All the Stars Between Us

An Old Friend

Nyx sat on the little armchair with Faye on her lap. Thalia and Nyx has decided to keep Faye and maybe raise her if her parents didn't show up. They had agreed that as a wielder, it would be safer if she stayed with them anyway. Faye was wearing a pink oversized sweater and some leggings Nyx had sewn for her. (Also pink)

Faye refused to wear anything except pink. Her old clothes had to be thrown away, because they were all ripped, torn, and sweaty. Not even Nyx could fix them. Faye cried a little when she had to throw them away.

After much protesting, thrashing, and squirming, (lots of squirming) Nyx had finally gotten Faye to take a bath and eat dinner. Currently, the three were huddled under a blanket on the loveseat in the living room. Faye had fallen asleep after watching a couple cartoons, and Nyx and Thalia had other plans to attend to when they had finally gotten Faye into bed.

Until they could remodel one of the many spare rooms in the ship to suit her fancy, she was staying in one of the relatively plain spare rooms. It had a midnight blue bedspread and duvet, two side tables adorned with brightly lit lamps with stands made of glass, a soft, white carpet, wide, ceiling length windows that turned opaque when you clapped your hands, and a ceiling that you could customize to suit your interests.

You could have a hot desert sun beating down on the room, a cold, snowy evening, or a pitch dark sky scattered with handfuls of stars. Faye had chosen the latter, yawning that "It reminds me of home." Thalia had argued that you could literally look out the ship's window and see much many stars than that, and Nyx had glared at her and told Faye that she could do whatever made her happy.

As soon as the pair had tucked Faye into bed, darkened the windows, and closed the door softly, Thalia pushed Nyx up against the hallway's wall. Thalia peppered little kisses along the plunging neckline of Nyx's shirt, and Nyx wrapped her legs around Thalia's waist.

All of a sudden, Nyx realized that there was literally a sleeping child in the next room, who might wake at any moment. She pushed Thalia firmly away, ignoring Thalia's whines of protest.

"Shut up!" She hissed in a low whisper. "You're going to wake her up!" she trailed off, biting her lip.

Thalia nodded shamefully, significantly sobered up. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Nyx rolled her eyes, smiling. "You do realize our very soundproof, very childproof, very lockable room is literally a stone's throw away?"

Thalia smirked, and took Nyx's hand, leading her down the hallway to their shared room.

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That morning, just as the ship's lights were starting to brighten, Nyx and Thalia were startled awake by a high-pitched, excited voice.

"GUYS, WAKE UP!" Shrieked Faye happily.

Startled into action, Thalia summoned her sword, and Nyx summoned her bow and quiver, and nocked an arrow in a split second.

They stood there, Nyx in a thin slip, and Thalia in her sleeping tunic, armed and ready to do battle. Faye stood, cowering and covering her face with her hands, sobbing.

They immediately felt horrible for scaring the little girl, and, stowing their weapons, they tried to comfort her. Nyx rubbed her back and whispered sweet words into her ears, while Thalia gathered the little bundle into her lap and smoothed her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ears softly.

Gradually, Faye seemed to calm down a little, and stopped crying and hyperventilating. Nyx looked at her kindly and told her a joke, which earned a watery giggle between hiccups.