Truly it was good to drink a well made, hot cup of coffee. It was a small thing, but Nenetl knew how to appreciate those small pleasures of life, things she couldn't even have hoped to enjoy before she died. Not only that, but the coffee from the Nox Tenebrae academy's cafeteria was really good, surprisingly, it was almost as if it was made especially how she liked it. Strong, but not overly so, with a rich fragrance.

The very moment she opened her eyes though, she was greeted by a very eye catching guy with pink hair, resting his chin on the palm of his hand as he looked at her with a curious stare after asking her why she was so happy with just a simple cup of coffee. Nenetl couldn't help but to wonder what he would think if he knew exactly who and from where she came before she replied.

"The secret is knowing how to appreciate every little thing you're experiencing. The delicate fragrance, the rich taste, the sensation of the hot coffee gliding smoothly down one's throat and warming your body, the calm and relaxing atmosphere this cafeteria has... It's about experiencing everything life has to offer. No matter how small it may be." Nenetl finished, looking to the guy in front of her with a calm and tranquil smile before she gently gestured towards the boy in front of her, silently asking if he wanted to taste some of her coffee.

Before they could say anything more though, almost as if coming out of nowhere, a petite, very pale girl fell face first to the ground with quite an impact which was enough to even send the small water bottle she was carrying rolling away from her, stopping as it touched Nenetl's foot.

"Oh! Tihuetz, noconetl! Are you fine?" She asked as she lowered herself to grab the water bottle. Those who had knowledge about history and old languages would quickly notice that the words Nenetl used were from a very, very ancient language, spoken by only a few people nowadays, which are direct descendants from the ancient civilizations from central america. Still, there was something in that woman that felt strange, old and ancient. Her eyes, her clothes... It was difficult to put it in words but somehow she didn't seem to be a normal human.

When she was about to get up from the chair to help the petite girl to get back on her feet though, she almost immediately scrambled to her feet, apologizing herself for what happened.

"Indeed, it was not your fault, you shouldn't apologize yourself nor worry too much about it. Come, sit and rest a bit." Nenetl said just after the eye catching guy with an amicable smile as she extended her hand towards the girl to give her water bottle back. The moment she took a better look at the petite girl though, Nenetl almost immediately noticed that there was something different with that girl's spirit and the overall aura she passed. It did take a moment for her to realize that the girl was a vampire though.

"Oh, I see! I suppose calling you 'child' wouldn't be that accurate, right?" Nenetl said to the girl with a chuckle, seemingly unfazed by the fact she was a vampire.

"Tlazocamati! I do not hear those words often." Nenetl said with a smile, turning to the eye catching guy when she realized he called her a 'cutie'. Truth be told, Nenetl was a bit surprised, as there weren't many people who called her that.

"I have just arrived on the academy so I'm afraid I don't know many people here, nor how to reach the classrooms yet. I'm Nenetl. It's a pleasure to meet you both." She said, with a tranquil smile as she looked to both the small girl and the guy.

"That said, I don't seem to have any classes right now. Would you two like to join me for a bit?" Nenetl asked, looking to both of them as she patiently waited for a reply.

^{Words in Nahuatl:
"Tihuetz, noconetl" - "You fell, my child"
Tlazocamati - "Thanks", "Thank you"}

---

She could not move. She could only bend her boughs towards the sunlight in an attempt to soak in the pleasant rays, a process that could take weeks. She was stationary, unyielding to the changes around her. Nothing could uproot her, or so it seemed. Her leaves danced in the breeze, shifting and rustling against her will. Her roots were buried beneath the ground of the garden, soaking in vital nutrients and water. They shot up her transport tissue, and into her newer leaves and branches. It was a sensation so pleasant, something she cherished. It was the feeling of revitalization. Pure, and refreshing.

Being in this form was so easy and calming. Many had asked her if she felt trapped as a tree. Her response was always no. Her consciousness was stretched so thin, spreading out to her longest branch, that she felt as if she were in a million places at once. She heard everything around her, able to communicate with the plants, so she was never lonely. Sometimes she felt it was too much. After all, when each blade of grass had their say in a matter it could get confusing.

Now was not the time to dwell on the pros and cons of being her truest self. She had spent most of the day lounging in this form. It was time for her to become her more human self, and enjoy the pleasantries of mobile life. With a mental heave, she began the transformation.

Becoming a five foot four humanoid after spending multiple hours as a sixty-foot tall sycamore was far from pleasant. It was a rather jarring shift. Not only was her consciousness focused in one small space, but she was struck with sounds and smells and physical sensations she hadn't been able to comprehend before. The grass she stepped on no longer called to her. She had to focus her will to speak to the plants around her. It was like second nature changing forms, but that didn't mean it wasn't bizarre. Ending the transformation by forming a skin-tight dress of leaves around her form, she finally adjusted enough to take in the area around her.

She stretched her body, her flexible limbs easily bending in ways no ordinary humans could. Satisfied, she reached down and grabbed for the satchel that had been resting against her trunk moments ago. She slung it over her shoulder, checking the contents. The inside was neatly organized, almost like a mini filing cabinet. It was filled to the brim with seeds of all different types, mundane and exotic, categorized alphabetically. Just in case there wasn't any life around her when she needed to enter combat. She also had her inhaler in there, of which she took a quick puff.

Ready to face the day, she walked toward the bush that had been nearest her true form. It was made up of poison ivy, which she lovingly stroked. Her body was immune to the response anyone with a normal epidermis would feel had they touched it.

"Buck, love, it's time to wake up." She cooed. In an instant, the plant was shifting, becoming the form of a dog with a poisonous bite and antlers atop its head. Buck was only three feet at the shoulder, but he was made up of stronger material than she. Whenever she was around him, she felt safe. It was an easy relationship. He was her protector, and she was his loving owner. She let him do mostly as he pleased, in exchange for undying loyalty.

Buck hopped up, hooking onto her shoulders with his paws. Yesenia giggled and ran her hands over his body as he licked her face. She knew he wanted to play with her masculine form, where they ran at each other and she grappled with his antlers. Of course, that game was more fit for the privacy of the training rooms.

"Down, Buck," She commanded at last, and he responded almost instantly, hopping down and stretching out on the grass.

Turning, Yesenia made for the doors leading into Nox. Before she could enter, an interesting woman made her exit. Yesenia considered the girl and figured stopping for conversation couldn't hurt. After all, the blonde seemed a bit shell-shocked.

"Hello, there," Yesenia began, speaking directly to the woman so she wouldn't get confused. "Is everything alright? You look a little frazzled. Rough mission?"

Throwing himself aside, Nello was quick in rolling to his feet, where he had avoided a devastating strike from the monstrous Horror seeking to end him. It did not require an empath, however, to note Nello's disturbed state of mind. Whether it was genuine fear, or the Horror's inducement aura, it was was impossible to tell, but Nello's body was moving, each muscle managing its purpose without fail. With this in mind, the monstrosity continued to grow in size, Nello's trembling hand gripping Calamity tightly.

"It's just another monster, Nello." Nocturne's words trickled through the agent's mind, attempting to reassure the boy, as if a hand on his shoulder to maintain a calmly beating heart. "Just another fucking monster," Nocturne repeated, "ugly, revolting, and a fucking nuisance. Kill it, Nello, you stand far above that thing in the food chain."

With his fingers grasping Calamity tighter still, Nello clenched his teeth, attempting to force intruding fear out of his black, beating heart. Nello's claws were nearly digging into his palms, tearing themselves through the leather of fingerless gloves.

He was not blind to the attacks stampeding their way towards him, leaving cracked rock in their wake. Rather, raising his blade, Nello's otherwise calm, quiet voice followed suit. "I'm a fucking monster, too!" Twisting fear to anger, Nello exclaimed a loud shout, his trembling hand slowly halting its terrified response.

Leaping onto a massive, flailing, and spiked appendage, Nello had a target in mind, his motions yielding towards grace, and mobility. He could deduce that this monster regrew lost limbs nigh instantly. However, every creature with the ability to regenerate held the same weakness.

With several flailing tentacles attempting to grab the boy, Nello ended their advance with precise, deadly swings. Now writhing on the ground, reminiscent of fish out of water, they soon withered into grey, lifeless husks. It did not take long, however, for a spiked tentacle to get the better of the boy. It slapped him to the ground, where Nello maintained enough grace to quickly initiate a second bout. Jolting to his feet, Nello charged forth.

He avoided the many chaotic appendages flailing madly, as Calamity vanished from his grip. In its stead, Nocturne made himself known. "Noct!"

"You got it!" In a fluid motion, Nocturne lowered himself to a knee, and cupped his hands. They had practiced this, time and time again, and as Nello's foot fell onto Nocturne's hands, the demonic spirit launched the boy skywards. With a powerful jump, Nello twirled through the air as if a practiced artist, before in his hand Calamity manifested itself, only moments before a deveststing swing left a massive wound across the Horror's visage.

Taking the moment to hold on, Nello plunged his sword deep into the creature's skull. Tentacles nearly knocked the boy from place, but Nello made sure to maneuver towards the Horror's neck, spiked appendages mistakenly slapping their owner's own frame in the attempt.

"Fear this, freak!" Nello shouted, digging his claws into the monster's head, before his sword tore into its nape. Moments later, Nello forced the body part from its designation, ripping what remained of the Horror's skull from sinew and skin. With a back flip, Nello returned to the ground, breaths leaving his lungs at a rapid pace.

"Fuck yeah!" Nocturne laughed, appearing behind the agent before giving him a slap to the shoulder. Indeed, Nello's clothes had been severely ripped by the Horror's spiked appendages, with black blood coating much of the fabric, as if paint. Was a healing factor not present, Nello would have bled out, from open wounds.

Falling to his knees, Nello dropped his prize, as the Horror's head hit the floor. Its massive body was shifting into a grey, hollow shape, and slowly began to crumble. He had won. "A bath..," Nello muttered, "and an energy drink.., I'll kill anyone who gives me another mission today."

With a wide, sharp-toothed grin, Nocturne pulled Nello to his feet, and began leading the exhausted boy towards the portal. It was a fatigue shared between the both of them, and one which could be remedied by a warm, pleasant dip in the hot springs.

Maybe it was due to the fact that whoever was inside the garden before she had arrived had almost no smell, but Ylva didn't notice a woman who was in the garden before she talked to her, asking if she was ok. Turning towards where the voice came from with a agile and sharp movement, assuming an alert posture that reminded how a wolf would upon being surprised, Ylva's almost predatory stare met with the woman who stood near her.
The second Ylva saw the owner of the voice though, everything became clear. It was a Dryad, accompanied by a dog like, horned creature made of plants. It wasn't that she had no smell, it's just that her smell was almost the same as the garden's and due to that, Ylva thought that it was just the scent of the flowers and plants there.

Looking to the dryad woman with a deep and intense stare as she analyzed the woman in front of her, leaning forwards to sniff her scent. While she knew of the existence of dryads and other creatures of the forest, she never interacted that much with them in particular. The ones who did so were mostly the druids and shamans from back home. Most Lycans from the Asulf clan had no reason to search for them nor hunt them, as they were peaceful beings and well... weren't exactly what one would call a tasty meal...

"That explains why I wasn't able to feel your scent." Ylva thought to herself as she assumed a normal posture.

"Hov! Sorry for that! I'm Ylva, just arrived on the academy. No missions yet." she said, introducing herself after apologizing for her aggressive reaction with a strong Scandinavian accent.

"There are just so many different scents here that it's a bit confusing. Not only that but it's not exactly... pleasant for someone who lived their entire lives hunting on the wild to suddenly see themselves walking in the middle of such a big city coming here..." Ylva said, explaining herself to the dryad in front of her.

"Too many loud noises, too many weird, strong smells... While trying to figure things out inside the academy I ended up here. Probably due to being the closest thing to a 'familiar' smell for me." she completed.

It wasn't really that hard to figure out that Ylva wasn't really a normal human, especially due to how strong and apparent her instincts were, almost like an animal's and due to the fact that she didn't try to hide it at all.

---

---

Alex's jaunt to the infirmary was a short one, though his stay there was a tad fussier than he though strictly necessary. But they patched him up, so he’d stayed there listening politely as he was reminded to stretch, rest, not overdo himself, and possibly get a supervisor for the next spar so he and any other students didn’t overdo it on accident and kill each other. All things he knew, of course. He might even heed all that advice, if he felt like it. Certainly, the resting part was immensely appealing. Isaia strolled luxuriously to one of the lounges, looking forward to treating himself to a professional massage at the school spa. He didn’t even mind having to wait a bit; he hadn’t exactly scheduled, after all. That he managed to get a spot despite them was a credit to their school. As he lay face-down on one of those specialty massage beds, a therapist working away the soreness and knot from his over-worked muscles, Sai’s mind wandered.

When he’d been younger, he was a bit wary to let himself so vulnerable to a stranger’s touch, but he’d soon discovered the employees here were nothing if not professional, for which he was exceptionally glad. And today’s spar with Talίa had proved to him his growth in the social department. Things had been simpler in a way back when he’d been pretending to be a human, but…Well, there technically wasn’t anyone else who was quite his kind – and this wasn’t Alex simply being maudlin, it was just that any Dragonkin he’d met (beyond his father) hadn’t wanted anything to do with him if they knew he had Elven blood (half of it, in fact, but not many would recognize that from his appearance if they didn’t know what to look for). Nonetheless, being part of a supernatural community as open as this one had many perks; of which variety was foremost. He sighed as his wings were treated, lulled to drowsing. Some twenty minutes later, his shoulder was nudged to let him know he was done. Alex stood with a huge yawn, stretched, and ambled away, feeling delightfully rejuvenated. And, what was best, he still had enough time for a good gaming session. Perhaps later on, he would consider taking on a mission, or participating in an extra evening class. For now, he fetched himself a light snack (sandwich and cola), and settled himself at a free computer.

---

”I’m fine. Kind of used to things like that really,” Dani responded to the mystery woman as she brushed herself off, though that was more out of reflex than any real need given how clean Nox was. The strange language the woman had used at first was, of course, completely lost on Dani, whose knowledge of foreign languages was limited to the few odd phrases of French she had retained since being homeschooled. As far as Dani could tell, it was just some sort of exclamation of surprise in the woman’s native language, so she didn’t dwell on it too much.

Now that she was closer, Dani could tell that the mysterious woman had an aura of age about her that reminded her of some of the older vampires in her family. It was rather disconcerting coming from someone who seemed to be just a regular human, though Dani was quite aware that looks could be deceiving at Nox. A lot of species that had representation among the students and faculty at the academy could have passed themselves off as human even without the veil after all.

Though Dani was admittedly relieved to find that the exotic woman was understanding about the whole situation, she was more surprised to realize that she had somehow failed to notice the flamboyant, pink-haired man that had joined the woman until then. It was more than likely because someone standing between them had blocked her view, but it was still hard to believe that she could have somehow failed to notice someone with the bright pink hair he had.

The man chimed in shortly after the woman had asked if Dani was okay by stating that she had nothing to apologize for and inviting her to join the two of them for a bit, both of which were sentiments that the woman echoed as she held out Dani’s water bottle in order to give it back. Figuring that it would be rude to refuse their offer, and seeing as how she didn’t really have anything better to be doing at the moment, Dani accepted their offer and took a seat next to them after returning her water bottle to the side pocket of her backpack.

”That’s right,” Dani responded with a small nod when the woman correctly surmised that she was older than she looked. While the fact that the Nox administration didn’t let really let kids run around the place meant that it wasn’t particularly common for people to assume that she was a child, it was still nice that she didn’t have to explain that she wasn’t a child to the woman. That was really the part that got old.

Before she could introduce herself properly, the woman had turned her attention back towards the pink haired guy in reaction to the fact that he had called her a cutie. Once she had explained that that wasn’t a compliment she received very often, the woman informed them that she was new to the academy and introduced herself as Nenetl.

”My name is Dani, and it’s a pleasure to meet you too,” Dani said simply once Nenetl had finished speaking. ”I’ve been here for a few years, so feel free to let me know if you need any help finding particular rooms or anything like that.” Though there were a number of questions that Dani wanted to ask Nenetl at the moment, she held her tongue once she had finished introducing herself. She’d be able to ask them after the pink haired guy had introduced himself as well. Plus she had a number of questions she wanted to ask him, and it would be a lot easier if she knew what his name was.

---

elena was back in her own room, packing her stuff for the mission. As she was debating whether it would be nicer if she wore a light blue shirt or a more mellow shade of blue, her thoughts kept going back to what Zane told her a while ago:
​
'By the way, I'm a Lycan'.
​
She froze and dropped to the bed, staring at the ceiling. Then she placed a pillow on top of her face to muffle her screams... of love or of fright? She didn't know either, but one thing's for sure: she cannot go on a mission alone with one of her kin's many predators. But she saw the way other creatures like her mingled at the hallways. at the cafeteria, at the gardens, and wherever she looked. Even the demonic-looking ones, like the scaled guy she saw looking at her and Zane a while ago, were accepted and treated just like any other students of the academy.
​
She sat on the bed and looked herself on the mirror. She's not that different than them. For sure, no one will care if she was of royalty. They will only care on how you treat them, as royalty or not a royalty, you should always treat others just as how you want them to treat you.
​
Helena breathed deeply. She sure wouldn't start judging Zane Wulfe now. If anything, him being flirty just meant everything's okay with them. But all those teasings and kissings, did they mean anything to him or...?
​
She shook her head. Better to get the answer from the source. She finished packing up all her essentials and proceeded to the portal room, waiting for the Lycan to arrive.

---

Zane was returning to his room when a certain smell hit him. Immediately he went on the defensive, as wolf pheromones entered his nose. Another Lycan was on campus. His mind was working on overdrive thinking that Tyr had tracked him down. The faculty would prevent the clan from killing him on campus but the city was another matter.
​
He'd need to silence them, discreetly. If the clan got wind of a sudden disappearance, they'd swarm in like a pack of locusts. He'd pick up some aconite in Washington, under one of the burner identities the clan used. Every child of the Wulfe clan was trained to resist torture so he'd have to bribe one of the fae to help him. After that he'd have to burn the body and make sure it's buried in a cold iron-
​
The wind changed and he got a proper whiff of the smell. It was a different clan. Relaxing immediately, he focused back on the mission with Helena. Truly her adorableness could launch a thousand ships. While getting his stuff together, he also looked up the client and the town itself. Rule number one of mercenary work is never trust the client. Hmm, this wasn't the first missing persons report in the town, but they were all hushed up by the local law enforcement. Explains why they came to a third party. The museum opened around the same time the disappearances started, which makes it a good place to start.
​
With equipment pulled together, including his knuckleduster that was the sealed form of his sword, he headed down to the portal room to head off with the lovely carbuncle.

---

When Zane arrived, Helena nodded at him but didn't look at him. "Hey. We should probably get going now. Hope we can get to the bottom of this", she said to him without looking at him. She knew she was being unreasonable and she shouldn't even be awkward with him; she also knew that everything has probably changed for the better in the modern times but still, Helena could not help but feel... scared.
​
She inputted the coordinates on her handheld device. It notified her that the portal was already modified and fixed at their destination. Helena took a deep breath. "I will see you on the other side, Zane", she said in all seriousness, the flirty tone absent from her voice, before she stepped into the portal. When she got to her bearings, Helena found herself in an alleyway. She looked at her device to make sure the coordinates were alright and that's when she knew, she really was at Washington, DC., waiting for her partner to follow through.

---

Helena was just as adorable as ever, especially as she was trying to be both a serious adult and a shy teenager at the same time. In the privacy of his head Zane questioned whether his sadistic tendencies were hereditary, then came to the conclusion it didn't really matter either way.
​
Stepping through the portal, experienced the unmistakable smell of Washington. It was like New York but worse. The place was a literal shithole apart from the government buildings, and even they were filth ridden with those rats people called politicians. Looking at the map on his device, they were only a few blocks away from the museum. ”The museum is this way.” Zane stated, in full mission mode, ”Stick close, they have all kinds of thugs in this cesspit.”

---

Helena nodded and followed him. It was so full of people, and Helena was overwhelmed by the number of humans all at one place. And ugh, the air was so putrid here from all the smoke and pollution, Helena imagined an ogre's fart was far more pleasant. She does not get why humans would continue to destroy their own home and still live as ignorant as they are.
​
She was beginning to feel like she needed to puke, and she couldn't help but hold on to Zane. "C-Can we stop by somewhere that is cooler and more fragrant? I cannot breath properly," she weakly said to him. She asked that not because of her not being used to be around 'commoners', but because she grew up breathing actual fresh and pure air. She needed to get used to the current living state of the humans in order to show her kin that times have changed since then, but why oh why do they have to be so disgusting?

---

”Here.” Zane said, pulling a facemask out of his pocket, ”I use this when I have to work in sewers, it's enchanted to filter out everything except breathable air. Might want to invest in one if you have an averse reaction to cities.”
​
While he said that, he was keeping an eye, well a nose, on the surroundings. Nothing supernatural jumping out, though there does seem to be the smell of earth magic. This wasn’t entirely surprising, as most of the cities had old magic running through them. London, for example, had at least three differen leylines in it. Though it did seem slightly off, he could attribute that to the corruption of the humans here. Awful clients, the lot of them, more likely to stab you than pay you.

---

She coughed a bit and put on the face mask. When she wore it, Helena was delighted when she can breath as deeply as she could without hassle. "Thank you very much, Zane.", Helena said greatfully to him. She was very wrong indeed to judge a book by its cover. She was thinking a lot about that when it came to her kin. Were they, including Helena, really judgmental that they look at other species that aren't of theirs as a threat, or were they just so traumatized and haunted by the past?
​
That was a thought for another day. Right now, she needed to focus on the mission. Zane might already realize Helena was a Carbuncle, but he didn't know what they could do.
​
She found herself holding on to Zane's arm, once again feeling how strong he was under his clothes. If Helena were to be asked about it, she would just say she was holding unto him so she wouldn't be swept away by the crowd. She looked around as they walked and she had mixed feelings about what she saw. "Zane, it says on the device that the museum is just a few minutes of walk away from where we are. Let us continue our mission", Helena said to him.

---

Zane walked along, growling at anyone who came too close to them. No supernatural creatures so far, apart from the bloody wretches. How no one has figured out how to exterminate the bastards is one of the great mysteries of monster hunting.
​
”You sensing anything?” Zane asked, ”I can't sense magic, except for strong elemental spells.”

---

Helena closed her eyes and concentrated. "I'm sensing a faint essence of strong magic from... there," she said as she pointed a finger at a direction. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see it was the museum they were looking for. Statues adorned the entrance, with pillars like the Greek temples she read from books. People of all ages came and went by its entrance, with some posing and taking pictures of its outside.
​
She looked worryingly at Zane. "We may be fighting a powerful enemy here. Better if we should proceed with caution. We shouldn't do anything suspicious or that will give away that we're not ordinary humans," she said to him as they walked towards the entrance of the museum.

---

”Judging by the theming of the museum we're probably dealing with a being from Greek Mythology.” Zane said, looking at the museum, ”Though that could be to throw us off the scent. Judging from the information I found online, the creature is smart enough to manipulate the local law enforcement, as well as staying below the radar.”
​
The statues gave him a bad feeling as he approached, though he wasn't sure why. There was a smell of life around them, although that could be attributed to the people walking about. That scent of earth magic was stronger, and boded ill. Earth mages were the worst to fight indoors as you were surrounded by their element. ”Judging by the tang of earth magic in the air, we are probably dealing with a Geomancer. Be careful.”

---

Helena nodded at Zane as they approached the museum. When she heard Zane utter the signs of geomancy, she looked at him worryingly. Some species of Carbuncles have evolved to have influcence over crystals and jewels of the earth in addition to Light Magic. Could this be the work of one of her kin? She sniffed around for a bit, and she didn't smell a trace of Carbuncle scent in the air. In fact, she smelled something quite different, yet oddly familiar...
​
Before she could think any further, Helena's thoughts were interrupted when she heard a group of girls talking near them. She continued to listen and realized they were talking about the museum, complaining about what it seemed to be an abundance of male statues being added over the past few month compared to the female ones. Helena tugged on Zane's sleeve and relayed the information. [color=pink]"This might be a helpful clue to help us determine the enemy. It may seem like she is a female human or... some other thing. So you best be wary of women approaching us and taking an interest in you, because you are... kind of... handsome..." She mumbled the last word, blushing a bit as she averted her eyes from looking at his.

---

Zane was slowly putting the pieces together, having also heard the girls nattering away. Sometimes it was a pain to have such good hearing. Despite not being an expert on Greek mythology, he was aware of most of the more dangerous, read as intelligent, creatures. Of course this didn't help if it was just another creature with a Greece obsession.
​
He hoped it wasn't the monster he was thinking of, as their power is hard to defend others against. As long as he didn't smell snake he could maintain belief he was wrong. ”We'll stick together in there, pretending to be on a date.” Zane said, smirking slightly as he felt her heartrate spike, ”If you smell snake, shut your eyes.”

---

"O-O-On a d-date??". Helena stuttered and looked at Zane with eyes wide in surprise. She felt her cheeks blush again. She should really stop being so transparent. She cleared her throat and patted some nonexistent dirt on her clothes. "I s-suppose that would work." Helena said, averting her eyes as she wrapped her arm around Zane's. They continued to walk to the museum, like a couple on a date.
​
Admissions were free, so they could enter the museum without paying anything. It was vast and really majestic. Of course this was nothing compared to their museum back in her kingdom, but this was not too shabby. What really bothered her though was the number of statues all over the place. It's true what the ladies said: there were more male statues than there were female ones. Helena looked away from them as some of them were naked, exposing their genitals.
​
"Since we're already here, we should take a look around. That way, we can scout out the entirety of the museum, maybe we can even find a clue or two." Helena said as she grabbed a phamplet that had the map of the whole museum. Despite the trouble that lays waiting for them, she couldn't help but feel very excited especially as this was her first mission. Not to mention that she could do this with her very first friend as well.

---

Feeling the warmth of water enchanted with an aura of harmonic bliss, Nello exhaled a long breath, his scales glistening like diamonds beneath the light. At his side, a constant addition, indeed, sat Nocturne, with a wide grin clearly present upon his maw. "So..," Nocturne began, dragging the word out to an obnoxious length, "how does it feel?" There was a silent pause, between the two, where Nello raised a brow, in response. His battle with the Horror which terrorized a section of New York's sewer system would likely maintain its position as one of the most terrifying experiences in the boy's life. Recalling the event, he was unsure of how much fear was his own, and how big a part the Horror's well-known Fright Aura played in the equation. Indeed, without Nocturne's presence, the boy would have perished at the hands of this enemy before the first bout ever reached its end. Not only had instructions been given, but Nocturne had also intervened in a most physical manner, as well, where he pushed the boy away from incoming danger.

"I feel like we should have stayed in bed," Nello offered with a quiet sigh, where the young agent's snout lowered itself beneath the water. Oil-like blood which had previously coated his scales slid down his silver-colored frame, where it soon dissipated in impossibly clear water. Leaning back against the stone surface where Nello had originally sat before diving into the comfort he now knew, the boy submerged himself beneath the water. Moments later, the agent shook his large mop of black hair loose, those red ruby eyes fixed on beautiful reflections dancing atop slowly flowing liquid. "Thought I'd die there."

With a playful nudge, the otherwise incorporeal creature at his side continued to flick Nello's forehead. It was an act of endearing affection, to be sure, but was clearly draped in the essence of tough love. "Whoda' thunk'!?" Nocturne began, "that life as a monster hunter and agent of the fucking veil was going to be dangerous!?" Earning a small grin from the boy, Nocturne saw how his better half simply shook his head in return, before continuing. "That thing was like a six outta' ten, tops. You've gotta' step up your game, Nello. What if we come across a seven? Or a fucking eight?"

Shivering at the thought, Nello considered what he had been told, eventually lowering his eyes to knees tightly hugged against his scrawny chest. "I'd hope to have some backup," he explained. Though, he was aware that even if this was the case, teamwork was something many lacked. It included Nello, himself. He worked well with Nocturne, every action they performed was a choreographed dance, perfectly executed, but this was to be expected. However, considering involvement with others, this would not be the case. Releasing the embrace held around his legs, Nello clicked his claws against the chilling surface of a Monster Energy drink. A sip was enough to fill him with yet another layer of bliss, which was consistently caressed by Nox's own hot springs. "I won't freeze, next time." It was a promise he most assuredly would be required to keep, because next time, could be the last time.