"Ashes Reborn, Trauma Reformed" Nimona

"Nothing and Everything"

The sun was streaming through the window, hitting Ballister in the face and rousing him from his slumber. He groaned at the intrusion and opened his eyes, rubbing them tiredly with his left palm and lifting himself with his right, only to find a lack of movement. His eyes trailed to his phantom limb and panic set in momentarily as he held his right shoulder. Before he could even think, a young voice stole his attention.

"Looking for something?"

Turning to meet the teens' eyes, Ballister exhaled a sigh of relief as he watched her unplug the mechanical limb from its charging port before picking up a tray of her usual breakfast tacos in her right hand and skipping toward him and popping herself beside him. She held out the metal arm, her proud lop-sided grin plastered across her freckled face.

"Thanks, kid." Though unenthusiastic, his words were genuine, and he knew that Nimona could tell. As he reconnected his arm to the socket, he could hear the crunching of his teen starting on her own breakfast next to him. She lifted the tray to him, not stopping the savage attack on her own food as she did so. "Breakfast tacos." He began with a smile. "A Nimona classic." He felt her brighten beside him. She always enjoyed cooking, but even though she wouldn't admit it, the praise was just as fulfilling, if not more so, to her.

"Of course! You can never get enough of a classic." She beamed, picking at the crummy remains of her breakfast. Ballister wasn't surprised it was gone so soon. He would have been more concerned if she was still less than halfway through. He had noticed during their time together the difference in her eating when she wasn't feeling right, but this wasn't one of those times. He was glad she was feeling better than the night before. Seeing her that way was heartbreaking, to say the least, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't still worried about her sudden and more apparent emotional vulnerability.

"So, what's the plan today?" Her voice broke him from his train of concerns, drawing him back to her in the present and away from the shaking kid he had coaxed to sleep the night before. "Do we finally get to pillage a village?" A light laugh left the man beside her, his face falling into a content expression as she rambled on with wide, gleaming eyes about chaos and other heinous activites they could commit together. By the time she was done, she'd ended up standing proudly atop the coffee table as she had done the first night they'd met.

"We're not killing anyone or blowing things up, Nimona." He admitted, amused by the frown that now replaced her far too pointy grin.

"What!?" Her arms slacked in disappointment as she shifted into a dark-haired child - also previously known by those of the kingdom as 'the demon baby.'

Ballister placed the empty tray on the table beside their feet and rested his elbows on his knees, eye level with the stubborn boy before him. "I've got to work today, you know that." He said. "Besides, I already promised to watch have movie night with you tonight, so there's that." He pointed out, ruffling the kids' hair as he arose from the couch.

Nimona huffed and shifted back to her default, but with wings to carry her alongside her stubborn boss. "You're getting more boring with age."

Ballister cocked his scarred brow, giving the teen an amused stare. "You're literally over a thousand years old." He pointed out. A flash of pink blinded him before he felt the fur of a ferret on the back of his neck, draped over his shoulders.

"And yet I'm still way more fun than you." She chimed. "Besides, what even is work for you now you're not a knight anymore?"

Ballister tilted his head to the right, eyeing the pink ferret lounging on his shoulders. "We still have to rebuild things, Nim." He began. "The institute might be gone, but the kingdom can't run itself, and buildings won't rebuild out of nowhere either." He gave her some chin scritches, basking in the trust she had in him as she lifted her head for more.