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False
It was dark. And it was quiet. She was sure she’d have found it funny if not for the situation, if not for the context, if not for the distant rumbling far above their heads.
False was lying flat on her back in her hammock, fingers folded over her stomach as she stared into the darkness of the ceiling she knew was close enough to reach up and touch. As a kid, she’d had to remember not to sit up to fast, or else she’d hit her head. Directly beneath her, barely fitting in the narrow mattress that he’d outgrown at fifteen, Sausage was tossing and turning. False could hear him moving, the shifting of sheets and the creak of the bed frame. The bunk beds on the opposite side of the little room were also occupied. Fwhip top bunk, Oli bottom bunk. Of all of them, Fwhip was the only one who still comfortably fit in his childhood bed.
Hammock.
Bunk.
Narrow frame.
Everything Pix gave us that we loved, because we had nothing before.
And False still loved it. There was comfort here in this room which had sheltered her from one anarchy, as a little girl.
Surely it’ll get us through another, right?
“…do you guys remember how Oli used to be scared of the dark?” She said suddenly, to the ceiling.
“Hey!” Oli’s voice cut petulantly from his bottom bunk, and False felt her wings relax a bit into the soft fabric of her hammock. One leg hanging over the edge from how she’d outgrown it. But she could pull it up and curl into it, she’d done so before as an adult. She still stayed the night here once in a while, when she came to see Pix, and it was getting late, and she could tell from the look in her fathers eyes that he didn’t want her flying to her own little nest of an apartment in the lower levels past night cycle.
As if I don’t work for the mob…
If that’s what you wanted to call Etho’s gang at this point.
“I just liked being able to see all of you were still there, that’s all!”
“And where else were we going, exactly?” Fwhip remarked, and Sausage chuckled.
“Now now, Oli, if anyone was about to pull a disappearing act, it was you!”
“I was a kid! Not like any of you guys were helpful teaching me how my glamor worked!”
A round of hushed snickered wrapped around the room like an embrace against everything beyond it.
“I’m pretty sure that night light is still plugged into the outlet, y’know.”
“Sure, why would Pix move it?”
“Fair.”
False gazed up at the ceiling for a few more seconds. The set of tiny wings on her head, mimicking an eagles, were slowly relaxing from how they’d been locked back the entire day.
Waiting. Waiting all day for her brothers to come back. And now she had them.
And we’re all gonna be stuck in this little room together again, till further notice.
She tightened her fingers against her chest where they were lace together and closed her eyes.
“Hey, guys?”
“What’s up?”
“Eeeeyes?”
“You ok, Falsie?”
One.
Two.
Three.
“Just checking to make sure you were still there.”
“See, I wasn’t the only one!” Oli immediately exclaimed, to which Sausage shushed him.
“Papa Pix is trying to sleep, let the poor man rest!”
“Why are we whispering as if we’ve got a bedtime all of a sudden?” Fwhip jabbed, even if he also kept his voice lowered, and Sausage sighed.
“Honestly, you would think we’d change! Have we? Like, at all? Be serious with me!”
“Mmm…you’ve gotten taller.”
“Is that all!?”
“Shhh!”
False let out a small twittering giggle, and she heard it echo, too. Bounce back to her. And while she was proud of how much they’d grown, how far they’d come…there was comfort, here.
A few more minutes went by quietly before Oli piped up again.
“Hey, Saus?”
“What’s up?”
“…can you turn on the night light?”
“Oli!”
“Ha!”
False could hear Fwhip kicking his feet up with restrained laughter, and she grinned like an ache toward the ceiling. It had hurt the last time. It would hurt again.
“A’course I can, and do you want me to get you some warm milk while I’m at it, huh?”
“Shut up! Don’t tease me! I just wanna be able to see all of you, is that so wrong?”
“Nothing wrong with it, Oli, nothing at all.” False said as she listened to Sausage getting up from the narrow bed and feeling along the wall for the power outlet.
Click.
The room was bathed in a dim golden glow from the little bulb behind a cover made to mimic a candle flame.
False peered over the edge of her hammock to see them. Sausage with his massive frame, trying to compact himself back onto the narrow mattress. Oli propped up on one elbow on the bottom bunk, with the dredges of anxiety slipping away from his face as his lavender eyes darted to each of them in turn. Fwhip, having pulled his blanket up like a hood over his large goblin ears, and yet one of them poked out, with all the various piercings he usually wore removed for comfort during sleep.
She watched them all for a moment, then laid her head back onto her pillow again.
“G’night, boys.”
“Nighty-nite, Falsie!”
“Goooood night…”
“Niiiiight!”
It was three voices she’d kept by her side by choice rather than bloodlines, and they were her brothers for all the annoyance and fights and love that word possessed.
It was only a moment, for the four of them.
A moment to remember that when they were kids, they’d survived an Anarchy.
So what’s one more?