Reflections of Light

Whispered Half-truths

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?"

Nyx shook herself from her mindless stupor, almost not hearing what he'd said.
She'd managed to convince him a while back to retire to the sofa, where they'd sat in relative silence; Nyx watching as the strange tides washed over him intermittently- some hitting him with tidal wave force; other times a slow current creeping up from beneath, looking to catch, to pull, to drown.

These moments seemed more sporadic now, ebbing away with the approach of the dawn hours; the exhaustion of the night bringing them into a subdued but companionable silence.
She'd finally succeeded in properly bandaging him up, and when she'd been sure the bleeding had stopped, had even leant him a clean shirt of Nicks; although it had quickly become apparent that he was a lot broader than her oldest brother, causing the shirt to strain at the shoulders and leave the top two buttons un-buttonable.

Blinking the heavy tiredness out of her eyes, she moved her attention to him; seeing him turned to her on the other end of the sofa, his arm strewn casually along the top of the seat, watching her with interest.

"Oh... Sorry, what?"

"What..." He repeated, tilting his head in an almost innocently curious manner. "...is the worst thing you've ever done?"

"Oh..." She said, nibbling her lip thoughtfully. "That's actually... Quite a tough one."

She took a drink from the mug of coffee in her hands, tapping her nails rhythmically against the china as she pondered over the question, feeling his eyes on her all the while.

A touch to her hand made her jump; and bringing her gaze back up, she saw he'd moved closer to her, closing the gap between them to trace a finger over her knuckles, before covering her hand with his and interlacing his fingers between hers.

"Just curious."

"Well... That depends, I guess." She continued finally. "There's like... Contextual factors. Age. Intentions. Moral... Understanding." She said awkwardly. "Like... Yeah."

She was distracted by him playing with her hair by her face, ironing out a spiral ringlet between his fingers before watching it spring back into position; an action she could watch out of the corner of her eye.

"Well..." She took a breath and blew out a sigh. "I did instigate a fight at a party once. I guess that'd qualify."

She couldn't help but grin at his amused chuckle. "Hey, I claim self-defence, alright? It just... Escalated once his female friend stepped in."

She saw his expectant look and laughed, flushing in mild embarrassment.
"The guy wasn't getting the picture so I broke a plate over his head. He was seriously pushing it though. I'd told him off twice already. Three strikes, you know?
Still, I do think it was a major overreaction on my part; like, it looked pretty bad, actually.
Then this other woman got shirty about it, and... Nick might have ended up clocking her in the face.
And then shit happened, it all blew up, and we had to leave very quickly.
It's kinda funny now, but still... "

His laughter was sincere, full of proper humour as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "That wasn't even your fault."

"Well... yes and no. But it doesn't matter. I'm still not invited to the good parties." She chuckled, shaking her head.

"Oh well, their loss." He said with a smirk and a shrug. "So that's the worst thing you've ever done?"

"Well, it's not like I haven't done some illegal stuff... But yeah. It's either that, or pushing Travis out of a tree when I was thirteen and accidentally breaking his arm.
Got hell for that one."

Placing the coffee cup down on the table, she turned to him, reaching to brush his fringe out of his face and reaching to touch his temples.
"Are you feeling alright now, or...?"

He sight, closing his eyes and laying his head down on her lap, a slight grin on his face; which widened at Nyx's scoff of fake indignation. "Huh! So you're just going to lay on me now, are you?"

"Yeah. You're comfortable." He snickered playfully.

She rolled her eyes, chuckling at his gall even as she ran her fingers through his hair.
"My God, when was the last time you had a haircut?"

She jumped slightly as the sound of the front door opening broke the quiet of the house.

A second later, the sound of Nick's footsteps came down the hall, passing the half-open door before stopping and doubling back to look at them in surprise.
"Oh, hello."

"Hey, Nick." Nyx greeted in a mellow tone.

"Hey... It's three in the morning. And you two are up."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Couldn't sleep."

"Why, would you rather we be up in her bedroom?" 'Chris' quipped from his place in her lap, the double implication clear enough from the wicked glint in his eyes.

Nyx flicked his ear, causing him to yelp and sit upright. Nyx smiled innocently at him, smiling to her electric-blue eyes.

"Well..." Nick said awkwardly. "I'm gonna go... Yeah." He gestured to the kitchen, striding off towards the doorway with purpose.

Then he froze in the kitchen doorway; quickly backpeddling to them. "Has someone been hurt?! It smells like blood in the kitchen."

Nyx's stomach sank like lead.

She'd cleaned up best she could in the short moments she'd had, but there was still much she'd needed to deal with; first and foremost, the bloody shirt in the sink.

"Uh... That has an explanation..." Nyx said, eyes going wide as she fished for what to say.

"Sorry, that was mine."

Nyx's face fell onto an expression of shock; only to be matched by the expression of concern on Nick's face.
"Ah, Chris, dude. You alright? What happened?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied, adjusting himself to sit more comfortably in his seat, grunting as the position became uncomfortable for his wounded shoulder. "You see, I've gotten myself... This bar job, and... Long story short, there was a fight.
Didn't actually know I was bleeding until I got here, but Nyx managed to patch me up, didn't you?" He said, smiling brilliantly as he passed the conversation to her.

Deer on the headlights, Nyx took a second to catch up. "Oh... Yeah, I handled it. We're all good. All sorted here."

It shocked her that it was so simple. Just telling the truth- not the whole truth, but just this one fragment, which with careful wording was made to seem something unfortunate, but no more unusual than that.

It was... Strange. Strange, but somehow relieving.

Nick furrowed his brow. "Do you know who they were? Is this something- or someone- we need to be concerned about?"

"Ah..." It was his turn to think on his words. "No. I don't think so."

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