Most of us have gears we never use
Somewhere in Northern Ardeneon
April 15
We'll land in about an hour" Skai informs them stepping out of the cockpit, they were all sat in the sitting area talking about home when River walks in, he casually walks towards Dexter.
"Good morning, Dex" he smiles at him.
"Weird, but morning" Dexter nods at him and River punches him in the face.
"River" Skai yells at him
"What the heck dude" Dexter groans. "What was that for?"
"You don't just wake up and punch people, Ladiston" Elijah stands between the two of them turning to tend to Dexter.
"When are we landing?" River asks as if nothing happened.
"You're going to act like you didn't just throw a punch at me?" Dexter coughs.
"Yes" River looks him in the eye "Yes, I am." At this Skai storms into the rooms section.
And that's when they all realize. It's because of Skai, but Elijah and Emily didn't see how punching Dexter wouldn't change anything, "sometimes you really don't think before you act." Emily fumes but River completely ignores her.
"River" Elijah walks up to him "Dexter is your friend, he isn't one of those other guys, you know he means well" he tries to explain to him.
"I know, I just had to, I needed him to know" River shrugs.
"Are you crazy?" Elijah breathes out walking back to where he was sat by Seraphinius. "it's not even a question, you are crazy." he mutters under his breath.
"Why did River hit Dexter?" Seraphinius asks beside Dexter.
"Because River is not mentally stable" Emily says loud enough for River to hear.
"Oh, come on, he made out with my sister, next thing I know they'll be locked in a room together" River retorts.
"If that's what they want then it's literally their business" Elijah points out monotonously, River rolls his eyes and walks into the room area.
Dexter remains quiet through the entire thing, he doesn't say anything just sits there, looking down.
"Dexter-" he cuts Elijah off.
"It's okay" he chuckles "I expected that to be honest"
"Doesn't mean it's right" Elijah mutters.
"He's just looking out for her, I get it" he shrugs "We all know River can get a little hot headed sometimes"
"Maybe, you should just stay off, for some time" Elijah advises.
"No, I'll wait" he smiles fondly "I'll wait till the time is right"
"Whatever floats your boat" Emily sighs walking into the cockpit.
"Hey Rune" She smiles looking at the beautiful view.
"Hey there" he cracks a smile at her and she takes the co-pilot's seat. "We'll land soon, you kids should get ready"
"Okay!" She enthuses before asking "Did you get any sleep, surely you weren't flying all night"
"Of course I didn't, what do you think I am" he lets out a hearty laugh "Auto pilot kid!"
"Ah" she nods "Okay"
Meanwhile inside the aircraft Skai walks into the bathroom as Dexter was washing the blood from his nose.
"Dexter, can we talk?"
"What's up?" He asks casually, no matter how much she hurt him, He couldn't seem to blame her, He tried to understand the circumstances, He tried to understand River punching him, he really tried. But it was seriously wearing on his patience, because he wanted her, he craved her and not even in a sexual way, even if it was just her presence he got to experience, he was fine with it, even if all they had was eye-contact he could bear with it, he just wanted her close.
He didn't know why or when he started to feel this way, but when he thinks about her, he forgets about all his problems.
"I'm sorry about River, his ego got the best of him" she explains.
"This isn't what I want, don't you get it? I don't care that River punched me... I just don't want you to keep avoiding me." He wanted to scream but instead he just mutters "It's fine."
"No, it's not" she sighs taking the piece of cloth from his hand and gently dabbing the injury.
Her sky-blue eyes seem to marinate into his emerald ones, anything he wanted to say before she looked into his eyes were caught in his throat, he quickly looks away.
"You know what you're doing right?" he groans frustratedly, and she lifts a brow confused.
"What are you talking about?" she asks.
"Stop playing with me Skai" he frowns looking back at her and she mirrors his expression.
"Dexter what are you talking about?" she asks seeming genuinely confused.
"You kiss me, then you tell me to forget about it, you pull me close then push me away, you told me to ignore you then you talk to me, Skai... pick. A. side." his eyes plead "You're hurting me"
She pulls him down in an attempt to kiss him and he pushes her away quickly afraid. She curses and drops the cloth and scurrying out of the room.
"Back to square one." Dexter mutters. He didn't know what's worse, the fact that he knew she was going to ignore him again or the fact that he was going to wait until she's comfortable with him again.
With her leaving the room, River walks in scratching the back of his head, the Ladistons always have weird ways of dealing with issues, of course Dexter was used to it, but that didn't mean it doesn't affect him.
"I'm sorry dude, it was instinct" he looks down sheepishly. "I shouldn't have hit you no matter what, I should have taken it into consideration that you're in fact not like the other guys, you're one of my best friends" he apologizes.
Dexter blinks at him for a second and laughs "did you rehearse that?" he asks River amused and River chuckles.
"We both know I'm awful at apologies" he laughs before turning serious "But I'm actually sorry for hitting you, look you can hit me back, a tooth for a tooth" he offers, it was their way of resolving issues.
"Nah I'm good" Dexter refuses the offer and River shrugs, just then Dexter takes him by surprise and punches him in return.
"Good one" he groans but laughs it off, lucky him, he isn't bleeding, worse comes to worst it'll leave a bruise.
"Guys we're here!" Emily yells out through the aircraft and the two boys make their way to the seating area where the others are.
"This might not be plausible but Skai, you have to go" Mr. Starling speaks up, having them all gathered in the seating area.
"What do you mean Skai has to go?" River asks him confused.
"We aren't in Widdledoc, we're in Zephyr, we need to get the ingredients and save your dad, so Skai, I hope you can walk now, because you'll be doing a lot of it" He informs her.
"Wait, wait, what?" she asks in bewilderment. "You can't just throw information out like that; you need to drop reasons" she demands.
"Look, Zephyr has tight security, if we rescue your dad first, he'll probably be injured, and you're the only other person that can gain the Royal family's attention besides him" Delarune tells Skai.
"What do you mean access into Zephyr" Skai asks, but he doesn't respond to her.
"We can't just leave Skai alone in Zephyr" Elijah speaks up to his dad.
"Fine you can all stay with her, but there's no time, I need to go get Kaito" His father agrees and for the first time they had known Mr. Starling they could see worry evident in his eyes.
"What's going to happen to Kaito?" Elijah asks as if he knew something was up.
"Terrible things" he trembles "Time is running out"
....
They had decided to stay in Zephyr while Delarune went to save Mr. Ladiston, unlike Hesperia, Zephyr didn't have gates it was more of a free roaming city, because it is in the sky.
"We should get to the palace" Elijah says.
"I think we caught on to that, babe" Emily chuckles.
Rune only told them that Skai should tell them who she was and that she was there to see princess Lethia.
They arrive at the palace soon enough, and the security was crazy, guards are stationed all around, and even some standing on the castle ridges.
They casually stroll towards the gate when one of the guards who was on the ridges flew down wings sprouting out of his back, upon landing in front of them, his wings disappear.
He stares at them saying nothing.
"U-" he cuts Skai off.
"Strangers are not allowed into the royal accommodation" he tells them firmly.
"Well maybe you can get us an audience" Skai speaks boldly to him.
"My men will have no problem taking a message to the royal family, but I have to warn you, they do not entertain visitors, it is best you book an appointment three weeks prior" he recites.
"Tell princess Lethia that Skai Ladiston, daughter of Kaito Ladiston is here to see her" Skai repeats what Mr. Starling had her memorize.
The guard jumps up with so much force that a gust of wind blows in their faces, and he is in the air again flying towards another guard on a ridge.
They waited for about half an hour, Seraphinius had begun to whine when a different guard came and proceeded to escort them into the castle.
"Talk about 3 weeks prior." Dexter scoffs.
"The princess would like to speak with Skai Ladiston alone" The guard tells them as they get to a sitting area.
He escorts Skai out of the room.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Emily whispers into Elijah's ear, while playing with Seraphinius who was jumping while holding both her hands.
"Yeah, I think I am" he looks over to River who is deep in conversation with Dexter.
"You can stop looking at me like that" River turns to face them, pausing whatever he was saying to Dexter. "I know" he looks down.
"Know what?" Dexter asks, looking at all of them, Emily had diverted her attention back to Seraphinius, clearly not wanting to be the one to break the news.
"That there's like a 40% possibility that Skai and I are related and an even lower chance that we're twins" he sighs.
"Actually, it's a 84% possibility that you guys are related and the chances that you guys are twins would be 1/10" Emily corrects him before turning back to her brother. "But seeing as Skai was called in alone without you, you're banking on a solid 0."
"Yay me!" River rolls his eyes in fake enthusiasm.
"Well" Dexter curses and just then a girl walks in, she is wearing a white angel-like dress. She has caramel brown skin, sky blue eyes and her hair is in a neat bun, something about her exuded peace and chaos in the same body, but all Dexter could see was peace.
"Blessed morning, you must be the guests, you are very welcome, my aunt sends her greetings and in spirit of so blessing you with a tour of our home" she welcomes them.
"Thank you, but that wouldn't be necessary" River responds politely to her.
'Who gives strangers a tour of their home anyways? I swear we meet weirder people by the day.' Emily thinks.
"Please just take the tour, I get out of Pegasus riding lessons today for doing this" She pleads with her eyes.
"Well can't have a princess begging, can we?" Emily whispers to them and they come to an agreement.
They stand up, letting her lead the way "I'm Nyxia Zyran, daughter of Arran and Liya Zyran, Granddaughter of King Khalil and Queen Wilhelmina Zyran" she says in one breath.
"Do you tell everyone you meet your ancestry line?" Dexter asks her and Elijah nudges him; they were all thinking about it, but they didn't see the need to voice it out.
Princess Nyxia laughs at it instead of taking offense like the others had expected "I have to, royal protocol" she informs them.
30 minutes into the tour and they're in the garden "Would you like to take a break and enjoy the flowers or continue?" she asks gracefully.
"Break please" Dexter answers for all of them and Elijah quickly takes notice of the way he looks at her, Dexter's eyes followed her like she was a masterpiece, but he wasn't into art.
That's the best way Elijah could describe it, she clearly reminded him of Skai.
The day goes by, and they offer the five rooms in the palace. Nighttime comes and still no word of Skai, Dexter had been talking to Nyxia since the tour was over.
"I swear that boy needs some sense knocked into him, wasn't he gawking over Skai just yesterday and now he's closely communicating with who might be her cousin." Emily mumbles walking into Elijah's room "Pfft boys."
"Sunshine" Elijah gasps in feign offense.
The rooms are huge, bigger than the ones in the Bolvera house, they had given each of them their own room.
"Anyways, what do you think Skai and princess Lethia are talking about?" Emily asks lifting Seraphinius onto the huge bed.
"I can climb" he groans, Seraphinius hates when people do things for him, but he also complains when they don't, he's a weird little fella.
"No idea, but if Dexter is trying to replace Skai with Nyxia, it's outright dumb" Elijah leans on the bedrest staring at Emily.
'Why'd she have to bring Phinius here, this is torture.' He couldn't help but think.
"Eli" Seraphinius draws out holding Elijah's face in his hands and he hums in response "why are you looking at my sister like you want to eat her?" he asks innocently making Elijah chuckle.
He takes his eyes back to Emily. "Because I do"
"Elijah Starling!" she throws a pillow at him causing him to burst into fits of laughter and Seraphinius to give them weird looks.
"I'm going to play with Rivvy, you two are weird" he runs away, leaving the door open.
"Should I shut door or are you going to do it" Emily asks, and Elijah lifts a brow up at her.
"Now why would we need to close the door?" he asks feigning confusion, and she gives him a look that says 'seriously?'
He chuckles in response "Don't worry sunshine, you don't have to do anything" he smirks standing up from the bed, sauntering over to the door.