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'You know,' Nephrite eventually began in a cheerful tone after she'd spend the first twenty minutes of her ride in uncomfortable silence, 'it's so nice that you and I finally get to—'

"Still haven't forgiven you," Amon cut her off. "In fact I have yet to hear an honest apology from you."

'But I have apologized!' Nephrite protested immediately in a petulant tone.

"The emphasis was on 'honest'," Amon remarked. His shadow's so-called apology had been anything but. "And then I still have to accept it." He could feel her anger searing up and briefly glanced at her in his rear mirror. It was just in time to see the young fiend lean back in her seat and cross her arms in front of her chest while she glowered at the back of his head. He sighed and turned his attention back to the road ahead. He knew to take her along was going to be a bad idea. It was pretty much due to Nell's enthusiastic begging only that he had even done it. He had somewhat of a soft spot where the young dancer was concerned.

And it was thanks to Nell in the first place he had even heard of Neph's plot to move in with her and Miss Triveni. The orange fiend had been super excited to share the great news, because, wasn't this fantastic?!

No, it absolutely wasn't. It was a ******** nightmare. He'd almost choked on his morning coffee when he'd read through the content of that mail.

'You're going to try and destroy this for me, aren't you?' Nephrite asked, her tone bitter now. It seemed that she had picked up on his current train of thought.

"If you mean to say by that if I'm going to do everything I can to talk Miss Viscarin out of this exceptionally stupid idea? Yes. Yes I will." Ultimately though it was Trivii's decision, but she ought to at least be fully aware just whom and what she was about to invite to live under the same roof.

The rest of their drive was spent in pointedly hostile silence from both parties.

Nephrite left the car as soon as it had drawn up in front of the cottage, the hood of her cloak drawn deep into her face, her arms wrapped around a small basket. 'Cosmetics and makeup,' she informed when she noticed her guardian's suspicious look. 'Nell and I are going to have a spa day. I am not going to poison my friends,' she quipped.

Amon was about to retaliate about how she'd put the emphasis on 'friends', but he bit back a scathing reply because in that moment he spotted a familiar orange figure in the windows. At least someone ought to be able to enjoy the day, he decided, especially after all the crazy s**t that had gone down recently. "If you could let Trivii know I'll be right there after a bit of a smoke?"

'Not your messenger,' Nephrite snapped, and with that she was gone.

Amon shrugged, and lit himself a cigarette anyway. A 'spa day', eh? That had the sound of nice and harmless girl stuff. Perfectly average and normal.

If only.

To be greeted by Nell always was akin to be caught up in a little whirlwind No wait, that actually was Rutie's thing. Literally a sparkling tornado that one. With horrible hair.

'I am glad to see you too,' Nephrite replied calmly, but her eyes were bright with mirth. 'I brought the other things,' she added and indicated the little basket on her arm with a nod. Her expression, however, froze the moment Nell turned away from her, eager to greet their other visitor. 'Manners', riiiiiiiiight. She knew full well of the younger fiend's silly infatuation with her guardian.

'Yes,' the jade colored fiend replied cryptically upon Trivii's remark, and began to smooth out her dress. She knew the catkin was not an empath, so her expression must have been pretty obvious. She'd have to be more careful than that in the future. 'He'll be in after a smoke he says. Guess he doesn't want to pollute the air in here. Though that might help with the pixies.' She tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"That's awesome!" Amon replied to Nell cheerfully. Really, it was fascinating how diverse the fiends were not only in their appearance but also in their development and abilities. Nephrite with her wait chameleon-tail had figured out feet very early on, Rutie he'd never seen with anything but his tail, whereas he'd never seen Smokey in any other than her fully physical form until she had shown up literally out of nowhere to pummel Ezra in the guts. She had actually been quite scary in her full-on shadow form.

"Are those the anklets I got for you on the Holi festival?" he asked as he dutifully admired Nell's shadowy little feet. That gift had been a bit of a faux pas of his—he hadn't been aware she wasn't able to pull off the feet thing yet at the time. "I may have to teach you a few steps then. Perhaps a small dancing routine even. But, uhm, not now. I think Nephrite is waiting for you?" Waiting for her and glaring icicles in their direction. "The two of you had something planned, hadn't you?"

Whatever it was, he sincerely hoped it was harmless. But it was better to have her be busy with Neph rather than eavesdrop while he tried to talk Triv out of that horrible idea of allowing her BFF to move in.

'Much appreciated.' Nephrite nodded gracefully. She very much doubted Amon required actual rescuing—not this time around—but she was grateful to have Carnelian sent back to her. The less time she spent fawning over her guardian, the better.

"I'll teach you another time, I promise." Amon laughed good-naturedly at her enthusiasm. "Maybe when you haven't got anything planned with Neph." He simply ignored her request to join them in the bath, quite certain she hadn't meant it like that. Unlike Nephrite Nell still was a child. Though, with fiends, there was no way to be one hundred percent sure, he figured. But her little crush on him seemed innocent enough.

'Yes, lets.' Nephrite nudged her friend, once she had returned to her. 'I prepared the mehndi paste ahead of time, but it takes forever to stain properly once applied.' She shot one last glare into the direction of her guardian before she wrapped her free arm around Nell's to draw her along as she headed upstairs.

"I always have an appetite," Amon declared. "Just let me get some stuff from the car first." He quickly finished off his cigarette with one last drag before he dropped it and went to pop open the trunk to fetch a cardboard box. "See, the squashes have been growing really well this year, so I thought I'd bring some. There's no way I can eat it all by myself." He'd also thrown in some various other veggies, but overall kept the box relatively small. He knew the catkin wasn't big on vegetables.

"I've also made some mean sambal," he grinned. It seemed to have obtained a somewhat legendary status after the barbecue he'd held for the guardians and their fiends—he thought it was hilarious.

'A crown?' Nephrite tilted her head. 'No, I was thinking flowers, actually. Chrysanthemum or perhaps lotus. But I really like chrysanthemum. I can draw one for you if you don't know what they look like.'

As with every visit she drank in her surroundings. This house was considerably older than Amon's house or the loft apartment they'd shared, and the interior design was just so very different from the clean and minimalistic style her guardian preferred. 'Before we get started—can I see my room?'

Like Hell was she going to even consider the possibility Amon might destroy her plans.

***

"Yeah, color me surprised, I actually seem to have a bit of a green thumb," Amon laughed as he picked up the box. He'd always massively loathed physical labor and to get his hands dirty—he had grown up quite sheltered—so it really had come as a huge surprise to him how much he now enjoyed gardening and growing his own produce.

"I would be terrible at what I do if I hadn't noticed," Amon admitted freely as he followed Trivii inside. "I am so going to pick you up on that canning offer—I'd love to learn how that works, actually." He set down the box on the kitchen counter and sniffed the air. Whatever the catkin had cooked up for lunch, it smelled terrific.

'Chrysanthemum flowers come in many varieties,' Neph explained. 'Some look a little like oversized daisies, and some have so many petals the look like pom-poms.' Those were the ones she liked best. 'They have many uses too—you can make a sweet tea from their petals, but you can also make an insecticide from them. It has symbolic meaning too, for instance it used to be the imperial crest of . . . of . . .' Her ramble about her favorite flower came to hesitant end as her delicate brows knitted into a confused frown. 'I don't remember,' she admitted after a little while. It happened so often lately, ever since she and Hawk had run into that creepy redhead, and it was starting to drive her nuts.

'It looks awfully small,' she commented after she'd given her future room a quick inspection. 'Where am I supposed to put all my dresses?'

***

Amon casually leaned against the counter and followed the pixie with his gaze until Trivii spoke up again. His focus back on the catkin he gave his host a brief thumbs-up for cutting through the small talk and getting straight to the point.

"True," he admitted. "Allowing Nephrite to move in? Bad idea. Seriously, seriously bad idea. Just . . . don't. Trust me." His expression left no doubt he was dead-serious about this.

Nephrite followed after her friend, her tail fluttering and twirling like a silken banner in the wind. Utterly fascinated she watched as Nell opened the hidden access to the dressing room. A secret door! Now that was neat. Neither Amon's cottage nor their previous (and her current) loft appartment had had anything like that.

Curiously she glanced inside. 'It'll suffice,' she sighed. Her loft apartment was very spacious, it would be hard to downsize from that. 'I will need all the hanging space,' she declared. 'Are there any more secret doors like this?' she inquired, quite intrigued. This house definitely had its perks!

***

Amon's slender fingers hovered over the platter, about to go for a stuffed chili pepper, when Trivii made her point. He withdrew his hand and turned to look at her. "That . . . is an awfully good argument actually," he complained with a bit of a grimace. "Don't do that."

"I would be inclined to agree even," he said after a small pause, "if I was still under the impression that those were acts of mere thoughtlessness or ignorance. However—" His frown deepened.. "I haven't gotten around yet to tell you why I kicked her out of the house, and honestly I didn't really plan to . . . But I trust you know me well enough by now to know I wouldn't do that without a really good cause. Best sit down. Please." He wondered if Nephrite had already managed to present her own warped version of the story.

Nephrite nodded. She and Nell definitely needed to do some exploring together. What with their abilities to phase through walls any secret passages ought to be comparatively easy to find, she thought.

'Dumb waiters?' the young fiend blinked, obviously unfamiliar with the term.


***

Amon laughed good-naturedly. "Yeah, I'd like to think myself more responsible than that."

He gave Trivii a long thoughtful look. It didn't really help matters Nephrite had been on her best behaviour whenever the catkin had been around. For all she knew, the young fiend was as adorable and well behaved as she possibly could be, except for that bit where she clearly lacked a grasp of the concept that not everything was hers for taking as she pleased.

He sighed and picked a seat for himself. If he wanted to drive his point home, there really was no way around telling her what had happened. "However, since you plan on letting her move in, you really should know." He gave a wry smile. "Because anything else would be very irresponsible of me. Because she's dangerous, Triv, and I am by no means exaggerating."

He ran his fingers through his dark hair, his expression dead serious as he spoke. "She's tried to kill someone."

Nephrite stared at the device bewildered and amazed. Neither of the places she'd lived in had had something like this! Amon's house was fairly modern—it didn't even have a cellar, lest alone tiny miniature elevators!

'I really like this house,' she declared. Sure, it wasn't as spacious as her current apartment, but then again she used little more of it than Amon's former room and the walk-in wardrobe. The possibility that Hawk might move in had sort of gone out of the window, and Trivii had been quite right—Nephrite felt neither safe nor comfortable living on her own since Ezra had revealed his true colors.

She tugged on the shawl that was elegantly wrapped around her shoulders, as if she was cold all of a sudden. 'Do you think there is a chance Amon might talk Trivii out of allowing me to move in?' she asked, her look pensive. She liked to be left alone and to her own devices, but not to be alone-alone.

***

"Oh." Amon made a face. Why of course she found it hard to believe him. After all, compared to the other fiends, Nephrite was incredibly well mannered and polite, her only obvious flaw being that she was a thieving magpie. And she was so playful and coy about it most people tended to laugh it off. "She's sneakier than that."

He sighed. "She met my sister by chance, invited her home, and served her poisoned tea. If I hadn't come home early that day, Amy would be dead now. On top of it I am certain Nephrite deliberately picked something that would make her suffer." He leaned back a little and crossed his arms, but kept his gaze on Trivii as he continued to speak.

"But that really only was the last straw. Before that she had managed to drug me multiple times, and also at some point dumped several canisters of anti-freeze into a pond to get back at the nymph who lived in there. You really do not want her to live in your house."