FicWad

Brunet and I stand at the empty arrival of Anya. She had only been gone for barely two hours, and her singular return had taken us by surprise. She looked worn and tired, dark circles tracing the bags under her deep brown eyes. Her short black hair was ruffled and unkempt. The look of weariness on her face confirms my suspicions that we were all suffering the effects of Kabir's psychic power.

I feel a fear bubbling in my chest at my husband's absence, threatening to engulf me. I close my eyes, clench the fist on one hand while gripping the table with the other to hold my wavering form up. Then, taking a deep breath, I try to force down my panic with difficulty. I take a few more calming breaths as she walks silently towards us, struggling to hold in the anxiety and unable to push words through my lips.

"How is everyone?" Brunet voices my thoughts, stepping towards my sister with a worried look in her eyes.

"Your husbands will be staying overnight. The hospital was swamped when we arrived, so they only just started checking them over before I came back." Anya answers flatly. "Sam will be sent home once they can confirm that the broken ribs they sustained caused no internal injuries. Kukui does have a minor concussion, so they want him to stay overnight for observation. Kabir lost consciousness while we were en route, so they have him resting as well. They want to run some tests, though, when he wakes up to ensure there will be no lasting damage." She spoke with the weary speed of someone trying to answer questions swiftly in hopes of a sooner removal from a niggling conversation.

"Right," I force the simple phrase off my tongue, wincing at the thought of Kabir falling so ill.

"Why have you returned, though, Anya," Burnet asks curiously, tilting her head slightly to one side. "Wouldn't it be better to have more doctors around to view their progress if they're so busy?"

"I was kicked out," she grunts in irritation, stopping in her tracks as she began to make her way towards the house. Turning around to face us, she continues, "Doctor Ōpūnui said I looked tired and should go home to rest or he'd find me a bed too." she rolls her eyes, saying his name with venom, her normal annoyance rising swiftly into anger.

Burnet ignores her harsh tone and turns to me assuredly saying, "Ori is the top doctor here on Melemele, maybe even on all the islands. So knowing that our husbands are under his care comes as a comfort." Once again, her eyes betray her continued worry, but her voice remains steady and calming.

"He's an incompetent old bag of bones; that's what he is." my sister mutters mutinously.

"Anya," I reprimand, as Burnet gasps in quiet shock at the sudden harsh words. "What in Arceus's is eating you?"

"Get off it, Sashi," She hisses, rounding on me. "I'd get it if Burnet were annoyed, but you barely know him. Why do you feel so determined to defend a complete stranger over your own sister?"

"He took rather good care of me. I'm still standing here, aren't I? I didn't get any worse, thanks to his care. You're just mad because he kicked you out." I retort, taken aback, my own anger beginning to rise. Hop jumps up from her nap and runs over to stand in front of me, hissing and growling in defiance at the sudden fury Anya was letting off at me.

"Fat lot of good that did you, what with your little episode the other night." She retorts, her voice echoing her accumulating fury.

"That wasn't his fault," I spit back, struggling to control my own emotions. "If you'd cared enough to listen, Kabir had the same thing happen."

"I don't care about some stupid dream. All I can see is that you and Kabir seem to do a pretty poor job of taking care of yourselves, while I'm left to clean you up. And I can't even do that properly when my own sister doesn't even tell me she nearly died after being attacked by a Pokémon. Don't think I've already forgotten about that little stunt," Anya takes a step towards me, a fist clenched at her side, fire lighting in her brown eyes.

I stiffen at the sudden movement. Anya may be grumpy, but she's never threatened physical violence unless there was a danger to warrant it. I take a step back at the sight of the threatening stance, balling my other fist, readying to set up a defensive posture, but my enraged sister moves closer once more, undeterred.

She stops short at a swiped paw from Hop, claws extended, an icy Blizzard attack charging up in her open mouth. Anya glares at the protective Pokémon and opens her mouth to shoot another angry retort.

"Okay, you two, let's not do this right now," Brunet pleads, stepping in between the two of us and holding her palms up to our chests to keep us apart. "Can we please talk things through in a calm manner?"

The furious woman's eyes snap to Burnet, turning her rage onto the white-haired woman.

I don't think my neighbor has had any martial arts training like Anya and I have. Still, despite the situation, I find myself impressed to see the softer-spoken woman hold her ground, unflinching, at the threatening appearance of my twin.

"And just who do you think you are anyway? You've known Sashi for barely two weeks, and you're already so chummy that I see you here so much you could live in the house. So, what reason could you possibly have to be so concerned for a couple of strangers." My twin growls.

Burnet's yellow eyes flash at the venomous words the short-haired woman spits at her, but her voice is still surprisingly controlled, and her words carry no sting, only shock at the sudden lash out. "We're friends," she says simply.

Anya takes a menacing step past me, towards my neighbor, her clenched fist raising in the air. Before she can say another word, I grab my irate twin and forcefully spin her around towards the front door, one hand on her shoulder and my other around her wrist, pressing her arm into the small of her back. I grip her tightly, knowing just how easily my sister could overpower me, but I am surprised when she doesn't fight back.

"Anya, that's enough. You're acting out of line here." I growl in her ear. "The doctor was right. You need sleep. Get inside, eat, shower, read, whatever, I don't care, just do you have to do to get that almighty noggin of yours to shut down and go to bed." I give her a hard shove towards the door.

She curses under her breath quietly but purposefully loud enough for us to hear the offending language as she stalks off towards the house.

"And be quiet. The kids are sleeping." I call after her.

Still, she doesn't respond, but she closes the door softly behind her.

I turn around and slump back into my seat, my own anger vanishing with her lack of presence, rubbing a hand through my hair and sighing. My still tightly balled fist finally uncurls sorely. I open and close it a few times to get the blood pumping in it again.

"Burnet, I am so sorry about that. Anya really is a kind person, but sometimes she just has the bite of a Feraligatr and the quick temper of a Beedrill."

"It's okay. She's exhausted. We all are right now. And we all do and say regretful things when we're tired and stressed." She sighs, shaking her head. Burnet sits for a moment as if deciding on her following words. "Does it have anything to do with you two on the beach the other morning?" she finally asks with hesitation.

"You saw that?" I question Mareepishly, looking down at my hands and examining my wedding ring closely, twisting it and rubbing the Braille inscription against my fingers.

She's been spying on you. The entity in my head whispers maliciously.

No she's hasn't. I try to grumble back in my mind, but uncertainty swirls in my gut at the words anyway.

"We did," Burnet answers, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Sashi. Kukui and I were taking a walk that morning on the beach, and we saw you two sitting in the wake." She hesitates again but adds in quickly after I sit in silence for a moment. "We didn't mean to spy on you, and we left right away to give you privacy."

"Oh, no," I say swiftly, not wanting her to feel bad. "You weren't spying. We were sitting out in the open; anyone could have seen."

See? Not spying. I think with triumph, but the hissing voice has already vanished.

My neighbor pauses for a moment, weighing her words once more, but then continues. "I don't mean to pry, but dates line up a bit too well," she says cautiously. "Anya lives on Akala, right?"

"She does," I respond, catching on to the direction of the conversation, knowing an explanation would be required after the most recent incident. Taking a deep breath, I confirm her suspicions. "Her husband, Kai, was on the ship that was sunk during the storm that happened on this day last year. He was counted among the ones lost at sea. She couldn't even hold him a proper funeral."

"Oh, Arceus, today would be the first-year anniversary of his death." The younger woman whispers." It's no wonder her emotions are so high right now." There's a knowing look of sadness in her eyes. I realize with a jolt that I have no idea who she lost, how, or even when.

"I'm sorry," I apologize, her meaning obvious. I sit for a moment, trying to think of a subject change. "Maybe we can go visit the guys."

"We'll have to call the hospital before we head out. There's a flu going around right now, so they may have a "no visitors" rule in place currently to reduce exposure."

"I sure hope Kabir and I didn't bring it with us from the mainland," I say anxiously.

"No, it wouldn't have been you. We get a flu around this time every year," she responds kindly.

We give the hospital a call and find that, much to our displeasure, we won't be allowed to visit.

"Ah, bummer," I say with a sigh, unhappy with the recent news.

I absently run my fingers through Garbee's soft, warm fur. The fire Ninetales had walked over and laid down on the bench beside me, his head resting on my lap, a knowing look of attempted comfort in his wise, old, red eyes.

Thunder the Luxray was laying in front of the benches, stretched out between us two humans, a large paw each resting affectionately on our legs, determined to touch both of us at once. Munchlax sat next to Burnet on her bench, leaning against her and trying to comfort its own master as well. Hop, still not convinced of our safety, had laid protectively on the table in front of me, prepared to jump into action should one of the many threats from today return.

The sun slips through the blue sky as Burnet and I finally turn to happy conversations. The Pokémon continue their afternoon nap when Tinsel comes out with Lei riding on her back, her ribbons wrapped securely around his body to hold him up, and a ribbon wrapped affectionately around one of Himiko's arms as she guides the toddler over to us.

"Did you see your mum, sweetie?" I ask my niece as she crawls her way into my lap.

"Mummy's sleeping on the couch. TiTi said we have to be really quiet," she says, placing a finger on her lips in a shushing motion. I find myself chuckling at her strange choice of words, but I don't expect proper language expressions at her age. "Aunty, do you have toys?" she asks, eager to begin a new adventure now that she is awake.

"I do, but they need to stay in the basement. If you promise to be very quiet, we can all go down there and play in the game room." I tell her. She doesn't seem upset at all by the prospect of returning inside if it means she could play.

"There's a deck around back that opens up to the basement. We'll have to pass through the lab, but at least we won't risk waking Anya." I say to my neighbor with her child in her own arms. I set Himiko on the ground, grab her hand, and we start making our way to the west side of the home.