Chapter 23

•Flora City•

•West Village•

•Training Camp•

The Heroes sat down to dinner together again, there was a tense silence enveloping the table and nothing but the clink of silver on pottery could be heard.

Most of the Heroes had just woken up, having spent the better part of the entire day recuperating.

The Fairy with the worst injuries was Eden, both her knees had to be bandaged up, both her ankles were sprained as well so that meant more bandages.

Bruises all up her hands and scratches on her face so naturally, bandages wrapped her hands too.

The Training Camp's Infirmary was top notch and made use of special herbs and Fairies with special abilities so after they woke up they were as good as new.

Eden opted to keep her bandages though, as a precursory measure.

Poppy had been livid when she heard of what Eden had done and unable to direct the anger at her hurt best friend rounded up on Li, who just kept a stoic expression.

"Guys! Dinner is ready!" Poppy had announced, it was part of her duties as the Team Captain to organize the rest for activities.

Eden had been beyond shocked when she heard that Poppy had been made Team Captain but compared to the rest of the Heroes, she was the best option.

She had just taken a shower when Poppy's voice rang out, so she threw on a loose top and comfortable pants before stepping out of her room.

All the activities and healing that her body had done that day left her feeling ravenous, she stepped out to notice that someone else was in the hallway with her so she looked up to see who it was.

Eden choked and suddenly all the air in the hallway disappeared. "W-What a-ar-are y-you…. W-Why a-ar-are y-you…" She spluttered, still choking, her words refusing to come out.

"She's actually taking it really well." Daisy noted, stepping out of his room.

"You think?" Li raised an eyebrow, leaning against the wall with his hand in his pant pockets.

"Yup! I practically live with you and I still pass out sometimes." Daisy admitted sheepishly.

"What the fuck is going on out here?" Orchid mumbled, stepping out of her room. She took a glance at the scene in front of her and blinked. "Why is your scrawny chest out??" She tossed at Lily.

Daisy choked, Eden was already choking so it didn't take much for her to continue.

"Go put some clothes on, come on! Shoo!" She chased him off into his room.

Eden and Daisy just gaped at Orchid's actions.

"She can't be normal." Daisy said with a healthy dose of horror.

Eden couldn't help but support this conclusion, she would rather shave her head than admit it though.

A half naked Li, she decided then was very dangerous and she would do her best to steer clear of it.

Her plans didn't last very long though.

The six Heroes all sat down quietly, eating, Orchid was much more docile and calmer now after she collapsed first during the race.

This tempered her pride and she started to see her fellow Team mates in a different light. 

The steaming bowl of soup in front of Lily was fast disappearing and his body temperature increased so naturally he took off the loose shirt that Orchid had forced him to throw on.

Eden choked again, so hard that Poppy had to pound her chest to get things going again, so hard that tears started to stream from her eyes.

Aster paused his quiet eating at this and looked up. "Hmm?" He hummed, studying Li who had thrown his spoon to the side some time ago and was now vigorously slurping the soup straight from the bowl.

Aster had a tunic on and he looked down at his torso then up at Li again.

Daisy's face was red from Li's previous actions and Eden still sniffed randomly from her choking fit.

"Don't even think about it Aster." Poppy warned, glaring at him.

Aster just gave her a blank look. "Yes, Captain." He nodded, then ripped his tunic off.

The response was instantaneous, Eden was choking again and Daisy's nose started to bleed at the same time.

Poppy let out a sound of horror, trying to attend to the both of them at the same time. "Can someone help me with Daisy?" She asked desperately, patting Eden's back with a hand and reaching for a cup of water with her other hand.

Lily quickly stood up, very worried about Daisy and slightly jealous, he'd never managed to give him a nosebleed before and yet Aster managed to do that with just the top half of his torso.

The copious bleeding quickly restructured his priorities though as he quickly went around the table.

Orchid just gave him a done look as he passed by her to get to Daisy. "I don't think that's a good idea Li…" 

She didn't get all her words out before Li got to the small Fairy and pulled him into his arms to wipe his face with a napkin.

Daisy made an inhuman sound at this, it sounded like a cat dying.

"What are you doing to him?" Poppy demanded, finally getting Eden's choking under control.

Lily looked up guiltily. "He um, he passed out." He admitted.

"I told you so." Orchid muttered, biting off a hunk of meat.

"Well, why do you sound so proud about it then?"

Before Lily could reply to her question, a torrent of water poured all over him and Daisy who was still passed out in his arms.

"Aster!!" Poppy exclaimed, mortified.

Daisy woke up, gasping.

"The blood is gone and he's awake." Aster stated blandly, reaching across the table to carry an entire roast turkey with both hands to his plate so he could begin digging into it, he'd gulped down his soup sometime ago.

Poppy just sighed in exasperation, being Team Captain was supposed to be a piece of cake but here she was in the middle of utter chaos.

"Li? What are you doing??"

Daisy's frantic voice interrupted her personal musings of retiring from the position she had just gotten that day.

"D-Don't light yourself on fire?!!"

"But I'm wet and cold." Lily's pouty voice replied.

"T-That d-do-doesn't mean… Li!!!" He exclaimed as a ball of fire shot from Lily's hand and engulfed them.

"Too late." Orchid murmured, calmly sipping water.

"Li!!!" Poppy screamed as well as the pair went up in flames. "Aster!! Put them out…" She had barely gotten her order out before the flames subsided.

They looked the same as before, no burn, not even overheated but their clothes weren't so fireproof.

Daisy grabbed a loaf of bread and whacked Lily on the side of the head with it. "Put me down, you idiot." He complained, whacking him again.

Li's pants had burnt off, leaving it just above his knees, the smell of burning clothes permeating the room. He tried to carefully put down a squirming and livid Daisy whose clothes suffered more from the short flame show.

Even though he was now sufficiently dry, goosebumps rose on Daisy's exposed skin and there was a lot of it.

Throwing one arm across his body, he reached out and whacked Lily again, particularly harder this time.

He had worn shorts and an oversized sweater but the brief burning had taken a toll on his clothes, his shorts burned making them ridiculously shorter. The lower part of his sweater had met the same fate too and his sweater was now cropped, the neck had burnt off too so the sweater kept falling down his frail shoulders.

"But you're dry now!" Lily insisted, trying to get an angry Daisy to calm down.

It just earned him more bread smacks and a couple choice insults from Daisy.

"Okay! Enough!!" Poppy exclaimed, slamming a hand on the table, all this while Aster and Orchid had been eating without a care in the world while she had Eden had just stared shell shocked at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"Rule number one!" She exclaimed, raising a hand up with one finger out, the rest in a fist.

"You must have a shirt on at all times at the dinner table." She said sternly, glaring at Aster and Li.

"So we can come without pants?" Lily asked seriously.

Poppy just glared at him, looking like she might like to strangle him with a vine. "You must be fully dressed at all times at the dinner table." She corrected herself.

"Rule number two." She released another finger from her fist. "Usage of Hero Power at the dinner table is forbidden." She added.

"Are these only the dinner table rules?" Lily drawled. "So it doesn't apply to the other parts of the house?"

Poppy just gave him a done look, then ignored him. "And Aster and Li are going to the kitchens this night to help out before bed as punishment for upsetting the dinner table."

"He started it first by getting us wet!" Li pointed at a bored looking Aster.

"I was just trying to help." Aster said in a bland voice.

Poppy didn't hesitate, she grew vines and made the rope like plants wrap around their mouths.

"I'm happy that we all agree with the rules." She said in a tight voice. "Please let's get back to eating." She said with a fake bright smile.

Orchid hid a grin at the chaotic nature of her Teammates, her sisters were prim and proper at the table but as she watched a mutinous Daisy whack a gagged Li with a loaf of bread and Aster struggling to break free from the vine around his face so that he could continue tearing into the turkey and Eden watching shell shocked at the chaos while Poppy just ate peacefully without a care in the world, she decided then that she wouldn't mind living with them at all.