Archive of Our Own

Their plane lands at seven in the morning.

Apollo, Nahyuta, and Rayfa had left Khura’in the previous night so that they could arrive in L.A. in the early morning. The three of them are staying in the states for a few weeks to visit Apollo’s family. Or, rather, Apollo was supposed to be staying, and the other two decided they were coming along. Something about Rayfa wanting to see what the U.S. was like as well as wanting to see Mr. Wright and Trucy again. So, all three of them flew out at a miserable time of night which caused them all to fall asleep with their heads resting on each other on the plane. Apollo is a little glad nobody else was there to take pictures for blackmail.

They’re staying at the little hotel across the way from the WAA’s office— and by little, he means the massive five-star hotel that takes up an entire block that Mr Wright somehow managed to wrangle a somewhat cheap stay for them at due to having some kind of history with the place…? Apollo didn’t ask for the details.

They get to their rooms (three, with two being connected by a door and one entirely separate— Apollo is very glad he doesn’t have to deal with sharing a space with Nahyuta ever again. Growing up with the bastard was more than enough. He and Rayfa can deal with the fallout of having the connecting door) and aren’t even finished packing away their luggage when Rayfa springs up and demands that they go sight-seeing (or go to “see sights” as she calls it). They only just manage to convince her to stop for breakfast on the way before she’s dragging them out of the building and rambling on about all the places she wants to visit and all the things she wants to do. Apollo reminds her that they’re here to see people first and foremost, so they had better go and say hi to the WAA before they do anything too grand or adventurous.

But it’s still early in the morning, so there’s no harm in doing some light tourism first.

They all end up buying new clothes. After spending so long living in Khura’in, all three of them are in need of some more casual clothes that will let them seem a little less out of place around here. The typical clothing styles between the countries are pretty different, especially for the royals, who always tend to wear more ornate clothing whether it’s casual or formal wear. And while Apollo simply prefers to blend in a bit more wherever he is (“You never blend in, Polly,” he’s sure Trucy would say), Rayfa seems to be very excited about “embracing a different culture.” Apollo isn’t sure what’s so exciting about a couple of hoodies as Rayfa spends about ten minutes deliberating over what she should buy, but she seems happy, so he supposes it’s worth it.

(“It’s meaningful for teenagers to be able to discover and embrace their own personal sense of style,” Nahyuta says, as if he is the expert of teenagers and not just talking out of his own ass. “This is good for her.”

Apollo supposes he has a point.)

After stopping at a little gift shop on the side of the road to let Rayfa buy a stuffed frog that she falls in love with at first sight and refuses to leave without, they make their way back to the hotel and get changed.

They head out, with Nahyuta sporting a simple red sweater, Rayfa wearing a pink shirt and jeans (an outfit which makes her look significantly less like a princess and more like an average fifteen-year-old), and Apollo in a dark red button jacket that reminds him a lot of the one he left behind when he moved.

They arrive at the WAA at 2 pm.

The office is covered wall to wall in glitter.

“What… the…” Apollo trails off as he steps into the front room.

An orange-haired head snaps up to look at him.

“APOLLOOOOOOO!!!” Athena shouts, springing up from her spot where she’d been wiping up glitter with a wet paper towel. She drops the paper towel and sprints at him at full speed, and for a moment Apollo’s life flashes before his eyes.

“Uuhh– AthENA, ATHENA—”

Instead of crashing into him and stomping him to death or something, Athena picks Apollo up off the ground and swings him in a full circle before planting him firmly back on the floor, leaving Apollo completely disoriented.

“Hey, Athena, long time no see,” Apollo laughs breathlessly.

“No kidding! Did you get taller?” Athena squints, bringing a hand up to place the side of it horizontally against Apollo's forehead. “Nope! Short as always. Phew!”

Apollo scowls. “Thanks.”

The sound of footsteps are his only next warning before the door to the back office bursts open and a whirlwind enters the room, sweeping up a cloud of glitter in its wake. Athena barely has time to step aside before Trucy Wright tackles Apollo with gale-force strength, knocking her own hat off her head and nearly knocking Apollo off his feet.

“POLLYYYYYY!!!!”

Apollo stumbles backward before he finds his footing again, bringing up his arms to wrap around her back.

“Hey, Truce!” Apollo’s sentence is broken by a laugh.

“Ooohhh, so when I try and hug you, you yell in terror, but when Trucy hugs you, suddenly you’re happy as can be,” Athena bemoans, exaggerating her point by lifting her fists up and raising her head with an overdramatic sniffle. “I see how it is.”

Apollo rolls his eyes, patting Trucy’s head and bending down to pick up her hat before placing it back in its rightful place, though a little lop-sided. “I’m happy to see both of you.”

Athena grins at him. Trucy pulls away, beaming as she straightens her hat and bounces lightly on her toes. Her eyes shine like stars and her face is split in a smile so massive Apollo is almost worried she’ll hurt herself.

“I’ve missed you so much! It’s been so long!”

“Truce, we just texted yesterday.”

Trucy huffs, putting her fists on her hips. “That’s not the same!”

“I know, I know. I missed you too.”

Finally, standing in the doorway, squinting at the newly-kicked-up glitter floating in the air, Phoenix appears.

“Long time no see, Apollo,” he calls out with a gentle, fond smile.

“Hey, Mr. Wright!” Apollo greets.

Phoenix walks over and pulls him into a side hug, ruffling his hair. Apollo squawks and dives out of the way. A chorus of traitorous little giggles from the others sound off around him.

And for a moment, standing there surrounded by his family he hasn’t seen in so long, Apollo feels like nothing could ever wipe the smile off his face right now.

Trucy gasps, leaning to the side to peek around Apollo at Nahyuta and Rayfa standing in the doorway. “I almost didn’t notice you guys! Hi!”

Phoenix turns around. “Hey, Prosecutor Sahdmadhi, Princess Rayfa,” he greets them both with a nod, taking a step back. “Good to see you again.”

Nahyuta smiles evenly. “You as well.”

“Hello, Barbed Head!” Rayfa chimes with a smirk. “I hope you’ve been well?”

“As good as I’ve always been.” Phoenix smiles back. “I hope you’ve been good too.” He beckons them both forward with a sweeping motion and a wink. “Come on in, make yourselves at home.” He glances over his shoulder, coughing awkwardly and rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “Sorry it’s a, uh… bit of a mess.”

Nahyuta shuts the door behind them as they shuffle further into the room. He surveys the office through narrowed eyes. “...Hm.”

It’s then that Apollo’s mind catches up with him and comes screeching to a halt.

“Why is the office covered in glitter?” Apollo asks. He takes a second look at the three of them. “...And your clothes.”

“It’s on your clothes as well, now,” Rayfa points out beside him.

Apollo glances down at his jacket. Ah. Damn.

Trucy smirks mischievously. Apollo knows from experience that face means nothing but trouble.

Phoenix sighs. “It’s…”

“Trucy’s been on a pranking kick lately,” Athena supplies, putting her hands on her hips.

“She didn’t think about the repercussions this time,” Phoenix says with a stern look at Trucy, who smiles innocently.

“Oh, no, I did!” She assures.

“...Great.”

“Anyway, so now we’re stuck cleaning all this up.” Athena waves a hand at the office. “The back office is the same. We’ve been cleaning for hours. I wanna go home.”

“The prank was pretty funny, though!” chimes a small, tinny voice.

“Widget!” Athena hisses in embarrassment, her hand snapping up to cover the little AI strung around her neck. Phoenix, Trucy, and Apollo all giggle a little.

“I’m having Trucy help clean the place up as her punishment,” Phoenix explains.

“Why am I being punished, too?!” Athena whines.

“Because you work here!” Trucy says gleefully. “It’s not a punishment, it’s an assignment!”

Phoenix nods.

“Okay. That’s cool. I’m not helping, soooo…” Apollo says.

Phoenix waves him off. “I’m not gonna make you help. We can all get out of the office for a bit. Just give us a bit to get ready.”

Trucy and Athena both cheer together, Athena throwing one fist in the air and Trucy throwing two.

“Ooh! Does that mean we can go see more places, then?“ Rayfa asks excitedly.

“Perhaps we should let Apollo decide what we should do,” Nahyuta admonishes gently, “This is his trip, after all.”

Rayfa’s face turns red, and she ducks her head, huffing. “Right.”

Phoenix and Trucy race each other up the stairs to their living space above the office (Trucy wins) while Athena lingers behind.

“Just a heads up,” she says to Apollo, “But now that you’re in town and Trucy’s already pranked, like, everybody else we know, you’re probably her next target.”

“Oh, fun,” Apollo deadpans.

“Just a hunch!” Athena calls over her shoulder, turning to walk over to her desk and put away some stuff. “But I’d watch out if I were you.”

“Yeah. Thanks for the tip,” Apollo sighs.

“You owe me for warning you at all,” Athena says with a smirk.

Trucy pounds down the stairs and leaps the last two steps, ignoring the alarmed shout from her father at the top. She uses the extra momentum to do two spins in place, her cape swirling out around her before she comes to a graceful halt, stomping one foot and throwing a hand out beside her, palm outstretched, her other hand rising to lift her hat off her head. “Ta-da!”

Rayfa claps politely. Athena cheers. Apollo laughs.

“Now come onnn, let’s go, let’s go!” Trucy bounces on her toes again.

“Does she always have this much energy?” Nahyuta asks idly.

“Yeah,” Apollo says fondly.

“I like her cape,” Rayfa mumbles as Trucy turns around to march up to Phoenix and drag him down the last steps, calling him a slowpoke as he complains about his bad back.

“You should tell her,” Nahyuta suggests.

Rayfa flushes. “I do not think I will. Let’s go!” She turns around, opens the door, and strides with purpose out of the building.

Nahyuta and Apollo exchange a glance.

“Race you, Polly!”

“Huh?” Apollo says dumbly, but Trucy is already breezing past him and out the door. Athena sprints after her, leaving the rest of them in the dust.

Phoenix claps Apollo on the shoulder on his way past. “Been a while since you had to match their energy, huh?”

“Yeah,” Apollo says, sheepishly running a hand over his hair.

“They seem impossible to keep up with,” Nahyuta notes.

Phoenix shrugs. “You get used to it. I learned to stop trying a long time ago.”

“And I thought Rayfa had a lot of energy,” Nahyuta murmurs, walking out the door to follow the others. “Holy Mother, give them patience.”

Apollo turns to Phoenix. His mentor is giving him The Look— that tilted-head, kind-eyed, soft-smiled look that he always gives Trucy. All these years and Apollo still isn’t used to an expression so fond being turned onto him.

“It’s good to have you here, Apollo,” Phoenix says, “The office has felt really empty without you.”

Apollo’s heart twists as the two begin to walk out of the office together. “Really?”

Phoenix nods. “Those two really missed you. I know we said all this last time we saw each other, but…” he waves a hand through the air. “It’s always nice to have you around again.”

Apollo grins sheepishly, rubbing a hand over his hair again. “Thanks, Mr Wright. It’s… nice to be back for a bit. I missed you guys too.”

Phoenix closes the door behind them, locking up.

“Well, we’d better catch up with the others,” he says.

Apollo raises a hand over his eyes to squint into the distance. Trucy is skipping circles around Nahyuta and Rayfa, with Athena making big gestures with her arms nearby.

Apollo smiles.

“Yeah.”

The group have a very enjoyable outing, during which Phoenix buys them all ice cream and Trucy bombards Apollo, Nahyuta, and Rayfa with questions about Khura’in as they go on a small walk through the city. They stop at People Park and a couple of stores around the areabefore rounding the day off with stopping for dinner at Eldoon’s upon Trucy’s insistence.

As the day grows longer, Phoenix announces that he, Trucy, and Athena have to head back to the office to finish cleaning up the rest of that glitter. Athena groans, but Trucy takes it in stride surprisingly well— almost suspiciously so.

Regardless, the two groups part ways with the promise of seeing each other again tomorrow.

Apollo, Nahyuta, and Rayfa return to their hotel rooms— or, rather, they return to Nahyuta’s, with Apollo collapsing on the bed and Rayfa sinking into the swivel chair at the desk (which she has taken a personal fascination to), quietly giggling to herself as it spins around. Nahyuta busies himself with unpacking the last of his clothes that he had been unable to before Rayfa dragged them out the door earlier that morning, seemingly unbothered by his siblings’ presence.

Apollo lays spread-eagle on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. He’s exhausted from spending the whole day out, but otherwise feels happier and more relaxed than he has in a long while. It’s good to get away from all the work back home and just focus on spending time with his family.

His thoughts return to Athena’s warning earlier that day.

“Do you think Trucy’s gonna prank me?” he asks the ceiling, though addressing the others in the room.

Rayfa stops her spinning, scrambling to recompose herself with color rushing to her face, looking startled and embarrassed as though she’d forgotten there were other people in the room.

“Perhaps,” Nahyuta says lightly, folding a shirt. “She has good reason to, after all.”

“And what reason is that?”

“Having a putrid apple as a sibling.” Nahyuta turns his head to level Apollo with his signature angelic smile.

Apollo scowls and throws the nearest article of clothing at him. Nahyuta laughs.

“I would be interested in seeing what it is,” Rayfa says. “If the only other example we have is… whatever… glitter-bomb went off in that office.”

“You two were getting along pretty well earlier, weren’t you?” Apollo says, remembering back to their outing. Trucy and Rayfa had stuck by each other’s sides for a lot of the time when Trucy wasn’t glued to Apollo.

Rayfa crosses her arms in an obvious effort to appear indifferent. “I suppose. I simply think she is an interesting individual. I enjoy speaking with her.”

Nahyuta hums. “I imagine it must be nice to speak with someone closer to your own age.”

Rayfa raises her chin defiantly. “I have no problem speaking with those older than me. I may be young, but I can assure you I am just as mature as any adult.”

“That is an oddly specific thing to insist when I suggested nothing of the sort.” Nahyuta’s lips quirk up in the smallest of smirks. “Are you perhaps lonely, little sister?”

“No, I am not!” Rayfa hisses. Apollo chuckles. Rayfa picks up the free notepad from the desk and throws it at him. Apollo yelps, jerking upwards into a sitting position and rubbing his temple where the notepad bounced off of it.

“Regardless, I think it is nice for you to have a friend.” Nahyuta says, a bit more genuinely this time.

“I… suppose. Although—“ Rayfa cuts herself off, her cheeks turning slightly red.

“Hm?” Nahyuta prompts.

“N-nothing. Never mind.”

“Scarlet is not a good color for you, sister. I would suggest leaving that to Apollo.”

“Shut up!” Rayfa clenches her fists to her chest. “You— you impudent— ooohh, forget it!” She throws her hands to her sides, swiveling her chair around to very pointedly stare at the wall and away from Nahyuta.

“Aw, c’mon. Stop teasing her for a sec, I’m curious now,” Apollo says, leaning forward to put his elbows on his knees. “What’s up, Rayf?”

“I said it’s nothing.”

Nahyuta turns back to his luggage.

“Please?” Apollo presses.

Rayfa casts him a withering glare over her shoulder.

“You know you can tell us anything, dear sister,” Nahyuta says in a tone so sweet Apollo can almost feel his teeth rotting.

Nahyuta is shuffling around with his suitcase. Apollo leans to the side to look at what he’s doing, brows furrowing in confusion when he sees that the suitcase is completely empty. Is he making himself look busy so that there’s less direct attention on Rayfa?

“Nnnnngggh.” Rayfa says. “Alright. Fine.” She swivels her chair back around and starts playing with the pen on the desk, still not looking at either of them. “I suppose…. Since… Nahyuta is my brother… and Apollo is his brother— which would by extension make Apollo…” she glances very briefly up at him, flushing red and turning back to the wall when she notices his eyes on her, “…m-my brother as well— and Trucy is Apollo’s sister, then… it would… in a very roundabout way… make her… my sister… I suppose?”

Apollo softens. “Aww.”

“Shut up!” Rayfa snaps, her shoulders rising defensively as she swivels the chair back around to face them. “Don’t you dare make a big deal out of this! It was only a thought.”

“Hmmm. You are right,” Nahyuta says, dropping his ‘I’m so busy over here with this empty suitcase’ act to turn and face her. “I think it is a sweet way to view it.”

“Like we’re all one big family,” Apollo says quietly. “I… I think I like that.”

“Hmph.”

Apollo lays back down on the bed.

“Oh, no you don’t. Get up.”

Apollo blinks up at Nahyuta’s stern face towering over him. “Eh?”

“I am kicking you both out.”

“Hey!” Rayfa protests.

“No complaining. I have work that needs to be done.”

“You brought work with you?” Rayfa wrinkles her nose.

“Yes. Now out you go.”

“Fine, you obstinate workaholic,” Rayfa huffs, rising from her beloved swivel chair with a small pout and walking through the dividing threshold between her room and Nahyuta’s, shutting the door with force behind her.

“You as well.”

Apollo groans dramatically, picking himself off the bed which he swears is comfier than the one in his own room. “Alright, alright, I’m going.”

He leaves Nahyuta’s room behind and heads back to his own, collapsing onto that bed (he’s right! It is less comfortable! What the hell!) instead.

He realizes then that he never got to ask the other two more about what they thought Trucy’s prank would be. Oh, well. He guesses he’ll just have to cross that bridge when he gets to it. (When, not if. Trucy abides by her own personalized version of Murphy’s Law— if there’s mischief to be caused, she’ll undoubtedly cause it.)

And cross that bridge, he does.

When the three of them arrive at the WAA office the next day, all of the glitter has miraculously disappeared (on surface-level, anyway). Apollo figures Trucy probably had some kind of plan up her sleeve to make it all go away quickly.

Apollo steps into the office. “Hey, guys!” He calls out, glancing around the office. He hears approaching footsteps from somewhere in another room before he catches sight of Athena sitting on top of her desk. She gives him a cheerful wave with one hand, the other clutching a white mug with the words “WORST LAWYER” on it.

Apollo takes a step towards her, and—

CRACK.

Apollo leaps back like he’s been stung, clinging to the back wall and staring at the rug he’d just stepped on with wide, alarmed eyes like a spooked cat. His pulse races, his entire body tense.

Cackling laughter fills the air.

“What the—?” Apollo blurts out breathlessly.

Trucy enters the room with her phone held up in the air, which she lets fall to her side after a moment as she doubles over laughing. Athena snickers from her spot at her desk, taking a sip from her mug.

Apollo glowers at Trucy. “What did you do?”

Trucy gasps. “Why do you think I did something?” she asks innocently.

“Because I know you. What the hell is under here?” He steps forward and crouches down, lifting the edge of the rug off the floor.

Giant bubble wrap lines the ground underneath the rug.

Apollo drops the rug and stares at the ground for a moment, thoroughly embarrassed by being startled so bad by something so trivial. “Are you kidding me?”

“You should’ve seen the look on your face!” Trucy giggles. “I’m sending this to Prosecutor Gavin. He says hi, by the way.”

Oh, yeah. He’s supposed to go see Klavier this weekend. Well, great. Now he’s going to see Apollo being scared out of his wits by Trucy’s stupid prank, too, which means he’s never gonna hear the end of this from both of them.

He backtracks.

“Wait, wait, you were filming? Trucy!”

Trucy smiles sweetly, tucking her arms behind her back. “Teehee. Sorryyy.”

She is not sorry.

Apollo sighs, stepping around the rug with a sour expression. “Is the whole thing covered?”

“Mhm! Every inch.”

“Great.”

Apollo takes two more steps before another loud CRACK fills the air. He startles, whirling around just in time to see Nahyuta lifting his foot off the rug, Rayfa looking very aggravated beside him.

“What are you doing?!” Apollo hisses.

“Oops,” Nahyuta deadpans with a smug look in his eyes.

“You insolent airhead!” Rayfa spits, marching away, making an effort to avoid the rug.

Nahyuta only continues to smile peacefully.

Apollo glares at him, before shaking his head and walking over to Athena’s desk, standing in front of her with crossed arms. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

Athena grins. She puts her mug down on the desk, putting one hand on her hip and bringing the other up to twirl her crescent moon earring. “Of course! You think Boss and I didn’t step on that first?”

Apollo tenses; his bracelet feels tight on his wrist.

“You didn’t step on that rug.”

“What? Yeah, I did. Made a loud pop and everything. It was pretty funny.”

Apollo’s eyes zero in on Athena’s hand. “You’re messing with your earring. You’re lying.”

Athena shudders, dropping her hand to her side. “Yikes. I forgot you could do that.” She shakes her head. “Yeah, sure, fine, okay. Trucy warned us about the trap so it’d only get you. We also watched her set it up.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?” Apollo asks accusingly.

“I warned you yesterday!”

“Not about this!”

“How was I supposed to know yesterday what she was planning?!”

“You knew now!”

“And miss out on seeing your reaction?” Athena says with a grin. “Pffft. No way.”

“You—“

CRACK.

Apollo whirls around. Nahyuta is standing on the rug again.

“What are you, a cat?!” Apollo yells, “Don’t! Touch!”

Nahyuta chuckles and steps away from the rug, moving to walk around it. “My apologies.”

“You little bastard,” Apollo mutters as he watches Nahyuta pass. Nahyuta smiles smugly at him before a pleasant chime sounds off from his pocket, causing him to stop in his tracks. He pulls his phone out and glances down at it, face falling back into a neutral expression.

“Hm. I should take this,” he announces.

“Work? Or royal stuff?” Apollo asks.

“I suppose we’ll find out,” Nahyuta says, turning around and walking back the way he came.

He steps on the corner of the rug on his way out.

CRACK.

“Oh, fuck off!” Apollo shouts after him as Nahyuta laughs and shuts the front door behind him.

Apollo shakes his head glances around the room. Trucy and Rayfa have both disappeared. If Apollo knows anything, they’re probably together.

“Yknnooooww, you should get her back,” Athena suggests, leaning back with her palms outstretched on the desk.

“Huh?” Apollo says, turning back around to face her.

“Trucy. You should prank her back. Get revenge. Show her who’s boss.”

“I’m not really a prank kind of guy.”

Athena hops off the desk and leans in conspiratorially. “Y’know, I’ve been planning a prank to do in retaliation. Do you want in on it? I could use the help.”

“No, not really.”

“Yes you do!” Athena sings. “Okay, so here’s the plan…”

Apollo sighs.

Rayfa follows Trucy into the back office, having to jog a little bit to keep up with her. Despite Rayfa being closer in age to Trucy than, say, Apollo, Trucy is still taller and faster than her. Curse her short stature! Her growth spurt must kick in one of these days!

“How did you pull that off?” Rayfa asks curiously, watching as Trucy rummages around in some of her magic equipment behind the couch. Rayfa peers at it— not in a nosy way, she’s much more refined than that— but she isn’t quite sure what most of it is.

“Pull what off?” Trucy asks. “The prank?”

Rayfa nods, before realizing that Trucy can’t see her with her back turned. “Yes.”

“Oh, that’s easy!” Trucy turns so that she can see and address Rayfa easier during her rummaging. Rayfa watches with curiosity. “I set it up while we were cleaning the rest of the office last night. I let Daddy and Athena watch me lay the trap so they’d know to avoid it. I had plenty of time and opportunity!”

“Fascinating…” Rayfa hums. She peers around at their surroundings. A corner desk sits a little ways away from where they stand behind the couches.

“Where is Barbed Head?” Rayfa asks, taking note of the one person she hasn’t seen today.

“Who?”

“Ah—” Rayfa blushes. “Your father.”

“Oh!” Trucy giggles. “He’s out on an errand. He said he needed to pick up some evidence for one of the cases he and Thena are working on. …Aha!”

Trucy pulls a… peculiar object out from within one of the boxes.

“...What is that?” Rayfa asks.

“A plastic cheeseburger!” Trucy says brightly.

Rayfa stares at it. Yes. It sure is.

“May I ask… why?”

“Prank for Aunt Maya later,” Trucy explains, stashing the plastic burger away in her… somewhere. Where did it go? It was just there a minute ago. Surely the object is too big for her pocket? What gives?

Before Rayfa can ask, Trucy continues. “That’s later on the docket, though. I wanna prank Polly as much as possible while he’s here.” Trucy closes the box.

“I see,” Rayfa says with a nod. In reality she only half-sees, leaving the rest of her baffled and confused by the enigma that is Trucy Wright, but of course she can’t let that show.

Trucy straightens up and leans against the back of the couch, tapping away at her phone for a moment.

“...You should prank Nahyuta at some point,” Rayfa says casually. “While we are here.”

Trucy glances up before putting her phone down. She crosses her arms, looking thoughtful. “I don’t know him super well, so I’m not sure what pranks would be good on him, but…” She lights up suddenly, like an idea has struck her. “Hey, how ‘bout a deal: if you help me with this next prank on Polly, then we can team up and get our brothers together!”

Our brothers. Rayfa’s heart does a flip. Heat rises to her face, and she swallows, before the rest of Trucy’s sentence catches up to her.

“Really?” She gasps, before clearing her throat and adjusting her demeanor in an attempt to not come off too hopeful and eager despite the electric buzzing beneath her skin.

“Yeah, of course!” Trucy beams. “It’d be fun! We could bounce ideas off of each other and stuff.”

Rayfa grins. “Well… if you’re alright with it… I would love to!”

Trucy nods enthusiastically. “Yeah! Here, I can let you in on what I have planned for Polly next and you can help out.”

Trucy beckons her over and pulls out her phone. Rayfa approaches and leans in.

“Okay, so here’s the plan…” Trucy whispers mischievously.

Going into the prosecutor’s office as requested by Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth was an incredible waste of time, as Nahyuta discovered as soon as he got there.

He’d been called in to help with the transfer of some files and to attend a certain meeting— a job that would have gone to Winston Payne (the more preferable of the Payne brothers, if Nahyuta must admit) had Nahyuta not been in the area. As it turns out, what would have been a several-hour task ended up lasting a mere twenty minutes due to the meeting being canceled last-minute. So much for being productive while he’s here.

Nahyuta heads back to the office, finding it better to spend time with the people they actually came to see than to go busy himself with meaningless tasks. He runs into Apollo and Athena just as they’re on their way out.

“Oh, hey,” Apollo says. “You’re back early. Everything good at the prosecutors’ office?”

“It wasn’t worth my time,” Nahyuta sighs, brushing it off with a simple hand gesture. “Where are you two off to?”

“We’re running to the dollar store to buy balloons,” Athena says.

“The what store?” Nahyuta says. He doesn’t know what he’s picturing. “…Why balloons?”

“The dollar store! They sell everything for just a dollar or less. Except the things that are over a dollar…” Athena trails off, flicking her earring in thought.

“What?” Nahyuta murmurs.

Apollo waves him off. “We’re just running an errand. If you see Mr Wright tell him we’ll be back soon. Unless you wanna come with us, I guess.”

Nahyuta considers this for a moment.

“I don’t have anywhere else to be,” Nahyuta says. “And I would like to see this ‘dollar store.’”

Athena snorts. Apollo looks at him oddly, but shrugs. “Sure. We’re just walking there.”

“As long as you don’t tell anyone what we’re buying! Especially Trucy. It’s a secret.” Athena gasps suddenly. “Unless you wanna help us…?”

Oh, no. “If it is something to do with some kind of prank, you can leave me out of it,” Nahyuta says.

“That’s what I tried saying,” Apollo mumbles.

The three of them head to the dollar store, and Nahyuta is left with increasing regret for even tagging along to begin with as he stands by and watches Athena deliberate over packs of cheap party balloons for ten minutes in a tiny corner store that is far less impressive than Nahyuta was hoping for. Not that he really even knows what he was expecting. (And what’s the point of advertising a store that sells everything for a dollar or less if not everything in the store actually costs a dollar or less?)

“Do you think we should get the pearlescent ones, or the regular ones?” Athena asks. “Actually, how many do you think we’ll need? Should we get two packs just in case?”

Apollo makes a tired ‘I don’t know’ sound.

“Hmmm… let’s get both,” Athena says, grabbing both balloon packs off their shelf, “Can’t hurt to have variety.”

“Can we go now?” Apollo sighs.

Nahyuta really does not know why he came.

Rayfa gazes around with wide-eyed wonder at the studio around them. Canvases cover the room, hanging on walls and sitting on easels. Dried paint splatters give the floor a splash of color. The place is every bit what one would imagine when they think of a stereotypical artist’s studio: unkempt and in complete disarray, but with a sense of organized chaos to it all.

Rayfa loves it. She loves how imperfect and asymmetrical and bold and full of personality it is.

Not that she will ever admit it!

“Thanks so much for doing this for us, Vera!” Trucy chirps.

Vera smiles. “Of course. It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this… but it should be no problem. Anything to help a friend.” Her smile turns into something of a smirk. “…Especially if it’s playing a prank on Apollo.”

Trucy and Vera both giggle, and Rayfa glances between them.

“So you and Horn Head are friends?” Rayfa asks conversationally as Vera walks around gathering supplies.

“Mhm,” Vera hums in confirmation. “I’ve known him and Trucy for… about three years.”

“Vera was the defendant in one of Polly’s cases,” Trucy explains. “But we all stayed in touch after that! We’ve stayed in touch with a lot of our past clients, actually.”

Rayfa raises a brow, crossing her arms. She opens her mouth to ask just what it was Vera was accused of before a stern voice in her head, not unlike that of Nahyuta’s, chides her for being insensitive. She clamps her mouth shut, heat rising to her cheeks.

Vera clicks on a light underneath some kind of clear surface and places a sheet of paper over it, sliding one of the ones Trucy had brought with her underneath.

“What is that?” Rayfa asks.

“A lightbox,” Vera answers. “Makes tracing easier.”

“How does it work?”

“Due to the light shining on the papers, it makes them see-through enough to easily copy what’s on one paper onto another by tracing the lines.”

Rayfa tilts her head. “Fascinating.”

She watches as Vera gets to work.

“Are those files not confidential?” Rayfa asks, the thought suddenly occurring to her. “Is what we are doing legal?”

Trucy shrugs. “Probably not! But it’s fiiiine. Vera’s trustworthy.”

They continue watching in silence for a moment.

Vera glances behind her at them. “...It may take me a while to get through all of them. It’ll probably be a little boring to watch me do every single one.”

“Oh!” Trucy gasps, getting the message. “Right! Sorry.”

“You can go sit down at the table if you’d like,” Vera says. “I can make you some tea?”

Rayfa perks up. “Oh, yes please, if you would be so kind!”

Vera smiles and pushes the paper up so it stays in place before floating off into the back of the studio.

Trucy and Rayfa wander over to the wooden table and sit down on the padded chairs in front of it. The whole set-up is rather cozy, if Rayfa will admit.

“Hey, you okay?” Trucy asks suddenly. “You’ve been acting kinda weird today.”

Rayfa’s heart skips a bit. “H-have I?”

“Yeah, you’ve seemed kinda tense. And you’re fidgety. And you’ve been quieter than yesterday.”

Rayfa blinks, heat rising to her face. “Of… of course I’m okay! I’m simply… taking it all in.”

Trucy crosses her arms, looking thoughtful. “Really?”

“I’m fine,” Rayfa huffs.

Trucy smirks. “Careful there, you’re starting to sound like Polly!”

Rayfa scoffs. “I would never stoop so low as to begin to sound like that nincompoop. He only ever says he’s fine when he is very much not and he is trying to convince himself that he is.”

“Don’t we all, though?” Trucy smiles, and suddenly Rayfa gets the feeling that she is speaking to someone far wiser than herself.

Rayfa averts her gaze. “I… That’s ridiculous. Of course we don’t all do that. Unlike some people, I do not make a habit of lying my way through every interaction.”

“It’s not lying. Think of it more as… putting on a show. An act.”

Rayfa pauses.

“You’ve never had to do that?” Trucy continues. “You’re the princess of your kingdom, right? You’ve never had to put on a smile and pretend you were okay simply because everyone was watching, and it was your duty to them to be happy?”

Duty.

Rayfa ducks her head, glaring furiously at the ground. “...Perhaps… I have experienced something like that.”

“Mmm, thought so,” Trucy says. “So, from one performer to another…” She smiles kindly. “What’s up?”

Rayfa brings her fists to her chest. “It… is nothing that concerns you. You need not worry. It’s a little bit stupid, really. Nothing quite so serious as you were implying.”

Trucy tilts her head. It feels like her eyes are boring into her, suddenly. Rayfa shivers.

“Really? Because you always tense up whenever you’re around me specifically. If it’s something I did—”

“No!” Rayfa interrupts, stammering at Trucy’s bewildered expression. “I– I mean— it— of course not! You didn’t— or—” She clears her throat. “It is nothing you did. I am not… erm… upset. With you. Or anything of the sort. If that is what you were thinking. It has nothing to do with you, really.” She lets her hands fall to her sides, squeezing the cushion below her with a fist.

Trucy hesitates for the briefest of moments before she smiles. “Well, that’s good to know.”

Rayfa fidgets in her seat, nodding. “Right. It’s… nothing. Do not worry about it.”

Vera comes back into the room just then, holding a plate with two cups of tea and a pot. She sets it down on the table in front of them. Trucy and Rayfa both give their thanks, and Vera smiles and nods at them before heading back over to do her work in silence.

Trucy and Rayfa both pick up their cups and sip from them.

“...You tensed up again, by the way,” Trucy pipes up, putting her cup down.

Rayfa pulls her own cup away from her lips and brings her hand up to her mouth in surprise. “Huh?”

“When you said it had nothing to do with me. You tensed up. But I’d have to see again,” Trucy elaborates.

Rayfa gapes like a goldfish. “Y-you— how did you—”

Trucy smirks, eyes twinkling. “You think Polly’s the only one with the power of perception?”

Rayfa can feel her face heating up. “You— you can both—? But I thought it was his— dinky little bracelet that let him do that!”

Trucy giggles. “No, no, we can both do it! It’s a Gramarye gene,” she says with a wink. “Polly’s bracelet just helps him focus. He could probably tell you what exactly your nervous tic is. He could pinpoint exactly what tiny little movement you made in order to expose your lie. I can’t really do that, but I can still feel when something’s off, even without a bracelet to help me.” She tilts her head downward and tips her hat with one hand. “It’s like instinct!”

“Gramarye gene…” Rayfa murmurs, “Right…” She tilts her head downward and holds a hand to her chest, lost in thought.

“What is it?” Trucy presses.

Ugh. She doesn’t want to say it. She hates talking about her feelings. It’s too vulnerable, too mushy, too sentimental.

An irritatingly sweet voice in her head that sounds this time like a mixture between Nahyuta and her mother reminds her that being open with people is the first step to being closer with them. …And making things feel less awkward.

Rayfa glances over her shoulder. Vera is hunched over her work. They’re speaking quiet enough that she probably can’t hear much of it distinctly, and it doesn’t look like she’s eavesdropping….

Rayfa places her tea cup on the table and takes a deep breath. “It’s just…” she casts her eyes toward the ground, gripping the cushion of the chair beneath her tightly with her fingers. “I was… thinking… yesterday. About… well…”

Trucy tilts her head.

Rayfa inhales shakily. She can do this. She can do this. She is Rayfa Padma Sahdmadhi Khura’in, and she is fine!

…Hm. Maybe Apollo is onto something about those assertions.

“...Horn Head. He is your brother,” Rayfa says, “correct?”

Trucy nods.

“And… And he’s… my brother as well.” Rayfa finds that the more often she says that, the less it feels like she’s forcing the words out of her. It’s still difficult, awkward, flustering, but… it’s progress.

“Oh, yeah!” Trucy says, “You’re Nahyuta’s sister, right?”

Rayfa nods. “Apollo was adopted by my” —she nearly stumbles over the words— “biological father. So that… makes the three of us siblings. But if you and Apollo are siblings, as well, then… By extension, it— i-it sort of… It makes us…” She trails off, resisting the urge to bury her face in her hands out of embarrassment. She can’t say the word.

“Sisters!” Trucy gasps.

Rayfa cheeks flush red. She clenches her fists tightly, nails digging into her palms. “...Y-yes… I-I suppose.”

There’s a beat of silence. Rayfa risks a glance up at Trucy’s face and is met with a sight she was not expecting. Trucy’s expression is lit up, full of delight and excitement.

Trucy squeals. Rayfa jumps.

Trucy leaps up from her chair. “Of course! I mean— I guess I knew that, in hindsight, but I didn’t think about it! That’s—!” She bounces on her heels. “You’re basically my little sister!”

Rayfa’s fists spring to her chest, her face heating up once again. “L-little...?”

“Well, yeah! You’re younger than me!” Trucy does a little twirl. “Finally I’m not the youngest sibling!”

“Y-you’re… excited?” Rayfa says in bewilderment.

“Of course!” Trucy gapes, “How could I not be?! Are… you not?”

“N-no! That’s not—” Rayfa flushes, “I mean— I— I don’t know what I am.” She forces her hands to her side, staring at the ground. “It… It took… a long time… for Nahyuta and Apollo and I to all adjust to each other. There was excitement, sure, but there was… It… was awkward. It… was like walking on eggshells all the time.”

“Well, that’s them, and this is me! I don’t work like that.” Trucy waltzes over and leans her elbow on Rayfa’s head. Rayfa squawks in indignance and shoves away from her, rising from her chair and stepping away, huffing. “I take things in stride.” Trucy winks.

Rayfa bites her lip. “I… I will need… time,” she mumbles, trying not to let her humiliation show.

Trucy softens. “That’s okay. Look, nothing really needs to change if you don’t want it to. Polly and I treated each other the same after we found out we were related! Although,” she puts a finger on her chin, “we kind of already acted like siblings, anyway. So it wouldn’t have changed much anyway. But!” She puts her hands on her hips. “The point is, it doesn’t need to be a big deal if you don’t want it to be! Not if it makes you so…” she waves a hand through the air, “...nervous. We can just… be siblings! Casually. No fuss.”

“...Are you really willing to accept me so easily?” Rayfa asks quietly.

Trucy smiles. “Of course.”

“Even when I am…?”

“When you’re what?”

“I…” Rayfa clenches her fists at her sides. “I don’t know. We are very different people. And I… I know you have struggles with Nahyuta, as well.”

“I… think that’s more on Nahyuta’s side than mine. I don’t really hold any resentment toward him or anything. He’s just kind of… weird around me.” Trucy crosses her arms. “But besides, why wouldn’t I accept you? I think you’re really cool!”

“Y-you think I’m cool…?”

Trucy nods. “Yeah! I mean, you’re helping me with this plan, aren’t you?” She winks.

“I… I suppose…” Rayfa shakes herself, putting her hands on her hips and grinning. “I mean— yes! Yes, I am!”

Trucy beams. “Exactly!” She tucks her hands behind her back, smiling. “So, what do you say? Sisters?”

Rayfa’s heart flutters in her chest. She nods resolutely, a confident smirk on her face.

“Sisters!”

The next morning is spent wrangling balloons into the upstairs residence after the Wrights have left.

Apollo pants heavily as he ties off another balloon and hands it to Athena. “Couldn’t we have… gotten a… pump for this… or something?”

Athena rolls her eyes. “Fiiine, you drama queen, let me take over.” She holds out her hand and makes a grabby motion with her fingers.

Apollo hands her the package of balloons. She takes one out and blows into it with force. The balloon inflates in an instant.

“What the hell are your lungs made of?!” Apollo wheezes.

“Looks like those Chords of Steel of yours ain’t got nothin’ on me now,” Athena grins, crossing her arms. In doing so, she lets go of the end of the balloon, and it deflates in her hand. She pouts. “Aw, man.”

“There’s no way we’re gonna fill all of these balloons in time before someone comes up here,” Apollo says, looking around.

Stray balloons are scattered around the room, the breeze from the window causing them to roll around and knock into each other as they congregate near the walls. It’s a pathetic sight, compared to the way Athena described this prank turning out. Ideally, the room would be filled to the brim with balloons. But, well…

“How many have we done?” Apollo asks.

“Uuuhhhh…” Athena picks up the balloon package and peers down at it. “That was, like, the nineteenth?”

Apollo sighs, closing his eyes and pressing his finger into the center of his forehead. “We didn’t buy nearly enough. What was even the goal here? We’re gonna need hundreds of balloons to actually fill this place.”

Athena puts her hands on her hips, biting her lip. “Well, they were supposed to be floating…”

Apollo turns to stare at her. “...Athena, that requires helium. We can’t make balloons float just by blowing into them.”

Athena slumps forward, one of her arms sliding off her hip to hang limply at her side. “Oh. Right.”

“Uh,” a voice says loudly from behind them. Athena and Apollo both leap out of their skin and whirl around to face the newcomer. Widget cries out an “Aaah!” in alarm.

Phoenix hovers awkwardly in the doorway. “...Whatcha guys doin’?”

“Mr Wright!” Apollo yelps, “We, uh—”

“Oh, thank God,” Athena sighs, deflating. “I thought you were Trucy for a sec. Our cover could’ve been blown right then and there.”

“...I’ve been told there’s a familial resemblance,” Phoenix deadpans. He raises his brows. “Is this… for her…?”

“It’s a revenge prank!” Athena beats her fist into her hand, grinning.

Phoenix glances past them at the stray balloons rolling pathetically across the floor like lone tumbleweeds. “In which you’re…?”

“Filling the whole room with balloons so when she opens the door they’ll all come flying out!”

“...Looks like they won’t be doing very much flying like that.”

Athena tilts her head back and groans. “I knooooowww. We totally screwed it up. I didn’t even think about helium.”

Phoenix puts a hand on his chin. “I bet you could still salvage it.”

Athena looks hopeful. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” Phoenix says optimistically, “if you cover the floor in them and just act like that was your plan all along. Y’know. Bluffing.” He winks.

Athena beats her fist into her palm. “Yeah! You’re right! Thanks, Boss!”

Phoenix shrugs. “Either that, or go out and buy a tank of helium or something. You’ve still got plenty of time ‘till Truce gets back.”

“Oh, please no,” Apollo groans.

Phoenix glances at him with a bemused smile. “I’m surprised to see you helping, Apollo. You’ve never really been one for this kind of stuff.”

“I’m not,” Apollo says in monotone.

“He agreed to it as soon as I told him the plan!” Athena says.

“I never agreed to anything. You’ve just been dragging me around.”

“If you were really that annoyed by it, you could just leave, y’know.”

Apollo falls silent.

“Hehe. That’s what I thought!” Athena says, shoving him lightly in the arm.

Apollo sighs. “Yeah, you caught me. Maybe I just wanna spend some time with you guys while I’m here. Even if means doing stupid things. So what?”

Athena brings her fists to her chest, looking at him tearfully. “Apollo…”

“Oh, no. Don’t you start.”

Phoenix chuckles at them. “Well, good luck with whatever you decide to do.”

“Thanks, Boss!”

“Thanks, Mr Wright.”

Phoenix gives them a salute as he walks backwards before turning on his heel and heading back the way he came.

Apollo scratches his head. “So…”

“Sooo!” Athena beats her fist into her palm again. “Cover the floor?”

Apollo nods. “Cover the floor. But you’re blowing them up this time.”

“You got it!”

Trucy hums, tapping the edge of the stack of papers down on the desk to straighten out the pile before placing them down, fanning them out a little bit on the wooden surface in a fancy display.

She puts her hands on her hips and takes a step back. “How’s that look?” she calls over her shoulder.

Rayfa steps up to stand beside her and peers down at the desk.

“Hmmm…” she says, tilting her head and placing her knuckle on her chin. “I believe it looks good!”

Trucy pumps a fist in the air. “Perfect!”

“Believe what looks good?”

Trucy and Rayfa whirl around. Nahyuta is standing in the center of the room, regarding them with suspicion and apprehension.

“Ah!” Rayfa gasps, lifting her hand slightly so that her fingers hover over her mouth. “Br-Braid Head! When did you get here?!”

“I have been here,” Nahyuta drawls, “You were simply too absorbed in your mischievous behaviors to take notice.”

“Our behaviors are not mischievous,” Rayfa huffs, crossing her arms.

“What are you doing to Apollo’s desk, then, if not committing acts of mischief?”

“Depends,” Trucy says, leaning back with her hands on the desk behind her. “Are you gonna tell him?” She bats her eyelashes.

Nahyuta is silent for a moment, gazing steadily at her with his arms tucked neatly behind his back. “...I have no need to engage myself in the business of your most childish pranking affairs,” he says, finally. “I will not breathe a word. It would hardly be worth my time.”

“You just want to see something silly happen to Horn Head,” Rayfa says accusingly.

Nahyuta smiles sweetly. “Perhaps.”

Trucy places a hand on her hip and tips her hat. “Then we have no reason not to tell you! I guess you could call it a little mischievous.”

“Not that I would be partaking in any sort of childish tomfoolery!” Rayfa insists. “I am no… no hooligan. I would never engage in… shenanigans of any kind.”

“I implied nothing of the sort,” Nahyuta says simply, crossing the room to stand in front of them. “So?”

“We replaced all of Polly’s files with perfect copies written in crayon!” Trucy explains eagerly, gesturing to the papers on Apollo’s desk.

Indeed, the papers are all written in crayon. They’re incredibly accurate copies; Trucy knew she could count on Vera to help.

“Hm,” Nahyuta hums. “And I suppose the real files are hidden somewhere?”

Trucy waves her hand dismissively. “I’m holding onto them. Polly’ll get them back later, don’t worry.”

Nahyuta peers down at the papers. “I see. Is that what you two were off doing yesterday?”

Trucy nods. “I’ve had this prank idea for a while, but Rayfa wanted to help! It’s been pretty fun.”

Beside her, Rayfa flushes bright red.

Something in Nahyuta’s expression softens imperceptibly as he turns his eyes to Rayfa. “Is that so?”

Rayfa keeps her arms crossed, gaze locked on the floor. “Perhaps. So what?”

“It is nice to see you having fun,” is all Nahyuta says.

If it’s at all possible for Rayfa to turn redder than she already is, she does. She uncrosses her arms, balling her hands into fists at her chest. “W-what is that supposed to mean?! I have plenty of fun all the time!”

“I only meant that it’s nice to see in this particular circumstance. You know what I said the other day.”

Whatever Nahyuta is talking about, clearly Rayfa knows.

“W-well— you—” Rayfa’s fists tremble. She glances frantically between Trucy and Nahyuta before throwing her hands to her side. “Stop that!”

“Stop what?” Nahyuta asks innocently.

“Stop being so… so…” Rayfa sweeps her hand through the air. “You know!”

“I don’t believe I do. Would you mind spelling it out for me?”

“Stop being so… soft!” Rayfa spits.

There’s a sparkle of mischief in Nahyuta’s eyes. “You think I’m soft, little sister?”

“N-no— that’s not—” Rayfa grits her teeth. “Augh!”

She storms out of the room.

Trucy blinks as she watches Rayfa go, confusion swirling inside her.

“Don’t mind her,” Nahyuta says. “She flusters easily.”

Trucy giggles. “I can tell.”

She turns back to the crayon files on the desk. “Anyway, do you think this is good?”

Nahyuta peers down at them. “That depends on what your goal is. If your wish is to confuse him, I think he will be thoroughly puzzled. …These copies are quite well done,” he adds.

Trucy beams. “Thanks! We got an old friend of mine and Polly’s to help us out. She’s an artist, but she’s really good at forgeries and stuff.”

“They’re very impressive,” Nahyuta says. “I imagine his face will be that of a furious ape when he sees them.”

Trucy giggles. “Now that’s an image! I can’t wait.” She hops up to sit on the desk, legs swinging beneath her.

A tense, awkward silence settles over them.

“I really am glad to see you and Rayfa getting along,” Nahyuta says, straightening his back.

Hmm. There’s something off here. Something underneath the tone of his voice, something sleeping under his neutral expression. Something Trucy can’t quite place.

“Me too,” she says slowly, indulging him. “I’ve always wanted a sister. Honestly, I’ve always wanted siblings my whole life. It’s really cool to have more than one now.”

Nahyuta’s expression shifts minutely— the tiniest twitch of a brow. Is that surprise she detects? “Really?”

“Mhm.” Trucy lets her arms fall to her sides, her cape falling to cover them as she gazes steadily at Nahyuta. “One can never have enough siblings, I say.”

Nahyuta flicks his eyes away.

Trucy clicks her tongue. She tilts her head upward, tapping her chin in faux thought. “Brothers are pretty cool, too.”

Nahyuta closes his eyes, tilting his head downward.

“...I suppose little siblings are something you can never have too many of, either,” he says.

He walks away.

Trucy stares after him.

A feeling of progress and accomplishment floods over her. She throws her fists in the air in quiet celebration.

The pranks fall into effect mere minutes apart.

It happens later in the day when Trucy runs upstairs to get something. Apollo and Athena share a glance behind her.

Trucy opens the door and is met with quite the sight. Balloons of every color cover every inch of the floor.

“Huh…?” she mutters.

“Oh, looks like you found Apollo and Athena’s prank.”

Trucy whirls around to see Phoenix standing behind her with an amused smile.

“What?!”

“Yeah, I ran into them while they were setting it up earlier.”

Trucy stares at her dad, mouth agape, hand hovering over her lips. “You didn’t tell me?!”

Phoenix laughs. “‘Course not. Didn’t wanna ruin the surprise.”

Trucy groans loudly, shoving her dad in the arm as he starts laughing even harder. She starts giggling as well. She kicks one of the balloons at her feet, watching it go flying slowly through the air.

“I gotta confront them about this,” she says, taking off back down the stairs.

She pounds down the steps and enters the back office with purpose, marching over to where Athena and Apollo are sitting on the couch, angled towards the TV in the corner. She stands in front of them, hands on her hips in faux anger.

“Balloons?” she prompts vaguely.

“What?” Rayfa says from her spot beside Nahyuta on the other couch.

Athena snorts and starts snickering.

“You!” Trucy says, pointing at her accusingly.

“Hey, hey, it wasn’t my idea! It was all Apollo!”

“What?!” Apollo yelps, whipping his head around to stare at her.

Trucy gasps. “Polly! You did this?”

“No!”

“Well, I kinda helped a little bit,” Athena says, propping her arm up with the other across her chest to fiddle with her earring. “Or a lot a bit. But it was totally his idea!” She grins.

Trucy doesn’t need to pay attention to her senses to know something is off in that sentence based on Apollo’s reaction alone, but she plays along with it.

“I can’t believe you’d prank me!” she says. She can feel the smile leaking through her expression and into her voice, her excitement and amusement washing away her little act.

“What happened?” Rayfa asks curiously.

Trucy whirls around. “They put balloons everywhere in the apartment!”

“Balloons?”

“Yeah, balloons! They’re covering the floor— like, every inch! Come see!”

“Wait—” Rayfa protests, but she’s already being dragged up out of her seat and out of the room.

Behind them in the office, Nahyuta smirks knowingly behind the book he’s reading.

“I see your plan went accordingly,” he says, smoothing his smile out into a firmly neutral expression once again.

“Hell yeah, it did!” Athena says. “Did you see how excited she was?! ‘Pollo, this is great! High five!”

She holds up a hand in front of Apollo. He ignores it. She smacks him in the forehead instead, leaving him spluttering indignantly.

Apollo rubs his forehead with one finger, glaring at Athena through his hand. “Why’d you say it was my idea?! You were the one who planned the whole thing!”

“‘Cause I wanted to give you credit for it!” Athena puts a hand on her hip. “C’mon, did you see how excited she was when I told her you did it?”

“I’m sure she can tell it wasn’t actually my idea.”

Athena waves a hand dismissively. “But she was excited that you helped! And you did, didn’t you? Like it or not, you can’t deny this was a team effort.” She drapes an arm over Apollo’s shoulders, leaving him scowling. He looks over to Nahyuta for help and receives a smug look in response. Some help he is.

Trucy and Rayfa round the corner again, Rayfa looking very confused and Trucy looking absolutely delighted.

“This means war,” Trucy declares.

“It does?” Apollo asks nervously as Athena laughs beside him.

“Oh, yeah! And you’ll be getting what’s coming to you for that one,” Trucy swears, putting her hands on her hips, “Just you wait and see!”

“Oh boy,” Apollo mutters.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you’ve failed to notice yet,” Nahyuta intones ominously without looking up from his book.

Apollo flicks his gaze over to him. “Notice what?”

Nahyuta smiles serenely.

“Notice what?”

“I believe that is something better left exploring yourself, you dull-pigmented strawberry.”

“Hello?!”

Trucy tucks her hands behind her back, bouncing on her toes. “Mhm,” she says sweetly, “I think you might find that that serving of karma’s coming a bit sooner than you might expect!”

Apollo stares at her, dread dawning on his expression. “...What did you do?”

Trucy smiles.

Apollo turns his gaze back to Nahyuta.

He smiles.

Apollo glances over at Rayfa.

She smiles.

“Oh, God,” he mutters. He stands up from his seat. “I’m gonna have to go looking for whatever you guys did now, aren’t I?”

“Whoever said it was multiple of us?” Rayfa says suspiciously quickly.

Apollo stares at her. “...I never said you were included in that.” He squints at her. “Unless you are…?”

Rayfa scoffs. “Do you have trust issues, Horn Head?”

Yes, but that’s besides the point, Apollo thinks to himself. He shakes his head. “I’m gonna have them now, because of this whole prank thing. Who knows how many of you are planning to attack me behind my back?”

He pauses and turns around to stare at Athena.

She throws her hands in the air with an offended huff. “Don’t look at me! I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do!”

He squints at her.

“Do not be so suspicious of your friends and family, you putrid strawberry,” Nahyuta says sternly.

“Putrid already?” Apollo asks exasperatedly.

“They rot fast.”

That startles a snorting laugh out of Apollo, and he has to bite it down quickly. Nahyuta smiles victoriously.

Apollo shakes his head. “What am I looking for? Can I get a hint, or something? I don’t wanna be walking around on eggshells all day.”

“It’s not on the floor, so don’t worry!” Trucy says, tipping her hat.

“Well that narrows it down.”

“I believe I saw something amiss in the other room,” Nahyuta says.

Rayfa crosses her arms. “Don’t tell him! That defeats the purpose!”

Nahyuta smiles at her. “And I suppose you know all about the purpose of pranks and trickery, little sister?”

Rayfa turns her head away from him, angling her nose at the ceiling. “Of course I do not. What do you take me for?”

“Thanks,” Apollo says, ignoring their bickering and walking into the front office.

He stands in the doorway, arms crossed, surveying the room with apprehension as the others all file in behind him.

They all watch him as he scans the room, trying to place what’s off about it.

He stands there.

They watch.

He stands there.

They watch.

Apollo slumps forward, hair horns drooping. “Okay, I have no idea what I’m looking for.”

“Well, you didn’t put in very much effort,” Rayfa says.

“Yeah, you just kinda stood there,” Trucy points out.

“You did a whole lot of looking and not very much searching,” Nahyuta agrees.

“C’mon, Apollo, you gotta try better than that! That was just pathetic,” Athena pitches in.

“Well, I feel stupid with all of you watching me like hawks,” Apollo grumbles.

“I can watch you like a warbaa’d instead!” Rayfa offers, putting her hands on her hips and smirking. “Perhaps that would ease your discomfort?”

“I think that would make me feel worse, but thanks.”

A flash of color catches his eye.

With great trepidation, Apollo walks toward his desk. (His desk, still, because even though he doesn’t work at the WAA anymore the others still have yet to use this desk for anything other than the occasional storage space. They’re saving it for him, is what Trucy said. For when he comes back. It’s a sweet gesture.)

He stares down at the paperwork he’d dropped off there yesterday. Every paper visible is written in crayon. Frantically, he shuffles through them. Every single one is in crayon. More specifically, every single one is exactly as he left it, with the only difference being that it’s in crayon now. The font looks the same and his own handwriting on the signatures looks the same, except now it’s all barely legible because it’s all in crayon and crayon was never meant to be used to write in such small print. But aside from that, they’re near-perfect replicas.

…In crayon.

“What… the hell…?”

Trucy bursts out laughing behind him.

Apollo spins around.

Rayfa has the biggest grin on her face that Apollo has ever seen, her eyes glittering with mischief.

At that moment, Apollo regrets ever introducing his two sisters. Trucy’s a chaotic influence.

Behind them, Nahyuta is standing with his eyes closed and one hand raised, palm flat, a knowing smile on his face. Athena rushes over to stare down at the files, letting out a bark of laughter.

Trucy is still snickering.

“How the hell did you do this?!” Apollo demands, though he can’t help the smile creeping onto his face at all the contagious laughter in the room.

“We got a little help from Vera Misham,” Trucy says with a tip of her hat and a wink.

Apollo gapes. “No way.”

“Yep! She was happy to help!” Trucy giggles.

“How on earth did you have enough time—?” Apollo spins around and flips through all the papers again. “There’s so many!”

“It took a few hours,” Trucy explains, “But we visited her early, and she didn’t have any other work to do. Plus we get the friends discount, which means it’s free, soooooo…”

Well, he gets how they’re such perfect replicas now. Vera’s work is nothing to be scoffed at.

“Okay, but the actual papers are still safe, right? Because those are all pretty important files,” Apollo says nervously.

“Of course!” Trucy huffs. “I’ll replace them later.” She flourishes her cape. “You won’t even notice the swap!”

“I bet I won’t,” Apollo says, still reeling.

“And Rayfa helped, too!”

Apollo whips his head up to stare accusingly at Rayfa. “I knew it!”

“I— I didn’t do much!” Rayfa says defensively. “I just… followed her around, really!”

“You were in on it!”

“W-well— I—”

“We’re a team!” Trucy says with a grin.

“...Oh, it’s on,” Apollo says.

Trucy beams. “You mean it?!”

“Well, I have to get you back for this, don’t I?” Apollo waves to the papers on his desk.

Trucy throws a fist in the air. “YES!”

“You may count me in as well!” Rayfa blurts out, holding her fists to her chest with a look of determination despite the fierce blush across her cheeks.

“Unlike you three, I am a dignified adult,” Nahyuta says. “I will not partake in such antics. But I wish you much fun.”

Little did Nahyuta know, he’d be dragged into it regardless.

A day later, Rayfa and Trucy come up with a plan. Rayfa is in charge of the planning this time, given that it was her idea to prank Nahyuta to begin with.

Trucy stands on a chair in the center of the back office, reaching up towards the ceiling fan and draping a familiar long white cloth across it.

“How’s this look?” She calls, glancing down to the floor in front of her.

Rayfa puts a hand on her hip and tilts her head, bringing a knuckle up to rest on her lips as she peers up at the ceiling fan.

“...A little farther to the left,” she says.

Trucy adjusts the cloth.

“Here?”

Rayfa claps her hands once. “Perfect!”

“Please be careful,” a new voice says.

Rayfa and Trucy both jerk their heads up to see Phoenix standing in the doorway, looking very, very nervous.

“Hi, Daddy!” Trucy greets, “Don’t worryyyy, I’m being careful.”

“What are you even doing?” Phoenix asks, squinting up at the fan. “...Is that scarf Nahyuta’s?”

“We are playing a prank on Braid Head,” Rayfa says matter-of-factly. Trucy nods.

“...Right. Well, as long as you don’t hurt yourselves…”

“We won’t, we won’t!” Trucy says. “Look, I’m almost done, see—?”

She moves to tie the end of the scarf around the blade of the ceiling fan. The chair she’s standing on wobbles underneath her. She splays her hands out for balance.

“Ah!” Rayfa gasps in alarm.

“Trucy—!” Phoenix calls out in warning.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine!” She says. The chair steadies. She ties the scarf quickly around the blade of the fan and hops down.

She looks up at her dad, who seems like he’s grown at least three new gray hairs in the last seven seconds. Call that a mission accomplished!

“Okay. Can we not do any more of that?” Phoenix says tensely.

“I was fiiine! I’ve done much more dangerous stuff for my magic acts than standing on a chair, Daddy, you know this. I know how to be careful.”

“I know, and I trust you, but you still make me nervous.”

Trucy smiles sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Phoenix sighs, swiping the hat off Trucy’s head and ruffling her hair. Trucy protests loudly and bats at his hands, laughing.

Phoenix looks up at the fan as Trucy snatches her hat back from him. “So what’s the plan here?”

Trucy glances at Rayfa.

“I suppose you will find out soon enough,” Rayfa says, planting her hands on her hips and tilting her head with a mischievous air to her smirk— a look she’s getting close to perfecting, if Trucy must admit! She thinks she’s been a good influence on the girl.

Phoenix glances between the two of them, clearly coming to the same conclusion. Trucy throws on a mischievous smirk of her own just to make the connection clearer.

“I suppose I will,” Phoenix says. He grabs the chair from the middle of the room and drags it to the side and out of the way. “You two are getting along, huh?”

Trucy tucks her arms behind her back innocently. “Of course!”

Rayfa growls. “Why does everyone insist on making such odd comments about it!”

Trucy and Phoenix both glance over at her in confusion.

“This is the second time someone has said this!” She explains, throwing an arm out to her side. “Why would we not get along?”

“Oh, I never thought you wouldn’t. I always knew you two would get along like a house on fire from the day I first met you,” Phoenix says, bending down to pick up a box from off the floor and gazing at her over his shoulder.

“Why make it such a big deal then?”

Phoenix winces and hisses through his teeth. Trucy rushes over and lifts the box for him, pushing his hands away.

“It’s just nice to see,” Phoenix answers, clutching his back with one hand and slowly straightening back up.

Trucy taps him on the arm and holds up the box in a silent ‘where do you want this?’ gesture. Phoenix points to one of the back cabinets with a grateful smile. She walks over to it as the other two keep talking.

“...W-what do you mean?” Rayfa’s voice sounds tenser suddenly.

If Phoenix notices, he doesn’t comment on it. “Well, you two remind people a lot of each other, I think. And like I said, we all knew you’d get along. We just like seeing the two of you getting closer. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Trucy puts the box away and closes the cabinet.

“...Right,” Rayfa says distantly.

Trucy turns around.

Rayfa is looking at Phoenix oddly.

“What’s wrong?” Phoenix asks.

“...Nothing.”

Trucy tenses. She shares a glance with her dad, whose hand has slipped into his pocket, confirming her instinctual suspicion. They must have sensed the same thing in different ways.

“You sure?” Phoenix says.

Rayfa crosses her arms. “I am quite sure.”

“You seem like you got really distracted there,” Trucy comments.

Rayfa averts his gaze stubbornly. “My father had a bad back, is all. You simply reminded me of him for a moment. Like I said, it’s nothing.”

“Your father… you mean Dhurke?” Trucy asks puzzledly.

“No. I mean— my other one. The one I grew up with. Before… everything.”

“Inga,” Phoenix says knowingly. “Right. I remember that.”

Trucy glances between them.

“I do not want to be talking about this,” Rayfa says forcefully. “Anyway. I think Hat Head and I getting along is nothing to be so excited about. Nothing worth a comment from every single person I talk to.” She glances over at Trucy, looking a little guilty. “N-not that I mean that in a way that implies anything rude, of course…”

Trucy smiles. “I get what you mean!”

Rayfa coughs, face red. “Right. Well. I must be going. Goodbye.”

She leaves the room.

“...Did she just call me ‘Hat Head’?” Trucy mumbles.

“I… think it means she’s taken a liking to you.” Phoenix says, rubbing the back of his neck.

Nahyuta strides up to the office building, stopping in his tracks when he notices a certain figure sitting outside.

“...What are you doing?” he asks.

Apollo glances up from his phone to gaze at him. “Getting some fresh air? It gets stuffy in there.”

“Alone?”

Apollo waves his phone around. “I’m talking to Klav. So… no?”

“Hm.”

“What.”

“I think texting someone hardly counts as company.”

Apollo raises a brow. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Hm. Correction: I think Klavier Gavin hardly counts as company.”

“I’m telling him you said that.”

“Go right ahead. What could that man do to me?”

Apollo snorts, typing away at his phone screen for a moment before holding the phone up for him to see. Nahyuta leans down to look at it.

     KLAVIER:

          hes just jealous im such a snack

Nahyuta leans back. “A putrid, stale loaf of bread, perhaps. Or a flaky potato chip.”

Apollo barks out a laugh and types that out as well.

“Have you seen my scarf, by the way?” Nahyuta asks.

“He says he’s not bread. Suspiciously, no comment on the potato chip part.”

“I will not continue having a conversation with your boyfriend over text while you play the messenger. Can you answer my question?”

“No, I haven’t seen your scarf. Did you leave without it?”

“I couldn’t find it this morning at the hotel, so I made do without it. I figured I may have left it at the office last night.”

Apollo shrugs, waving a hand. “Ask around. I’m sure somebody’s seen it.”

“Is everyone here?”

“Everyone but Athena. She’s off somewhere with Juniper, I think.”

Nahyuta walks up the steps and opens the door.

“Hold on a sec, I’m coming back in.”

Nahyuta steps inside and holds the door open, waiting as Apollo tears his eyes away from the screen and locks his phone, standing up and brushing himself off before walking over to him. Nahyuta waits until Apollo is just close enough before stepping away, letting the door swing shut in his face.

“Hey!”

Nahyuta smirks to himself as he walks away, listening to Apollo grumble behind him.

Nahyuta steps into the front office and is immediately met with the sight of his sister sitting on the spare sofa in the corner with her hands in her lap, staring off into the distance, looking completely lost in thought.

“Rayfa?” Nahyuta says.

Rayfa’s head snaps to attention. “Oh. You’re here.”

“Yes. Is there something on your mind?”

“No.”

“Hm.”

Rayfa scowls at him. “Don’t ‘hm’ at me, you worm.”

“Wow, out with the insults already. And so early in the day, too. Did someone wake up on the wrong side of her bed this morning?”

Rayfa grits her teeth, face turning red. “Shut up!”

Nahyuta smiles sweetly at her. “Anyway, have you happened to see my scarf anywhere, dear sister?”

Something flickers in Rayfa’s expression. She turns away quickly—suspiciously so— and crosses her arms.

“I believe I saw it in the back office.”

“...Hm. Right. Thank you.”

Rayfa turns her head and levels him with a smile to rival his own, looking every bit as benevolent as her title of address boasts.

There is something in those eyes not to be trusted, Nahyuta thinks.

He squints at her.

Her smile turns into an open-mouthed grin.

“Can you guys stop having that little staring competition or whatever? You’re creeping me out.”

Rayfa lets her face fall and rolls her eyes. “You get unsettled by the strangest things, Horn Head.”

Nahyuta shakes his head, stepping away.

He opens the door to the back office, surprised to see all the lights shut off. He glances around before flicking the light switch with one hand.

Nahyuta’s eyes fall on the center of the room as the lights come on and the fan kicks into motion.

…Ah.

His scarf is spinning around at a rapid pace from where it’s tied to the blade of the ceiling fan.

Well.

Nahyuta turns around to stand in the threshold between the two rooms.

“Sister,” he calls, interrupting whatever conversation Rayfa and Apollo were having.

Rayfa looks up innocently at him. “Hm?”

“Do you perhaps know anything about the slight predicament in the other room?”

“I am not sure what you’re referring to.”

“Well, seeing as you were the one who directed me there, one would imagine you would have inevitably come across it.”

“I still do not know what you’re talking about.”

“My scarf, Your Benevolence.”

“What about it?” Rayfa flicks her eyes to the side briefly.

“You saw it, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And what state was it that you saw it in?”

“It was on the back of the couch,” Rayfa says smoothly.

Nahyuta narrows his eyes. “When did you see it?”

Nahyuta steps farther into the room to allow Apollo to nudge past him.

“Some time this morning, why?” Rayfa answers.

Apollo lets out an audible “oh” behind him.

“And when did you leave?” Nahyuta asks.

“Just after that?”

“Was anyone still in there after you left?”

“Barbed Head and Hat Head.”

Nahyuta brushes over the sudden new nickname as Apollo leans around his arm to stare at Rayfa in confusion.

“And did you see them doing anything with it?”

“Why are you questioning me like I am some unruly witness on the stand?” Rayfa hisses.

Nahyuta pauses. He closes his eyes and dips his head. “Apologies.”

“Sooo… you don’t know about the, uhhhh…” Apollo says.

“I told you, I have no clue what is happening!” Rayfa snaps, clenching her fists at chest-level. “If I did, we wouldn’t be going through this ridiculous interrogation!”

Apollo shoves past Nahyuta again and points with force. “GOTCHA!”

Rayfa jumps. “Wh—?!”

“You’re tense. Tenser than you usually get when you’re flustered, anyway. And your eyes keep flicking over to the stairs,” Apollo says, pressing a finger to his forehead in thought. “Almost like you’re waiting for somebody to come down them.”

“Are you lawyering at me, you fork-tongued pohlkunan?”

“Language,” Nahyuta admonishes, watching Apollo with interest.

“And the only people who’d be coming down those stairs are Trucy and Mr Wright,” Apollo continues. “If I had to guess, I’d say Trucy is the most likely answer, considering how well you two have been getting along. And considering the fact that you keep glancing over there while Yuta is pressing you about what is clearly a prank… I’d say you’re waiting for Trucy to come down because you know she played a part in what happened to Nahyuta’s scarf.”

Apollo crosses his arms with a confident grin. “Just yesterday you admitted that you helped Trucy with her plan to prank me. And considering the victim this time is Nahyuta… I think it’s safe to assume that you played a willing part in this prank, too!”

Rayfa seethes. Her entire body is shaking with fury like a small dog, her face bright red and her fists clenched so tightly Nahyuta worries she may hurt herself with her nails.

“I believe that was a conclusion easily made without going through all of that,” Nahyuta says, tilting his head down.

Apollo sags like a wilting sprout. “Well, it was worth the effort.”

“Y-you…” Rayfa hisses.

“Oh, she’s gonna kill me,” Apollo says.

“I HEARD A ‘GOTCHA’!” screams Trucy’s voice as she pounds down the stairs, leaping the final two steps, this time stumbling and slamming into Apollo instead of twirling gracefully like a few days prior. Her momentum knocks Apollo to the ground. “What’s happening?” she chirps.

Nahyuta turns his gaze on her. They lock eyes.

Trucy leans casually against the wall with one arm, leaving Apollo to drag himself to his feet by himself, groaning.

“Soooo,” Trucy says conversationally, “...Looking for something?”

“I believe I found it,” Nahyuta says.

“Oh, cool, that’s cool,” Trucy nods, turning her gaze to Apollo. “Who’re we getting, by the way?”

“Rayfa,” Apollo grumbles, muttering a little “owww” under his breath as he rubs the arm he’d fallen on. Trucy winces and murmurs an apology back to him.

Rayfa gives a “hmph.” She throws her hands down to her sides. “I was not being gotten!”

“What happened?” Trucy asks.

“Y-your… your nincompoop of a brother decided to point at me and make accusations—”

“Hey, he’s your brother, too! If I have to take responsibility for him, so do you.”

“Don’t sell me out, Truce!” Apollo complains.

Nahyuta closes his eyes patiently.

“You knew him longer,” Rayfa huffs. “And it’s your little… your… power that he’s using on me!”

“Well, were you lying about something?”

Rayfa flushes. “W-well— th-that’s—”

“You were!”

“O-only on your behalf!” Rayfa protests.

Apollo crosses his arms. “We were trying to get to the bottom of who messed with Yuta’s scarf.”

Trucy steps away from the wall, tucking her arms behind her back to give them an innocent smile. “Oh? And did you?”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?” Apollo asks.

“Sounds like you didn’t get to the bottom of it if you’re asking me.”

Apollo rolls his eyes and taps his foot. “You and Rayfa worked together. Obviously.”

“I’d like to see some proof tying us to the crime. Evidence is everything in—”

“We’re not in court!” Apollo bursts, throwing his hands in the air.

“A magician should always be ready to perform their act even in the most unconventional of times and places,” Trucy says, tipping her hat with an award-winning smile. “I’d imagine the same should go for all professions! Even lawyers!”

“It really doesn’t.”

“Is that not what these two fools were just doing?” Rayfa huffs. “Now I know what all those witnesses feel like…”

“Well, without proof, it’s not really fair to go around accusing us!” Trucy says.

“If you had been down here when I was perceiving, you could’ve heard my proof—”

Nahyuta claps once, the breeze from the force of it flowing his loose strands of hair backward and out of his face. The room falls silent.

He opens his eyes and levels the other three with an unimpressed stare. “Are we done bickering?”

Trucy, Apollo, and Rayfa all cross their arms in perfect unison. Nahyuta would almost admire their coordination if it weren’t for the fact that he knows they didn’t plan it.

Nahyuta moves one hand to behind his back, letting the other stay in its place midair.

“I think we can all agree that your more than suspicious behavior is plenty of reason to suspect you,” Nahyuta says. “You have the motive.”

“Motive for what?” Rayfa grumbles, “Hanging your scarf around a ceiling fan? What kind of overly-specific…”

“I did not say that was where the scarf was.”

Rayfa freezes, mouth half-ajar. Nahyuta fixes her with a steady, calm expression with an air of victory in his eyes.

“Welp, you gave it your best shot, Rayfa!” Trucy giggles.

“It is better to tell the honest truth and own up to your misdeeds than to lie about your involvement, my dear sister,” Nahyuta says, putting on as disappointed a tone as he can muster.

Rayfa looks shattered. Something tugs at Nahyuta’s heart.

“…If it were truly something bad,” he amends. “I suppose a prank is harmless enough to not take it quite so seriously.”

Rayfa brightens. Nahyuta nearly sighs with relief.

“But you should still take credit for it when you get caught!” Trucy points out. “Otherwise all that hard work goes to waste!”

Rayfa smirks. “Fine. It was all me, then. I received no assistance with my crime whatsoever. I planned and executed it all on my own.”

“Wh—hey, wait a second! Don’t take all the credit!”

Nahyuta chuckles to himself. “Perhaps you can both atone for your actions by helping me remove my scarf from the fan?”

“Oh— yes,” Rayfa says, blushing.

“What was his reaction?” Trucy nudges Rayfa in the arm. “I can’t believe I missed it.”

“Rather neutral, before he started interrogating me,” Rayfa says with a withering glare in Nahyuta’s direction.

Nahyuta can’t help but see the resemblance to Dhurke in that expression.

“I apologize for questioning you so relentlessly,” Nahyuta says.

Rayfa huffs. “…You are forgiven.”

“I’ll go grab the step stool,” Trucy says.

Rayfa turns to her, confusion in her expression. “I thought you used a chair last time.”

Trucy shrugs. “It was the closest thing available.”

“You have not yet apologized for your own actions, Rayfa.” Nahyuta says, drawing her attention back toward him.

Rayfa brings a hand up to her mouth, alarmed. “D-do I need to?”

“Well, I believe I said I wouldn’t partake in any of your pranking nonsense, didn’t I?”

Rayfa flushes. “W-well, I—“ she balls her hands into fists at her sides. “You were asking for it!”

She storms off into the back office.

Apollo pats him on the back on his way past. “You tried.”

Nahyuta sighs. That, he did.

They’re all expecting the pranking to take a pause after that. All six of them head out to go spend time around town together. Rayfa, Trucy, and Athena all blaze the trail ahead with all of their boundless enthusiasm, leaving Nahyuta, Apollo, and Phoenix to pull up the rear.

The girls drag them into various stores, be it clothing stores or small bookshops or little outlets filled with various puzzles and knickknacks and tourist mementos and souvenirs. Rayfa is racking up quite the collection of items, but Nahyuta doesn’t seem to mind paying for it all.

Which is good, because Rayfa doesn’t want to stop.

“Oooh, I didn’t know we had a Cinnabon around here!” Athena gasps, gazing across the street at a shop with a bright blue sign.

“I think they just opened it a couple weeks ago.” Phoenix brings a hand up to his chin.

Rayfa stares at the shop. She can see some kinds of pastries through the window. “What is it?”

“Oh, Cinnabon? They make these really good cinnamon rolls,” Athena explains, clenching her fists at her chest and squishing her face up as though just the thought of cinnamon rolls is bringing her to tears. “They’re the best I’ve ever tasted…”

“I think they smell better than they taste,” Apollo says.

“Well no one asked for your opinion, Apollo,” Athena huffs, putting a hand on her hip, “You have horrible taste.”

“Wh—?! No I don’t!”

“We can go get some if you guys want,” Phoenix offers.

Trucy gasps, lighting up and bouncing on her toes. “Let’s go!”

Athena cheers. “Yessss!”

Rayfa can’t help but feel the others’ enthusiasm as well. She tries to brush it off. “Surely they must not be that good,” she says. “Nothing is better than the freshly baked goods in Khura’in.”

“That I can get behind,” Apollo says.

“Well, we’ll just have to prove you wrong!” Athena says with a burning passion in her eyes. “C’mon!”

She dashes across the street, Trucy chasing after her.

So they cross the street and enter, buy six whole cinnamon rolls (despite Apollo’s insistence that he doesn’t care for them, he gets one anyway), and sit down at the tables outside to eat them.

Rayfa bites into her cinnamon roll, and her entire world lights up.

She covers her mouth with a hand, eyes wide.

“Wellllll?” Trucy asks eagerly, leaning over the table to gaze at her intently. “What do you think?”

Rayfa swallows. “This is… not very good!” she says, beaming.

Athena and Trucy both burst into laughter.

“You look very delighted for someone eating something they dislike,” Nahyuta comments with his cheek resting on his hand, elbow propped up on the table. It’s the most casual Rayfa has seen his body language since they arrived here. The serene smile on his face creasing his eyes only adds to it.

“I don’t dislike it!” Rayfa insists. “It’s just so…” she waves her hand about. “Different?”

“Is Cinnabon handmade? That might be the difference,” Apollo says.

“I’m pretty sure they are?” Athena says, propping up her elbow on one arm and fiddling with her earring. “I’d have to look it up.”

“They may still be less fresh,” Nahyuta says.

“Well, whatever the difference is, I love it,” Rayfa says, taking another bite off her fork. “It is wonderfully mediocre!”

Trucy snorts again.

Once they all finish eating, they clean up and get up from their tables. Nahyuta makes eye contact with Rayfa and holds something out to her.

“May you hold onto this for me for a moment?”

Rayfa raises a brow and takes it. It’s his beaded necklace. “Sure…? What for?”

Nahyuta doesn’t respond, instead walking the opposite direction to throw his trash away.

…”RAYFA!”

Trucy pounces on her, wrapping her arms around Rayfa’s shoulders. Rayfa yelps, whirling around with wide eyes.

“W-what’s wrong?!” she demands, frantically scanning her surroundings for any sign of something amiss and coming up short. Nobody else seems to pay them any mind.

“Nothing!” Trucy answers.

Rayfa turns her head back to Trucy, who still has her arms around her. “What was that for, then?!”

“Oh, sorry, I just felt like it,” Trucy says, pulling away. “I won’t do it again if it’s not your thing, just say the word—“

She was being hugged, Rayfa realizes embarrassingly belatedly.

“No,” she says. “N-no, you’re fine. You simply… alarmed me. I thought something was wrong.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! No, I just like jumping on people,” Trucy explains with a kind smile. “I do it to Polly and Athena all the time.”

“I see…” Rayfa says. She isn’t sure where all of the casualness from Trucy came from all of a sudden, but honestly, she finds she doesn’t really mind. It’s a little strange and new, but… nice.

“Truce!” Apollo calls.

Trucy whips her head around, her loose ponytail nearly smacking Rayfa in the head. She dodges nimbly just in time, used to Nahyuta doing it too often around her as well with his braid.

“Yeah?” Trucy calls back.

Apollo beckons her over. Trucy runs off.

SNAP.

Rayfa yelps, dropping the beads in her hand like hot coals and stumbling backward. The loose beads roll across the ground, their broken string lying innocently beside them.

Rayfa stares at them in shock. She looks up; everyone is staring at her.

The pieces of the puzzle click together in her head.

She whirls around on her heel, glaring with all the force she can muster at Nahyuta, who is standing across the patio.

“YOU!” She snaps, marching over to him with her finger pointed aggressively at his face.

He smiles disarmingly. “Me?”

“You did that! I’ve seen you do that to people before! Don’t think you’re clever!”

“Accusing me of breaking my own necklace to absolve yourself of responsibility rather than admit you broke it by accident?“ Nahyuta says calmly. “My, my.”

“I was not touching it!” Rayfa hisses.

“You were holding it.”

“Because you gave it to me! And refused to explain why!” She stands up on her toes so she can point in his face better, although he’s still far too much taller than her. How dare he. How dare he be so smug and so tall at the same time.

“What even happened?” Athena asks as the others all walk over, each of them looking on with varying levels of amusement.

“He handed that to me and wouldn’t say why and then he snapped it once I was distracted to scare me!” Rayfa says confidently, glowering at Nahyuta.

Nahyuta lifts a hand up and gently pushes Rayfa’s finger down and away from his face. She grits her teeth and throws her hand to her side, clenching her fists.

“Why would I want to scare you?” Nahyuta asks in that stupid sickly sweet tone of his. He knows. He knows how weak she is to it and he’s using it to play in his favor. But she refuses to back down. He will not succeed in his manipulation tactics!

“To get back at me for yesterday, obviously! What else?!”

Nahyuta straightens. “Really? I thought I told you that I wouldn’t be partaking in your little game. Why must you keep insisting on dragging me into it?”

“You dragged yourself into it, you— you rotten little—“

“Nahyuta, I can see you smirking.” Apollo calls.

Rayfa blinks herself out of her rage for long enough to notice that her brother is, in fact, smirking.

Nahyuta angles his head slightly. He is not even trying to be subtle.

“You’re doing this to make me angrier,” Rayfa seethes. “You are doing this on purpose. I will not give you what you want.” She turns around to face away from him with crossed arms so she can’t see his stupid face.

“She’s growing wise to your tricks, Yuta, you’ll have to up your game,” Apollo says jokingly.

“Oh, woe is me,” Nahyuta deadpans.

Rayfa taps her foot.

“C’mon, guys, let’s not loiter around,” Phoenix calls over to them.

The others start to file out of the outdoor patio.

“You two coming?” Apollo asks.

Rayfa looks over her shoulder at Nahyuta. “I am not speaking with you.”

She whips around and marches off to join Trucy and Athena.

…Her vow of silence doesn’t last long. It seems that whenever Rayfa is angry with Nahyuta, he always goes out of his way to treat her extra kindly the rest of the day. After the initial teasing ends, anyway. She’s not sure if it’s out of some bizarre sense of balance, or guilt, or if he’s just trying to get back on her good side or calm her down or what, but…

“Rayfa?” Nahyuta calls out to her later that night, standing in the open doorway connecting their hotel rooms together.

…But it works, as much as Rayfa is loath to admit.

“What?” Rayfa says, turning away from the desk to face him.

He’s wearing a new set of prayer beads around his neck. Rayfa wonders how many spare ones of those he has on hand. Given how often he likes to use them as weapons, she imagines the number is probably high.

“I admit that I snapped my beads in your hands to get a rise out of you earlier,” Nahyuta says rather formally with his hands behind his back. “I apologize.”

Rayfa huffs, gazing down at the floor.

Nahyuta steps farther into the room and places his hand gently on her head, ruffling her hair a bit.

And Rayfa softens. She can’t help it.

“Hmmmph. I forgive you,” Rayfa says stiltedly.

“However—”

Uh oh.

“—I cannot promise that something like that will not happen again.” Nahyuta’s smile has taken on a teasing edge.

Rayfa squints up at him. He has not removed his hand from her head, and she hasn’t ducked away from his touch yet, either. They’re at a standstill.

“...Alright,” Rayfa says with a smirk. “Then I cannot ensure that another thing such as the scarf incident will not happen again, either.”

There’s a twinkle of mischief in Nahyuta’s eyes. “Duly noted.”

He withdraws his hand and steps back towards his own room.

“Goodnight, little sister.”

There’s a warmth in Rayfa’s chest.

“Goodnight, annoying brother.”

Nahyuta breathes out a little laugh, smiling fondly. He shuts the door.

The next morning, Apollo catches Nahyuta alone in the hotel lounge— something rather routine for them. With Nahyuta’s and Rayfa’s tendency to wake at dawn, and with neither of them being very willing to break that habit, the two usually spend some time around the hotel until Apollo wakes up and comes to meet with them.

“Morning,” Apollo says with a yawn.

“Good morning,” Nahyuta responds, dipping his head in greeting.

Apollo glances around the lounge, still rather empty aside from Nahyuta. Usually the place doesn’t fill up until later in the day. “Where’s Rayf?”

“I believe she went down to get breakfast. You know how impatient she gets.”

“Ah,” Apollo says, sitting on the armrest of the chair Nahyuta is occupying.

The two sit in silence for a moment, Nahyuta engaged in whatever paper he’s reading. Probably work-related, if Apollo knows his brother at all (which he does).

“Y’know,” Apollo starts, “with Trucy and Rayfa working together, we’re probably both gonna be the targets of a lot more pranks.”

“Yes, most likely.”

“Maybe we should team up, then? Get them back?” Apollo offers. “Might as well, if they’re teaming up against us.”

Nahyuta ponders this for a moment.

“I did say I would not partake,” he says.

“Yeah, but then you pranked Rayfa. I think we all know you’re just as willing a participant as the rest of us.”

Nahyuta hums.

“C’mon, it can be 2v2. We can help each other if we stick together.”

Nahyuta watches Apollo through narrow, catlike eyes.

“…If we don’t truce, I can’t promise you protection from any prank I decide to pull,” Apollo threatens.

Nahyuta squints at him. “…Fine.”

“Perfect. Because I have no idea how to come up with pranks and you’d be much better at researching that sort of thing than me.”

“I have actual important things to research, you know.”

“What, like the entire history of the development of pottery as used by societies, or something?”

“That was important to my case,” Nahyuta hisses through his teeth.

“Oh my God, I was joking.” Apollo gapes. “You’ve actually researched that?”

“This discussion is over. I will research your putrid pranks so long as you stop bothering me.”

Apollo grins. “Thanks, Yuta!”

And research them, he does.

“Apollo,” Nahyuta says only a few hours later, walking into the office and lightly slamming his hand down on the desk in front of Apollo.

Apollo looks up.

“I have read every article on the common practice of pranking. I believe I have an idea.”

Apollo smirks. “I love using your power for evil.”

“Shut up or I’ll turn you into a french fry.”

Suffice to say, Mr Wright is very confused when they approach him and ask to borrow his kitchen, but he squints at them with suspicion and says they can use it as long as they promise to give him some of whatever they’re making, which they agree to.

They can always make a batch that’s untampered with.

“Have you ever baked before?” Apollo asks.

They’re standing in Mr Wright’s kitchen— small, but cozy. Enough to do its job. Apollo has traded his usual waistcoat or jacket for an apron tied around a simple button-down. Nahyuta is also sporting an apron, with his usual braid instead hanging free and tied in a long ponytail behind his head. They look… silly, sure, but it’s not like anyone’s going to see them but each other. They’ve already been promised privacy, with Phoenix off running errands and Trucy at rehearsal for her upcoming magic show, to which Rayfa followed her out of curiosity.

“Not once, but I am good at following instructions.” Nahyuta sets his phone down screen-up on the counter so they can see it. “Have you?”

“Uhhh. Once or twice,” Apollo answers. “Once with Clay, once with Trucy and Mr Wright.”

“And how did that go?”

“…The second time went a lot smoother.”

“I see.”

“We have everything we need, right?” Apollo asks, rifling through all of the ingredients and cooking tools they’ve taken out.

He’d sent Athena to the store earlier to get the extra things they needed, but he’s not sure he entirely trusts her not to have snagged something for herself.

Nahyuta runs a double-check through all of their ingredients. “I believe so,” he says at last.

“Okay. What’s the first step?” Apollo twirls a whisk in his hand.

“‘Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after—’”

“The first step, Nahyuta! One at a time!”

“This is the first step.”

Apollo stares at him.

“‘...Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.’” Nahyuta finishes.

“That’s one step?”

“That is one step.”

“What’s the step after that?”

“‘Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.’”

Apollo presses a finger to his forehead, squinting. “So step one is to just… do everything. And then step two is to bake.”

“It appears so.”

Apollo sighs. “Yeah, that’s not gonna work. Let’s look for a different recipe. Surely the measurements can’t be too different across recipes, they’re all the same cookie.”

They do find a different recipe with clearer instructions, which Apollo has to tell Nahyuta to slow down while reading twice over in order for him to actually fall to a pace Apollo can keep up with. They then run into the predicament of said recipe having very confusing units of measure, but by then it’s already too late, because both of them are too nervous to switch to a different one right in the middle of everything they’ve already made, so instead they push onwards.

Apollo quickly gets tired of doing all the work and makes Nahyuta mix ingredients as well, with the both of them taking turns checking the ingredients list, but this turns out to only make matters more difficult with Nahyuta’s phone falling asleep every minute or so, requiring him to come over and unlock it each time. This, on top of the both of them constantly stepping on each other’s toes and getting in the other’s way, unused to working around each other in a small environment, makes maneuvering around the kitchen a clumsy task, to say the least.

The two stand at opposite ends of the kitchen now, both mixing their own separate bowls of ingredients. Apollo peers over at Nahyuta’s phone only to find that it’s fallen asleep for the umpteenth time.

Apollo groans. “Phone’s locked again.”

Nahyuta walks over and types in the passcode. Apollo takes this moment of weakness to blow into the bowl of dry mix in Nahyuta’s general direction.

Nahyuta coughs at the cloud of flour and sugar in the air. He turns to Apollo and glares.

Apollo grins.

Nahyuta dips a finger into the egg part of the wet mix and flicks it at Apollo’s forehead. Apollo reaches a hand out toward Nahyuta to bat at him in retaliation, but the latter ducks away with a smug smirk. Apollo throws more dry mix at him from afar.

Nahyuta turns the sink on, runs his hand under the running tap, and flicks a splash of water at Apollo.

Apollo splutters, laughing as he marches over to cover Nahyuta’s hand with his own to forcefully turn off the sink, but not before changing the faucet setting to let the water spray aggressively all over both of them for a second before actually shutting it off completely.

This goes on for a while, the two of them laughing and chasing each other around the kitchen for a solid few minutes, forgetting their tasks as they get lost in their little play-fight.

…They probably lose a significant portion of their would-be cookie dough this way.

Breathless and shaking with the remnants of laughter, the two both lean back against opposite countertops. With a small smile, Nahyuta tilts his head up toward the ceiling.

Something melancholy creeps into his expression as a peaceful silence stretches over them. Nahyuta’s whisk falls into his bowl as he reaches up to rub the back of his hand.

“…You okay?” Apollo asks.

Nahyuta looks up at him. “Hm? I’m fine.”

“You’re clutching your hand. The one with the tattoo.”

Nahyuta closes his eyes.

“…Did something remind you of something?” Apollo asks quietly.

Nahyuta furrows his brows ever so slightly, eyes still shut.

It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“I thought we were gonna stop dancing around our feelings,” Apollo says.

Nahyuta sighs. “I know.”

“So…?”

Nahyuta curls his fist inward.

“Do you remember… when Dad used to let us cook with him?” he asks.

The atmosphere in the room shifts.

“Huh?” Apollo says, letting his whisk slip out of his hand and into the bowl he’s holding.

“When we were young. He would carry one of us around while we would help him with cooking. Do you remember?”

A beat of silence. Apollo stares.

“…Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I remember.”

Nahyuta is quiet.

“…Cooking was the one thing I kept with me, even when I did my best to forget everything else, I think,” Apollo admits. “I’ve always loved cooking. Not really so much baking, but…” he picks his whisk back up and gestures with it.

Nahyuta hums, tilting his head downward. He hasn’t moved his own whisk in a while.

“I think we did more watching than helping, though,” Apollo says. “Back then.”

“Maybe so. We were small, after all. We still helped where we were allowed, however.”

“True…”

Nahyuta opens his eyes. His voice is barely above a whisper.

“I wonder… if we might have felt a little more… natural in this setting… had you been allowed to stay with us.”

“Natural?”

“Less… bumbling. Stepping on each other’s feet. Perhaps we would have been more… at ease.”

Apollo glances at the kitchen around them.

“…Maybe,” he concedes. “But…”

He places his bowl on the counter beside him, crossing his arms and leaning back against it.

“…But we’ll never know. And… I think awkward and bumbling is kind of our style. With everything, really.”

Nahyuta flicks his gaze over to him.

“…Stumbling through the awkward and laughing anyway is kind of our go-to,” Apollo says, running a hand through his hair and letting his horns spring back up. “I think… I think we’re doing good. I think it’s fine how it is. I think we’re fine how we are.”

Nahyuta softens.

“You think we’re fine, hm…?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Hah. That’s what I thought you’d say, you putrid red pepper.” Nahyuta flicks a droplet of egg across the kitchen at him with practiced precision.

Apollo bursts out laughing. Nahyuta begins shaking with laughter of his own immediately after.

And the lighthearted atmosphere returns as easy as that.

They mix the two bowls of ingredients together after that and begin working on turning it into proper dough. Apollo has to smack Nahyuta’s hands away from the mixing bowl several times whenever the latter is caught in the act of trying to snag a chocolate chip (though Apollo sneaks one or two for himself while Nahyuta’s back is turned).

At one point, Nahyuta scoops out a small portion of the cookie dough with his spatula and slips it into his mouth, ignoring Apollo’s shout at him to stop. Apollo proceeds to chase him around the kitchen for another minute, the spatula hanging out of Nahyuta’s mouth all the while.

After the shenanigans (again), they portion their dough out onto the baking sheet. Apollo turns to the oven to open it, and—

“Oh,” he says loudly.

Nahyuta turns to him. “Hm?”

“We forgot to preheat the oven.”

Apollo turns to meet Nahyuta’s eyes. The two stare at each other.

“…Oh,” Nahyuta echoes.

They try to bake the cookies anyway. This, of course, leads to the cookies being incredibly undercooked when they take them out. They figure it best to leave them in for a bit longer.

Nahyuta and Apollo both sit in the living room while the batch is in the oven for the second time.

“...Did we ever put salt in the cookies like we were supposed to?” Apollo asks suddenly. “For the prank?”

Nahyuta looks up from his phone.

“...No,” he says slowly. “No, we did not.”

Apollo buries his face in his hands. “That was… the whole point.”

“I suppose we got carried away.”

Apollo sighs.

…Luckily, they don’t need to worry about the cookies being too good.

They end up… misshapen, at best, and very, very crispy. Apparently they left them in the oven too long after the preheating failure. Go figure.

“They taste like putrid eggs,” Nahyuta says helpfully.

“Burnt putrid eggs,” Apollo amends, wrinkling his nose and tossing the rest of the cookie he’d taken a bite out of into the trash bin.

“I cannot believe we failed so miserably.”

“Well, at least they’re still awful?” Apollo says optimistically. “That… was kind of the goal, wasn’t it? So did we really fail?”

“I… suppose not.” Nahyuta stares down at the cookie in his hand. “...However, I think I would rather have good cookies, after all that effort.”

“Yeah, this was kind of a waste of ingredients, huh?” Apollo sighs.

Nahyuta hums. He leans back against the counter. “I suppose we should get to cleaning up.”

Apollo glances around the kitchen. Every surface is covered in flour and bits of dough. “Oh. Right.”

They get to work cleaning the countertops. Nahyuta finds a container to store their disgusting cookies in after they cool off while Apollo wipes the excess dough off the counter with a wet napkin.

On a whim, Apollo turns toward Nahyuta and throws the wet napkin at him.

Napkin catches it and turns to glare at Apollo. Apollo crosses his arms and grins before he is hit in the face with the very same napkin.

He coughs, pulling it away from his face to see Nahyuta smirking at him. He grins back.

…Honestly, even if the cookies were a waste, Apollo is kind of glad they did this anyway.

After the cookies are cooled, they put them in a tin and head downstairs, making sure to shed their aprons on their way out so as not to arouse any suspicion.

Trucy and Rayfa are playing cards on the table between the two couches in the back office when they arrive. Trucy seems to be teaching Rayfa how to play something.

“Hey,” Apollo says, swinging around the corner.

“Oh!” Trucy perks up, twisting around on the couch. She sits up to hang her hands over the back of it, waving at him. “Hi, Polly!”

“What’s up?” Apollo asks, peering down at the cards in her hand. She angles them away from him. “I thought you were at magic rehearsal. What are you doing here?”

“We finished early!” Trucy chirps.

“Hm,” Nahyuta says loudly from beside him.

Apollo turns to look at him. Nahyuta is gazing off at some wall of the office.

Apollo follows his gaze.

“What…?” He mutters.

There is a massive poster of Klavier Gavin hanging on the wall in the corner by the window where the old poster used to be.

“Hey Truce?” Apollo asks, not tearing his eyes away from the poster.

“Yeah?” Trucy places a card face-up on the table.

“…Why is there a photo of Prosecutor Gavin on the wall?”

“I thought you put that there.”

Apollo turns to squint at her. “Why… why would I put that there?”

“Uhh, ‘cause you like him?”

“I hate the Gavinners.”

“You’re literally dating the guy.”

“That’s irrelevant.”

“It was here when we came in,” Rayfa vouches.

Apollo subtly slips a thumb against the edge of his bracelet. He can’t fit his finger underneath it.

“There’s another one,” Nahyuta says, nodding to the piano.

The round photo frame hanging above it now has… the same photo of Klavier Gavin, just in a smaller size.

“Did you replace your dad with Prosecutor Gavin?” Apollo asks incredulously.

“Huh, that’s weird,” Trucy says in an exaggeratedly innocent tone, putting a finger to her chin. “I didn’t notice that!”

“Liars, both of you,” Apollo says, pointing at them accusingly.

“Well, at least I tried!” Rayfa huffs, throwing her hands up in the air.

“You should go check the front office,” Trucy says with a bright grin.

“Oh no,” Apollo sighs. “Okay…”

Trucy and Rayfa meet each other’s eyes as Apollo and Nahyuta walk out of the room.

A beat.

“IT’S ALL PROSECUTOR GAVIN?!”

Trucy and Rayfa both double over with laughter simultaneously.

“Always has been!” Trucy calls over her shoulder, nearly choking on her laughter.

Apollo answers with a loud incredulous noise.

As it turns out, every single photo in the entire office has been replaced with the same identical promotional photo of Klavier Gavin.

Apollo bursts back into the room. “Why?!”

“Why not?”

“This has got to be—” Apollo presses a finger to his forehead, closing his eyes. “You— this is so strange and obscure.”

“Thanks! It took us a while to think of it.” Trucy beams, Rayfa mirroring her with a proud smirk of her own.

“Is this what you were doing the whole time we were upstairs?!” Apollo says.

Trucy crosses her arms, tilting her head upwards. “Well, we didn’t actually know you were upstairs…? I thought you were just out or something.”

“Is nobody else back yet?”

Trucy shakes her head.

“And to think we spent all that time baking cookies for you, only to arrive to this,” Nahyuta says sorrowfully, shaking his head.

Rayfa and Trucy both perk up.

“You what?” Rayfa asks.

Apollo quickly catches onto Nahyuta’s plan. “We just spent the whole morning baking cookies. Not that you’re getting any now.”

“Nooooo!” Trucy gasps, standing up and putting her hands on the back of the couch, staring at them with desperation.

“That— that is completely unfair!” Rayfa says, rising from her seat as well. “You can’t punish us for something we knew nothing about!”

“Well, maybe that’ll teach you not to prank us.” Apollo shrugs. “Sorry.”

“What kind are they?” Trucy asks pleadingly.

“Chocolate chip.”

“Noooooo!”

“Do you two even know how to bake?” Rayfa asks, squinting suspiciously at them.

“Of course we do,” Nahyuta says smoothly, “I’m offended you would assume otherwise. We are older and more experienced.”

Rayfa crosses her arms, glaring.

“Uhh, no, I’m pretty sure Polly barely knows what he’s doing,” Trucy says, pointing at her brother. “I’ve baked with him before. He made a mess.”

“Listen—” Apollo starts.

“Such a shame that you won’t be getting any of our cookies to prove you wrong, then,” Nahyuta interrupts swiftly.

“Yeah, they’re super good.” Apollo nods. “Fresh out of the oven, too…”

“Truly your loss,” Nahyuta says, dipping his head and closing his eyes with a serene smile.

“You guys suck,” Trucy groans. “Why even bother telling us if we’re not allowed to have any?”

“You may try to stop me, but I will steal them when your backs are turned,” Rayfa threatens.

“Well now, there is no need to do that, dear sister,” Nahyuta says, striding over to poke Rayfa gently on the nose. She wrinkles her nose and edges away from him.

“And why should I listen to you?” Rayfa huffs.

“Because we may just offer you both some—”

Rayfa and Trucy both light up.

“—if you apologize.”

Rayfa clenches her fists.

Trucy only reacts with more excitement. “We’re sorry for replacing all the pictures in the office with Klavier Gavin!” she sings, tucking her arms behind her back politely and bouncing on her toes.

Nahyuta looks at Apollo.

Apollo shrugs. “Good enough for me.”

Nahyuta turns to Rayfa. “You, too.”

“Must I…?” Rayfa mumbles.

“I apologized to you for my prank. It is only fair that you apologize for your own.”

“This wasn’t even targeted at you!”

“No, but you can apologize to our putrid brother.”

“Hey!” Apollo interjects.

Rayfa holds her fists to her chest, red in the face.

“If you do not apologize, then neither of you will get to have our cookies,” Nahyuta says.

“Aw, come on!” Trucy complains. “We’re not children.”

“Then surely something as simple as an apology will be no problem.” Nahyuta smirks at Rayfa. “After all, only children are often so stubborn in their refusal to apologize.”

Rayfa grits her teeth, closing her eyes. “Fine. I apologize,” she forces out.

“That did not sound very sincere.”

“I will sound very sincere at your last rites ceremony after I—”

“Okay!” Apollo says loudly, clapping his hands once. “I think we should give them the cookies now!”

“No, no, let her finish,” Nahyuta says, holding up one hand. “Do go on, Your Benevolence. After you…?”

Rayfa stares at him, her cheeks flushed. “After I— I…”

“Hm?”

“I-I…”

“Yes?”

Rayfa throws her fists to her sides. “Nevermind,” she mumbles. “I will take those cookies now.”

Nahyuta puts his hand on her head, ruffling her hair slightly. “That’s what I thought.”

Apollo runs upstairs to grab the cookie jar and brings it back down for them. He opens the tin and holds it out for Trucy and Rayfa, who both come bounding over and each grab one from inside.

They both stare at the cookies in their hands.

“These don’t look very good,” Trucy says with brutal honesty.

“I know how it looks, but just try it,” Apollo insists.

Trucy shares a glance with Rayfa before shrugging and taking a bite.

In an instant, her nose wrinkles and her face twists.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” she confirms.

“Well, I never disagreed.”

Trucy stares.

Apollo grins.

Rayfa breaks off a small chunk of her own cookie and pops it into her mouth out of curiosity before instantly rejecting it as well.

“You knew they were awful!” Rayfa accuses.

“Yes,” Nahyuta says with a smile. “That was the prank.”

“This was a prank the whole time?!” Trucy screeches. “You hypocrites!”

Nahyuta laughs.

“Well, we were supposed to make them really salty as the prank,” Apollo clarifies, “but then we forgot to put the salt in. So we were kind of hoping they’d be good?”

“What went wrong?“ Trucy asks.

Apollo runs a hand through his hair with a sheepish smile. “We, uhh… aren’t totally sure!”

A few things come to mind, actually, but he doesn’t name them.

“…But yeah, they ended up turning out really bad anyway,” he continues, “which was… kind of a let-down, actually.”

“Sounds like you guys pranked yourselves more than you pranked us,” Trucy points out.

Apollo shrugs. “I guess.”

“Yet you fell for it nonetheless,” Nahyuta says with a teasing glint in his eye. “We achieved our intended outcome in the end, didn’t we?”

Rayfa throws her cookie at his head. He catches it skillfully, only for it to crumble in his hand anyway.

“Well, ‘World’s Worst Cookies’ award definitely goes to you guys,” Trucy says, taking another bite of her cookie.

“Why are you still eating it?” Apollo asks incredulously.

Trucy shrugs. “A cookie’s a cookie.”

Nahyuta stares at Rayfa with a small pout. “Then why did you throw yours at me instead of having that same attitude, hm? Whatever happened to ‘wonderfully mediocre’?”

Rayfa scoffs. “This is far worse than mediocre. This is abysmal.”

“I see…” Nahyuta closes his eyes. Apollo can almost imagine a stray tear rolling down his cheek. He certainly looks dramatic enough for it

“Aw, c’mon, Nahyuta, are you gonna take that?” Trucy says, putting her hands on her hips. “Defend your cookies, guys!”

“Why deny the truth?” Nahyuta says.

“Oh, yeah, no, they’re totally awful,” Apollo says.

Trucy snickers.

“Well now your botched prank has overshadowed ours entirely,” Rayfa says with a sniff, crossing her arms.

“I don’t think anything could overshadow that thing,” Apollo says, pointing to the massive Gavinners poster still overlooking the room from its corner.

“Or the one above the piano,” Trucy chirps. “Or the two on Daddy’s desk. Or the one on Athena’s. Or the one—”

“Agghhh, I get it,” Apollo groans.

Trucy puts one hand on her hip, tipping her hat with the other. “All in a day’s work for Team Trucy and Rayfa!”

“Where even are all the pictures you replaced?”

“A magician never tells their secrets!” Trucy huffs, putting her fists on her hips and glaring sternly at Apollo.

“They’re important pictures—”

Rayfa shushes them all. “I just heard the front door open,” she hisses.

They all fall silent.

The sound of footsteps cross the front office.

“Why is KlavGav on my desk?!” Athena shouts.

The four of them burst into laughter.

The pranks become a smooth back-and-forth after that. They get into a flow, growing to expect a prank around every corner. It does a lot for making individuals a lot more suspicious of their surroundings, and of each other. It gets harder to catch targets off guard— which sparks innovation.

Everything is going normal until the first betrayal.

No one is sure why it started. The teams were strong in their alliances. It looked like they were in it until the end together. And yet… that didn’t stop the inevitability of traitors in their ranks.

It all starts with Apollo crying out in alarm from the office kitchenette.

Out of curiosity, Trucy and Athena both run over and duck their heads in to see what all the fuss is about.

Apollo stands in the center of a pile of plastic spiders on the floor, looking a mixture between bewildered and irritated.

Athena snickers at him.

“Okay,” he huffs, brushing a couple off of his shoulders. “Very funny, Trucy.”

“Wait, me?” Trucy yelps from the doorway.

Apollo looks up at her standing in the door. “Yeah? Wasn’t this you?”

“Ummm… no? I had no idea about this.” She crosses her arms thoughtfully. “It’s funny, but I would’ve made it a lot more elaborate than just your typical plastic spider prank.”

“Fair enough,” Apollo mutters. “Athena?”

Athena raises her brows. “Oh, no, I’ve been sitting out. It’s funny to watch everything play out from the sidelines. You guys are like sports to me. The Superbowl wishes it was you people.”

“Rayfa, then? Where’s she?”

“Gimme a moment,” Trucy says, grabbing the edge of the doorway and leaning back around it to call over her shoulder. “Rayfa!”

Rayfa appears beside her. “What?”

“Was this you?” Apollo asks, flicking another plastic spider off his sleeve.

“What are those?” Rayfa squints at the little black objects.

“Plastic spiders. So it wasn’t you?”

“No,” Rayfa crosses her arms, “Why?”

Apollo levels the three of them with a glare. “Okay, one of you has to be lying.”

“You’re the lie detector,” Rayfa huffs.

Apollo pauses, squinting at all three of them individually.

“You know I’d own up to it if it was me,” Trucy points out.

“Yeah, I know it’s not you,” Apollo says absently, waving her off and crossing his arms. He stares back and forth between Rayfa and Athena.

“So this is how it feels to be under the microscope,” Athena says with an exasperated expression, one of her hands slipping off of her hip as she slumps forward. “I told you it wasn’t me. Have a little faith.”

Apollo turns his gaze to Rayfa.

“Don’t look at me,” she snaps.

Apollo closes his eyes, pressing a finger to his forehead. “But if it wasn’t any of you guys, then who…?”

Something dawns on Rayfa’s expression.

“…Has anyone seen Braid Head recently?” She asks.

Apollo gapes at her. “No way.”

“I did see him come in here for some reason earlier,” Athena props her arm up to fidget with her earring.

“He wouldn’t betray me,” Apollo says unconvincingly.

“Do you think that guy really picks sides?” Athena points out.

Apollo stares at the wall.

“Are you gonna be okay?” Trucy asks jokingly.

“I never said he betrayed you,” Rayfa says, crossing her arms. “You could have just wandered into a trap meant for somebody else.”

“Maybe…” Apollo mutters. “I’m gonna go question him.”

He walks out of the door.

“You left all your little spider buddies!” Athena calls after him, walking over and leaning down to pick one up.

Apollo doesn’t answer.

Athena studies the little spider in her hand. “Y’know, these are kinda cute. I might steal a couple and hide ‘em around the prosecutors’ office.”

Rayfa shudders. “I would hate finding one of those hiding underneath my things…”

“I might give some to Junie, too…” Athena mutters, off in a world of her own.

“You should sell them for profit,” Trucy says.

Athena grins, pointing at her and snapping her finger. “Now that’s an idea.”

Rayfa looks at them like they’re both speaking a foreign language.

Apollo finds Nahyuta outside and confronts him. After a lot of poking and prodding and the use of his perception ability (which Nahyuta doesn’t even try to hinder, which probably indicates it’s not really something he cares that much about hiding anyway), he finally gets Nahyuta to admit that the prank was, in fact, meant for Apollo, and that this was, in fact, a betrayal.

This, of course, means war.

With Apollo and Nahyuta now working against each other, it makes both of them more susceptible targets, as Nahyuta soon finds out the hard way when Rayfa and Trucy pull a prank against him completely separately from Apollo plotting one against him himself.

Later that evening when they’ve returned to the hotel, Nahyuta heads down to the lobby to get some tea for himself along with the other two’s drinks of preference. Rayfa had reminded him that this hotel has room service and he doesn’t need to go all the way down to the lobby himself when they can just ask someone to bring it up to them instead, but Nahyuta tells her what he always back at home whenever she reminds him and their mother of the servants— he simply prefers doing things on his own.

As he steps into the elevator to make his way back up to his room (in which all three of them are staying in while they watch a movie together), his phone goes off with a text notification.

He looks down at it, noticing it’s from Rayfa. He expects it to be some last-minute request from the coffee bar that he’s going to have to go back for, if he knows her at all.

It is not what he expects.

The text contains nothing but an unnamed document. Raising a brow curiously, he opens it.

He scans through it.

It appears to be the entire English dictionary copied and pasted into a word document.

He squints in confusion at his screen and exits the document to text Rayfa a single question mark in response.

     RAYFA:

          are you not familiar with this book? i would have thought you read it on a daily basis

Nahyuta rolls his eyes to himself as the elevator comes to a stop and the doors open. He steps out into the hall.

     NAHYUTA:

          Very funny, sister.

     RAYFA:

          of course it is. i’m hilarious.

          and good at pranks

     NAHYUTA:

          Yes, yes

Nahyuta shakes his head fondly, stashing his phone away as he makes his way towards his room, tray of drinks in hand. Of all the pranks he’s endured so far, this one is remarkably tame— to which he isn’t complaining, of course. This is the kind of simple, lighthearted, harmless prank that he rather enjoys.

He slips his cardkey into the door and enters the room, the other two turning their heads away from the TV to watch him.

Rayfa smirks at him proudly. He smiles back.

Nahyuta hands Rayfa’s and Apollo’s hot chocolate to their respective owners, which they both take with thanks.

He heads to the bathroom first before returning to finally sit down on the massive bed with the others. They all sit leaning back against the headboard, the mountain of pillows that came with the room standing propped up behind them. Apollo sits on the far side of the bed closest to the window, with Rayfa sitting beside him in the middle of the bed, and Nahyuta on the other end.

Nahyuta settles down and reaches for his tea off the side table, bringing it up to his lips to take a sip of it.

He jerks it away from himself, scrunching his face up in disgust.

Why in the name of the Holy Mother is his tea so salty?

Rayfa snorts.

Nahyuta whips his head around to stare at her. “Did you—?”

Rayfa shakes her head, a hand rising to cover her mouth as she giggles. She points behind her to Apollo, who casually takes a sip of his hot chocolate with an all-too-knowing smirk.

“Apollo. Did you put salt in my tea?” Nahyuta says in a low voice.

Apollo looks at him out of the corner of his eyes. “Maybe,” he says smugly.

“You putrid cranberry,” Nahyuta growls, pulling his prayer beads off from around his neck and throwing them at Apollo in one fluid motion.

Apollo nearly falls off the bed trying to dodge the string of beads as he shakes with laughter, slamming the cup of hot chocolate onto the table beside him to prevent it from spilling.

“I watched him do it,” Rayfa says with a proud grin. “While you were in the bathroom. He ran over and poured a salt packet in.”

“And you didn’t think to warn me?” Nahyuta asks, gazing down at her woundedly.

“Of course not! It was too funny.”

Nahyuta sighs, closing his eyes and raising his hands adjacent to each other with his middle and ring fingers touching his thumbs. “Holy Mother, give me patience, for I have the world’s most ungrateful siblings, and they are teaming up to conspire against me.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Apollo says, rolling his eyes and sitting back up straight. He tosses the string of beads across the bed and into Nahyuta’s lap. “Nobody’s conspiring against you.”

“You both pranked me within the same night mere minutes apart from each other,” Nahyuta says with a sniff.

“Wait, what’d Rayfa do?”

“I texted him the dictionary,” Rayfa says proudly, leaning over to shove her phone in Apollo’s face. He pushes it away slightly so he can actually see it, peering down at the screen.

Apollo snorts. “Yeah, that’s the dictionary, alright. Nice one.”

Rayfa grins.

Nahyuta is afraid he must take drastic measures if he is to stand a chance against both his siblings realizing he’s a target.

And he knows exactly what measures to take.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Rayfa asks not for the first time as Trucy leads her down the street.

“You’ll see when you get there!” Trucy chirps back— the same answer she gave the last several times too, as though the two of them are reciting some age-old script at each other. Well, Rayfa is tired of their script.

Trucy had whisked her away under the pretense of having a plan for a new prank that they could pull. However, she’s been refusing to explain what the prank idea actually is, nor where they’re even going in order to discuss or demonstrate said prank. Rayfa feels very out of the loop.

She really doesn’t like surprises.

“Okay!” Trucy says after a few minutes. She whirls around to face Rayfa, her cape swishing behind her with the momentum. He throws a hand out to her side, palm outstretched. “We’re here!”

Rayfa gazes around at their surroundings. They appear to be in some kind of alley.

“And… ‘here’ is…?”

“You’ll see, just watch!” Trucy says encouragingly, walking over to grab Rayfa by the shoulders. “Just stand riiiiight oveeerrrr…” She guides her to stand beside the wall. “Here!”

Rayfa furrows her brows in confusion, watching Trucy back away from her. “Alright…? I still do not understand—”

“Now!” Trucy shouts.

A cascade of water crashes down on top of her.

Rayfa’s arms raise of their own accord, hovering awkwardly in midair. She stands frozen in shock for a moment before heat quickly starts rising to her face.

“W-what—?!” she starts, but has no idea where she’s going with the sentence. She stumbles away from the spot she’d been standing, head jerking up to look at the balcony directly above.

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi is leaning casually over the railing, gazing down at her with catlike eyes and his trademark soft smile.

Rayfa’s blood boils.

“YOU!” She snaps, pointing up at him accusingly. “YOU— YOU— HOW DARE YOU—!”

“Yes?” he calls down to her with that stupid smug expression of his.

“And— and YOU—” Rayfa whirls around on the spot to point at Trucy instead. Trucy shoots her a wicked grin, only taking one or two steps back in response. “You— you TRAITOR!”

Trucy tucks her hands behind her traitorous little back. “Teehee. Sorry! He promised to give me Khura’inese pastries if I helped him! How could I say no?”

Rayfa clenches her fists to her chest, gritting her teeth and trembling with fury. Urgh, curse her inability to form words when she gets worked up like this. “You’d betray me for— for— for FOOD?!”

“Sorry!” Trucy doesn’t look very apologetic.

“You— you— stupid NINCOMPOOPS!” Rayfa barks, “This— I will GET you both for this!” She slams her hands to her sides on “get” for emphasis. “Mark my words!”

“Consider them marked,” Nahyuta says sweetly from up on the balcony.

“You will RUE the day you decided to betray me!” Rayfa stomps her foot, sending water droplets flying off of her. “Y-you…”

“I am quite enjoying this tirade,” Nahyuta says.

“SHUT UP!”

Rayfa storms off, sopping wet, shivering, and absolutely furious.

She stops a block away. She circles back.

Trucy is still standing in the alleyway, though Nahyuta has come down from his balcony to stand on the ground now. He gazes at Rayfa expectantly when she turns the corner.

“You came back quickly,” he says.

“I don’t know my way back,” she grumbles, face beat red.

Nahyuta chuckles and walks over, removing his jacket and draping it around her shoulders. “We will show you, and then you can storm off properly.”

“Fine.”

Apollo finds her in her hotel room later. After changing out of her wet clothes into something dry and warm, she sits on her bed, working on drying her hair off with a towel.

“So… I heard Trucy helped prank you,” Apollo says, leaning on the doorframe.

“If you think I am teaming up with you, it is not happening.” Rayfa says coldly.

“Aww, come on,” Apollo says. “I got betrayed by Nahyuta, you got betrayed by Trucy…”

“And I will not risk being betrayed by you. I am done trusting people,” Rayfa huffs.

“I wouldn’t betray you!”

“Well, I would betray you, so…”

Apollo slumps. “Oh.”

Rayfa turns away from him, running the towel over her hair again.

“...Do you need help?”

Rayfa stiffens. “What?”

“Do you need help?” Apollo repeats. “Drying your hair.”

Rayfa clenches her teeth. “I am fully capable of doing such a small task on my own,” she says tensely.

“Sorry. I meant do you want help?”

Rayfa stills. Heat rises to her face. “I… Why would I?”

Apollo shrugs. “You don’t really need a reason. I was just offering in case you wanted some company.”

Rayfa glances down at the towel in her hands. She hesitates.

“It’s only a big deal if you make it one,” Apollo says.

Certain her face must be bright red, Rayfa pointedly looks away and holds out the towel towards him.

Apollo walks over and takes it from her, moving to sit behind her. He picks up the hairbrush she’d set beside her and gently runs it through a small section of her hair a couple of times before picking up the towel and squeezing the water out it. He repeats the process.

He seems like he knows what he’s doing. Practiced; like he’s done it before. Rayfa wonders if he’s done the same with Trucy. Or Nahyuta, even.

“What’d they even do?” Apollo asks casually.

“Hmph,” Rayfa says. “Braid Head bribed Hat Head with some pastries in order to get her to lead me to some stupid alleyway so he could stand on some stupid little balcony and dump water all over me.”

Apollo has the strong desire to ask if the water was stupid, too, but he bites his tongue. “Dang, that’s cold, even for him,” he says instead.

“And he was just standing there laughing at me, too!” Rayfa huffs. “With his… his stupid… smug little face. And then he had the— the AUDACITY!— to be all kind, and put his jacket over me, and he and Hat Head both helped me find my way back here, and… mmmfffgghhh…” She buries her head in her hands.

“You should get back at him for it.”

“I will,” Rayfa growls, pulling her hands away from her face. “I’ll get both of them back. How dare they think they can… conspire against me.”

Apollo snorts.

Rayfa jerks her head around to look at him, her hair slipping out of his hands and whipping across his face. He closes his eyes and cringes as it hits him.

“What?!” She huffs.

“Nothing,” he says, raising his hands up in surrender. “You just sounded like Nahyuta for a second.”

Rayfa frowns. “What do you mean?”

“He said the same thing last night. That you and I were ‘conspiring’ against him.”

Rayfa turns back around. “So what?”

Apollo resumes with her hair. “It’s just funny how similar you guys sound sometimes. You borrow words from him a lot.”

Rayfa prickles. “I do not borrow words from him! Every word I use is my own. I do not borrow from anyone.”

“Didn’t you get ‘nincompoop’ from Queen Amara?”

“Th-that is—“ Rayfa’s shoulders rise. “Shut up.”

Apollo breathes out a small laugh.

“I can see how much you admire him, anyway,” he says. “And with how close you two are now, it makes sense that you’d start talking or acting like each other. That’s just how people are. We rub off on each other.”

“Close…?” Rayfa echoes.

“Yeah.”

Rayfa is silent for a moment. For some reason, she’d never really thought about them as ‘close’, but… she supposes they are.

She supposes all three of them are.

Maybe that’s why she so desperately wants to get to know Trucy better. After that terribly awkward period of adjustment, she, Apollo, and Nahyuta have become quite close. Even with all the ups and downs along the way… she likes the way things turned out. The way things are turning out. The casualness and playfulness that comes so much easier to all of them now when they’re with each other… It feels like it was worth all the effort.

“I know you’re annoyed with him for the prank,” Apollo continues. “I think we’ve all been getting a little annoyed with each other over this stuff. But you know that’s just how he is. Smug little bastard with a heart of gold, or whatever.”

Rayfa hums.

“Honestly, I think the fact that he was willing to do something like that is just a testament to how close you’ve become,” Apollo says thoughtfully. “He probably wouldn’t have been brave enough a year ago. …And neither would you.”

“And neither would you,” Rayfa points out.

Apollo snorts. “Yeah. Neither would I.”

“...We have come a long way,” Rayfa says.

“Yeah,” Apollo breathes. “Yeah, we have.”

A beat.

“Honestly, I’m kind of excited that Trucy and Nahyuta are working together, for that reason,” Apollo admits. “Maybe it’ll let them bond a bit. Like you and her have been. It’d be… nice.”

Rayfa bites her lip. “I… suppose it would be.”

They fall into a brief silence.

“...Do you do this with Trucy?” Rayfa decides to ask, purely out of curiosity.

“Do what?”

“This.” Rayfa gestures behind her. “You’re good at it.”

“Oh,” Apollo says. “Yeah, sometimes. She likes it when people do her hair. It’s soothing for her, I think. Granted, I’m not very good at it, but I’m good at like— drying and brushing and stuff for people. I’ve helped Klavier with his before, too.”

“Did you ever do it for Nahyuta?” she asks. “When you were kids?”

“Nah. His hair wasn’t really long back then. I mean, it was longer than average, but it didn’t even reach his shoulders yet.”

“Hm,” Rayfa hums. “I have trouble imagining that.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of made the long hair his iconic look now, hasn’t he?” Apollo chuckles. “But yeah, when we were kids it was usually Dad and Datz that helped with that sort of thing, anyway.”

“I see…” Rayfa says quietly. The mention of Dhurke makes something in her chest sink and twist like it always does.

(Apollo doesn’t tell her that her hair is just like Dhurke’s. Or that Dhurke probably would have loved doing it for her, had things been different.)

“Okay, I think this is about as dry as we’re gonna get it,” he says instead, leaning back and setting the towel and brush aside.

Rayfa hops off the bed, standing up and feeling her hair. It’s a lot more dry than she would have gotten it on her own. And she feels… calm. Not nearly as steaming with anger as she did before. Like someone just pressed the off switch on her rampaging emotions.

“Thank you,” she says, averting Apollo’s gaze.

“No problem.” Apollo hops off the bed as well, standing in front of her. “So… have you reconsidered…?”

“I am still not teaming up with you.”

“Damn.”

Rayfa plants her hands on her hips, grinning at him. “This shall be a free-for-all. And I simply cannot pass up the opportunity to make you look like a fool if one arises.”

Apollo snorts. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

It’s not long into Trucy’s and Nahyuta’s newfound alliance that Apollo finds himself consoling his other sister.

Trucy drops down onto the couch beside Apollo and groans.

Apollo glances down at her. “Everything okay?”

“No,” Trucy sighs dramatically, pitching to the side and laying spread-eagle on the couch with her head facing the ceiling. She tosses her hat onto the table. “Your brother is the worst.”

Apollo glances to the side briefly. “Uhhh, I mean, I agree, but what’s your reason?”

“He’s so…” Trucy waves a hand through the air. “Awkward.”

Apollo snorts. “Yeah. Sounds like him.”

“I can’t get him to talk to me.”

Apollo turns his gaze down toward her. “Haven't you been talking?”

“I mean, like… really talk. He’s always… stilted, around me. He thinks I don’t notice, but I do.” She pauses, before mumbling, “I think I make him uncomfortable.”

Apollo frowns.

“I’ve been trying so hard,” Trucy continues, “to make him see that there’s no hard feelings or anything between us. I’ve been trying so hard to just… I don’t know… bond! And I think I’ve been making progress!” She smiles positively, though it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “But it’s just… slow. And there’s still something off. Maybe I’m doing something wrong…?”

She feels Apollo’s hand settle gently on her shoulder.

“I don’t think it’s you that’s making him uncomfortable,” Apollo says slowly. “He’s probably making himself uncomfortable.”

Trucy tilts her head back to look at him. He’s upside down. Well, she’s the one upside down, technically, but he looks upside down to her.

“I mean…” Apollo continues. “He’s just full of guilt. I’ve been trying to help him through it and get him out of that mindset a lot over the past year, but… well… there’s still some things that he hasn’t let go of. Like everything with your trial last year, I guess.”

“I know,” Trucy sighs, “but I forgive him!”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t forgive himself.”

“That’s stupid,” Trucy huffs.

“You should tell him that. That’s probably the best way you’ll have of improving things with him, at any rate. Why not just… tell him you forgive him?”

Trucy bites her lip.

“I know it’s hard to talk about,” Apollo says gently. “But if you want things to improve… you should try. You’ll probably get a lot further with being open than him than not, anyway.”

“You’re being a big hypocrite right now, you know.”

Apollo winces. “Look, just because I don’t always listen to my own advice doesn’t mean it’s not good. Just hear me out, okay?”

Trucy rolls her eyes, staring up at the ceiling. “How do I even start a conversation like that?”

“Outright, just like you did a minute ago. Just trap him and confront him.” Apollo shrugs. “He can’t dodge around it forever.”

Trucy’s eyes flick around the room as she picks at her nails nervously.

“What if I’m trying too hard?” she asks quietly. “Am I being too forward? I don’t wanna, like… intimidate him.”

“You’re Trucy,” Apollo says, grabbing Trucy’s hat off the table and dropping it on her head so it falls to cover her eyes. “Forward is your thing.”

Trucy giggles slightly, lifting her hat out of the way and clutching it to her chest.

“I mean, really,” Apollo continues. “When you decide someone is part of your family, you just start treating them as such. Instantly. You just latch onto people and adopt them and they don’t have any say in the matter, and it always works in your favor. I mean— you did that with me, and that was before we even knew we were actually related.”

“I knooowww,” Trucy says. “But is that too much for him?”

“Honestly? I think that’s exactly what he needs,” Apollo says, leaning back. “It’s a breath of fresh air from all the awkwardness he and Rayfa and I have had to endure with each other for the longest time. I think the only thing really stopping him from feeling comfortable with you is his own guilt. But once you break past that, I think it’ll be easier.” Apollo stares down at her. “But there’s also no reason to rush it. We have all the time in the world.”

“You guys won’t be in town for forever, though.”

“Then do what you can now. We’ll have other visits, I’m sure of it. Sometimes it’s better to just take things slow.” Apollo shrugs. “I’m not saying don’t go for it, I’m just saying don’t beat yourself up for letting it take some time.”

Trucy bites her lip.

“...I don’t think there’s anything in the world that matters more to Nahyuta than his family, anyway,” Apollo admits. “Everything he’s ever done, even the mistakes, he’s done out of love. He’s just… hard to get him to open up.” Apollo runs a hand through his hair. “I think we all are, to an extent.”

“I guess it runs in the family,” Trucy jokes.

Apollo snorts. “Honestly? Sometimes it feels like it really does.”

Trucy turns what Apollo said over in her head for a moment. She remembers what Nahyuta said the other day, too, about how little siblings are something one can never have too many of.

She smiles.

“You’re saying he sees me as family already, then?” She asks.

“Of course he does,” Apollo says with such little hesitation that it almost startles her.

“How do you know?”

“Because you’re my sister,” Apollo says, as though the words come as easy to him as breathing. “And I’m his brother. Which makes you guys connected. And you and Rayfa have been working on getting closer, too, which only adds to that. He knows all four of us are part of this little circle of a family we’ve made. He’s just…” He shrugs. “Nahyuta.”

Trucy hums.

“Don’t let him scare you off,” Apollo says, leaning over Trucy and putting his hands on her cheeks. “You gotta double down. He’s just afraid. Show him he has nothing to be afraid of.”

A spark ignites in Trucy’s chest. She sits up. “I will!’”

“Because you’re fine!”

Trucy giggles. “Because I’m fine!” she sings in a playful tone, humoring him.

“Say it louder!”

“I’m Trucy Wright, and I’m fine!” she shouts, laughing.

“There you go!!” Apollo grins proudly.

Trucy throws her arms around Apollo’s shoulders. “Thanks, Polly!”

Apollo laughs. “Anytime. Are you gonna let up on the pranks now that I’ve helped you out?”

“Nope!” Trucy places her hat on her head and tips it. “Me and Yuty are gonna come up with a prank so good it’ll knock your socks off!”

Apollo pretends not to be startled by the sudden very familiar nickname. “Ohh, yay,” he drawls.

True to Trucy’s word, the prank she and Nahyuta plan and execute together does, in fact, knock Apollo’s socks off— literally. She’s pretty proud of that little hint she gave him, if she does say so herself. Afterwards, Apollo says to Trucy’s and Nahyuta’s faces that he’s terrified of the force they’ve become when banded together, which Trucy believes is quite an accomplishment.

It’s while the two are brainstorming their next move, though, that the conversation finally springs up.

Trucy paces back and forth across the room with her hand on her chin, speaking with the air of a general addressing a crowd of soldiers, when her gaze catches on a flash of something black on Nahyuta’s hand. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she stops and faces him.

“What is that on your hand, by the way?” she asks.

Nahyuta freezes. He curls his hand into a fist and brings it close to his chest. “It… is nothing.”

Trucy stares at him doubtfully.

(Nahyuta is reminded, in the slight crease in her brows and the intensity in her eyes—the same shade of brown as Apollo’s—that he is speaking with Apollo’s sister, and the two are alike in more ways than one.)

“Sorry,” Trucy says, backpedaling, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

A strange tension falls over them. Nahyuta seems to be lost in thought for a moment before he shakes his head.

“...No,” Nahyuta says slowly. “It’s… fine. You simply caught me off guard, is all.”

Trucy perks up hopefully.

“This tattoo is the mark of the dragon,” Nahyuta answers steadily, closing his eyes. “It represents the memory of the revolution. …And my late father.”

“Oh…” Trucy says quietly. “It must be important to you.” Her mind drifts to her old dad, and the photo of him hanging above the piano.

“Yes,” Nahyuta says. “It is.”

Trucy squints at the ceiling for a moment, thinking. “Did you used to wear a glove on that hand? I feel like I would’ve remembered the tattoo if I saw it before.”

“…I used to keep it covered, yes,” Nahyuta says tensely. His posture is rigid and straight, suddenly. His hand falls to his side, but he must feel weird with it there, because he tucks it behind his back the next moment.

He’s clearly uncomfortable with the topic they’re on. Trucy decides to shift gears.

“Um— this is… unrelated, actually— but I’ve been meaning to talk to you…”

Nahyuta raises a brow. “Oh?”

Trucy inhales deeply, and takes the plunge.

“You know I forgive you… right? For, um… prosecuting me, and all that?”

Nahyuta stills.

“I just… you’ve been really… tense. Around me. All the time,” Trucy continues. “And I wasn’t sure if it was something I did or what, so I talked to Polly, and he said the same thing I was suspecting myself, so…” She bounces on her toes nervously. “I just wanted to clear that up, I guess. Make sure you know that we’re, um… cool.”

Nahyuta’s eyes are closed.

“...I’m sorry,” he says after a moment. “I did not mean to make you feel unwelcome.”

“That’s okay! I just…” Trucy shuffles her feet, glancing at the ground. “I’ve been trying, you know? Really hard. To, um… bridge the gap… between us.” Trucy looks up at him and shoots him with her best encouraging smile. “I want to get to know you.”

“And I’m not making it easy,” Nahyuta guesses, eyes still shut.

“...No, not really,” Trucy says with a small laugh.

Something in Nahyuta’s posture softens.

“My apologies. I suppose I… was a little wrapped up in my own guilt again.” He opens his eyes and smiles at her, tilting his head ever so slightly. “I want to get to know you as well. From what I’ve seen of you, you’re quite the vibrant presence to be around.”

Trucy giggles. “Thanks.”

“And…” Nahyuta closes his eyes again, angling his head downwards. “...Any family of Apollo’s is family of mine.”

“Same here.” Trucy’s heart soars. “So… we’re good, then?“

Nahyuta opens his eyes back up, a twinkle behind them that wasn’t there before. “Yes. We’re good.”

Something settles between them. The tension from before begins to melt away like blocks of ice in the ocean. Trucy knows it’ll take a lot more time to thaw that ice entirely, but a start is a start.

Confident that there’s no bad blood between them of any kind, Trucy is fully comfortable enough to betray him the very next day.

“No hard feelings!” she shouts over her shoulder as she sprints away, leaving Nahyuta standing with a mess of goop of unknown origin in his hands.

Apollo walks up behind him, snorting. “Sooo… everything good with you guys?”

“Yes,” Nahyuta says. “Although I don’t think we’re allies in this war anymore.”

Apollo laughs. “Doesn’t look like it. “

After the betrayals, the team formations fall apart. Least to say, it’s a free-for-all. All of them become targets to each other— and the pranks are relentless.

That is, until Trucy approaches Nahyuta and Rayfa for a temporary truce. She proposes a plan— one that all of them can prank Apollo with together. It takes a bit of convincing to get them to trust her again, but the desire to mess with Apollo is something none of them can resist.

Trucy’s plan is clear, though it will take a lot of work: Dress up Mr Hat as someone, then dress up that person as Apollo, and talk to them like nothing is amiss for an entire day. The idea is golden, and they’re all eager to jump to work.

Well— almost all of them, Rayfa, of course, immediately volunteers Nahyuta to be the one who’s dressed up, which Trucy quickly seconds.

“Why me?” Nahyuta asks helplessly.

“Because it’s funny,” Trucy replies.

And so Rayfa is assigned to be the one to help with Nahyuta’s hair and makeup while Trucy sets up Mr Hat.

They stand facing the mirror in Mr Wright’s bathroom. Rayfa stands behind Nahyuta, who is sitting in a chair and is wearing the brightest red shirt they could find.

“This is your punishment for the water prank you pulled on me,” Rayfa declares.

“Yes, yes, alright,” Nahyuta sighs.

Rayfa brings a knuckle up to her lips in thought. “In order to make your hair look short like Horn Head’s, we’ll probably need to tie it up so it doesn’t appear so long. Would it be easier to leave it in the braid for that, or…?”

“I believe it would be easier with it braided, but it is entirely up to you.”

Rayfa pauses to consider this. On one hand, Nahyuta’s hair is very long, and he would know how best to handle it. And she doesn’t want to be here all day.

But on the other hand… she really wants to run her hands through it.

“Mmm… we can rebraid it after.”

Nahyuta shrugs.

Rayfa takes his hair in her hands and gently works at unbraiding it.

“We will have to gel it after as well,” she says idly. “I do not know how Horn Head gets his hair like that, but I am certain we will have to fight yours to do the same.”

“I believe he just wakes up like that,” Nahyuta says. “His hair was so unruly for so long that he just leaned into it.”

Rayfa snickers, running a hand through Nahyuta’s hair and untwisting more of the braid with her fingers, watching it slowly begin to come loose.

“You seem to know a lot about hair all of a sudden,” Nahyuta said.

Rayfa is glad she can duck behind his head so he can’t see her blush. “...Mother taught me,” she mumbles. “She taught me a little bit back when she was Nayna, actually, although that was when she was mostly doing everything for me, so…” She shakes her head. “She taught me much more after… everything. Mostly so I could learn to do my hair on my own, but also just… because I was curious, I suppose.”

Nahyuta hums.

“...Did you learn from anyone how to do yours?” she asks. “It must be very high maintenance.”

“It was mostly trial and error,” Nahyuta says. “I have never actually cut my hair, so I simply got used to it over time. Dad didn’t start growing his out until a long time after me, so, if anything, I had more experience than him by then. But he was the one who did my hair when I was young, so…” He lifts a hand and waves it succinctly through the air. “I suppose he was the one who taught me. The first time, anyway.”

“I see…” Rayfa says.

A comfortable silence falls over them briefly as Rayfa gets the last of Nahyuta’s hair unbraided and lets it all fall into a loose lilac cascade before her. She runs her fingers through it with delight, letting out a small giggle.

She can see Nahyuta smiling in the reflection of the mirror. “Are you having fun?” he asks.

Rayfa beams. “Very much.” She combs her fingers through it from the top again.

Nahyuta chuckles.

“Your hair is very similar to Mother’s,” Rayfa comments. “If a bit longer.”

“Mmm, so I have heard.”

“Though yours is… silkier?” She feels her face heating up at saying something so cheesy, but she isn’t sure how else to phrase it.

“Is that so?”

“Shut up,” Rayfa huffs.

Nahyuta is silent for a moment.

“Yours is actually much like Dad’s,” he says quietly.

Rayfa’s hands slow down in their repetitive movement through Nahyuta’s hair. “...Really?”

“Yes. Same color, similar texture. …Similar length, even, by the end.”

Rayfa’s fingers catch on a tangle, and she very gently combs it out.

She’s not sure how to feel.

“You should wear it down more often,” Nahyuta says. “It looks nice like that.”

“Perhaps,” she responds quietly. “...You should wear yours down more as well. It’s very pretty.”

“Oh, no, I could never. It would get hopelessly tangled.”

“Ah,” Rayfa says, bringing a hand up to her chin. “I see your point.”

“Wearing it in a braid is much more practical.”

Rayfa hums. “I am inclined to agree. Wearing my hair down always feels somehow more…” She trails off.

“Yes?”

“More… vulnerable,” she mumbles.

“Why? Is your hair full of secrets, Rayfa?”

That startles a snorting laugh out of her. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Braid Head?”

“Well, you can hardly call me Braid Head when you’ve unbraided my head,” Nahyuta teases. “You shall have to call me something else.”

“Hmmmm…” Rayfa hums in thought as she combs another tangle out. “I don’t know. Nothing else has quite as good a ring to it. I suppose that is why we must rebraid it. Although,” she adds thoughtfully, bringing a finger to her chin. “I wonder if I could…”

She bundles up a bunch of Nahyuta’s hair and tries to bring it all up to the top to wrap into a bun. Hair slips out of her hands as she does so and it ends up looking more like a rat’s nest than anything else.

Nahyuta snorts in a rather undignified manner. “I did warn you.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Rayfa sighs. “Fine. Back into a braid it shall go.”

“And what did you achieve, exactly, from taking it out in the first place?”

“I was working my magic on it, of course,” Rayfa says, letting go of Nahyuta’s hair and watching it all fall back down. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh, really, now?”

“Mhm.” Rayfa nods sagely. “Trust me, brother, I know exactly what I am doing. Everything I do is with utmost purposeful intent.”

Nahyuta smiles warmly at her in the mirror, closing his eyes. “Hm. I trust you.”

“Good!”

“I trust that you are not at all playing with my hair simply because you find it enjoyable, and for no other reason.”

Rayfa bites her lip, face turning red. “O-Of course not. What a silly thing to imply.”

“Hm.”

Rayfa bops him on the top of the head, laughing at his pathetic little “aoouwh…” noise he makes in response.

“You drama queen, I hardly touched you.”

“I know. I was playing it up in hopes of making you feel better about your strength.”

“Wh—!” Rayfa gasps indignantly, face reddening. “Y-you—!”

Nahyuta is smirking at her in the mirror.

Rayfa glares at him in the reflection and tugs on his hair none too gently. This garners a genuine reaction out of him, consisting of a wince and an aborted motion to lift his hand up, presumably to rest it on the back of his head where she’d pulled on it.

“That’ll teach you,” Rayfa huffs, crossing her arms.

“You are abusing your power over me right now,” Nahyuta says with a melodramatic sniffle.

“Get used to it.”

“Yes, you little tyrant.”

“I am not a tyrant!” Rayfa hisses, bristling.

There’s a moment of tension as the implications settle over them. Nahyuta seems to realize his mistake on wording and backpedals immediately. “I was only joking. I apologize. Of course I know this.”

Rayfa grumbles, picking his hair back up.

Nahyuta sighs. “Little sister…”

“What?” she mumbles.

“You know I would never truly imply something like that. Not about you.”

“I know.”

“Then don’t be angry.”

“I’m not angry.”

“You look rather angry to me.”

Rayfa glances up at the mirror, noticing her expression before ducking her face behind Nahyuta’s head and forcing her face to fall into something more neutral. “...Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry. I should have thought about how sore a subject it is before speaking.”

“Can we please just forget it?” Rayfa bites out.

“Of course.”

Rayfa works at splitting Nahyuta’s hair back into the same sections he had it in before.

She works in silence for a moment before it quickly becomes unbearable. She’s never been good at sitting in silence with another person for very long. Desperate to fill the void, and longing for the energy they had previously, she casts about for a topic.

Nahyuta beats her to the punch.

“How have you been enjoying the vacation?” he asks.

Rayfa tilts her head. “Which aspect are you referring to?”

“Any. The sights, the activities… the people.”

Rayfa brings a hand up to her chin for a moment. “Well, I’ve been enjoying all of it.” She glances up to gaze at herself in the mirror for a moment, admiring her outfit. “...I really enjoy shopping here.”

“Mmm… so I’ve noticed.”

Rayfa scowls at him. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Suffice to say, the hole in my wallet tells a tale.”

Rayfa scoffs. “If you had a problem with it, you could have said something.”

“Oh, I’m well aware. I never said I had a problem with it. It’s more than worth it to see your delight at being able to wander around little shops like they’re made of magic.”

Rayfa can feel her face heating up again, her heart doing a flip in her chest. “Y-You— stop being so… so… sentimental.”

Nahyuta chuckles.

Rayfa shakes her head, beginning to slowly work Nahyuta’s hair back into a braid. “Anyway… the environment is very different from back home. But…” She thinks for a moment. “...It is a good different, I think.”

“I agree.”

“...It is… nice… to see the rest of Horn Head’s family, as well,” she admits.

“Particularly Trucy and Mr Wright, yes?

“If one more person mentions how I have been bonding with Hat Head, I am liable to start biting like a dog.”

Nahyuta snorts, his shoulders shaking with laughter.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“Then don’t say silly things.”

Rayfa rolls her eyes exaggeratedly at him in the mirror.

“I take it that it’s been a topic of many a conversation, then?” Nahyuta prompts.

Rayfa sighs. “Do not get me wrong— I am… happy… to be able to get to know her better…” she’s forcing the words out, and her face is definitely bright red, but she thinks she’s getting better at this whole ‘being honest with her emotions’ thing. “But it gets very irritating when it’s constantly made into such a big thing.”

“Hm… I will refrain from commenting on it any further, then.”

Rayfa lets out a relieved sigh. “Thank you.”

“I am glad you’re having fun, though,” Nahyuta says with a sweet smile.

Rayfa very pointedly keeps her eyes on the braid she’s forming. “...Me as well.”

She glances up at him. “Not that you would have any idea what that feels like, being glued to the work that you brought with you half the time.”

“I cannot let myself fall behind on my duties just because we are in another country. I am an international prosecutor, after all. It only tracks that I would be perfectly comfortable doing my work internationally and remotely.”

“We’re on vacation, Braid Head. I know the word may be unfamiliar to you, as you have never taken a break in your life, but typically vacations consist of not doing any work, or so I’ve heard.”

“Well, I suppose I shall never truly know what a real vacation feels like, then.”

“You have a problem.”

Nahyuta closes his eyes with a sweet smile. “That is your opinion.”

Rayfa rolls her eyes. “I shall hide all of your paperwork at some point. Watch out.”

“How kind of you to give me advance warning of your next prank.”

“I didn’t say when I’d do it. Only that it will happen. For all you know, I could do it once we get back home.”

“My work will be far too important once we arrive back in Khura’in. Best get your prank out of the way now.”

“Hmph. And why should I listen to you?”

“Because I am your elder.”

“Yes, I can see the wrinkles already,” Rayfa says dramatically.

Nahyuta glares at her in the mirror. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“But it’s what you said!”

“Well, perhaps you must learn not to take things at face value.”

“I will take things at face value all I want, and I say the value of your face is little to none.”

Nahyuta let’s out a noise halfway between an amused snort and an offended scoff. “You wound me, Your Benevolence.”

“Good! Let the wound sting.”

Nahyuta chuckles.

They lapse into a brief silence as Rayfa braids away.

“Do you think Mother is doing alright on her own without us around?” she asks after a bit.

“I am sure she’s doing just fine,” Nahyuta answers. “If anything, she’s probably relishing in her time alone. It must be nice to spend some time to herself, away from us and all the chaos we bring.”

“What chaos?” Rayfa huffs. “Mother enjoys our presence!”

“Well, I’m sure the typical sibling squabbling gets a little old for others to endure and be around after a while.”

“We— we do not squabble,” Rayfa protests.

“I believe we have been squabbling this entire trip, dear sister.”

Rayfa thinks about it for a moment.

“Mmmmmph. I suppose,” she sighs.

“I’m sure our mother is having a nice, relaxing time on her own,” Nahyuta continues.

“Even with all of the work she has to do in our stead?”

“Even then.”

“And what of Apollo’s duties?” Rayfa asks. “I suppose those are being taken care of?”

“Those are all being handled by Datz and various other ministers.”

“Are you sure that man can be trusted with such important tasks?” Rayfa asks doubtfully.

“…That is why the other ministers are assisting.”

“Ah.”

“Did you not think of any of this before you volunteered us to go?” Nahyuta raises a brow at her in the mirror.

“I— I did!” Rayfa insists. “I am just… remembering again.”

“Hm.”

Rayfa flicks him in the head. Nahyuta tilts his head down, shoulders shaking with laughter again.

She heaves out a breath, letting Nahyuta’s hair fall from her hands. “Okay. I’ve braided it.”

“Now shall you do the thing we actually are in here to do, or shall you mess around with my hair some more like I’m your dress-up doll?”

Rayfa flushes red, smacking him in the head again. “Sh-shut up!”

She shakes her head, surveying Nahyuta’s hair as he laughs to himself. “What would be the best way to tie it back into a bun?”

“Just wrapping it around itself like you were attempting to do before should do the trick. It should be much easier to handle now.”

Rayfa lifts his braid and does as instructed.

“Hm, this should do,” she mumbles, reaching over to grab a hair pin to hold it in place.

She takes a step back. Nahyuta’s hair looks rather pretty, done up in a braided bun in the back with his stray strands framing his face in the front. She’s rather proud of the look, if she’s quite honest.

Too bad she’s about to ruin it.

“Okay, time to make you look as stupid as your hair will allow,” Rayfa says with an emphatic clap.

“I was hoping you’d forget,” Nahyuta sighs.

“Oh, don’t be dramatic, you can wash it later and it will be good as new.”

She grabs the hair gel that Trucy stole from her father for them, and it’s here she realizes that this is the part where she has absolutely no idea what she’s doing.

“Hm,” she says.

“Hm?” Nahyuta echoes.

“I really am not sure your hair will cooperate,” Rayfa mumbles.

“That’s because it is against my nature to look like a horned demon,” Nahyuta says simply.

“I will make it work,” Rayfa says earnestly.

The result is… not quite what she intended, but for making do with what they have, she’s rather proud of the outcome.

Nahyuta looks incredibly stupid.

She took the hair framing his face and used those to form the hair horns. This, of course, made them extremely long, but she did manage to get them to stand up without dropping too much… for the most part.

Nahyuta looks like some kind of really strange rabbit, which was the goal, so she calls that a mission success.

Nahyuta lets out a sigh of despair and resignation as he looks at himself in the mirror.

Rayfa smirks at him and pats him on the shoulder. “Come! Let’s see how Hat Head is doing with Fake Nahyuta.”

Trucy is doing fantastic with Fake Nahyuta, despite the limited materials at her disposal.

Mr Hat has been dressed up to resemble a fairly accurate lookalike of Nahyuta, with a wig of hair the not-quite-the-exact-same-but-close-enough color to the real person’s. He’s wearing Nahyuta’s jacket draped carefully over his wooden frame in place of his usual blue cape.

Trucy turns around as they enter the room she’s working in and bursts out laughing the moment she lays eyes on Nahyuta.

Nahyuta lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Yes, yes, get all your laughter out now…”

“How did I do?” Rayfa asks with a grin, putting her hands on her hips.

“Really good! He looks just like Polly,” Trucy snickers. “Nobody will be able to tell the difference.”

“I’m being bullied by teenagers.” Nahyuta sniffles exaggeratedly.

Trucy takes a step away from Mr Hat, throwing her hands out as if to present him to them. “So? How’s it look?”

“Perfect!” Rayfa says with delight. “You captured the soulless look in his eyes very well.”

Nahyuta rounds on Rayfa. “Excuse you!”

Rayfa smirks up at him.

“Yuty, what do you think, does it look good?” Trucy prompts.

Nahyuta turns back to look at Mr Hat some more. He tilts her head. “Hm… yes, I will admit it’s excellently done.”

“Yes! Seal of approval!“ Trucy throws a fist in the air in celebration. “Now all that’s left to do is go downstairs, act natural, and wait for Polly to show up.”

“Where is he, anyway?” Rayfa asks.

“Oh, he’s doing something with Klavier this morning, I think,” Trucy says, crossing her arms and tilting her head upward in thought. “He should be back soon, though, ‘cause Klav’s busy the rest of the day.”

“Is anyone else here today?” Nahyuta asks.

“Daddy and Athena are out investigating a case or something, I think? But they’ll probably be back soon, too.” Trucy shrugs. “It’s just a matter of who gets here first!”

“Then let’s go and play the waiting game!” Rayfa says enthusiastically.

Apollo does not know what he was expecting to arrive to when he gets back to the office. For his siblings to be doing normal things like normal people, maybe. Unfortunately for him, nobody in his life has ever been normal, and he’s been forced to become increasingly aware of this over the past several years.

Right now is one of those times where he becomes very, very aware of how strange these people he calls family are.

“Um,” Apollo says loudly, interrupting… whatever conversation is going on on the couches in the back office. “Hi? What?”

Trucy and Rayfa are sitting beside what appears to be Mr Hat dressed up in Nahyuta’s clothes, and Nahyuta himself, who is sporting a bright red shirt and whose hair looks… absolutely ridiculous, with two clumps sticking straight up like antennae on the top of his head, the tips drooping pathetically. Trucy’s arm is thrown around the back of the couch behind Mr Hat’s ‘shoulders.’

Trucy looks up at him as he enters. “Oh! Hi, stranger we don’t know!” she greets overdramatically. “How can we help you?”

Apollo squints at her. “What? What’s going on?”

“Oh, you know, just…” she beams, gesturing to the other two, “…hanging around!”

Apollo, eyes still narrow, raises his brows. “…Uuhhhh. Doubtful.”

“What’s doubtful about that? Totally Real Yuty and I are having a thrilling discussion with Rayfa and Genuine Polly!”

“Uhhh. Okay.” He makes eye contact with Nahyuta, whose face is completely neutral in contrast to Trucy’s and Rayfa’s ominous smiles. “Can I… talk to you?”

Nahyuta shrugs and stands up, following Apollo into a little corner of the office.

“Hey, sooo, yeah, uh, what the hell?” Apollo starts.

“Whatever do you mean?” Nahyuta says.

Apollo glances over his shoulder at Trucy and Rayfa, who have resumed their ‘conversation’ with Mr Hat.

“They’re right there talking to Nahyuta Hatmadhi on the couch. And you’re dressed like a weirdo.”

“Are you certain you’re not deceiving yourself?” Nahyuta says with a calm smile. “And be careful who you insult— this look was meant to imitate your own, after all. You’re only serving to make yourself look bad.”

Apollo squints. “You’re… supposed to be me?”

“Was it not obvious?” Nahyuta gestures to the top of his hair, which— okay, yeah, Apollo can see the resemblance to the hair horns now. He suddenly feels very self-conscious.

Nahyuta doesn’t actually end up giving Apollo any of the answers he wants. But honestly, Apollo kind of admires the dedication to this whole elaborate prank the three of them have worked on together.

…At least, he admires it for the first few minutes.

It gets old very quickly.

Because while they pretend that Mr Hat is Nahyuta (who they continue to have very one-sided conversations with despite him being very obviously unresponsive) and Nahyuta is Apollo, they also pretend that Apollo is someone they have never met before. Which irritates him to no end. Which of course only serves to make them do it more.

And then, of course, Mr Wright has to walk in.

“Wow, all of you are back here,” he comments as he steps into the room.

“Hi, Daddy!” Trucy waves at Phoenix. “We’re hanging out with Apollo,” she says with a wink and a very big gesture towards Nahyuta.

Phoenix takes one look at Nahyuta, then Mr Hat, then Apollo himself, and a look of utter confusion appears on his face.

However, Phoenix has always been one to roll with the punches.

He addresses Nahyuta. “Oh, hey, Apollo, long time no see,” he says smoothly. “You got taller.”

Apollo throws his hands in the air. “You, too?!”

“Woah, random guy, don’t get so upset!” Trucy gasps. “Don’t make us kick you out!”

“Too late, I’m kicking all of you out,” Phoenix says, waving at them with a backwards hand motion. “I love you guys, but whatever’s going on is definitely going to distract me, and I have work that I really need to get done or Edgeworth is gonna have my head.”

“You’ll find a way to get distracted anyway,” Trucy points out.

Phoenix hunches over slightly, looking incredibly called out. “Now hold on—“

“If you would like, we can behead you instead so you don’t need to face Prosecutor Edgeworth’s wrath!” Rayfa offers, ever the benevolent one.

Phoenix stares at her like she’s grown a second head. “Uhh… I think I’ll pass.”

“Your loss!” Rayfa smirks.

“Come onnnn, let us stay in here!” Trucy pleads. “Polly, you tell him!”

“Which one?” Apollo asks exasperatedly.

“You’re not Polly.”

Apollo groans.

They end up getting kicked out.

Luckily, Trucy has backup plans, consisting mostly of the four of them walking around People Park for a while and chatting. Aside from the irritation of half of them never being addressed by the correct name and Trucy still hauling Hatmadhi around like he’s one of those purse dogs, the time is somewhat enjoyable. Then again, most of it is spent discussing their plans for the rest of the week, so there’s not much to not enjoy.

…Unfortunately, by the time they get back to the office a few hours later, the prank is still going strong.

“Okay, guys,” Apollo groans. “It’s been hours. You can stop now.”

They do not stop.

When they walk into the office they’re met with Athena who, having most likely gotten back at some point while they were gone, is now sitting at her desk. She’s leaning back in her chair holding one of Nahyuta’s and Apollo’s disgusting cookies in her hand and is eating it like it’s perfectly normal.

She looks up at them as they come in. She takes one look at Nahyuta and the very irritated Apollo standing next to him and smirks. It’s clear she has all the information she needs to play along.

“Heyyy, Apollo,” Athena says with a grin, “Who’s this really angry short guy next to you?”

“Okay,” Apollo says tensely, pinching the bridge of his nose, “I’m going to regret saying this, but doesn’t me being short prove that I’m the real Apollo? You guys never let me hear the end of it anyway.”

“No?” Athena says with a raised brow, popping the last of her cookie in her mouth. “Apollo’s always been tall. He’s like, the tallest guy here. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Our buddy Eight Foot Apollo.”

“Ugh.”

“Were you just eating that awful cookie?” Rayfa asks, wrinkling her nose.

“Oh, come on, they’re not that bad,” Athena says, putting a hand on her hip.

“They taste like shit!” Widget chimes in.

“...They’re pretty bad,” Athena amends. “But they still taste like cookies at the end of the day. …Sort of.” She shrugs. “I need my sugar fix. I’ll take whatever’s around.”

“Anyway!” Trucy says, bouncing on her heels. “We’re not stupid. We know who the real Apollo is. But it’s funnier to pretend it’s not you. So even your court logic won’t let you worm your way out of this one!”

“I hate it here,” Apollo sighs.

“Is Daddy still in the back?” Trucy asks, addressing Athena.

“Yeah, but I don’t think he’s doing anything. Last I heard he was talking on the phone with somebody.”

“Cool!” Trucy says, brushing past the rest of them and slipping into the back office.

“Important somebody or friend somebody?” Apollo asks.

“Definitely friend. I don’t think Boss would’ve been insulting a client,” Athena says.

“Insulting?” Apollo mutters.

The rest of them follow Trucy, Athena getting up from her desk and trailing behind them.

“We’ve returned to bother you!” Trucy announces, throwing a hand outward.

Phoenix scrambles to sit up straight, a pen falling off his nose from where he’d been working on balancing it perfectly like the mature, sophisticated lawyer he totally is. “Heyyyy, welcome back,” he says, spinning his chair around to face them.

“Daddy, we’re gonna have pizza this Saturday!” Trucy says, strolling over and dropping Mr Hat onto the couch, splaying her hands out on the back of it above him as the others all settle down around the room, finding their own little space to belong. “We wanna invite some people over and have a big sorta send-off party for Polly and Yuty and Rayfa!”

“Still no nickname for Rayfa?” Apollo comments.

“I’m still brainstorming one.” Trucy waves a hand dismissively. “The art of nicknaming takes time, Polly.”

Rayfa sits down on the couch opposite Trucy, Nahyuta taking a seat beside her as Athena drops into the seat beside Mr Hat. Apollo sits himself on the armrest next to Athena.

“The council’s decided on this, then? I don’t get any say?” Phoenix jokes.

“Yep!” Trucy says, bouncing on her toes. “And we’ve also decided you’re paying. Since I manage the funds around here…”

Phoenix sighs. “I knew that was coming. That’s fine, I guess. As long as we have enough room for everybody here.”

“I mostly just wanna let Klavier come,” Apollo says.

“In that case, I’ll probably ask—”

The front door swings open.

“Speaking of,” Phoenix mutters.

Maya Fey breezes into the office with the air of someone strolling casually into their own home.

“Hey, Nick! ‘Sup, guys,” she greets casually. She nods nonchalantly at Apollo. “Hey, Fruit By The Foot, long time no see!”

“Fruit by the foot?” Apollo mutters in utter bewilderment.

“Hey, My,” Phoenix says, standing up to hold something out to her, which she takes with a grin and slides into her sleeve.

“Thanks a bunch! I totally forgot I forgot this here,” Maya says with a grin.

“Yeah, if you forgot, then…” Phoenix shakes his head. “Nevermind.”

“Hi, Aunt Maya!” Trucy calls.

“Hey, Maya!” Athena says, waving her hand enthusiastically.

“Hi, guys!” Maya beams, clasping her hands together. “Sorry I can’t stay, I gotta run and catch the next train back up to Kurain because I have a channeling in, like” —she checks her nonexistence watch— “two hours, ish. I was just swinging by to pick something up.”

“Two hours?” Phoenix mutters. “That’s… Maya, the train alone is a two hour ride—”

“That’s okay!” Trucy talks over him. “We’re all gonna order pizza and eat it here on Saturday, do you wanna come?” Trucy asks.

Maya lights up. “Oh! Hell yeah, I’m super down!” She turns her gaze to Rayfa and Nahyuta on the other couch. “Hi, by the way! Good to see you again, Your Benevolence!” She glances over at Apollo. “And weird little stranger I don’t know, I guess.”

“What?!”

Nahyuta nods in silent greeting. Rayfa stares at Maya with wide eyes for a moment before clearing her throat and offering an awkward “Hello,” clearly caught off guard by Maya’s sudden arrival.

“Maya, you’re gonna be late!” Phoenix reminds her.

“Oops! Sorry!” Maya waves to them all on her way out the door. “I’ll talk to you guys this weekend!”

A chorus of goodbyes follows in her wake as she hurries out of the room, slamming the front door as she goes.

There’s a beat of silence.

“Fruit by the foot,” Apollo says distantly.

Trucy bursts into laughter.

After that day-long prank, Apollo admits defeat and withdraws from the ‘competition,’ and it’s just Rayfa, Trucy, and Nahyuta left. Nahyuta claims to no longer be partaking either, but they all know his word isn’t exactly trustworthy, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not he’s actually still in the game.

(None of them are entirely sure when the whole prank war became a competition. They all suppose it just sort of naturally escalated.)

Trucy and Rayfa, however, are going strong against each other. Trucy is better at pranks, both in the technical and creative aspect— that much any of them will admit. However, Trucy’s mastery of the art of pranking is going up against Rayfa’s endless stream of stubbornness, which is a force to be reckoned with all on its own. Needless to say, Rayfa refuses to concede, and she puts up one hell of a fight in retaliation.

They prank each other back and forth several times over the course of the next couple of days. It reaches the point where it becomes increasingly evident that if they don’t decide on a victor, the three Khura’in siblings will leave before it’s over and a winner will never be declared.

Against Rayfa’s competitiveness, Trucy knows she’s made a formidable enemy— so she strikes a deal.

Trucy offers to end the war in a draw, with both her and Rayfa declaring victory, just as they would have done had Trucy not struck out on her own and instead remained Rayfa’s teammate.

At first Rayfa refuses the offer, but Nahyuta soon convinces her via teasing her relentlessly until she concedes and agrees to Trucy’s conditions.

So, the prank war ends just as it began— with Trucy and Rayfa teaming up, if rather reluctantly on Rayfa’s end. They all agree it’s for the best, though Rayfa swears it isn’t over.

Just as promised, they all gather around the office on Saturday evening.

Phoenix, Trucy, Athena, Apollo, Nahyuta, Klavier, Maya, and Pearl are all sitting around wherever there’s room. Two pizza boxes sit open on the table between the couches, accessible to anyone who wants to reach over and grab another slice.

Trucy sits next to Apollo on one of the couches, leaning her head into his side as the others all chatter around them. She’s abandoned her usual hat and cape for a more casual outfit tonight.

She’s been uncharacteristically quiet for a while now.

Apollo looks down at her. “Are you okay?”

“…I don’t want you to leave,” Trucy’s voice is quiet enough for only Apollo to hear. “I know it’s selfish, but…”

Apollo sighs, lowering his own voice as well. “I know.”

Trucy looks up at him. “I’m really gonna miss you again.”

Apollo puts a hand on her head. “I’ll miss you too. I’ll make sure we talk a whole bunch, okay?”

Trucy squints at him. “Video call?”

Apollo hesitates. “I— I get really busy, Truce—“

Trucy scowls at him.

“Fine, fine, yes, video call. Every week. I’ll make sure there’s always time for it.”

“Promise?“

“Promise.”

Trucy smiles. “Good.”

“Honestly, though, you guys are doing fine without me,” Apollo says, gazing around the office.

“Yeah, but it’s not the same without you.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure to visit more often when I can,” Apollo says with conviction.

Trucy beams, her voice rising above her previous murmur to a regular volume. “You’d better bring the other two again when you do! You can’t keep hogging them all the time. It’s like they always say— what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is mine!”

“Are you stealing my siblings?”

Trucy pulls away from his shoulder to point at him. “Our siblings now,” she corrects with ferocity. “And yeah, they like me more anyway because I’m cooler than you.”

Apollo snorts. “I think Rayfa probably agrees.”

“Agree about what?” Rayfa asks, hearing her name.

“That I’m a million times cooler than Polly,” Trucy says.

“Well, that is a given,” Rayfa says without pause.

Trucy grins.

“Now, now, be kind to Herr Forehead, I’m sure he’s very insecure about what he lacks in the coolness department,” Klavier interjects.

Apollo rolls his eyes.

“It’s okay, Pollo, you’ll be cool one day!” Maya says.

“I’m leaving and you guys are spending my last night here bullying me?” Apollo whines.

“Of course!” Athena says, leaning over the back of the couch to rest an elbow on top of Apollo’s head. “Bullying is a love language!”

Apollo bats her arm away, unable to fight back the fond smile from his face.

“Mr Wright, aren’t you gonna defend me?” Apollo says, directing his gaze toward Phoenix, who’s rolled his chair out from behind his desk so he can sit in it in the middle of the room.

“Hey, when you’re around, that takes the target off my back,” Phoenix says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry, bud.”

“You’re always gonna have a target on your back, Nick,” Maya says pointedly.

“Besides, where else are you gonna get this premium deluxe bullying from?” Athena says.

“These two,” Apollo says, gesturing insistently to Nahyuta and Rayfa, who both shoot him matching smug looks. “And Datz.”

“Well, our bullying is one-of-a-kind,” Athena says, reaching over Apollo’s shoulder to steal another slice of pizza. “So you better appreciate it!”

Apollo snorts.

“Did you enjoy your time here, at least?” Phoenix asks. “All of you?”

Apollo softens. “Yeah. It was really nice to see you guys again.”

“I enjoyed myself,” Nahyuta says with a gentle smile. “Despite the pranking.”

“You enjoyed yourself because of the pranking, Yuta, you’re not fooling anyone,” Apollo says.

“It was great!” Rayfa beams. “I had a fantastic time!”

“I’m glad,” Phoenix says, smiling fondly at her. “You should visit again. We could all show you more places. There’s a lot to see in L.A.”

Rayfa’s eyes sparkle. “I would love that!”

“Yeah! There’s still so many places we didn’t get to show you! You definitely have to come back soon,” Trucy says.

“Maybe next time we’ll be able to force Yuta to leave his work behind,” Apollo says half-jokingly.

“I would like to see you try,” Nahyuta challenges with a smirk.

“Either way, I had a lot of fun hanging out with you guys,” Trucy says. There’s a deeper meaning behind her tone that they all can sense.

“I did as well,” Nahyuta says, smiling. Rayfa nods in sincere agreement beside him.

“Me too,” Apollo says with a bright grin.

As the night draws on and everybody continues to sit around conversing with one another, the four siblings all end up squished onto one couch together, with Nahyuta sitting more on the armrest than the actual seat itself.

The four of them all seem lighter, happier. They have smiles on their faces and they’re all relaxed and carefree in their own way.

They’re leaving in the morning, but for now they can all enjoy this one last night together in each other’s company.

Their plane flies out at seven in the morning.

Phoenix, Trucy, and Athena all escort them to the airport at Trucy’s insistence.

They stand at the drop-off now, exchanging hugs and goodbyes and tears that Athena is pretending she’s not shedding.

“I’d better get a lot of sleep on the plane, I have a trial in two days,” Apollo says offhandedly.

“Don’t overwork yourself,” Phoenix says in a warning tone.

“I won’t, I won’t.”

“Promise you guys will come back to visit soon!” Trucy exclaims.

“We will!” Rayfa says with just as much enthusiasm.

“I’m gonna make Polly video call me. You guys better be there too!” Trucy says, pointing at them.

“I cannot guarantee we’ll be able to every time, but we will make an effort to be there,” Nahyuta says with a smile.

“I’m gonna text, too! You better be prepared!”

“Yes! When I am not busy with my duties I will do my best to respond!” Rayfa promises.

“I do hope I won’t catch you on your phone during your tutoring,” Nahyuta says sternly.

“O-of course not!”

“We’ll all stay in contact,” Apollo says. “Maybe we can make a group chat or something. Just the four of us.”

Trucy gasps, looking at him with stars in her eyes. “Yes!”

“Hey, don’t leave me out!” Athena pouts.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to you too,” Apollo says, walking over and pulling her into a side hug. “Not that you’ll leave me alone if I don’t.”

“You got that right!” She grins, ruffling his hair. He doesn’t shy away from it.

“I will send you those pastries I promised you in the mail as well,” Nahyuta addresses Trucy with a smile. “They won’t be fresh, but I suppose you’ll just have to visit us in Khura’in if you want the full experience.”

Trucy beams.

Nahyuta glances up at the boarding time. “We should be going.”

“Wait! Before you go!” Trucy pleads.

They all turn to her.

Trucy races up to Apollo, her cape billowing behind her, and throws her arms around his shoulders.

Apollo smiles and wraps his arms around her.

“See you soon,” Trucy says.

“See you soon,” Apollo echoes.

They pull apart.

Saying their last goodbyes, the two groups part ways.

Through the glass of the windows, the sun shines a little bit brighter in their wake.