to Norman’s other free side.

“Emma, step away. You’re gonna make Norman fall.”

“If anyone’s gonna give him the poorest advice on skating, it’s gonna be you!”

“Guys, can you help me...” Norman interrupted their banter, his hands extended to them, saying they needed to be held. Emma and Ray, of course, they took it and pulled Norman forward.

“Whoa!” Norman lost footing with his left leg but didn’t fall as he had two extremely supportive guards with him.

“Try to bring your left leg out and move forward without stabbing the ice!” Ray perked up next to Norman, observing his movements.

“How are you already able to skate like that already in three hours?”

“Besides the fact that we’re not...normal—” Ray stopped moving and lets the skates lose their speed before finishing. He messed with the back of his hair and embarrassingly stated, “Let’s just say we fell a lot.”

Eventually, Emma started to drift away from them, leaving Ray trying to support Norman even though he wasn’t good himself.

She looked like she still had trouble whenever she attempted to skate at a more faster speed. However, whenever she falls, she knew how to fall without getting hurt badly. She immediately got up and tried to start over again with an even more confident posture.

“Ah…”

“We better catch up to her when we’re still able to,” Ray said. “

“I think this is the part where practicing alone is better.” Norman laughed, scratching his chin.

Ray thought it over for a moment and agreed. “Then I’ll leave you to that.”

Improvement skyrocketed within them in the past hour. With still an hour remaining in the last session of the day, they skated alongside each other. During the entire time, they still kept in close contact with the rail, funnily enough.

Being able to joke around and maybe fall once or twice in a completely new activity was nothing but exciting. Ray and Emma still had to look out for Norman, though. His weak physique made it harder for him to improve as fast on a physical level, even though he probably already learned everything just as fast as them. As far as the three of them know, nothing would ever replace the happiness they are feeling right now.

The last skating session of the day was concluded, and they returned the skates and left the center. Not long later, Emma complained of pain on her feet and legs and had to sit down on the road.

“I think I got a blister from skating so much in one go.” Emma pressed down onto the spot that hurt when she was walking and winced when she got the right spot.

“I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but me as well.” Ray leaned against the wall, massaging his calves. “Norman, are you sore at all?”

“Haha, I think my neck feels a bit sore. My knees too.” Norman brought Ray closer to him and whispered something before both of them started laughing, but quickly stopped before Emma could catch on what they were planning to do.

“I’m gonna walk barefoot—wait, with my socks on I guess,” Emma said as she stood up. “It’s dark out anyways—whoa, Ray!”

Emma wrapped her arms around Ray’s neck tightly and squeezed her eyes shut, fully certain that he’s going to drop her.

“Get on my back or you won’t get any dinner from me tonight,” Ray said.

“Fine…” Emma mumbled out quietly as she was let down onto the concrete sidewalk. Ray crouched down enough for Emma to jump on.

“Emma, you were totally sure that he’s gonna drop you, huh?” Norman said as Emma gets herself comfortable on Ray’s back.

“Ah! Norman, at least you get my pains and worries!” Emma puffed her cheeks out and messed with Ray’s hair.

“Anyways, who’s up for some hot pot tonight?” Ray said, ignoring both of them completely.

“Me!” Emma and Norman yelled in unison.

“Then if you two keep complaining about me being a troll and I won’t pay for the hot pot course.”

They walked down the streets in silence, with only passing cars and the sounds of the traffic signs being heard.

“Hey, Rayray, carry me next!” He pointed to himself. His grin was slightly more mischievous than usual.

“Are you injured?”

“In fact, I am! Who’s the one who ditched me when I needed help today?”

“ Wha —you said you wanted to practice on your own!” Ray started stumbling.

“Rayray! You’re going to drop me!” Emma complained loudly and playfully punched Ray’s back.

Some nearby pedestrians looked up to see what the commotion was about that after finally remember that they were in public, things finally settled down.

“Ah, for a moment I forgot that we can’t act like how we were back at the ‘orphanage’.” Emma laughed sheepishly.

“Me too….” Norman looked away, tugging at Ray’s sleeve as they continued walking.

“I know you guys did that on purpose, full scorers.”

Chapter Text

The night they were going for hotpot was the first thing Ray was able to come up with to direct their conversation to something else. He saw brief commercials and heard about it during his time in the hospital but that’s really about it.

It was by pure luck that Ray stumbled upon an all-you-can-eat hot pot place as they were heading back home. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant and chill the moment they entered, which calmed them down almost immediately.

It seemed like their first time out at a restaurant would be a hot pot place, not that they were complaining. The place wasn’t exactly busy but they weren’t the only customers dining here— it was a perfect evening, almost.

The proper table manners and etiquette wasn’t so far off from what they were used to. However—chopsticks. Most of what they’ve used to eat food with were forks and spoons.

The paper wrapper holding the wooden chopsticks had simple instructions laid out, and Ray was the only one able to put force onto and actually use it the correct way during the start.

Other than the challenge with the chopsticks, most things went smoothly, from ordering the meat and veggies to cooking them. The gas stove was something new, and almost burned Emma when she got too close to the heat source.

“So who’s gonna pay?” Ray pointed at the check on the side of the table.

“I only brought enough money for the ice skating rentals.” Norman scratched his chin, looking down.

“Emma—” Ray turned to where Emma was supposed to be sitting, but only her jacket was there.

“Restroom,” Norman pointed to the sign behind them.

“Process of elimination, I guess I’m paying.” Ray tapped his right foot annoyingly, scowling at Norman. He swiped the check and receipt from the table and headed to the cash register to pay.

When he came back, Norman struck an apologetic look at Ray and clasped his hands together.

“I’ll pay next time?”

“ Emma will pay next time.”

“Norman’s next!” A voice called behind them. Emma puffed her cheeks and walked over to retrieve her jacket.

They left the restaurant without much fuss. There’s no telling when they’ll eat out again. Whether it’ll be tomorrow or next week, any of them paying wouldn’t make a difference to their bank balance.

It was completely dark out at 9 PM. The warmth they had felt from the hot pot was still lingering although the winter night was pretty chilly.

Street lights were already lit. There weren’t many cars running around near the residential areas. In the big streets, there was probably a whole traffic jam.

To be walking in the street at night together was thrilling. There would be much more night out like this to come.

/

“Then I’m claiming the bath first.” Emma saluted them cheerfully as she changed into her slippers first when she opened the door. She quickly dashed upstairs without giving time for them to respond to her.

After Ray had claimed the other restroom in the house to shower, he heads to Norman’s room to let him know it’s open. He knows water was still dripping from his hair, but he hoped it’ll all be soaked onto the towel on his shoulders by the time he reached Norman’s room.

“Norman, what are you doing?” Ray stood at the open door of Norman’s room, staring at Norman who was holding a smartphone in his hand.

“They said this was one of the highest techs they made ten years ago. I wanted to see what’s inside.”

Ray rushed over and swiped the phone away from him.

“Whoa there buddy. We may be able to take apart clocks and self destruct wires and programs, but these ? We shouldn’t touch this for now if we don't even know what’s inside .” Ray handed the phone back.

“Says the one who took apart the TV yesterday.” Norman snickered.

“I learned my lesson.” Ray crossed his arms and huffed. “They should just give us a simple phone or something, not… this.”

“Well, that just means they expect us to adapt quickly in this world. But right now that phone is literally something even you can’t touch.” Norman pointed at the smartphone.

“I got a bit too impulsive,” Norman said.

“Impulsive? That’s not like you.”

“This is such a new world that we’re almost forty years behind in. To say the least, it’s overwhelming even for us. Even though we’re one of the oldest that should be up for any signs of change, this sort of hit us the hardest.”

“Well, we should step away from the phones for now. I still can’t figure out how to use it fully, don’t even mention trying to take it apart.”

“..."

“The shower’s open, if you want.” Ray waved and left the room.

Norman set aside the phone and picked up his pajamas lying on his bed and towel. His eyes spotted little drops of water that formed a tiny trail at the entrance of his room.

The lights in the hallway made the water droplets visible to him where he was standing. It wasn’t enough for him to slip but Norman imagined a scene where he confronted Ray about his wet hair again and shivered at how many comebacks Ray could hit him with.

/

A mail regarding the orientation arrived in the mailbox a week before the orientation started.

“It says here on the schedule that every first-year student and new transfer students be having a short ten-minute test to decide on last minute placement for classes,” Emma said, using her pinky finger to guide her on every line as she started eating her pancakes.

“Not a surprise. Some people like us did get accepted without doing the traditional entrance exams…” Norman said, his cheek resting on his hands while his other dug into his breakfast plate.

“Does it matter?” Ray stared at Emma with a dead look as he stabbed onto pork sausage with his fork. “It’s not like we’ll do horribly on it anyways.”

“Ray! Be more humble would you?” Emma grumbled.

“In those lessons those government officials gave us—” Ray paused for a moment and let Norman and Emma recall the events.

“What about them?” Norman said, taking a sip of his coffee, blanched immediately at the plain bitterness of the drink, and dunked two cups of creamer into it.

“Weak.” Ray covered his mouth and giggled.

“You said you already put the creamer in….”

Ray raised his eyebrow in confusion. “I did? Emma did you mistake Norman’s coffee for yours.”

“Ah! No wonder it tasted so creamy…” Emma shot an apologetic look towards him. Norman felt like he lost. They both drink bitter coffee like it’s walking or something, Norman thinks bitterly.

“Anyways, the lessons said students who are our age—sixteen have reached….” Ray tilted his chair back enough to reach for the few books resting on the counter behind him. He flipped through one of them and slid the book in the middle of the round table they were sitting at.

“They’re at this level. All three of us already mastered that when we were ten.”

“That’s…” Norman trailed off, speechless.

Then what’s the point?

“I’m sure there will be other great things to discover when we’re there!” Emma stood up, her smile was brightening more by the second. Ray and Norman looked up, but sat there silently, waiting for her to continue on.

“There’s clubs and school festivals held in these schools right? There’s going to be hundreds of students we see every day. Plus, I’m sure school isn’t that simple socially. From what I’ve read in...books.” Emma said, embarrassed that she lacked the knowledge yet stated everything with such confidence.

“Pft. Drama. All those crap. Get me away from that.” Ray crossed his arms.

“Right? Maybe we’ll make a friend or two on our own, though!” Emma smiled.

“So should we aim for the top places in class or not?” Norman asked.

“I’ll do that when I feel like it.” Ray shrugged and Emma nodded as well.

“I think it’ll be a great learning experience for us.” Norman agreed. “They said nothing changed much in this area so let’s use that to our advantage and blend in!”

“Right," Ray clapped loudly to gain their attention. "But first you two should try and finish your breakfast before I smack you for wasting my cooking. Thank you!”

Chapter Text

Ray noticed something from Emma that he never particularly paid attention to before. Usually, Emma’s hair is short and messy, and it quickly became her signature look since day one. He had mentioned how her hair has grown longer a few days back. Since then it was like Emma’s hair was growing even faster although it’s probably because he never paid much attention because it was always at that length.

Her hair was growing longer on all sides—the short orange curls near the top of her hair are looking more straighter than usual. It suddenly looked out of place and Norman wasn’t sure if this change was something good or not.

“Emma,” Ray interrupted the little quiet game of chess Norman and Emma had in the living room. He was on the couch next to them, reading some sort of magazine.

“Hmm?” Emma moved her pawn on the chessboard, not lifting her head up. Instead, the few frontal locks of her hair fell in front of her face. It must have been annoying enough that Emma had to move them over her ear.

“Your hair’s been growing pretty fast lately. Is it bothering you at all?”

“Mmm, it’s alright. But now that you mentioned it again, I can’t stop paying attention to these falling in front of me all the time.” Emma shoves the hair blocking her view behind her ears again.

“Oops.” Ray covered his mouth.

“If you don’t cut your bangs soon, they’re gonna make a bad habit out of you,” Norman said, making his next move.

“I know,” Emma mumbled, trying to push off the thin lock of hair again.

“Aaah!” Emma messed with her hair for a few good moments. “If you two didn’t point this out, I would’ve been doing this like it’s normal! Now it’s annoying me every second!” Emma said brashly, her cheeks puffed out and she slammed her chess piece harder than usual.

“Then get it cut—”

“Oh, you don’t get to talk here cyclops.” Emma shot back at Ray.

“Cyc—”

Norman snorted and looked away, covering his laugh. Ray shot up from his lying position, his expression starting to get all defensive.

“I’ve been like this for my entire life, you can’t suddenly—” Emma sprang up from her seat and lifted the lock of hair covering Ray’s left eye, pressing the hair back. Ray’s eye widened, but he didn’t move or swat Emma’s hand away. Emma continued to stare at his left eye and remained unmoved as well (although she was starting to look a bit red on the cheeks).

Norman tilted his head and leaned back to check the scene out, the little curl on his head fell back as well.

The atmosphere in the room turned a bit awkward as Emma was still staring directly at his eye for what it seemed like five minutes. Feeling his ear starting to burn and his cheeks started heat up, Ray tried to push back Emma’s hand that was holding up his frontal lock of hair—but she wouldn’t budge.

“Norman,” Emma turned to Norman, who was still staring at Ray with a serious glare. “He looks great like this, right?”

Norman’s attention shifted to Emma when she turned Ray’s head to face him—one hand of hers pressing up the bottom of Ray’s chin and the other holding up his bangs and top of the head.

Ray’s eyes remained stoic and dead, one that was threatening to kill if Norman were to say yes Norman gave her a swift thumbs up. As if Ray could do anything to him when Emma’s holding him in place.

“Norman, help me.” Ray pointed at Emma’s hands gripping his head.

“Why? You can’t let go of my grip on your own ?”

“Tch.” Even though the hair wasn’t covering him anymore, his annoyed look came across more intimidating than before.

Emma, however, seemed to have overlooked that and started a ramble on how Ray should really take care of his eye that was always covered. Ray responded to her obvious advice with a bunch of useless excuses.

“In conclusion, I’ve been living with my hair covering my eye, I’m good.” Ray smiled and slammed both his hands onto Emma’s shoulders after she loosened the grip on his bangs.

“Your hair is the one that needs help.” Ray’s hands leave her shoulders and he picked up the magazine to read again.

“Hmm…” Emma looked up the ceiling, thinking to herself. “Norman do you want a haircut—” Emma turned her head and asked. “—no, I guess. Yours barely changed…”

Norman still had his signature curl on the side of his head. The rest hasn’t changed much.

“I trim them occasionally,” Norman said and reached up to rub the back of his head. “Plus, mine just doesn’t grow as fast as yours,” Norman said.

“Then what do I do ??” Emma groaned and slumped down onto the sofa next to Ray who was sitting crisscrossed, reading. Emma reached out and tugged at the back of her hair to the front as best as she can.

“This is long enough for a decent ponytail.”

“So you’re going to keep that hairstyle?” Norman asked, sighing as he collected the chess pieces knowing the subject strayed off too far for them to continue.

“Maybe? It looks a bit weird right now though. Could use a trim or two.” Emma sat upright, deep in thought.

“We don't have any magazines or images about hairstyling or hairstyles in general, though.”

“Ray, you were the only one who turned a laptop on and actually played around for a while. Do you think you could search it up?”

“I literally only got past the part where I had to set a password. Everything else I still never bothered to figure out. So, I can’t,” Ray replied quickly.

“Aww, no…” Emma looked down and sulked, rubbing her right pinky in circular motions.

Something cold touched the back of Emma’s hair. It almost made her flinch, but she sensed Ray’s shift in his seat earlier and it didn’t shock her much.

“Why is the outside part of your hair shorter than the inside,” Ray said, picking up a few strands of hair from the top part of Emma’s hair.

Emma flinched at the cold tone Ray had. “....I…... We already tried to cut my hair yesterday….” Emma started, her voice getting smaller.

“Emma!” Norman yelled, his face flushed red immediately as he recalled the events from last night.

“Norman was going to cut it yesterday, but he was shaking. So much.” Emma voiced it louder with confidence as she directed all the blame to Norman.

“He accidentally snipped the outside all because I said—”

“Enough!” Norman covered Emma’s mouth frantically for a good one second before she ripped through with her unrivaled strength. Norman wallowed back to his cushioned seat on the floor.

“Ah. There’s only one thing we can say that can make Norman lose his focus.” Ray said casually, striking another nerve into Norman.

“I lo—” Emma started.

“ Well . No use crying over lost hair. And dignity.” Ray scratched his head and gave another chop down Emma’s head. “What are you going to do about your hair then?”

“I already have an idea, but I’m not sure…” Emma trailed off. She brought the long hair behind her to her right shoulder.

“I want my hair to be short like it always looked. But the inside that’s been growing for a while now, I want to leave it as it is. So I could have a ponytail as well….” Emma gripped her hair and puffed her cheeks. “Why aren’t you guys saying anything?!”

“I think—that look would be perfect on you, Emma.” Norman’s eyes brightened.

“Really?!” Emma shouted. She jumped up excitedly and fist pumped into the air, asking Ray for feedback next in the same ecstatic tone.

“So it’s just your messy short hair with a rattail close to your neck right?”

“The way you described my future hair just ruins it, Ray.”

“Pft, sorry. It looks great, from what I envisioned in my head—” Ray took another turn inside his mind, creating more images of how Emma described her hair and nodded again. “Yeah, I’m super stoked to see your final product.”

Norman lifted his hand up and placed them next to his mouth as if he was whispering to Emma. “Oy, Emma. That sounded awfully sarcastic, doesn’t it?” Norman said loudly.

“It does!” Emma crossed her arms and stood in front of a sitting Ray. “Ray, say it like you mean it!”

“ W-What. T— How?”

“Just say it again!”

“Augh, fine!” Ray ruffled the back of his hair, looked the other way and started. “I’m super excited to see—W—”

“Look at me in the eyes!” Norman joined forces with Emma and the two stared at Ray intensely. Ray repeated his sentence as many times as they wanted.

/

“Alright, done,” Ray made the final trim to the ends where Emma’s short hair laid.

“Norman, could you just put back the scissors and hair cape?” Ray unbuttoned the nylon cape around Emma and placed the scissors back onto its case. After she put her slippers back on, Emma and Ray wrapped up the newspapers that caught her hair (although there wasn’t much on there). Ray then left the room to dispose of the newspapers.

“ Waaa , it looked better than I thought.” Emma ruffled her hair whilst looking at the wall mirror. She turned sideways and glanced at the back ponytail peeking out from the short hair, and made an excited noise when she tugged at the ponytail that passed shoulder length by two inches.

“It’s still not long enough for a good ponytail like this,” Emma said.

“It will be in a year,” Norman laughed, folding the hair cape.

“You want to try and help trim mine next time?” Norman flinched from where he was standing.

“Ray is the best candidate out there to do these stuff since he’s read so much stuff about everything. Besides, I might blank out again if you ever say something like that out of the blue.” Norman’s eyes said everything when he faced Emma. It looked like he lost for some reason. That tiny sliver of loss appeared for only a moment though, as though he had found something better to override his own lack of skills that Ray had.

“I’ll find something I’m good at when we finally attend school. Then, I’ll do that to finally thank you guys for everything you two have done for me.”

Emma feigned a confused look. “All me and Ray did for you is tease you endlessly we—”

“You know what I'm talking about, Emma.” Norman laughed. Standing outside the hallway, on the corners of Ray’s lips, it curved upwards.

Chapter Text

Two days before the orientation, Ray finally decided to check the laptop out. He knew it was much more complicated than a simple telephone. The William Minerva pen was supposed to be another high tech tool, but the laptop had more uses.

“Right, let’s get started.” Ray flexed his fingers and flung them left and right. He pressed the power button of the laptop that reminded untouched ever since the day he got to this house and set up a simple password for it.

He reread manuals and basic usages of a laptop repeatedly and decided he should finally give it a shot. He first memorized the placements of all the alphabets on the keyboard and played with the mouse after.

The laptop screen flashed white before it faded into a blue screen with text that asked him to type in the password.

He typed it in. ENRENRENR

The screen then took him to what he recognized as the home screen, with some applications already downloaded for him. Even though he already remembered all the details and images in the guide book he kept it beside him in case.

“Let’s see. They said there’s already an application pre-downloaded so I could search things up after I open it…..” Ray moved the mouse over to the icon that he recognized. A circular icon with five color schemes forming a circle on the outside and a solid yellow circle in the middle.

Another white page popped up. A search bar which Ray recalled was at the top just as stated.

“A tab, huh.”

Ray remembered it required something like Wifi to actually access the internet, but he was told not to worry about it beforehand. One simple press on the enter key and he would be brought results within seconds. It was something he would have never dreamed to have existed. But it did, so Ray typed out the first thing that came to his mind.

“An online food ordering and delivery platform that’s been running for four decades….where the hell did Norman hear about this from….” Ray clicked the bar on the side and shifted down. The page goes down, revealing more websites. He deleted the keyword in the search bar and typed down another phrase.

Ray read the text on the bright screen with great intensity and focus. “Huh, I should tell them this tomorrow—”

A knock came from outside, breaking his attention from the laptop screen.

Ray pushed his rolly chair away enough to leave his study desk. Emma beamed a warm smile when Ray opened the door halfway.

“Would you like some pears?” Emma grinned, holding up a small plate of peeled and chopped pears. Ray opened the door fully for her to enter. Emma still stood outside.

“It’s okay I only had a question to ask—what are you doing?” Emma tiptoed and peeked over Ray’s shoulders and spotted an open laptop screen.

“Trying to learn how to use the laptop, obviously.” Ray made way for Emma to look at the laptop without tiptoeing and pointed back with his thumb.

“Not you being nice enough to peel fruit for me and deliver it to my room, did you want anything?” Ray gratefully accepted the plate of fruit.

“How rude!” Emma stomped her foot in disbelief, her cheeks puffed out. “I just wanted to see what you were doing—actually…” Emma clasped her hands together and bowed down in front of Ray. “Could you please make that pasta dish you made for us last time?” Emma looked up donning a sulky face.

“The one with the white sauce? You literally asked if it was actually edible or not.”

“Please!” Emma looked down again, her praying hands remained unmoved.

“If I can say no to you, then I would’ve done that a long time ago,” Ray sighed and puts his hand on his hips, his other hand brushing through his own hair.

Emma sprang up and immediately showered Ray’s ears with laughter and applause. A yawn caught her and Emma’s loud cheers came to a halt midway.

“Welp, thank you, Ray.” Emma yawned again. “ I’m gonna tell Norman that this was a big success,” Emma dived into Ray for a quick goodnight hug and pulled out a victory sign when she pulled away from him. She skipped away in her slippers happily, her ponytail swinging left and right in the air as she skipped, leaving Ray standing at his doorway stilly with a plate of untouched pears. 

“Good grief.” Ray sighed as he closed the door with a swing of his left leg. The pear was sweet and delicious, making him almost forget what he was going to do next. Also, a big success? For getting him to agree to a request? Ray supposes he has to prepare for more incoming bribes in the future, for however many years that may be.

Chapter Text

After a nice and delicious dinner (obviously cooked by Ray), Ray told Emma and Norman to head to the library after they washed up.

When Emma entered the library, she spotted Norman already seated in the center of the room. Emma walked quietly to him, the only sounds that were heard are the sound of the owl wall clock ticketing and sound of books being swiped and reshelved again onto the bookshelves.

“Why did Ray call us here?” Emma asked as she relaxed on the giant green beanbag.

“Probably about the orientation. Ray’s super nitpicky about first impressions.” Norman laughed and laid back on the other beanbag.

After a few minutes, Ray appeared from the tall bookshelves with three hardcover books and set them on the floor. He settled down on a square floor cushion, sitting crisscrossed.

“We did briefly talk about how we would act at school and stuff but—you two literally did not think about how we came about to be here huh?!” Ray flicked both of their foreheads hardly, earning a squeak from Emma and Norman. They reached up and patted the spot where Ray flicked them and sulked.

“Are they really going to ask where we came from?” Norman asked. “Most of the time they would just ask if—Ah.” His expression went from puzzled to realization.

Ray said, his face stern and hands on his hips. “Not even the mayor or the military people mentioned anything to tell us to take extra precautions.”

“Or—” Emma butted in, raising her hand. “They specifically picked this school for us to attend. But I’m sure there would be a few people still questioning the truth behind that cover up story.”

“The student population there isn’t that small. Two thousand students. And the event was finally resolved months ago, so that’s a plausible thought.”

“Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people still held anger to the refugees of that country. And label us as such.” Emma said.

“Or maybe it just isn’t that deep,” Ray said nonchalantly.

“But you’re the one that implied that it’s serious at first,” Norman said, crossing his arms. “But this country did do a lot in causing the other war there earlier besides the bloodless one that covered up our release.”

“I searched up the war on the internet the day before,” Ray said.

“Ah! So that’s why you were trying to use the laptop!” Emma exclaimed and Ray nodded.

“I checked out a few sites about it. The people who wrote articles about it know nothing more than we do. In fact, we were more knowledgeable about this than them, so we don’t need to worry about that.”

“So we just had a super stupid critical thinking conversation for nothing?” Emma asked.

“Yeah, I wanted to check if your brain was still in good condition to do that,” Ray lightly whacked Emma’s head with another hand chop, earned another complaint from her.

“If you keep hitting me like that, I’ll really lose brain cells!”

“Heh.” Norman butted in again to redirect them to another subject.

“Okay.” Norman clapped his hands loudly. “So when we get asked about our reasons to transfer and which school did we go to—”

“Homeschooling!” The three of them answered altogether.

“And, if none of you two are gonna take the top spot in the school then I’ll take up that offer!” Emma smiled.

“Hey! Who said I wasn’t gonna try!” Ray scowled at her.

“Alright, please calm down!” Norman held his hands up in an attempt to cool them down. “You two won’t act like this when we’re in school right?”

“No!” Emma grinned.

“ ‘Course not. Maybe indirectly but nothing like this.”

Norman sighed in defeat, not believing them one bit. “If we’re here, we might as well go over the schedules for tomorrow then. Do any of you have the memo?”

“Ah! I remembered everything on there already, though.” Emma said casually, the tips of her fingers covering her bottom lip.

“As expected from Emma!” Norman laughed.

“Pft, obviously,” Ray said. “Then, what are we doing first?”

Emma crossed her arms and straightened her back in a confident pose, ready to ramble everything out. “First we have to sign in of course. There’s a welcoming booth after we enter the school gate. Then we’ll have to head over to the photo booth to get our photos taken for school IDs and such.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then, we head to the third floor for that ten-minute test. And since we’re transfer students, after we take the test it’ll be automatically scanned and graded. Then we’ll be taken to the counselor's office to pick extra classes for our free periods.”

Ray nodded, “Oh, sweet. I heard they have a home ec class.”

Emma continued to list out the electives, making a few comments about each one as Norman and Ray do the same.

“Last thing—it’s optional, we check out the booths or buildings where specific clubs take place. See if we’d be interested.” Emma concluded.

“One more thing,” Ray said. “Did the memo state if the tests were on a computer or on paper?”

“Ah, they did. We would be given a test booklet and answer sheets to answer the test questions on.” Emma looked slightly puzzled after stating that.

“That’s odd,” Norman scratched his chin. “We’re living in 2050 now, I thought they replaced paper usage from schools officially with tablets and computers…”

“There was another war regarding a worldwide security breach from a huge organization of hackers,” Ray said. “So that’s why they’re going back to paper. In fact tech advancements haven’t been making good progress for decades now, it’s a good thing for us.”

“We can catch up easier then,” Norman commented.

Ray didn’t need to pause to know that at least Emma was trying to pay attention to every single detail he worded out. He looked up to Norman, who stared at him in confusion. He understood that he can continue, even though he looked up just for fun.

“That was the first war that happened. The security breach. Not even our problem, but—when we remade the promise to release all cattle children, our emergence was used as a second war—a phony war to give the countries excuse could try and end that war and sign a worldwide peace treaty,”

“Using the small country where we emerged from as a scapegoat for the sake of billions of people, we really came out at the right and wrong time,” Norman mumbled softly, drawing little circled on the dark red carpeted floor with his index finger.

“But our emergence ended the world war. Is this why we were seen as war heroes? That’s a bit—” Emma bit her lips, squeezing the ends of her long sleeved pajamas.

“Can’t always have what we want, huh?” Ray said. “But we ended decades of worldwide tension and tech advancements for the world so I guess we can look at it like that. Thank god socially things got changed for the better.”

“Emma, cheer up!” Norman assured her. At least we’ll be seen as normal people now. Only the government and the family that took over the Ratri clan know about us. So we can enjoy life as we please!”

“Norman….” Emma felt something sting in the back of her nose, she pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to stop the stinging, even though she knew it was no use.

“He’s right, you know,” Ray spoke up, getting Emma to shift her attention to him. “This is what you wanted for so long, right? A free life, where we get to decide on our own—”

“Yeah…” Emma sniffed.

“Let’s have fun tomorrow at the orientation?” Norman soothed Emma’s back. Emma lets herself fall onto Norman’s shoulders.

“Ray, you come here too!” Norman lifted his left arm and gestured for Ray to come.

“Wh—why,” Ray turned away quickly, hesitant to make a move. No matter how many times, it still shook him up whenever Norman or Emma suggest they do this.

When Norman’s arm remained unmoved for ten seconds and began to shake, Ray finally decided to uncross his legs, still not making eye contact with him. Ray accepted and grabbed onto Norman’s hand. The instant their hand made contact, Norman pulled him in quickly, giving Ray no time to react until he was settled down next to him.

Ray breathed out loudly to complain, but didn’t say anything else and laid still with them on the beanbag. The beanbag sunk more to the ground from their weight. They ended up falling asleep in the library again. It was their second time doing something like this in the library but they have done this way more times than they could count back at Grace Field. The feeling of home was right here.

Chapter Text

It was two hours past midnight when Emma woke up in cold sweat. For a moment, she was dazed and in shock, her eyes were seeing faint creatures in front of her every time she blinks. They were supposed to be dead (and they were). Emma sighed, trying to shake her thoughts of that off when she suddenly remembers she’s with them .

Emma slowly stood up and stretched her arms and legs lazily, and made a sigh of satisfaction when her limbs felt alive again. She turned to see two peaceful sleeping faces. If they were going to sleep like this for the entire night, they’ll wake up with some serious neck pain. Even Emma felt a dull pain in the back of her neck.

Now, how to get them back to their soft and plush beds?

/

“—awake?” Ray mumbled in his sleep as an answer, still half awake at whoever woke him up. His eyes were still shut and his entire body was still and unmoving. He could hear Emma’s voice echoing into his ear, her phrases fading away quickly from his sleeping mind.

Ray suddenly felt his entire self levitate off the beanbag that his body warmed up. His eyes sprang open in panic, obviously, his body wasn’t awake yet but his brain was alert and active.

The panic inside him dulled out in quick succession when he realized there was only one person in the house who could easily pick him up. He felt blood finally rushing to wake his body.

“Emma, what are you doing?” Ray groaned, trying to shake free from Emma’s arms. He fell limp onto her arms once he was reminded of how strong she was.

“Want me to let go? You’re gonna hurt yourself,” Emma smiled innocently. The lights in the library weren’t that bright, but still made his eyes uncomfortable when he made direct eye contact with the owl-shaped light bulb above him.

“And—I’m taking to your room of course! You’re going to regret not sleeping on your bed in the morning!” Emma said as she started walking out of the room. Even though she literally just woke up minutes before Ray did, her voice wasn’t in a low energy state at all.

“You already woke me up, I can walk myself,” Ray complained uselessly. One single glance at Emma’s passive aggressive smile made him zip his mouth shut. She really meant it; she would drop him.

The rest of the short walk to Ray’s bedroom was silent. Once they arrived, Ray knocked his index finger knuckle onto the sensor as they head in and the lights flash on. Emma loosened her arms under Ray’s knees and back as she arrived at his bed. Ray slowly crept under the blanket sheets, not sparing Emma any teasing jokes or looks. Even if she talked and walked normally at 2 AM, her grouchy attitude just gives everything out. She was worse than Ray at night.

Emma hit the lights, her hands twisting and untwisting on the doorknob ever so slowly while shutting the wooden door.

“Shorty!” Emma heard him yell before the door shut completely, she slammed it shut, loudly.

Her slippers made no sound on the brand new wooden floor, only little brushing sounds that quietly echoes through the hallway.

Emma returned to the library, the scenery before her remained unchanged when she last took a glance when carrying Ray out. Norman was sleeping away on the green beanbag alone, the body indents made on both sides were still there. His neck was bent downwards at an ungodly level that would surely cause horrible neck pain in the morning. No one would want that during the day of their school orientation.

The little curl atop Norman’s head was dangling on its own, a black bobby pin rested on the beanbag next to him. It made Emma squeal at the sight tenfold. Emma approached him and squatted down to peek at his sleeping face. His in and out breathing sounds were audible to Emma’s ears at this level. Emma gently lifted Norman up, one of her hands lifting the back of his knees, the other on his lower back. Emma sighed as she tilted Norman’s upper half upwards enough for his neck to rest on her shoulders.

Once Norman was stable in her arms, Emma turned on her heels and walked out the library, pressing her back onto the light switches before shutting the door behind her. With Norman not waking up throughout the entire process, things went out smoothly for Emma.

After Norman was settled down under the blanket sheets, Emma yawned and stretched her arms that carried two people her weight.

Emma stared down at Norman, who was sleeping without a single care in the world. His chest heaved up and down in a good pattern, and his entire body remained unmoving. He looked so, in which Emma think, so peaceful and adorable. Giving him one last fond smile that he can’t return, Emma took up the free offer and combed through Norman’s hair with her hand softly before she pressed the tiny night light on the nightstand before head out, turning off the bright ceiling light in the middle of the room.

She didn’t bother turning on the lights to her own room. Instead, Emma ran and quickly slumped onto her own bed, the mattress softly dipping under her weight. She kicked the blanket out with her legs and snuggled under, pleasantly knocking herself out.

/

Emma’s awake before the alarm clock did. She jumped out of bed with her eyes already bright with light. She tucked and refolded her blanket sheets and flattened out the bed sheets that were messed up when she was moving around in her sleep.

The neatly folded uniforms that was just washed yesterday rested atop her drawer. Emma swiftly went through and done her morning routine before reaching to do the last thing—her ponytail. She combed through the back ends of her hair that formed the ponytail thoroughly before tying it. It still was a new look to her, but it wasn’t a bad change. After she went and did all that, Emma rushed out the bathroom, her eyes immediately gleaming at the sight of her uniform. She swiped it off the drawer and changed quickly. In front of her own wall mirror in her room, Emma stood and twirled a little, testing out the uniform.

Once she was ready, Emma did the final touch on her uniform. She tied on the yellow bow at the top middle of her grey uniform that showed she was an incoming second year. She headed downstairs and as always, Ray was the first one up.

“Good morning, Ray.”

“Morning,” Ray looked up from his magazine and glanced at Emma’s uniform. He quipped a tiny smile after observing it once more.

“Huh, you look great in that,” Ray sipped on his tea.

The compliment flew over Emma’s head and she blanked out for a moment before it hit her.

“Wait—R-Really?” Emma said suspiciously.

“Yeah, really,” Ray smiled again to reassure her. He wasn’t pulling any jokes today like Emma thought he would.

“Could you wake Norman up? I told him to wake up fifteen minutes ago and he still wouldn’t budge.”

Emma nodded and ran upstairs.

“Norman?” Emma knocked on his bedroom door. When there was no response, she tried again.

“Alright, then I’m coming in~” Emma hummed as she slowly opened the door up, the room revealing a sleeping Norman.

He was sleeping on one side, the blankets kicked a bit too far off the end to cover up to his back.

“Norman?” Emma attempted to wake the boy up with little shakes on the shoulder and pokes to his cheek.

“Normannn it’s time to wake up!”

He doesn’t respond, but Emma swore she heard him make a sound.

Then out of nowhere, the alarm clock on Norman’s nightstand buzzed in super loud manner. Norman jolted up the moment the alarm made its first note of its noise. He yelled in shock, but the alarm overrode his yell. Emma doesn’t seem to mind the noise, but rather, she immediately pulled on Norman’s ear in anger.

“We’ll be late if you don’t get out of bed right this instant, Norman!” Emma lets go of his ear and paused the alarm before stomping out the room.

“Ah,” Norman said right after the room turned quiet like before.

Norman slipped out of his bed and stumbled out his room and into the bathroom.

“Ray’s literally the meanest. Did you know how he tried to wake me up? He shook my shoulders back and forth so harshly I thought my soul was going to separate from my body—” Norman whimpered, crossing his arms onto his shoulders, rubbing them.

“So you were pretending to be asleep!” Emma made accusational glares towards Norman as she took the first bite of her toast.

“The alarm woke me for the second time, not you,” Norman took his first sip of tea for the day, relishing the heat of the tea as it warmed up his entire body.

/

The walk to school wasn’t that far away. Perhaps just ten short blocks away after they leave the residential area they live in.

Emma spotted many other students who wore the same uniform as them across the street, and her entire body shook with excitement. Her giddly face along with shaking lips that was trying to force a smile out of her showed it all. Some of the students walked in pairs or tiny groups, while some had beats or were looking down their phones. It was a new sight for Emma to see.

“We’re going to see things like this happen everyday soon,” Emma said, still looking across the street. Ray gave her another hand chop onto the head.

“Keep staring at them and you’ll look like a weirdo,”

/

“This place is huuge !” Emma scoped around the surroundings of the school. Even though they were still outside the school gates, the long concrete pathway connecting the outside to the main building was the real attention grabbing sight.

“Hopefully our classes won’t be too far from each other when we transition—” Norman bent forward and sighed. “My legs can’t take it.” He sulked, rubbing his thighs.

They made their first few steps through the school gate, laughing and talking with each other.

“Watch out!!” A super loud voice laced with panic came behind them.

But however, no one normal would have enough time to look back and react to whatever that had to look out for, and especially if they think it’s not targeted towards them.

In less than even a split second, after Emma turned around quickly, her eyes hyper focused onto the soccer ball that was approaching them in a horrific speed right.

Any students who were close to them stopped to what made such a loud sound—the soccer ball that was stopped in its tracks instantly by Emma’s bare right hand, sticking right smack in the middle of her palm—her accuracy would have scared anyone if this was some sort of ball game. However, if she had taken any longer it would have knocked onto Norman’s head with a heavy impact.

Norman stumbled forward and turned to see the ball drop onto Emma’s other hand. It felt like everything was in slow motion until the ball dropped to the ground from Emma’s palm.

Ray stood there with Norman in absolute awe. As speechless as both of them were, all they could focus on was Emma’s palm.

“Emma! Your palms?!” Ray stepped forward quickly worriedly along with Norman whose breath was practically taken away by what just happened.

Emma blew onto the palm that was reddening quickly after.

“Ouch.”

“Ouch?” Is that the only thing you wanted to say about this!?”

“So sorry! Are you guys okay? None of you were hurt right?” The one who kicked the soccer ball finally came, his face does have worry written all over it. Norman's eyes widened in surprise for another reason when he saw the person. He was unsure of what to say besides speaking up for Emma, who stayed quiet.

“Did that girl just stop the soccer with one of her hands?” One of the students said loudly. "That's the captain of the soccer ball team!"

“Oh my god—?!”

/

“Emma, can’t believe you became famous by just stepping onto school grounds.” Ray teased.

“Please stop teasing me this is—” Emma looked down, not knowing how to feel. Norman soothed her by rubbing her back. She wasn’t mad, but she doesn’t exactly want people’s first impression of her being that .

“Worst of all, I think the soccer player crushed on you at first sight,”

“Ray!” Emma’s face flushed red. She shot up, slapped her hands on both sides of Ray’s cheek and Ray responded to that by doing the same.

Norman facepalmed. “Emma! Ray! You two said you would not do this in public—oh my god.” In public. Norman felt like he might have worded that out wrong. Thankfully there wasn’t anyone in the hallway to hear that.

It took Norman a good moment to separate them. Emma curtly breathed out an apology, still glaring at Ray. She wasn’t mad.

“I’m sure word won’t travel that fast,” Norman assured her.

The time for photos began, and the three split up on the three lines for photos so they could get it over with quicker. It seemed like he picked the slowest moving line, to Ray’s disappointment. When it was his turn, Ray started modeling after how the previous student posed at the camera.

“Mister Ray? Would you mind tucking your hair behind your ears?” The photographer asked kindly.

“...”

He was hesitant to make the move, but since the man was so patient and asked him kindly he finally lifted his hand and pulled back however much hair his ear could hold for a good minute.

He must have looked embarrassed at some extent. Plus, by the way his eyes unknowingly shifted away away from the camera lenses, the photographer reminded and assured him that he just needed a full face for his student ID to prevent any possible problems (even though Ray knew that already he wouldn’t do anything to  unless people actually ask).

“Could you lift your chin up a little —ah, thank you. Loosen your shoulders and look here—tilt your head down a little—” Three clicks from the camera and he was done.

Ray took a deep breath after the shoot was over, thanked the photographer, and headed on to the last station on his schedule.

The ten minute test.

When Ray entered the classroom, it was quite rowdy. He ignored everyone else’s chattering and spotted orange hair in the back row immediately. Next to that was platinum hair that just so happened to reflect against the sunlight that hit through the classroom window, making Norman’s hair look breathlessly ethereal.

Emma happened to crane her neck more to the right and spotted Ray approaching them in the corner of her eyes.

They were only able to converse so much, because the test administrator arrived minutes after Ray settled on a desk in front of Emma.

The test admin doesn’t waste any time for idle talk. His immediate appearance brought the once chatty classroom into a hush, many quickly hurried back to their seats. It appeared that the students were awfully bored during when he read out the standard test rules instructions, but since it was the three’s first time hearing them, it didn’t bother them much, especially Emma. Her eyes were focused intently on the test booklet on her desk, her ears absorbing every single detail from the test admin.

Once the answer sheets were passed out the test started immediately. The sound of the test booklet flipped to page one was in sync almost, it was a pleasant sound to Emma’s ears. Emma took a glance at the answer sheet. There was a total of ten questions, for a ten minute test, which seemed reasonable. Half of them were reading comprehension questions and the other, math.

Emma easily breezed through the reading section in one read of the text and answered to the follow up questions without hesitation.(even though she went back and bubbled in the tiniest white spots she missed in the bubble just to make sure). She scanned through the math section, her eyes widening in surprise even though she knew they were going to be easy. It was almost a bit too easy.

“Alright, time’s up,” The test admin clapped loudly once, his unchanging and intimidating scowl still making the other students fear him.

Many of the students groaned and complained about the hardness of the test while some bragged about how obvious some answers were. They stood up to leave after passing up their test.

“Emma, how did you do?”

“Eh?”

“Emma?”

She was in a daze until someone called her name for the third time.

“Emma!”

“Eh? Yes?!” Emma’s snapped her head up quickly, frantically looking for the owner of the voice. A cold hand touched her forehead.

“Are you okay, Emma?” Norman leaned over to her, worried.

“Really thought she was sick for a moment or something,” Ray said, his hand continued to stay on Emma’s forehead. Then he let go after understanding it wasn’t the case.

“Alright, I guess we have to head to the counselor’s office now,” Ray said, pointing at the test admin who stared at them the whole time. There were still a number of students in the room loitering around, waiting for their names to be called. Emma assumed they needed to head to the office as well.

“Emma, Norman, and Ray.” The admin called out in a loud, clear and demanding voice.

When the three packed their things and made it to the front of the room, his expression softened for a split moment, then handed each of them a thin packet.

“Counselor’s office, this floor room B1.”

The room was easy to find. It had multiple little rooms inside, there was probably more than one counselor.

The counselor doesn’t waste his time with too much small talk but makes little comments and questions to them that weren’t hard to answer, said it makes him more open and relaxed of he got to know the students a little.

“Since you guys are buddies I’ll get you guys the same classes for the mandatory ones, since—” He gestured to the door. “Many other people are thinking of doing the same. But it’s up to you. You guys want that?”

Emma eyed Ray and Norman, turning left and right, seeing if they wanted to do that. After a moment of silence and some nodding with a few whispers,

“Yes, that’s alright,” Norman spoke for them.

“Um, Mister why’d you think we’re buddies?”

“By looking at your test results obviously!” He laughed, moving his mouse left and right and clicking on different sections of the computer that appeared one by one. “Just kidding, though. I had a hunch. Many students got perfect scores as well since this test was just a baby step of what you students will learn later.”

The printer started making noise, taking in paper one by one, and after a few seconds, it came out the other side fully printed with text and colored images.

/

“Four mandatory classes to ensure we get enough credits and two electives, huh. Plus two other classes we have to take as well—” Ray reread his schedule over and over. They all headed down to the school courtyard where much of the club booths were set up.

“Well, I doubt being in the same or different classroom makes a difference,” Norman said, covering his mouth with the newly printed paper, the warmth of it already faded away. “We’ll be learning still—which clubs are you two interested in?”

“The….archery club?” Emma looked at the packet that listed all the available clubs to join.

“Emma, that’s cheating you know,” Ray said.

“Okay uhhh—track?”

“You know what, scratch that. Emma, any club you join that requires speed, stamina, quick reaction times, strategy, anything! You’re going to reach the top too soon.”

“Ray’s right, Emma,” Norman sighed.

“Wha—then this club—”

“Cheater!”

“You two wouldn’t even let me finish!” Emma complained. They finally reach the courtyard. It was wide and brings a pleasant atmosphere with the plant decor and designs.

“Norman, don’t take Ray’s side! He could literally do everything I can do but multiply that by ten times!”

“I’m neutral!” Norman defended. “Now are you guys going to join any clubs?” He pointed to the  booths that was set up by the same big identical white tents, some were crowded while some of which emitted an atmosphere around them that looked too hard to approach.

A low grumble hits their ears, and Norman and Ray eyed Emma who turned away.

“Ahaha. There’s always next time.” Norman laughed.

Chapter Text

“Goo’ morning,” Emma slurred out first thing when she reached the kitchen. A faint but familiar scent that drew her attention while she was still upstairs made her change and pack everything twice as fast. Ray was cooking up something delicious again.

“Morning, sleepyhead. Is Norman still asleep?”

“Seems like it.”

Emma peeked over Ray’s shoulder and spotted creamy white sauce in one of the pans. It was the dish that Emma had told Ray to cook again when she had brought him pears. Something in her chest started burning up, just by staring at both the food and Ray who was cooking without a single bother in the world.

“Ray…” Emma cried out, tugging at Ray’s long uniform sleeves meekly.

“If you’re getting all emotional I’m assuming it’s about the breakfast,” Ray snorted.

“It is!” Emma facepalmed and slipped her hands down enough for her eyes to continue looking over the stove.

“Good mo~rning,” A tired voice called from behind.

“Good morning!” Emma yelled out happily. The half-awake look on her face was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

The morning went by just like any other early morning they had gone through. Ray had insisted that it was no big deal cooking something of this caliber, refusing to admit that he specifically woke up early just to cook a special breakfast for them. But looking at the beautiful scenery spread across the table, it became hard for Ray to deny.

Emma continuously showered Ray with praise regarding the breakfast and egged Norman on to join her. Ray had to turn away from them while eating just to prevent himself from smiling at something so flattering to him so early in the morning.

Their first day of school was here, a week after the orientation.

Gilda had sent them a letter during that time, along with multiple colorful crayon drawings from the kids. She was going to attend their school as well after she had decided to take up more lessons to learn about the real world. Not just her, many of them who were over the age of fourteen decided to do that as well, after all, not many people could start becoming independent like the three of them were that quick.

The remaining time they have spent after the orientation leading up to the first day of school was utilized to know how to use the advanced tech even if it’s just the basics, plus nagging Ray to go on the internet more often so Emma could watch those rumored cute cat videos hanging around the net.

Emma found joy in opening every single app on her smartphone, although she couldn’t understand any of it at first (besides the fact that they all learned how to use it within hours). However, she still couldn’t see the appeal of it, and neither did Norman—they both turned to the chess board.

Every app downloaded has a little introduction with images and short texts describing what it was about. The first thing that intrigued Ray was the messaging system, and he quickly urged the two to use it. It might provide convenience later on since they’re always together, there was no need to use the texting app.

The morning television Ray had turned on displayed the morning news, the female anchor talking about some sort of trend in pop culture and social media, not that Ray really has any idea what that fully meant.

/

Norman handed both of them the sweater cardigans that he had bought before, and surprisingly, they were soft and warming than expected.

Having arrived at campus earlier for their first day, the campus still looked empty. They hoped to take another fresh look around as they head to their first ever class.

Emma felt goosebumps crawl onto her skin as she recalled some memories once they approach the spot where she stopped someone’s soccer ball a week back. Emma walked more upright, her posture stiff but confident as they passed that very spot.

The entrance was pretty much empty, with only a few early birds loitering around the corners of the main building, some reading on a bench under a nearby tree, the other had headphones on. After switching into their indoor shoes at their respective lockers, they head to their first class.

Their first and last class, homeroom plus alternating subjects every other day, were the same. They were the first three in the classroom, excluding the brunette haired adult already in there that was supposedly their teacher. She welcomed them with a warm greeting and smile, contrasting the chilly classroom with blasting with cold air. The only other thing she told them to do were to pick a seat—first come first serve.

Sitting in the front would be a bit too bold, would it? The seats near the back seemed best to not stand out, and they did just that, even though Ray was the one who really urged them to sit near the back. Norman and Emma wouldn’t mind sitting anywhere, really.

There was still half an hour before school formally starts, but considering it’s the first day, it might be even later. Being in the classroom wasn’t awkward with their teacher, the air conditioning made dull windy noises that drew awkward silence away, making their quiet talking with each other less than audible a few tables away.

“Gilda said she’s not here yet,” Ray scrolled down on his phone, the two white and green messaging bubbles seemed to be never ending the more Ray scrolled.

“How about Anna? And Gillian? Violet?” Emma kept poking Ray on the back of his shoulders annoyingly, which Ray expertly ignored. She continued bombarding Ray with more names, even if they’re not specifically stated in Gilda’s letter.

“Anna’s coming, yeah, and Gilda…” Ray said, not looking up from his phone, but shifted in his seat to face the desk next to him, resting his right arm on the top rail of his chair. “But they’re a year below us, we won’t see them much besides at lunch though,”

“I haven’t heard much for Gillian and Violet, yet, Though I’m sure the higher ups would want to group us together in one school or really let us do what we want,”

 

/

Self-introductions were crucial to the beginning of the school semester, regardless of grade. The teacher went row by row vertically from the front row to the back, then the back to the front, and it repeats. Emma and Ray’s row (on the very edge) were first, then Norman’s (in which his seat was next to Emma’s)

Your name and likes/hobbies were the basic things the first three students said, leading to Ray next. His chair pushed back a little as he stood up and turned his body enough to face almost the entire class.

“I’m Ray, I like reading, nice to meet you all,” He did a tiny bow and took his seat before the class responded with a few seconds of the classic obligatory clap without fail.

“Hello! I’m Emma! I really like running !” Emma beamed a smile towards the class, “Nice to meet you!” Norman felt his heart flip after. The claps sound a bit louder this time.

When it was finally Norman’s turn, he took a quick deep breath. Thanks to past experiences, talking in front of a crowd of this number was nothing to him.

Even so, he still started scratching his chin midway, still nervous to make a decent impression at least.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Norman, I don’t particularly have anything I love to do, but I enjoy reading from time to time,” He lets out a small sheepish laugh and thanked everyone before the class started clapping obviously louder than before.

Every class started with a self-intro which took up almost half of class time, then instructions to flip to a page on their thin paperback textbooks to finish a few activities.

Although today was a special day which comprised or nothing but self-intros and mini textbook activities, Emma had fun. This was amusing, her opinion may change but it doesn’t change the fact that this was a new experience.

/

“Should we ram into the crowd or starve?” Ray pointed to the bread truck that was packed with students at the front, their hands with bills hanging up in the air like their hands were the ones screaming out the type of bread they want.

“Ray, survival of the fittest doesn’t apply here."

“It’s food, Norman! It’s always going to apply, just look at that line!”

“How about the cafeteria?” Emma asked, “Also Ray no fighting.”

“Cafeteria should obviously be packed,” Ray let out a sigh.

“Well, let’s see if we can try and squish in without anyone getting mad, although that sounds a bit impossible,” Norman suggested.

Emma had barely reached to the front but still failed halfway, and the crowd was gradually getting larger while the supply of bread remained limited. Ray made it through the few openings other students made after a few shoves, but ultimately lost sight of the bread displays after getting his hopes up for a second.

Ray knelt down and stared at the crowd moving about, his eyes were burning with fire.

“Ray!” Emma tugged at his sleeve, “Don’t you dare try and ram into there again!”

“But I’m—” Emma grabbed onto Ray’s shoulders and shook his body five times.

“We went through three days eating only some berries and nuts with running on no sleep and god knows what other horrors we could have been victims to, you can get through this!” Emma’s determined look got the better of him as Ray recalled the past for a brief second.

“Where’s Norman?” Ray finally asked. Emma finally let go of Ray’s shoulders, looking left and right frantically.

As if on cue, the one person with platinum hair emerged from the side of the truck, barely squeezing himself out of the crowd. In his arms were literally an armful of bread.

Ray’s eyes sparkled at the sight of-of different types of bread just coming closer to him—Emma was the same.

“There was an opening when you guys got shoved and I took the chance,” Norman laughed.

“Showing off just like that, love that for you," Ray said.

“This is payback for last night, because of that distraction, I lost to you at chess again” Norman smiled at him.

“Then blame your own eyes for turning away! I did noth—” Norman shoved a piece of bread into his mouth, his shady smile remained unchanged. “Let’s go back to class and eat!”

They took their time heading back, their lunch was almost an hour long after all. Emma observed the students scattered everywhere around the school as they passed each area. Some sat alone, some were in pairs or groups. Many were out in one of the fields playing around.

“Wah! There’s so much!” Emma exclaimed (and probably drooling already). Norman brought back a variety of buns in different colors and shape.

“How are we going to eat all that? We have a budget you know,” Ray leaned against the wall on his seat, eating his second share of the melon bun Norman bought.

“We’re still growing!” Emma defended, already starting on her second bun while staring at Norman’s bun with interest. “Norman, can I taste your curry bun?”

Each bread had the texture they were supposed to have at best, the flavor was just right exquisite. Every single one of them packaged and looked exactly the same, the way a machine does its work in a mass producing job.

“We’re going to bringing our own lunch,” Ray sudden said, crinkling the plastic wrapper that used to harbor a bun.

“What lunch?” Norman asked.

“We’ll make it ourselves, should be easy if we follow some recipes or something,”

“Like, bento boxes?” Emma asked, still reaching over to pinching pieces of bread off from Norman’s, Ray nodded quietly.

“Emma...my curry bun,” Norman sadly at the bun he still haven’t touched himself that was already three-fourths gone.

For the next two classes, they went on their own ways, and the last class they had there was the first class they settled down at.

The first school day ended with the bell ringing with a large number of students filling into the hallway, trying to get out first. It was hectic, yet no one out there wanted to give way to anyone.

After five minutes, the commotion settled down quickly, and Emma suggested they should check out the clubs again before they do anything else.

The front entrance from the main building had an unmanned stand loaded with two tiny stacks of flyers and attention grabbing posters attached to walls. The flyers contained a master list of clubs sorted into different categories.

After one look at the sheet, it showed that were a huge number of club activities that were operating in many of the main building’s classrooms and various buildings outside the main building and sections of the sports field.

The unexpected situation unfolded before Emma and Ray, who purposely took detours from the original path to the same destination.

"Are you going to the archery club too? Cheater.” Emma stuck out her tongue.

Ray made a tch sound and shoved his hands inside his front pant pocket. ”As if you’re any better than me for going there as well,”

”You said you were going to the astronomy club with Norman!” Emma pointed at Ray accusingly as they approached the vintage wooden building.

“Change in plans, Norman ditched me.”

“Norman?” Emma yelled. “Ditched you?”

Emma’s little interrogation came to a halt as they arrived at the front of the closed double wooden doors. The faint sounds of arrows hitting targets and muffled voices could be heard inside. Without wasting anymore time, they knocked and waited for someone to answer to their call.

Chapter Text

The commotion delayed their rendezvous at the school’s front gate by twenty minutes. The archery club was, of course, welcoming and gracious in letting Emma and Ray try out upon first meeting when they’ve stated they have experience with handling bows and arrows.

The bows they used were giant and somewhat heavy, vastly different from lightweight wooden ones Emma and Ray were used to. Still, the two (especially Emma) quickly improved with ease adjusted their stance better thanks to the few upperclassmen’s meticulous and thorough instructions.

The first few shots were a bit far from bull’s eye but still managed to hit into the area. It didn’t take long for them to be wowed over by the flash of improvement all of a sudden.

Being immediately welcomed to the club, it was still their decision to make in the end whether they wanted to join. The club members’ eyes were obviously anticipating something they wanted to hear, hoping for the both of them to say yes, as their own archery tournament was approaching.

“So are you joining?” Ray asked as they leave the archery building. They waved goodbye to the nice club members, who were still looking determined to recruit them, even going as far to ask about their classes, but that may be for another reason.

“I’m not sure, I want to check the other clubs out too,” Emma said, looking deep in thought.

It was two quarters past three in the afternoon, many students still on school ground participating in their own club activities or staying until campus closes.

They reached the gate and stood on the side. Both of them leaned against the stone wall next to the metal gates. Norman was still nowhere to be seen at the front gate. A few students passed by them in the first fifteen minutes they’ve been waiting.

”Norman didn’t ditch you, right? You ditched him, ” Emma spoke up, moved her head slightly to glance at Ray. ”What happened?”

”I managed to excuse myself and slip away . But I know Norman could have done that too but he’s too nice. ”

“Eee, nevermind I don’t want to hear anymore,” Emma looked away.

“What, are you jealous Norman got snatched so quickly?”

Emma flinched, her leaning posture began to shrink down. “No.” Ray pitifully patted on Emma’s back and placed free hand onto his chest.

“It’s okay, we all have those days.”

“Oh, I want to strangle you,” Emma mumbled and glared at him.

“Feel free!” Ray smiled back innocently, tilting his head down enough for his front bangs to fall over and reveal the side of his face that was always hidden.

“I can’t! You’re the one cooking my meals!” Emma sulked, fiddling with the straps of her bag awkwardly.

“Buying takeout for a while wouldn’t hurt, I suppose.” He meant every single word he said.

“No!” Emma stood up immediately and glowered at Ray with a stare that silenced whatever he wanted to say. “The food you cook is the best, I wouldn’t ever trade it for takeout.” She made an X with her two arms.

A simple “the best” to his cooking coming from Emma had him utterly silenced and defeated, without expecting an otherworldly compliment that he would have never thought to have be given out in the middle of their stupid banters again—he was defeated.

“I hate you.” He facepalmed.

“Then should I stop praising your cooking?” Emma said teasingly, purposely riling Ray up.

“You wouldn’t—!”

With their conversation suddenly coming to a halt after both of their stomachs complained for food, Norman also finally appeared in their sight. With Ray berating him for simply being too generous to just excuse himself and Emma shouting at him for making them wait too long, he had no excuse.

Finally exiting campus after their first day, their first walk home from school started now. The sun was already going down, coloring the sky with orange a slight blue hue in the horizon.

Norman expected one of them to ask him just the slightest detail of what took him so long, and both of them did just that. Emma pushed Norman in the middle, taking his place, and Ray asked a simple “What happened?” to him for starters.

“Nothing really happened, but they asked me to help carry things around for them since they said they were a bit short staffed and—” Norman trailed off.

“To their disappointment,” Ray pointed at Norman. “Your physical strength ranking from one to ten is literally closer to zero.”

“I wish you tell show them that.” Norman laughed. “Instead they were all lightweight stacks of blank printer paper that needed to be taken to another club room. Don’t know what’s up with that.”

“Did they ask for your number?” Ray continued.

“Yeah,” Norman scratched his cheek. “Now that’s when they looked sort of down.”

“Wow, now I’m even more glad I slipped away,” Ray slipped his phone out his pant pocket, turning it on to look at the time and put it back again just because.

“Emma,” Ray said as he put the phone back. “Were you approached by anyone?”

Struck by a question that wasn’t even about him, Norman turned to Emma, who wasn’t fazed by it at all. “Me? I took the longest route in the back of the school, so no one was around.” Norman felt a giant sigh of relief wash over his tense shoulders. Norman felt Ray pat his back in reassurance.

They were already at the halfway mark on their route home, and Ray announced they needed extra supplies if they were to make their own lunch starting tomorrow. Ray had some obvious recipes in mind that he planned to replicate from the books he’s read before, but he wanted to add something extra.

In the large mart they headed into, they entered a section where there was nothing but tall dark shelves stocked with various goods ranging from snacks to nonperishable foods and kitchenware. They started by picking up lunch boxes to put their lunch in, then slowly went through different aisles, even aisles stocking items they didn’t need at all, all for the sake of satiating their curiosity.

“Hey,” Ray said. Emma wowed at the massive amounts of snacks piled before her, chocolate, hard candy, chips, and any of that sort. Norman was staring intensely at the packages of candy on the bottom shelves, rubbing his chin at the five flavors he wanted to pick.

“Yeah?” Norman eyed Ray, his hands still moving to pick out the bags of chips.

“This place does sell items from all over the world, and we’ve eaten western based packaged and canned meals for our whole lives, what do you suggest we eat?” Ray asked as his eyes gazed around the shelves between them. The amount of packaged snacks seemed endless.

“Then I guess we should stick with the simple sausages and eggs, really. Ah, but the side dishes we ate with rice at the hospital were delicious though,” Norman continued to rub his head and scratch his chin, looking for ideas for what to eat.

“What about curry for dinner?” Emma held out a box labeled out what she suggested. Ray contemplated for a moment before agreeing, and Norman followed.

“I think whatever Ray cooks up, it’s going to be delicious,” Norman said.

“Right, right?” Emma agreed immediately. They both glanced at Ray, who turned away in embarrassment. “Alright, just, let’s get the snacks you want and lunch to make and go!”

They all collectively agreed on the lunch they would make. It was similar to most of what their classmates brought, as observed by Emma on their first day. After their nice quick curry dinner, a quick recap of what happened during their first day, and various other nighttime tasks, Ray decided stayed up later to test on the new menu they were going to put for their lunch tomorrow.

They woke up an hour early than they usually do to test the waters for their lunch making. Ray still got up earlier than the two, making useless excuses to explain why he was up earlier when asked.

Ray started complaining and whining about the way Emma picked up how to use the kitchen tools and the basics in a surprising yet unsurprising speed. Said it hurt his artistic ego.

As they started eating the curry leftover from last night, often they’d glance at the three lunch boxes wrapped in different colored cloths (light green, light blue, and white, each had a light pattern of shapes imprinted and spaced out a few centimeters in between. They rested on the marble counter next to their round dining table.

With that out of the way, they start their second walk to school. Along the way, as they passed a block that was just a simple park with nothing but trees and beautifully decorated and paved cement, a voice called from behind the trio.

“Emma!”

Having recognized the sweet voice immediately as it entered her ears, Emma squealed in excitement and turned around to see the very person in the same school uniform as her, with the first year red ribbon tied under her collar white shirt.

“GILDA!”

“Emma~!” Her smiled faltered within the second they embraced as Gilda pinched both sides of Emma’s face with all her might.

“How dare you not answer my texts—specifically the ones where I asked about your wellbeing!”

“I literally said I didn’t know how to use the phone yet—” Emma whined.

“Quit lying! Ray got the hang of it after a few days—hello, Ray, Norman ,” Her sweet smile that never reached to Emma and Norman reached to Ray only.

“Actually—” Ray timidly raised his hands to interrupt them. “I don’t really know either—”

“Then what were you three doing for the past few months?!” Gilda covered her mouth. The three looked at each other absentmindedly and back to Gilda.

The rest of the group with Gilda soon appeared behind her as she continued to bicker with Emma. Two more came, Anna and Don, both sported the same school uniforms, were just as excited as they approached the three.

After a moment of shock but a quick greeting and explanation from Don calmed their shock, Anna was more than qualified to skip a whole year and join high school.

Anna gave them a proud smile as she crossed her arms with pride, with Emma continuously making noises of awe to her, as if she couldn’t be qualified right there to enter college immediately.

“As expected from a future doctor,” Ray commented and Anna chuckled warmly in response.

As a group of five, they headed to school, chatting and catching up, even though there wasn’t much to catch up on. Gilda talked about the wonders of the technology known as the smartphone, even though she hasn’t touched a computer yet unlike Don and Anna, who have been spending a great amount of time immersing themselves on the internet (mostly to see how to use social media but researching various things as well).

Emma listened to them talk about things she deemed as something as hard to understand like a different language. Perhaps she should start using her phone more.

Gilda then started talking about the girl who stopped the soccer team captains killer ball kick during the orientation and eyed Emma knowingly.

“This school must be so bored they decided to make Emma trend around campus,” Ray snorted.

“I mean, the soccer captain is pretty well known, one word about you from him and you suddenly gain something from everyone,”

“Has school culture not changed at all over these years?”

“Seems like it.”

Ray blew his bangs softly, eyeing Emma, who was currently walking a bit nervously. There wasn’t much talk after that, a comfortable silence followed with just little comments about the world they’re in now, as if they knew each other so well, questioning each other about how they’re doing was a waste of time. All of them stated what they wanted to do when they were in the outside world years back, and they all had a start on their goals already, which was great news.

“Then, I’ll be heading to my class now,” Gilda started as Don and Anna already excused themselves (as they in the same class), then closed in on Emma, squeezing both of her hands with a warm smile on her face. “Be sure to answer my texts soon, Emma!” Emma smiled and squeezed back nervously before Gilda lets go, remembering again how her phone was resting in her desk drawer at home.

Their normal school schedule seemed to be ripped up in shreds for their second day as a sudden announcement that they would be testing.

Many teachers described this as a reference to see the students’ current ability, especially the transfers in the second year, even though the transfer students in their grade are still outnumbered the already enrolled ones. It wasn’t a reliable reason, but seeing that they would be released early (although it only applied for the second years for whatever reason), a majority of them didn’t question the school’s choice.

Emma raised an eyebrow at the sudden informal test but decided to not question it for the time being. She’s positive Ray and Norman found it somewhat odd as well, not to mention other students may think of something like that along with that train of thought.

When she saw a test booklet and an answer sheet, she sighed in relief. Appearance wise, it wasn’t that different from the short test from the last time, though the test contents were said to be more sparse in topics this time around.

The female staff, their homeroom teacher raised the green light for everyone to start and the entire class goes silent with only the test booklet being simultaneously flipped open to the first page in a satisfying sound to the ear.

Emma scanned the instructions quickly and flipped the second blank page to the third where the first question showed. A separate sheet of blank printer paper was set besides her desk although Emma found it easier to just solve in her head.

Each problem flew by on a whim as Emma doesn’t take longer than a minute to solve every one of them. She heard Ray flip his test booklet faster than her. When she had her ears pay attention to her right where Norman sat and he seemed to be taking his time. Emma started solving the problems slower after the teacher announced the halfway mark as she was already three-fourths done with everything.

Now she was in the literature section. She skimmed through the short stories, answering the simple reading comprehension ones that immediately followed after. Then the last part of the test was a writing portion, one that required in-depth analysis of a theme for the short story, which Emma scribbled down whatever came to her mind about the theme she chose.

The students were let out right as soon as the test was passed up and compiled into two stacks at the front.

“It’s only ten in the morning, what do we do now?” Ray said.

“I think I’ll stop by the club room again, seeing that I was a bit— ahem, preoccupied with something else yesterday. And that club only has second years for now so I’m sure some will be there in a bit.” Norman said.

“Right, you go do that, I’m going to head home early. Have some stuff to do.” Ray grunted as he stood up and stretched. He reached for his bag and slung in through his arms and one of the straps rested on his shoulders as the other one was already threatening to fall.

“Emma, are you going to check out the archery club again?” Ray asked.

“I’ll—check out others for now.” Emma stared at Norman, hoping he’d take the hint, and sure enough, he nodded to her in understanding.

“Right, then you guys find your clubs,” Ray waved them off after he pushed in his chair and headed towards the classroom door.

The classroom was mostly empty now, and Norman and Emma began to head out. Norman led the way as Emma followed next to him.

“By the way, what club are you going to now?” Emma said.

“The astronomy club.” Norman smiled.

The astronomy club was half the size of a normal classroom. It only had three members after the former three graduated and were actively looking for more members. So when one of them opened up to find Norman at the door with Emma, they looked relieved.

Then, Emma found out, they were relieved for other reasons. The day before, when Ray and Norman were headed in the same direction but to another club, they were recruited by the leader.

Ray showed immediate interest from the little spark that lit in his eyes but wouldn’t admit to it. Things worsened when they were approached by another group of boys and girls which held them back, in which Ray managed to slip past after he patted Norman’s back and entrusted him to handle the entire situation. Norman couldn’t refuse the leader’s request to help recruit Ray, nor could he turn away the group of students who came to him for a few different unsaid ‘reasons’. The only reason why Norman was there in their clubroom was to convince Ray to join. Norman assured them in a way where they had hope for Ray to join, but not a guarantee. After that, Norman excused himself, in which Emma did as well right after, and they head to the club where Norman said he was personally interested in.

When Emma and Norman finally arrived back home, they found the house empty, immediately assuming that Ray was out somewhere buying something like extra groceries.

Norman looked somewhat worn out from the club activities he had a short trial run for earlier and resigned to his room for a quick nap. As for Emma, she returned to her room as well after remembering what Gilda has told her earlier.

She tossed her bag onto her bed and walked to her desk. Emma opened her drawer, revealing the white six by three-inch smartphone resting on a pile of lined paper. As she waited for the device to do its thing after restarting it, she rummaged through the content in the drawer for no reason since she looked through it before.

Then, her screen flashes white and faded into the usually locked screen. Emma picked it up and unlocked it from her thumbprint. She opened the messaging app and saw what she expected to see.

An ocean of messages from a supposedly new group chat Gilda added her in, one with her and Anna, both of them were spamming images of clothing. None of these images followed a simple theme but were all pretty ‘stylish’ according to them both. Emma smiled at the messages that mentioned her as she scrolled up even though most of them were just Gilda complaining why Emma wasn’t online yet. Giggling, Emma typed a simple greeting to the chat, and soon enough, she couldn’t seem to put her phone down anytime soon.

Chapter Text

Gradually settling down through their classes, none of the three had any trouble (especially Emma) going from one class to another when it’s time to transfer. It’s only a few days later when the impromptu test they took was finally passed back.

Ray flipped open the first page of the booklet and slammed it shut after he sees his score. He looked over to Norman who told them he got full marks.

“Oh, would you look at that, Norman’s the only one who got a full score.” Ray yawned, still holding his test booklet in his hands. Norman raised his eyebrow as Emma lunged forward to snatch Ray’s test out of his hands. Norman tilted his head to peek the score and sighed.

“Ray, quit lying.”

“Ray, I swear you were the first one to finish,” Emma glared at him, mostly surprised at his score. “Or am I wrong—”

“When in doubt, always pick B.”

“Did you get that info online?”

“Where else would I get it? Ah, Emma, what did you get?”

“Me? Same as you two.”

“Pfft, full score trio lives on,” Ray said. “How do you feel about that, Norman?”

“Appalled that you got full marks.” Then the bell rung and lunch came.

“Norman, can I see your history notes? I’ll return them later.” Ray asked as the three of them started assembling their desks to face each other.

Norman blinked twice before answering as if he couldn’t believe what Ray just asked of him. “Yeah—” As soon as they settled down, Norman reached into his desk and brought out a green colored notebook.

“This is all written in cursive, I hate you.” Ray squinted at the few places where he couldn’t make out a few words.

“So would you like to borrow Emma’s mental notes instead?” Norman offered and pointed to her head. Emma ignored his words and dug into her bag for her lunch.

“I—will stick to your cursive notes, then.”

“How odd of you to ask for history notes. You always have your nose stuck in books that talk about empires and their ancient relics. I think your head is more accurate than these textbooks.” Norman side glanced at Ray, who after he helped him open the thermos, he took the few steps back to his seat walking backward and slumped down.

“My head’s info is outdated and I’m in doubt,” Ray said.

“Speaking of outdated info,” Norman started, “You could join the astronomy club and learn more—”

“No,” Ray said gravely, it was enough to shut the entire conversation down, for a normal group conversation that is.

“Sounds like you have a good reason,” Norman said. “Mind telling us why?” Norman continued to press Ray on to tell him, and the latter knew the interrogation won’t stop unless he spills immediately or delays this talk to another time.

“Fine, fine. After school? I want to eat my lunch peacefully.” Ray doesn’t wait or expect a reply, instead, he brought out his lunch box and prepared for his afternoon meal.

Ray stared at Norman who brought out his lunch last. It was a widely shaped thermos that stored mainly solid food and occasionally soup (Norman snatched that off the shelves in their last trip to the supermarket). Their lunches vary from time to time depending on what’s leftover from dinner the night before or a completely new recipe that Ray decided to experiment on, starting with Norman and Emma to be his taste testers, even though most of the time they turned out delicious (now that they have more things to focus on this option is rarely explored).

Ray recalled he never twisted the top that tightly when he packed the lunch today. Smirking, Ray stood up from his seat and walked over. He covered Norman’s hand that was on top of the top with his own. Norman flushed in surprise from the sudden help from Ray but soon enough the top loosened. With nothing else in the way of their lunch, they start to dig in.

“Thank you for the food,” The three of them chanted.

/

Right as soon as the bell rang and the class was dismissed, Ray claimed he has an extreme case of needing to relieve himself before getting discussing matters with Norman, which of course Norman did not buy that excuse at all.

“Ray!” Emma called from behind as he exited the boy’s restroom.

Ray finally made it out of one of the school’s exits and quickly stepped down the stone stairs and onto the white concrete pavement.

He let out the smallest sigh of relief, one that half believed he got away from her, another half that nagged him that Emma is the most difficult to lose, according to his entire childhood and hardships spent with her.

Footsteps could be heard in the distance and they get louder as they descend down the stairs and then revealed an orange mop of hair that blurred on the top of the runner. The last five stairs were promptly ignored as Emma hopped over, not giving single care and landed on two of her feet flat on the floor. Take that back, Emma might care a little, only a little because it was Ray who was frozen in place as he watched her jump.

“Emma, You really don’t know how to hold back, don’t you?!” Ray scolded her as she walked towards him. He gave her head a hand chop, his face red. “It’s fortunate the cardigan around you weighed down the back a little but you're not wearing pants anymore, this isn’t like—”

“I know,” Emma said in a half-serious but reassuring tone. “I think it’s only because you’re there that I can act so mindlessly and brashly like that.” Ray sighed.

“I think it’s only because it’s you that I impulsively run away without thinking.” Ray softly hand chopped Emma again and she coiled her head down, earning another harmless noise of complaint from her.

“Is that an insult?”

“Whatever makes you feel better about the fact that you activate my fight-or-flight response without even trying.”

Emma puffed her cheeks as she reached into the pocket of her cardigan and pulled out her phone, tapping at something.

“Why won’t you join the club?” Emma asked once again, rubbing her head, half of her hand was exposed to the chilly afternoon April wind as the rest were tucked into her long sleeves.

Ray breathed out loudly and looked defeated. “When I think of astronomy I think of how we got,” His voice lowered, “—attacked by them right after I talked about the stars and it—” He palmed half of his face in embarrassment.

“Oh.” Emma immediately said after her eyes sparkled with understanding. She covered her mouth and looked away.

“Oh?”

“That’s it?” Emma mumbled.

“What do you mean that’s it? Of course, that’s it.” Ray said, confused. The wind blew slightly stronger now, although it’s not something Ray or anyone else would notice, he did feel a leaf or two brush by the back of his head.

“No, it’s just usually, you won’t let stuff like this haunt you.”

“It’s so trivial, but I haven’t gotten nightmares like you and Norman did, and I ended up getting haunted by something like this.” Ray snorted at his own self pitiful situation.

Emma started giggling, and soon enough another laugh came from up the stairs came into Ray’s ears, and the same laugh came from the pockets of Emma’s skirt as she pulled out her phone.

“I guess even someone like Ray can get haunted,” Norman teased jokingly as he began walking down the stairs.

“Norman? Wh—” He clicked his tongue. “Hey, what do you mean even I can get haunted?!”

“Let’s go!” Emma and Norman chanted as they each pulled one of Ray’s wrists and dragged him back into the main building with Ray mumbling curses here and there to them.

“You’ll be lonely if you don't join a club,” Emma whined. “We already joined one and I would like to see you join too!”

“I said I don’t want to!” They stopped at the top of the stone stairs outside.

“Ray, do you really not want to join?” Norman said softly.

“It’s not that I don’t want to.”

“So, you want to join?” Emma joined in.

“There’s a possibility.”

“Then is that possible today?” Both of them asked, slightly startling him. Ray looked away.

“There’s a zero point zero zero zero zero one percent chance that I will.”

“Then let’s make that zero point zero zero zero zero one percent come true.” Norman gave him a smile, it wasn’t an innocent one. Emma overlooked the hidden message in Norman’s smile and agreed immediately.

“You two….annoying.”

“It’s our job.”

Norman had prepared earlier for something like this to happen and was spared the minor feeling of guilt for breaking the rules. It goes without saying that Emma and Ray had to sneak back to the front entrance to switch out their shoes for dirtying the indoor ones with some dry dirt and super tiny pebbles, even though they could be easily wiped away later or fall apart on its own.

The leader of the astronomy club was overjoyed when Ray entered the clubroom (Emma and Norman were waiting near the clubroom, chatting about sweet nothings). Even though he looked just as reluctant as last time, he soon wiped that look off his face and formally went through the simple procedure for being an official member of the club. As the club name is called, anything astronomy related topics were open for discussion. It wasn’t exactly a chatty nor too quiet of a club, which gives Ray hope that this club would be just another quiet reading club with extra perks in it for him sometimes.

He only spent some ten—twenty minutes there getting to know how the club works and the club members. Then, before things concluded for his first day here, Ray noticed the club members addressed each other by codenames, to his surprise. After that, he was half-pressured into coming up with one himself on the spot (although he was given a few days to come up with one) as he was thrown into a new atmosphere where names don't matter much anymore, just the widely known names of stars or anything related to astronomy was thrown in the air. So in the end, it all ended well, with his codename still not official until the end of the week.

On their way home, Emma bombarded Ray’s ears with questions, making lame excuses to justify her questions. Norman, on the other hand, repeatedly told Ray It wasn’t that hard, right? with the hidden message, I told you so lingering at the end, which Ray admitted defeat to that.

They continued walking in silence all the way back. During some point in their walk, Ray happened to spot the black-suited female at the very corner of his eyes. She was very well hidden in the distance despite her otherwise obvious colored attire and that if he was just a moment late he wouldn’t have noticed her at all.

Chapter Text

“Vaccinations, long, in depths contracts with every country, all these to get the children ready…no matter how many times I come in here and look, the budget, planning, and large scale cooperation for this plan are insane.” Two fingers flick at the thick packets of documents on the white table.

“The number of zeros and papers…I think I’m going to get a stroke.” Another person says.

“Oh, hush it, second most rich person in the world. In the end, it’s always money, money, money here. I feel almost bad that former cattle had to come to this freak world.”

“But they can’t stay there anyway.”

“That’s precisely why this project exists.” Another voice intervenes. “And, well—I hate to admit it but, the fact that a minority were over the age of twelve amongst this large population of children, I personally believed this turned out to be a great scenario on the long term.”

“That’s right. Otherwise, it’d be difficult to place them in the human world.”

“Also, the team reconfirmed that the entire realm of the demons is disconnected from us, maybe even forever. I’m sure some would try to break the promise the children have fought so hard for. But under me, James, under my incognito supervision even after I pass, it will stay this way.”

“James and Grace Field’s trio, we cannot thank you all enough.”

/

Norman leaves the office with a gentle click coming from the door and walks down the hall, his footsteps echoing under the white tiles. When Norman enters the food court, it was already empty, excluding the ones who stayed behind to clean up. Well, there were multiple food halls, this was just one of them. It still appalls him how big the mansion was, not to mention the entire area surrounding the building had multiple small structures scattered around the hundred of acres worth of field.

People were already cleaning up and sweeping up the little messes which were concentrated around the seats where the little kids sat. They would stay there until they were of age or were ready to move out when circumstances benefit them. He waves at a few of the staffs and thanks them for their hard work as he walks by with his tray of food, which inadvertently made them swoon a little.

“Ray? Emma? Why are you two still here?” Norman

“I just woke up,” Ray says and yawns.

“Me too,” Emma laughs, scratching her chin. Norman makes an oh sound and chuckles, pulling out the wooden chair as gently as he can and sits down, placing his metal tray down with a quiet dull clink against the homely light wooden table.

“Thanks for the food.” The three of them say in unison and begin eating their dinner. It was a comfortable silence. Even without everyone else, nothing awkward seems to be able to penetrate the calm mood.

“What did Mister want to talk about with you again?” Emma asks as she wipes her mouth with her napkin, sighing with content after a full meal. Norman almost chokes from his noodles at the question.

“Obviously some lovely father and son chats.” Ray snorts, picking up his glass of ice water, little droplets of water drips down as he tilts the liquid down his mouth.

Norman wasn’t sure how to answer. For one he was embarrassed in a way to hear those familial terms handed to him when he’d been an orphan all his life, the same as everyone else.

“He probably told you to have fun and scram once and for all.” Ray yawns.

“He didn't—!” Norman hesitates to continue, realizing he’s right. “Okay, he did, in the nicest way possible. I just wanted to visit him one more time.”

“No hard feelings against him, right?” Ray looks at him, his tone genuinely curious.

“No,” Norman stares at his bowl of soup on the side. “He said to enjoy life to the fullest.” He smiles at him and hyper focuses on the thin dark circle formed under Ray’s eye.

“Ray, didn’t you just wake up from a nap?” Norman says.

“No matter how much I sleep,” Ray points to his eye and sighs. “I still get more tired.”

When Norman questions Emma regarding her nap by just staring at her, as she isn’t the type to take naps, she gestures to Ray, who was zoning out again.

/

The sense of disbelief Norman felt when he sees that those two were willing to do anything, anything to prevent him from repeating the same thing over again. He is not alone in this anymore. It took a while, but he came to finally realize that instead of just seeing what they were doing—realizes that he was just as precious and irreplaceable to them than they are to him. Having received a wake-up call like no other he had ever gotten before, he sees the bigger picture that they saw. It was a race to see who could finish first, and they caught up just in time before he completely crosses the bridge of no return with his companions, but now said companions were gone from the limited time they had beforehand.

In addition to that, it wasn’t like one day the nightmares would stop coming all of a sudden even if Norman wasn’t stressed the night before.

Norman wakes up in cold sweat in the middle of the night. He peeks at the bedside clock next to him that he personally asked for: a circular clock that shows the long and short hands and numbers, not the digital ones that seem to be widely used everywhere. The red color from the digital ones gives him bad vibes.

He doesn’t remember any specific details from his dream the moment he woke up, but the amount of horror from that vision was enough to get through him without any remembrance of many visual details.

To make matters worse, he felt the bed shift from extra weight, causing him to panic. When he recognizes the familiar scent he calms down and scoffs internally.

“Ray?” He calls out.

“The cushions weren’t enough.” Ray mumbles.

“Oh,” Norman says, understanding. He kicks off his blankets and pulls Ray closer to the middle of the bed, covering him with the blanket. When Ray comes into contact with his body, Norman can’t help but feel relieved of the tension his head felt from the nightmare right then.

“Do you want an extra cushion for your back?” Norman suggests. Ray doesn’t answer, but the slight up and down movement from his head tells him enough.

“Okay so, I hate the dark, the mansion’s too big, and I hate the dark, ” Ray pauses as if contemplating to continue. “Also, it’s 3 AM  so forget about this when morning comes,” He mumbles into his chest.

“Never, I’m going to tell Emma.” Norman teases. “Oh, and also, it’s almost 4 AM.”

“You snitch,” Ray mumbles, too exhausted to put up a front. He flinches when he hears the door creak open and close, just wondering how the hell Emma knows. The next thing both of them feel is almost toppling over when Emma jumps onto the bed. She speeds under the blankets and squeezes in without saying anything.

“I’m getting— suffocated .” Ray rasps out. Although his 4 AM attitude says otherwise, Norman feels Ray upper shoulders loosen up after his other cushion came by. That’s right, he wasn’t the only one that’s going through this. The peace is somehow killing them. All three of them have that to get over, and neither of them will be alone on this ride.

/

Ray wakes up earlier than the expected time. Although part of him expects that Emma would just sleep through it as a joke, he wasn’t surprised at the least to see her up right at the exact meeting time. She proudly salutes him that she didn’t use an alarm clock to help her, igniting a laugh from him which he tries to stifle back in.

“What the h—an oil lamp?” Ray hisses. “What time period are you in the nineteenth century?!”

“Ray, shh !” Emma slaps his hand over Ray’s mouth as he struggles to make a muffled sound.

“Mmpmmph!”

“Ray, shut up, you’re going to get us caught!” Emma whispers, looking nervous for once. Ray just glares at her, not even he can free himself from Emma’s grasp with ease. Emma soon lets go of him as they continue sneaking down the hall. It wasn’t sneaking, really, but they would appreciate it if no one were to walk by and question them in any way.

The door in the main office wasn’t that soundproof, nor did they need it to ever be. The entire flow of the conversation flows out of the office as Emma and Ray stand on each side of the door, listening to whatever was left in the meeting inside. Everyone living on these grounds or used to are obligated to keep their mouths shut about a few individuals' existences.

Norman almost jumps when he sees two people guarding the door, and he sighs helplessly when he realizes who they were. It also scared the other person still inside the office, from which the three of them apologizes and bows before closing the door again.

Already catching on that he wasn’t going to bed anytime soon, Norman follows them, or rather, he’s squeezed in between the two of them, both look like they were dying to ask something.

“What did you two talk about again?” Emma asks, excitement evident in her tone.

“Eh?” Norman says, surprised. “Um. He still joked about how we never use or play on computers and phones.”

“Is it that fun? I saw Don play some shooting games some time ago, but I didn’t understand.” Emma says, confused.

“I’m sure the television back at home counts but no one here watches the channels anyways… ” Norman trails off.

“If we grew up in the human world we would have turned out different,” Ray agrees. “But right now, I have zero interest besides using it for technical purposes we can’t get to using our brains alone.”

“What? Ray! So you do know how to use it!”

“Listen, knowing how to search for the stuff on there is all I know!”

Behind the rows of houses that look modern enough, they were practically in the middle of nowhere, since the grassy land is private property under another rich person’s name. But a mile beyond that, there was a highway from where all the supplies and cars came from to deliver various things.

“Wow…” The three of them say as they look up to the sky. Ray whistles. Stars were everywhere, from the very edge of where their eyes could take them to see to the ones straight above them. If they look closely, shooting stars were traveling across the midnight sky. When Emma twists the lamp flame to the lowest setting not enough to go out, the entire scenery around them turns into a lively blue sea of diamonds.

“You won’t be able to see that once we go back into the city,” Norman stares at the sky in awe. It seems even the first eleven years of their lives staring at a star rich sky wasn’t enough.

As tired as the three of them were for various reasons, they lie on the grass, the sounds of nearby crickets or other insects and the wind creating a sound for their ears. It was a moment of peace.

Even in the dark, none of them were afraid at the least. They were centimeters apart, shoulders touching, fingers twiddling left and right as they share senseless jokes and memories once every few moments (Ray stays silent most of the time unless Emma pushes the subject of stars into play or potential insults towards him, which successfully brings out his talkative side every time). Emma sits up but props her elbow onto the ground to lean on her side, the crisp grass crinkling underneath.

“Hey, Norman, Ray.” She calls out, turning the oil lamp wick, the brightness higher now. The two turn to her, waiting for her to continue.

“A baked mud boat would float, but it definitely wouldn’t be any bit enjoyable if you two weren’t on it.” Emma then flashes a smile that got Norman aboard the ship at that moment, his adored smile towards her unfaltering. Ray turns away, flustered to the max, acting as a personal cue for Emma to go over and rattle him with corny sayings once more, with Norman’s help, of course.

Chapter Text

“What are we getting for dinner tonight~?” Emma hummed, looking at the shelves of products hungrily.

“Emma, please, we’re in the snacks aisle,” Norman turned on his heels to leave but easily got pulled back by Emma pinching just onto the tip of his long-sleeved school uniform.

“Seaweed,” Emma said dreamily, the packages of salted nori seaweed on the shelves were sparkling in her eyes.

After Norman put in a few efforts of convincing Emma to leave, she finally walked out the aisle with a few things she wanted, though she kept finding her eyes going back to that snacks aisle.

“Oh right, Norman, you’re cooking tonight right?” Emma asked, stacking her snacks in the corner of the red shopping cart.

“Mhm. I’m still not sure what to whip up for dinner though,” Norman rubbed his chin, about to go deep in thought. Then an idea hit him, although it may not be the most perfect one.

“Emma, your chopstick skills are decent , right?”

“More than decent!” Emma crossed her arms and huffed.

“Pft! Alright, noted.” A ring sounded from inside Norman’s school bag. Norman let down one of the straps from his shoulders and the light from the phone screen turns on.

“It’s Ray. His club activities are over.”

Ray simply sent a photo of a dandelion growing out of a crack in the group chat, the edge of the photo looked like their school’s metal gates. Norman’s suspicions immediately went to another train of thought.

“Emma, you didn’t bring your phone again, didn’t you?”

“ Eeep— ” Emma stepped back, nervously looking at the shelves.

“You should at least bring it to school, although I don’t think people’s opinions on you would change simply because you didn't bring one but—it’s nice to have something this convenient.”

“But—” Emma found no words to respond.

“I’ve never seen you tired of something so quick,” Norman said, genuinely surprised.

“Then, tell Gilda to text me back!” Emma huffed.

“ Oh .” Norman shrugged, figuring she’d find out on her own about the technology eventually.

The automatic door opened their way out of the supermarket. The load wasn’t as heavy, but Emma insisted on to holding more of the reusable bags of groceries and because her school backpack didn’t hold that much weight.

They were still currently in the semi-big streets where the wide concrete sidewalks still served a purpose unlike the residential section of the city.

As they continued walking, a car drove past them and Emma immediately noticed the specialized nameplate she saw on the television before.

“Oh, god, was that an automatic car?!” Emma yelled excitedly and stood at the very edge of the sidewalk to look at the car that quickly faded away from her view. Even with the bags of groceries held by both of her hands, her balance was outstanding.

All of a sudden, she stood there frowning, frozen, realizing something. Then, she stepped back down to her heels as if nothing happened. Norman’s laugh in response to her sudden burst of excitement made her react otherwise.

/

“I…” Emma started, catching the attention of both people at the dinner table. Ray doesn’t stop eating but his attention is on her. Norman froze in his current spot, chopsticks touching his lips and unmoving.

“I saw an automatic car today!” Emma said, her voice slightly raspy at the sudden rise of volume. “No, wait that’s not the point!”

“Oh yeah, they’re still pretty rare here. But I heard in America they’re already widespread.” Ray commented on the occasion, picking up another piece of grilled chicken from his plate.

“No! I meant—” Emma gripped her chopsticks without thinking, suddenly tense at the subject she wanted to bring up. Norman and Ray were both silent, waiting for her to go to her actual point, prepared for whatever she throws to them because they were used to this.

“Emma, you were a bit upset earlier after the car was gone. Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Norman suggested.

Ray was already one step ahead. He searched up the keywords on the search engine and scaled the first few price tags that pop up at the top. He whistled at what he saw.

“Yo. We can buy like ten of these and still have enough to buy a house.”

“Ray, please, we’re not even legal yet.” Norman sighed.

It was enough to make Emma smile at that, but her sullen expression told them the problem was something else.

So after they stacked the dishes into the sink and wiped up whatever minimal mess they made on the table (old practices die hard), which had hardly any.

“So,” Emma started, sitting up taut on the beige armchair, facing each other in a triangle even if they sat meters away. “I react to things so naturally like when we were kids. It suddenly occurred to me how I can do this again, without worrying about that sort of danger—to see that we’ve finally earned the life we wanted for so long...

“I enjoy this life so much right now,” She continued. “Ah—that’s all I wanted to say,” Emma scratched her chin sheepishly. “Sorry, for bringing it up again. I tried to keep it as short and less hard to talk about.”

“This is how a normal life feels like, Emma.” Ray finally said. Norman nodded in reassurance and agreement with him, although Norman’s eyes still continued to glance at his way.

“Well,” Ray grunted and stood up from his spot on the sofa, the two sitting at separate one seated sofas watched him. “I think it’s alright to relax for some days and be crazy active the next.”

Emma’s eyes brightened up, the short but reminding and warm conversation came to a close, and it was back to normal again, to their normal schedule as students in a modern world society.

-

“Rock, papers, scissors!” The three shoot their shot at one game.

“Yay!” Emma waved her scissors hand in the air triumphantly, then zoomed down and glided through Ray’s long frontal bangs.

“ Snip .” She squeaked. A moment of silence was held before the two boys could find an accurate way to display the sudden shock.

Before they could do anything, Emma sprinted out of the kitchen, heading up to the second floor for her usual nighttime routine. They were doing the dishes and packing the lunches tonight.

“I’m glad she brought that thought up,” Norman said. They finished up the remaining things needed to do before the night and were onto the last task.

“Why?” Ray asked. It wasn’t in a full questioning tone since Norman anticipated that reaction from the start.

“Because—if she didn’t,” Norman said, all the more relieved, wrapping all the leftover side dishes in a plastic film to store in the fridge. “Then you would never talk about it.” He slid the dishes over for Ray to stash into the fridge.

“Ah, so that’s why you kept staring at me you smart—” Ray sucked in a breath when he found Norman looking at him once again with warm reassurance.

Ray scowled at him and took the dishes without doing anything else. He moved a few bowls and resealed packages of products in the cold fridge before placing the new dishes in, cautious to not topple over anything already in there.

He knew Norman was still observing him, not that he wasn’t used to that. After he was done, Ray stood up from his squat and palmed the fridge door to a close with a gentle push.

Footsteps can be heard from the second floor, the steps descending to the first.

“Well, here’s to the three of our lives together again,” Ray said. Norman walked over and draped his arm over Ray’s shoulders without thinking, causing the other to respond with a surprised yelp.

As Emma came down, Norman immediately gestured for her to come the moment they made eye contact.

Emma walked over, the towel on her neck still soaking up the little drips of water from her wet hair, curious at the sight of Ray showing no signs of struggle to break free from Norman’s weak grasp, almost as if he’s content to stay there unmoving. She dived into Norman’s other arm and they curled around her. Although a few drops of water made its way to his sleeves, Norman figured he’d take a bath next anyways.

Chapter Text

Emma was the first to wake today, or, she was the only one today who did not hit the snooze button and got up for real (not that she ever does that except set the alarm up ten minutes later). She had a particularly bad dream. The ominous feeling subsided the moment she was up and walking but the sleepy feeling did not.

False alarm, Ray was already up, standing in the living room corner and on the house phone for some reason, talking to someone. He was talking in a polite tone (how rare), and even unknowingly bowed to himself (or the home phone, or the wall where the phone was installed) when he excused himself and hung up.

“Goo mweorning, Ray,” Emma yawned, rubbing her eyes in lazy circular motions with her sleeves.

“Hm?” Ray look up as he set down the phone in its place on the wall, the clicking sound could be heard. Ray snorted. “ Goo mweorning to you too, Emma,” He walked over and passed Emma and she followed him, into the kitchen probably.

“Whas today’s breakf— mmph,” She did not even bother to try to remove Ray’s hand from her head and groaned lazily, which in turn dragged her back upstairs so she could get going with her daily morning routines.

Something that can describe Norman in the morning is stealth. Unintentional stealth. If his footsteps could not tell you where he is, he cannot be sensed at all. But this morning his slippers were making light scratching sounds as he walked into the kitchen in a slumped posture. He was still in his sky blue cloud patterned pajamas.

Emma was wrapping up the last of their lunch boxes and greeted Norman happily and continued watching him as he entered the kitchen half-awake.

Ray turned to his left, his attention leaving the stove for a good moment to greet the boy.

“Good morning, Norman— ah ,” Norman slumped onto Ray’s shoulder, hard, and very much near the collarbone. It was hard enough for even Ray to yelp at the unexpected force, not to mention he only had a super thin t-shirt on.

“Norman?!” Emma reached up to feel her own collarbone with the pads of her fingers and shivered at the thought that came to her mind after.

“I guess people who have super brains just malfunction at some point, huh,” Ray said as if denying the existence of what just happened. You would not think this groggy half-asleep morning boy in pastel blue pajamas would be considered a national security threat to an entire species’ existence.

“Ray, that’s literally you at 3 AM,” Emma said, exasperated. She patted the wrapped lunch box two times after she was done with her part, and simply stared at the scene unfolding before her.

“We don’t talk about that. Appreciate the backhanded compliment though,” Ray palmed at Norman’s forehead and pushed the sleeping boy up. Funny enough, Norman stood in place even after Ray let go. He flicked at Norman’s forehead. It baffled him even more when Norman actually woke up from that rather than hitting his body.

“Ah.” Norman rubbed the middle of his forehead that had a faint circle of red forming with his long pajama sleeves. “Good morning, Ray,” Ray couldn’t find the means to lift a finger to tell him off at all after seeing his soft morning grin that was all sugar sweet.

/

Pop quizzes were not uncommon, but no matter the person, most of the time it always elicited the same reaction out of any student no matter how smart they were. Often they were easy one answer questions like who was the king of so and so or what country did this and that. Mathematics was a completely different case, though.

For Norman, he’d just sigh, even though he would most likely get good marks. For Ray, he might make a remark or two, although he was starting to get a good idea of what the teacher liked to put for his questions, so he’s safe. For Emma, that’s just a different case. It’s just different every time.

In their usual triangle like arrangement of their desks, it was also not uncommon that their in-class voice volume would escalate to an outside voice, although it usually lasted for a few seconds.

“Oh, w—EMMA, not the egg !” Ray hissed at the egg suddenly snatched from his lunch box.

“The egg omelet always tastes best when you get it from someone else.”

“Then take Norman’s—”

Emma glanced at Norman, who was completely out of it whilst taking generous bites of his own egg omelet. Emma shifted back in her seat and look at Ray who was sitting across from her. She shook her head. “No, he looks too peaceful, I can’t do that.”

“Oh, right. The old man called this morning,” Ray started another topic.

“Old man?!” The sudden push the chair was put in caused it to squeak. Norman had both his hands pressed onto his table. If anything, he’s just excited.

“Just a little check up to see if we’ve gotten used to things yet, really, though I think he’s slightly disappointed that it wasn’t a certain someone else that answered because he was too busy squeezing every last second of his sleep in the morning.”

Norman slumped back onto his seat and facepalmed, possibly at the useless feeling of guilt that he slept in. “Oh no .”

“Have you decided which club you want to join?” Emma shifted the topic again to a lighter one.

“Hmm,” Norman rubbed his chin. “I’m still considering the chess club,”

“Oh? Are we not enough for your supposed chess addiction?” Ray doesn’t look up from his lunch as he continued eating after.

“No, no, you two are far enough. I just don’t see anything else worthwhile.”

“The astronomy club sounds super nice if you’re willing to check it out,” Ray said suggestively.

“Advertising for your new club already, aren’t you, Ray?” Norman laughed, finally starting to pick at his lunch for a first bite.

During the time Emma took Norman on a tour on various clubs after the bell rung, Ray somehow found himself stuck at the archery building. Somehow, he and Norman stood outside waiting for the club session to be over. It was a small five-minute meeting, which didn’t take long, so that was why they waited, really. Then it suddenly turned out to a tour for Norman.

Ray couldn’t remember the reason why he refused to tag along, although he’s sure there isn’t much behind the refusal, as Emma didn’t question him about it. Like back when they’d play tag and he would refuse, with an extra push he might give in.

During that time when he was there, Ray has caught the attention of a familiar face in the club. It was the club leader. A year above him who’s enthusiastic and polite attitude who tried to get him to try it out again, Ray couldn’t seem to refuse nor find a way out of it.

The impact the arrow made directly into the bullseye repeated five times in a row. Each time Ray lets go, the arrow flew towards the target in a straight line, not ever faltering once.

“Wow!” The other club members continued their little squeals and gasps every time Ray gracefully adjust the arrow in place and started pulling, the faint veins that were barely visible now held a thin line on his wrist against his strong pull.

Ray shifted his stance, careful not to step on the long club uniform he’d borrowed from another member who handed it to him with no hesitation, the infatuation in their kind smile was more than obvious.

“Ray, isn’t it hard to see with just one eye?” A familiar voice suddenly interrupted his concentration. A cold hand swiftly dragged the ends of his long bangs and tucked them behind his ear skillfully.

Ray jumped a little, almost dropping the heavy bow as he snapped his neck to the side.

Emma was already a few meters away from him like her first instinctual reaction to this was to avoid a possible hand chop from Ray (she wasn’t that far off, if they were at home, chances of this is huge). She was cowering within the small crowd, more specifically tugging behind Norman. He looked away the moment he made eye contact with Ray as if he had nothing to do with this, whilst making small hand motions in a desperate attempt to cover Emma up.

To their luck, Ray did not even bother with reacting to that because all color flushed away from his face after what occurred next the moment he finally realized the little pin clipped up to hold his bangs, revealing his embarrassed face.

/

When Ray was finally let out of the archery room, the sky started pouring heavily. It was late April, and the weather was still a bit unpredictable every week, but having foreseen the slight possibility of that, Ray claimed a giant umbrella that was not in use in the club room earlier after his request was approved.

It was funny, considering how the club was more than just an outer space informal study group, the fact that they stocked various items just made it look like a chill library with perks.

They took turns being in the middle, as the umbrella wasn’t as heavy as expected despite its size. The raindrops hitting the umbrella was initially loud, but soon the top dulled out the sound.

“I think we should pay a visit to them soon.” Norman spoke up as they were walking. The sound of heavy rain no longer bothered them under there. Even the wind blowing the rain at a fixed angle barely touched the tip of their socks or ends of their pants.

“Them?” Emma tilted her head down to meet with Norman’s eyes. “Which?”

“Them? There’s an awful lot of thems that we know of.” Ray agreed.

“The ones I was with,” Norman said, the volume of his voice became quieter after each word. The edges of his eyes softened and corners of his lips curved up slightly showing immense fondness and tenderness from the thought of them.

Both of Norman’s hands were squeezed at the same time, visibly sending a jolt of surprise up his entire back. He couldn’t help but flush at that, but without any available hands to cover his face, his flushed expression was there for them to see under the family sized umbrella.

“Um. Ray, you know you can take unclip that pink pin now, right?” Norman said, glancing up once every few seconds. Ray doesn’t respond, adding some awkwardness in the space under the umbrella.

Ray eventually came to a stop to address them something, but he doesn’t stop in an abrupt manner as getting soaked in the rain is the last thing he wanted to do. Instead, he started walking slower and nudged Norman’s arm and he took the hint. In return, Norman nudged Emma’s arm to stop. The sight of their short and silent telephone game almost made Ray snort.

“Who.” Ray pointed at the pin. “Norman.” Norman flinched.

“Why me?!”

“Emma would never stoop to such a level one prank. She would what, throw confetti and slide in a unicorn headband for extra measure,”

“Have to respect the archery club’s rules even if you’re a non-member,” Emma crossed her arms into an X, “Confetti’s out.”

“Level one,” He mumbled. Norman let out a defeated sigh and gazed down onto the ground, placing a hand on his hips swayed in a direction to emphasize his complete defeat way beyond needed. “Level …. One,” He said again.

Then his hands were taken and squeezed again, once again reminding him of where they currently were—in the middle of a city sidewalk blocking the entire thing with their giant umbrella. None of them said anything along the way, but seemed to be walking just behind enough for Norman to lead them the way to where he wanted to go.

Chapter Text

Not even modern medicine could save those who were deeply subjected to daily doses of those unknown substances and physical torture. Recently, they’ve made some progress but the ones who were captured and are being questioned refused to budge on leaking any information. Obviously, only a selected few would know about this.

But that was not part of any of the children’s life anymore. They all were living a normal life, many of them would forget about this years later on, while the teenagers might have a harder time, but it depends on the person.

What happened during the first part of the new day was a blur. From leaving school and going back home to change into a plain attire for the occasion to purchasing fresh bouquets of pink and white carnations at a hefty price for a normal person, they caught quite some attention from the other customers. It wasn’t really for show, why would visiting someone’s grave site be a flashy scene?

Norman found himself standing in front of each grave longer than the next, clapping his hands together, bowing at a full ninety degrees. There was no regret or guilt that he felt, just this melancholic tug at his heart, almost like he was confused about what to feel.

Each site was near or at the top of a hill. The entire graveyard was stretched out very far, filled with fresh green mounds of grass.

When Norman looked up and took little glances at the two who were standing next to him, he could see how it affected them the same but not as hard as him.

A few moments of silence between Norman and the tombstone in front of him was all there was to it, but it conveyed more than enough. Aside from his heartstrings pulling,

“Thank you,” was what Norman said to each and every one of them, the words always came out a little shaky as the left his lips.

“Are you sure you don’t want to say any more?” Ray asked. His gaze was distant and indifferent.

“I’m sure,” Norman nodded, turning his eyes at the tombstone, and kneeled down before the last one, which was engraved the name Barbara. “They would rather hear a word of thanks from their cold-blooded boss rather than something like sorry.”

“Boss,” Emma said.

“Cold-blooded boss,” Ray said. When Norman looked up from his kneeling position, he doesn’t seem to grasp why he repeated his words, he was confused?

“Emperor,” Ray snorted.

Emma lifted her fingers as she counted other adjectives and finished it for him. “Cold. Stiff. That was what they told us how you were acting when talking to them,”

“Oh.” Norman facepalmed, his following words were muffled in his palms. He felt warmth hovering over his back and neck, comforting him as he went through the last moment of silence.

It was alright, he wasn’t the Boss anymore. He wasn’t William Minerva anymore. He is just Norman, going through his daily life with his friends and family that he deserved to be with. Regardless, everyone loved him in the same way, which was all the more inviting for him to return to his normal self. It was still hard for him to open up, really, but he’s in a good place now.

With extra time on their hands, the orphanage was the next stop. It wasn’t really an orphanage, and that word brought a foul taste in the back of everyone’s mouths.

It was still an orphanage, though, for the children who haven’t been found a family yet, or simply wanted to stay with their friends. Just like the mansion where the three resided for a while before transitioning into a normal city life, this had the same purpose, except this was located right smack in the middle of their busy city.

The elementary school the children attend was just a block away, which made it all the more convenient for them since the majority of them were children. The ones older than thirteen were already living with other people in separate residences or were living on their own.

“Huh?” Many footsteps paused behind them. More childish sounding huh s follow by the first one. As they turned around, the seven children were holding a handful of groceries along with the two orphanage supervisors. Each and every one of them had a genuine smile on their faces, even the old supervisors.

“Boss— oops —Norman!” If it weren’t for Emma loudly shushing them on the spot, reminding them of where they were at, more chaos may have ensued.

It took a while to shake off all the children who wanted to get close to Norman after a while. It was a pleasant sight to see, more or less, Emma had to look away on multiple occasions when she couldn't bite her lips fast enough from that fond smile growing.

They even approached Emma and Ray, who took them in without any complaints, just fulfilling little children’s harmless wishes. Even so, they’d rush back to Norman soon after that, who seemed to have forgotten about the somber event from earlier at that moment.

While many of the children from their paradise hideout were focused onto Norman, there were others who were particularly close with Emma and Ray.

They were given free entry to visit them when they contacted them beforehand, but nothing else for security and privacy purposes just like any other institutions.

Emma teared up, her eyes were literally about to melt along with her shaky hands. Phil was about to fall under the same fate as hers. He didn’t even notice her at first as he had his nose stuck inside a book at the library, focused intently on the details within those pages.

“Emma!” Phil yelled, earning a few hushes from the other occupants in the library in the far corners of the room. They couldn’t see them since the bookshelves were pretty high.

“Phil!” Emma wailed, quieter this time, wrapping her arms around him as if they were reuniting for the first time again since they parted. His large smile never changed even after so many times of fear locked him in, it just showed how strong he was.

Afterwards, he started rambling about the new elementary school he went with every other child. There were ups and downs, but he enjoyed every part of it. Phil was just as eager to show Ray the book about machinery. Ray bit his lips, more fond than flustered at Phil’s interest in tinkering with machines. His lips were trembling as he struggled to hold back a bigger upcurve than his usual sly smile.

Within the next few shelves, there was a shuffle of books and footsteps.

“Hayato?” Ray peered over to the next shelf. “What are you doing here?”

Hayato was carrying a set of books he picked from the shelves. They looked worn out and seemed like they are in need of replacements.

“I help out here often when I’m not at the dorms with my classmates or taking some classes.” It was such a casual remark, he was fitting in just perfectly in his new life. Knowing him, he might mess up once or twice in a while but his personality lets him get away with his little slip-ups. He still doesn’t do well in small spaces, as his superspeed attribute still stayed within him.

Hayato almost stumbled again, the books almost falling over as he neared the doorway of the library.

“Clumsy as ever, aren’t you, Hayato?” A voice came from the door entrance.

“Bo—” Hayato nearly foamed at the mouth the moment Norman stepped into the library. He was actually nervous. That was quite the sight to see.

Before they finally leave after the visit, more children were about to pile up the trio before they even said goodbye.

Many of the kids tugged onto Norman’s arms and legs, playfully yelling to ask him to play with him next time.

Emma was dogpiled by five other children who were sulking that they lost another arm wrestling battle with her, and she challenged them to beat her next time.

Ray was approached by those who wanted him to read books with him and discuss matters on building simple cars and boats, which always made him embarrassed. He’d turn away and mumble a yes whereas the kids would pretend they didn’t hear and turn his face redder.

One of the orphanage advisors recommended that they officially sign up as volunteers to help out after witnessing yet again, another positive welcome from the children. Volunteers were able to enter and exit the land during the morning until sunset without any formal approvals, so they were heavily trusted and were hard to recruit. So that’s to say, it was hard finding them.

For a somewhat elderly woman like her, she said, it warmed her heart to see them so affectionate with children, as the students of this time normally do not involve themselves with volunteer work like this no matter the pay nor volunteer hours to put on their college applications. Spotty attendance wasn’t a good thing here, consistency was what was needed.

It wasn’t that they were understaffed, in fact, their budget was huge and the staffs were experienced with children. But since she is the head of the advisory branch of this institution, she wanted to try her own ways of spending money to improve their current state.

Emma wanted to do that immediately, but almost retracted that statement when she recalled of her current club. They don’t meet every day, just every Mondays and Thursdays. She might consider it, just as much and Ray does.

All three of them might consider it.

/

“My arms are numb,” Norman rubbed his arms up and down, the children earlier spared him no mercy on his weak physique. “I can’t feel my arms.”

“I really wished you’d gain some muscle composition instead of that growth spurt,” Ray said, eyeing at Emma, who was currently in the center of their walk to the main building and office of the gravesite.

“I’m going to punch you.” Emma hissed.

“Try me,” Ray slightly hovered over her as if trying to intimidate her yet hold back at the same time. “I’m basically the only one who gained both height and strength.”

“Please, you two,” Norman sighed. He separated their physical bodies that were about to fight by slipping in between them as if the small space meant nothing to him.

As if nothing has happened, Emma bent over and glared at Ray and continued the argument. “I’m going to punch you in your sleep."

Just like any other night, they split their evening chores, one may get the short end of the stick and do more work, but it never bothered them. It was just a way of teasing each other. Tomorrow was Saturday so they had extra time on their hands instead of sleeping.

It was ten in the morning. Norman slouched a tiny bit on his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk, looking at his phone lying there. He finally picked it up, lightly pressing the numbers down from memory.

“Hello? Mrs. Advisor?” Norman talked on the phone as the other side picked up. “Sorry, I still haven’t gotten hold of your name yet—yes, this is Norman, ah, Riya?”

He made a few sounds of approval and replied to the lady’s unending questions with ease, and finally got to the reason for his call.

“About the volunteering, you talked about earlier, if it’s still open, I would like to take up on that offer.”

Chapter Text

Emma was repeatedly approached by the captain in many forms of the same question. It seemed like traditional activities such as archery weren’t seen as important as before. It wasn’t a surprise at this point in time of such a modernized world, and this school was the only one that really had a functional archery club with a separate building specifically made for archery.

True, there were still tournaments and competitions but statistics show they were mostly attended and watched people who were below the 2020s born range.

Emma, are you sure about joining?

The only times Emma recalled when there would be small crowds of people in this building was when Ray did a few shots and during the orientation.

The archery club still seemed to be admired by a few people, the energy they provided he archer with was more than admiration and love, as if they were afraid to join or something as if they’d be ostracized if they reached out more to the traditional club. She didn’t find it a problem as of yet.

Emma would laugh and respond with total determination that she was here to stay unless the club was going away (she hoped not). Sometimes, she wanted to tease about leaving, but she left that thought in her mind.

She caught a few glimpses from people her grade, and she’s sure Norman and Ray didn’t miss that as well if they were together or in the same class when Emma was approached (the two of them had their own fair share of interacting with others so they were probably even in terms of popularity? ).

Forget about that one time when she caught a fastball just before it landed, it was quickly forgotten by many, although by now, most people have started to believe that was just a rumor (fortunately).

Back to the archery club, it was given a five hundred dollars budget, the same minimum as other clubs. It would increase if the club’s goals were sharpened to something high leveled and increase in members, and the opposite would occur if the unspeakable should happen.

As of now, they’re sort of floating in the middle, not gaining much outside attention but from the archery fans who had been given previous permission to observe the members. The coed club was chill, and the bows and arrows they sport were pretty high quality, passed down year to years now, they still weren’t worn out. Members could bring their own gear if they wished to use personal gear.

If anything, Emma was having fun. If these didn’t bother the current seven members (including the captain and herself), then she wouldn’t either. So she enjoyed the weekly two-day meetups even though they were brief. It was a great time to make friends too. Emma had no trouble fitting in with them.

The meetings were brief, so it didn’t impose much change on Emma’s after school with them, that was what she wanted. So when Norman announced that he’d be volunteering at the orphanage, Emma felt more than reassured about her decision on this.

“Woow~,” Ray made clicking sounds with the picking ends of his chopsticks. “You’re really an exemplar participating student of society now. I’m honored to be sitting at the same table as someone like you…”

Norman shot him a disgusted look and Ray’s smug expression and lax posture with his free arm over his chair turned even more inviting for another fierce argument.

“Emma?” Norman’s soft voice brought her out of her troubled mind.

“Are you alright with that?” He tilted his head, his cute innocent facade was at play and Emma almost teared up at the worst moment ever.

“Yeah, of course. Do what you want to do.” Emma smiled as she wrapped up her lunch, twisting and capping all the caps back to their respective containers.

“I’ve had some thoughts about whether I should do this or not, but I think I’ll reconsider if you don’t l—”

“ Norman ,” Emma said firmly. “You should do something for yourself for once here. Not for me, or for Ray.”

Norman visibly took the deepest breath ever as he sucked in his lower lip, taken aback at her words and also expected her to say something like that.

“Alright.” Norman sighed with a hesitant pause, his hand curling tight into a fist on his desk. “But that means we won’t really spend as much time together.” He looked at both of them as if waiting for a response that can solve their dilemma.

“Okay,” Emma said, taking a bite of her sandwich like it’s nothing.

“What she said,” Ray agreed.

Norman’s lips closed into a thinner line, unconvinced, but his eyes and resolved smile in the end remained as soft as ever.

“Tell Phil I said hi,” Ray said as they make their way to another class. They had the next class together right after lunch and normally walked there. It was just two classrooms next to the one they ate lunch at.

“Hmm. Tell him that yourself. Maybe—even sign up with me?” Norman suggested, his tone going higher up in his question.

“ Pfft . Trying to pull me in so you won’t have to go alone? I don’t think so.” Ray took the first step into the classroom and Norman followed, the sliding double door was already opened by another pair that entered before them.

“Aww.”

Norman had parted ways with Emma two blocks after they left school campus with Ray absent for having to attend to his club that same day as well. When she looked back to peer at the walking boy, Norman was running , then disappeared into the left corner of the street.

Emma couldn’t help but laugh at how he underplayed his excitement in front of them.

Chapter Text

Norman did not see himself running in any way. He usually is never late to anything, but he did realize that he became quite the heavy sleeper and always the last one to wake up every morning ever since they moved into their home, sometimes even needed someone to toss him back and forth before even waking.

In the end, Ray does most of that job because Emma knows no bounds in her strength and isn’t delicate in any way at all no matter how many times Ray berated her for that. To Norman, that was always a pleasant sight to see. All three of them were getting along as always no matter what happened.

He chose to volunteer on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (today was Tuesday). It was two hours each day for him, though that was the minimum limit until the orphanage closes its doors

Walking there would take him around fifteen minutes in the least, and he would consider taking Uber that he so dearly bragged about to Emma and Ray during one of their breakfast times but he chickened out from hesitating too long to press out the order.

Except during the lessons he took from the government officials and doing a few texting on his phone and testing out electronics by himself, he seldom used other modern technology to reach out for extra convenience, the same goes for Emma and Ray (though Ray was pretty interested in the laptop).

He passed through many streets that emitted their own charm—some stores all lines up together with the almost extinct cheap candies and snacks, some fortune telling booths setting up shop right in front of their own buildings, supposedly, and finally the giant square where traffic was the heaviest in the city, where fine shopping and commerce was also the highest (they went to one of the malls here before), and it was also the brightest place in the city at night.

Every time the light flashed green for pedestrians to walk, all corners of the street would start walking all at once, filing through the middle of the street like a mob. Norman thought he was seeing things, but he swore he saw a lady in a black suit from the corner but didn’t pay any mind to it.

The streets were clean. No sign of trash anywhere. Everything was entirely new, yet he saw many brief elements that made the city almost like the old city he’s heard of. It was hard to think that ten years ago (or maybe even earlier) this was a war zone, but the conflict. Having everything destroyed was the probably best way to rebuild without any mishaps and hiccups in reconstruction especially with the new technology and innovation introduced during the war.

As Norman walked past the line of clothing shops, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from one of the clothing on display. He briefly checked the time on his phone. Still half an hour before the meeting time. No, he should get there as soon as possible.

He took the photo of the shop’s front banner displayed with the name. No one mattered right now and Norman sent he photo to the first person on the top of his text list so he would have two reminders telling him to come back here. He’s not confident in his memory, but they’ve never failed him before, but taking precautions meant no harm, right?

Residential areas were all there were after the busy spot of the city was passed. Norman finally saw different school uniforms on the high school students who passed by, and the closer he was to the orphanage, the more elementary school kids there seem to be who have just gotten out of school.

The orphanage housed more than fifty children and most of which Norman recognized the moment he made eye contact with them. He then realized that for the director personally approach him and Emma and Ray must have been influenced by the children here who talked about them often.

There were more volunteers here than he thought there would be. They are grouped up and come on different days, most of which Norman recognized the names on there as well, along with a few others he thinks should be new people he’ll meet in the future. In addition, they were just called volunteers, but it wasn’t unpaid free work to look after children, after all.

When Norman was introduced to the little group of children before him, it caused a bit of a ruckus in the dining hall, causing the children nearby to check in on the scene and the noise just gets louder. It was a huge relief he wasn’t dogpiled or his back would have probably snapped. It sent a shiver up his spine just thinking about the times it might have happened to him when he was little.

A brief introduction was all there was before the director ran him through a series of basic rules and the job he’s to attend to today. They were all familiar to him. He’s tutored and played hide-and-seek with way too many children before.

The number of adult staff weren’t seen as much in the building, probably holed up in the smaller buildings doing the heavy duty work. Once again, they shouldn’t be understaffed, yet the director chose to allow volunteers to help out during the children’s free time, especially the ones who are currently in school.

The director wanted to see him in action rather than a prolonged welcome that’s unneeded. It works for him.

“Don?”

Don was hiding in the stacks of cushions and plush seats, piling up on him like a small hill, but eventually, they fell down one by one. His hands occasionally shot outside to collect the fallen cushions and cover the holes.

“The director lets you volunteer without an interview or anything?! This is so unfair!” He yelled from inside.

“Interview?” Norman raised his eyebrow.

“See?!” Don's hand shot up from inside the pillow mound. “You just proved she’s already got a favorite!”

“Ok, but why are you hidin—?” The library doorknob twisted and Norman instinctively slapped his hand onto his mouth. A small child emerged from outside. Her head perked up when she saw someone in the room.

“Norman, Norman,” She was one of the children who immediately took a liking to him when he was introduced to the children. She was probably a child from another place besides the now destroyed Grace Field and the ex-Paradise Hideout, because this orphanage was already filled to the brim with former cattle children. Or she was born in this world since all the children here are basically unaware of everything that happened.

She tugged at his uniform sleeve. “Have you seen Don? He’s the last one I can’t find,”

“ Eep—” Goes a sound in the mound of pillows. Well, he just gave himself away without Norman even telling her.

“What did I tell you before?” Norman laughed. Don faked a defeated face before the little girl to please her pride in finding him, even though Don was the one who gave himself away. “Conceal your tracks and—”

“Yeah, yeah, well I think not having you here made me lose my touch,” Don patted the girl’s head, her proud smile still shining bright. She seemed to enjoy having her head patted, then after politely excusing herself, she left the room prancing in her pink low heels.

Norman took a look at Don’s school uniform, which was the same as his. The pillows in the library were already way too light in contrast with their dark winter navy coat.

The next job was to tutor the current elementary school students. Don split the children and the rest of the volunteers at each table and they all complied with no complaint.

Alongside with Norman, Phil was partnered up to be with him. He was the youngest to be tutoring his classmates and friends. It wasn’t a surprise.

They were teaching third-grade mathematics, and they went through a variety of ways to help the children review. Phil was only nine, and he could probably pass the middle school entrance exam with flying colors. His tutoring methods weren’t the best and Norman honed out his ways and it worked out in the end. Norman lost count of the time he laughed with him.

“Do you know when is Ray coming to visit again?” Phil asked him during their ten minute break time. He popped open a bag of buttered popcorn. He offered the bag for Norman to grab a few, and he graciously accepted with a warm smile.

“You miss him already? It’s only been two days.” Norman said, flipping through the thin math workbook.

“Days do not matter!” Phil turned to him, his puffed up cheeks were on full display and his eyes were quivering. He grew up so much. Norman swore just yesterday, he was not even a meter tall, and he still remembered how Emma would still carry Phil in the morning as payback for pranking her

Norman blinked twice before opening his mouth. He set down the math workbook and focused fully on Phil.

“Alright,” Norman smiled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Oh!” Phil said, an idea must have popped in his head. “Do you have Ray’s number? And Emma’s!”

“Number,” Norman said blankly.

“Yes!” Phil cheered. He pulled out a small touch screen phone from the pouch resting on the side legs of his chair, excitedly waiting for Norman to do the same.

“Oh, Yeah.” Norman’s eyes widened in realization, then shifted to his other side where his bag was. He pulled out his phone as well, pressing down onto the home button and the phone unlocked. Of course, besides the odd fact that he and Emma and Ray strayed away from electronics until recently, these children are already used to the modern world.

Phil thanked him with another one of his big signature smiles. The rest of the session went by without a problem. Norman continued to test the waters on the level each child was on for their school work. He would continue working with them for three more weeks before they have the option to switch groups, so Norman should

Since it was just math today, it was merely a reminder for Norman to pick out each of their habits and mistakes children would easily make on their first few turns.

It was a satisfactory trial run to him. Tag was as popular as hide-and-seek here because there were just as many places to run as there was to hiding.

The director seemed quite pleased. Although her face did not show any signs of that, her silent watch over him tutoring the children along with Phil the entire was enough to say that she was interested enough in him to just stand there the entire time.

/

When the house was within sight, there were no lights on at all. As Norman passed through the mini gates of their house, through the stone pathway that led him to the house, he saw the first-floor lights weren’t on at all.

He pressed the house key into the knob and twisted the wooden door open. The entrance was dark, with only the moonlight from outside serving as the light. Norman saw his own shadow illuminated in front of him, and was gone after he flicked open the lights beside the door frame.

The living room was connected to the entrance, and Norman hadn’t expected them to be in there, but there they were. Norman pulled the small circle up to the highest setting, the lights came in less than half a second.

Two of them were slumped onto the sofa, heads, and shoulders leaning and squeezing against each other as they dozed off in peace.

Norman accepted his urge to pull out his phone in quick succession and snap a quick photo of the glorious scene set before him.

Emma’s lips pressed against each other as she continued sleeping, remaining unmoved from that somewhat uncomfortable sitting position.

Ray stirred in his sleep as Norman fixed his falling long bangs, revealing both of his sleeping eyes. Ray made a sound that almost made Norman choke on his own spit. A sound that Ray doesn’t make when he’s conscious.

Ah, he forgot to take the photo.

Emma’s eyes sprang open beamed happily, and Norman returned the smile as alway. She stepped on top of the sofa, pulling Norman into a tight hug.

“Emma?” Norman said tenderly, almost losing his balance (which almost always happens, especially if it was Emma). “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Emma hummed.

Someone’s phone rang five times with notifications, and Norman could already guess who it was. He could feel Ray’s death glare shooting at him, and when he peered over, he was right.

“Norman, what the hell,” Ray held up his phone. Norman froze when he saw the photo of a wooly cardigan and the storefront on the phone screen. He wasn’t complaining about Phil’s rush of messages at all.

“I’m sorry,” Norman said weakly, the tight hug Emma was still giving him has deprived his chest any space for another inhale of air. “I had to make sure I didn’t forget —thanks for reminding me. Just, just forget about that and I’ll go alone tomorr—”

“No, what the hell?” Ray jumped off the sofa with a grunt, grabbed and put on the black coat that’s been lying next to him (wait, that’s Norman’s coat).

“We’re going to get that cardigan now ,” Ray hissed.

“You miss him already? It’s only been two days.”

Never mind that, Emma’s and Ray’s attachment to him seemed to be even worse than Phil’s—and that goes for his attachment to them as well—it was in a good way, at least. Ray seemed to have lightened up in a way, Emma as well. Energy was flowing in them, not just from that nap but something else about them was slightly changing, and that was the most evident in Ray. They must have had a talk or two while he was gone.

“Have you guys made dinner, at least?” Radio silence ensued besides their footsteps.

“Then what do we do for lunch tomorrow?” Norman groaned.

“It’s alright!” Emma pumped her fists into the air triumphantly. “I’ll run to the lunch hall and grab the pay for lunch tickets so you guys just need to pick it up!

“You’re gonna get in trouble for running, so no,” Ray said. “Also I don’t want any more rumors circulating around you or any of us so,”

“Then,” Emma crossed her arms, thinking hard. “I’ll excuse myself to the restroom five minutes before the lunch bell rings.”

“Huh! Great idea,” Ray said, surprised.

“Oh?! Ray actually agreed with me!” Emma cried.

“But—” Ray said. “This is going to be a one-time thing or the teacher’s going to be onto us.

“This sort of stunt has to happen because I was gone?” Norman groaned.

“Yeah.” Emma and Ray said in unison, who also looked to Norman, seemingly confused that he would even ask that. It made Norman stop in his tracks, absolutely wowed and speechless. His cheeks were burning up.

/

“Yeah, okay, obviously the stupid cardigan shop’s gonna be closed since it’s not part of the giant malls.” Ray huffed.

The stood at the very edge of the sidewalk that was in front of the store. The lights were already out and the metal gates were set in place, guarding the glass. The wooly cardigan was still there, proudly standing with a white rack supporting the clothing.

“ Who was the one who told us to go?” Emma pressed her fists onto her hips, interrogating Ray in the most annoying way to make him crack.

“Tch,” Ray looked away.

“Don’t tch me!” Emma turned to the side Ray was looking at. Ray looked the other way, and his nose and forehead smacked itself against the street lamp next to him.

Norman’s cheeks puffed and he stifled the urge to laugh.

“Pfft!” Emma covered her mouth and looked away, squatting down onto the stone pavement. Ray facepalmed.

Emma stood up, taking a deep breath after calming down from the small commotion.

This street they were on had dim yet bright enough street lamps and the cars passing by don’t give a single damn of what happens because the traffic lights were all at the end of the corners.

Their meeting always formed itself into a triangular form without them saying anything since the very first time. So as if the three read each other’s minds and the mood, their legs were brought two steps forward until the top of their foreheads met and they were all staring at each other’s school-issued shoes. It was like this own space was theirs, no one could intrude on their little bubble. There were no other pedestrians walking by anyway, and only the street lights a meter away illuminated their actions.

Their hands brush by each other lightly, so Emma went ahead and held each of their hands, and just like that all of their hands locked together, making their triangle

Emma was shaking, but she had no reason to. Norman was all the more confused, and Ray continued staying silent until Emma spoke up first.

“Norman. Ray. I’m so happy. I’m so glad you two are alive ,” Emma breathed out, her grip on both of their hands tightened, as it did for all of their grips on each other without a second thought.

“ Emma?” Norman’s voice cracked and Ray’s sniffing could be heard.

“That’s why, seeing you two doing things you like, makes me so glad. I get to see sides of you guys grow and sides that I would never get to see if we weren’t here. I’m so glad!”

Ray bit his lower lips, then he smiled. “Running out of adjectives, aren’t you, Emma?” Emma huffed and kicked Ray’s ankles.

“Hahah!” Norman joined in. There was no need for further explanation, Emma’s better at expressing herself through her words, and there she did and put herself out there, dispelling much of her worries and thoughts.

Emma lifted her head, breaking the triangular forehead contact they’ve had. She puffed her cheeks, and her eyes were still filling with tears threatening to fall.

“Emma,” Norman started, his fond smile never leaving his face ever. “I feel the same as you do. Especially Ray.” Norman turned to face Ray.

“Yes, Ray!” Emma pointed at Ray, whose eyes widened as he pointed to himself.

“Out of the three of us, you were the first to branch out for yourself.”

“No?” Ray raised his eyebrows at Emma. Still, nothing could hide the fact that he decided to do something for himself. “You were the one that went ahead and signed up for the archery club first.”

“Ok, but you took interest in a club first .” Emma retorted. Going back and forth like this with Emma would only result in her victory every time, so Ray just left it at that on a satisfactory note on Emma’s part.

In the corner of the street, Norman saw the lady in a black suit again. He’s had his own guesses about the strange person.

“That must be the one surveilling us.” Ray chimed in, reading Norman’s mind before he got the chance to ask. His hands rested snugly in his pant pocket, and his normal passive expression was back.

“The government?” Emma suggested.

“Sort of. A branch section of the government specifically created to help us fit in, I guess. Normally they’d assist us more directly. But I guess we don’t need them. Just a temporary distant guard.”

“Where did you get that information?” Norman asked, his suspicions earlier were spot on, yet Ray seemed to know much more than him.

“Huh? I asked.” Ray said.

“What.” Emma and Norman stared at him, questions already forming in their minds.

“I straight up asked the lady and she answered back with no questions.” Ray made a hmm sound as if wondering if he should say the next part. “And then I left.”

“Rude!” Emma shook his shoulders back and forth. “Go back and apologize!”

“Ok, but I thanked her and left.” Ray tried to clarify and he held his hands up in defeat, leaving Emma no choice but to let go. “Besides, the car’s gone already.”

Emma looked over Ray’s shoulder. “Ah, you’re right.”

“If you have any more questions I’m all ears,” Ray said with nonchalance. He was showing off in his usual passive demeanor.

“Encyclopedia Ray is making a comeback!” Norman laughed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ray smiled with more content evident on his tone this time.

It was already seven into the night, and the sun was long down. So they unanimously decided to eat out tonight. As they approached the brightest section of the city where traffic and business were the busiest on all terms, they had trouble deciding what to eat—however, this was by far, better than any other troubling decisions they ever had to make, and hopefully, it would stay that way.

Chapter Text

Emma stood at the sidelines with her team, the ones not participating were seated near the competing area as supporting members. She minded not of the loud cries in the gymnasium at all. Much of the seats were filled, and many were gathering along the walls of the second floor for a better view than the seats. Emma looked just as pumped and ready to go like her teammates—and her teammates were equally as motivated to return the enthusiasm Emma gave out.

Ray and Norman stood on the second floor of the viewing sections, baffled from certain shock. Despite the lack of interest from the majority of the student body at their school, archery fans outside of their school were far from none, some of them must have come from a pretty distance away from their city just for this competition.

The archery competition took place at 10 AM during a Wednesday in the morning. It goes without saying that Ray and Norman were playing hooky for the first time just to see Emma at her first competition (it wasn’t even a hard decision they’d just up and left for the building in a taxi in the morning (after they walked to school to drop Emma off first).

Two weeks had passed, and in this short time period, was when the three had gotten very invested with their own after-school activities despite the time constraint each time they meet up, so they make the best out of each meeting (sometimes they’d even stay behind an hour or two because of the fact that they absolutely cannot leave things unfinished).

At first, their involvement with activities in the human world was moving on like a slow bumbling truck, just like their loose awkward schedule of attending school and going back home together with no real afterthoughts of the next day in sight. With little to no changes at all to their free time—to anyone it has finally gotten too boring.

Then, things began to pick up momentum. As they each found their own place due to each of their own peers’ welcoming and of their own interest to become involved, things can finally happen.

Emma was the third and last member to shoot. Her first two team members did well on the first round—a 10-8-9 and an 8-9-9. The crowd’s roaring came to no end, although there were brief intervals of silence when the emcee was talking.

Ray side eyed Norman who was standing next to him. He was leaning against the round metal guard rails, focusing deeply on the competition, although Ray’s just as into the game as well.

The team members had a small talk with Emma before patting her on the back, and she returned the gesture with a seemingly embarrassed smile. Emma stood on the elevated platform and stood in position. She visibly took a deep breath before lifting the big compound bow along with the arrow in place.

Ray held back the immense urge to whistle or just move his arms with excitement every time Emma shot at the bullseye with ease, but he looked into the future and saw a Norman teasing him endlessly, and barely managed to hold back.

Again, Emma stood in position, pulled onto the string with the arrow, paused for a brief moment. That magical moment felt like time had stopped just for her, then she released it into the bullseye. The crowd (and Norman, which Ray graciously held him back to prevent anything too serious from happening) has officially reached a fever point in the gym.

/

The aftermath of the competition was brought to a close after so much had happened. The top prize was claimed, other teams were friendly, although there were undertones to their congratulations that spelled out We won’t be beaten next time.

Norman’s throat was exhausted and spent and talking was marathon work for him. Ray’s throat wanted to scream with all its might.

Emma had gone with the other members to the club room for some remaining club meetings to discuss the aftermath of the competition, so Ray and Norman went on ahead—although it didn’t take long because Emma swiftly came running after them to the main school building. Their shoe lockers at the entrance were spaced apart by a few boxes but were still located in the same section. There were three sections and they all happened to be assigned their shoe locker at one side.

As they entered the building, the colorful bright posters were plastered onto the wall across from them after where the shoe lockers ended.

When Ray opened up his locker, he saw the white and red rectangle to blended into the white locker with a light shade of blue on the inside—he tucked the envelope into his book bag without hesitation and sighed internally.

“Eh?” Emma pulled out an envelope from her own locker, and Ray’s eyes widened. The pattern was different than his, but it still brought the same surprised feeling he felt when he saw one in his locker.

“What’s that?” Norman asked, although his eyes were already understanding the situation quickly after asking.

“A love letter, it seems.” Emma’s lips pursed into a thin line, the edge of her lips were trembling in the slightest way, as if she doesn’t know what to do. She flipped the envelope over again, seeing the heart sticker in the middle of the flap.

Emma’s expression looked indifferent despite the occasion (or maybe she did not know how to feel), whereas Ray made an effort to show a slight gagged look at the letter, not to mention Norman looked like he was about to do something bad (no, not literally, if he does, Ray and Emma would do that for him if he just asked).

They had a unanimous agreement to deal with this later, so Norman had gone up and excused himself to head to the orphanage, leaving only the two at the lockers.

“Okay then, I’ll be heading to my club now,” Ray waved Emma off.

“Wait,” Emma tugged at the hem of Ray’s navy blue uniform, making him halt in his steps and turn his head over to her.

“What?”

Emma’s first place medal dangled in front of her, the gold plate was flickered brightly as it reflected light in its short dangling session. “Can I hang at your club room until you leave? You mentioned before that we could so just for today, ‘cause I have nothing better to do today.”

“Hm,” Ray observed her expression for a moment. “Then I’ll text the club leader that I won’t be able to drop it today.”

“Huh? You can do that?” Emma’s grip on the hem of his shirt was still there, and it just tightened more.

“Too bad the astronomy club isn’t a goal-oriented club, so attendance isn’t really mandatory, but I still need to at least tell him that I won’t be coming,” Ray pulled out his phone from his pants pocket and opened up the texting app to a person’s chat box. “We’re just there to throw astronomic jargon at each other, unlike yours.”

“Hey! We have our own little lessons about archery too!”

Ray nodded mindlessly. “Yeah, yeah. I still have to pick something up from the club room, so don’t switch out your shoes yet.”

The astronomy club was always welcoming, probably the most chill and laid back yet firm regarding certain rules (he found that an awfully fitting place to spend his after-school hours in). He wondered—that if a non-member came into his club room and witness how they interact with each other, how would they react? Seeing Emma’s and Norman’s shocked faces just brought a chortle out of Ray’s mouth.

Ray slid the door open and a colder breeze hit both of their faces, revealing a room stocked with bookshelves over two meters tall, aligned together in a circular way that it felt like a simple maze. A page flipped from a book, the sound of it echoed through the room, through the bookshelves that kept each member obscured from another’s sight within a meter, although the air conditioning drowned the extra sounds out after that.

Ray had no clear expectations of how the club progressed as a club itself. The entire club seemed to just be a place for silent reading for bookworms, but he was wrong.

“Hey, Sirius. Had fun at the competition today?” A voice came from one corner of the room, then a human person emerged from the back of a tall bookshelf.

“Sirius?” Emma whispered in confusion towards Ray’s way, her hands covered her mouth from the other member’s view.

“How’d you know, Dipper?” Ray responded with the same nonchalance Altair had thrown his way.

“ Eh—? ” Emma’s face was adorned with pure confusion, and that one cowlick atop her head stood up in the straightest form Ray has seen it in. Her posture was stiff as well. Ray snickered internally, well aware this would happen—also, he still wanted to continue this charade before Emma figured it out on her own exactly a moment later.

“Emma, this is Dipper, the president of the club,” Ray gestured towards Dipper. Ray recalled he had a physical build that was on the more slender side, but his uniform seemed to have covered it up.

Dipper smiled, then bowed forward in a slight forty-five degree angle to greet Emma with a quick introduction, and Emma returned the gesture with a flustered quick bow. She instinctively stood just an inch further back, almost like she was hiding behind Ray. “Lyra is in the same club as your friend,” Dipper said. “So I hear it from them all the time during breaks.”

“Then I’ll retrieve your package right now, so just settle down somewhere until I come back,” Dipper

Ray introduced the two to the rest of the members who were currently in the room slowly. One of them, nicknamed Altair, looked flustered to see non-members, Ray recalled she was one of the members who were on the shy side, so he didn’t stray any further besides a brief introduction.

During their wait, some members did come over to chat with them out of courtesy (mainly Ray, really), but only astronomy related stuff, of course. Emma joined in relatively easily, which was expected although her knowledge on these things was on the shorter end. She would hand the conversation over to Ray after she’s had her fill with the current topic.

-

“What did Dipper give you?” Emma said curiously, her head slightly leaning onto Ray’s arm. They were already out of school campus before Emma brought the question up. They were nearing the big busy streets of the city, yet by the way and direction they were walking in, there didn’t seem to be a destination in mind for either of them. That didn’t matter to them though.

Ray looked down and glanced at the box with a fond smile, piquing Emma’s curiosity more. They waited at the edge of a sidewalk for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green.

“What. Is. It?!” Emma headbutted at Ray’s biceps, causing him to let out a groan of pain.

“Get your antenna out of the way and then we’ll talk,” Ray’s free hand flicked at her hair and Emma hesitantly returned back to her normal stance and folded her hands behind her back. She threw a hissy look at his way in which Ray snorted in response, pressing salt onto a wound.

The light turned green, and the mass crowd that already formed near and behind them start their walk into the big streets.

“Try and guess what it is,” Ray shot a smug look at her as they began walking, the distance between their walking never changed, their sleeves always almost brushing against each other at certain points.

Emma tapped her chin with her finger. “Hmm. You had the astronomy club order it for you so it should

“It’s a projector. A planetarium projector.”

“Projector?”

“When we were back at Mr. James’ mansion, you guys were complaining that afterward, we won’t be seeing stars every night anymore, we’ll try this out tonight.”

“Excuse me, with my perfect memory, I think it was only you doing all the complaining.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“It’s true!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Ah! Ray, look!” Emma pointed at a distant shop from where they were. It was a cafe that opened up a few moments ago.

Emma stared at the wooden signs hung outside the shop dreamily. The pretty colored boards where they saw inside the shop from the window evoked a comfortable feeling on the eyes.

“Norman would want some panna cotta,” Emma cried, her eagle eyes already spotted the cupped deserts displayed at a curved fridge counter.

“Hah! You mean you would want some?” Ray ruffled the top of Emma’s hair, leaving it in a messier state than before. Emma’s mouth trembled with excitement, too distracted by the treasure before her to care about the state of her hair. Without further interruptions, they entered the cafe like it was a majestic castle entrance (at least only Emma was doing that) to purchase a considerable number of sweets and pastry for a midnight snack.

Chapter Text

At first, Emma read the letter alone, but decided to turn for Norman and Ray for reasons of her own.

Ray responded with a blunt comeback of his own, saying that a love letter shouldn’t be read to other people like that. Then Norman responded with a comment of his own.

- Ray, are you that ~jealous~ that you don’t even want to hear the contents in that letter?

-Hah! Says the one ready to slam dunk someone’s head the moment you saw that was a love letter!

“ Dearest Emma, ” Emma began to read out loud, her eyes widened slightly, but returned back to a norman state soon after.

“Who?” Norman’s voice was quiet and borderline menacing for a moment, then swiftly returned to his curved little smile when Ray dunked a spoonful of panna cotta into his mouth.

“At least dry your hair first, idiot.” Ray threw a towel on top of Emma’s hair, the ends of her wet hair were threatening to drip droplets.

Then they proceeded to have a one on one staring contest as she rubbed the towel all over in a quick speed.

“Ok, keep reading the letter,” Ray said. Norman looked like he was about to jump at Ray after the sweet milky spell of the panna cotta faded away, but he can’t, his physical abilities limited him to do so.

Emma cleared her throat. “ I hoped your recent school days were peaceful and enjoyable. Because meeting you was one of the I would like to get straight to the point, Emma. I am— ”

The rest of the confession reading went by in a blur.

It wasn’t lengthy but there were many times Emma had to pause her reading, but it was probably not because she was embarrassed, but she purposely skipped a few parts and probably added words of her own. Ray whistled sometimes, simultaneously dunking another spoonful of panna cotta into Norman’s mouth, emptying the cup in quick succession.

“That sounds more like a commercial rather than a confession letter,” Ray admitted after Emma finished reading and she gave him a stink eye.

“Did they say their name?” Norman inquired in a calm tone. Emma nodded.

“Spill,” The two boys said at the same time.

“Nope!” Emma sing-songed, folding the letter back with the already existing creases and slipped it back into the envelope. “This is confidential information!”

“ Ehhhh??? ” Norman rested his head on the table, his entire face below his sulky eyes sunk into his wooly sweater. Ray patted his head to calm him down for extra measure.

“Alright! Now that this is out of the way, Norman, you wanted to use the bath, right?”

“Wha—yeah. Do you already know what you’re going to say?” Norman asked, already preparing to get up from his chair.

“Yeah,” Emma gave him an exasperated look, which he raised his eyebrows to. But nonetheless, he went up and away to do his remaining night duties before bedtime.

Ray and Emma stayed behind at the dining table for a different discussion but still related to the confession letter, which brought Emma to a different light than she initially saw. Emma saw a brief look of annoyance on his face when they finished, but that was understandable.

Then shortly after, Ray excused himself to go shower, and Emma teased him that she’d eat his pudding if he didnt make it down in half an hour—Ray gave her the stink eye.

In his room, Ray palmed the outside of his school bag that was resting on his polished wooden desk. He reached out with hesitant hands of his own, reaching to open the zipper and pull out an envelope with similar pink and red patterns. He made a face that even he was surprised he was capable of making for something this trivial.

/

The closest weekend came and the decision was made on a whim, made when Gilda yelled over the phone to Emma and she accepted it just as quick as she picked up the phone.

“Gilda! Gilda!” A yell came from the entrance of the house. “Anna! Anna!”

The three met up at the entrance of Emma’s place for an outing. Ray and Norman are staying at home this time, probably going to read the entire day away, or doze off.

“Alright, you people have fun, bye bye,” Ray said with the greatest nonchalance and waved them off with a slight smile before shutting the door, not giving the girls a chance to return the gesture. Emma caught a glimpse of Ray taking Norman by the hand before the door completely shut.

“He never changes,” Gilda laughed, then walked forward to Emma.

“Emma—” Gilda proceeded to latch her grabby hand onto Emma’s head hard. A brief gasp of surprise left Anna’s mouth.

“Ow!” Emma stumbled forward from the impact and half-glared at Gilda, teary eyed. “What was that for—?”

Gilda pinched both sides of Emma’s cheeks with a furious look on her face.

“How. Dare. You. Not come visit me during break time at school!” Gilda’s breakdown continued as Emma made a whiny face. It was more out of concern and a hint of disappointment on the other end.

“G-Gilda!” Anna tried to mellow the situation out with her soft gentle voice. “I’m sure Emma has her own tasks to do during school—” Gilda shot her a disconcerted glare as if that was impossible.

“I’m showwy—” Emma cried in between Gilda’s hard squeezes on her cheeks. “I’ll come by more when I remember to do sho, awwight?”

Gilda released her grip on Emma’s cheeks and held them gently, sighing in defeat. “If you’re sorry, then I have nothing to say.” She smiled warmly.

“I’m just a bit peeved that you might forget about me because you’re having so much fun here.” Gilda sniffed.

“Gilda,” Emma took her by the hand and their foreheads met. “Forgetting about you? Or Anna? Or anyone else? That’s impossible.”

Gilda opened her mouth to say something but pursed her lips in a thin smile.

“That’s unfair! Let me join in!” Anna gripped the hem of her white skirt and puffed her cheeks before lunging forward to join them in a hug. Emma started laughing as she opened up a space for Anna to join in.

“Haha!”

A melodic ping sounded once from Emma’s tan windbreaker pocket.

Ray : can you lot leave now so I can have my quiet time ?????????

Norman: Ray let them live it’s been so long since they hung out

“Emma,” Gilda gestured for her to hand the phone to her and Emma let her.

Emma: stay mad ray

Emma: have your quiet time?? with norman i presume?

Emma seemed the least concerned that Gilda’s typing for her—and just like Emma, Anna simply watched the scene unfold with a trembling mouth, about to spill with a sweet laughter of her own.

“Ah. Right. I swear I saw Ray swipe his hands onto Norman’s the moment he shut that door.” Emma said.

“Ooh, Ray’s typing.” Gilda giggled in anticipation.

Ray: gilda i fucking SWEAR

“Alright! Let’s head out now!” Emma wrapped both her arms around the two girls’ and led them out of the front gates. They continued laughing at the previous text message until they passed the gate.

-

“Where should we go first?” Anna asked. They were currently a block away from the house, with the busy shopping centers as their destination in mind.

“We should go clothes shopping!” Gilda said with glee.

“Arcade! Arcade!” Emma cheered.

They both said at the same time. Facing each other with a look of silence, the victor was already there.

“Alright,” Gilda started counting on her fingers as she made a mental list. “So first, we’ll be heading over to a few shops. Then, we’ll compete in that dance game in the arcade that Emma’s practically drooling over the thought of it!

“Anna, where do you want to go?” Gilda turned to her, and Anna brought her hand to her chin, seemingly thinking very hard about it. It wasn’t a surprise. This is their first outing together without any supervision. They were really normal school girls, even till today, if Emma thinks a bit deeper (which she did), it still seemed unbelievable that they were here.

“So Emma, I heard you got a love letter,” Gilda cooed.

“Huh? Oh, right, forget about that.” Emma waved them off. “It’s a prank.”

“What? Prank?” They both said with questioning looks written all over the faces.

“But, I don’t think the letter Ray got was a prank though.”

Emma made a sound of annoyance that seemed like it was more on behalf of someone else rather than herself, as usual.

“ Society really didn’t progress much in high school, huh. Everyone’s still hung up somehow on drama and willing to do at least something to make a move on the person they like —said Ray.” When Emma paused to look at Gilda’s and Anna’s reaction, she immediately backtracked and held her hands up.

“Of course, we didn’t tell Norman that, but I think he would do something unimaginably wild.”

“Thank god, I also think that he will.” Gilda sighed. “Not just to you, but if Ray’s was a prank I think he’d do the same. And vice versa. He’s still scary.”

“Yeah! Norman is amazing, right? Ray’s amazing, right?” Emma cheered.

Her voice shot up in a bubbly and admiring way when mentioning their names. Gilda looked at her with a fond smile, and Anna laughed in response.

“Your acting was way better though,” Anna said, still laughing.

“Alright, but today, forget about your boyfriends for now, today is Gilda and Anna Day!” Gilda proudly said, then moved out to move Anna into the middle of their walking group and their walking pace increased.

Then they started running a bit, skillfully slowing down and picking up the pace whenever they encountered an obstacle (which was often, they’re in a busy city after all) excitement bubbled around their circle until they made it to their destination.

Chapter Text

In the past , Ray had desired a loving hug that mothers would give to their children, a hug that reassures them that their warm embrace would surely ease any pain they have felt, a good tender hug that tells them “It’s alright, right now in this moment, in my arms, you are the world, and when you leave, you can walk straight forward to the light with a bandaged and a reconciled soul.” Or simply in the normal days, just a hug to say good job today, good morning, or good night.

To say that he would not want to be hugged like that would be a lie. And the recurring thoughts came every so often, but time should continue, and makes those sharp blades that the thought was accompanied with, dull. That’s what he thought . But even if it’s dull, the fact that be never reconciled with his own self put him in a deadlock with moving forward.

-

“ Again ?” Ray asked, the two were standing in front of his temp room. Ray scratched the back of his head, sighing. His habitual actions were in full swing when he’s frustrated or so, more than often he’d hide his hands in his pant pockets as he throws a death glare at the people bothering him. “How many times do I have to tell you? You’re getting awfully persistent, about to beat Emma’s record.”

Ray looked to them with his usual empty look. Emma was hiding behind Norman, with an anticipating look that something might finally be done.

“Well, that’s an honor,” Norman snorted, and Emma slapped his back in a pouting manner, about to headbutt him but she was too short (and injured). Norman continued. “Are you going to refuse the classes again? They’re pretty short each day, you know?” Norman and Emma more or less invited themselves in.

“We can learn all of those when we’re finally given the go to leave.” Ray pushed the polished dark wooden door (those heavy ones) and it closed with a click. Emma’s seeing giraffes in a few days, right? Looking forward to that.”

“G- giraffes…! ” Emma squealed with an exasperated voice from behind Norman, clutching the back of his collared shirt, earning...not a single reaction from the boy, as he was already used to this. Instead, Norman instinctively held onto the crutches Emma was holding onto just in case, you never know.

The two of them made perfectly sure Emma was settled down right before even talking, it was hilarious how both of them turned into a frantic mess the moment her hands left her crutches again, which even caused some previous built up tension to leave the room the moment Ray opened the door. (But would you even call it tension if Ray was simply trying to spend his time alone?)

“Talking things out is our forte, right?” Norman handed Emma her crutches before sitting down. “So we should really sit down somewhere and smooth some rough edges out.”

It started out as a somewhat heavy conversation but was balanced with a few light jokes, a brief talk of everything they had gone through and finally building up the story for Ray.

In the end, nothing was progressing. Even though they knew each other so well, confronting and expressing what was meant to never be shared so it wouldn’t hurt anyone was easier said than done.

Emma lunged forward, again, not caring again for her own current condition.

“Emma!” Both of them shouted with concern immediately.

“I think...it’s alright, for now,” Emma said as she glided onto the floor, but the impact when she landed was there when her face showed a brief period of pain before disappearing. “That you can live as someone who can see a little seed of worth inside themselves. We can start with small steps, we’re just barely fifteen, right? Have a long way to go.”

Ray looked down. Norman knelt down as well to look up to him. “Oh, that’s unfair, Ray, you emo bangs are hiding your smiles.” Norman teased, lifting the bangs up, revealing a face that is stuck between wanting to cry and smiling.

“‘M not. Smiling.” Ray mumbled.

“You are!” Emma and Norman said, laughing. Emma pulled him in for a hug around the waist as she was kneeling down and Norman did as well. It wasn't entirely the hug he was expecting. He knew this would happen at least once when they'd talk, and expecting it filled his heart with the same sort of fondness one. They always gave him hugs that he never got tired of, and one that he can truly feel safe and content of.

“That goes for you two as well.” Ray grunted as he stood up after their hug loosened naturally after a short while, lifting Emma up and lent her his chair. He smacked the top of her head with a light punch from his fist and then smoothed it out again, earning a very angry grumble from her. Then, he gestured for Norman to stand up as well.

“For someone who cares so much about other people, you two also show a lack of concern for yourselves. It’s something that also needs some change.”

“That’s…” Emma started. She visibly bit her lower lip, and her head dipped downcast, her foot rubbed over her injured leg awkwardly.

“So in conclusion, we all have a lot of work to do, huh?” Norman laughed.

“That’s alright,” Ray said, the tone was surprisingly self assured for even his closest people to hear. “We all made it out alive and well, so we can practically do anything afterwards.”

Emma’s eyes sparkled with excitement to hear that coming from him. Norman eyed him with a fond, understanding look. “You’re right.”

“But giraffes first!” Emma cheered.

“Yes, yes!” Norman yelled along with her.

“Emma, abandon your post again and I’ll tape you to those crutches of yours until your leg gets better.” Ray hissed.

“What the hell?! What happened to the Ray a few seconds ago?” Emma wailed in disappointment.

“He is six feet under and will never resurface again. Norman . You better watch her too. Don’t get distracted by her excuses, because I know you will.”

Norman’s face was that of a dazed and spaced out cartoon character at the moment, surprised at what was said to him, but nonetheless complied fully.

“R-roger.”

/

“You still like your coffee black?” Norman asked with disbelief, as if the thought of drinking coffee without anything added brought a bitter taste to the back of his throat.

Right after that quick parting with Emma, Anna,and Gilda (over text), in which Ray furiously typed out various goodbyes, the house quiet and still, a very much fitting environment for the two of them to be in if Emma were absent. The ambience the entire house radiates out from the light brown wooden floor and the milky white walls added more charm to what was currently going on in the house.

Norman stood besides the counter where the coffee maker started doing its job. Ray seated himself on the dining seat diagonally from the coffee counter, so they could both talk to each other face to face, whether that was intentional, it totally wasn’t.

“It helps calm the idiot energy that's injected into my bloodstream everyday when the idiot’s gone.” Ray answered with his most honest face.

“Aw that’s mean,” Norman said, chuckling, the tone in his voice was playful.

“When I’m gone sometimes I’m sure Emma says dumb stuff like that about me, doesnt she?”

“Hmm…” Norman said, lifting the coffee pot, thinking at the same time. “Sometimes? A bit, I guess? You’re dumb,” Norman pointed to Ray with his free hand. He started to tilt the pot as the mug below filled with a fresh brew.

“Why not say ‘you’re both dumb?” Ray folded his hands up, resting his chin on it, and stared at him with a teasing look.

Norman set down the coffee pot and slapped both of his hands on the cold marble counter and sighed.

“I…” Norman looked down. “I cannot use that word against her like that…” His hands start shaking for a few seconds, his face turned red.

“ Weak ,” Ray called out with a singing voice.

Norman walked over to the table with two mugs of hot coffee in his hands, his slippers made sliding sounds because he doesn’t bother to lift his feet up when walking. He settled down on the seat next to Ray’s, the mugs landed onto the wooden table with a quiet dull sound.

Norman glanced momentarily at Ray, who was already picking up the mug for a first sip.

“No pinky?”

Ray finished gulping and looked to him. “Pinky?”

“Ah, sorry, no,” Norman thumbed his mouth, his face began to turn into a shade of pink from embarrassment. “It’s that I see a lot of people drink with their pinkies sticking out, I keep noticing that.”

“You notice the smallest and weirdest things.” Ray said.

“Doesn’t Emma hold that title?” Norman commented without hesitation.

“Hm?” Ray’s lips curled up in a mischievous manner. “Indirectly calling her little bad names is alright for you?”

The light pink turned into a deeper shade on Norman’s face, he was flustered, even surprised that something like that could slip out his tongue. Covering his face with two hands, he managed to mumbled out with that quickly reddening face and shaking voice.

“That’s… That’s not … Aaaaa …”

Ray watched him break down with a proud look.

“Hey. Wanna see this cool cat video that just went viral online?” Ray opened up his phone, and was already typing in the name on the search bar from his phone’s shortcut.

“You can’t just switch subjects so quickly!” Norman cried, his voice is still a bit unstable.

Ray flipped his phone down as soon as the page loaded, but didn’t play the video yet.

Instead, Ray pulled the short horizontal leg attached to the lower sides of Norman’s chair closer to his, and Norman was quick enough to know to adjust to the sudden movement.

“Ow.” Ray jammed his hand in between the seats. He clearly did not think this through. For some people in the so called full score trio, how would someone react to these small actions and talk performed by them in a matter of minutes?

Norman snorted and looked away. “Idiot,” He had to hold in a big laugh, but let a small laugh out.

Norman heard Ray grumble from behind his back, mumbling something, and right after that, his forehead was pulled back by Ray’s hand. Then, his entire body fell onto near the front of Ray’s shoulders.

“ Eh ?” He squeaked. “Ray, you’re going to break my bones, ow,” He turned his body to adjust to the semi-awkward position his body was sitting in.

Getting comfortable afterwards, Norman watched Ray opened up his phone again. The cat video was just a tap away from getting played—and the boy closes his phone...again.

“Hey, why’d you close it?”

Ray wrapped his arms around Norman’s head so that the latter’s chin and the side of his cheek rested snugly on Ray’s arms. If there was an extra chair to prop his legs it would be more comfortable, but Ray was doing all the work holding his head up, so that was fine.

“This position will turn awkward and very painful for me if it continues on.”

“You and Emma interrogating me was more awkward.” Ray closed in near Norman’s ear for a whisper. “And also verrry painful, but thank you.” Even though they weren’t facing each other, and also so sudden Norman had no extra time to take it in before Ray finally showed him the cat video, the message still went through.

Norman chuckled. This was one of many little things that he would do for someone he cared for, but to Ray, it evoked something of a bigger magnitude of gratefulness and resolve on his end.

They continued to scroll through the site for relevant cat videos afterwards in silence. Despite the quietness between the two, the occasional snort coming from either of them when a funny part came on during the video was enough for them to know they were both enjoying this.

The amount of coffee left in their mugs slowly reached the bottom after each loading session of the videos (no, it was all the ads, and they still haven’t purchased the premium version of the streaming site, or an app to block them out), but of course, Ray eventually finished the rest when Norman gave up trying to drink the last half. And the day continues on.

Chapter Text

“Yes. Yes. YES. Emma. Please stay still, I’m still evaluating.” Gilda’s starry eyed mode has turned on, the mode that she gets into once she sees someone in a promising outfit.

Gilda had somehow managed to convince Emma to wear a frilled dress that was still a prototype of hers. No, it wasn’t Gilda’s convincing words that made her accept, but because of the fact that she vaguely answered to Gilda’s messages from last night if Emma could try out some outfits for her. The moment Emma thought it would be fine to underestimate Gilda’s tendencies to go wild, this was a miss.

“Why do you have...gah!” The sash tightened around her waist. “Why do you have … your design studio here?” The outfit was heavier than most clothing she had worn before, not to mention, the fabric used on the dress were on the rough side, but if she doesn’t move, then it would be only the weight weighing her down. Gilda gave her an apologetic look for the discomfort but Emma quickly dismissed that. However, Gilda's sorry look soon turned to a quiet rumbling anger that will explode in a few seconds.

“See?! You don’t know about this either! The design studio!” Gilda puffed her cheeks angrily, adjusting the white frills attached to both sides of her dress in a zigzag line.

“I was very much aware you were in the sewing club...but not something of this caliber—in such a short time.”

“Gilda spent so much time in her room studying up and perfecting her techniques ever since we were able to live on our own..." Anna explained. "And I come home to a ghost’s apartment almost everyday.” She sulked.

Emma walked over, tears in her eyes. “A-Anna. Live with me.” She cupped both of Anna’s hands along with a determined stare. One that told everyone: I’m going to get you out of there.

“Why do you make it sound like I’m holding her hostage.” Gilda glowered at her. Then her eyes softened once she looked at Anna. “Sorry, Anna. Lately we haven’t been able to talk much.”

Anna opened her mouth to speak and shook her head in response. “It’s alright. Don’t apologize for that. I signed up for this. I know you’ve been wanting to do something like this for practically all your life. It’s nothing if I have to wait a bit.”

“Anna...you’re an angel.” Emma said in a shaky voice, her feelings touched at Anna’s words, then frightened at Gilda’s death glare afterwards.

“Alright!” Gilda clapped her hands together, as if she’s ready to unleash her ultimate attack. “Now that we’ve had our little touching scene let’s get Emma into all the outfits I have planned for her!”

“T-They won’t be as bad at this one right?” Emma croaked with fear, finally remembering that she’s still in this hellish prototype outfit. It looked more like a wedding dress, far from casual.

“Annnna,” Emma cried to her for help, but even Anna was helpless. Emma cursed under her breath, knowing that under that sweet angel facade, Anna was probably laughing. Speaking of laughing at her and teasing her, she was so glad Ray wasn’t here.

A flash of light came from the side.

“Ah, crap.” Gilda said, her phone was covering her mouth. “Forgot to turn off flash.”

“Eh?” Emma turned around at light speed, her face turned red like a tomato once realization dawned on her.

Chaos ensued.

The studio was still empty aside from them, even though on the weekends, Gilda had said the older members should be here already, but having the studio all to themselves was pretty nice in its own way. No need for extra introductions.

After Gilda had finally done keeping everything in check in the studio, they finally turned to the stores for real. The fact that the sewing club she was in was just a front for an even bigger club outside of campus was amazing. The club started out small over twenty years ago, then during some years many members had attended competitions which miraculously earned the school a well known reputation for that.

Over the years, they slowly built their reputation outside of school. The school doesn’t mind as long as they're producing results which can be said for every other club if they were responsible enough to keep it going for consecutive years.

That said, it was how it took Gilda such a short time to master the basics. Obviously she has had experiences from the past, but she has shown much more potential that other members were wowed by it.

“So you didn’t send them to those two right?” Emma asked Gilda.

“Ah. I already sent it to them, though.” Anna spoke up from next to her. Emma craned her neck to face Anna, betrayal and shock flushed to her face.

“What.”

Anna pointed at Gilda weakly and looked away, sighing.

“Gilda, you will receive no speck of kindness from me today.” Emma scowled.

“As if you were giving me any in the first time.” Gilda crossed her arms. Electricity practically zapped out of her eyes towards Emma’s. Things got tense for a moment but it was all let go like that. Hanging onto petty things like that fitted neither of them.

The second store Gilda decided to crash into belonged to an acquaintance of hers. They both rattled and squealed about the possibilities of outfit choices the store currently has. Her acquaintance also sneaked in the possibility of a higher discount if they purchase something because of Gilda’s relationship with her, which made Gilda cheer with glee.

Gilda suggested they buy some matching clothes in memory of their first outing together. Anna very much delighted on the idea of matching outfits and egged Gilda on, with each other own a bit tweaked in colors, shapes, or words.

/

“Emma, is there a place you have in mind that you want to go today?”

“Hmm. I didn’t really think that far. Sorry.”

“Expected.” Gilda let out another exhale, one that “You never change.”

“I did change! I’m taller than you now!” Emma raised her hand high with her palm facing the ground, swinging them left and right to emphasize the difference in their height…

“Emma, you’re barely two centimeters taller than me,” Gilda hissed.

She looked dead ready to kick Emma’s behind without hesitation.Those glasses of hers furthered the intimidating energy she gave off. Emma squeaked like a squirrel in fear.

“H-Hey, you two,” Anna raised her hands up frantically, attempting to break the childish tension between them.

When neither side faltered, Anna squished herself between the two.

“H-Hey!” It broke their attention towards each other towards Anna.

“A-Anna?” Emma said.

“Is everything alright?” Gilda said worryingly, already placing a hand on her shoulder and giving her a concerned look.

“There’s a place I want to go. Is that alright with you two?” Anna rubbed her two thumbs over each other, worry practically radiating off from her.

“Eh? Of course!” Emma beamed.

Anna gave her a warm smile back and looked to the last person for approval. “Gilda, you?”

She nodded.

Afterwards, as they started walking towards their new destination, Gilda looked spaced out for a moment. Then, she slammed her fist down onto her other palm in realization, catching the other girls’ attention.

“Ah! I get it now.” Gilda smirked. “Ray’s always teasing you because of your height and now you’re trying to do this to me.”

“You’re finally commenting on that thing a few minutes ago? You’re very late.”

“But am I wrong?” Gilda rested one of her hands on her hips and readjusted her glasses.

Emma glared at her with the intention of wanting to clobber her (with love), but that would prove Gilda right. However, Ray hasn’t made much jokes to her lately so she didn’t know what to respond with.

Suddenly, Emma reached out to wrap her arms around both of the girl’s necks.

“I was right, right? How dare he?! Just because he hit that stupid growth spurt!” Gilda was probably imagining Ray with red devil horns or something. Probably sitting on his throne haughtily and shadowing everyone under his height with his own signature sneer.

“No! That’s not it at all!” Emma said, half-crying. “I missed you both so much!”

Anna sniffed quietly as Gilda looked as if she just got knocked out. Yes she did get knocked out, emotionally.

“Emma,” Gilda said, her voice slightly trembling. “I missed you too, you weirdo.”

“Yeah, I’m a weirdo, everyone’s friendly emotional weirdo.”

/

“And next, we have our update on the human-led exploration on Europa and second temporary settlement on Mars... ”

The cafe was not as rowdy as Anna described it, to their relief. All of the dogs on the attendance list was present and as soon as they paid the deed and entered the big room, the dogs of all

shapes and sizes roaming around freely welcomed them with tiny howls and pants.

They had wanted to order a few drinks first so they went ahead and did that. Settling down at a nearby table, they tapped on the touch screen device resting against the wall.

“Hmm. I think I’ll go with watermelon juice.” Emma said immediately. Gilda tapped the order in.

Anna studied the list of drinks for a bit before deciding.“I think I’ll get the lemon honey tea.” Gilda decided that she wouldn’t need any—and went diving into a sea of fur (not diving, literally, but her heart certainly fell and dived for every single canine in the room)

-

“Emma, Emma!” Anna squealed with glee. The small white bichon continuously rubbed his head against her hands until she pulls away.

“Anna, Anna!” Emma called from the other side

“You two please shut up for a moment and observe my wonderful relationship with Sheela.” Gilda nuzzled her head against the Samoyed’s forehead, and the dog licked her in response.

“Gilda, I really thought you’d be a cat person when we first saw that show on television.” Emma chuckled, remembering the days when they were still rehabilitating, learning about the current world.

“I am both! Both cats and dogs are equal in my heart.” It didn’t take long for Gilda to rub her eyes , “I can’t believe this. We’re actually here, in this dog cafe, living such a peaceful life, going out with you two—I just—can’t believe this,” Gilda wailed.

Sheela tilted her head, confused, but still nudged her shoulder and waits.

“Gilda, you’re making me go through .” Anna began to tear up.

“Make the great Anna go through such thing?!” Emma gasped dramatically and turned to Gilda. “Who’s the weird idiot crying now?” Emma said smugly.

The two continued to throw daggers at each other through intense glares, and also through a verbal debate of which breeds were better, in the end, they collectively agreed that they were all great, and thus the contest came to a halt. And nothing was solved.

“I wonder how does Ray and Norman put up with this…” Anna whispers to the bichon innocently, cooing at the dog once more.

Chapter Text

The day before, Norman and Ray lounged out at home. At first, Ray read up on the updated news about the current ongoing space missions, then he went on to search various texts and docuseries to save for later. Norman busied himself with...there was nothing for him to do. He still hasn’t found much things able to engage his brain actively.

However, he did take the step out to do something for himself, even if that job was another task for him to help others out again. That was a good step taken forward for him.

In addition, whatever the people he was close with liked, he also took an interest in, not only because of the person themselves, but the subject as well. It even made Norman wow at himself at how a person could make such a difference. So that’s why the people who could influence him to such a level only limited to a few.

So he spent the entire day lounging on the couch with Ray and that was that. He doesn’t think any minute was wasted, though.

Today was a Sunday, in which the three had impulsively decided to head out again. Another outing that doesn’t have a specific goal in place.

A day where they would hang by the mall again and quit whenever. No pressure, most of the time when they’d go out together, comparing their day to a soft breezes occasionally turning strong and such from like how the air rises and sinks, would be a good comparison.

The first place they decided to stop by was a place that sold tea drinks and other variations of sweets. Having spread across all over the world much more after the war due to many rebuilds and fixes, the varieties of drinks haven’t changed much—according to other people, due to the limits of how creative things can be done after so many decades.

After so long, to this day, things that could be enjoyed with friends and family stayed strong in this time’s current pop culture. Putting in some new science techniques also had its limits, the older generations claimed it’ll ruin the authenticity of the drinks. Other than that, new ideas are still introduced.

The line was long, but there was an unspoken and unanimous agreement between the three that this was going to be the shop that would decide how their day would go.

Norman brought his hands to his chin, a habit he does whenever he starts thinking. They huddled at a kiosk to order their drinks.

“That’s such a large selection of drinks.” He chuckled at the screen as he scrolled. “I’m a bit amazed.” Ray made a sound in agreement.

The lack of workers taking drink orders manually on the counter was expected. They’ve learned before, machines taking orders were barely heard of.

The few people around were the ones making all the drinks, some of which were specialized people helping those who have extra needs. So it wasn’t that lifeless.

Emma scanned her card, a card that can be refilled with money anytime in a convenience store and used anywhere at places which supports this payment, which is almost everywhere at this point. A short receipt was printed out per Emma’s request and a mini disc shaped device illuminating a red dot rolled out a few centimeters under the screen. The device will buzz loudly and turn blue when said order is ready.

“Hmm,” Emma took a glance around the shop after, looking at the receipt after. “It looks like it’s gonna take a while.

“Whoa,” Ray commented, peeking at their order number.

The place itself was not as packed, but the screen displaying number orders was flooded, most likely from online orders.

“If we need to wait at least twenty minutes, I think we should make the most out of our times and scout the mall out.” Emma suggested, not expecting them to act on her words but wouldn’t mind if they did.

“Actually…” Norman started. “I’ve kept an eye out on the store next door for a while now, is it alright if I check it out?”

“Sure—”

“No need to worry, I have my wallet secured.” Norman gave a thumbs up.

—That’s not trustworthy at all. The thought ticked in both of their minds nonstop as they telepathically spoke to each other with a few blinks of their eyes.

And so the two played a round of roshambo. Loser gets the duty of waiting for the drinks.

By the time they were finished—Ray won—which was just five seconds later, Norman was waving to them from the entrance of the store.

“He’s actually so excited for this, it’s almost exhilarating to see.” Ray snorted, his head tilted left as he was left in awe.

“Isn’t it fine this way?” A short but fond laugh came from Emma. “I’d like to see him to do something I wouldn’t expect him to do. Now go!” Emma gave Ray a small push. “Don’t let his money walk away so easily like last time!”

“You think I can stop him?” Ray questioned her with serious intent in his tone.

“Just talk about anything!” Emma instructed him with an enthusiastic smile, her arms extended out making her body form the letter ‘T’. Her white polka-dotted sundress—which were only dotted on the latter half of her dress—made her presence look all the more bigger during this.

“Talk about vague .” Ray deadpanned. But he won, so he’d figure it out on his own regardless of what she said.

“Alright then, Emma, keep us posted.” Ray casually waved her off.

“Yes!” Emma saluted him.

Her signature embarrassed giggle of hers came in, which almost always ended up badly for Norman because he can still—never find a way to conceal his rosy cheeks from blooming pink from her giggle (Ray has succeeded, through rigorous training. Also his bangs helped him cover up many times).

He turned on his heels and jogged towards the entrance, where a confused Norman was wondering what the salute was about.

-

The music in the store drowned out all conversations nearby. The first song played as Ray and Norman entered, it was a pretty standard instrumental music, a mainly piano based piece.

There was literally nothing for him to say. So he—

“How’s life?” Norman suddenly asked before he got the chance, which put Ray at a complete stop in his steps.

Ray gave him a look. “Fruity.” He then answered.

“Fruity? Sour or sweet?”

“Sweet like our cake times after school, sour whenever I see you stuff your wardrobe with cardigans.”

“That’s harsh, literature student.”

“All because I think you have enough white clothes already, cardigans especially .”

“Don’t you dare question me. I think I am pretty smart. Smart enough to know what I’m doing.” Sparkles practically shoot out from Norman’s eyes as he eyed the clothing resting on the racks. Even Ray was starting to hallucinate that the cardigan was cold sweating from Norman’s intense look.

“Pretty smart? Pretty smart?!” Ray whispered harshly, messing up the top of Norman’s hair, but the latter doesn’t even care. “It’s only during these times when you put your intelligence into this when it has zero correlation, what the hell! I hate you.”

“Wait! I’ll just get one— wah!” And then Norman found himself in another chokehold by Ray.

“In terms of strength I can still drag you away, now can I?”

“Ray, please let go now. Not that I mind being put in a chokehold by you ‘cause I literally can’t avoid it but someone might see.”

“What are you, a masochist?” Ray loosened his grip as Norman leaned back up right and raised his arms once to stretch.

“The security cameras probably already saw but alright.” Ray added.

“You know, Ray,” Norman sighed. “I originally had no interest about the human world at all. All I wanted was a happy future with you guys. Just thinking of that immediately grew an interest within me that I thought I’d never get.

“But after we got here, I started wondering again—” Norman said, his eyes softened as they met Ray’s, as if they were reminiscing about the past. “What is a happy future?

“A happy future?” To Ray, the subject of Norman’s weird clothing obsession was thrown out the window and he let his guard down for one moment. Somehow, Norman’s soft voice affected him deeply (he expected that). “You being alive of course—”

“With my cardigan, of course!” Norman sing-songed, clutching at the two racks of clothing close to his chest.

Ray took a deep breath, slightly biting his lips to suppress a childish but angry yell. “Had I not known you since birth for your peculiar way of trickery, I might have buried you six feet under already.”

Norman hums. “I’m happy you’re here, Ray.”

“Eh?”

Norman dunked the two racks of cardigans to Ray quick and the latter held his hands out without thinking. Even Norman himself wasn’t so laid back in the past, not to mention Ray as well.

But having to confront their own self before they were let out into the human world, or maybe even far before that, either way, it worked out in the end. Emma just found the new life another way to bother them to death, not that he’s opposed to that.

“Dumbass,” Ray flicked the big curl on Norman’s hair, and then his forehead.

“ Ack— ” Norman sucked in his lower lip, sulking at the sting he felt on his forehead.

“I should be saying that to you , idiot. Dumbass.” Ray cursed.

“Ehehe. You said dumbass twice.” He eyed at the cardigan he had Ray hold.

“Question, why two cardigans now?” Ray grumbled, unable to bring back that angry energy he just had because of the sudden change in topic. Then he widened his eyes in realization.

- That freaking—he did this on purpose! It was too late to realize that, though.

“We should match clothes together someday.” Norman said in a higher tone this time, his gushy expression showed he was practically raving happily at the thought of them matching in his mind.

“So you already had one of these at home?” Ray growled, but was unable to say anything more. His entire body already turned and is making its way towards the cash register—and so Norman followed him from beside in silence, happily.

“Aw, you’re already nagging me like a grown adult would,” Norman cooed.

“When it comes to maturing quick, I am quite literally twelve years ahead of you, big brain.”

They’re third in line. Currently, there were only two employees working at the cash register, which both looked like young adults, college students?

“Wouldn’t it be technically six years, though, because that’s when you finally told her ,” Norman inquired him with curiosity.

Ray snorted. “Are you trying to be generous?”

“If I’m trying to be realistic here, then that’s the way to go, though.” He laughed.

The cashier greeted them in a warm polite tone and went to haste with checking out the two clothing. They were folded neatly and tucked away in a paper bag quick, proving their efficiency and experience in this line of work. The price was displayed at the small rectangular screen on the counter.

“Cash?” She asked, gesturing to the large sticker plastered in front of Ray that showing all the payment accepted. Ray pulled his phone out.

“Vpay.”

“Alright,” She waited as Ray scanned the square code stickered onto the desk and entered the due price. The process took less than twenty seconds (if one was skilled enough to know where to scan and what to input, which Ray, funnily, knows much about) as a small announcer stated the success of the transaction.

“I think we should play at an ‘arcade’ or something. You know, get our childhood innocence back.” Norman emphasized the last sentence. The automatic glass door opened and they walked out.

“The fact that such reasoning like that came out of your mouth instead of Emma’s is scaring me.” Ray shuddered.

“Is that a no?”

The ends of Ray’s lips curved up. “I never said that.”

They walked back to the drinks shop. The line was not thinning at all, almost like there was a buy one get five free or something going on. They managed to spot Emma through the crowd outside, who managed to snatch a table for them, along with the tall drinks they had ordered.

“Welcome back,” Emma groaned. She rested her cheek on her hands on the round yellow table she had claimed, taking small sips of her fruit tea. The table had cushioned bench seats on one side and two separate milk white seats on the opposite side.

“What’s with the long face?” Ray casually pulled out seat for Norman to sit before he settled down himself. Norman doesn’t say anything but his mouth threatening to smile said it all. Emma handed the drink to him. Emma half-smirked into her straw at the sight and that did not go unnoticed by him.

“Ahem,” Emma cleared her throat. “Nothing, you guys took longer than expected. I feel like a neglected soggy oreo.” She sucked in her lips sadly. Norman immediately apologetic towards the ordeal.

Ray blanched. “Emma. Never. EVER make me imagine such a thing again.” A sharp poking sound from the straw goes into his drink.

“Come on, Ray, it wasn’t the worst one.” Norman suggested.

“Tch.”

/

“Arcades are the places that won’t ever change much, huh?” Emma’s eyes toured every corner of the room as far as they can see. The carpeted floor was in a simple black color, with a red stripe that lined around the room every couple meters.

They exchanged enough for one hundred playing tokens that was collected into a small red threaded bag. It was one of those bags which can be loosened and tightened from the strings circling near the opening.

Emma suggested they do a game that tested their shooting skills, her eyes subtly find its way to Norman multiple times.

“Norman, Norman! Did you see that?” Emma turned to him, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. She had just beaten someone’s high score. And now she’s in seventh place.

It wasn’t a game to shoot monsters, but rather a game to hunt flying creatures in the sky, which to some extent, still has it own roots of blood if you think too hard, because it was a shooting game after all.

During their first try, Emma took more time to adjust to the high sensitivity of the rifle whenever she tried to aim at something, while Ray picked up the pace pretty fast after a few misses, stacking his points up like crazy. In the third try, Emma was racking up points

But it was a team game, which also meant both of them had contributed handsomely to the final score, stacking up consecutive ten pointers and combos which were listed as well.

“N-O-R-M-A-N. There!” Emma pressed enter and he name flashed thrice on the placement before staying there permanently.

“Is this...pity?” Emma started whistling off key (there was an attempt, she can’t whistle). Norman brought his weak hands to his chest, “But I appreciate the kind gesture, thank you, Emma.”

They continued on together, spectating other players and then proceeding to play the games themselves. Ray often strayed away from the two after seeing

“Regain childhood innocence my ass,” Ray gestured for Emma to come over, and she pranced to him happily, almost too happily. She was still high on the energy from getting a high score on the last game.

Emma gave him a funny look after he took his share of the tokens and booked it to the coin pusher machine.

“He looks like he’s having fun.” Norman said, disrupting her own thoughts.

“That?!” Emma said, wide-eyed. Emma turned her head from Ray’s deirections to Norman’s multiple times. “ That is what he thinks is having fun?”

Norman slightly shrugged and a small grin formed on his lips. “He sure looks comfortable watching coins fall, so I’ll say yes.”

Ray bulldozed his portion of tokens down in a gentle and consistent pace and gained an adequate amount of tickets, whereas Emma and Norman mowed down their token amounts in fluctuating rates on all the games they can try. It was mostly due to how Emma beamed with even more energy at each station, and Norman found no way to refuse. Even if Emma reassured him that he can simple sit out and watch her play—because to her, simply his warm presence can motivate her to try harder, which brought a rosy appearance to his cheeks and the tips of his nose.

“ Norman ,” Emma whined. Something tingled inside his heart. “I need extra support.” Emma’s eyebrows knitted closely as her eyes stared at the screen with an alarming expression.

“Sure. Support? Should I time the moment where you can get a jackpot through the slots and let it rain down coins or should I—

“No! Not like that,” Emma puffed her cheeks and turned to him. She seemed impatient somehow, as if she was expecting Norman to understand right on the spot (which he did, but is in a state of denial as always). And the game was over because she looked away.

“Norman, try loosening up a bit and play just because, none of the math stuff.”

Norman’s hand found his way on Emma’s head, slowly patting the top of her fluffy bangs.

“Ehehe.” Emma giggled.

A state of utter shock and complete stop of his heart is what Norman found himself in.

“It’s much more fun if you don’t put as much brain juice in these type of games,” Emma added.

“B-brain juice…” Norman repeated at the weird choice of words weakly. His hand was still patting at her hair, and he pulled away, regretting as the pads of his fingertips leave the last strand.

“Thank you for the extra HP, Nor~man .” Emma gave him a thumbs up and turned back to the screen.

“I think my HP overcharged and overheated…” Norman mumbled, his other hand covered his face and stayed that way until he finally calmed.

After another game, a hand rested on Norman’s shoulders. Ray looked pretty exhausted. The thick stack of tickets gripped on his other hand was, very shocking. An instant look of relief flushed across Ray’s face as he continued resting on Norman’s shoulder.

A moment after Ray finally done his deed and let go, Norman dropped down to the floor in a kneeling position as he facepalmed.  “My HP just got depleted by you. Don’t touch me,” He sobbed.

Ray raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What is this an RPG game?”

Result : It was fun, and they will hang like this again in the summer (or when they’re free).

Their last stop was the claw machine. Many displayed various animal plushies, one of which had multiple giraffe plushies in it as well. It sparked a fire in Emma’s heart, the determination in her to get at least one of them is lit fiercely in the pupil of her eyes.

Round one is Emma. They found a good giraffe in a decent spot to pick up. And with her good eyes and naturally good instinct, she picked it up!

But it was dropped. So the two boys offered to try once as well, and Emma lets them go. Watching them play was just as intense as playing it herself. Both had managed to pull it up with general ease but dropped before it made it to the hole in the corner.

Ray lent Emma a comforting shoulder for her to slam her forehead on. Norman felt his shoulders sting dully as he watched.

In the end, Emma tried one last time before they leave—one is because  she won’t rest well until she gets it, two is that they washed down all their tokens to the last one.

The machine boomed loudly with its audio after the claw let go of the giraffe. A loss for Emma.

— Ahahah! Try again next time! The voice was lively and sounded like someone was squeaking their shoes on the floor after it finished.

“Not funny, didn’t laugh.” Emma fumed. She pointed a finger at the machine with a vengeful look in her eyes, all the bright emerald color flushed out.

The machine continued to color and circle around the white borders of the entire box with light neon colors, unaffected. Surprisingly, Emma decided to end it right there, as if all her energy was expended by this simple game.

— Till next time, devil. Emma threw death glares at the inanimate box as she was escorted away from both sides.

They finalized the amount of ticket won, amounting to a whopping thousand (plus a few hundred more), which wasn’t a big number in comparison to wanting to exchange them for top prizes, but the number was more than enough for each of them to pick out little trinkets to get.

Norman exchanged a small notepad that would probably break from the spirals first in a few weeks’ time. Having found no items to his liking and appeal in the same ticket range he was given, Ray handed his share of the points to Emma, who graciously thanked him more than necessary, which always gets him flustered to the bone, also because they’re in fact, in public .

They took their first breath of fresh air after they passed through the doors of the arcade. As they started walking, Emma shared the candy she had exchanged. She had gotten the same notepad as Norman, and the rest she cashed in for taffy candy and some hard candy pops in coming in an assortment of solid colors.

The trio walked in a good strolling pace with their route home was already memorized. Even if they didn’t, Emma would say: My gut feeling will take you two home! And Ray would retort her statement: Are you dumb? Or something along that line, but less direct.

Norman’s way of handling the situation would be a bit sparse if we’re talking about his general reactions. Sometimes laughing alongside with them, or taking sides, causing a bigger childish feud that would entertain their walk back a little more. And sometimes, he would be dragged into their feud and end up as the main subject of their banter, which is something Norman didn’t mind at all.

Chapter Text

Norman was on his way to the orphanage again. This time he had brought a few goodie bags for the children he was tutoring for, and the ones who aren’t in his group yet, but still approached him with the means to ask him to play.

Passing through the busiest parts of the city, he would see another show premiering yet again another animated piece on that large flat screen on some building. It featured a story of fighting, most of the time where humans would fight creatures well above their skill level, yet persevere and continue on—just like him.

Norman drew a thin line in between his lips as he watched with the loose crowd around him. It sure was interesting. Of course, he’d read books featuring stories with the same sort of structure back when he was small, but seeing a visual piece of it really was really different.

It was how much humans long to live through the fictional characters’ lives, when they sometimes live in constant peril, driving themselves into danger when they didn’t have to but still did because of their kind nature. Perhaps it was because they are special is why they are the main character, not because they are the main so they get to be special.

And yet, never lost sight of the beacon of light in the distance, never truly giving up. Yet if this had happened to themselves, maybe they would have second thoughts about it, which was what Norman first thought. Later, he thought that was stupid at most, it was just a story, visually appealing to the masses like any other forms of entertainment.

Really, just a few years ago, even a big camera was something he’d fawn over, and now? With all the high tech and news around him? Yes, clothing, his cardigans, but that’s not the point.

Now, he’d scoff at himself. More often than he would have liked, his eyes would soften at the determination and the idealistic kindness from a few main characters of various show trailers playing—way better than an unnecessary dark comparison to his own vivid memory experienced from the other world when it was never going to come back at him anymore in this place.

A few children were already waiting outside the orphanage door. Some kicked the dirt floor impatiently, as the others braided each other’s hair as they waited. The most obvious one was Phil, who took notice of Norman peeking from the corner of the street already.

A soft defeated smile crept up to Norman’s face and he emerged from the corner fully with his hands filled with the goody bags. Phil sprinted over and offered to help him carry the bag of goodies (he doesn’t know what’s in there though). From just a kind gesture, Norman felt his heart warm up.

He’s sure there would be incoming events that he’d be interested in, just like how Ray’s interest in space pulled him in by surprise. So he would wait.

No matter how long it takes, he’ll take it easy now, and live this life with ease. He’ll go anywhere wherever the ocean waves take him, but he’ll steer his ship close to the ones he wouldn’t let out of his sight, and never leave them again like before.

/

Emma doesn’t hesitate when releasing the arrow from her longbow. Hitting a target still helped distract her, whether it was at the target or not (she has her own off days of course). When she started something, she tends to stick to that, and this is exactly what happened.

Interacting with her club members and befriending them enough to exchange numbers was exhilarating to her. Majority of the events that unfolded was due to her natural bright nature, which soothes every soul who bathed in her presence.

It was not an understatement that she has gotten many praises, and she heard it more often from second-hand info more than direct, as if—if they came too close, the sun might bite back (but there were still some brave fearless Icarus fellows who’d try anyway).

Emma goes by each day with the expectation to see and experience new things, now that her dream of meeting giraffes was out of the way.

She missed them.

Yes, she missed them both already. Even though she can get by any day without the presence of either of them, getting home to simply be in the same room as them, was relieving.

Yes, she was independent of the start, but her imperfect perfections were further honed by them. Whatever problems she had she could easily call them and she’ll be spared so many worries.

However, she stopped that line of thought to focus on practicing. But what is there left to practice? Yes, she’ll help others improve, as some members seemed to be having trouble. Just like how she was lent a hand when she needed it the most, she’ll give out these excess energies to them now.

At first, her explanations were more or less...improper to be considered a good teaching lesson. But if given a bit more time, Emma remembered many things she was taught, all the gestures and words that sunk into her mind in the hours and days Norman and Ray had spent with her, also her older mentors, both the good and somewhat bad.

Ah, she hoped to see them soon in a few hours, preferably now, but her superego always came out to be the winner these days. Before that, she’s having some fun herself by teaching.

/

Ray hastily put on a random coat over him from the coat rack next to the door and head out for the convenience store. Emma was busy at her club and Norman was tutoring, and he doesn’t have anything to do, which was fine. A free day like this was okay.

Honestly, even if they were here he may just enjoy an extra presence, but wouldn’t so much anyways.

But he felt off today, and when he reached up to feel on his forehead earlier, it was normal. But for extra measure he put on a face mask but did not cover his entire face most of the time, having it just barely above his upper lips provided more than enough private comfort. His long bangs also helped, of course.

As he scoured over various shelves of bagged snacks, a group of little children was wowing a few aisles over. Since the convenience store display racks were shorter than the supermarket they frequent to, he can pretty much see over everything in front of him if he just tiptoed.

He paid in coins, because he forgot his phone to pay digitally, which still worked in his favor. He’s able to rid of the excess coins that were hogging his wallet space and becoming extra weight. He’s going to make sure they get rid of the smaller ones once they gather some more (hopefully not).

It was a quiet walk back. The goods he got from the store rested on his wrist, and he shoved his hands inside his black pant pocket again, his eyes looking slightly downcast.

He was halfway through the block he was walking on when two adult figures appeared from around the corner. Ray stopped in his tracks completely, eyes widened to the fullest before he snapped back into reality and regained his composure quickly.

He was so glad he was practically all covered up. Feeling bare and exposed was the last thing he would ever want for himself in this situation.

“Ray,” The woman breathed out. Ray doesn’t hear it clearly, but the way the woman mouthed out that name and the look of something akin to guilt and regret practically clawing at her eyes told him more than enough. Ray wasn’t sure what expression he had on his face, but it wasn’t anything of hate. More so, he just wanted this to be over with and turn backs on each other one last time.

She was wearing a mostly beige coat with chocolate lining next to the big brown buttons, one that looked soft and bendable to a simple poke and it stretched right below her knees.

The other adult woman wearing a similar color pattern to the familiar woman simply gave him a kind smile, an awkward kind of smile anyone would make being caught in an unexpected situation. Then the realization hit her and she tugged at the other woman’s sleeve, gaining her attention.

“Isabella, the transfer bus is coming soon,” The woman pointed to her gold and silver patterned watch with a frantic look. “We have to hurry!”

“Ah, you’re right! Let’s go.” They walked towards Ray’s direction, the suitcase from behind them started its rolling noise as well.

A subtle pat on the shoulder was what he got as they passed. It was brief, but her hand lightly patted him, and it was enough to give him a push out of his metaphorical shell. Nonetheless, he thought he got the message through and through. A message telling him in the orders: I’m glad that I met you at least once. I see that you’re doing well, and goodbye.

A memory from the past resurfaced. The way Seven Walls Isabella had hugged him just exactly the way he wanted if he lived a normal life.

In his thoughts, having that hug being experienced seemed just fine, but really, if it happened to him in real life, he wasn’t sure if he could feel about it the same way. In a way, Isabella somehow already knew a decent way to interact with him.

So when Norman and Emma arrived home together from their own after school activities, Norman came home just as exhausted and out of it as her as they spotted Ray, who was waiting for them to come home, sitting in a slightly slouching posture on the couch.

Ray’s half frown gave them the sign to come over even without asking for an update on the situation. Even without talking, all three of them thought it should be alright if they took another ‘day’ off today and have another cup of tea (or coffee) with them again. This is their new beginning, they will ease through this odd day together, and experience what tomorrow has to give at their leisure.