belladonna;

Val playfully rolled his eyes at her sing-song tone and her teasing. “Quite a collector,” he said with a chuckle. “Oh because I’ve been around, in and out of town, collecting things for the museum and my personal collection. It might make you drool-I have many things no one has ever seen before.”

"Oh, see...that’s the problem. I avoided this so called safe haven as long as I could. I was always out of town. Up until, obviously, when the world went nuts again.” She couldn’t wait for humans to forget again so things could go back to normal and she could live her favorite kind of lifestyle. “If that’s true, I might rob you,” she teased. 

“Let’s have us some fun tonight.” Or at least the tamer kind of fun he had to practice more in this town. “You ever played two truths and a lie? I’ll buy us some rounds if you’re into it. What do you say?”

Ariella eyed the man curiously at the suggestion. Did she want to play a silly game? Not really. Did she want a free drink? Almost always. “Depends. Are we playing just for fun or will the winner get something in the end?” 

The question confused her for a moment before she shook her head, chuckling. “Nope, not vervained at all,” she answered. If they were, then she wouldn’t be here or near her father’s things. “Just too smart for me to outsmart me each time we play this game.”

He’d dealt with rude people, several times over the course of his life. They didn’t tend to bother him so much as they made him slightly curious. He’d been taught to be polite because that was how people should be; yet those people were not. He couldn’t help but wonder why, even if only a little.

“Sad.” he eventually agreed, “But not for long. I will deal with it and go back to normal.” Well, normal for him anyway. He turned to looked at her, properly this time, “I don’t want to talk about it.” he explained, “It makes getting back to normal a lot harder.” His mother tried to make him do it some times; it never ended well.

“Oh, honey,” she began, in a slight sing-song tone of voice. “How’s that working out for you so far, hm? Because dramatically lying on a park bench and...what? Conjuring butterflies up? That’s not really dealing with anything or getting back to normal. It’s called wallowing.” Again, she wasn’t here to coddle anyone. 

She sighed and shook her head, trying to think of a better way to approach the situation. It had been so long since she’s considered another’s feelings that it took a moment or so. “The best medicine for sadness is distraction. Why don’t you go play a video game or whatever kids do these days.” 

“No. Of course not!” he said looking aghast. “And you’re not allowed to stab people on Halloween either.” he added as clarification. 

She let out a long, dramatic sigh at his answer. “Fine,” she huffed. “I won’t stab anyone if you don’t start all the Halloween BS until October,” she offered, as though she was doing him a favor. 

She nodded. Mina needed all the help she could get from winning hide and seek from her cousins-and going through her father’s things to get the sword was worth it. “Of course,” Mina answered with a nod. “It’s very huge and has a lot lof things I didn’t even know existed.”

“Who was it?” she asked her, a grin on her lips. “And is that so, does someone have a little crush?” she added teasingly. 

“Jack Wilde, do you know him?” She laughed at the ridiculousness girl’s question. “Please, no. He’s fun to party with but a crush? What am I; a human child?” 

“There were also nicer ways.” Chou endeavoured to be polite when possible but right now he was struggling with much else beside forcing down a great deal of unexpected emotion he was not prepared to deal with. “No, I don’t.” And he’d prefer not to; Chou was quite aware of his propensity to hide in the face of difficulty.

He lifted his head slightly to meet the other’s gaze, “Yes.” he gave a barely-there nod only to tilt his head at the advice she gave. “I’m not sulking.” he eventually spoke, “I’m not angry. And I will be fine… I simply need to… adjust.” he wasn’t sure what the word for it was but he just needed to wait till the uncomfortable feeling faded, he’d done it before.

Ariella shrugged her shoulders lightly, hardly considering the fact that he was right. She could beat around the bush, try to pick and choose her words as carefully as possible and make sure no one ever got their feelings hurt. But she wasn’t here to coddle anyone. Though she was getting the feeling that Chou has never not been coddled. 

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes when he continued to disagree with her. “Fine, not sulky. How about...glum? Hm? Or...sad?” She offered, though she was sure he’d continue to disagree. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the boy. “What happened? And how long has it been?” 

Val gave her a little look when she informed him of not needing a throne to wear a crown. “If I don’t need a crown, what do I need?” he asked curiously as he chuckled. “She did, and she would’ve been my wife if she didn’t go after King Henry,” he said with a little sigh. “Many things-an array of swords, ancient sculptures, even some of Marie Antoinette’s jewels she’d happily gave me before she didn’t want them. I also have many crowns and a cloak or two that I stole from Ivar the Great.”

“Well, if you need someone to tell you then you’re clearly not meant to wear a crown,” she answered, ending in a bit of a sing-song tone. A chuckle escaped when he mentioned marrying Anne Boleyn. “In your dreams.” She didn’t believe him in the least. “Wow, you’re either quite the collector or quite the thief. How have we never crossed paths until now?”  

“I mean, June is almost over.” he grinned. “We can start thinking Halloween now, right?” 

“Hm, depends,” she began to answer, tilting her head to the side as though she was actually considering his question. “Am I allowed to start stabbing people?” 

Chou didn’t outwardly react to the woman’s cruel words, but they did cause several more butterflies to join the small swarm fluttering about. “I don’t want to answer that question,” he eventually said quietly, “And that was a horrible way to ask it.” Most who’d lived in Hollow Grove the last twenty years would have heard about what happened to his father, to him, even if they didn’t know him directly…

Too much to talk about, to think about. “Why did you ask that question so cruelly?”

“Is it?” She questioned, cocking her head to the side. “There are definitely worse ways to have asked,” she added after a moment, already having examples of those worse ways at the ready. She decided against giving any, as that clearly would only cause him to bum her out even more. “Oh, kid...if you think that was cruel, you know nothing of the real world.” 

She moved from behind the bench to the front, kneeling down to be face to face with him. “Chou, right? I’m going to give you a little free advice. If you want to survive in this world, you have to forget about your emotional connections to others. Now, stop sulking.” 

“I didn’t…I don’t have a throne so I can wear the crown…” Val said, sobering up quickly and just nodded. ‘Well, um, wanna follow me to my house so you can get it from my collection?” he asked as he started to walk towards his house. “That is true-I once asked Anne Boleyn for a dance, but she never came back to me for it.” he mused with a sigh.

“You don’t need a throne to wear a crown,” she informed him, as though it was completely obvious. Ariella didn’t make a habit of following just anyone. But in the case of receiving the once promised crown, she was willing to let down her guard a little bit. “In Anne’s defense, she had a lot going on,” she pointed out, following beside him. “So, what else do you have in this private collection of yours?” 

‘Well, I do work at the museum…” Mina answered. “And nope, not a toy, my father was once a huge curator for the museum in New York and a huge collector-he got Charlemagne’s sword in his office and he would show it to me and my sibings from time to time.”

“Atleast you are finally starting to see the light.” she said with a laugh leaving her lips. “So you did bid, huh? How did that go for you?” 

“Better late than never, right?” She joked. “Oh, you know, it really wasn’t so bad. I got a pretty nice basket and the guy behind it wasn’t awful.” 

“When will people let go of the time I faked my own death to have an edible arrangement sent to my place? I mean the past is the past, right? And I’m pretty sure I’ve done stupider things since then.”

“Wait...you faked your own death for an edible arrangement? That’s so...small time. If you’re going to fake your death, you gotta go much bigger than that. I mean, at least try to get some gold out of it next time. But make sure you use a different method. No one is going to believe you died the same way twice, especially after the first time turned out to be a lie.” 

‘I-I have that one, actually,” she said, though when she heard the word Joyeuse, her mind went to Final Fantasy, but then she remembers she had another elegant sword in her collection that she loved so much, that she might honestly cry if she parted with it. “I do have a Musashi and also Excalibur.”