It had been around half two in the morning when Arian had given up and finally accepted that he wasn't going to get much sleep and had instead opted to make up a thermos of hot chocolate and rummage around for some cookies before writing a couple of quick notes - one for Orah and one for Liryn - and letting himself quietly out of the apartment.

He'd initially planned to walk around as Athene for a little while and mayhaps sit by the small fountain at the nearby park and try to clear his head a little.

He hadn't been planning on a trip to his asteroid - although that was hardly surprising since he had been but a week ago and he tended to leave it a while in between trips–

But for some reason, after powering up in the cover of the tress, Athene had found himself summoning his senshi phone and staring a the star app that would take him to his asteroid.

He hadn't immediately used the app however, had instead hesitated for a moment before eventually selecting the messaging app and sending a quick message to his cousin to let her know that he was going to be on his home world for a bit before forcing himself to hit the send button.

And then he had immediately regretted it.

Because whilst he and his cousin were back on talking terms for the most part, the two of them had been avoiding talking about powered stuff–

Had in fact sometimes found themselves going to awkward lengths to avoid talking about powered stuff.

It was his fault.

He knew it was his fault, even as he accepted that he most likely would have gone about things in the same way because powered life was dangerous and it wasn't something that he'd wanted for his cousin to get caught up in–

Even though it seemed like she had gotten caught up in it anyway.

But he hadn't meant to hurt her - had never wanted to hurt her - and whilst a part of him knew that the two of them needed to talk things over, a part of him had been worried about rocking the boat.

Athene sighed and drank a cup of hot chocolate from the thermos as he reminded himself that it was was unlikely that his cousin was currently powered up, well at least not at early o'clock, which meant that it was unlikely that she was reading the message at the moment–

And at least Liryn was keeping an eye out for her.

The yellowish skies were more of a paler yellow than he'd come to expect, when he finally swapped the chill of the Destiny City for the muted light and yellowish skies of the home world with which he shared a name - but it had still felt a lot warmer than it currently was in Destiny City.

Curiously enough however, he had found himself in the remains of the same settlement as on his previous trip–

Although Athene had no idea why the magic (or whatever it was) had brought him him here instead of to the stone arches that looked down on the approach to Varϊsvaara.

Mayhaps it was a coincidence - after all it had only been the second time that it had happened - but Athene hadn't found himself particularly concerned.

He had ended up letting his feet take him where they would as his eyes took in his surroundings from beneath the frames of his semi-rimless glasses–

Past the buildings built with yellowish stone, with patterns that looked so similar to the ones that he had seen in Varϊsvaara and past the part in the ground where he had found and then unearthed the strange medallion last week.

A medallion that he as yet had still not shown Liryn–

Although that had been more because the small mauvian had spent most of the last week with his cousin.

I'll show him this week, Athene decided impulsively, because he knew that the tabby mauvian liked to hear every and anything about home worlds and Wonders. And mayhaps I'll even....

His thoughts trailed off as he belatedly realised that at some point he must have stopped walking, as his eyes glancing curiously at the path leading towards one of the buildings–

And if Athene was honest, it didn't really seem any different to any of the buildings, mayhaps in a little worse condition - although at least the base and the first floor of the building appeared to be standing.

Well at least from the outside at any rate.

But it was built from the same yellowish stone as the other buildings and as with the other buildings the stone had what appeared to be some sort of patterned carved into it, even if the pattern had faded in a lot of parts–

But.

But even so there seemed to be something about this particular building, something that felt.. Welcoming?

He tried out the word mentally.

Yes, it felt welcoming, although Athene couldn't really particularly put his finger on why.

However there was a part of him also knew that he was going to check out the building anyway, even if he couldn't really say why–

But he hadn't picked up on any other auras prior to taking the trip to his asteroid and he hadn't had any real plans for the day so he had plenty of time before he had to head back to Destiny City.

Athene drank a bit more of his hot chocolate and ate a couple of the cookies before stepping onto the path proper as he let his feet start to meander in the direction of the building–

And whilst he didn't think he'd uncover anything particularly 'big' or any real secrets - well at least not in what time he had–

But he would happily settle for seeing if he could try and find out what it was about this particular building that felt so welcoming before he had to use the star app on his senshi phone to return back to Destiny City.

-- 1025 words --