Summer: The Woods Bring Forth New Incoming; Bonds PT. 3/4

The sun now setting, we all returned to shore, where Aether was watching having our own fun. Oh, fun fact, Aether can't swim, yet he was the first one to jump into the water.

"You're a dumbass, you know that?" Necessitas said, giving him a light chop on the head. "If I didn't notice you sinking, you would be dead right now."

His sky-blue eyes simply continued to stare at the river before responding. "I was just faking it."

"Like hell you were!" She shouted, punching him on the head. "Anyway, has anyone seen my bunkmate?"

"Oh, you miss him my dear Nessy~!? Finally taking the initiative?"

"Shut up Eros! Why I asked doesn't matter."

"He went off with Hiro somewhere," the ass said, stretching out his limbs.

"You called?" and it was Hiro, who had appeared behind him, and Erebus, who had just walked out of the forest.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"I've been out with Erebus here."

"Yes, me and him have been fighting the denizens of the night, keeping you all safe from harm. Hiro's strength was a boon in our fight, and yet, will it be enough to sate the darkness that lies on this mountain?"

"I wouldn't go that far. I just did some Hiro work is all." I couldn't tell if he said his name or actually "Hero" in this case, odd that may seem.

"Ugh, not you too Hiro. Don't encourage his behavior any more than its already gotten."

"I'm really not though. But he's not harming anybody, so it's all good in my book."

"Doesn't that mean you just encourage it!?"

"I'm not sure about you guys, but I'm starving. Can we make dinner already?" Aether said, and everybody looked at him. And while I couldn't say for sure, I'm positive we all thought the same thing:

You didn't even do a damn thing…

"Aether is right though, I'm ready to eat an entire pack of wolves," Prez said, and that got another weird collection of looks.

"Why a pack of wolves? Isn't it usually a horse?" Hemera said, putting her index finger to her chin inquisitively.

Our banter continued as we made our way back to camp, and we began to set up to cook our food.

"Hey, so what exactly are we eating today?" Luna asked as we all brought out ingredients to use.

"The plan for today was curry, and we'll have two head chefs each leading a team." Lachesis explained quickly, and Luna nodded to herself.

"I just hope I'll be of some use…"

"Don't worry about that, since you're one of the head chefs."

"Oh, I see. Wait, huh!?" Luna's ears went bright red when she heard Lachesis say that. "Um, are you sure? I don't really think-!"

"I think it's a great idea Lachesis! I'll be on Luna's team obviously!" Hiro said excitedly, and Lachesis gave him a cold smile in response.

"Ah, but you're the other head chef Hiro. It wouldn't be right to have the siblings be on the same team." Ouch, he really must've pissed her off today.

Anyways, the Luna's team consisted of me, Prez, Aether, Eros, and Necessitas, while Hiro's team consisted of Nyx, the ass, Lachesis, Erebus, and Hemera.

"Why did this have to happen?" Hiro said sadly, sniffling as Lachesis placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Now now, that isn't a way for a leader to act. Come on, lets go." She dragged him away, tears streaming down his face. I couldn't tell if he was joking or serious with the tears though.

Still, Lachesis sure can be scary, I thought as I turned to our own team leader, Luna, who was trying to collect herself. I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to console as best I could.

"You can do it Luna. Just take your time and tell us what to do, okay?" Everyone around me nodded, and she looked at all of us before nodding.

"R-right! Okay, Necessitas and Depra, you'll be on prep duty!"

Necessitas and I nodded.

"Aether, you'll be on rice!"

"Hmph, sure you don't want to give me a harder task? Better yet, let me make the entire thing."

"Luna, you can ignore that idiot." Necessitas said in response to what Aether said, and she nodded.

"Okay, that leaves Prez and Eros on meat duty, and me with the sauce!"

"A perfect job for me, since I know my way around meat really well~!"

"Ah yeah, can't wait to cook this meat up baby!"

I'm kind of worried about what the meat's going to look like though with those two in charge, I thought as we pulled out cutting boards and knives to cut up the vegetables.

"So, you know how to use a knife then?" Necessitas asked, putting a carrot on her cutting board.

"Yeah, my mom taught me way back when," I said as I brought out a potato and started to dice it up with ease. She looked at me carefully before smiling to herself.

"You seem to be doing awfully well today. I'm glad that's the case, but don't push yourself too hard. I don't need you passing out on me while holding a knife."

I chuckled. "I've actually been great today, ever since Nyx helped me out."

She scowled. "Nyx did?" She finished dicing up her carrot and locked her eyes into mine. "I guess she did. Never would've thought it could be used like that though. Guess her dark nature helped with that."

I really didn't understand what she meant by that, but I guess she did something. I really should thank her properly later on, I thought as I finished up dicing my potato and started to work on the next one.

"By the way, was it a good idea to let those two do the meat?"

"Eh, it should be fine. Hiro's sister is precious to all of us, so the last thing they would want is to disappoint her. And besides, I wouldn't let them goof around anyway, not so long as I'm around."

I nodded as I finished dicing up the potato and started work on the onions. "You really are the only semblance of normal this group has, you know that?"

"Hehe, aw thanks Depra. If only Erebus could act like you, then we would get along just swell."

"He isn't that bad," I said, trying hard not to cry. "He's able to express himself freely, and that's not something people can do easily. Then again, you're all like that in some way…"

"Are you saying you can't? Or you won't?" She too was trying hard not to cry.

I paused, stopping my work and staring at the girl next to me. Her different colored brown eyes were waiting for an answer. I honestly didn't have answer to her question. I furrowed my brow as I tried to come up with an answer to a question I had not once thought of asking in my entire high school career.

She smiled as I tried to come up with a genuine answer for her and went back to dicing up her vegetables. "It's okay if you don't know. Still, if you asked me, I would say you of all people express yourself the most freely out this friend group of ours."

"I don't believe that at all. I would say Hiro does it more than me." I too went back to dicing my vegetables, once again the both of us trying not to cry.

"He of all people would disagree with what you just said, you know that? Probably saying something along the lines of 'don't sell yourself short,' or 'don't needlessly compare us; I'm me and you're you, and we're fine just the way we are,' or something along those lines." She sniffled as she grabbed a tissue and blew her nose before offering me one.

I accepted it and blew my nose as well before nodding. "Yeah, that does sound like something he would say. Awfully specific though, don't you think?"

I finished dicing up the onions and wiped the tears away. "But I'll think about it."

She patted me on the shoulder, eyes red from the onion. "Good, you go do that."

"Um, what type of conversation did you two have to make you cry like that?" asked a sweet voice, and we both turned to Luna, who looked extremely worried about us.

Necessitas and I looked at each other and started to laugh, which only freaked Luna out more.

"A-are you two okay?" She asked, tapping her index fingers together.

"Yeah, this is from cutting the onions," I said, still chuckling.

Her face lit up. "Oh, I see! Thank goodness, I thought you two didn't get along or something. Um, if you're done, I would really appreciate it if you could bring the vegetables to the cooking area!" She really was nervous.

Necessitas put both her hands on her shoulders and gave her a nod of encouragement. "No need to be so nervous now. It's all good, so just relax."

And just like that, Luna calmed down awfully quick, much to both of our surprise. "Okay, follow me!" She moved in a stiff, robotic fashion, causing a sigh to come out of both our mouths.

Yep, she really is nervous.