Back to his old self

"Will you ever stop?" Aria asked in an exasperated voice, not even putting in the effort to look at Joseph, who was perched on the windowsill. "Maybe I'll outgrow it someday. But I don't see it happening anytime . . . OH!!!!!" Joseph's words turned into one long exclamation as Helen launched herself from her chair towards the window. She landed right on top of Joseph, who would have landed outside the window along with Helen, had not Aria flown them with her wind bending.

"Helen you need to be more careful." Joseph lightly scolded his elder sister, setting her carefully beside Aria's bed. "And you!!! STOP BENDING!!" he added in a much more sterner tone, landing beside Helen with a jump, as Aria stuck out her tongue and stopped bending.

"Honestly . . . what's it gonna take for you to listen to someone else for a change." Joseph sighed, narrowing his eyes at Aria. "And Helen, why are you acting like you haven't seen me for ages!!" he snapped at Helen, who had just latched herself onto Joseph.

"Because I haven't." Helen replied with a pout, still not letting go of his arm. Joseph rolled his eyes, "For God's sake, you saw me less than an hour ago!! When I told you Aria wanted to see you."

Though he tried to sound annoyed, Aria had noticed that nothing but love shone in his eyes as he looked at Helen. Joseph had also not once tried to pull out of Helen's embrace. Aria let out a weary sigh as she suddenly missed her own sisters. She missed how close they used to be, how the three of them had never needed anyone whenever they were together. She missed the sibling that she had never known, the one who was growing up not even knowing about one of their elder sisters.

"I wonder what our relationship would have been like." Aria wondered to herself.

"Aria?!?! ARIA!!!!" Aria was brought out of her thoughts by Helen's voice. "Huh? What? Did you say something?" she asked.

"I was just telling Joseph that it's so nice to see Joseph back to his old self. Don't you agree?" Helen asked. Aria's lips curved into a smile and she nodded. "It's about time we all stopped brooding anyway." she added.

Joseph chuckled upon hearing this before his face turned serious and he said, "Which reminds me, why was White acting so weird?" Aria's eyes immediately turned towards Helen upon hearing this, and sure enough, all the happiness of seeing Joseph joking had drained from her face.

"I think you ought to know the answer to that better than any of us." Aria replied to his question, noticing that Joseph was also looking at his sister, very deep in thought. He slowly turned to look at Aria, still deep in thought.

Joseph's face went through a lot of changes in the few seconds the silence enveloped the friends. He finally seemed to come to a decision as he freed himself of Helen's embrace and said, "I'll talk to him." And before the girls had time to reply, he had jumped out the window and flew away.

"Males . . . . " Aria muttered in exasperation and Helen chuckled as she sat down. "You are rather like that when you are well. Never staying at one stop for long enough." Helen spoke and Aria raised her brows, realizing it was true.