Chapter Text
A quiet morning, hushed of all commotion but the gentle tap of a knuckle at her door.
"Vine Staff? You're on opening shift with me today."
As she opened her eyes, a dark setting would blur into frame. Her room, overgrown with foliage that poured well past their pots. The only wall that hadn't laid overgrown with flowers seemed to be the window, where neon lights of countless late night stores illuminated a darkened sky in the moon's absence. Yet slowly, one by one, each light would flicker off. The dark abyss of the night would exchange it blacks and blues for shades or orange and red, all the while a bright sun would peak its way past the horizon and into the sky. A new day had started, which meant another morning shift at the Thieves' rest.
That was her common, nearly as common as the exhaustion she felt every morning waking up to work. Yet she wasn't the only one, forcing feet to find the floor every morning to prepare for work; Vine Staff knew for a fact that Slingshot was just as tired. But she hadn't need to open the door to imagine his exhaustion. Rather, it dripped in the cat's voice, echoing a yawn broke through the silence before footsteps slowly steered themselves away from her door. Though his weariness was short lived, after all the blue inphernal was well acquainted to this routine of his.
An early start, beating the first rays of sunlight and the crowds that came with it. After all, preparing a bakery for opening was a difficult task. First there came preparing the pastries, then lining the baking sheets, cleaning dishes left the night prior, and ensuring every booth, chair and dish was perfect, just as SlingShot told himself his cafe must be.
Yet running a cafe that well wasn't feasible alone.
But that's where Vine Staff and Shuriken came in. Three pairs of hands were better than one. Even if one of those hands were half awake through most of the morning.
As she adjusted her uniform, the though crossed her mind; Would Shuriken be joining them for work today? A question that she answered quickly, poking her head out from her room to peek down the hall, all the way to the green door that waited there, plastered with stickers and and labels he's collected over his time here. It was there she saw it, SlingShot standing outside of his door, tired eyes fixated onto the adhesive of them all. "Sleepin!"
It was as though she could see the scales in his head, weighing his options carefully in silence. Like a cat contemplating it the distance of a jump, his fist hovering at the door while waiting... and waiting... and waiting... only to fall back to his side with a shake of his head.
It seemed as though today, Shuriken was allowed the grace to sleep in. A sight that seemed to soften Vine Staff's expression. Shuriken needed the rest, even if it meant she would be covering sweeping duty as a result. Giving up one hour for the extra chore was a sacrifice that paled in comparison to what he had given up.
Leaving the Darkage Clan wasn't easy for him, after all. Not when you'd spend you life dedicated to it. That much she knew.
Though the Theives' Den was hardly kind to her, she knew what it meant to Shuriken. After all, it was the home he had, the people he knew, the life he grew into. All his training, all of his life, tossed away for a place far from home, here in the Crossroads. The change of scenery wasn't just a location, but a lifestyle, one far unfamiliar from anything he knew.
SlingShot called it being lazy; "If you told me that an alarm-clock would be Shuriken greatest enemy, i wouldn't have believed you then."
"Don't be like that" Vine Staff tried to coax her brother's annoyance, a common occurrence that would strike, on their way to the Cafe. "We both know that waking up this early can be challenging-"
"It wasn't that way when he training, why is it now?" A question that came without answer, not when SlingShot continued his tirade as they made it to the front door.
Yet regardless of whether she'd get the chance to speak it, Vine Staff knew the reason. A sentiment she had long lived with, rooted in her very being, her very arm.
Homesick.
To return to a world that you once knew.
Desire.
To be among your peers rather than strangers.
Longing.
To be part of something that you were never part of.
It was a feeling she had long known, ever since her spawn.
It was hard to ignore, making itself present and loudly so. With the creaking sound it made with every movement, to the splinters and petals in left in every wake. There was a log where her left arm was supposed to be, a fault that deemed her unusual from the rest.
"a growing mass that would consume her, surely."
"a freak of nature, and nothing more."
"A curse, something we do not need to concern ourselves with."
A curse she still carried today, growing from her side as though it were a natural part of her. A limb like any other. One that could feel pain, that could grow, that could hold and touch and feel what it came in contact with.
Yet no limb could grow plants like hers could. No limb should regrow once being severed. No limb should sprout flowers and branches. But hers could, and nothing would spare her from that.
No mercy would be shed, no care given.
For that reason, the trio had left. They had fled to the crossroads and went somewhere safer. They escaped to a new life, tucked away from the criticism of the Darkage Clan and in the Concrete Jungle of the Crossroads. It was nothing like home, something the three could all attest to. But with time, surely they'd make it their own.
Or so Vine Staff hoped.