Aftershock

Shut Down, Fix-Up

To his surprise, Etian came home to the sound of Coco's movie playing rather than the constant chatter of his guardians. The faint clinking of glass could be heard as he walked down the stairs and into the living room. Sure enough, Coco sat in front of the old, dusty television—eyes glued to the screen as an Inkling in a fancy, blue dress spoke to a frog.

"Room dinner tonight," Xiun said, his tone hushed as he walked in from the kitchen. Etian sighed lightly.

"Oh," He mumbled. "How bad this time?"

"Just the usual. She's resting right now, but she'll probably be up all night," Xiun replied before motioning to the pot of miso soup on the kotatsu. "I'll explain some more later. You and Coco can eat out here if you'd like, but I'll probably be in our room for a while."

"Yeah, that's alright. And tell her that I'll be taking a break from going to the surface for a bit; we didn't exactly have a high win-streak today," Etian mentioned with a slight grimace. While Coco's movie rose with string music, Xiun nodded with a hum and headed off to his and Loretta's room. Etian merely rolled his shoulders a couple times over before placing himself in front of the kotatsu—bowl in hand. He scooped a couple servings of soup into his dish before Coco spoke over her film.

"Why don't the princesses get scared like madre does?" She asked innocently with her eyes on the screen. Etian looked over to see two frogs on the screen rather than one.

"What do you mean? Those princesses get scared all the time; like, look how she's freaking out about being turned into a frog," He replied, sliding over to the smaller Octoling to watch with her.

"Well, yeah, but they don't do the things she does," Coco said. "Only the bad guys do."

"Oh," Etian thought to himself, sighing in the process. He opened his mouth. "What kind of things are you talking about?" To that, Coco responded immediately.

"Sleeping and getting mad for forever or...or crying when nothing's happening. She told me she sees stuff sometimes. Like, stuff that's not there," She said, curling in on herself. "But she's not a bad guy. Padre says she's a princess, but none of the princesses on here are like that." Etian exhaled deeply through his nose.

"Well...maybe those princesses on TV are just...hiding it," He said. "Like, you know how Loretta tries to hide how scared she is?" Coco nodded. "Then, maybe it's like that for those princesses too. Just...they're probably a little better at hiding it."

"But why don't they not hide it?" Coco asked further. Etian had a couple spoonfuls of his meal before responding.

"Because it's painful for them. And because it can be hard to find people to help them in certain scenarios," He replied. "But maybe after the princess turns human again, she could tell the prince all about it." Coco grumbled.

"Then, why don't they show it after they kiss?" She questioned with a grimace on her face as soon as she mentioned the kiss. 

"Because it's a lot to talk about," Etian replied as best he could. "Something like that takes more than just one scene—or even movie—to heal from." After that, Coco remained quiet for a good two minutes. The frogs on screen were now jumping around a swamp as Etian continued eating.