There was a silence for a few moments before zero perked up with "how about we go downstairs and have a little family meeting?" he pat ilo on the shoulder comfortingly and stood while still carefully holding blueberry in his arms. "do you actually know what happened down stairs? I was hiding under the blanket so I'm not sure but I heard flake scream and... I haven't heard him scream in pain like that since the accident." ilo stood up with zero while rubbing his arm nervously. "I'm not exactly aware of what happened but flake has bandages across his shoulder and it seems jenny is the culprit." zero said this with a lot of concern. "oh my..." ilo didn't have much of a reply because there wasn't a lot you could respond with after news like that. "right, I'll go tell the others to gather in the living room." zero said in a cheerful, but still nervous in tone. ilo nodded as zero left the room. ilo ran his hand through his hair and heavily sighed. He then took a deep breath and left the room, he slowly walked downstairs to see everyone sat on the couch with zero stood in front of them.
"ilo!" zero happily began "please please, take a seat." zero gestured to the couch with his available hand since he was still holding little blueberry. ilo looked at the couch and saw that the only space was next to check, he blushed and cautiously walked over to the couch and sat down, his leg was pushed up against check's leg because of the tight space. Check innocently smiled at ilo, he blushed and smiled back. While this was happening flake was sat next to check looking at the floor clearly feeling a lot of guilt. Mandin was sat in between jenny and flake and she constantly glanced at both of them seeing their equally nervous and shameful faces."now then, I know that this household has always been... Dangerous and some of us are aggressive and get into fights-" before zero could finished flake interrupted "I'm sorry." everybody turned to flake in surprise. "e-excuse me?" zero hastily said. "I said, I'm sorry." flake repeated. Flake put his hand over his face and took a deep breath "I know that I need to be less extreme... And I'm not the best creature for a baby to be around but I'll try to not repeat the past."
Everyone stayed silent not knowing how to respond. Zero took it upon himself to get the conversation going again "thank you flake. I'm happy that you're willing to improve for blueberry." flake wearily chuckled at what zero had said "so the name blueberry has stuck, hm?" flake honestly hated the name but he had caused the enough harm for one day so he decided not to mention it. "yes, it seems to have stuck quite quickly- but we need to talk about someone else." after zero said this he gave jenny that look, you know that look that your parents give you when they're not angry they're just disappointed. Jenny makes a weird little sad noise and pulls out her notepad. She scribbles something down and holds it out to zero. Zero takes the notepad with his available hand and squints at the note. It reads "I'm sorry zero, I was just angry at flake because he threatened blueberry :(" after zero reads the note he sighs "jenny, my dear, you shouldn't be apologising to me, I think you know exactly who you should be apologising to." zero handed the notepad back to jenny and she took a deep breath and started to write something.
She finished writing and held the notepad out the flake. She turned away as she did, not really wanting to make eye contact. Flake carefully took the notepad and decided to read it out. "I'm sorry for what I did flake, I just wanted to protect the baby and in protecting her I became the danger. I'm so sorry and I won't let it happen again." flake looked at jenny and Jenny looked away, she clearly didn't want to apologise to flake at all. "I'll try to be a better person. Though it may take time, I'll try. I'm sorry jenny." flake gave the notepad back to jenny and she smiled a little bit. She was definitely happy knowing flake was willing to change. Zero was smiling all throughout their apologies "oh wonderful! I'm so happy you two can move past this! Now why don't you two shake hands and make it all better." zero cheerfully smiled in anticipation.
Flake sighed and stood up and held out his hand to jenny, though he had to hold his hand down a little because he was so tall and Jenny was so short. Jenny stood up as well and shook flake's hand. Zero squealed in happiness and widely smiled "oh I'm so proud of you two! How about a little hug to make it official, hm?" flake gave zero an annoyed look "I'm not hugging her, zero." flake said while trying not to get annoyed. Zero frowned and pouted "awww, please?~" zero said in a patronising and childish voice. Jenny awkwardly looked at flake and backed away. "it's not happening, zero." after flake said this he sat back down making the couch make a loud, concerning cracking noise. "aw, fine. I guess you two don't have to hug." zero giggles at his own mannerisms but before he could continue with his little meeting there was a weak sounding knock at the door.
Once again everyone stayed silent because of shock and confusion. "hm, seems we're popular today." zero said. "right right, uhhh... Oh! Ilo, can you hold blueberry for me while I answer the door." zero walks over to ilo and gently hands him blueberry. Check looks down blueberry and smiles, he then wraps his arm around ilo "she's beautiful, isn't she ilo?" check cheerfully asked. "y-yes, she's quite beautiful..." ilo replied in a sheepish tone. He was of course trying not to get too flustered with check being so close to him. But while this was happening zero was looking through a nearby window to see who was at the door. It took him a few seconds before he realised who it was. "it's Rag..." zero was incredibly surprised to see Rag, especially since he was meant to be in Scotland. Rag was an elemental, like flake, but he was much weaker and shorter. He is only 7'7 which is incredibly short for an elemental. He is basically a punching bag for every elemental in purgatory.
Flake stood up and practically ran towards the door "Oh that little shit is getting it this time." after flake said this he threw open the door and grabbed rag by his wrist and dragged him inside, he quickly slammed the door behind him and turned to rag with an infuriated look. "what are you doing in London?! You're meant to be up in Scotland with werix and fenn!" flake snapped. Rag cowered before him and tried to start speaking though it felt like he was choking on his own words "I-I-I-I'm sorry f-flake, I've been in London for a few years n-now I just never told y-you... B-But I'm here on very important matters!" rag started to regain his confidence as he continued "I'm h-here for the baby-" before rag could finish flake interrupted "how did you hear about her? We haven't told anybody!" flake looked at the others to see if any of them looked particularly guilty as if they had told anyone about the baby. But they all shared the same shocked or confused expression. "w-well, haha Prendi akemedi told us. He saw zero take the baby in the house." rag said this in a more cheerful tone but then he looked at flake to see his face changing from a scowl to a more shocked and concerned look.
Flake looked at zero and saw him tearing up slightly. "I thought pren died years ago... I didn't think he'd be able to get away with what he did..." zero quietly said. "oh yeah! He's just been hiding. Like really hiding, he knows everything about everyone but he's almost never seen. He's been keeping an especially close eye on you zero. I personally think he's-" Rag felt flake grab his wrist while he was in the middle of talking, Rag stopped talking in confusion. Flake then put his foot on Rags chest and pushed him back with all the force he could while still keeping a tight grip on his wrist. This tore Rags arm right out of its socket, he was knocked backwards onto the ground but he didn't scream in pain and no blood seemed to come out of the wound. "just tell us what you're here for, alright?" flake said in a monotone voice. Rag sighed and awkwardly stood back up. Suddenly another arm grew back in place of the old one. Though it seemed a little broken, but Rag quickly snapped every bone back into place. "well as I said, I'm here for the baby. You guys wouldn't want a human around. So I was sent by werix to take it away from you guys." Rag said in a surprisingly calm voice, especially since his arm had just been ripped off.
"Tell werix that we're keeping the baby." zero sternly said. "what? Why would you want a human in your house? That's just... Gross." Rag didn't say this angrily but he sounded more confused than anything. Flake sighed and picked up Rag "okay, that's enough of you. Tell werix that we said fuck off." flake opened the door and walked a few feet outside before setting Rag down. "wait you can't just-...oh" Rag was going to finish what he was going to say but he'd probably get his arm ripped off again if he said it. Flake walked back inside and shut the door. He then peaked through the window to see if he was still there. Rag was in fact walking down the street but he soon walked into a near by alleyway and practically disappeared.
