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It was silent when they met up on the bridge again.
None of them look at eachother. Some struggling to while others refusing.
Pyro lifts his head to look around at the people he is bonded to. He lifts his hands up to slowly take his helmet off. "Let's head to mine. I uh.. Have a surprise."
All eyes were on Athen's champion in an instant. "A surprise?" Apo tilts her head with a feather falling from her wings. Sausage smiles with sorrow lingering in his eyes. "Is it karaoke?"
"What is..?" Pyro stares at him before shaking his head. "No. It's just something I was.." He huffs with a turn of his heel. "Just come."
Pearl snickers before walking beside Pyro. Her arm is on her shoulder as she leans on him a bit. "Oh? Did the Champion of Athena forget something for us?"
Pyro glanced her way with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's a surprise. I can't really say."
As Sausage, Pearl, and Pyro walk ahead, Apo stuck close by to Owen with her eyes stuck on him. Her brows were heavy with worry. Thoughts raced through her mind like a chariot race. She wants to say something, but the words keep evading her. Owen could feel her eyes boring into him. She turns her head to her direction with her staff tilted over to feel each step of the stairs. "Is something on your mind, Apo?"
Apo stiffens up with her wings pulling back tightly against her back. "I-" She looks away with her facial wings tightening around her face. "I would like to apologize."
Owen stopped in her tracks before turning to fully face Apo. "What for?"
Apo's face scrunched up as she lifts her hands up to grab at her upper arms. "I have done and said so much to possibly hurt you. I just.." She trails off with tears forming in her tear ducts. She didn't notice that the others had stopped as well. "I want to protect you guys. I want to help you and keep you safe, yet everything I do just does the opposite!"
Owen took a step forward with his hand out to her. She placed her hand on her shoulder with a small head tilt. "We'll be fine, Apo." His grip on her shoulder tightened slightly. "Besides.. You can just take me into your dreamscape to make up for it!"
Apo stares at her friend in silence as Owen lets go of her and walks towards the rest. She lifts her gaze up towards them with her wings still pressed tight against her back. They were disheveled and definitely in need of a preening, but that was the least of her worries right now.
She found a family, unintentionally, in this trial. People who are willing to stick by her side. She felt like she was ruining it with her own sheer will to win.
"What are you getting sappy for?" Pearl smiles down at her while offering her hand out. "Are you coming or are you going to brood there?"
Apo lifts her arm to wipe away any tears that had fallen. "You were right. I should've stuck to cage duty today." She reached out to take Pearl's hand before being pulled upwards towards the Champion of Nyx. Pearl chuckles with her fist knocking against her shoulder. "Eh it was worth it?" She shook her head while walking forward to follow after the rest of their little family. "You got Abolish down to two lives."
Apo walks y her side with her face scrunched up again. "And cost three of us our lives.."
"Think of the positives." Pearl wraps an arm around her with a smile on her face. "Don't just focus on the negatives."
Apo pouts a bit with her eyes on her friend. Pearl was right. All she had been doing was thinking of every bad possibility. She needs to focus on the positives. Maybe just for a while. Or just this night..
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A campfire was lit as the group huddle in a circle around it. Pyro stood up to fetch the surprise he had for everyone. His braid bouncing against his back as he walked. He opens a chest with a nervous smile pulling at his lips. "I thought we deserved a night to just unwind. I've been planning this for a while.." He turns around holding up a large vase filled with wine.
"Where did you get that?" Apo questioned with her head lifting off her knees. Pyro joins the group around the fire. "I stole it from Scott. He had somehow found a way to create wine here." He took off the covering, holding the vase up. "Who would like to try it first?"
"Me!" Sausage smiles while scooting closer to Pyro. He took the vase into his hands, lifting it up to his lips. Everyone watched as their friend, their family, took a sip of wine. He lowers the vase with his eyes widening. "I think he mixed something else into this."
Apo's wings lift up as she moved to stand. "What do you mean? Are you okay?" Before she could stalk over to him, Owen lifted her hand to hold her in place. Apo looks down at her with visible confusion. Owen simply smiles while gently tugging at her chiton to sit down. Apo reluctantly did with her eyes back on Sausage.
The vase had already been passed onto Pearl. Sausage turns his attention to Apo with a smile. "Scott definitely added in a lotus. It's pretty harmless."
Pearl took a sip with a pleased hum. "That's some good wine." She turns to pass it over to Owen. Apo intercepted it with her head lowering to try to get a whiff of the smell. "Smells like the lotus.." She mumbles with a sigh. She lifts it up to her own lips to take a sip. She lowers it in an instant with her face visibly relaxing. "Holy.." She gently passes the wine to Owen. "Tastes horrible, but the lotus makes up for it."
Owen took the vase with a brow raised. "Does it really taste bad?" She lifts it up to take a sip. "Apo doesn't know what she's talking about." Pearl waves them off with a smile. Apo huffs with her head lowering back to her knees. Owen hums while lowering the vase. "I think she's kind of right." He hands it over to Pyro.
"No way!" Sausage shouts with his eyes in Pyro. "Prove them wrong! The wine is good!"
Pyro sighs with his eyes on the liquid inside the vase. He lifts it up to take a sip before lowering it into the grass. "Uh well I think you're both right. It's horrible, but it's also good."
A collective groan leaves the three of them with Owen giggling. Pearl turns her attention to Apo with a hum. "Aight. It's time to preen those pretty facial wings!" She moves to go sit in front of her. Apo shot up with her hands up. "No! My feathers are just fine!" She couldn't really run for it since Owen, Sausage, and Pyro block her path. "You can do mine!" Pearl finally settled before her with a grin. "Someone has to do your wings though."
Apo deflates while reaching out to grab Owen's hand. He is the only one who has touched her wings so far. So she trusts her. "There. Happy?" She looks at Pearl before raising her hands up. Pearl only laughs while lifting her own hands up.
"Let me braid your hair Pyro!" Sausage reached his hand out towards him. Pyro lifts his own hands to grab his wrists. "I don't know.." He glanced off to the side. "Come on! I don't think I'd be that bad at braiding." Sausage smiles towards his friend. "Fine.." Pyro let's go before lifting his hands up to undo the braid already there. Sausage quickly moved to sit behind Pyro with his hands up to gently take a hold of his long hair. Pyro sat still with his gaze on his own hands. They shook slightly with his eyes falling closed with a sigh.
"It's all in the past." Owen spoke up while gently fixing feathers in Apo's wings. He took out the ones that felt completely damaged and even gently scratched some dirt out. Pyro opens his eyes to look over in her direction. "Pardon?" He lowers his hands onto his lap. Owen smiles to himself as he turns her attention to the bottom of the wing she was working on. "We must move forward or we'll tear each other apart."
Despite the tension that did exist between Owen and Apo, their trust in one another was evident. Apo is trusting enough that she turns her back on Owen. It's this trust between them that has Pyro realizing he also turned his back on Sausage. Someone he grew so frustrated with after he lost his life. Rightfully so as the Champion of Hermes left him to fight on his own. Words won't help in this trial. They barely did anything in the beginning of it all. Pyro closed his eyes again with a sigh. "Right." He clenched his hands up into fists for a moment before releasing them. "Can't let them get the advantage over us."
"There! It wasn't so bad now was it?" Pearl scoots back from Apo with a smile. She leans back onto her hands as her smile grows seeing her friend try not to smile. "Whatever." Apo turns her head away to look at the rest of her friends. Her family. "I'll let you preen my wings, but you are not braiding my hair." She hums with a small grating croak leaving her.
Owen was on the next wing when she said, "I think we should all get our hair braided for the night." He lifts his head to face at Apo briefly. "It'd be fun!"
Apo is debating whether to try to make a run for it or not. "Would I be able to take it down in the morning?" A nod of his head has her reluctantly agreeing to getting her hair braided.
After Owen finished up with her wings, they all get in a circle to braid each other's hair. Apo was super focused on the braid she was making for Sausage. Her fingers were slow yet precise. Owen was behind her with his fingers combing through her hair at first. She starts sectioning the hair out afterwards to get started. Pearl was behind Owen with her hands steadily grabbing strands of his hair. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't get the braid right. Pyro was braiding Pearl' hair with practice. He was complimenting her hair as he braided it.
By the end, they all had their hair braided in some way. Sausage and Owen had a section of their hair braided while Apo, Pyro, and Pearl had their hair fully braided. It was admittedly fun to braid hair in a circle.
They all laid in the grass with the fire still roaring with life. The stars above them shine brightly through the night sky. "Do you think these constellations have names?" Sausage asks with his arms resting on his stomach. "They moat likely do, but uh.. I don't know them." Pyro responds with his head turning to look his way. Sausage looks back at him with a sigh. "We could name them ourselves!" Pearl suggested with a big grin on her face.
"You can do that." Apo has a wing wrapped around Owen as a circle of black smoke surrounded them. "I'll be taking Owen with me to the dreamscape." She smiles at her flock with a small head tilt. "Have sweet dreams.. And don't stay up too long."
Pearl hums as Owen and Apo disappeared from their view. She turns her attention to the others. "So.. What should we name this one?" She points up to one of the biggest stars above them. Sausage stares at the star with his eyes squinting. "Hm well with the stars surrounding it.. It kind of looks like a pegasus." He smiles up at the stars then nudges Pyro playfully. "What do you think?"
Pyro stares up at the stars above them with his face scrunched up for a moment. "Uh well.. It kind of looks more like a siren." He turns his head with a shrug of his shoulders. "At least that's what I think."
"You think or know?" Pearl turns to her side with a teasing grin. "We all know you're smarter than you look." She pushed herself up with her eyes widening slightly. "Tell us. What do you plan for tomorrow?"
Pyro stares at her then shook his head with a sigh. "Resting." He turns to his side to show his back to them. "Like we should be doing right now." He closed his eyes with a small smile at hearing her groan. "Boring.." Pearl lowers herself back to the ground with her eyes on the stars above them. Sausage looks between them with his smile slowly turning to a frown. "I could keep watch to make sure-" "Nope!" Pearl pulls him close to herself with a smile. "We all need the rest after this lovely yet tiresome day."
Pyro turns back to them with a slow nod of his head. "Just in case, I'll stay up a little longer. Use Athena's eyes in the sky to make sure they're nowhere near us." He placed a hand on Sausage's shoulder with his gaze hardening. "I doubt they'd come during the night to attack us." It wouldn't be an awful plan to do so, but he isn't sure they would waste a night to track them down and kill them.
"Right.." Sausage closed his eyes with a shaky sigh. He stays close in Pearl's arms with his own wrapping around her. Pyro moved closer to them with his eyes on the stars once again. His arms wrap around them as best he could before a screech of an owl can be heard. This night should've lasted longer..