Nocte Yin: Anti-Villain, Anti-Hero and Anti-Everything Else

Chapter Seventeen

“Somnium!”

Chantée shot forward from the bedroom and crashed into Nocte’s stomach, wrapping her skinny, little arms around Nocte while jumping up and down, her French-braided pigtails flapping about in excitement. All Nocte could do was carefully balance the steaming mug of passion fruit tea (a mug Chantée had chosen for her, a mug that apparently resembled a cartoon character called Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh) in her hands to prevent the hot beverage from spilling onto the girl.

Even more startling was Alex, who was not only unperturbed by the scene, but was actually watching the girls from the kitchen with a few eggs in his hands. Nocte would have thought he’d storm over by now, either to take the tea from her grasp or to pull Chantée away from danger, but instead he merely chuckled as if he had expected it, but if he had expected it, then why would he prepare the tea for her beforehand?

It was not according to their daily weekday routine.

“I told you she was worried,” Alex commented good-naturedly.

Comprehension dawned and Nocte carefully returned Chantée’s hug, the mug sloshing precariously.  Chantée’s reaction to her absence from the day before was not something Nocte had expected. For Alex to wait up for her and for Chantée to greet her so warmly… This was not nothing. This was something warm and pleasant and wonderful. It was something she thought she no longer had.

They made life easier to live.

“Are you okay?” Chantée asked, pulling away just enough to look Nocte in the face. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

Slightly insulted at Chantée’s implications and certainly touched by the girl’s concern, Nocte smoothed her hair back in reassurance. Chantée slept with her braids intact to avoid bed head, but several strands had broken from their confines. Alex was going to enjoy putting his little sister’s hair back to a more presentable state. “No. I’m not hurt. Just a little tired.

Chantée frowned, not pleased with her answer. “Maybe you shouldn’t go to work today…?”

Nocte smiled and patted her on the head again. “I promised to get myself cake today.”

“It’s okay,” Chantée said. “We have cake all the time now.” Nocte liked cakes; she bought them very often. “You should get one tomorrow.”

Alex startled her for the second time when he spoke, “Or I can pick one up after work.”

Chantée smiled at her big brother, with teeth, sparkles in her eyes and everything. “That’s even better!”

“You should rest,” Alex added.

As much as Nocte was touched by their sentiments, she really couldn’t have another day to just her and her thoughts. She needed a distraction, away from all the doom and gloom she had sunk herself into. Time to be more optimistic, more free, more happy like the many times before. Besides, that fairy that had trespassed nights ago was still swarming in her head, spitting blood on her face and ever the present warning.

“No, I’m okay,” she said. “I really need to get out of the house and do something, or I’m going to be bored.”

Chantée twisted her mouth, looking ready to argue.

“Go and change, Chantée,” Alex instructed, dismissing her.

Chantée pursed her lips and then trooped back into the bedroom to do as she was told. Finally, when the bedroom door closed, Alex turned back to Nocte.

“How did you sleep last night?” he asked.

This was a topic Nocte was more comfortable with. Moving away from the glass door and the sunrise she had watched (Alex had opened the curtains for her today — another action not a part of their routine), she settled onto a kitchen stool at the island counter.