Familiar Faces

As I feel my body's weight shifting, I gradually wake up to the sensation of dirt along my skin. "You're...actually dragging me." I comment to Requis.

Upon her noticing my consciousness, her decision is to drop whatever part of me she was holding, "WHAT DID YOU WANT ME TO DO!?" She drops my head onto the dirt.

"But you drag me by the head!?" I yell, rubbing the pain while forcing myself to stand.

"We're almost there, walk." She whips her hair away with an attitude as if I'm the one at fault here.

"And what if I can't walk?" I ask, unable to get her attention however.

"Requis." I ask. Beginning to realise she's simply ignoring me,"Requis". I slowly start to follow her. "Requis". "Requis." I continue, only pausing once she leans down to pick something up.

"Requ-" I cut myself off to duck, just barely avoiding a rock with clear intent to do nothing less than kill me.

Her stern look giving all the answers I need, "So we're not there yet?" I ignore the threatening glare.

"ORACION!" She shouts.

"Hi, need me for something?" I smile.

"How old are you!?"

"22, same as you" I respond.

Her eyes squint as if trying to see through me, "Yeah I'm gonna need you to shut the fuck up, respectfully." She spins on her heel, speeding up knowing damn well I can barely keep up as is. "You know whether we're there or not, you in fact, live there."

"Ohhhh, yeah" I playfully admit, catching her side eye to me just before speeding up yet again.

"Dumbass" She whispers under her breath.

-

We approach the large open wooden gate to the entrance of our town, seeing a group of people gathering in a horde along the stone pathing that's paved throughout the town.

"You made it!" Akira, a man within my group calls out, seemingly trying to hide a mark on his face from being beat up out there. Bringing the other 4 with him in order to group around me and Requis.

"How come you took so long?" Another one questions while holding arms to shoulders with the others, attempting to surround me like a hurdle but I swerve out with the energy I have left.

Akira speaks again, "I-" but nothing left his mouth besides a jolt of spit and possibly even a tooth from Requis' slap.

"So you were just going to leave him?" She asks him calmly, gesturing towards me.

"I knew he was alive." He says with confidence, fixing his face before looking towards me with anger now.

"Barely." She spits by his feet, "Go talk to Aeron, he needs another sword as usual." She shoos them off towards my brother's blacksmith before helping me walk, letting me lean on her shoulder.

"You didn't need to do that" I state.

"I did. Because you weren't going to do it yourself, were you?" She tries to look at me in the eyes but I look away.

"Eventually" I answer, clearly not satisfying her as she thumps my arm, mimicking a hard throb in my muscle that hurts to all hell.

"Plus if I didn't, my sister would kill me. Wouldn't she?" She changes the topic, changing her anger to a smile.

"That's...a good point, but I'm sure even Freya wouldn't of slapped him." I begin to imagine fake scenarios in my own head, causing myself to smile a bit.

"Yeah you're right, she'd of punched him." She corrects me, causing her to laugh at her own joke.

Although it comes to a sudden halt as she flinches back from something, "I knew I recognised the laughter, you two?" Her husband, Ira comes around the corner.

"How come you're here? I thought you'd be gone for a little longer" She questions.

"You wanted me gone for longer?" He jokingly places a hand on his chest as if hurt by her question.

But makes the mistake of underestimating his own wife, "Yeah, with you gone I'd get some peace and quiet, right Oracion?" She drags me into it.

"U-uh-" I stutter.

"If I'm unwanted, then what about this one?" He grabs something from behind the same building he emerged from.

"How long were you there!?" She shouts after noticing her younger brother between her husband's grip.

"The boy's been waiting for you this entire time, as have I-" She drops the assisted weight to go hug him, flicking off Ira's grip on him.

"I'm sorry you waited so long!" She hugs him, causing his struggle for breath.

"So no hugging for me? Alright." Ira begins talking to himself, instead looking towards me. "Hug?" He gestures to me with the utmost innocence, making me think the joke's gone on long enough.

"I'm sure Indura's reminded you a lot, but he's going to be 20 soon, show some support to the both of them." I suggest to Requis as I notice a subtle movement in the corner of my eye.

Ira's arms, casually and slowly beginning to wrap around me. "Hey-" I try to stop him but he's already got a decent grip onto me.

"You can have your brother, I'm taking your friend." He picks me up bridal style despite him being just an inch taller than me at 6ft 1, making me feel nothing less than a princess.

"Sure, fair trade." She smiles.

"REQUIS!" I thrash but Ira looks at me as if I'm the one acting weird now.

"I...want...Oracion." Indura pulls from out of her grasp, quickly running past her and to me. "I want you to tell me more stories!" He excitedly asks me while walking beside Ira.

"I will for sure buddy, just give me some time, alright?" I reassure him, knowing he's built up boredom from being kept inside this place. So if I can help him exercise that with a story or two, I'd gladly do it.

"Sure!" He exclaims.

Requis stands up, "You're always at the centre of everything, aren't you?" She sighs in defeat. "Hurry on home, I'll be there in a bit." She flicks Ira's head, but he immediately flicks her back as if sensing the sibling chaos and running off with the win. "You little shit" She once again whispers under her breath as he waves away.

"So where am I taking this one to?" Ira looks down at me, still in his arms.

"To Freya." She answers as if my wife's the spawn of death itself.

-

After the mildly long walk down the torch lit pathway, we end up down the street with some houses connecting in a line. As far as I'm aware, Requis decided to move in decently close to us so this shouldn't be much of a detour to them, which I'm thankful for.

"Requis open the door for us." Ira asks.

"Why can't you?" She asks back, completely empty handed but refusing to use anymore energy than needed.

"Cause my hands are full." He comments, looking at me.

"I can stan-" I try to speak but they interrupt me.

"Not my problem, your problem. You picked up that luggage." Requis argues back.

"I'm luggage-" I confusingly state under their voices.

"Open the door, Requis." He turns, facing tilting his head at her 5'11 stature.

"no" She keenly states as I'm now held between the two witnessing their parents arguing.

With the creaking of the door, we all notice the change in environment. The door was indeed already unlocked, and it was indeed opening. Her scarlet hair runs down her side as if she was in the middle of styling it, "Oracion?" She calls out to me.

"Freya." I call back with a bit of a sigh, still being held like a captive princess by Ira.

"Can you drop my husband?" She asks Ira.

"Sure." He obliges just as he holds hands with Requis.

"Nice seeing you Freya but I've got some stuff to do regarding Xandier and checking up on Aeron." Requis quickly makes up an excuse for some reason.

"Alright, thanks for dropping him here." Freya smiles with a head tilt, gripping my hand and pulling me gently into the house.

"Be sure to send him to those places after you're done!" Requis continues to shout from the distance, practically skipping away with her husband.

"Will do" She confirms before I fully enter the home.

We close the door behind ourselves as I take in the brightly lit space with an animal fur rug covering the floor, immediately feeling her arms wrapped around me. "They left you, again?" She hums from my back after pressing her face into me.

"Requis came to help me though!" I assure her before turning around to embrace her.

"But they left you, again." She tries to confirm.

"...Yes" I reluctantly answer, feeling her tug away from me as she looks under a cupboard for a different set of clothes for me.

"Here" She hands me a simple black t-shirt and grey trousers, looking at me intensively as if wanting to ask something more.

"What's wrong?" I try to bring it to the surface.

She picks up a knife, "Why are people scared of me?" She holds it up.

I walk over to her, placing my hand along her own. "Alright so, we're gonna start by you. Not asking that question while holding up a knife."

"Oh! Whoops." She laughs, placing it back down next to a cutting board I'm assuming she was about to use.

"Did something happen earlier?" I stand directly behind her as she begins preparing meat to cook.

"I went out to wait for you at the entrance of town, but your group was there before you. When I asked where you were, they didn't say anything besides that man Akira."

"And what did he say?"

"That you were just lagging behind and that you'd be there soon, which caused the rest of them to start laughing." She begins to cut more aggressively.

"So how does this lead to you thinking people are scared of you?"

"I'm not sure, they just sort of backed from me after I punched him." I notice her slight grin through her hair as she softens her hold on the knife, taking on a more cheery approach now that she's relived the experience through memory.

My mind jumps back to the marking he was trying to hide along his face...that really was her, wasn't it. "I'm starting to think Requis knows you better than me."

"How come?" She spins around suddenly, again with the knife almost scratching me.

I place my hand on it, putting it back down to the board with complete silence. "Just that you two are so in sync" I laugh as she pulls my face towards hers, planting a kiss on my lips before pointing at the bed.

"Rest for the moment, we'll go visit your brother once I'm done with this yeah?" She recommends.

"I wouldn't want it any other way" I slide my hand away from hers, taking my shoes off before laying down momentarily on our large bed.