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Etoiles couldn't sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see the face of his daughter staring back at him in the middle of the coliseum.
He had always been reckless with his life, eager for some thrill and danger. The adrenaline kept him going and he had always been looking for it in difficult fights or dangerous dungeons. Thus, when he had first entered the coliseum, a smile had been plastered on his face, he had been humming a song while spinning his scythe around. The green flying entity had appeared in the sky, and he had felt more ready than ever. Ready for death as much as for victory.
But when he saw Pomme in a cage, his dear daughter, right inside the coliseum, his smile faded as he realized that he couldn't die just yet. Not now that his child's life was on the line.
And so he fought. He fought harder than he ever did, frequently running back to the cage in which Pomme was kept, giving her reassuring words although she never reacted. But Etoiles kept going until he killed the code.
Etoiles had never been one to be easily scared, but it was then that he entered a nightmare. Pomme's cage opened and she was now running around the fighting grounds. She took out a familiar green sword and his heart dropped. His brain started running thousands miles a minute, trying to make sense of the situation.
And even now, hours after everything calmed down, his thoughts kept circling back to this moment. Not a single sign of recognition, the usually warm and smiling face of his daughter replaced by a cold and blank look. Etoiles had refrained from hitting her just in case the code wanted to trick him, but his gut was telling him that the fight had not ended, and there was something so uncanny about the Pomme in front of him that he had no choice but to fight back. He even threw a healing potion at her at some point, paranoia getting to him, but she only swung faster taking advantage of their proximity.
He had fought codes previously disguised as the children in the past, but never one who kept its disguise during combat. And fighting for his life against his daughter was one of the scariest things he had ever experienced.
Etoiles ran his hands down his face. For the eighth time of the night, he felt the urge to go check up on Pomme. He sat up in his bed and took out his warpstone. To not make noise and wake up his daughter, he warped outside Ninho and climbed up to her window with his grappling hook. Etoiles stayed for a moment watching Pomme's sleeping body, making sure that she was still breathing.
He let himself fall back down on the ground and walked towards the waystone, but a tug on the back of his shirt stopped him. Turning around, he was met with Richarlyson's small figure, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"Richas! What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
Richarlyson's handwriting was sloppy due to sleep but still understandable as he held up his blue notebook. 'can't sleep and i needed some fresh air, sorry i scared you'
"No worries, it's okay, just be careful."
Etoiles thought about going back to his house, as he was starting to feel sleepy again, but the small child in front of him seemed to be debating something internally. After a minute, Richarlyson hesitantly grabbed Etoiles' sleeve and started walking away, leading him somewhere.
"Richas? Is everything good?"
The child nodded but didn't stop to answer more. The small hand in Etoiles' hand was freezing and the poor boy was shaking. The oversized shirt he was wearing (probably Pac's from the design on it) didn't do anything to protect him from the coldness of the night.
Richarlyson guided his uncle through the island until they crossed the French district's borders. Etoiles understood then where Richarlyson was leading him. He looked at the boy while he opened the red door, cobwebs hiding in the crevices of the ceiling and in the corners of every step of the staircase.
Richarlyson let go of Etoiles' hand and walked down the stairs before sitting down against the farthest wall. Etoiles followed and sat down next to him.
"So… Why Pomme's museum?"
'I don't know'
Etoiles looked up from the notebook to take in the place. Dust had settled everywhere, including on the giant picture of the familiar face they were now sitting against. "No one's been here in months."
The boy next to him gently elbowed him to redirect his attention to the notebook in his lap.
'I know. there are many places that pom built recently, idk why I got drawn to this one specifically. I guess I wanted to be somewhere that was just her, yk? even if she didn't build it and it has been abandoned it still feels sm like her, it's reassuring in a way'
"I see." Etoiles was a much better fighter than a talker and everyone knew this. But his nephew urgently needed some comfort and he was the only one who could help.
"Are you still thinking about the fight earlier?"
The boy nodded and took back his notebook to scribble on it. 'on one hand I feel guilty that I missed the fight bc i wanted to cheer for you, but at the same time I don't think I would've handled watching you fight against pom'
Richarlyson's head dropped against Etoiles' shoulder, so he started gently running a hand through his nephew's curly dark hair.
"Yeah, I feel bad for Ramón, he saw everything." He felt Richarlyson curl up against him. "They got me, you know. I doubted myself for a while. I really thought that it was Pomme in front of me. I healed her and even revived her at some point. I didn't want her to die because of me."
'what would you have done if it was really her?'
Although he knew perfectly what he would've done after spending most of the night imagining the worst scenarios that could've happened, Etoiles couldn't bring himself to answer. Richarlyson understood the underlying implications of his uncle's silence. He wrote something in his notebook before shaking his head. He put down the notebook next to him and hugged Etoiles' arm.
Richarlyson soon fell asleep and Etoiles, succumbing to curiosity, reached out to grab the blue book left open on the ground.
'thank you for fighting so hard for us tonton. you're the only one who can do it
best fighter here'
He sighed. He was getting tired of these expectations, although Richarlyson was not responsible for how he felt.
Now that Richarlyson was asleep, he couldn’t bring himself to wake the boy up, and he didn’t have access to his room in Ninho. Etoiles took him in his arms and stood up, tucking the notebook in his pocket.
As he walked out of the red building, he stopped in his tracks to look at the sky. The sun was rising, tainting the world of an orange hue. They had spent more time here than he thought, which also meant that he had not gotten a single ounce of sleep.
Walking back towards Ninho, Etoiles saw Cellbit who also looked like he just pulled an all-nighter. Despite the lack of sleep, Etoiles put on his usual persona once they were close enough. “Hi Cellbit! What’s up?”
“Nothing more than the usual, I’ve been rebuilding the Ordo’s HQ. You should come by one day, I’m thinking about doing fighting grounds and I’ll need a pro’s advice.”
“Sure!” The two stared at each other, sleepiness clouding both of their brains, until Cellbit recognized the sleeping form in the other’s arms.
“What are you doing with Richas? Is he alright?” With his fatherly instincts kicking in, Cellbit unconsciously held up his hands. Etoiles absent-mindedly let him take back Richarlyson.
“Ah, it’s a long story. I fought a code today, and Pomme was in a cage and then they let her out, but turns out it wasn’t actually Pomme but a fake one! And I had to kill her because, well, it was the code and it was trying to kill me you know. But I wasn’t sure and I hesitated, although I ended up killing her. I got a book from her corpse which I’m almost certain the code wrote, but Ramón and Richarlyson were here and witnessed me killing the fake Pomme. I also got parts of the sword, you know the one, so Richas came with me to test it and we explored for hours. But now I can’t sleep ‘cuz I keep seeing Pomme attacking me when I close my eyes and I think I’m a bit paranoid so I need to check up on her to make sure I didn’t actually kill her. And I saw Richas, he brought me to Pomme’s museum to talk and he fell asleep there. And I was just bringing him back but you’re here so I’ll let you take care of him. Sorry, am I talking too much? Does it make sense? I should probably try to sleep again. I’ll go now, sorry for bothering you. Have a good day Cellbit, you’re the best!”
Etoiles walked away yawning, leaving behind Cellbit with his mouth open wide. Thinking back on the fight brought back the urge to see Pomme. This time he didn’t think about the noise and directly teleported in her room.
She was still sleeping, breathing calmly and hugging a butterfly plushie Bad had sewn just for her. Etoiles sat on the bed next to her and wriggled his hand in hers. If she woke up and tried to leave, it would alert him.
A memory suddenly came up. It was from one of their first days on the island, a discussion he had with Baghera.
“T’attaches pas trop Baghz, si ça se trouve elle va vite mourir.” Baghera’s dramatic gasp made him laugh.
“Dis pas ça devant elle, ça va pas?”
“Mais c’était obligé que tu deviennes gaga d’elle immédiatement, j’te dis juste de faire attention.”
“Mais regarde la, elle est pas adorable?” Baghera kneeled to be face to face with the still shy girl. “Hein Pominette, t’es adorable! Ecoute pas papa Etoiles.”
“‘Papa Etoiles’? Euh on va rester sur tonton Etoiles hein…”
Etoiles didn’t remember when he had started considering Pomme his daughter, nor when he had started proudly saying it, but the little girl had taken so much space in his heart quicker than he imagined was possible.
He closed his eyes as he felt Pomme snuggle closer to him. He would do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant burning down everything on his way.
And maybe, just maybe, having a daughter made him a bit more careful with his life.