Author's Notes:

What you give just serves me right.

None of this was going to plan.

The plan - such as it had been - had looked something like: I help out Adagio and do maybe one more thing for her, she and her sisters get themselves settled and maybe even move on in life, I’m left back where I started, Sunset never finds out I did that one last bit of help and we go back to being super-cool best buddies and life is good again.

Clearly that had died on its arse. Like, immediately. And while it would have been pretty easy to blame Adagio for it completely I guess it was pretty dumb of me to expect it to have worked in the first place. My fault, like so many things!

Best to just grit my teeth and plough on through, I supposed. Had to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Sonata told me you were busy,” I said, continuing to let my arms hang limp by my sides just to make clear that I was not a wholly willing participant in this hug-thing Adagio had inflicted upon me.

If she cared she gave no sign and just continued to hang from me like a drunk hanging off a lamppost.

“I was, but then I wasn’t, and I thought I should come and see you - was hoping I could quickly come by yours to get the rest of my things.”

Oh yeah, her stuff.

I’d quite forgotten it was all still there, which was an impressive trick given I’d had to step around them in my bedroom that very morning. But then I never was the most observant of people.

“Ah yes. That would make sense. Guess you need it, huh?”

“Yes, I do.”

Figures. I imagined that she was planning on moving onwards and upwards and with the rest of her things presumably out of reach - who knew what that landlord guy had done? Illegally, I might add, but that’s by the by - it was sensible for her to get what she could. Which was at mine.

I sighed.

“Alright, alright. Let’s do this. Come on. You’ve got to let go so we can move, Adagio.”

Even with me saying this she didn’t disengage immediately, and when she did she did so with obvious reluctance! What on earth had got into her?

Still, the important thing is that she did let go, which meant we could actually get moving and get things done. I lead the way, being the one who knew the way, while she stuck close by my side. I wasn’t really in the mood to speak and Adagio wasn’t piping up either, so the walk was mostly undertaken in silence.

At least until - to my great surprise - I felt her reach out and grasp for my hand, which I pulled away out of instinct. She tried again though so I put my hands in my pockets.

“Not really that big on personal space, are you?”

“You held Sunset’s hand,” she pouted.

I flinched, though not entirely sure why.

“You, uh, you saw that?”

Adagio nodded.

“That was, ah, her idea,” I said. “Friend thing, apparently. She said. Was kind of weird when she did it, too, but I’ve put up with worse.”

Looking back on it it was no less of a weird thing for Sunset to have done. Was it really a friendly thing? I could see it as being a thing a couple of rungs up the ladder from friendly but this was Sunset we were talking about here - we were buddies! Still, weird, right?

“We’re not friends?” She asked, ratcheting up the pout a few notches. Pretty sure her bottom lip even wobbled a bit.

A cheap trick, a very cheap trick. But effective, at least on me.

Once all this was done I was really going to have to work on growing a spine and learning how to say no to people. Cute people especially. As far as weaknesses go it’s a pretty glaring one. One day soon it may well get me into trouble, knowing my luck.

“It’ll just be this one time…” She added quietly, as though she knew it was just the nudge she needed. And it was, damn her. I’ll put up with anything once. How did she know that?

“Fine,” I grumbled, pulling my hands out of my pockets whereupon the one closest to Adagio was immediately seized by her in triumph.

Again, really weird. Life would have to be getting back to normal soon, it just had to. I wasn’t sure if I could take it otherwise.

Thankfully, we weren’t that far off from mine by that point so I didn’t have to tolerate it for long and there weren’t that many people around to spot it and make an issue of it, so all-in-all it worked out alright. And it was just that one time, like she said, so it was fine. We got to mine, I unlocked the door, got her inside and then followed.

I felt a lot better, being back home. Safe and secure, able to relax, less like I was about to be called out by someone at any moment. Adagio had already disappeared into one of the rooms off the hall, who knew which one. Like she owned the bloody place.

“Why’d you send Sonata at me anyway?” I called out and Adagio appeared through a doorway, shrugging.

“Well I was busy and I’ve been to your work and I know how boring it is so I thought she might at least give you some problem or other you could focus on. She didn’t break anything, did she?” She asked, as thought this was something she hadn’t considered before hand.

“Heh, no, she didn’t break anything. And you’re not wrong about it being boring sometimes, but I think I could survive a day at least.”

“I’m amazed you got this far without me looking after you, personally,” she said with all appearance of sincerity. She really sold it! Flat delivery can make some lines, sometimes.

“Har har, very good. Come on, let’s sort your stuff out,” I said as I ushered her towards the bedroom.

I hadn’t actually tidied up or even really touched any of her things after she’d strewn them about my room before leaving with some of them. I’d nudged them all into one corner, yes, but that was about it. I had felt uncomfortable at the prospect of pawing through in enough detail to actually sort them out. There’d been underwear. I hadn’t the stomach to paw.

“What a mess,” Adagio tutted at the piles in the corner. “Should probably go through these, shouldn’t I?”

“I guess? Or just, you know, pack it all up and sort it out later.”

“Probably easier to go through it now, while we’re packing it up. Don’t you think.”

“I- fine, fine, sounds like a good idea to me.”

Anything for an easy life.

What followed was an excruciating excursion through what clothes Adagio had pulled out from the house in the first place. Every single item went through consideration and my opinion was asked on each. When it things like, you know, trousers this wasn’t that big of deal - though I wasn’t sure how my opinion would matter - but when it was some of Adagio’s more, uh, personal wardrobe I felt my cheeks heating up.

She was doing this on purpose. I could tell she was! She was trying to get a rise out of me! I just sat on the floor with my back resting on the wall and kept things cool and professional. I don’t even care how lacey or expensive whatever it is she’s holding is, you’re not getting a reaction, damnit.

Thankfully, after what felt like hours of Adagio’s glacial packing, someone knocked at the front door.

“I’ll get it,” I said, leaping up, desperate for an excuse to step out for a minute.

I was in such a muddle that I opened the door without even checking who was there first.

Turns out it was Sunset.

Ah shit.

“You’re still helping her?! Them, I mean? You’re still helping them?” She asked, face like thunder, barely a hair below just shouting in my face.

Not even a ‘hello. Guess we were getting right into it.

“It was a one-off! I told her! One last time! But, uh, well…”

Only once I’d started that sentence did I realise I had no idea how to finish it. Sunset seemed to have known this going in, too, and had let me go ahead just so I could look like even more of a tit. She stood there, fists on hips, waiting expectantly for the next part, knowing as well as I did that there wasn’t one.

“Is she here now?”

“Maybe? Yes, I mean yes, she is. She’s not staying though! She’s just getting the stuff she left here and then she’s going again. Honest! That’s it! This is it. Last thing. I can’t exactly keep her stuff, can I?”

Seemed reasonable enough to me, but Sunset seemed to disagree.

“Why do you even care? You don’t have to do any of this! None of this is your problem!”

Confrontation is not my wheelhouse. It gets my hackles up and makes my gut twist. I am not on my best in the heated moment. I get defensive. I say dumb crap. This is what happened here, too.

“Well, yeah, I know that. But so what? I want to help someone out. Why is everyone acting like that’s crazy? I mean sure you all probably saw an Adagio that - and I’ll be honest - was pretty damn scary sounding but I never saw that. I just saw her in the rain and I don’t know, I guess I’m stuck seeing her like that. And Sonata’s nice too! Sweet girl. Aria doesn’t like me but so what? I just think it’s nice to get people to a better place. What else am I doing, you know?”

I realised I’d been speechifying, and without a real clear goal in mind. I clear my throat and shuffled awkwardly.

“So yeah,” I concluded.

“You said she was gone,” Sunset said, sounded then more strained than angry.

“She was, but then she came back. But she’ll be gone again, honestly,” I said. In my head this was how it was going to work. I could see it working perfectly.

Sunset, again, plainly saw things differently to me.

“Until she comes back again,” she said.

“Which she won’t.”

“How do you know? You never say no to her. To her! You didn’t see what she did! If she can manipulate people who don’t know or don’t want to do what she says what do you think she’ll do with someone who does? She is using you! She’ll keep using you! She-”

Sunset stumbled midway through speaking and glared, staring daggers at something behind me. A second or so later arms went around my waist again. I growled.

“Damnit, Adagio, why do you keep doing this?” I asked, but Adagio did not deign to answer. Instead she asked:

“Can I just squeeze in close, just for one second?”

“Uh, sure, but why would you-”

To kiss me on the cheek, apparently. To lean up and just give me a quick peck, just like that.

“What the- Adagio what the hell was that?” I asked, but she was gone, giggling as she dashed away back to the bedroom, door slamming behind her. Gingerly raising a hand to my cheek I grimaced and turned back to Sunset.

Sunset who was practically incandescent with fury at this point.

“You let her do that!”

To be fair, I had, but only because I hadn’t know what she’d been going to do! So really I hadn’t done anything wrong anyway!

“She asked! That’s all she had to do! All you had to do, if you wanted to! I’m a fucking pushover, in case you hadn’t noticed!”

“I shouldn’t have to ask! You should have known! I wasn’t subtle!”

“I’m not a mind-reader, Sunset!”

“Yes but you’re not an idiot either! Or at least not as big a one as you pretend to be!”

She had me in a box. Doubling down and claiming to be as big of an idiot (if not bigger) than I pretended to be - and I wasn’t pretending anything anyway - was not going to get me anywhere. That would be a dead end from which there would be no escape. But I had no idea where else I was meant to go or what to do. She had defeated me.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I said, sagging against the doorframe.

Sunset looked like I’d slapped her. She looked on the verge of tears.

“How! How can you not know! It’s so obvious! Everyone knows! Why don’t you know!”

In my head I can see what she might be getting at. I’m dense, yeah, but she’s not wholly wrong when she says I’m not that much of an idiot. I can pick up on things. The things I’m picking up on just don’t make any sense.

Sunset is gorgeous and funny and smart and also a magical unicorn in human form but I’m just some guy and her friend. How could I be anything else? Why would she want me to be anything else? It wouldn’t make sense.

That sort of thing happened to other people, not me.

“I don’t-” I started to say but Sunset - who was crying now, I saw, I’d made her cry - cut me off, holding her hands up.

“Just stop talking. I can’t - I can’t deal with this right now,” she said.

“Please, Sunset, I’m sorry. I just - tell me, please. What am I doing wrong?”

“Just think! Just think. I need to go. You just need to think. That’s all you need to do,” she sniffled.

I watched her go and felt like shit.

Well that was great. Nothing like a flaming row with your best friend to really set the mood and make you feel wonderful. I just wanted to go to bed. Not necessarily to go to sleep, just to be away from everything.

Unfortunately, Adagio was still around, somewhere, awaiting my assistance.

She bloody well had something to answer for and all. That whole thing with Sunset wouldn’t have gone half as bad if Adagio hadn’t given me a peck out of nowhere. What had that been about? Had she done that on purpose?

“Got a bone to pick with you,” I growled as I opened the door to the bedroom. I stopped short though, and ended up just standing and staring.

Adagio was stood there, in the middle of the room, doing something peculiar.

She had in her hand what appeared to be splintered fragments of the chunk of whatever-it-was hanging from the choker thingy around her neck. These she held in the palm of one hand, while the other picked up the largest of the fragments between forefinger and thumb and raised it, pressing it against the main body of the dangling chunk.

There, after a moment of holding in place, it stuck. Adagio sighed contentedly, eyes closed. I just blinked.

“You know most people would probably take that off before trying to glue it back together,” I said, and she didn’t reply for a moment. She didn’t do anything for a moment, in fact. Just kept standing there, eyes closed, little smile on her face.

Then her eyes opened. There was this tiny, teeny, barely-there-but-I-could-kind-of-notice manic glint to them that I hadn’t ever seen there before. I swallowed.

“Thank you,” she said, perhaps a bit more breathlessly than she might have meant to. “Really, thank you. You’ve helped me so much, so much more than I could have hoped for.”

“Uh, you’re welcome?”

Adagio just laughed and repeated the trick with another fragment. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was watching her do, but glue definitely didn’t appear to be involved. The hair on the back of my neck prickled.

“That’s - you weren’t wearing that when I saw you the first time,” I said, lamely, pointing.

“No. It broke, had been shattered. I didn’t want to remind myself of how badly I’d failed. Now though, things are getting better. Thanks to you.”

I remembered now that she had mentioned the thing about the rubies, or gems, or whatever. Sunset had mentioned them too, actually come to think of it.

They’d both said they were important but, in all honesty, in the middle of all the rest of the stuff about magic and battles and whatever I’d kind of lost track and - in the grand scheme of things - broken jewelry hadn’t struck me as especially important.

It was coming back to me now though, the details. I snapped a finger as the bits and pieces floated up to the forefront of my brain as I stepped into the room properly, moving over to the bed just so I could look like I was doing something.

“That’s right, you said they were a, uh, focus or something? They broke and that kind of screwed you guys over. But they’re fixing now? Uh, that’s good, isn’t it?”

I said this, but most of me didn’t believe it. Most of me felt suddenly, distinctly uncomfortable.

“Very good. Very, very good. I was worried at first that maybe they’d been beyond repair, but then I had an idea.”

“You did?”

“Oh yes. Residual negativity is everywhere here, like a background hum. Spikes here and there of course, which is always nice. But it’d never be enough to fix the damage. Jealousy, though? And from the right source? Jealousy is just potent enough that even the fragments can react. Start to mend. Or so I hoped. And I was right,” she said.

I felt I was missing something important.

“Whaaaat are you talking about? Who’s jealous? Why would anyone be jealous?”

Adagio smiled at me, head tilted. The kind of smile that made me feel even dumber than I already did.

“My, you are dense, aren’t you? I thought you were putting it on. Very sweet, in its way. I actually like it more than if you were just pretending.”

I didn’t like where this was going. Or where it was. Or anything about it.

“I’m really tired, Adagio. Haven’t had the best day. Could you just - just help me out and tell me? What this is? What you’re talking about?”

“I’m talking about Sunset,” she said, stepping up to me so suddenly I stumbled back and fell, ending up sitting on the bed and having to look up at her. That was a power move and a half. All I could do was gawp.

“She really likes you, you know. A lot more than you apparently realise. A lot more than you’re probably willing to admit to yourself. I think she’s holding out the hope that one day you’ll wake up and suddenly see what’s been in front of you the whole time. I kind of thought you would, too, but now I think she might be waiting a while. It’s quite impressive.”

By this point I’d scraped enough coherence together to respond. Just about.

“Wha- but the jealousy though?”

Adagio bent so her face was level with mine and spoke slowly, rather like she was trying to make something understood to a particularly dim puppy, one she didn’t want to upset by raising her voice.

“Sunset was jealous. She couldn’t help but feel jealous. I was all over you and there she was just trying to be patient with you, hoping you’d get it, getting nowhere. How could she not feel upset? That was what I needed to happen and that was what I got. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.”

“You needed…?”

Things were clicking. Pieces lining up. It didn’t come easy to me, being just stuff I’d had explained to me once or twice the last couple of days, but the salient facts had lodged in my head and now they were all blaring for my attention.

Sirens. Magical emotional manipulating and consuming types. Very potent, apparently, but defeated. Defeat broke the gems. Gems very important as regards to magical manipulation abilities. Gems now repairing.

Not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

“Y-you did something to me, didn’t you? Right? To set this up? This was a scheme?”

Please let it be a scheme. If it was a scheme then this wasn’t my fault.

“Scheme?” She asked, genuinely perplexed. I made to stand up.

“Wait,” she said and in such a forceful tone I actually paused involuntarily halfway out of the seat, flopping back clumsily a moment later when gravity noticed.

“I didn’t do anything to you. I didn’t have to. I just asked you to help, and you helped. Sunset’s jealousy about it - once I noticed it - was what I wanted, and it was what I got.”

Fuck.

“And I’m still not doing anything to you. I wouldn’t, I won’t. I’ll never do that.”

Well she would say that, wouldn’t she?

At this point she sat on my lap, straddling my legs to do so. This made me want to move even less, if only out of pure shock and mortification. Or at least I was pretty sure it was those two things. Not that Adagio noticed. She just laced her arms around my neck and wiggled around to get comfy.

“I am...fond of you. I like you, too. In a way that I’m not really familiar with. It’s new. Maybe it’s that friendship stuff I heard so much about? I don’t know. Maybe. It’s not so bad, if it is, though it could be something else. I just know that I get...something...from you.”

She paused and thought for a moment or two, picking her next words, tapping her fingers on my back. I stayed stock-still and utterly unable to do anything, brain fizzing helplessly. What the hell was happening? What was any of this?

This really was all my fault somehow, wasn’t it?

“I’d like you, as a friend. If this is what this is. I’m sure I can learn what a friend is. Shouldn’t take too long. And until then I can make sure you’re comfortable. I want to keep you comfortable. And happy. And safe. What’s wrong with that?”

This sort of thing isn’t meant to happen to me. It’s meant to happen to other people. Fictional people, if at all possible. Fictional people have otherworldly creatures of nebulous morality sit on their laps and give deeply unsettling speeches. This sort of thing isn’t meant to happen to me.

“There’s something I get from you that I haven’t felt before, like I said. It’s new. Don’t really know what to make of it, yet. But it’s good. I’d like more of it. It’s one of the reasons I’d like to keep you.”

Keep me?!

Even as I was thinking this I saw that half-shattered ruby-thing around her neck glint and Adagio sighed, closing her eyes and relaxing her body. She could easily have fallen back off my lap had I not raised a hand to stop her from doing so. Not even sure why I had.

“Fear is good, too. But why are you afraid?” She asked, eyes opening again, looking a little wounded.

“Because you’re kind of scaring me here, Adagio.”

She looked more wounded, the sort that might start sliding towards the upset and angry. This did very little for my fear.

“I’d never hurt you. You know that, don’t you? Even thinking about it makes me angry. I can’t explain it. I just want to keep you safe.”

“There are, uh, degrees of, you know, safety, Adagio. Kind of, ah, variances in - in definition?”

Adagio was frowning then. Not angry, just the look of someone confronting a problem and thinking up a solution.

You know, somewhere along the line in all of this I may have made a mistake. Or two. This must be what hindsight feels like. It’s not great.

She wiggled up further on my lap and sat straight, eyes fixing on mine.

“I think it would be good for you to sleep a little, now. You’re very tired like you said. Just go to sleep for me. Don’t worry, just relax. Go to sleep,” she said.

And like that I was tired. Exhausted. It arrived to suddenly and so heavily I didn’t really mind it, just started sinking. But then it hit me that a few seconds ago I’d been a touch worn out by the day but otherwise perfectly awake, and it was only after she’d told me that it really hit. She’d done it! It was her! She was doing this! Fucking magic!

“You- you said,” I yawned, trying and failing to dislodge her from my lap, limbs alarmingly heavy. “You said you- you wouldn’t-”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, don’t worry. Go to sleep. It’ll be fine, I’ll look after you. Everything is going to be totally fine. Just sleep. I’ll look after you. You’re my friend, I won’t let anything happen to you. Just sleep, go to sleep.”

I was so very, very tired.

And the bed - when I collapsed back onto it - was so very, very comfortable.