Chapter Text
Gloomy street lights flickered along the slightly damp roads and alleys of Fable. In the place known as the ‘Overworld’, the higher sector of the city, there resided a sleek office building, easily the tallest and eldest of all those around it. The windows shone bright despite the dead of night creeping around every corner, moonlight reflecting softly off each pane of glass encasing the rooms within. This building was known as “F.A.N.E”, the name chosen specifically to represent each of the founding members of the so-called agency.
Fable, head of the ‘Overworld’ sector and main title holder over the city, hence the less-than-creative name.
Alerion, head of the ‘Aether’ sector and all protection to the great city of Fable.
Netherum, head of the ‘Nether’ sector and in charge of army resources and protection, working alongside Alerion in any sense.
Finally, Enderian, head of the ‘End’ sector and alliances. The siblings were the, as one might say, rulers or founders, of the city.
Everyone had their titles and roles to follow, although nothing could fully sum up the positions these four held and the areas they controlled. Some called them sectors, others called them courts, a few called them cages. In any case, they all worked together in a sense of unity, deciding one day to have a base of operations, once they all started settling with partners and children, that is. They all worked with each other on everything, it all made sense, everything was functioning smoothly in Fable.
Emphasis on the word ‘was’.
Now, though, only one was left in the building tonight. One agent who constantly blurred the lines of work and life balance. An agent whose office was coated in a mix of notes and reminders to pictures of family and friends. An agent who currently, was passed out on his desk.
An agent by the name of Rae Morningstar.
Rae was a high ranking member of “F.A.N.E”, being one of the top agents in his unit. With this title, also came the burden of far too much paperwork.
Slowly, Rae began to stir in his seat, lifting his head slightly, blurry eyes drifting over every inch of his surroundings. They landed on; the paperwork pillow he had no intention of crafting, the computer monitor that had timed-out from lack of use, a picture of him, and a smiling boyfriend by the name of Caspian holding his side lovingly, another photo of him, now with his cousin Athena, smiling ever so brightly at the camera and his other cousin Sherbert, laughing happily at the youngers antics, and finally the pen gripped loosely in his hand.
Eventually, his space began to feel familiar to him, as his foggy brain cogged to life, piecing together where he was.
Shit, he’d passed out at work again.
Blinking rapidly to clear his murky vision, he straightened up, choosing to ignore the loud pops that echoed from his back to indicate just how long he had been hunched over in exhaustion. He took one last glance down at the unfinished stack of paperwork, feeling it stare right back at him mockingly, before resigning himself to doing it another day.
He shifted his gaze over to the analog clock fastened neatly into the wall.
2:17 AM.
Double shit.
His mind travelled back to this morning, where he had promised Athena a trip to visit his office, possibly a quick check in with Sherbert at work. They had been begging him to take her into ‘F.A.N.E’ for ages, ever since they had learned about it from their parent, Netherum. Ever since they had met Momboo’s kid, Jamie, after Sherbert brought them over one dinner, letting it slip oh-so-on-purpose that Jamie was one of the head techie’s there.
Ever since the Enderian Initiative mission.
Ever since Sherbert’s incident.
His body seemed to shrink slightly at every memory, part of him almost dreading going home now.
Most people would think that when you’re an adult you should be living on your own or with your partner, something to that effect. However, when your boyfriend is currently in a different sector on some classified Aether mission with a world-class cartographer named Will, that becomes a little more than difficult.
A little past the events of the Enderian Initiative, everyone had gone through..probably too much trauma for a lifetime or two, so no one wanted to be alone. Most went to their siblings or parents for comfort, but when your parent is one of the leaders of the city’s biggest lifelines, that also becomes a challenge.
So Athena proposed that they lived together, the cousins. Sherbert, Rae and Athena would all squeeze into whoever had the biggest place—that just so happened to be Rae—and live there until they all felt comfortable enough to be alone. And they did, Sherbert and Athena moved in not too long after that conversation, and things had been pretty great. None of them were lonely anymore, comfort through nightmares wasn’t a strange occurrence anymore.
Safety became a familiar thing, which none of them had truly felt before.
As such, he mentally scolded the part of his being that didn’t want to go home. It was a welcoming, warm place that he loved being in. He was with friends there, he was safe. Now it was 2:18 in the fucking morning and Athena was going to be pissed.
Rae knew Athena would only be disappointed about Rae’s unhealthy work-life balance, it was the broken promise that was the problem. He hadn’t meant to, just when Enderian gave him the heaviest stack of papers he had slugged back to his office all week, it had slipped his mind to call for a raincheck.
He gathered his things as fast as his still groggy body would collect them, and by 2:20 he was out the office door in an instant.
Time seemed to pass slower in the elevator, even slower on the street. Rae thought of that one saying Caspian liked to use whenever one of his clients was a little too impatient with him. “A person without patience will be forced to wait that much longer for time to catch up to them.”. It was a silly saying, one he probably made up, but he would say it in such a way where the client would freeze wherever they were standing and huff back into their seat, exasperated.
Caspian always loved that part.
Rae took a breath, a small hole being poked into his stomach at the thought of his partner, before the familiar walls of his home seemed to pop into view in front of him like magic. He sent a quick thanks to the stars, an I love you to Caspian, and stepped hastily towards his front door.
The door creaked slowly on its weathered hinges, Rae cursing under his breath at the noise. As silently as he could, he stepped inside, closing the door swiftly behind him with a soft click. The little home was dark, all the lights turned off for this time of night.
No one was awake at this hour, except for him.
Or so he thought.
Suddenly, the living room was flooded with light, illuminating Rae’s slunking figure, the lamp from which the light came from nestled next to an obscenely large rocking chair, with a certain pink haired occupant sitting comfortably within it.
“Hey Doc” Athena said, almost too sinister for their taste.
“Oh–hey Athena!” Rae responded, trying and failing to be casual.
“It’s almost 3 am, where have you been?” The teen laced a sickening innocence to their tone, making Rae feel like he was thrown into a fucking horror movie.
“I uh..” despite how awkward he felt, being interrogated in his own living room, he wanted to prolong the inevitable just a little longer. “How’s Sherbert?”
“They’re asleep, Doc. Came home late today from wherever the hell they’ve been relocated to. I tried to talk to them, get them to eat something, but they seemed..distant.” Athena’s sinister tone retreated minutely at this, a sadness replacing it, for just a moment. Then it came right back in full swing- “But let’s not avoid the subject at hand, Doc. Where have you been?”
Rae sighed, finally accepting the consequences of his terrible self preservation. “I’ve been at work, Mom—Enderian” he corrected “gave me a shit ton more files to sift through. I lost track of time, I’m sorry Athena.”
“You promised.”
“I know I did.”
“I wanted to visit Jamie.”
“I know you did”
“I wanted to see my parent, you and Sherbert when you weren’t all physically and emotionally exhausted from your stupid jobs at that stupid agency.”
“I know, Athena.”
They paused, taking Rae in one inch, one molecule at a time.
“You lost track of time?”
“Uh–yeah–yeah I–”
“You swear it was because of Enderian?”
“I swear, I wanted to call but she’s been practically snapping my arm this week with the workload–”
“Okay.” Athena said simply.
“W-what?”
“Okay. If you had an excuse, which clearly you do, and you meant to call but it was out of your control, then it’s fine. We can figure out another day.” He said, finally allowing a loving smile to replace their furrowed brows. Rae was still trying to process everything before Athena was on her feet, making their way over to him, and hugging him as tight as they could.
Rae hugged back just as tight.
“Thank you, Athena. I’m going to make it up to you.”
“I know you will.” She spoke, only moving their head enough to look up at Rae with their chin leaning on his chest. “But for now, you need to get some rest, you seem drained.” As Athena said this, the wave of adrenaline he had gained while making his way home flew out of him, as his foggy mind returned with full force, as if it had never left.
Athena led him back to his room, after allowing him a quick peek into Sherbert’s room to make sure they were just as Athena said they were. He plopped down onto his very comfortable bed, bid a goodnight to Athena, and drifted into a dreamless sleep.
— — —
Rae awoke the next morning to a quiet tinkering from what he guessed was the kitchen.
He moved his heavy limbs clumsily from the bed, feeling a little less than well rested—but anything was good enough to him—and sat on the edge of his mattress for a moment.
Before he could do much else, he registered somewhere in his mind that he had gone to bed still in his work clothes, but at this point, he didn’t really care. Instead, he twitched his ears up in an attempt to zone-in on the sounds emanating from the kitchen. A small clink of glasses hitting something solid, the fridge opening and closing almost rhythmically, and small feet pattering around the different areas of the room, searching for something.
A short smile curved into his mouth, as he stood from his practically perched position on the bed, allowing a soft crick in his neck to break free. He shook his shoulders slightly, regaining full body awareness as he stretched out the remnants of rest, and headed for his bedroom door.
As he strolled slowly down the hall of rooms within his little home, he mentally checked each one. Bathroom, empty. Closet, closed. Sherbert’s room, occupied. Athena’s room, door wide open.
Just as he registered who was dancing around in the kitchen, his suspicions were confirmed as he saw a bright pink head of hair bouncing from place to place. He looked down to see Athena’s socks of the day; blazing red for this morning.
He made his way to the circular kitchen table, taking his usual seat at the—what Athena lovingly called—’head’ of the table. “Morning Rae!” The teen in question called happily from the stove, some form of toast simmering nicely in a pan.
He noted three place settings put in specific spots around him, the glasses next to them and the cutlery next to that. “Athena? What is all this?” Rae asked curiously.
“Breakfast!” He responded playfully, spinning around for a moment to face him. “I figured since you and Sherbert have the morning off, I’d make it special!”
Rae took a moment to process Athena’s words. Right, the heads of ‘F.A.N.E’ had a meeting to check in with their overseas operative today, so employees had the morning off to wait for assignments. How could he forget?
“Oh..Athena, you really didn’t have to-” Rae started, the sweetness of the gesture fully sweeping over him. “Uh-uh, no way. You, Doc, are not refusing my fresh and lovingly made french toast! Not today!”
“What is Rae being too kind to say yes to this time?”
Both occupants in the kitchen whirled around to meet the new voice.
Sherbert walked tiredly into the room, grinning slightly at the pair. “Morning Sherb! Rae’s not going to take my special breakfast I made for you two today, just out of the goodness of my heart!” Athena said, dramatically throwing their free hand over her forehead, showing their bright smile clear as day underneath it.
“Rae, how could you?” Sherbert reacted, taking the seat to the right of Rae, the grin twitching up slightly at the teen's overdramatics. Rae chuckled at this show of affection, before adding in a quieter voice, “Did we wake you?”. He spared a quick glance at the minor eye-bags under the others heterochromatic eyes, though one was hidden by a steady flow of impossible blood–It seemed their bandaid had fallen off during the night. Without his consent, his eyes darted for just a moment down to their neck then back up to them.
Rae twinged inwardly at himself, for making his worry so obvious.
“A little, but it’s fine, I wasn’t sleeping great anyway.” They responded, rubbing the exact spot on their neck Rae had just looked at moments before. “Nightmares? Athena said you were..distant when you got home?” he questioned.
“I saw Momboo yesterday.” was all Sherbert gave. That was all Rae needed to fill in the blanks. The pair had been having…a rough time after the incident, to say the least. “Did you talk to her?” he asked, trying to make it very clear they didn’t need to answer just by the tone in his voice.
“A little, she asked how I was doing with the new position and stuff, I told her it was…fine.” they added with a sigh. “It was just—”
“A lot?” Rae finished for them.
“Yeah.” Sherbert nodded slightly, hands finally coming down to rest on the table. Rae noted a small red spot from where they had been rubbing—or perhaps picking—on their neck.
Before either could continue their conversation further, Athena placed two plates filled to the brim with toast coated in syrup. “Ta-Da! Please enjoy your meals, courtesy of the one and only, Athena!” She said proudly, the bright, toothy smile having never left his face.
“Thanks Athena, these look awesome.” Sherbert praised, as a tiny, almost forced, twinkle of light sprang up into their eyes. An attempt to hide the tiredness from the other, Rae guessed. He gave Athena a nod in appreciation, before she turned to gather her own plate.
Sherbert stood, making their way to the fridge to grab some kind of drink, before Athena stopped loading their plate quickly, precisely yet carelessly dropping his plate right on the counter.
“Sherb–wait! I brought out the orange juice, just for this! Don’t worry Doc, I picked up some coffee from the cafe down the street for you!” As Athena said this, she lifted the large jug of orange juice from the corner of the counter, following with the small cup of coffee in the other hand—a miniature mug design could be seen, drawn neatly into the paper folds of the cup.
They placed both on the table neatly, brandishing their handy work swiftly with her arms.
Eventually, everyone was seated, digging into their separate portions of toast, pleasant conversation flowing easily between them. Discussions of the day ahead, plans for visiting the office and a certain bear friend, complaints of annoying clients and coworkers, just about anything any of them could talk about was met with sounds of agreement and laughter.
As Rae began gathering finished, slightly sticky, plates, He spared a look across to the table. He noticed a far off look in Sherbert’s eyes, the conversation having ended leaving them to their own thoughts, he supposed.
He tried to pay no mind, instead moving to help Athena tidy the chaotic clutter he had amassed around the kitchen in their effort for breakfast.
He wanted to give them a moment to collect their thoughts, maybe. He also needed to help Athena learn about organisation while baking.
He tried to leave them alone, he gave them space while he murmured quiet conversation with Athena, until suddenly the other stood from their seat, now with wide eyes a little too aware of everything going on around them.
“Sherbert?” Rae asked his cousin cautiously, placing down his just dried dish, stepping forward slowly, as Athena watched from the sink, hands drenched in water.
“Uh-I um–” They started, their hand snapping back up to their neck again, rubbing absentmindedly. “I’m gonna head to the bathroom real quick. I’ll uh-be right back.” And before they had even finished their thought, they took off towards the direction of the hall.
The pair left in the kitchen heard the quiet click of the door shutting behind them, as Rae turned to face Athena.
“Was it..was it the bug again?”
“No..I don’t think so Athena..”
“But they started rubbing their neck—”
“I know..but..but we turned that off. It’s probably something else, they saw Momboo yesterday, that could still be bothering them.”
…
“What if it started working again?”
“It hasn’t. It won’t.”
“You don’t know that for sure..”
“I trust Seven’s knowledge, and Momboo’s skills. They’re okay.”
“They looked really freaked out, Rae.”
“I know, Athena. I’ll…I’ll go check on them.”
“Okay..what do you—”
“Stay here, just..would you mind finishing the dishes on your own?”
“Ye–yeah..yeah that’s fine Rae.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
And Rae followed Sherbert towards the bathroom door, a very nervous Athena being left at the sink.
The loving breakfast forgotten, the morning lost.
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