An unintelligible mumble answered her, probably a negative answer. Cessilia sighed, and slipped under the covers to join her, the room definitely a bit chillier by night. She moved until she could feel Tessa’s body under the covers, and grabbed her hand. She smiled.
“It’s like when we were k-kids.”
She held her cousin’s hand for a few minutes longer, in silence, staring at the ceiling. It was the first time she slept in a place that didn’t belong to her family... but the room was truly beautiful. If this was the most beautiful room in the castle, she wondered what the others were like.
“...I wish we could go back,” suddenly muttered a voice from under the covers.
Cessilia turned her head toward the covers, where she knew her cousin to be. After a few more seconds, Tessa wiggled her body until her head finally popped out. She hadn’t cried, but she still looked pretty sullen, and her hair was an absolute mess.
“Everything was so simple when we were kids,” she sighed. “We could run everywhere in the palace, see each other all the time, make the aunties laugh, and hide at Grandma’s when they were mad at us...”
“I miss G-Grandma too,” nodded Cessilia.
“She’d always take our side,” chuckled Tessa. “The only woman scarier than Auntie Shareen... or my mom.”
“I miss my b-brothers and sisters a b-bit already,” muttered Cessilia.
“Yeah, I miss my pest of a little sister too. I guess it’s because it’s our first time so far from home...”
Tessa let out a long sigh, and rolled onto her side, holding her head with her hand and staring at her cousin with a complex expression on.
“Cessi... Are you sure we came here for a good reason? A really good one?”
Cessilia sighed, her eyes on the ceiling again. The hundreds of little polished pieces of seashell were glowing like large stars in the sky... Deeply thinking about her cousin’s question, she thought about everything they had seen today. It was true they were far from home, in a place which, for the first time, wouldn’t care about who their parents were, where no one would protect them. They had a dragon, but... in those corridors, Krai wouldn’t be of any help.
Yet, when her thoughts drifted to her short interaction with the King from earlier, Cessilia’s heartbeat accelerated a bit. She remembered that kiss, like a gentle warmth on her lips, and that look in his eyes. Without thinking, she began smiling and pinching her lips, almost as if she could taste it again... Next to her, Tessa grunted and dove face-first into the pillows again.
“Don’t make that face,” she grunted. “I’m not happy at all right now.”
“D-did something happen with Nana’s b-brother?”
“No, nothing happened, that’s the problem. The first man our age I don’t want to fight in a while, and all he’s thinking about is his weapons, his job as a guard, his duty... Every guy but him was staring at me! I don’t understand guys. He said he wants a homemaker!”
Cessilia grimaced, feeling a bit sorry for Tessa. She was anything but a homemaker... In fact, despite her beauty, Tessandra had been born with the personality of a tomboy, probably shaped a lot by her mother’s short temper. She had always been eager to train with her cousins, get new weapons, and had a sharp tongue, a trademark for women in their family. She had never learned anything that would make her a homemaker either. In truth, Cessilia had always imagined Tessa would find herself a gentle, capable, and understanding man like her father, so she could become a warrior as she had always dreamt of...
“...I th-think it’s fine,” she finally said, still smiling.
“What is? You think I should move on?” frowned Tessa, lifting her eyes from the pillow.
“N-no. Just make him like g-girls like you. If anybody can d-do it, you c-can, T-Tessa.”
For a couple of seconds, her cousin remained speechless, completely taken by surprise by Cessi’s words. Then, she jumped without warning to hug her, giggling and smiling from ear to ear.
“T-Tessa!” she protested, completely crushed under her cousin’s sudden attack.
“Oh, this is why I love you, Cessi! You’re the best! I love you the most!” squealed Tessa, ignoring her and kissing her cheek repeatedly until she laughed too.
The two girls kept laughing and fighting playfully for a while under the covers, tickling each other until they were exhausted and out of breath. When they were done, Cessilia was lying on her back again, staring at the ceiling, but her cousin’s arm was over her chest, Tessa lying on her flank right next to her. She could feel her cheek on her shoulder, and her heavy breathing as they were both trying to calm down a little.
“It’s just like when we were kids,” chuckled Tessa. “Do you remember? Our moms would always find us sleeping in the same bed, stuck to each other... My mom used to say we should have been born as twins.”
Cessilia nodded, a smile stuck on her face too. Of course, she remembered, because they were so close in age, it felt like she and Tessa had been together their whole lives. The times they had to spend apart had always been hard, and she remembered counting the days until she could see her cousin again... Tessa’s family lived in the Capital, where they had their business, while Cessilia’s lived in the north, in the isolated Onyx Castle. She had never been so bold as to go alone to the Capital, like her younger sister who frequently escaped.
“Cessi?”
“Mhm?”
“...Can you read something?”
The question had been asked almost with fear in her voice, and Cessilia’s smile gradually lessened. She knew Tessa didn’t really need a bedtime story; what she really wanted was to hear her voice, Cessi’s voice, without any trembling and stuttering in it. Cessilia’s heart pinched a little bit. She knew her cousin meant well, just like the rest of her family. However, she just didn’t feel like it right then.
“We should tr-try t-to sleep,” she whispered.
She rolled onto her side, to face Tessa, but she closed her eyes. Their faces were so close, the two girls were curled up toward each other, like two halves of a heart. While Cessilia kept her eyes closed and tried to slow down her breathing, Tessa kept looking at her, with mixed feelings in her heart.
After a few minutes, she slowly extended her hand and caressed Cessi’s hair, very gently. They had the exact same hair color, and they had many other similar features. Many people often thought them to be sisters, even twins at times. Their characters were so different, like fire and water, yet they had grown so close as if they were completing each other. She couldn’t remember them arguing or fighting, even once, mostly due to Cessilia’s gentle nature.
“...Don’t worry,” she whispered after a while. “I’m sure she will come back.”
Cessilia’s lips twitched a little, and she frowned faintly, as if she was trying not to open her eyes. She wasn’t doing a good job of pretending to sleep, but they both knew that. Tessa kept caressing her hair, gently, and let out a faint sigh.
“And even if she doesn’t, I’ll be there. I’ll be your dragon, Cessi.”
Cessilia opened her teary eyes, muttering a silent thank you to her cousin. Tessa smiled, moving her hand to grab Cessilia’s. The cousins spent a moment, simply gazing at each other while holding hands before slowly closing their eyes.
The next morning, they were both woken up by a gentle knock on the door, and Nupia’s voice claiming she had brought them breakfast. The two girls sat up in bed. Cessilia’s curls were all over the place, and she had to push them out of her face to see Tessa’s grimace, her cousin glaring at the door.
“I really don’t like those three,” she grumbled.
