Chapter Text
“Tell us everything!”
“Yeah. No. We gotta know, Spi. Come onnn!”
Daphne sighed, watching Spireal fidget on their bed out of the corner of their eye. Rogun and Siki hadn’t stopped pestering him since he’d gotten off shift; Spireal hadn’t even started changing out of his suit yet.
“Take it easy, guys.” Daphne turned in time to see Spireal shake his head as he spoke, his fingers working at the buttons on his suit. “Seriously.”
Rogun groaned and Siki rolled his eyes, arms crossed; Daphne softly hit Siki on the back of the head as they passed by, earning an irritated whine from their younger brother.
“Don’t hound him,” Daphne scolded. Rogun’s amber eyes narrowed in response as they knelt down in front of Siki’s duffel bag.
“We’re not hounding him,” Rogun protested. “We’re just- just--”
“Swarming me like little kids.” Spireal finally got his jacket off, bundling it up and throwing it at Rogun; she yelped as the fabric hit her in the face.
“Don’t throw your clothes around like that, either,” Daphne muttered, standing with an armload of Siki’s shirts to hang up in the closet. “You can go throwing clothes on the floor all you want in your own room, but Siki will make enough of a mess in here without your help.”
“Knowing Spi, he’ll be throwing more than just his clothes on the floor tonight.” Siki snickered, then coughed as Rogun slapped him on the back, setting his glasses crooked on his face. “Oh, the agony! You all must hate me!”
“We really don’t,” Spireal sighed, his voice slightly muffled as he pulled his button-up over his head.
“We might,” Daphne mumbled under their breath. They didn’t have to turn around from the closet to see the look Rogun was giving them, so they didn’t bother.
“Were the girls on your team cute?”
That got Daphne to turn around. They stared at Siki incredulously as he fixed his glasses, hands paused partway through hanging up one of his undershirts as they glanced over their shoulder. “Sweet Jesus, Siki.”
“No, valid question.” Rogun smirked.
“Oh god, no, one of them scared the hell out of me and the other acted like she’s married to caffeine.” Spireal shuddered dramatically, pulling on a sweater and then starting to work on his belt.
“And the third?”
Daphne finished with the clothes in their hands, moving back over to the bag to dig through it. They found the box Siki kept his knives in.
“Where do you want me to put these?” They asked, glancing at their brother. Siki looked at him briefly.
“Oh, one of the shelves by my bed. Thanks,” he added. Daphne nodded as they stood, Spireal kicking off his slacks as he finally answered Rogun’s question.
“Remember that silver-haired artsy girl from high school? The really anxious one. I think she was in Siki’s algebra class.” Spireal tilted his head, sitting down and kicking off his pants; Daphne slid the box onto the shelf.
“Yoon-Hoo?” Rogun’s voice went up at least two octaves, making Siki whip around to stare at her. “No fuckin’ way. She’s working here?”
Daphne paused briefly to fold Spireal’s shirt for him, leaving it neatly on the edge of their bed for when he left; Spireal shot Daphne a quick, thankful smile.
“Yeah. She was really surprised to see me, too. She remembers Siki’s bullshit pranks.” Spireal grabbed the pair of shorts Rogun had left for him as he spoke, pulling them on.
Siki giggled, making Daphne smile to themself; they always liked hearing their brother happy. Rogun leaned back in her chair with her hands behind her head, nodding, crossing her legs together.
“Man, awesome to see her around. I kinda forgot about her,” she admitted. “She’s on your team?”
“Yeah.”
No duh, Daphne thought, glancing at the duffle bag. He briefly considered Siki’s toiletries before deciding to let him handle those himself; he was always so particular about the way they were organized anyway. Daphne picked up Siki’s combat boots, moving to drop them neatly by his bed.
“I mean, she was pretty cute.” Siki leaned forward, palms on his knees; Daphne shot him a glare.
“I guess. She’s not my type.” Spireal shook his head.
“You don’t have a type,” Daphne muttered.
“Dude, Daph! Anyway, Siki, I thought you were more interested in hearing about work, not about whether or not I’d smash the girls on my team.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever!” Siki waved his hand around, adjusting his glasses with the other. “I wanna hear about what you were actually doing, yeah. What’d you see?”
“Were the Abnormalities actually real?” Rogun leaned forward.
“Were they scary?”
“Did they hurt you?”
Oh, God. Daphne could already feel a headache coming on.
“Stop.” Spireal brought up his hand as if trying to stop the tidal wave of questions. “Jesus Christ, you guys are insane. One thing at a time.”
“Firstly, yes. The Abnormalities were real. I was working with this like.. colony of fairies.”
Daphne narrowed their eyes slightly, finally moving on to their own bag, unzipping it to be met with a haphazard stack of folded sweaters. They began to pile them on their lap three at a time.
“You’re being serious?” They spared a brief glance at the back of Spireal’s head, seeing the wide-eyed expression on Rogun’s face and the doubtful one on Siki’s.
“Completely. They were maybe this tall-” Spireal showed with his hands. “-pretty chubby, most of them. They had four arms and these long tails. Reminded me of lizards.”
“Did they fly, too?” Siki was clearly asking sarcastically, but Spireal nodded. Daphne chuckled at the look on their brother’s face.
“Yes, actually. They had these big wings, like bug wings. Their hair reminded me of Rogun’s in highschool,” he added jokingly. Rogun made a face and Daphne had to bite back another startled laugh, beginning to hang up their sweaters.
“Wild,” Rogun muttered. She had a new interest in her voice as she continued. “And you like-- what, played with them?”
“Pretty much.” Spireal shrugged as Daphne turned to face them again; they leaned against the closet door, slipping their hands in their pockets.
“Seems straightforward,” they said, finally paying full attention to the conversation. Spireal shot them a quick smile.
“I guess it was, yeah. I didn’t hurt myself or anything,” he added quickly. Maybe too quickly; Daphne raised an eyebrow in response, and Spireal threw his hands up in surrender, dragging a giggle out of Siki.
“Okay, okay, fine! I rammed my augment into something. Once. Once, I’m fine! Those fairies healed me.” Daphne expected a chuckle or a grin followed by a Nah, I’m fuckin’ with you, but nothing came. Interested, they moved forward, nudging Rogun’s arm so they could sit on the arm of her chair; she didn’t even whine like she normally would’ve, too interested in what Spireal was saying.
“Did they?” Siki sounded startled. “Actually?”
Spireal grinned. “One of them hugged my neck on my way out. It made me feel all fuzzy and then the pain went away. A few of ‘em followed me around until the shift ended, but they didn’t try to hurt me or anything. They seemed happy to be there, honestly.”
Daphne and Rogun shared a brief glance, and Daphne was sure the look on their face was something similar to Rogun’s expression, pure disbelief.
“That’s-”
“Fucking awesome!” Rogun fistpumped, nearly punching Daphne in the jaw, cutting off their sentence.
“Jesus Christ, Rogun--”
Siki seemed lost in thought, shaking his head. “No-- no, yeah. Holy shit. They’re real, then.”
“Well, duh.” Spireal rolled his eyes, flopping onto his back on the bed. “What, did you think we were working for some crack company that does false advertising? It wouldn’t be a Wing if it were.”
“Yeah, I mean-- yeah, but-” Siki shook his head again, like he couldn’t quite articulate what it was he wanted to say in words. Daphne rubbed their eyes a little.
“Hey, Siki, Rogun.” Maybe giving their brother a break would help. Daphne nudged Rogun again as Siki glanced at them.
“Huh?”
“Wha?”
Spireal laughed. Daphne ignored him.
“Can you two do me a favor? I’m kinda hungry, and I bet Spi is too.” They gave Spireal a pointed look, and his smile faded slightly, seeing the look on Daphne’s face.
Talk? he mouthed, and Daphne nodded. Spireal sighed inaudibly.
“There’s a break room somewhere in this sector, I think. Can you go grab us some soda ‘n’ chips or something?”
“Can I get a can of WellCheers?” Spireal cut in, and now it was Daphne’s turn to laugh. Rogun groaned.
“Spi, you’re addicted to that stuff!”
“Says the smoker,” Siki quipped. Rogun guiltily grinned and pulled a box of cigarettes out of her pocket. Daphne stood up almost immediately.
“No,” they said, crossing their arms. “You’re not smoking in here. You can do that in your own room, Ro. You’re definitely going out if you want to do that.”
Rogun sighed, but stood, throwing an arm around Siki’s shoulder. “Fiiiiiiineeee.. what flavor you want, Spi?”
“Grape,” he replied automatically.
“Not surprised,” Siki commented, letting Rogun lead him out.
“Yeah, yeah. Stay safe, you two,” Daphne muttered, turning back to Spireal as the door shut behind them.