“If you don’t stop that now, there won’t be any dinner left for us.”
Viper gives a grumble before saying, “Go ahead without me. I’ll eat after I finish this.” She doesn’t even look at Reyna, her attention consumed by the thing she’s occupied with. It’s how she doesn’t see the duelist raise one eyebrow and look at another person standing by the lab’s doorway.
“Sabine,” comes a calmer voice. It makes the controller halt for a split second. She had to resolve not to be sidetracked by it. Her mistake, though, because the second time her name gets called is accompanied by a gentle hold on her shoulder.
“Sabine, you can continue that later. We will help you with it. For now, come have dinner with us,” Sage implores.
“No, I have to fix this,” Viper responds, hating herself for doing it. “I broke it, so I must fix it. Besides, it’s almost done,” she adds, hoping it will allay some of the concern.
“Why are you suddenly so obsessed with fixing that? It’s always been partially damaged, it’s no surprise it came off so easily yesterday.” Reyna remarks.
Viper thanks whatever higher being is out there that her back is towards them; she’s never gonna see the light of day if they notice the particular color dusting her cheeks at the moment. Damn Reyna for bringing that up when she’s so trying hard not to remember exactly how easily it came off yesterday.
‘Honestly, I barely pressed on it when I was about to-’ Viper cuts the thought off, shaking her head in the process.
Of course, Reyna and Sage both see what she just did. It brings a predatory grin on the duelist’s face, one that the healer is, uncharacteristically, quick to mimic.
“Oh, my dear Sabine,” the Mexican starts, “don’t tell me you’re embarrassed about that?” she asks in faux hurt.
“I thought you enjoyed what had happened yesterday. It seems I thought wrong.” The Chinese adds, expression the same as Reyna’s.
Sabine is about to backtrack, to tell them otherwise, but she catches the matching pout – or the exaggeration thereof. “You’re making fun of me,” she comments, unamused.
The two audibly gasp at the statement; Reyna even puts a hand over her chest. “And now you even accuse us of such cruelty! What did we ever do but try to please you, our beloved?”
“Oh, har dee har har, Reyna. Such an award-winning performance,” is the dry response.
This is exactly why she wants to fix the damn armrest of her chair. Seeing its broken state will always remind them of how the chemist made that possible. She sighs. She’s supposed to be a controller, yet look how out of control she can be.
“You are thinking too much about this.”
The sudden sound jolts Sabine. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen silent until she heard Sage speak.
“I just want a nice, whole chair,” she answers quietly.
“No, you just want not to have to explain to anyone why and how your chair has only one armrest.” Reyna corrects her.
“I-” Sabine starts to retort but can’t continue. Because Reyna’s right. She doesn’t want people coming in, seeing the state of her chair, and asking why it’s like that – even if she won’t really give them an answer apart from, “None of your damn business.” It’s the prying itself that she hates.
Sabine, this time, knows she’s turned quiet from thinking, so she’s not as surprised when she hears Reyna sigh.
“Just tell them that you didn’t realize your strength, that you got carried away by something,” the duelist says with a vague wave of her hand.
“And who’s fault was that?” is Viper’s question that she didn’t realize she’s asked out loud.
Reyna grins wickedly at her, “Compliment taken.”
Viper glares at her, making Sage giggle beside her. Viper glares at her too.
The healer then clears her throat. “Now, now,” she starts, “I think we have teased our beloved enough. I mean, she already broke the armrest of her chair when we overdid it yesterday; we do not want her to break the rest today, do we?”
And the deep red flush that colors Viper’s cheeks, mixed with her sputtering, sends Sage into another fit of giggle.
“‘Overdid?’ I say it was just enough. The knots on her back are finally gone, aren’t they?” Reyna points out.
Viper has half a mind to activate the poison defense mechanism she has installed in her lab. ‘And who’ll be the one left standing with a smug smirk then, huh?’
Honestly, how could she fall in love with two children?
“If you’re not gonna help, just go and have dinner.” She says crossly, having enough of the teasing already.
“Oh, come now, mi amor. We’re just trying to lighten up your mood. Of course, we’re gonna help. You know we’re very good with our hands,” the duelist says, winking at Sabine for good measure.
The chemist barely stops herself from flinging the chair towards the duelist.
Eventually, when the two have laughed all of their laughter (and Viper has groaned her lungs out), the three of them finish fixing the damned armrest.
Sage and Reyna beam at Sabine.
‘Children,’ the controller thinks again. “Proud of ourselves, are we?” she asks. And the two answer simultaneously with, “Always,” and “Very much so.”
Viper can only groan, for the nth time.