Pray for the Wicked

lana watches as sera lowers her weapons, as the shadow hurls one last insult back at her before sera absorbs them back into her own body. lana’s brow furrows as she watches – this whole time, she’s known that the being must logically be made of paint, and therefore its mind and personality must have come from sera as well. but it’s still strange to see sera change from that ruthless anger and hatred of just a moment ago to this resigned sort of exhaustion. 

lana continues to watch as sera falls to her knees, and lana sits on the ground next to her – close enough that with a reach of a hand, they can close the distance between them, but not so close that she’s crowding sera’s personal space. as sera lies there, either processing or crying or just resting, lana stares at the place where the shadow vanished, some of its words echoing in her head. she still loves you. 

and then sera moves, and lana’s eyes go to her, a thin, tired smile appearing on her face as sera drags her hands down her face and groans aloud. “that’s a mood,” she says, unable to speak louder than a little bit over a mutter, the energy for normal speech just not in her anymore as she sighs, turning her head back to stare at the spot where the shadow was just moments before. 

as the adrenaline continues to leach from her, seeming to seep down through her body and into the ground beneath her the longer they sit there, lana begins to sway a bit, the dizziness of her concussion finally returns to her. she presses a hand to her head, wincing as the movement tugs at her painful left side. “don’t ever,” she begins, her voice a bit louder now, “tell jace about this.” 

At this point, Sera’s hoping that the ground opens up and swallows her whole cuz there’s no turning back from seeing all the shit that just went down. She can only make a sound of distress when Lana says her groaning is a mood. “This is not how I imagined my day would go.” With her hands still over her face, the words are a little muffled. 

Then she remembers what transpired, specifically that Lana took a heavy hit to her side and that she’s still nursing a concussion. So out goes her own exhaustion as she bolts up, a little too quickly as a wave of nausea hits her, and goes over to Lana. The other is starting to feel the effects of their little brawl as she’s nursing her side and seems to be a bit wobbly. 

Sera immediately supports her and keeps her upright before inspecting her left side. “Don’t worry, I won’t. I have every intention of making it through the summer and not coming face to face with his sharks.” Humor might lighten up the mood, maybe take the other’s mind off of asking questions. Questions mean talking and really all Sera wants to do is go back to her cabin and pass out. After she gets Lana back to her own cabin. 

lana doesn’t stop sera as the elder pushes past her, and she just watches, her mouth open in surprise and awe as sera lands blow after devastating blow to the figure, pushing it backwards. lana hears the anger, the outright hatred in sera’s tone, and hears how different it is from the desperate pain of a moment ago – the shadow crossed a line by hurting lana, it seems, and she struggles to wrap her head around it all. 

but she still manages to think strategy, and she summons her abandoned water from before to her, pushing it to form a wall to the shadow’s left, so that they’re forced to go to the other side, right under the low branch that lana hopes still holds evening dew on its leaves. she follows behind sera, not wanting to get in the way of those dangerous weapons. the figure is babbling, spewing more words about fear and monsters, but lana hardly listens, more focused on the position of the shadow under the leaves. 

when they’re standing beneath the biggest clump of leaves that’s low enough for lana’s power to reach, she drops to one knee, slamming her palms down into the ground as hard as she can. she feels the tug of her power follow her movements, the dew from the leaves falling as her hands do, many drops landing hard on the shadow. many miss, and it doesn’t melt the shadow immediately, but the sudden melting of various parts of their body draws a cry from their throat as they, too, fall to their knees. 

in contrast, lana rises, hovering a few feet behind sera and allowing her to have the final blow – this is her demon, after all. her battle. lana watches her, waiting quietly, a silent pillar of support, even after all that’s just happened. 

Their hurt and quite severely if Sera can tell from her own powers. She’s landing blow after blow, as if the shadow has stopped fighting back. She doesn’t care. Right now all she wants to do is released everything she’s ever pent up and kept inside of her, every little emotions she’s had to shove to the side because she needs to keep it together. Not anymore. Skeleton’s out of the closet, might as well purge everything else with it.

Suddenly everything clears. Water pouring over her and the figure make her stop. Her own weapon melts away slowly as does the figure. She brings a hand up to her cheek, checking to see if the feeling of dampness is from the dew that she assumes Lana pulled down onto them or her own tears. Sera’s unsure of when she started to cry. 

They’re writhing in pain, from slowly melting away and the wounds she inflicted. Still they have some fight and snarl at her. ‘Well, finish the job! Now’s your chance, do it!.’ And all she can do is let out a defeated sigh. “you know it's never going to happen.” They tsk in disdain. ‘Fucking knew it, you weak fool.’ Still their form does not resist when she reaches a hand out to absorb them back into her being.

[...]

“so noble,” the figure says as lana rolls over with a wince, a hand going to her surely bruised side as she tries to catch the breath that was knocked from her. “she just won’t leave, will she?” 

“no,” lana says between pants, pushing herself up into a sitting position. “i won’t.” she manages to rise to her feet, falling back into a fighting stance as she walks toward the figure, standing between them and sera. “i don’t care what you do to me,” she pants, wanting to glance over her shoulder at sera, apologize for making her watch lana get hurt, but knowing that she can’t take her eyes off the figure. “i will always fight for the people i love. i will always fight for her.” the words leave her before she gets a chance to think about them, her mind focused entirely on strategy, a new idea forming in her mind.

the water she used for her shield is puddled on the ground to the left of the figure, and a little ways further to their left is a low-hanging branch, hanging about seven feet from the ground. high enough for people to get under, but low enough that lana could pull the dew off the leaves if she could only get herself and the figure under them. 

Sera has well rehearsed retorts at the ready for Lana’s response. She can be just as stubborn when she pleases, but she doesn’t get the chance to use any of them as suddenly she’s been pushed aside and Lana’s figure goes flying. The action breaks something inside her, so much so that’s she doesn’t move for a good while.

They're speaking but the words aren’t reaching her, all she can see, hear and feel is red. Any form of common sense and civility is now out the window. Lana’s suddenly in front of her again, but that doesn’t matter, her focus is solely on her shadow. So she pushes past her without a word, the staff in hand breaking into two pieces that slowly reform their shape. The pole arm extends and changes in mass until two swords take its place. 

As soon as the change in complete she leaps into action, swiping both swords at the figure with sheer ferocity. “Do not lay a hand on her.” The action takes the figure aback. They hadn’t been expecting for her to snap, rather to break down and beg for mercy. That they do nothing to harm her precious little Lana. 

[...]

the bit of water she pulled away she presses against the wall at about chest height, making the water into a film about three feet wide. it slides down the wall, melting it as it goes, and she glances in to see sera trapped in a box of her own making, the shadow figure looming over her. lana ducks inside, the bubble changing its shape so it can fit in after her. she immediately forms it into a shield, and it hovers about a foot in front of her in a small wall of her own. she steps forward quietly, but quickly, wanting to distract the shadow from sera as soon as she gets in range. 

within a few strides, lana’s close enough to form a water whip while still keeping her watery shield in place. she takes one step back with her right foot, extending her right arm to the side to form the whip, then pulls her left arm sharply back while lunging forward on her right leg and swinging her right arm towards the shadow figure’s back. the whip slices through the shadow’s right arm, and the appendage falls away. lana grins, but it fades as the arm immediately begins to grow back. shit, she thinks. gotta get it all wet at once, then. i’m gonna need more water. 

Lana’s still speaking and good god why won’t she just leave. Sera can’t focus on fighting the painted form if she’s too busy making sure nothing happens to Lana. “Lana, it’s literally going to be me hurting you no matter what.” The wolf grins at the admission, tail languidly whipping back and forth. ‘Glad to see you’ll admit to that in front of her. Now to make sure she really stays away. Can’t do that with you here.’ It’s taunting her now, pacing back and forth as it speaks.

Sera’s not sure how to go about this, she’ll need more space to safely fight the monster without being slammed into her own wall, but she can’t bring them down with Lana just outside. She’s debating how to go about this when she sees from the corner of her eye, a portion of the wall is melting away. She’s shocked but the feeling passes when she sees who’s behind it. Welp, so much for keeping her out of the box. She could try moving to box Lana, but something tells her the effort’s going to be wasted.

Lana whips out her water and slices off a limb of the shadow, it barely shakes them as the arm is reformed. But it’s enough of a distraction for Sera to create her own weapon. A staff forms and she gives it a quick twirl before slamming it down double handed over the monster’s back. It’s not expecting a follow up to the attack from before and crumples to the floor, leaving an opening for Sera. She vaults over to Lana and seal the box back up, this time with only the shadow inside. Clocks ticking, she needs to be quick.

@chxsera

   “ so. ” in all his time at camp jace never thought he would have a situation like this pop up. he never thought about his daughter–not that she really is, and their age differences isn’t all that intense–would date so obviously around him. or at all really. 

   okay so he hadn’t ever thought he would have to do the parent thing of the so called shovel talk. a talk he himself has never received because when he was younger he never had time to date due to the fact he had been on the run, and then locked away in a school being forced to learn. of course… he met lana there so it’s not all bad. but that has led to this and this is something he rather not do. but he can’t have sera running around with is little girl all willy nilly. “what are your intentions with lana?” he starts. hands on hips, feet shoulder width apart. the typical dad pose as some of his campers have told him. 

Sera’s off minding her own business, sitting by the lake as she “watches” the members of her cabin. In actuality, she’s on her tablet working on a small sketch to fill her tie. If any of the kids get into trouble, the life guards are there to save them. Sera has no intention of jumping into the water. However, she wasn’t expecting the head life guard to approach her.

she sets aside the strange figure’s words, deciding to unpack them and her own reaction to them later, when this problem is behind them. she moves from kneeling on both knees to only kneeling on one, her right foot planted in the ground. as she sets it down, she feels the ground squelch beneath it, and the comfort of the wet soil helps calm her down. there is water all around her, a beautiful, natural defense she can mold and use as she wills. 

“i’m not going anywhere,” she growls, looking at the shadow figure as she spreads her hands out before her, calling water out of the muddy ground and the puddle behind her to form into a ring around her. turning her head, she softens her expression and her voice as she looks to sera. “i said i’d help you,” she says. “and i meant it. i’ll help you through this, sera. i won’t let you do it alone.” because lana knows what it’s like to get through a nightmare like this alone, what it’s like to have to experience a panic attack alone. to simply rock back and forth and try to breathe as the fear and panic wash over you in a constant onslaught, and you can do nothing but let them knock you down again and again. 

it’s always easier when there’s someone there to hold you up. 

Lana wasn’t leaving, why the hell wasn’t she leaving. Sera is by no means a doctor but she’s very certain that fighting a paint monster is not on the list of things you can do while recovering from a concussion. “you stupid, stubborn girl.” Her words are muttered as she pushes herself off the tree and peers around it, preparing to leap into action as soon as her shadow reacts to her not doing as they say.

They don’t take it well and make a sound of disdain. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’ Sera isn’t sure who they’re speaking too in particular, perhaps both of them. And just like the last time, the humanoid figure morphs and again forms the pitch black wolf of viscous nature. They chuckles as the water surrounds Lana. ‘Cute, but you're still injured and I could easily take you on without the handicap.’ They prepare to pounce at Lana. Sera’s ready and raises a wall, letting the shadow slam straight into it.

There’s a pathetic whimper as it paws at it’s own nose and Sera knows she has only a few seconds and immediately boxes herself in with it. “Lana, you idiot, I said go! You shouldn’t even be out of bed.” Her voice is harsh and angry, unsure if Lana can even hear her through the walls. “I appreciate the sentiment, but you need to leave. I don’t know what i’d do if you got hurt because of me.” Her voice soften considerably at that last part. Sera would probably lose it if her shadow did anything to Lana and if she’s being honest, she might let it get the better of her. Consume her like it did once. The memory makes her shudder.

[...]

the humanoid shape that lana had dismissed as a brief hallucination is real, as evidenced by the fact that sera can clearly see it too. it – she? they? – looks similar to sera, but as if she were consumed by shadows. their eyes are hollow, and the smile on their face is horrible. for a moment, lana is completely frozen by shock and fear, and she automatically moves her hands to her hip, where she usually has a bottle of water hooked to her belt. however, she’d run out after sera so quickly that she hadn’t grabbed anything except the flip flops she shoved on, and her water bottle is still abandoned on her bedside table. 

even as she kneels frozen, her mind races. it rained this afternoon – there must be a puddle nearby. it’s hard for her to figure out where, though, without looking around for it: something she’s been working on is being able to sense the presence of nearby water, but she can’t do it yet. instead, she thinks harder, and realizes that her left foot is wet – she’d stepped in a puddle right before reaching Sera. it should be a couple feet behind her, though she doesn’t dare look. lowering her hands to the grass slowly, she casually hides them in the leaf cover on the ground as she moves her fingers, trying to create splashes so she can hear the water move and confirm that it’s there. 

There’s a silence that follows after she yells, and Sera hopes that her words drive her away. She can’t see her like this. However, the shadow shatters those hopes. ‘Oooh, stubborn as always. She's hobbling over right now.’ Their mouth forms a sneer and dusts off imaginary dust off their inky shoulder. ‘I better make a good first impression, I want her to hate you stat.’ Sera can only look at them pleadingly. “Why do you do this?” They chortle darkly. ‘I don’t want this, you do.’

There’s rustling of grass and then a muted thump before she hears her voice. She’s wheezing and Sera wants nothing more than to carry her back to the cabin and lay her back onto the bed for well needed rest, but her body is paralyzed with fear. She is doing her best to face away from Lana, as if not acknowledging her will somehow make her disappear. The shadow makes a quip and she can’t even bring herself to respond.

The shadow watches from there, carefully analyzing the younger. ‘I don’t believe we’ve ever met, she likes to keep me neatly tucked away in her closet along with all the other skeletons. Although, I suppose I am technically all the skeletons.’ They catch the subtle movement of the hands and tsk in disappointment. ‘Oh sweetie, you can’t wash me away even if there was water. Yes physically you could, but I’ll always be a part of her. Nagging and waiting to come and ruin her. You best just go, she’s a lost cause and does more damage than good anyways.’

Sera wants to scream that it’s not true. She wants to yell she’s trying to get better. She wants to say something, anything. But her terror has a firm hold on her and it is not letting go. So the shadow rises and saunters between the two, looking back and forth. ‘You really should go before I make you leave. You’re in no shape to say no to me. I’m known for making her problems disappear, but she still loves you and as do I by extension, so leave. Before I do something she’ll regret.’ The threat is far from empty, Sera knows first hand. The shadow’s form is morphing and changing. It’s still vaguely human but she knows it’s steps away from becoming a monster.

[...]

whether lana imagined the darkness or not, sera is scared. lana doesn’t know if it’s something she did or not, but she just made a promise. i’m here for you, too. she’s not about to back out on it now, so she moves as quickly as she can to the cabin door, shoving her feet in some flip flops that have been abandoned there. she hurries ( or as close to hurrying as she can manage ) out the door, hearing it swing shut behind her. 

“sera!” she calls, looking around for any signs of where sera’s gone. “sera, where are you? please, i–i just want to help!” she continues as she starts walking around, avoiding the paths because she knows that’s what she usually does when she’s freaking out, and sera is likely no different. lana starts walking up the alley between her cabin and the robin cabin, moving towards the tree line behind the row of cabins. “sera!” she calls again, dimly wishing she’d thought to bring her phone for a flashlight. 

suddenly, the dizziness which has been swirling at the edges of her mind since she stood up overwhelms her, and her vision goes out. she stumbles backward, feeling her back hit a tree. she presses one hand behind her against its bark for support as she leans heavily on it, and her other hand presses to her head as she closes her eyes. “shit,” she whispers, waiting for the spell to pass. after a moment, though, it still hasn’t fully passed – she can see, but she still doesn’t feel able to move, and she scowls as her legs betray her and she slides a little further down the tree. “sera!” she shouts again, wincing as the action makes her head hurt. 

Sera runs. And runs and runs. Her lungs burn as she tries to breathe but to no avail as if she’s stuck in a vacuum. It's dark out, but Sera navigates the woods with ease. Countless evenings spent wandering the trees in hope of some sort of solace have her used to the dark. There’s a certain tranquility to being alone with nature. Or as alone as she could get, what with her thoughts and emotions coming into sentient form.

Her legs finally stop and she collapses with her back against a tree, head clutched in her hands. She’s whispering utter nonsense as if that will help get a hold of her emotions. To tamp down the attack in hopes of stopping them from taking shape. But it’s too late and she can see a form in her peripheral, one she saw in the corner of her eye as she ran from the cabins. It morphs as it comes closer. ‘Told you i’d be back. Just didn’t think she’d be around, it’s a lovely surprise for me. You really didn’t have to. Do i finally get to meet her?’ Mockery is what the approach seems to be this time. Sera tries her best to just ignore them, focusing more on evening out her breath. ‘

She hears her name and so do they. ‘Tell her to go, to leave you alone. She’ll see you like this and want nothing to do with you. She doesn’t love you, let her go and save yourself the trouble.’ They slump down and sit across her, legs crisscrossed and looking far too comfortable in comparison to Sera’s own frantic expression. There’s more calling and yelling, she clamps her hands over her ears. ‘That works too, I suppose. Just don’t go to her. She’ll see me.’ The black mass gestures to themself. A dark figure looking much like herself, but their eyes were dead and hallow. Their face was gaunt and hid other unspeakable horrors. Horrors that would surely drive anyone away. Even someone as stubborn as Lana. ‘You wouldn’t want her to see me. You know I can be quite frightening whenever I please.’ 

Her emotions are a mess and it’s showing through her shadow. It’s being indecisive for once. They usually poke and prod with whatever has wrought her mind, picking one stance and hammering it into her over and over until she can’t take it anymore. But now it’s bouncing back and forth. Show her, don’t show her. Scare her off, let her see. They can’t decide. Much like she can’t decide. Does she bare herself to Lana and let out all the monster hiding in her closet. Does she finally release them in hopes that she’ll still be accepted. Or does she hide away into herself again much like she did the past two summers.Right now the latter is winning out. 

[...]

something – a thought, a memory, an instinct, something – stirs in lana, and her eyes flick down to sera’s lips before moving immediately back up to her eyes. it would be so easy, so natural, to close the space between them as they have so many times before. but they’re both emotional, and there’s already so much going on tonight. lana knows that it’d be stupid and rash, but she’s always stupid and rash. something, however, holds her back, keeps the instinct-something inside her on a tight leash. instead, she speaks again, focusing on sera’s eyes. “i want to help you, too.”

Sera smiles softly and brings a hand up to wipe some stray tears away. “There’s no shame in crying, at least not in front of me.” She never understood the stigma behind crying, as if your bodily reaction to strong emotions was a bad thing. Her grandpa forbade her from ever crying in front of other’s. It was a sign of weakness or some bullshit. So now she cries far too often, as if she’s making for the childhood of unshed tears. 

It’s absolutely terrifying to admit that she has nightmares aloud. Even if it’s a cop out from the full story of ‘my anxiety literally takes shape whenever it gets really bad and sometimes they straight up try to kill me.’ Sera’s never been one to share her feelings or problems, with anyone. Her grandfather was a loving but rather cold man when it came to affections and the sort. He was all for the facade of appearing cool, calm and collected even through the most troubling of times. Sera remembers that he didn’t shed a tear at his own son’s funeral. Her mother grew distant and was more of a shell when her father passed. She’s better now, but they don’t have much of a strong relationship anymore. 

Sera didn’t have anyone to speak to, so she kept it all to herself. Like when kids made fun of the half family she had. Or that she didn’t belong in this country and should go back to where she came from. She remained silent when a feeling started to foster in her chest, the ffeeling that she wasn’t good enough. Good enough to live. Good enough to be. Good enough to exist. All of that was kept in a tightly sealed bottle. And the content swirled and roiled together to form a mass of anxiety and despair that sometimes seeps out of that not so tight seal. Still she hides it, even when it hurts her the most. 

But here she is, about to unscrew and spill the ugly contents that live inside her. Sera wouldn’t have done this three years ago. Maybe she should have. There was less bottled away and maybe if they had been addressed then, her problems wouldn’t have gotten this bad. Maybe she wouldn’t be like this if the first to see what’s kept locked away hadn’t been her but Lana instead. But what if it all went wrong. What if that ended up soiling and ending their relationship, it technically did. The summer after they broke up, Sera was in a dark place and it drove a wedge between them. 

When Lana brings a hand to cup her face, she can’t help but lean into the feeling. “I’m happy I could help. I know it’s hard to face alone” It’s nice. This is nice. Lana is nice. Nicer than Sera could ever deserve. It merely takes a thought to get it all started. She can here the voices and the thought start to rise. ‘No, not now please. Not in front of her.’ Her mind races in panic, trying to control her powers before she does something that can’t be unseen. Lana’s speaking but she can’t hear a thing, and mumbles some nonsense as she tries to keep everything together. But her grip on things begin to slip and Sera can see from the corner of her eye as a black inky mass morphs into a wolf’s face with a grin that’s too human. It taunts her as if to say ‘I will ruin you today.’

[..]

lana doesn’t know how long they stay like that, how long she keeps herself buried there, surrounded by the girl she once loved so fiercely, whose mere presence is enough to scare away the nightmares and keep lana calm, who still brings to lana’s chest the warm feelings that she did three years ago. it can’t be longer than ten minutes that lana stays like that, but it’s impossible for her to know, and she doesn’t really care anyway. she sits up when her tears have stopped falling, their tracks drying on her still-red cheeks. her hands linger near sera’s waist as she looks around, only just realizing that the darkness around them was because sera created it by blocking them in with walls of paint. the sight brings a small smile to lana’s face as she turns back to finally look sera in the face. 

“thank you,” she says, and though her voice is quiet and tired, it doesn’t tremble or break. “sorry for crying on you so much,” she adds, trying to resist the urge to wrap her arms around sera once more and resume their previous position. a thought occurs to her then, a memory from when she’d been too wrapped up in her panic and fear to comment. “you–you said you have nightmares too?” she asks, her eyebrows furrowed in concern as she continues looking at sera, not making any move to wipe the drying tear tracks from her face. 

Sera’s aware of the walls and is vaguely aware of how she shouldn’t be this protective of someone who’s no longer her’s, so to speak. She’s aware of how her powers reflect her feelings and how they shouldn’t be reacting so much to this interaction. But she’s going to ignore them for a little longer, they’ll confront her eventually. Whether she wants to or not. She wants to revel in this feeling for just a little longer. It’s been a while since she was this comfortable being physically affectionate with anyone and this is just a reminder of how much she misses it. It’s hard when even the softest touches can send her recoiling back and on the edge of an anxiety attack.

She continues to hold her, whispering comfort and affirmations the whole time. It’s awful to see someone she cares so dearly about be utterly destroyed by the anxiety she carries. That the only thing she can do cradle her in hopes of being some sort of support. But still doing so brings a forth a feeling that blooms in her chest and spreads through out her being. It feels a lot like three summers ago. It’s nostalgic.

“There’s no need to thank me, that’s what friends are for.” Friends, huh. The words don’t sit well on her tongue and leave an odd taste in her mouth, it’s a little pathetic. “And hey, a little salt water never hurt anymore. You don’t have to apologize for what happened.” It’s not like one can will away their anxiety. Sera’s tried that before, didn’t work out too well. Actually, it made them really angry and just gave them a fistful of ammunition to throw back at her.

“Well then consider it no hard feelings.” Avery smiles, appreciating that at least Sera does feel bad for the prank- thankfully one of the harmless ones she’s expecting to endure as a rookie at the camp. 

As the younger’s creations surround her, her smile grows to a grin as she leans forward to study each of them. “You’ve done really well with them,” she compliments “I couldn’t have imagined they wouldn’t be real and you had some sort of animal communication ability instead.” At the mention of tantrums, she can’t help but wince, wishing hers had been that innocent. “I bet you were a handful to your parents then.” She laughs, trying to picture the kinds of things kids usually drew and those coming to life. 

“Eh,” She shrugs at the question of her own, hesitant to say but willing to share for sake of friendship. After all, she and Sera were going to be working together the whole summer, might as well have her on her side. “It’s much more mental than yours I guess, definitely not as cool” she half-laughs, making a gesture towards her head. “Mine is memories- for better or for worse.”

Sera can’t help but beam with pride at the compliment. Art has always been her passion, even before her powers made themselves know. She filled notebook with small doodles ever since she could remember and gave drawing as gifts for just as long. Her pursuit of art was looked down upon by extended family and her parents still have difficulty grasping the being a starving artist made her more happy than being a well paid psychiatrist.

"Thank you, that means a lot.” The fox and robin imitate her feeling of happiness with the fox rubbing it’s head on Avery’s lap and the robin chirps a small tune. “And I wasn’t too bad as a kid, they would come to life at the smallest things like me getting good grades on my report card or getting an extra scoop of ice cream after dinner. There was only ever one big incident with my powers.” Her father tried to get her to stop drawing as it “distracted her from her true potential.” The aftermath was a paint spattered living room and two parents who were pretty scared of their own child.

He should be offended and turn her down, though honestly, it’s a bit hard to be when he knows that every word she says is true. He did do a pretty horrible job and made quite the mess with his cake baking so maybe it is better he has help, but then again…

“How can I be sure that you’re actually good at baking and you’re not just trying to make me look bad.” He had to cover all his bases. He really didn’t want to be banned from the kitchen. Where would he sneak his midnight snacks from. 

He looks down at his dirty shorts and then heaves a sigh. He really couldn’t know, he had to take one for the team and actually trust Sera. 

“Nevermind. Whatever– if you get me in trouble I’m making sure it’s your ass that’s on the line.” His was too nice. “Give me like… ten minutes to change. I’m uncofortambly sticky.” 

Sera’s a self taught chef and she wasn’t exactly talented when she started, although she might have had more skill than Vincent if the aftermath of his baking adventure is anything to go by. It’s not a skill she showcases to often to people who aren’t close to her, so she’s unsurprised by the interrogation she’s receiving.

“If I’m being honest, you can’t be sure. For all you know I could bake a cake that explodes in your face.” It’s truly tempting, she’s done the prank before and while she lamented at the wasted cake, the reaction was almost worth it.

“I mean I can easily pull the ‘you made a mess’ card on you too so...” Sera’s just egging him on. Something about the day is making her feel incredibly generous, it’s terrible. Baking the cake better make drain all the generosity out of her.