Rule and Ruin

twenty-two; the sweetness

chapter twenty-two.

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ADELAIDE WAS RIGHT. It didn't get better. Selene had a feeling it never would.

But she was tired of crying and waiting for pleasant dreams that would never come, so the next day she climbed out of bed and decided to hunt monsters instead.

"Selene," Ren frowned at her when she entered the kitchen in the morning. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Hey," she greeted. "Thanks for the charity. You can have the bed back now."

Ren blinked at her before muttering, "After you've bled and pissed all over it? I'd rather burn it."

Selene made a mocking face at him and threw the fridge door open, "What do you have? I'm starving." She hadn't eaten properly in weeks.

"You don't even pay rent around here," Ren huffed. He sipped his coffee and stared at her for a while. "Are you sure you should be out of bed?"

"I feel fine," Selene said as she reached for the leftover Chinese food. If she repeated it enough, would it become true?

"Yeah well you look like shit," he remarked. "Like, more than usual."

"Thanks," she said.

She tossed the bowl in the microwave and poured herself a glass of water. She immediately recalled the night before, where she stood here in Nix's arms. Something about crying buckets last night made her feel lighter today.

"I'm glad you're back," Ren said quietly after a moment.

Selene froze and turned to look at him with a weird expression, "What?" 

"I'm not repeating it," he mumbled. "But we really thought you were dead. You should have seen Nix. He was a wreck, so I'm glad that's finally stopped. I can never get some peace around here, for fuck's sake."

There were so many things Selene wanted to address in what he just said, but then the microwave dinged.

Just as she was about to reach for it, an arm darted out from behind her and took the food out before she could.

"Good morning, everyone," Nix announced.

Selene turned to find Nix's chest inches away as he held her food above her head and reached up to grab a spoon from the cabinet. Then he stepped back, grinned at her, and shoved a spoonful of fried rice into his mouth.

With a glare, Selene snatched the takeout box from his hands. "Mine," she muttered and stalked to the table.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Nix asked as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I'm hungry."

"We could have brought you food," he said, taking a seat across from her.

"I'm not useless," she mumbled.

"I beg to differ," Ren pitched in.

"And I feel fine now," Selene added. 

Nix was looking at her carefully like he didn't believe her.

"I'm fine. I promise," Selene said dismissively. I'm fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Absolutely Fine.

"Anyways, what have you guys been up to? Not lounging around waiting for my miraculous recovery, I hope."

"As if," Ren mumbled as he took the seat beside Nix.

"Mostly getting Adelaide used to some new things," Nix said, drinking out of Ren's coffee cup. "And trying to hunt down Dino's location."