Chapter 1: Life After the Battle
“How about…Cricket?”
Aria groaned and rolled her eyes before shooting a glare towards the annoying entity that was known as her younger sister. However, from what it looked like said younger sister didn’t seem to notice the irritated look sent towards her direction. “I am not naming the baby Cricket Sonata.”
Sonata turned her body around from where she sat on the couch and pouted, giving her older sister a pitiful stare. “Aww…by why not? Cricket sounds cute and chirpy.” The younger siren crossed her arms and pointed her nose up into the air. “If you ask me, you could use some chirpiness in your life Ari.”
“That’s why I didn’t ask you in the first place.” Aria shot back. “You literally just sat down and started spouting off baby names.”
To be honest she didn’t really know what possessed her to spend the day over her sisters’ house. Sure she had a tendency to dismantle appliances whenever X went out for work out of sheer boredom, but he didn’t leave for work until night…and it was currently 12 PM. ‘Ugh…why can’t the day go by any faster!’
Of course staring at the clock above the TV wasn’t going to speed things up and neither was sitting down and having to drown out Sonata’s inane chatter and whatever stupid show she currently had the channel set to. Apparently, her younger sister felt that it would be best that she watched a bunch of maternity programs in preparation for her own childbirth in 1?...2?...uh…well…she knew that she had a month or two left so the number didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that she was pregnant and annoyed….and that was never a good combination when it came to her.
“Ugh! Can we watch something other than swollen humans bending down and making themselves look like bigger idiots than they usually are?” Aria asked, banging her head against the pillow that Sonata had set behind her body.
Of course, Sonata shook her head and firmly denied her request. “Uh-uh, can’t do that Ari. It is my duty as your younger sister to make sure that you know everything there is to being a mommy and I know everything there is to being the bestest aunt.”
Aria rolled her eyes. “Right…Bestest aunt….”
No matter how hard Sonata tried to do anything she would still forever be known as the “The Worst” in the eyes of her older sister.
Speaking of older sisters…
“Hey Sonata…where exactly is Ego Queen?” Usually, she would have burst into the room and start complaining about something that they did or something that they weren’t doing.
If there was one thing that Aria was extremely appreciative of concerning her pregnancy/marriage to X, it was the fact that she didn’t have to live with Adagio anymore. For some weird reason, her older sister had become extremely hostile towards her (though she did start as many fights with the arrogant siren so she was partly to blame…) and especially hostile towards X. Sure she did run away from them and get involved in some weird alien war that ended up supercharging her magic, but that wouldn’t have happened if Adagio didn’t keep screwing up and getting them into deeper holes than they were in before.
Aria crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes; it had always been like this with Adagio. She’d always come up with some scheme that would be half-thought out and supposed to place all three of them “on top” only to have said scheme blow up in their face and leave them high and dry. The worst part about it was that even though Adagio claimed that her various attempts at getting the world to adore them were for their benefit, they always involved her being rewarded slightly more than Sonata and herself.
‘As if she’d really do anything for our benefit…the only thing Adagio cares about is herself and her overblown ego.’ Aria thought as she half-heartedly glared at the television screen, completely forgetting that she had asked Sonata something beforehand.
So it was something of a surprise when Sonata suddenly got extremely close to her face.
“GAH!” She yelped, pushing the toothpaste haired siren a reasonable distance and unfortunately causing her to hit her head against the end table. “How many times have I told you to stay at least ten feet away from my face?”
“Sorry Ari…” Sonata replied, rubbing her head from where it had connected with the hard furniture. “But you had asked me about Dagi and then you started getting all sulky again...” Then again, when wasn’t she ever sulky? “Anywho, Dagi said that she won’t be back until later cause she has to work.”
Aria grunted and returned to “watching” the program. “Good. That means I’ll probably be out of here before she can come and start complaining about everything again.”
Even though she had come to get used to such behavior from her sisters, Sonata couldn’t help but frown every time they had a fight with one another. Sure they weren’t the best siblings in the world but they were the only two that she had when their parents died and they had been taking care of her ever since. Aria and Adagio not being on speaking terms had never really been much of a surprise to her but it never came to the point where both of them hated each other over it.
Regardless, it wasn’t really her place to say anything about it and so she tended to keep mouth shut on the matter.
“So uh…how is everything with X?” Sonata asked after a long moment of silence. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s fine,” Aria replied tersely, not really in the mood for small talk. Unfortunately, Sonata didn’t really seem to get the hint.
“Oh, that’s great, cause you know we… I mean I was worried that you weren’t happy like you usually are and uh…that’s bad.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Umm…I got another job the other day as a cashier at the supermarket!”
“That’s great.”
“But I uh…I ended up getting fired because I forgot how to use the machine and I kept giving people too much change…”
“That sucks.”
“You know…human technology can be SO hard to understand sometimes, like why do they have so many buttons that don’t do any–“
“Stop,” Aria interjected, holding a hand out in front of her sister’s face. She then proceeded to shift her body on the couch to get more comfortable before continuing. “What’s up with you?”
Sonata looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve been asking me a bunch of weird questions about X only to jump to whatever random topic that pops into your brain afterward.” Although considering this was Sonata she was talking about, this wasn’t anything new. The only difference is that she usually only talked about food. “Tell me what’s up with you. Now.”
Sonata flinched and looked away from her older sister, scanning the room for objects of interest other than their current conversation. “Nothing! Nothing is wrong with me at all! I’m just…hungry!” Yup! Nothing having an afternoon meal made doing everything just a wee bit harder for her and she wouldn’t stop asking suspiciously specific questions until she had something to much on.
Aria pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. Why did having to get a straight answer have to be so hard sometimes? “Okay first, I know that you’re lying to me…well at least about nothing being wrong with you.” Her sister was always hungry regardless of what was going on. “Second, if you don’t tell me what’s wrong with you I’m going to get up and eat all of the fish you have in the house.”
The younger siren’s face contorted into one of horror. “No! You can’t do that!” Fish was her favorite food and without it, she would surely never last throughout the night, let alone the hour. If Aria did eat all of the fish in the house then she would be disowned from being her sister and never be allowed to partake in the glorious activity that was watching cartoons at ungodly hours of the morning.
“I can and I will if you don’t start talking.” Of course, Aria was only bluffing. After all, she was pregnant and apparently eating seafood is a big red-flag for humans while they were with child. Giving up seafood and her precious sushi was the hardest thing that she had to do besides walking…and sleeping…and showering…and pretty much every single part of pregnancy that had her stuffed like Sonata’s cheeks during breakfast. “The choice is yours.”
“Okay! Okay!” Sonata exclaimed, collapsing onto the sofa and clasping her hands together in dramatic fashion. “Just please don’t eat off the fish…I need them in my tummy…”
“Yeah, yeah whatever…now spill.” The sooner they could stop talking about this, the sooner she could fall asleep while pretending to watch TV.
“Well…since you and X moved into your house Dagi hasn’t been all that good,” Sonata confessed, sighing as she leaned her head against her hand. “She’s always working and coming back home angrier than she was in the morning and every time I try to make her feel better she always gives me the look she used to give to you.”
Aria scoffed and rolled her eyes. “So? Adagio is in one of her moods again, big deal. Just ignore her and eventually she’ll get bored and start talking to herself in the mirror.”
Sonata shook her head vigorously. “No, it’s different now. She doesn’t talk or say anything to me. All she does is come inside and go straight to her room like how you used to do.” A frown then came over the usually chipper siren’s face, signaling just how frustrated she was by this apparent “problem”. “She doesn’t even notice when I make shrimp for dinner. All she does is get mad at me and tell me to clean up the kitchen!” Granted, she tended to make more messes in the kitchen rather than miracles so it was pretty understandable why the eldest siren would be vexed with her from time to time.
“Okay?” Aria grunted, a little more annoyed by Sonata’s explanation than she had reason to be. “If Adagio is angry and not talking to anyone, locking herself up in her room when she clearly doesn’t want to talk then HOW is this an issue that involves me?”
There was a brief pause before the youngest siren spoke up once more. “Well, I don’t really know…but I think it’s because she misses you Ari…” She knew that her sisters would never admit to such a thing but they did care about one another. After all who spends over 1,000 years being together without having some sort of fondness for the other? That being said, her sisters were very prideful and never wanted to be viewed as being weak, a fact that was more present with Adagio than Aria. It was because of their pride that they had their spats in the past and it was because their pride they were having one now.
All things considered…said spat was more one-sided seeing as how Aria was more or less somewhat content with how her life was at this point.
Aria groaned and slumped against the couch, her stomach now obscuring the view of the TV. “Ugh…look Sonata, I don’t know how to help you or whatever with Adagio. I mean…if she’s not talking to you about it then don’t you think it would be best if you just dropped it and get out of her hair?” Something that was easy enough to do as long as she wasn’t pestering you. “I mean…what exactly do you want me to do?”
It was at that moment Sonata began to bite the nail on her pinkie finger, an action she usually did whenever she was nervous about something or someone. “Uh...w-well…could you…you know…come back and live with us?”
And there it was…As soon as Sonata began to speak she knew that their conversation was going to involve something that was either: A) ridiculous, B) impossible or C) both ridiculous AND impossible. It was like her sister was born to literally suggest or make her life and decisions harder than it needed to be.
“You know for a fact that I can’t come back Sonata,” Aria muttered as she struggled to move back into a comfortable position. “I’m about to have a kid and I’d rather raise it somewhere Adagio can’t infect it with her ego.” It would only take one day of her walking into the bathroom and catching her kid spending hours looking in the mirror to lose all hope. “Also, where am I going to sleep?”
“You can have your old room back!” Sonata protested, clearly not wanting to drop the issue anytime soon. “We still have a lot of your old stuff in there and there’s enough room for you and X to both share!”
Aria merely raised an eyebrow. “And what about the baby? I mean I’m not fat right now because I want to be fat.”
“Umm...uh…we can let the baby sleep in my room?”
“No,” Aria stated firmly. “I’ve already left the house and I’m not coming back. Even if I wanted to come back it wouldn’t solve anything with Adagio’s attitude, that’s something she’s just going to have to get over on her own.”
Sonata raised a finger in order to make a rebuttal but found that she didn’t have any. After all her middle sister was right; sure Aria coming back would definitely help her feel better (not to mention that she would be able to watch and play with the baby more often once it was born) but it wouldn’t do anything about their older sister. If anything it would make things worse considering that Adagio felt like X ruined the balance that was within their little family.
“Oh…okay…” Sonata finally uttered after a few minutes. “You don’t have to come back…but can you at least visit more often? …I miss you.”
Aria rolled her eyes and looked away from Sonata, not really wanting to have this emotional moment…or whatever this conversation was becoming. “Yeah sure whatever…I’ll come and visit whenever I’m bored or something…”
“YAY!” Sonata exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her sister and squeezing tight, much to Aria’s chagrin. “Oh thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
“Hey, HEY! Baby still on board here remember?”
Sonata immediately let go of Aria’s midsection and snapped her arms to the side, fearful of the elder siren’s retaliation. Fortunately for her, Aria merely grunted and returned to her quest of finding the most comfortable position to watch TV on the couch.
The rest of the day continued in a similar manner barring the few times Aria had moved from the couch to go use the bathroom (which occurred quite frequently) to Sonata moving from the living to either get toys or retrieve a snack of some sort from the kitchen (with the latter happening more often than the former). Sure it wasn’t anything special but Sonata enjoyed moments like this where she could just sit down and spend quality time with her sister. Yeah, they weren’t talking much and the programs on TV were admittedly pretty boring to watch but as long as she and her older sister got to hang out should be ok–
“Sonata how many times do I have to tell you to NOT leave your shoes in front of the door?”
…At least it should have been okay if Adagio hadn’t arrived home from work, clearly irritated by the events of her laborious day.
Sonata scratched her head and tried to count how many times she had been lectured but gave up when she realized that all the fingers and toes in the world couldn’t keep track. “Uh…a lot?”
“Yes…and it seems like nothing that I’m telling you sticks.” Adagio groaned as she took off her dress shoes and set down her purse. “The only thing that even seems to sticks in that scattered mind of yours are the various times you decide that you need to engorge yourself with everything in the fridge.”
“That’s not true!” Sonata protested. “I remember…sometimes. This time I forgot because Aria came over and you always told me that whenever guests come over to make sure that I am a decent host.”
Adagio rolled her eyes and took off her suit jacket “It’s good to see that you’ve actually retained something considering that you’re usually too busy stuffing your face to listen to something as simple as no eating in the living room.”
Ten seconds had passed since the eldest Dazzling’s arrival and she was already more irritated than she was before. It wasn’t enough that she had to deal with morons not realizing that she was conning them out of a cheap price for automobiles at the dealership, but she also had to come back home and deal with her youngest sister’s forgetfulness and naivety, something that wouldn’t bother her as much considering that she would normally bother Aria whenever she had questions. Unfortunately, Aria had decided to go off and screw around with her new kaiju/alien friend while she was left to fend for both Sonata and herself.
It was a good thing that she decided to save up most of the profit that they gained over the years seeing as how with Aria’s moving out and Sonata’s inability to hold down a job for more than a few months she was once again tasked with being the main caretaker of their little family.
At this point she was about ready to pull out clumps of her hair in utter frustration.
“I assume that you two have been having fun while I slaved around and at least tried to generate some form of income?” Adagio asked, taking a few sips from her wine glass.
“Mmm-hmm!”
“As fun as watching pointless programs about grunting could be…”
Adagio rolled her eyes and picked up her belongings, heading into the direction of her room. “Good for you; I’ll be in my room for the rest of the night so make sure that you don’t leave any crumbs on the couch.”
“Wait where are you going?” Sonata asked, turning around in her seat only to face her sister’s retreating form.
“Didn’t you hear me? I’m going to be in my room…and I don’t want to be bothered so please do your best to not need me.”
Sonata found that answer unacceptable and hopped off the couch in order to stand in front of her sister and impede her progress. “I know that, but why do you want to do that when we’re all together again?”
“Correction,” Adagio interjected. “You and Aria are momentarily together, I know for a fact that once she grows tired of being here again she’ll run off to the arms of the alien again.”
By this point, Aria had had enough of her sister’s moaning and finally decided to make her irritation vocal. “So now it’s a problem for me to go back home?”
“Did I ever say anything along the lines of what you’re implying Aria? No. I simply stated that once you’re tired of being around us you’ll simply abandon us just like you always do.” Adagio replied coolly.
“I’m MARRIED now Adagio. I don’t have to follow any of your schemes anymore.” Not to mention that said schemes usually failed and left them in a worse position than they were in before. “Do you really need people to boss around that much to make your life better?”
Adagio’s expression contorted in annoyance before settling back to its normal haughty display. It was clear that Aria’s comment had clear struck a nerve with the elder siren. “It’s not like you have ever listened to orders in the first place. Every single time I suggest we go left, you want to go right. Whenever I want to walk you always want to run, it’s like rebelling was simply ingrained into your DNA.”
“I don’t rebel, I just don’t do things when I know they’re stupid.” Aria shot back. “Unlike you Adagio I don’t get some weird thrill from putting myself in danger, I’d actually like to stay alive. But you know what? A good 90% of your ideas always end up with us worse off than before!” Like the whole Rainboom attack, sure in hindsight, it was a good plan to try and siphon the energy from those six girls so that they could recharge their gems and for a while, they were actually winning!
Then that Sunset Shimmer girl intervened and screwed up everything, putting them back to square one minus their gems.
Adagio growled and clenched her fists. “And you do any better? Yes, let’s run towards the giant dangerous space monsters and get them to give me powers because THAT will never backfire for me. Except for OH WAIT, it did and all of us nearly got killed for it!”
Words couldn’t have described the feelings of dread that went through her chest when she saw Aria get captured by that glowing, monster-beast. It was if a thousand years of her own mistakes had converged into one single moment and punished her with the force of getting blasted by rainbows.
“What’s worse is that you ended up falling in love with the alien even though he’s the most likely candidate to bring your death!”
There was a tense moment of silence as Adagio’s last statement seemed to echo throughout the walls of their small house, all three of the sirens looking at one another with varying expressions. Adagio was looking at Aria with anger and feelings of betrayal while Aria responded with her own look of disgust and resentment. Meanwhile, Sonata idly stood by, distraught that once again her sisters were on the verge of completely hating each other.
“You know what?” Aria uttered, moving off from the couch. “Screw this, I don’t need to hear any more from you. I’m going home.”
“Wait! You can’t go home just yet, we didn’t finish watching our movie together!” Sonata exclaimed while rushing to try and impede her older sister from leaving the house. “Can’t you hang on for a few more minutes?”
“And deal with more of Adagio’s attitude? No thanks, I’ll pass.” As long as her sister believed that she had somehow “abandoned” her for X she didn’t want to be anywhere near her, which was kind of upsetting considering that a lot of the time she didn’t come around to see Sonata because Adagio always had some gripe about her leaving.
She had honestly believed that the eldest siren would have gotten over her leaving after enough time but then realized it stupid of her to think so. After all, Adagio was the same person who plotted to ruin a hair stylist’s life for two months after said stylist cut off a little more hair than she had asked for.
Muttering curses to herself about how much of an annoyance it was to get off the couch, Aria began to search her pockets and the couch cushions for phone only to groan in frustration once she realized that she had left it on the nightstand back home. “Ugh…I hate human technology…” She grumbled before turning to her younger sister. “Hey let me use your phone to call X.”
Sonata looked at her phone with trepidation before picking it up and clutching it towards her chest, shaking her head in refusal as she did so. “Uh-uh. No way, if I give you the phone you’re going to call X and then I’ll never see you again.”
“That was the plan Sonata,” Aria replied, holding her hand out for the phone. “Now stop being stupid and give it to me.”
“No!”
Oh for the love of. “Right now isn’t the best time to be annoying Sonata, give me the phone so we can all get on with our lives.”
Adagio groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose; she could only tolerate so many sources of idiocy and she had already reached her quota a long time ago. Taking matters into her own hands she commanded Sonata to give up the phone so that she didn’t have to go through another bout of them throwing childish insults back and forth at one another. “Sonata, give her the phone so she can go home.”
Sonata looked back at Adagio as if she had been betrayed. “But…but…if she leaves then she’s never going to come back.” And while Adagio might have accepted the idea of their sister not being around anymore, she refused to do such a thing.
“And will keeping her here under hostage make her want to come back any more than before? Now I understand that this may be hard for you to comprehend but our dearest sister feels as if she doesn’t need us anymore and would be better off if we didn’t interfere in her daily matters.” Adagio explained sarcastically. “It would be in her best interest that we did what she wanted and simply left her to her own devices.”
Aria rolled her eyes and shot Adagio a look; leave it to her older sister to go and twist everything to a way that painted everyone but herself as the bad guy. Never did she once say that she wanted to have no form of contact with her sisters because she knew that in the deepest pits of her soul she cared for her sisters. After all, she had spent over a thousand years with them and while Sonata did annoy her more than any other being in existence and Adagio always found ways to aggravate and get under her skin, they were still the only family she had left. If she were to completely abandon them then she would truly be alone in the world. Sure, she now had X and she was definitely grateful for that fact but it would have been very heartbreaking if she was the only siren trapped in the human world, let alone in existence.
“…Alright…I’m gonna give up the phone now…” Sonata uttered after a long moment of silence. “…but if you’re never coming back can we at least come to visit you at your house?” Just because her sister didn’t want to come back to visit them didn’t mean that she didn’t want to see her.
“Yeah…you can come over or whatever I don’t care…” Aria muttered as she tried to remember X’s phone number, cursing when she got a hold of a telemarketer. “…I hate telemarketers…”
Sonata’s eyes widened and in her excitement she wrapped her arms around her sister from behind, forgetting her protests from earlier. “For realsies?! You mean it?!”
Aria yelped and immediately began prying Sonata’s arms way from her middle, clearly annoyed by her sister’s need to always make physical contact with her. “Yes! Yes I mean it now *grunt* get off of me!”
Adagio merely shook her head at her sister’s antics. “Right...you two have fun saying your goodbyes, I’m going to retire into my bedroom so make sure you lock the door behind Aria when she leaves Sonata.”
Feeling as though there wasn’t any point in staying to see her sister out Adagio retreated back into her room to get some much-needed peace and quiet. She was still a little more than peeved from her earlier spat with Aria and wanted to calm down her aching head before she was tempted to kill something.
As she sat down upon her mattress her mind began to replay the events that had led to her current situation. The Battle of the Bands had happened almost two years ago and the results of said battle still haunted her to this very day. They had won; they had the Rainbooms in their sights and were so close to attaining the power to live out the rest of their lives comfortably.
Then Sunset Shimmer happened.
She had thought that the former queen bee of Canterlot High would have heeded their warnings about getting involved with their conflict against the Rainbooms but instead, she decided to go out of her way and help them even when they had more or less threw her away like an empty bag of chips. One thing led to another and she and her sister's found themselves taking the full brunt of a light magic blast fueled by the power of five magic-infused teenagers, and alicorn-princess turned human and one annoying (former) unicorn apprentice posing as a teenager.
The results of that battle were probably her worst defeat since Starswirl except much, much worse. At least with Starswirl, they were all left with their gems intact, but now? They were not only stuck in the human world, they had no magic, they had to work and rely on human food for sustenance and they were father away from returning home than they were before. Naturally, it didn't take long before an argument between Aria and herself to break out for whose fault it was for their loss and while she did eventually own up to her role in their banishment, she refused to accept responsibility for the loss of their gems.
'...It doesn't matter whose fault it was...none of this would have happened if you had listened...'
There it was again, another reminder of her failure. No matter how hard she tried to bury her conscience under work, hobbies and regrettably the consumption of alcohol, it never failed to remind her of her past deeds.
'Does it matter now? It happened, it's in the past...that old, shriveled up unicorn is a rotting corpse and I'm the one who's still alive. He's irrelevant and shouldn't be mentioned.'
'...You say that he's irrelevant...yet you're still the one who brought him up...Your constant defeats have wounded and damaged your pride...time and time again...'
Adagio rolled her eyes and sat up from her mattress and head over to her vanity mirror, sitting down and wiping off her makeup. 'Really? Has it? I wasn't aware that being banished from my home and losing the source of my magic wouldn't hurt me in the slightest...' Why would anyone even make such an obvious statement?
'...Pride isn't the only thing that you possess that has been damaged...your relationship with your family has been damaged too...and yet...you do nothing to try and rectify it...'
'What's there to rectify? Aria has already run off with the alien and Sonata is content with sitting down and watching cartoons while I go out and try to take care of the bills. However, do I ever get any gratitude for watching over them? No. Does anyone actually appreciate the countless years I've sacrificed to make sure that they didn't run off and get themselves killed? No, they don't. Instead, everyone loves to point fingers at me whenever things go wrong like I'm the one always at fault!' Now she was starting to get upset, which was ridiculous considering that she was talking to no one.
'...You should not take their accusations for their full value...your sisters only do that because they're scared and they look up to you for answers...In many ways they expect you to know how to right the various wrongs that occur...'
Adagio snorted and picked up a cloth to wipe the last traces of makeup away from her face. 'Even with all of the goodwill and direction that I've given them for centuries, those two would still abandon me in a heartbeat...' She paused and looked at the mirror. '...Aria has already done it...what's to stop Sonata from leaving me all alone?'
There was a long pause where Adagio waited for her conscience to make its rebuttal but eventually gave up and sighed once she realized how pointless such an activity was. After all, she was arguing with her own conscience which basically amounted to her arguing into a mirror and making angered expressions to herself.
However, just because her conscience was a part of her didn't mean that she actually had to believe in it.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
X had arrived at the Siren House fifteen minutes after he got the phone call from Aria demanding that he come and get her immediately. From the sound of her voice on the phone, he could have only assumed that one of two things happened; Sonata had finally worn down on his wife’s patience or Adagio and she had gotten into an argument...
Based off of prior experience he was leaning more towards the latter…
“I assume that your time with your siblings went well?” He has asked once Aria had hopped into the front seat of the car.
“Meh.”
X raised an eyebrow before shifting the car out of park and pulling out onto the main road, intent on heading home. “I am to guess that your ‘meh’ meant that it was bad?”
Aria shrugged her shoulders and leaned against the window of the car, blowing a strand of hair out from her face. “What can I say that’ll be different; Sonata still can’t shut up while I’m watching TV and Adagio is still Adagio...”
“You do realize that such an answer is needlessly vague and doesn’t really supply me with any idea of how you’re feeling or how your day went?”
An amused grin came over Aria’s face. “Hey pot, meet kettle.”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” X inquired, taking a moment to give his diminutive wife a sidelong glance before returning his focus back onto the road. It didn’t take him long to realize that while the automobiles humans drove was an effective mode of transport, that didn’t mean that said vehicles were invincible and such inattentiveness usually resulted in deadly consequences.
“Don’t act like you don’t do the same thing X.” Aria countered. “I’m not the one who has some weird obsession with watch those stupid sci-fi movies and quoting them like it’s some sort of otherworldly, sage advice.”
X’s expression morphed into that of mock astonishment; if that wasn’t a sting towards his interests then he didn’t know what was. “I wasn’t aware that my watching movies were a bad thing. Wasn’t it you that said that I needed to develop some sort of hobby besides training and meditation?”
Aria scoffed. “I didn’t think you would seriously do it! I was just bored waiting for you to stop pretending to meditate and actually wake up from your nap.” As much as X would deny that he never slept whenever he meditated she knew better than to believe that he never fell asleep during his meditation.
One does not remain ignorant of their roommate destroying the toaster unless they were sleeping.
“I thought you were going to do something like make some sort of gravity machine…or whatever, not go on a weekend-long marathon of nerdy movies and geek culture.” Sure, she didn’t really care what anyone thought about her but she did realize that she had somewhat of a “tough-girl” reputation to hold up.
“You are making this much more personal than reason would dictate,” X replied smoothly. “There is no need for me to create a gravity machine when I already control gravity and the movies help me unwind. If you have a problem with my tastes then that’s just too bad, you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
Aria crossed her arms, muttering annoyances under her breath about good-for-nothing kaiju’s and their smart mouths.
“Clearly something or someone is bothering you,” X stated, breaking the silence that had befallen them, once they reached a stoplight he craned his body slightly so that he was facing directly towards the siren. “Are you going to tell me about it or are you going to continue sulking instead?”
“I’m fine.”
“No, clearly you’re not.” X insisted firmly. “By now you would have complained about how seatbelts were designed to purposely aggravate you.”
“…”
“…Is it about your older sister?” He asked after said wife neglected to comment yet again.
“What do you think?”
X sighed and pressed his foot down as the light at the intersection finally turned green, leaving the crowded junction before an irate driver voiced their opinion on him taking his time. “I think that the sun rises, day becomes night and grass is green. In other words, nothing different from what I usually expect from when you visit your relatives.”
“Yeah well…I don’t want it to be that way.” Aria huffed, grimacing as her head connected against the window after the car ran over a pothole. “Grr…stupid seatbelts that don’t do anything for you…”
X noticed the sadness that ebbed slightly within her tone, while he wasn’t familiar with the nature of the three sirens relationship it was clear that all three of them valued their opinions more than anyone else they knew, which was understandable. The three sisters had spent numerous centuries with one another and only had themselves to depend on, so naturally, they’d like to be on good terms.
“Hmm…I’m going to assume that trying to talk things out have failed.” He murmured, quickly checking the rear-view mirrors before turning his death machine as Irys called it. “Or have you even bothered trying to address it all.”
Aria crossed her arms and snorted. “Of course not. You of all people should know that I don’t do the whole “talking things out” and neither do my sisters…well at least Adagio.” Sonata always had something to say regardless of how inane or irrelevant said topic might have been. “Besides, how well do you think things will go when I know she’s mad at me because I’m with you?”
And there it was, the confirmation that X needed to properly assess his opinions about the situation. He already had his assumptions about his union with Aria bothering her sister long before they began their relationship. It wasn’t hard to figure out how someone like Adagio would respond to a dramatic change in their lifestyle, regardless if it didn’t directly affect her or not. It was one thing for him and Aria to become husband and wife, but it was another thing entirely for him to get said siren pregnant.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“No,” Aria stated firmly.
“Then what would you like me to do?”
There was a brief pause as X patiently listened for her response, the only sounds being heard were the various honks and sputtering of cars driving past them. Eventually, he heard a sigh as Aria shifted around in her seat, resting her elbow against the passenger door frame.
“...I...I don’t know…” She eventually replied, her voice sounding much older than what her appearance would suggest. “Adagio has always been like this, so yeah I don’t expect her to be happy about you knocking me up…but at the same time the little goober is still living with her and unlike me, she doesn’t know how to deal with Adagio’s attitude.” After all, this was the same sister who would call them relentlessly if they were one minute late coming home.
“… I guess I feel like it’s my fault for breaking up the family this time…”
In the time that Aria had confessed her thoughts and feelings, X had pulled into the driveway of their house. Now that they were home and not on the road in danger of colliding with the reckless drivers that were humans, he could finally give his full undivided attention to his wife’s current discomfort.
“If something as simple as you having a child breaks whatever connection you had with your sisters then all of you aren’t as close as you’d think.” He held out a hand before Aria could interrupt him. “Let me finish. I am aware that you three have been together long before I was even born, however, letting something like this become between all of you is foolish on all parts. You and your sisters should be rejoicing that a new member of your family will soon arrive.”
“Yeah but what about you?!” Aria snapped, clearly irritated by X’s assumptions. “The whole reason why Adagio is butthurt is because you’re in the picture.”
X shook his head. “Me being the reason for her…butthurt…has everything to do with herself. That’s just something she’ll have to deal with on her lonesome. However, you aren’t helping by not visiting them more often.”
“What? How?”
“Today was the first time you’ve visited your sisters in three weeks, no?” X interrupted. “You can’t expect your sisters to stop being angry with the current change in life by avoiding them. Just because with me now, doesn’t mean you should stop visiting. To be honest, I was surprised when you decided to visit today.”
Aria scoffed and turned her head away from X, trying her best to seem nonchalant. “Yeah well…I figured Sonata would cry if I went another week without visiting so…whatever.”
X rolled his eyes, amused by his wife’s response. He would never understand her need to seem uncaring as possible but he guessed that was one of the many things that attracted him to her in the first place.
“Right…well it wouldn’t hurt for you to allow your sisters to come and visit from time to time. For your own good.”
“Yeah, yeah…whatever I’ll do it you butt.” Aria replied dismissively. “Just don’t be surprised if Sonata brings in a suitcase and starts living here.”
“I mean it Aria. Invite them over. Don’t and I will personally make it my mission to make our unborn child addicted to those sci-fi movies that you hate.”
Aria grimaced and gave X a look of betrayal. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I dare.”
“Ugh! Fine.” It was times like this that she hated the alien kaiju and regretted training with him all those years ago. “Just know that I hate you.”
X smiled and kissed Aria on the lips before helping her out of the car. “I know. I hate you too.”