She parried the attack from Nico and quickly disarmed him before placing her sword against his chest.
She smiled. "I got it!"
"After me copying that same routine fifty times!" Nico retorted, mimicking her joyous tone, and she pouted.
"Don't be mean, look at these hands, the only thing they can do is draw."
"Yeah yeah," Nico smiled before he checked his wrack. "Come on I want to show you something," Nico turned his sword into a smile black ring and took Fauna's arm before leading her off.
She'd been here for about a week and she'd quickly adapted since that's essentially the story of her life: adapt as fast as you can and slip into the crowd.
She followed Nico and missed having Orion at her side but Sage and Orion had stayed in her house because they were so lazy.
She walked up next to Nico and saw how tense he was. "Are you okay?"
Stupid question. She hated it when people asked if she was okay when she clearly wasn't, it meant they cared sure but sometimes you don't want people to know you're upset because it makes you feel... weak.
He nodded. "Yeah, I just, like, I don't really... we're meeting Mat tomorrow and I guess I'm kind of nervous about it and..."
He trailed off and she quickly took his hand before resting her head on his shoulder. She hadn't been told they was meeting Mat tomorrow but she didn't think now was a good time to ask Nico about it.
She trusted him to lead her wherever they were going and as she buried her head in his shoulder.
It was nice not to have Orion barking something about how everyone is entitled to their personal space whenever Nico and her got 'too close'.
"We used to come here all the time to get away from everyone," Nico said, cutting through her thoughts.
She looked up and saw a creek with water clamly flowing past at it's leisure. Nico sat down next to the water, quickly shed his shoes and socks before dipping his feet into the water.
He sighed and for a moment a looked of content on his face before his head turned and realising Fauna was awkwardly standing behind him.
"The water's kind of cold but it's nice," Nico said, subtly prompting Fauna to join him.
She thought about it for a moment before she sat down and quickly took off her shoes and socks and hesitantly placed them in the water. She recoiled slightly at how cold the water was but kept her feet there knowing she would adapt.
She glanced over to Nico and saw him staring into the water and at their contorted reflections. She gently nudged him with her shoulder.
"What you thinking about?"
He shook his head. "Nothing."
She huffed, annoyed he wouldn't talk to her before grabbing a rose bud from her pocket since she'd been trying to make it bloom blood red for six days now. Her first job had been trying to preserve it to last longer now that it had been picked from the rose bush and it seemed to be fine so far.
Nico always asked about her whenever she was worried and pestered her relentlessly when she didn't tell him but she never pushed him when he had a problem, if he didn't want to talk about it then she didn't want to pry.
She focused her current frustration into making this stupid rose bloom but what she didn't know is that Nico was frustrated because he'd made zero progress.
He tried so hard but nothing worked, he taught Fauna the sword technique she used to love most and always used, he showed her old paintings she had done, he let her hang out in his house and now he was showing her the creek but nothing was working.
Nothing was triggering any memories.
He knew that she wouldn't wake up one day and suddenly have all her memories back but some of her memories remained - some memories her mind clung too that just needed the right trigger.
He'd seen her drawings of him from years ago and she could also still speak Latin. They sat next to the creek and she didn't remember all the games they played here and all the messing around they did.
Instead she was pursing her lips and focusing on the rose bud.
She turned her frustration into concentration and since she had a lot of frustration she, in turn, had a lot of concentration.
She felt a sudden jolt, an electricity, a sort of power surging through her veins.
She stared at the rose as it began to bloom, it was blood red, thriving and beautiful and it had a sort of golden glow around it before the light diminished.
Her face lit up with a smile and she handed the rose to Nico. "Look!"
Nico looked at the rose and smirked. "I told you you could do this."
She rolled her eyes but was secretly delighted that she hadn't let him down because the worst thing is disappointing your friends.
Especially when they're essentially the only friend you've got.
Sure, Brody was we friend but he was always disappearing and everyone else here was nice but not exactly friendly.
She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt a hand brush against her cheek.
Her eyes darted down to see Nico's hand fixing the rose into her hair.
He was so close to her that she could smell him, mainly a sort of dog smell from Sage but also an earthy smell, too.
He pulled away as the rose was fixed in place and she touched it before smiling.
"If you didn't want it you could've just given it back instead of tangling it in my hair," she teased before she plucked her feet out the water. "Come on, before Orion comes out here sniffing around."
Fauna got up and was reaching for her socks when she felt a hand on her back. She didn't even realise what was going on as she flew through the air and made contact with water.
She stood in the water still slightly shocked that Nico had pushed her but felt angry when she saw him laughing.
A plan formed in her head and she groaned in pain. Nico stopped laughing.
"Are you okay?"
She looked down and her hair hid her grin and she sniffled. "I hurt my ankle."
"I am so sorry Fauna, I didn't mean to I swear, I was just - aaaahhhh!"
She lunged for his hand and dragging him into the water as he flailed. He stared at her flatly as his hair stuck to his forehead. She smiled cheekily.
"You little minx," Nico said with a small shake of the head and a little smile.
She laughed before splashing him with water. He laughed as well before doing the same before it became a full on water fight.
That is until Nico lunged forward and threw Fauna over his shoulder before throwing her back in the water.
She pouted. "That's cheating. I can't pick you up."
He raised a challenging eyebrow. "When did we set any rules?"
"Fair point."
She cupped her hands behind her back and filled it with water before launching it at him.
Nico's hands darted up to his eyes as he rubbed them gently. "Fauna!"
"No rules remember," she replied as she climbed out the water and sat at the edge while ringing out her hair. "Besides, it's just water."
He sighed and climbed out before sitting next to her, realising she's hungry when her stomach growled...loudly.
Fauna quickly pulled her socked over her still wet feet before pulling on her shoes. Nico did the same as he stared at her.
When Fauna caught him he didn't even bother to look away.
"What?"
He shook his head slightly, flicking water everywhere. "Nothing, I just can't believe you're here after all that time. I half except to wake up and realise it was all a dream."
She stopped trying to get as much water out of her hair as possible and looked at Nico.
"I'm not going anywhere," she stayed while leaning her head on his shoulder. "Nothing will make me leave you Nico."