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Shuriken’s head was rested on his sister’s shoulder, the two of them mostly out of it. It was rather late, for that matter, but it wasn’t unusual for them to stay up.
Neither were early birds like their brother Slingshot, who was always insistent on going to bed at the same set time every night, waking up at the same set time every morning. It was more so fall asleep when you’re tired, wake up when you wake up for them.
On the TV was a show that was mostly there for background noise, the two sharing a bowl of sour candy. Which was quite disgusting, especially considering it was midnight and the last thing on any normal inphernal’s mind then is eating something that makes your mouth pucker, but the both of them were craving something sweet.
And somehow, the only thing they had around the house— that Slingshot (hopefully) wouldn’t be using for any recipe— was sour candy they’d probably had lying around since last Halloween.
“These things suck.” Vinestaff muttered as the sticky sour dust coated her fingers, though as she said that she popped one into her mouth.
“Right.” He smiled. “But we’re both still eating them.”
“..They’re bad in a good way.”
Shuriken looked at her, rolling his eyes. “It’s one or the other!”
“Hehe. There are no rules.”
Shuriken took a humored breath, before pausing. “Can I ask you something kinda random?”
“I don’t think it can get much more random than eating expired candy on the couch past midnight.” She exhaled. “Hit me.”
“..Do you, ever think about our parents..?”
Vinestaff looked at him, almost as if to make sure she didn’t just make up that he said in her head. But his eyes were suddenly diverting her’s, lip sticking out like it always did when he felt anxious.
She turned her head, staring off into the TV, wishing she’d of been asleep by now. She couldn’t ignore the sound of her brother nervously fidgeting as he waited for a response beside her, so after a long while she finally mustered out the only thing she could think of. “Do you?”
“I don’t know.” He brought his knees up, hiding his mouth as he rested his chin on his legs. “I don’t remember their faces anymore.”
Vinestaff thought, and suddenly she wasn’t so sure she remembered theirs either. Her hand went to the side of her face, head leaning into it. She closed her eyes, remembering one of them, dark pink horns that had spikes like hers.
Their hand lingered on her face, before running down to her arm, straining to lift up the weight it was. Their eyes were blanked over— gone— just like they were, but a pitied frown was the last thing she ever saw of them, shaking their head.
“Oh, Vinestaff.” Their voice was honeyed, soft like a mother to her baby. “The curse you are.”
She remembers the other one, too. Red horns that were tall and broad, just like their stature, the one who led them to the place Darkage was. Did he know, when he left the two of them there, that their newspawn would be so shamelessly denied? Left to rot, left to fend for herself in a world she knew none the better?
She opened her eyes, those feelings of disdain lingering back into her soul, exhaling with great feat.
“One of them had pink-ish horns,like mine. The other had these two deep red, super close together horns flat in the middle of their head, big and tall.” She picked at her arm. “Does that sound familiar?”
Shuriken grabbed her hand to prevent her from picking away at her other arm, nonchalantly looking at it. “Maybe a little bit.”
“I know this isn’t the answer you want, but they’re not ones I reminisce on. And you shouldn’t either.”
“Why?” He looked sincerely at her, the fault of his poor memory tarnishing her mood.
“They left us to die, Shuriken.” She shook her head. “Left me to die.”
“..I..” Shuriken’s lip curled. “What do you remember?”
“Mom, she said.. just, something about my curse. And I remember dad leading us away. So it’s probably all my fault they left you.”
“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything.” He looked at her, quietly-yet-desperately trying to convince her.
“Curse of being alive.” She looked up. “At least you were safe in Darkage.”
“The only thing good that came out of that place was Sling. Nothing else.”
“You don’t have to lie.” Her voice was soft. “I ruined that for you, too. You were so good at everything you did there.”
“..I don’t care about those things.” He said, the thought painfully swirling in his stomach. “I’d rather be safe with you here than anywhere else without you.”
She wistfully smiled. “You’re too good to me.”
“Cause you’re good to me.” He went back to leaning on her shoulder, ironically idly beginning to pick at her hand that he was still holding. “Let’s drop this topic. Maybe we can talk about our top five favorite candies instead, or—“
“I already know all your favorite candies. Why is that your only conversation starter..?” She groaned, before she looked curiously at him. “It’s obvious there’s still something you wanna say.. cause you have a horrible poker face. Let’s get everything out so we never have to talk about these guys again, yeah?”
He guiltily paused, before letting the words flow out. “..I just don’t understand why would they spawn us.” His eyes were wide. “Why spawn any inphernal just to.. not take care of them?”
“I don’t know.” She mumbled. “I really wish I did.”
“..I’m still glad they did though.” He tapped his feet on the couch habitually. “Like, glad they spawned us.”
She looked sadly at him, though he was smiling. She let a smile enter her face as she tilted her head, waiting for him to spit it out.
“Cause even if they were kinda assholes..” He lightly drummed his fingers on her hand. “Without them, I wouldn’t have had you.”
Vinestaff looked at him, really looked at him, seeing the unfaltering sincerity in his eyes, and all of a sudden the thought of her caretakers at all left her mind, wrapping her brother into a tight hug. “I’m so glad I have you, too, dumb bug..”
“Hehe.” He hugged her back. “And.. I dunno. Even if they were in our lives, I think still the only good thing that’d come out of it would be you.”
“You’re too sweet for this world.” She exhaled out a relieved breath. “Were ya able to think of any memories?”
“Neh. First memory I can think of is.. someone giving me a hug, I think.”
“Really?” She seemed intrigued. “So do you think it was one of them?”
“Eh.” He shrugged. “I doubt it. The thing I remember about them is..” He paused, both of his hands going up to the sides of his hands with his pointer fingers stuck up. “Tiny pink horns.”
She thought about it a moment, before giggling, full of glee. “So I’m your first memory? Little old me?!”
“Yeah.” He looked all sentimental. “Back when we looked so alike.”
“Don’t worry. We still do.” She smirked. “People get you and I mixed up all the time.”
“Sureeee.., sure.” He grazed his hand across his horns. “Maybe I might let them grow out pink..”
“They’ll get halfway there before you panic and dye them right back to green, bug.”
“Hehe.” He sighed of a weight being lifted off his shoulders. “I’m so glad I have you, sprout.”
“Love ya, bug.” She stood up and stretched. “You wanna have this last piece of candy?”
“Naw. Maybe save it for Sling and drop it in his coffee, or something.”
“You’re so evil.” She nudged him with her leg as she walked past him, winning a small laugh from him.
She scavenged through their pantry as she walked by, excitedly making a noise. “Shuri! Look!”
He pushed himself up by the arm of the couch, looking over to see her proudly holding a big, colorful bag.
“Marshmallows!!!”
“Give me one!!” He almost fell off of the couch from the excitement he felt. “How didn’t you see those before?!”
“I dunno!!” She ran back to the couch, jumping back into her spot, excitedly ripping it open.
“..We’re not gonna get any sleep tonight, are we?” Shuriken asked, voice muffled thanks to a marshmallow he’d already stuck into his mouth.
“I thought we abandonded that idea back when we had those horrible sour candies..”
He paused to think, before shrugging and stuffing another in his mouth. “Yeah, that sounds right..”
Shuriken and Vinestaff were sleepily eating their breakfast after the night they had— right in their assumption that having a good sleep was no longer a plausible option.
Slingshot was diligently working in the kitchen, unbothered to even ask..
They watched as he opened the pantry, looking up and down for a while before his face contorted in confusion.
“You guys wouldn’t have seen any marshmallows, right?” He was completely naive to the actions of the ones who he trusted the most..
“……No?” Shuriken peeped out, which made Vinestaff burst out laughing so hard that Shuriken threw a nearby tissue box on her head.
“Gods..” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I could leave five thousand bux around you guys and it’d be safe but I can’t leave around any ingredient without you guys eating it!” His expression could only be described as appalled. “I could leave vanilla extract around and you guys would drink it!”
“We had to balance it out!” Shuriken retorted, casually shrugging.
“Ya! Cancel out the acidity with more sugar!”
“Please don’t tell me you guys ate those sour candies that are close to a half a year expired..”
“Uuuuh…” Vinestaff looked at Shuriken, hoping her other brother wouldn’t notice her tongue was still a shade of blue. “..You wanna come to the store to go buy some marshmallows with us..?”
Slingshot paused for a moment, a deadpan stare that made both of his siblings sweat, before he finally shrugged and smiled. “Sure. I keep on missing the fun stuff anyway.”
“So stay up with us tonight!” Shuriken got up and stretched, intent to change out of pajamas.
“Fine. I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah, we’ll even let you pick the movie.” Vinestaff proudly smiled.
“Yeah. Nothing scary though, please..” Shuriken disappeared off into his room.
“Please something scary!!” Vinestaff pressed her hands together excitedly, walking up to Slingshot. “You’re a nerd like me, right?”
She put her arms around his neck in a semblance of a hug, swaying him. He breathily laughed. “Just a little bit..”
“Did at least you have a good sleep, crumb?”
“Mm, yeah.” He leaned into her elbow. “What’d you guys talk about?”
“Just the past, I guess.” She hummed. “And.. candy. And marshmallows.”
“But everything’s okay?”
“Of course.” She tapped his nose. “And thinking about how glad we are to have each other. All the sappy stuff.”
“Hehe. I can’t wait for it tonight.”
Shuriken popped out of his room, a lazy but clean outfit on. “C’mon, I’m ready to go!”
“‘Kay.” Vine walked over to the door, slyly looking at Shuriken. “Oh, and we decided on a movie tonight.”
“..Which?” He didn’t trust her tone.
She slowly opened the door, before jerking her body towards him, raising her hand and making a claw with her fingers. “A scary one!”
“EEK!”