Sunny woke up first.
The cabin was still dim, the only light coming from the soft glow of early dawn filtering through the porthole. The ship rocked beneath them with its slow, patient rhythm a sound he had come to associate, over the last several hours, with something close to peace.
He turned his head slightly.
Nephis was still asleep, curled against his side, her head resting on his chest. Her breathing was quiet and even, her face relaxed in the specific way it never quite was when she was awake without the composed vigilance, without the steady readiness she wore like a second skin. A few strands of silver hair had fallen across her cheek. The morning light made her look almost luminous.
He couldn't stop looking at her.
This was real. She was here. In his arms. In his bed. After everything the years of silence, the anger, the misunderstandings, the Bond, the voice that had worn his face she was simply here, breathing slowly against his chest.
A quiet warmth spread through him that he didn't try to name. He could get used to this. He thought that with the flat, certainty of someone who has already accepted a fact without declaring it.
He didn't know how long he stayed like that, simply watching her. Memorizing the way her lashes rested against her cheeks. The slight parting of her lips. The way her hand curled lightly against his shirt as if even in sleep she didn't want to let go.
Then Nephis stirred.
Her eyes fluttered open, still heavy with sleep, and when they found his immediately, without searching, as if she already knew exactly where he was a small, drowsy smile curved her lips.
"…Are you going to stare at me for much longer?"
Her voice was soft and slightly raspy, the particular voice of someone who had slept deeply and was not entirely back yet.
Sunny didn't hesitate.
"I'd like to," he admitted. "If you'd let me."
She let out a small huff of amusement, but the smile widened a fraction. She shifted still pressed against him, in no particular hurry to create any distance and tilted her head to look at him properly.
"Do you still love me?" she asked. Half teasing. Half something more genuine than teasing.
Sunny closed his eyes for exactly one second.
"Damn it, Neph. You're really going to ask me that first thing in the morning?"
She didn't answer. She just waited, watching him with that calm, expectant patience that had always made his chest feel slightly too tight.
He sighed.
"Yes. Obviously I still love you."
Her smile grew softer. More genuine. The kind that arrived without planning, that he suspected she hadn't entirely meant to show him.
She leaned in closer, pressing against him, and buried her face in the crook of his neck. He felt the warmth of her breath against his skin.
His hand came up to rest gently on her back, moving in slow, automatic circles.
"Don't you have the decency to say it back at least?" he asked, voice low and slightly resigned.
Nephis was silent for a heartbeat. Then she murmured against his skin, barely above a whisper:
"Do I look like the type of girl who would sleep on and with just anyone?"
Sunny let out a small, frustrated sound.
"You don't but you're really going to make me work for it?"
She lifted her head just enough to look at him, eyes sparkling with quiet amusement the specific amusement of someone who has discovered they enjoy a particular power and intends to use it with great restraint and great deliberateness.
"So," she said, "every time you say you love me, you're going to force me to say it back?"
Sunny's thumb continued its slow path along her spine.
"Yeah. At least when you force an answer out of me." He looked at her steadily. "I'm all about fairness, I told you."
Nephis's smile widened just a fraction. Soft. Teasing.
"Greedy…" she said. "But alright."
She tilted her head, and let her lips brush the shell of his ear for a moment before saying, softly:
"I love you too, Sunny."
The words, whispered that close, sent a visible shiver down his spine. Her breath was warm against his skin. Her voice carried an intimacy that felt almost criminal. He had to close his eyes for a second, fighting the sudden rush of heat through him.
This should be illegal, he thought.
This version of her soft, unhurried, whispering love into his ear like it was the most natural thing in the world was something only he would ever see. No one else would know how gentle she could be. How her composure could simply dissolve when it was just the two of them.
He was going to treasure that. Thoroughly.
She lingered for a moment longer, forehead resting lightly against his, breathing him in.
Then, with the quiet certainty of someone who has a schedule and keeps to it regardless of circumstances, she slowly sat up and shifted toward the edge of the bed.
"I'm going to train."
She said it the way other people said it's Tuesday as a plain fact requiring no particular explanation.
Sunny blinked, still half-lost.
"…Are you serious?"
She was already standing, stretching her arms above her head with the effortless grace she brought to everything. She looked over her shoulder at him with genuine puzzlement at his expression.
"Yes? It's my routine."
Sunny stared at her.
The thought was very loud in his head and he did not say it out loud: We just woke up together for the first time and she is getting out of bed to train.
Nephis paused at the door, studying his expression for a moment. She tilted her head slightly, reading him with that particular attention she reserved for things she had decided to actually understand.
"…I see," she said. "You can come, if you want to train together."
Sunny let out a long, deeply defeated sigh.
"…Yeah. Why not."
It wasn't what he had wanted. Not even close. But one step at a time, he supposed..
A little while later, they stood on the empty deck of the Chain Breaker.
The morning air was cool and fresh. The ship was quiet only the gentle creak of wood, the distant rhythm of the current, the first pale gold of dawn beginning to warm the horizon. No one else was around. Cassie, Effie, and Jet were elsewhere on the ship, still asleep or occupied with other things. For once, the world outside the cabin felt like it belonged only to the two of them.
They trained lightly. No Aspects. No full power. No fierce clashes or real intent to wound. Just controlled movements with their swords slow, deliberate exchanges that gradually grew a little faster, a little sharper, as their bodies slowly remembered themselves.
Even so, it was far from intense.
Every few exchanges, when their blades crossed and they found themselves face to face, bodies close enough to feel the warmth radiating from each other they simply stopped. Neither attacked. They stayed there, breathing the same air, eyes locked for a few long, heavy seconds. Time stretched. Then, almost reluctantly, one of them would step back, and the dance would resume.
Sunny kept catching himself watching the wrong things. The way the morning light moved through her silver hair. The subtle shift of her stance as she pivoted. The exact angle of her wrist when she committed to a thrust that she already knew he would parry.
He'd trained with her enough times to know every pattern.
He'd apparently spent considerably more time than he'd admitted looking at things that had nothing to do with her attack pattern.
Nephis, for her part, found her gaze drifting to the line of his shoulders more than once when it should have been tracking his blade. The way a few dark strands fell across his forehead when he turned. The slight tension in his jaw when he was pretending not to be thinking about something.
She forced herself back to his sword. More than once.
They were both still half-inside the world in the cabin. The warmth of it, the quiet of it, the particular intimacy of waking up like that it refused to fully dissolve in the morning air. It simply moved with them, settling in the pauses between their movements.
But they kept training.
One step at a time.
The sun had climbed higher, warming the deck with unhurried gold, before they fully noticed that any time had passed. They were still caught in their rhythm blades crossed, bodies close, breath evening out after a sequence of sharper exchanges when the moment dissolved.
"Are you gonna kiss or what?"
Both of them turned at the same time.
Effie was leaning against the railing a few meters away, arms crossed, wearing the largest and most openly satisfied grin in her considerable arsenal. Her eyes sparkled with the specific delight of someone who has been watching something for a while and has been rewarded for her patience.
Sunny's Flaw activated before he could make any editorial decision about it.
"No," he said flatly, exasperatedly, with the force of a man stating something self-evident.
Then, because the morning had apparently lowered his better judgment along with his defenses, he brought his hand up to his mouth in a gesture of wiping sweat from his forehead and muttered low enough that only Nephis could hear:
"I'm not a pervert like her…"
Nephis turned to look at him.
The look on her face was extraordinary a precise mixture of disbelief, genuine amusement, and something that was moving steadily and unmistakably in the direction of offense. She had kissed him. Twice. She had climbed into his lap and pressed her lips to his forehead. She had wrapped her arms around him and hidden her face in his shoulder.
And he had just called her, pervert.
She studied him with that calm, silver-eyed gaze that always made him feel like the deck of the ship had gotten slightly smaller.
Effie, who had caught the look with the precision of a woman who had survived the Dream Realm and knew how to read a battlefield, burst out laughing loud, unrestrained, delighted.
"You seem displeased by his answer, princess!"
Nephis's voice was perfectly calm.
"I am not."
Inside, however, a quiet thought had already settled clean and certain, with the quality of a decision rather than an impulse.
She was going to make him want to kiss her first. Next time. She was going to find out who folded first between them. And even if she ended up being the one who gave in she decided, privately that wouldn't be so terrible either.
A very small, very precise smile touched the corner of her lips.
Effie shrugged with great theatrical satisfaction.
"Well, I'll let you two lovebirds off the hook for now. And unless you were about to start sweating in a much more horizontal and intimate way, which, let's be honest, you both look like you want to… Jet's got breakfast ready!"
She gave them one final, spectacular wink and turned on her heel, walking away with the boasting of someone who has achieved exactly what she set out to achieve.
The deck went quiet again.
Sunny and Nephis stood still for a moment, blades still loosely in hand. Then, almost simultaneously, they dismissed their memories with a faint shimmer of light.
Sunny summoned the [Endless Spring]. The beautiful patterned blue glass bottle appeared in his hand, and he offered it to Nephis first without comment. She accepted it, took a few sips, and handed it back. He drank deeply, trying to cool something that had nothing to do with the training.
"So," he said, after a moment, his voice still a little rough, "how long do you think it'll take before they figure it out and start roasting us?"
Nephis's eyes met his calmly over the middle distance.
"Certainly during the first few minutes of breakfast," she said, "if you keep looking at me like that."
Sunny nearly choked on his water. He coughed, wiped his mouth, and shot her a half-serious glare.
"You can talk. You think you were being discreet during all of our fight? The way you were staring at me…"
Nephis raised one elegant eyebrow.
"What about you? You were doing the exact same thing."
Sunny opened his mouth. Closed it. The words I wasn't formed themselves and dissolved immediately his Flaw refusing to let the lie take shape. He let out a frustrated breath, ears distinctly warm.
"…Fine. I did look. But you started it first!" The truth came out with the specific exasperation of something forced from him against his will. "You kept losing concentration and staring at me. I only did the same because you started!"
Nephis tilted her head. The small, satisfied smile had returned.
"So it's my fault now?" she said. "You probably just didn't realize you started first. And for someone who spent the entire morning watching me sleep you're hardly in a position to complain."
Sunny's eyes widened.
"Probably? But this and that are different!"
Nephis's smile grew a shade sharper, a shade more dangerous.
"So you're admitting that you prefer watching me sleep rather than training with me?" She tilted her head just slightly. "That's a rather strange way of asking me to sleep with you again."
A beat passed.
Then something shifted in Sunny's expression the exasperation burned through into something sharper. Confidence. Almost predatory in a way that was new enough to catch her attention.
"I'm not admitting anything," he said, his voice taking on an edge she hadn't heard before bold, challenging, entirely deliberate. "And I'm not falling for that trap twice in a row. You already used that once. If you actually want to come to my room at night, just say it clearly this time. Considering what you showed me last night, you're the eager one here, not me. So stop hiding behind your little games and be direct for once."
Nephis stopped mid-step.
Sunny didn't let up.
"What's the matter?" he continued, a small, smug smirk tugging at his lips. "Cat got your tongue? Or are you scared I'll actually say yes, and give you what you want, if you ask properly?"
He's… really bold.
She hadn't expected that. He had pushed back, cleanly and aggressively, without flinching and there was something in the specific confidence of it, the way he had refused to cede ground, that she found herself reluctantly impressed by. Breaking him down was going to be considerably harder than she had anticipated.
That realization, she found, only made her more interested.
She gave a soft, amused huff, reassembling her usual composure with practiced ease.
"You really are full of yourself."
Inside, the thought was clear and quiet: This might be more fun than I expected.
She turned toward the stairs leading below deck and glanced back over her shoulder, her voice steady.
"And we're going to be late for breakfast if you keep arguing."
When they arrived in the small dining area, they were indeed a little late.
Effie was already seated, a plate in front of her that left little to the imagination about her opinion of Jet's cooking. The moment she saw them, her grin turned professionally wicked.
"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to show up~" She waved her fork at them with theatrical ceremony. "What took you two so long, hmm? Did my little suggestion give you any… ideas?"
Sunny had the specific expression of a man settling in for a long siege.
"No, and I already pity your future child," he muttered. "Growing up with a mother as shameless as you."
Effie burst out laughing, nearly losing her food in the process.
"Oi! Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I can't still reach across this table and smack you!"
"No thanks," Sunny replied, raising both hands. "I'd rather keep my face intact."
His gaze drifted then to Jet, who was standing near the small counter in a simple, practical cooking apron. It wasn't particularly notable just a plain apron, entirely functional. But the sight of Soul Reaper Jet, usually so precisely battle-ready, in something so utterly domestic was disorienting in a way he hadn't braced for.
He hadn't been expecting that at all.
Nephis noticed exactly where his eyes went.
Without a word, she stepped closer and with the surgical precision of someone who has identified a target and committed to the engagement, brought her foot down on his, hard enough to make a point, subtle enough that no one else would see it.
Sunny produced a small, involuntary sound of surprise.
Jet turned around.
"What?"
"I just didn't expect to see you cooking. That's all." Sunny said, impressively casually.
Jet let out a soft laugh, wiping her hands on the apron.
"You do know I can cook. It's nothing high cuisine, and we're not exactly dining at the Valor table or something."
Her gaze dipped briefly to her apron, then flicked back to Sunny.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Then a small, knowing smile curved her lips one that made it perfectly clear she had understood exactly what had prompted his reaction… and was choosing, generously, to let him get away with it this time.
Sunny caught that look and felt a quiet surge of gratitude. He knew exactly what she was doing, and he wasn't about to take that mercy for granted.
Effie nodded enthusiastically.
"She's actually really good!"
Sunny shrugged, working to recover his equilibrium.
"No offense Jet, but Effie—" he looked at her, "—as long as it's edible, you probably wouldn't notice the difference."
Effie pointed her fork at him with great conviction.
"You keep talking like that and I will make you see the difference."
Nephis said nothing. She sat down, folded her hands, and looked at the table with the specific expression of someone choosing to let a situation develop at its own pace. But the quiet flicker of irritation behind her eyes had not entirely subsided.
Sunny hesitated for half a second at the table. There was plenty of space. Sitting next to Nephis would have been the most natural thing considering what hey were now… but something in him made him choose otherwise.
So he walked around the table and sat down next to Jet.
It wasn't a calculated choice. They were both from the Outskirts. They survived Antarctica, the fall of Falcon Scott, the desperate retreat, the endless loops where he had watched her die over and over again while carrying the weight of it all alone. Sitting beside her now felt familiar in that quiet, comforting way shared survival always did.
He hadn't even thought about it. Not really.
And he was smiling before he even realized he was doing it.
Nephis noticed immediately.
This was the second time since breakfast began that he had not ignored her, exactly, but simply not looked her way. Her expression remained perfectly composed. The irritation behind it was considerably less composed.
She now had the seat directly across from him. Effie to her left. Sunny in front with Jet to his right. The arrangement placed him squarely in her line of sight, which was the most convenient spot for what she had in mind.
Sunny looked around.
"Where's Cassie by the way?"
Jet set down a plate.
"She stayed at the helm all night to keep the Chain Breaker steady. She said she'd find a stable spot to anchor before joining us."
Sunny nodded and raised his hand. Saint materialized from a swirl of shadow, the towering Onyx Saint, silent as always appeared and looked directly at her master.
"Saint," he said, with the particular courtesy he always used with her, "could you please go relieve Cassie at the helm? Or simply keep watch over the Chain Breaker while we eat, if she's done?"
Saint gave a single, respectful nod and departed without a sound.
Sunny gave her a small "Thanks." but she didn't seem interested in it.
Effie immediately burst out laughing, nearly losing her food for the second time.
"Wow, look at you. You really are used to ordering women around, huh~?"
Sunny sighed from somewhere deep within himself.
"Ah? Where that come from? I asked politely. And I respect Saint. Without her, I wouldn't have survived Antarctica. Or most of my significant battles, really."
Jet smiled softly as she brought another plate to the table, then finally sat down.
"He's right. She saved us multiples times after the fall of Falcon Scott. She didn't earned the title of 'Guardian Angel of Antarctica' among the survivors from nothing. She's quite remarkable and quite likable."
Effie leaned forward, eyes sparkling.
"She makes quite the pair with the Devil of Antarctica. I've heard the rumors. Anything to say in your defense, Mister Devil?"
Sunny pressed two fingers to his temple.
"Their is nothing between me and Saint. Respect and gratitude. That is all."
Effie tilted her head, a shark scenting the blood of her future victim in the water.
"Have you ever seen her without her mask?"
Jet, setting down a cup: "I'm curious too, actually."
Sunny exhaled slowly.
"…Yes."
Both women stared at him. The table had gone quiet with the specific quiet of people who have decided something interesting is about to happen.
"What?" he asked, already knowing.
Effie leaned in.
"Are you dumb? How is she?"
Sunny looked at the ceiling briefly, as if asking it for patience it declined to provide.
"Not as dumb as you, that's for sure but she's beautiful. Flawlessly alluring."
The moment the words left his mouth, Nephis discreetly crushed his foot under the table, again and harder than before.
Sunny winced. He managed barely not to make a sound. He added, immediately:
"But before you get any ideas. Nether, that Daemons created the Stone Saint based on the Storm Goddess. That guy was a huge fanatic. "
Effie leveled her fork at him.
"Makes sense. Having the face of a goddess explains beautiful. But keep acting clever with me and I'm going to smash your face in."
Nephis, still calmly addressing her plate, added without looking up:
"You probably should."
Effie's delight was immediate and total.
"Oh! I have the princess's permission now~ You'd better watch yourself, Sunny. Start showing some respect."
Sunny looked at Effie flatly.
"Then stop poking at me. It might be entertaining for you since you have nothing to hide, but not everyone here can or wants to speak as freely as you do."
Jet, setting down the last plate, gave a small nod.
"He's right. His life is not exactly peaceful. He has his secrets but it was entertaining watching him manage them in Antarctica."
Effie turned toward Jet with genuine interest.
"You're not surprised about his Flaw?"
Sunny let out a flat sound.
"By all means, keep discussing me and my Flaw as if I'm not right here."
Jet smiled faintly in his direction before answering.
"You don't need to be particularly perceptive to notice. Anyone who spends enough time with him figures it out. I spent quite a while with him in Antarctica… and even before that." She paused, her voice softening just a fraction. "When you're both from the Outskirts, you look out for each other. I favored him from the beginning. Turns out I wasn't wrong."
Under the table, for the third time and with a force that suggested she had been conserving effort for this precise moment, Nephis found his foot.
Sunny let out a sharp, involuntary hiss. His body jerked slightly forward. Every head at the table turned.
He straightened immediately, reaching for his glass.
"…Ate too fast," he muttered, and took a long, deliberate drink.
When he set the glass down, he turned his head very slowly, very carefully toward Nephis.
The question in his eyes was clear and entirely silent.
What is your problem?
Nephis met his gaze without expression. Her silver eyes were perfectly composed. The message in them was also clear and entirely silent.
Guess.
They stared at each other across the table while the conversation continued around them a private standoff, conducted in absolute silence, while Effie and Jet discussed something neither of them were tracking. Sunny's mind was working through the sequence of events with growing irritation. He had answered questions he'd had no choice but to answer honestly because that was the nature of his Flaw. He had looked at Jet because she was standing there and they had been through things together. He had said Saint was beautiful because Saint was beautiful, and because the truth had presented itself and he had no mechanism to decline it.
And he was apparently being penalized for all three.
Was this was this what being with someone was like? He was not asking this with contempt. He was asking it with the genuine bewilderment of a person who had never navigated this before and was discovering, in real time, that the map he had assumed existed was either incomplete or entirely fictional.
One moment she was whispering I love you against his ear with the precise tone of someone dismantling him gently on purpose. The next she was conducting targeted operations on his foot under the table with the focus of a woman who has identified a problem and decided to solve it repeatedly.
He kept staring at her.
Nephis didn't look away. Her expression remained composed. Her eyes said, with considerable clarity:
You know exactly what you did.
Sunny exhaled through his nose, quietly, with the resignation of someone who has lost an argument they haven't technically begun yet.
This, he thought, is going to be a very long breakfast.
Effie leaned back in her chair, still chewing, her eyes carrying the particular brightness of a woman who has decided to open a new front.
"There's probably going to be a movie about Antarctica eventually, right?"
Jet nodded while pouring herself water.
"Definitely. The government loves to document its own success stories by using propaganda. And Antarctica has too much material to ignore especially regarding our local Devil." She gave Sunny a brief, meaningful look. "His reputation and his actual record are considerably more impressive than what the public rumors suggest."
Sunny mentally prepared himself.
He tried, quickly and discreetly, to catch Nephis's eye some silent request for a tactical diversion, for assistance, for literally anything.
Nephis calmly cut a piece of food and paid him no visible attention whatsoever.
He sighed.
"If you could not start that topic, I'd appreciate it," he said to Jet. "I'm not exactly proud of my campaign as whole. I had some pretty crushing failures. Which costed a lot of lives."
Jet looked at him for a moment, and when she spoke the teasing was entirely absent from her voice.
"You should be proud of yourself, Sunny. Surviving it, protecting people the way you did as an Ascended, no less. It wasn't nothing. You did more than most people could have managed. And you saved my life and many others. I mean that."
No irony. No edge. Just sincerity, given quietly and without expectation.
Sunny found himself momentarily unable to find his footing in the conversation. He couldn't deflect. He couldn't joke his way around it. He was unfortunately not saved by Effie, who had been waiting with the patience of a hunting bird.
"When the movie comes out," she said brightly, "you should go see it with Saint!"
What the fuck… How?!Why is she going straight for the throat like that?!
Sunny's expression conveyed, with eloquence, that he had been ambushed.
"No thanks!" he said immediately, a little too loudly. "For nothing in this world do I want to be forced to answer questions about that in public. That would be a public execution. I would be surrounded by questions I cannot answer evasively. So absolutely not."
He tried to change the subject quickly, giving a longer, more elaborate answer to steer the conversation away. Explaining as he did with Nephis that the idea was a disaster, going in and answering questions would be is doom.
What is her problem, he thought again.
Jet tilted her head thoughtfully.
"Then how much would it take, in contribution points, for you to actually go?"
Sunny exhaled with visible relief at the change of angle.
"The government's pockets aren't deep enough for my greed. I'll have you know that my greed truly knows no bounds."
Effie grinned like something had gone exactly according to plan.
"So what if someone accompanied you? Or… motivated you?"
Sunny closed his eyes for one second.
Oh for spell's sake…
Why did Effie have a brain that worked exactly like this?
She always knew exactly where to poke.
He breathed. He took stock of what he still controlled. He leaned back in his chair.
"I know exactly what you're thinking," he said, looking straight at Effie. "I can absolutely imagine going with someone, to see that film under the right circumstances. But you would spend the entire time making fun of me the same way you did with A Song of Light and Darkness. So if I'm going, we're wearing cosmetic memories, or renting a private screening room, or both. Non-negotiable."
Effie threw her hands up dramatically.
"You are no fun at all!"
She narrowed her eyes, the calculation behind them entirely visible to anyone paying attention.
"But you still haven't answered the important part. Who are you taking?"
Sunny ran through his options in approximately one second.
Jet, inviting another woman in front of Nephis was clearly already a documented hazard. Effie not in any universe. Cassie, the thought didn't even form in his head. Nephis, obviously, yes, and obviously it was not something he was going to say out loud in front of everyone at this table before they had agreed on anything.
He looked directly at Effie with all the satisfaction of a man who has found an exit.
"Kai."
The name landed cleanly and without hesitation.
Under the table, Nephis moved and for the first time, Sunny was ready. He had, at some point in the last several minutes, activated [Shadow Sense] with one sole intention, with the quiet practicality of someone who has identified a repeating threat and decided to address it with appropriate preparation. He shifted his leg at the last possible moment, with surgical precision, and her foot met nothing.
The look she gave him across the table was sharp enough to cut glass.
He met it with an expression of genuine, entirely performed innocence.
Effie burst out laughing.
"Wow. You've got three beautiful women sitting at this table right now, four counting Saint, five counting Cassie and you'd rather go see your own film with a man?"
"Yes," Sunny said, with absolute sincerity. "Kai is my best friend. What is strange about that? Girls prefer going out with other girls all the time."
Effie raised an eyebrow, the grin still very much in place.
"Maybe. But what are you going to do about the princess over there?" She tilted her head toward Nephis with great delight. "Don't think I missed the look she just gave you."
"That's not my problem. If she has an issue, she can say it clearly. I don't see what I did wrong."
Effie's grin widened, almost glowing with happiness.
"Maybe she wanted you to invite her?"
Sunny stared at her for a second.
Fuck it.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Sunny turned his head and met Nephis's gaze directly.
He wiped his mouth with a napkin, pushed his chair back, and stood up. Then he looked fully toward Nephis, his posture straight and almost princely. He placed one hand over his heart while extending the other toward her, palm up, in a formal and elegant gesture like a prince asking for his princess's hand.
At that precise moment, Cassie stepped into the dining area without anyone realizing it.
She moved with her usual quiet grace, guided by her prophetic sight, a beautiful blue silk blindfold covering her eyes. Her head was tilted slightly the particular tilt that meant she had already seen more of this scene than she had technically been present for.
"Nephis," he said clearly, his voice carrying across the table without effort, "would you like to go see this movie with me? Just the two of us."
The entire table went silent.
Nephis's fork slipped from her fingers.
It struck the plate with a clear, definitive sound that seemed to fill the entire room.
She stared at him.
Effie's mouth had opened slightly.
Jet had set down her water.
Cassie put her hands on her mouth.
Even the ship seemed to creak more quietly for a moment.
The silence in that moment was not merely the absence of sound it was absolute, dense, and consuming. It stretched unnaturally, pressing in from all sides, as if the world itself had paused and forgotten how to breathe.
Finally, Cassie decided to break the status quo. "Did I arrive at just the right moment, or what?" she said, a knowing smile tugging at her lips.
Sunny's eyes lit up with the relief of a man receiving unexpected air support, from an enemy who had the same target as him.
"I don't know? Effie apparently wanted to see me invite Nephis to see a movie." he explained quickly, gesturing at the table, "so I did."
Cassie tilted her head a little more, the smile deepening.
"So you decided to do it… like that?"
Jet, who had been quietly observing everything with the expression of a woman who has seen a great deal and is adding this to the collection, gave a small chuckle.
"You could have just asked her normally, you know."
Effie, however, had abandoned all pretense of composure. She placed one hand over her heart and extended the other forward, performing Sunny's gesture back at him with theatrical precision.
"He went full prince mode for his princess! Hand on the heart and everything! I thought he was about to kneel and kiss her hand!"
Sunny crossed his arms. His ears were red. He was not going to acknowledge this.
"I'm glad I'm at least entertaining someone. Can we move on?"
Nephis, who had remained quiet through this, looked at him calmly.
"Alright."
The single word cut through the tension like a quiet blade. Everyone turned toward her.
She met Sunny's gaze across the table, her expression steady, a faint trace of amusement and something else hidden behind her usual elegance.
Sunny stared at Nephis, his brain momentarily short-circuiting.
What the hell is this?
Yes, he had proposed it. Yes, it was his fault. Yes, theoretically it was a good idea.
Yes, it would help bring their relationship forward in a somewhat normal way… but really?
What was he supposed to say now?
If Nephis had answered, she must have some kind of plan, right?
He swallowed hard and repeated, a little awkwardly:
"…Alright?"
Nephis looked at him calmly, her silver eyes steady and composed.
"Yes," she said softly. "I accept going on a date with you."
Sunny blinked.
"Date?"
Nephis tilted her head.
"You look like you don't understand. But what else would you call it? Two people of the opposite sexes, one inviting the other… and doing it like that—" she added with a faint, almost teasing note, "If this isn't a date, then I don't know what is."
Sunny paused. Exhaled slowly.
"…Yeah. It's a date, then."
He sat back down, working very hard at something casual-looking, though his heart was conducting itself with a distinct lack of professionalism.
During the entire exchange, Effie's head had been swiveling back and forth between Sunny and Nephis like she was watching a particularly intense tennis match. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open in genuine shock.
She turned to Jet. Then to Cassie.
"Did I just dream that? Tell me I didn't just dream that."
Jet took a small, composed sip of water.
"Unless I'm dreaming it too no. That genuinely happened."
Cassie's smile had not diminished.
"It happened." she confirmed softly as she finally took her seat next to Nephis.
And yet, both Sunny and Nephis looked way too calm almost relaxed as if they hadn't just had a very public "date invitation" moment in front of everyone.
Effie slammed her palms on the table.
"Why are you both so calm?! Sunny you just asked her out like a prince and she said yes! React, you idiot!"
Sunny blinked at her, appearing genuinely confused.
"It's just a date." He shrugged. "I've known Nephis for years. What's so strange about seing a movie together?"
Effie looked at him like he had said something in a language she didn't speak.
"Do I need to explain to you what a date is?! With Nephis, of all people?! Do you even hear yourself?!"
Sunny leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, looking genuinely puzzled but also a little defensive.
"No, I know. Obviously it's with Nephis. And yes, I can hear myself just fine." He shrugged.
"Besides, why am I the only one who's supposed to react? Why don't you ask Nephis too? I don't see what's so shocking anyways and she was the one who accepted. Sure I invited her but it was you wanted me to go see that movie with someone, right? Mission accomplished. Well done."
Effie, momentarily at a loss, turned to Nephis.
"Okay, why did you accept?"
Nephis set down her fork with quiet composure, looked at Effie, then at Sunny, and said, evenly:
"He asked me. And I didn't want to embarrass him by saying no in front of everyone. That's all."
Sunny's brow drew together.
"…Embarrass me?"
"Obviously." Nephis said.
He leaned forward slightly.
"You really thought I'd be embarrassed if you said no?"
Nephis looked at him with the patience of someone explaining something self-evident.
"I can very easily imagine the scene. Everyone here would have spent the next few days or even weeks reminding you how you made such a grand, theatrical performance… only to receive a flat rejection in front of the whole group. I simply gave you what you wanted, to spare you the humiliation."
Sunny was quiet for exactly one second.
Then a slow, arrogant smirk spread across his face.
"Because you think you're the only girl who would want to go to the cinema with me?"
Nephis looked at him with a flat, measured expression.
"You want to start this argument?"
Sunny's smirk widened.
"Watch me."
Nephis held his gaze, then made a decision with the quiet deliberateness of someone who has identified an opening and intends to use it.
"If you want to go with Saint, feel free. I won't stop you."
Sunny let out a short, amused laugh.
"Please. I wouldn't put her through that." He paused, letting the silence do a little work. "But that doesn't mean I don't have other candidates in mind."
The temperature of Nephis's voice remained perfectly even.
The temperature of her eyes was another matter.
"Oh please, do elaborate."
Sunny leaned back in his chair, apparently very comfortable.
"It's very simple," Sunny continued with a smug smirk. "I don't even need to bring up all the girls you don't know about. I was quite popular in Antarctica, you know? But even if you don't know them, you just have to remember the time before we entered the Third Nightmare. Saint Beastmaster, Song Eunbin explicitly showed interest in me. Right in front of everyone."
Nephis's fingers tightened fractionally around her fork.
Her composure was intact. Her composure was doing significant work to remain intact.
Sunny, who had developed a very particular sensitivity to the specific quality of her stillness over the years, continued.
"And if I wanted a genuine challenge, I could try with Morgan of Valor. She seemed interested in me too. I'll admit she's dangerous and problematic on many levels and she was probably interested in me for different reason… But the point stands." He looked at Nephis with great pleasantness. "I have options. So embarrassing me would have required more than you refusing a cinema invitation."
The silence that settled over the table had a different quality than the silences before it. Everyone else had gone very still, with the collective instinct of people who recognize that something is escalating and have decided to observe rather than intervene.
The air in the cabin had, in fact, grown marginally warmer.
The ambient temperature of Nephis's fire was not entirely unrelated to this.
"Go ahead, then," Nephis said. Her voice was soft. Entirely controlled. "Do it, if you dare."
Sunny hesitated. He had the distinct feeling he might have pushed a bit too far this time, but he didn't answer right away because she clearly wasn't finished.
Nephis continued, her voice still soft but carrying a dangerous undertone.
"Even though I know perfectly well that you won't."
Sunny felt the distinct sensation of a man who has walked confidently onto a bridge and is beginning to question the structural engineering. But he didn't retreat.
"What makes you so sure I won't?"
Nephis held his gaze for a long moment.
"Do I really need to say it out loud?" she asked quietly. "Here? In front of everyone?"
Sunny felt the specific chill of someone who has just understood that the threat is real and targeted and extremely precise.
She's threatening to use my Flaw against me, he thought. She is literally going to ask me a direct question and let the truth do the rest.
Right here. Right now.
He did not retreat. He was not built for retreat. A sharp, bright smile curved his lips.
"Oh, go ahead," he replied, his voice dropping to something lower, more deliberate. "In front of everyone. Show us that the magnificent Changing Star needs to use someone else's Flaw just to win a conversation, just to hope to win a verbal fight. But isn't that a little… pitiful? I expected better from you."
The compliment slipped through the insult without him planning it. Magnificent. Said with the ease of something that was simply true, not deployed for effect.
Nephis's eyes narrowed.
"What's pitiful right now is you," she replied, her voice carrying the particular cool of someone who has identified the target and has no intention of missing. "Parading around using women's names without their knowledge. Objectifying them to make a point."
That one landed cleanly.
Sunny paused. Then exhaled through his nose.
"…Fine. Maybe I went too far. But there's truth in what I said. Early on, I didn't understand when someone was interested in me. I genuinely didn't see the signs. Now I do."
Nephis looked at him with a small, dangerous smile.
"Good for you. But if that's the case why do you seem so defensive? Are you regretting that I might prefer someone else?"
Sunny leaned forward, matching her.
"I'm not. And please, you going out with someone else? Like who, exactly?"
She leaned forward just a fraction. Her voice was perfectly calm.
"Why not Kai? You know I've always admired him. Even if I kept my distance before… I could change that."
Sunny stared at her for one beat.
Then a very specific, very satisfied smile spread across his face.
"I'd love to see that," he said, with genuine warmth. "Please do."
Nephis's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Oh? And why is that?"
Gotcha.
He leaned in, the smile sharpening.
"Why don't you think about it yourself?"
She frowned. Then her eyes widened, fractionally, as the logic arrived.
Sunny's smile reached its full and rather devastating potential.
"Exactly," he said. "The moment you ask him, you're going to have to lie. And Kai my best friend, who thinks of you as someone completely sincere and honest, someone he relies on is going to be hurt. Because you just want to use him. I can already imagine how hurt he'll be… my poor brother. He doesn't deserve that."
Nephis became, very slightly, defensive.
"I was not going to lie."
Sunny tilted his head.
"Then how were you planning to do it?"
He raised his voice a half-measure and produced a remarkably accurate rendition of her composure, her deliberate cadence, her precise diction:
"Please, Kai, I need you to come to the cinema with me to make Sunny regret not choosing me, because I feel so wounded by his lack of attention that I require you to serve as a temporary substitute for the person I actually want to go with, which is him, and if you decline I will have to acknowledge that I was wrong and that I genuinely wanted to go with him all along."
The table was very quiet.
Nephis remained silent, her silver eyes fixed on him with a dangerous calm.
Sunny couldn't help but laugh softly, clearly amused by her lack of immediate comeback.
What is she going to do now? Ask me to explain how I'd ask Eunbin or Morgan out on a date? Ah! Let her try. I'll make it sound so convincing she won't know what hit her.
He kept up the pressure, his smirk widening.
Still her expression was unreadable, in the specific way that her expression was unreadable when she had considered multiple responses and discarded all of them as inadequate.
Sunny kept the pressure on, confident now, momentum fully in his possession.
"You didn't think you could beat me, did you?" His voice was light, almost fond. "I'm the one who taught you how to turn a conversation around. You're still a hundred years from beating me at this."
Nephis looked at him for one long moment.
Then she said, very quietly: "I can shut you up in many ways."
Sunny's first instinct was the Bond and then he dismissed it immediately, with the same clean certainty he had applied to it last night. She wasn't that type of person. He had decided to trust her and the decision held.
So what was she doing?
He found out approximately one second later, when Nephis extended her hand across the table, reached past the space between them, and let her fingers brush gently against his cheek. Her thumb traced the line of his jaw. Then her fingertips moved to the shell of his ear, light as a thought.
Sunny froze completely for a few seconds.
When he came back to himself, he jerked back from his chair and stood up fast enough to topple it behind him.
"I knew it!" he said, pointing at her. "You can't beat me with words, so you go straight for the physical!"
Nephis lowered her hand with perfect composure, looking up at him.
"Actions speak louder than words," she said. "Don't they?"
Effie was barely breathing. Jet had set down everything she was holding. Cassie's smile had achieved a quality that could only be described as deeply, privately amused.
Sunny stared at Nephis.
Something bright and sharp and entirely competitive ignited behind his eyes.
"Sure, but let me show you how it's done, then."
He activated [Shadow Step].
He vanished from his spot and reappeared directly behind her one smooth, silent movement, fast enough that she had no time to turn. He activated [Shadow Manipulation] in the same instant, adding several centimeters to his height with the quiet precision of someone who has thought about this more recently than he would admit.
Nephis turned.
Surprise crossed her face genuine, unguarded, mixed with something that was unmistakably interested.
Sunny was taller than usual. Noticeably. He was looking down at her, which was not a thing that happened. His hand slid to the small of her back firm, confident and drew her toward him. The other hand rose to gently, unhurriedly tilt her chin upward with his fingers.
He leaned in until their faces were inches apart.
"Still think actions speak louder than my tongue ever could?" he said, a smirk pulling at his lips. "Trust me, words aren't the only thing it's good for."
Nephis's breath caught.
For a fraction of a second, she forgot how to move.
There was nothing accidental in his wording; every syllable dripped with implication, the kind that lingered long after the sound had faded. Everyone had realized it.
Her body went rigid not from fear, but from the sudden, overwhelming proximity. Heat surged uninvited, treacherous, coiling low in her chest as her pulse spiked out of control. The way he looked at her steady, intent, almost hungry sent a jolt through her that she couldn't immediately suppress.
This wasn't the Sunny she knew.
Or perhaps it was, stripped of restraint.
For once, the great Changing Star had nothing immediately to say.
And that realization was far more dangerous than it had any right to be.
Her fingers twitched at her side, betraying her composure for the briefest instant. She held his gaze anyway, even as something unfamiliar and unsettling tightened in her chest.
"I don't like this." she said quietly. Steady. The edge clearly present.
Sunny let out a low, amused sound, his hand still at her chin.
"Oh? Why?"
Nephis's eyes narrowed.
"I prefer having the advantage over you. Your normal height suits me quite well, I like it actually. But clearly you feel the need to compensate."
The smirk on his face widened. He dispelled [Shadow Manipulation] instantly, returning to his usual height. He did not step back.
"Fine. Show me what you can do, then." His voice dropped, provocative and very deliberate. "What are you going to do? Throw me to the ground horizontally and make it intimate, like Effie suggested?"
Nephis's eyes widened the specific widening of someone who has registered an implication and is rapidly processing it.
Sunny tilted his head, the smile still entirely in place.
"Be careful. Your intentions are showing."
Nephis opened her mouth.
"And don't try to deny it," he continued, his voice quieter now, carrying just between them despite the absolute silence of everyone else at the table. "Even if the idea is appealing to me too I know exactly which of us is going to gave in first. And it's not going to be me."
Nephis had reached the precise limit of what she was prepared to allow him.
"Maybe I should," she said, her voice very low. "Maybe I should deal with you right here and remind you of your place."
Sunny's eyes lit up with pure, competitive delight.
"There. It. Is. Finally, you decide to be honest about your desires."
Nephis moved.
In one swift motion, she reversed them entirely. Her hand shot up to take his chin firmly, tilting his face up toward her, while her other arm came around his waist and pulled him flush against her body with a decisiveness that left no ambiguity about intent.
Their faces were very close.
"You look like you want this just as much as I do anyways," she murmured, her silver eyes burning into his. "So transparent in your desire too. I can see them. I won't even need to ask for your permission… or give you an order. You'll gladly obey."
Sunny let out a low, breathless sound halfway between a laugh and something less controlled. His hands settled at her hips without conscious decision.
"We really do make quite the pair," he said. His voice was rougher than usual. "Go on. Start. I'll keep my word. But I know which of us is going to lose first. And when you jump on me right here Freaky Star, it'll just prove I was right."
Nephis went perfectly still.
She blinked once.
"…Freaky Star?"
Sunny's grin was entirely unrepentant.
"Yes. Why are you surprised?" He tilted his head. "You play the perfect saint for everyone else, and then you act like this with me. That's your real face showing."
He paused.
"You touched me first. You wanted me. And I want you too, how could I not, when you come at me like that? But you started this. Don't forget that."
Nephis didn't release him. If anything, her grip on his chin tightened slightly, holding his gaze up to hers.
"You can talk," she said quietly, her voice low and dangerously calm. "Do you really think I don't see the way you look at me? Every time I wear something that embraces my curves… or that time in the Ivory Tower when I had an apron on. You think I didn't notice your eyes on me? And yet I don't remember ever actively trying to seduce you at those times."
She didn't quite hear the admission hidden in her own words.
But Sunny did.
He absorbed it with the expression of someone who had just been handed an unexpected, dangerously sweet gift he wasn't sure how to handle yet.
"And what if I do look at you?" he replied, his voice quieter now, the sharp edge of competition softening into something warmer, heavier. "Looking at beautiful things doesn't hurt anyone." He held her gaze without flinching. "And for you to notice that I was looking… you had to be looking too. So you're admitting that you look at me too, aren't you?"
Nephis's lips curved slowly.
"You said it yourself looking at beautiful things isn't a crime. So where's the harm?"
Sunny raised one eyebrow.
"Funny. You started by accusing me of looking at you, but apparently it's perfectly fine when you do it?" He shook his head, mock-disappointed. "You have so much desire built up inside you and no idea how to express it. Fumbling Star."
Nephis blinked.
"…Fumbling Star?"
A soft, surprised laugh left her entirely involuntary. She recovered in an instant, but it had already happened.
"Oh… I see. Your saying that I don't know how to clearly express what I want." Her silver eyes sparkled with a mix of amusement and curiosity. "And yet it's funny, isn't it? You still managed to understand me anyway. How does that work? Strange, don't you think?"
Sunny's smirk softened gradually, without announcement into something warmer. Something that had less to do with winning and more to do with the specific person he was looking at.
"Strange? Funny? No way, someone has to look at you properly, don't they?" he said quietly. "Behind all the perfect manners, the composure, the masks you wear for everyone else… You said it yourself, I watch you. The true you. So of course, after spending so much time thinking about you and looking at you, I ended up understanding you the best. Even when you're terrible at saying what you want… I know it all. It's kind of adorable, really. It doesn't bother me. Because I get it. I get you."
Nephis was silent for a heartbeat.
Her fingers, still against his jaw, had gone very still.
"That's," she said quietly, "touching." A small pause. "You really look at me that much?"
She added, after a moment, with the quiet certainty of someone stating a fact they consider equally important:
"But you shouldn't think it only works one way. I know you just as well. I understand you better than anyone. I am the person who knows you best in the world, Sunny. Two worlds, even."
Sunny looked at her steadily.
"I know that too. So what, am I supposed to be surprised? Or is this your way of making a point?" He tilted his head, a faint teasing note in his voice. "I already know you think about me all the time. I do too. We match, I told you. So why would I pretend restraint, when honesty is far more powerful… and reaches your heart this easily?"
Nephis looked at him for a long moment, her silver eyes softening just a fraction.
"You think you already have access to my heart?"
"Access?" he repeated under his breath, almost as if the word itself fell short.
"No… it's not that. It's more than that, and you know it."
His voice deepened, steadier now despite the way his breath threatened to betray him.
"I'm the one who makes it beat like that I'm the one it answers to, the one it reaches for without you even realizing it. No one else gets that. No one else ever will." The words came out quieter at the end, but sharper, carrying a certainty that bordered on something dangerous. "And I will keep making sure of that fact. Your mine."
For a brief second, his breath caught, but he didn't look away, didn't even try. Nephis took a small step closer instead, closing the distance until it barely existed, her expression unreadable but her eyes unwavering as she absorbed every word, every unguarded piece of him he had just placed in front of her.
"You're right." she said softly, and there was no hesitation in it, no attempt to soften the impact.
"But you're not the only one." Her voice dropped further, quieter but infinitely more deliberate as she held him there with nothing but her gaze. "Because your heart does the same… and whether you admit it or not, I'm the one holding it. I'm the one it turns to, the one it can't seem to pull away from, no matter how much you try to convince yourself otherwise."
She let that linger, let him feel the weight of it before continuing, slower now, each word precise.
"So don't mistake this for something one-sided… because if you have mine, then yours has already been mine for a long time. And by the same certainty I have yours. I'm the only one who should have that right. You need to understand that too."
A small, honest smile pulled at his lips.
"So that's why you were angry earlier," he said. "You were angry at the mere idea of me being with other women who could never compare to you, and would never be able to."
Nephis gave a quiet, exasperated sound.
"Oh, finally you understand? Do you want a medal?"
He shook his head, the smile turning slightly self-deprecating.
"I'm not going to apologize for answering like that back then. But I'm not going to pretend it didn't land wrong either." He looked at her directly. "But why should I want a medal for that? How was I supposed to know all this? I've never felt this for anyone before. You should know that by now. There's no one else. There won't be. You're the only one for me."
Nephis's expression softened the rest of the way.
She leaned in slightly, her voice barely above a whisper, entirely genuine:
"Good. Because you are the only one for me too."
A small, almost imperceptible pause settled between them brief, but complete.
Sunny let out a quiet breath, something easing in his shoulders as he studied her for a moment longer, as if confirming that nothing in her words would be taken back.
"Then I suppose," he said at last, tone lighter now but no less certain, "that means you're agreeing to go on that date with me."
Nephis didn't hesitate.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
Something in his expression sharpened into quiet satisfaction.
"Perfect."
She held his gaze, steady, unwavering.
"Perfect."
The dining area was completely silent.
Effie's fork had been frozen in midair for the last several minutes a considerable achievement for someone who usually ate like she was afraid the food would disappear if she blinked. Jet sat very still, holding her water glass with both hands, her expression carefully neutral in the way of someone deliberately choosing not to interfere… while clearly enjoying every second of the show. Cassie's smile had settled into something small, warm, and entirely unsurprised, yet quietly delighted and fascinated all the same.
Nobody said anything.
Then Effie lowered her fork with great deliberateness, looked around the table at each person present, and said:
"Someone tell me I was not the only one who just watched all of that."
"You're not." Jet said.
"It happened." Cassie confirmed, serenely.
Effie turned back to Sunny and Nephis, who were still standing very close together, both looking extremely aware that they had just had most of that conversation in full view of everyone and had lost track of their audience somewhere around the point where Sunny had appeared behind Nephis with [Shadow Step].
Effie pointed at them, the gesture encompassing both of them completely.
"Okay." she said. "Okay. Can someone, either of you, I'm not picky, please explain to me what is happening? Because we have been sitting here watching you two go from 'we are only friend' which you were clearly not, to I don't know THAT?! And I would very much like some clarification."
Sunny and Nephis looked at each other.
A beat passed.
They hadn't moved.
If anything, they had ended up even closer well past the point of what could be dismissed as incidental, past anything that could be called appropriate for a public space. They were standing there like it was perfectly normal, like the rest of the room didn't exist, like there wasn't an entire table of their closest friends staring at them.
It wasn't just proximity anymore. It was something closer to an embrace that hadn't fully committed to calling itself one, their bodies aligned, their space shared without hesitation or restraint. Anyone looking at them would have understood immediately that this wasn't casual, wasn't accidental, wasn't anything close to neutral.
Nephis's hand was still on him, firm, anchored against him with quiet insistence, holding him there as if the idea of letting go had already been dismissed. Sunny didn't pull away. He didn't even seem aware that he should. If anything, he leaned into her without thinking, as though being this close to her held like this was the most natural state he could exist in.
His hands hovered low at her sides, just short of her hips, not quite crossing the line but not respecting it either. Close enough to be felt. Close enough to make the lack of contact feel like a choice rather than restraint.
There was nothing subtle about it.
Nothing restrained.
And most of all nothing private.
They were doing this in full view of everyone.
And neither of them seemed even remotely inclined to stop.
Then Sunny looked back at Effie, wearing the expression of someone who had already considered every possible explanation and chosen the simplest one anyway.
"We were trying to figure out how to go on a date." he said.
Which might have been the understatement of the century.
Effie stared at them.
"That's it? That's what you're giving me?"
"We worked it out," Nephis said calmly. "It just doesn't look like it from the outside."
Which might have been every bit as much of an understatement.
Effie stared at them, completely thrown off, her composure cracking as genuine shock spread across her face.
"I was there when you accepted a movie invitation," Effie said. "I was not there for—" She waved her arms wildly between them, gesturing at the impossible closeness, at the hands that hadn't quite gone back to neutral. "—all of THAT. That's not just people planning a date."
Sunny looked at Nephis.
Nephis looked at Sunny.
"We're together," Sunny said simply. "As a couple."
Nephis didn't hesitate. "He's my boyfriend. I'm his girlfriend."
The words landed in the room with the particular weight of things that are simple and entirely true and have been true for longer than they were said.
Effie opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Pressed her palms flat on the table.
Let out a sound that was not quite a word and contained several emotions simultaneously.
"FINALLY," she said.