A. Emeritus

Chapter 29

"This looks cute." I take the book and look at the cover, noting the spine on the right instead of the left. 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon' is printed across the front. After skimming the pages, I move closer to Ember.

"This looks fucking adorable, how many volumes are there?" I ask, knowing it won't take me long to read. Without saying a word Ember begins pulling books off the self and stacking them in my arms.

"Aster, will Valentino be okay with you buying so many books?" Fire cuts in, stopping Ember in his book stacking.

"They're ten dollars." I suck in my bottom lip and think.

"If there's twelve books at ten dollars a piece, that's what, One hundred twenty? Then the other book, which has nine volumes, that's an additional ninety." I bite my lip again and squint. "That's like two hundred ten dollars."

"Plus tax" Quintessence adds.

I shift the books into Embers arms and pull out my phone and quickly text Gizio.

-Can I spend over €200 on graphic novels? It would be 21 books.

We all wait in silence as the typing dots appear.

-Are you and Ember going to read them and send them back home?

I internally roll my eyes and begin to type.

-Yeah, that was the plan at least.

A quick response in the form of an emoticon is quickly received.

- (b^_^)b

"Yeah, I can get them." I say, as Fire grabs my phone and looks closer at it.

"You can glean anything from that?!"

"It's a thumbs up." Ember deadpans, already knowing the way Gizio texts with me. I look from my phone to the books piled in Ember's arms.

"So, books." I slide half the pile out of his arms and head toward the front of the store, Quintessence occasionally guiding me around people and displays.

I slide the books onto the counter and add Ember's stack next to mine and decide to wait until an employee notices us.

"You need to ring the bell, Aster." Fire tells me as he leans in and taps the bell sitting beside the stacks. I panic for a moment and try to stop the ding, only to hit the little button again.

"Lucifer, they're going to think I'm impatient now." I whine and try to hide my face against Quintessence, who holds me by my shoulders away from his chest.

"I'm on my way!" Is called from across the store as a boy weaves through the shelves on his sprint to the front. He wipes his forehead with his sleeve as he reaches the register and turns to us. "How are you guys today?" He asks as he begins to scan out books and pack them into a small carrying box. I inhale to speak only to choke,

"B-books." I wheeze. He nods, and looks up at Ember and back down at me.

"So, are you two -" I try to cut him off but can only manage one word.

"Books." I sigh and look at Quintessence with pleading eyes. "Help." He places his hand on my head and ruffles my hair as I pull out my card to pay, only to be beaten to it by Fire.

"These two are siblings. We knew we wouldn't be able to have kids of our own, so he adopted these two." Quintessence lies, and pulls Ember closer to him while shooting Fire a look.

"That's cool." The boy shrugs, pushing the two packed boxes toward the edge of the counter, which are quickly grabbed by Fire. We make our way a good distance from the store and Fire finally speaks.

"Aster, that was pathetic." I give Fire a hurt look and frown.

"How was I supposed to know the kid helping us was going to be so cute?" I whine. "I can't just talk to boys like that."

"You talk to everyone in the abbey with no problem." Fire argues.

"That's different." I pause after hearing my voice crack, "There's like power dynamics and shit, and I'm not good with power dynamics that I don't know that well." As we walk I continue to explain, "Emilio and I are obvious equals, you and Omero are above us. I have no clue past the gho- guys that are supposed to be watching me. I know also know that if I really really want to do something I need to go to my grandfather, because he won't say no, and there's only one person who can say no to his choices." Fire smiles

"What about your dad?" I scrunch my face,

"He obviously has power over me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to listen to h-"

"He can suck my left nut!" Ember interrupts making Quintessence snort. I smile and agree, as we wander from store to store.

"Hey Aster, Valentino wants us to make sure you get slippers so you don't walk around barefoot." Quintessence types a reply on his phone, and approaches a directory. I stare at the board until Quintessence takes my hand and leads me away toward the stairs. As we approach them I stop and pull away.

"The fuck is wrong with those stairs?" I recoil as Fire tries to coax me toward them.

"It's an escalator, they're moving stairs. You'll be perfectly fine." Quintessence calms and leads me toward the platform. Slowly, I follow Quintessence and step into the moving steps and soon notice the paper cranes hanging from the ceiling. As I stare in awe at the hundreds of delicate birds, I'm abruptly thrown to the floor as the escalator reaches the top, ejecting me unceremoniously into the metal platform. Tears well in my eyes as I move to sit on my bottom and look at the damage done by the metal stairs of doom. A tear slips down my cheek, followed by another and another, as I see the bleeding scrapes on my knees.

"I was not perfectly fine." I pout, while Ember laughs. I shoot him a glare as I hear a sigh and am lifted off the platform and carried like a baby toward a bench.

Quintessence places me on the bench and briefly disappears and returns with some napkins and a bottle of water.

"Are you always such a baby?"

"Only when I fall and start bleeding in public." I continue pouting. Quintessence pours some water over the scrapes on my knees, using the napkins to catch run off, clean, and dry the wounds. "I need band aids."

"You don't need band aids. You're not even bleeding anymore, Aster. You'll be healed fully within a few hours." Fire drawls. I sniffle and frown.

"Gizio always puts band aids on ouchies. He says they make everything better."

"Yeah, and I bet he kisses them all better too?" Fire mocks and Ember chokes on a laugh.

"He does." Ember says, as he grabs my wrists and begins to pull me up. Quintessence pinches the bridge of his nose and watches as I fall limp against Ember.

"Fucking antichrist, Valentino fucking spoils you."

"And you seem to have inherited his flare for dramatics."

Ember steadies me and ruffles my hair, giving me that look you can only be given by an older sibling for being an idiot.

"Me inheriting it implies he contributed to my DNA." I grumble 

Autor's note: Hey guys, let me know if you can tell the difference between the italics and normal text in this font. I personally can't see much of a difference and it was only by going over this chapter that I noticed. If the difference isn't noticeable enough I can try to change the font or find a different way to denote that they're speaking Italian. When I'm typing in my master document I use parenthesis.