Alitia: Crown of Ash

XXXIX: Pained Reunion

Nebula hadn't even been planning on meeting with her brother when she first received his invitation. Something about Fromir's message unsettled her though, and she found herself making her way to Sierra so that she could speak with him once again. Fromir had been doing a good job about communicating with her when there was an issue involving the war that she needed to know about, but he had seemingly been ignoring his own emotional wellbeing in favor of offering her information. Nebula somehow knew that it went deeper than that though, so she made her way over to Sierra when she was able to find a break between sessions of homework at Sacred Heart. 

Nebula walked slowly into her brother's office, and she looked up to see that Fromir had fallen asleep waiting for something else to happen. He had his arms folded on the desk to be used as a makeshift pillow, and his breathing had evened out into something peaceful by the time that Nebula arrived. She couldn't help but wonder if Fromir even remembered inviting her at all, and she cringed at the thought of her brother being so overwhelmingly exhausted. 

To put it simply, Nebula's relationship with Fromir had always been complicated. He had been the headmaster of Sierra for a year or so by the time that Nebula was born, and that kept them from interacting much. Karver was a teacher at Sierra, but he tended to slide back and forth between Neyama and Millennia when he could manage it. Not many teachers at the Millennium Six found such a frequent commute of teleportation to be worth it, but Karver was insistent on bringing Nebula up in her mother's birthplace. 

As much as Nebula appreciated her upbringing on Neyama, it left a wide divide between herself and Fromir. She barely ever had the chance to see him, and they didn't exactly see eye to eye because of how little they interacted. Every time that they spoke throughout Nebula's childhood, it felt stilted and awkward somehow, and Nebula couldn't help but wonder if she and Fromir were meant to be interacting in such a way at all. Fromir wasn't exactly fond of Karver, and that only made the rift between them wider than it already was. It was an uncomfortable situation, but she didn't want it to be like that anymore. 

Nebula wasn't sure when her detached apathy towards Fromir had shifted into something more, but she was positive that it had already settled in by the time that the new semester began. Perhaps it had something to do with the way that Fromir had been so utterly beaten down during the Thanatos War. Nebula wasn't positive herself, and she didn't want to reflect upon the previous semester to find out either. She just made herself go towards Sierra, figuring that the walk would keep her from thinking too much about it. She needed to keep from thinking, if she was being honest with herself. 

The war had given Nebula more than enough to think about, and she knew that she was only going to feel worse if she was forced to remember what happened with Iago Thanatos prior to the Alight Five appearing. She forced all of her worrisome thoughts aside to the best of her ability before walking towards her brother, cringing at the site of him so exhausted. He had likely fallen asleep when the pressure of daily work grew to be too much for him. It wasn't exactly unheard of for Fromir, but it still bothered Nebula. 

She placed one hand against his shoulder with intentions of gently shaking him awake. Much to her surprise though, Fromir jumped awake with a start. His eyes were wide and glassy, and Nebula knew that he was still too groggy and tired to see her. Fromir almost lashed out with a strike in her direction, but he managed to stop himself as soon as he realized who she was. He let out a slow, measured breath before nodding to himself slowly. "Nebula," he murmured. 

"Hey," Nebula greeted. She took a step back as Fromir adjusted himself into a sitting position once again. She couldn't help but feel as if she was seeing something that she shouldn't have been as she watched Fromir pull himself away from exhaustion. Even if she was his sister, she didn't feel as if she deserved this right. They had never been close, and they weren't even close in present times either. The effort was being made on both sides, but Nebula still felt terrible awkward about it all.