An Unexpected... Guest

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Chosen lifted one eyebrow at her visitor.

Second stood, dripping wet and grinning bigger than the moon, on her doorstep. "Hey Chosen!"

Chosen closed her eyes exasperatedly for a moment. "I don't suppose," she said levelly, "that you could have given me a heads-up?"

Second shook himself like a wet dog, spraying water all over the lintel. "Well, I could have... but this wasn't exactly a planned visit."

Chosen rolled her eyes and opened the door wider. "Come on in then, and dry off before I fly you back up."

Second slumped tragically. "Aww, do I have to go back up today?"

Chosen shot her younger brother a glare. "Yes."

Second crossed his arms and muttered something unintelligible, but followed Chosen eagerly into the two-story house that Chosen used to share with- with no one, Chosen sternly reminded herself. Dark was dead, anyway. I never knew him.

Second bounced on the balls of his feet, looking around in childlike curiosity at the gray concrete walls holding photos of sunsets or dandelion fields or marketplaces; the shelves with leather-bound covers holding Chosen's journals and his annotations of machines and inventions; the window shade which Chosen and he had fingerpainted in all colors of the world one summer day; and the sparse living room decorated with two comfortable sofas and a lamp which cast its golden shade over an open book filled with pictures.

Chosen shut the door behind Second and turned around. "What did you mean about this not being a planned visit?"

Second looked sheepish. "I was getting a little... overloaded by my friends."

When Chosen crossed her arms, he hurried on. "I mean, it's not like- I mean, I love all of them, they're awesome, don't get me wrong... but they can be a little- much, if you know what I mean."

Chosen pulled a towel from a rack near the door and wrapped Second in it, causing the younger hollowhead to snuggle into Chosen's warm side.

She sat down on one of the couches, patting the spot beside her as an invitation. "I get what you mean... but then why didn't you tell them that?"

"I did!" Second said loudly, throwing his arms up as he slid onto the couch next to Chosen. "I asked them- very nicely," he added, seeing Chosen's expression of disbelief, "to be quieter so that I could go to sleep." He frowned. "And then they had a dance party right in the middle of my nap."

Chosen winced in sympathy. Sometimes she'd been woken up by an explosion from Dark's room in the middle of the night, followed by him poking his head into her room, grinning at her, and telling her to go back to sleep, that it was nothing, just a little bug.

"Yeah, I'm starting to see your point," she told Second.

Second nodded emphatically. "Right? So I was thinking, and I remembered that I haven't visited you in a long time- ever, really- and so I borrowed Green's light saber, since it's a bit like your light energy, and I broke the WiFi enough that I could get through. And then I fell, like, a full MILE into the bay, and then had to climb a cliff, and then I just wandered around until I found your house." He looked around the room. "Neat place, by the way."

Chosen nodded. "I try to keep it that way."

He flopped backwards in his towel so that his head rested on her shoulder. "I love you, Sissy."

Chosen punched her brother playfully. "Don't call me that, Sec."

Second grinned upside-down at her and then straightened himself. "Can I pleeeeeease stay here, just for a night or two?"

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