Author's Notes:

I think my brains have turned to scrambled egg.

The rest of late lunch-stroke-dinner-stroke-whatever with Adagio was very nice, actually. At least mostly.

The times when it was just she and I chatting about whatever, maybe joking once or twice, enjoying the food and acting like two people out enjoying a meal like normal friends might, those times were good. Good enough for me to forget for whole stretches that I wasn’t strictly speaking there by choice and that if I got up to leave she’d probably stop me.

I mean, ignore that part and it was a pretty great thing to be doing. Meal with a pretty girl! That’s not a bad thing! Just the, you know, being there under duress and not being able to go home thing.

The times when she went off on tangents about her plans to get Aria and Sonata’s powers back were less good, because those tangents involved a lot of magical manipulation and exploitation and also quickly tailed off into even more worrying tangents about revenge.

In particular, she seemed very keen on getting revenge on Sunset. Very keen. Why Sunset above all the others I didn’t know, but listening to it made me a little uncomfortable.

Because as much as I could shrug it off as a problem for a later date or just something that wasn’t serious, it clearly was serious and that ‘later date’ might come around a whole lot sooner than I might like. And since I was here, it was kind of on me to do something about it.

Which wasn’t nice to think about. What was I meant to do? Tell her to stop? I imagined my ability to get her to listen had limits.

Adagio was deep into a long and detailed explanation of what she’d do to Sunset - again, specifically Sunset - once she and the others had gone back and easily won and I couldn’t really stomach anymore so reached across the table for her hand again, causing her to promptly lose the thread.

“I don’t want to disrupt your flow or anything, Dagi, but we’re meant to be relaxing, yeah? Let’s focus on immediate goals. Like dessert. Want to share one?”

Don’t know why I was asking this given she was the one who was going to be paying, but there you go. Got her attention though. Especially the ‘Dagi’ part. I hadn’t even meant to say it, but it had slipped out and it had worked.

“Oh! Sure. Uh, let’s ask for the menu once we’re done,” she said, favouring me with one of the friendly smiles, and not the evil-scheming ones. I definitely preferred the friendly ones. The evil-scheming ones frightened me a bit.

Felt a little bad not being able to pay or at least even offer, which was silly I know but it was just wired into me. My wallet was back at home alongside my phone, I assumed. Not a comfortable thought, my phone. Likely sat there, gradually filling up with messages, none of them happy.

Work would be upset with me, this I knew for a fact. When I got back - if! - I doubted I’d be coming back to a job waiting for me. And fair enough, you know. Someone disappears without a word and you’re left in the lurch what are you meant to do? Bad for me though.

Benefit of being a dickhead who never goes out and who only has one friend is that I was sitting on enough money to cushion such a loss. Not for long, though. Just enough for me to scramble for something and hopefully find it.

If I got back in good time. If.

Not something I wanted to think about. Just like whatever other messages might be waiting for me. Like one’s from Sunset. Hers I imagined would start out still cross. Then get worried. Then get really worried. It had only been a day or so, but still. It wouldn’t take her long to figure out something was up...

I shoved all those worries aside and concentrated on dessert. Nothing I could do about any of it right that second. When mains were cleared away and the menu provided Adagio and I quickly settled on ordering some fierce looking sundae-thing, as it seemed a good choice for sharing.

Adagio was very enthused on the sharing aspect of it, seeming to view as a Thing Friends Did. Who was I to disagree?

Ice cream happened, and all was well. We paid, I surreptitiously got Adagio to leave before collecting the change so as to get the waitress a tip and then we were out and she was leading me back to the hotel and we were back to chatting. She asked me where I was from, so I told her. She’d never been there, expressed an interest in going once she was back up to full strength.

I...said that sounded lovely.

When we got back Aria and Sonata were sat in the lounge part of the room and looked over on hearing us return, but said nothing. Adagio didn’t even seem to notice them. She also made very sure the door was locked. This I personally noticed, though tried not to look too disappointed about when she came back to me.

“Why don’t you go have a shower, eh? And then get you pyjamas on. You can relax, you had a busy day, got a lot of stuff done,” I said. Not sure why. She was beaming.

“Okay,” she said and out of nowhere I got another peck on the cheek.

Did not expect it, did not deserve it, wasn’t sure I wholly wanted it. But it happened.

And then off she went with enough of a spring in her step that I couldn’t help but smile.

Kind of weird to be babysitting Adagio and telling her what she should do but I kind of got the impression she didn’t mind. Kind of got the impression she was tired enough to rather like it. Everyone likes to hand off responsibility every now and then, I suppose, even, you know, magical girls who are nominally the ones in charge.

Letting out a breath I leant against a wall and found Aria and Sonata staring at me, which made me jump. Standing up again I wandered over.

“Have either of you moved at all since we left?”

“Where could we go?” Aria asked me. I shrugged.

“I don’t know. Eaten anything at least?”

“No,” Sonata said dolefully, whining a moment later as Aria gave her a kick. “What? We haven’t!”

Aria said nothing to that but gave Sonata a significant look the meaning of which I couldn’t parse. If Sonata got more out of it than I did I couldn’t say. Not that I really had time to decode what Aria was thinking.

“Why not take some of the cash and get something? Room service? Get pizza, hell, I don’t know,” I said. The cash was where Adagio had left it, entirely untouched. Still weird to just see it there. Great wodges of cash just wasn’t something I was in the habit of leaving around.

“We don’t take orders from you,” Aria growled, sulking deeper and deeper into her chair.

You know, I was really starting to think she didn’t like me. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn’t ask to be kidnapped, lady, cut me some slack.

“No, you don’t, I’m just saying you can go buy yourself some food. If Adagio gives you shit for it tell her it was my idea.”

“We’re fine,” Aria said through gritted teeth, this undercut a moment later by her stomach growling. “Being mortal sucks…” she muttered.

“Are you sure that it’s okay?” Sonata asked, casting an eye towards the money warily. I nodded.

“I will accept full responsibility. She goes easy on me, not sure why. So go get something now, while she’s showering.”

Sonata looked from Aria to me and back again and then seemed to decide my offer of taking the blame and the prospect of food won out over Aria’s look of intense disapproval. She leapt to her feet and went over to the table, which I was standing beside.

Neither of us heard Adagio come in, wrapped in a towel and still dripping. Neither of us had even considered she might.

“What are you doing?” She asked sharply, seeing me standing there and Sonata reaching past me. Sonata was the only one she was paying attention to, though.

“J-just - he s-said - we-” Sonata spluttered, frozen in place as Adagio - without full possession of the facts, let’s make this clear - stormed up to her and grabbed her by the collar.

“He’s mine! I told you! My friend! Not for you! Mine!”

Again I had to interpose myself between Adagio and the others, ducking under Adagio’s arms to come up between her and Sonata and dislodging her grip by mass alone, gently putting a hand onto each of her shoulders and angling her so she was facing bodily towards me.

I barely even had to think about it that time, just acting on instinct, what I felt would work.

That she was wearing but a towel and still dripping wet only really entered my thought process after I’d done all of this, and I did my best to ignore it.

“Hey hey, Adagio, hey, look at me, alright?”

She did, though it took obvious effort, tearing herself away from glaring at Sonata and then her expression softening as she looked up and her eyes focused on mine. I gave her shoulders a squeeze and also gave what I hoped was a non-worrying kind of smile. Seemed to work.

“It’s alright, you’re alright. Go and get dry, okay? Have a lie down. I’ll be in in a second,”

“I - I - okay,” she said shakily, coming in for a hug which I reciprocated. She felt smaller than she should have, though likely my imagination, and she disengaged with a word a moment or two later, scurrying back off towards the room, her face down.

Poor girl. Clearly in distress. Which put me in the distress. I didn’t like seeing people unhappy. I am, as always, a softy. I imagine that it will continue to get me in trouble.

I was also damp now, but that wasn’t such a huge deal.

“I am worried about her…” I said to myself before turning to see if Sonata was alright. I was somewhat alarmed, on turning, to find Aria in my face, this time looking genuinely angry and not just low-key annoyed. This was a step up.

“What have you done to Adagio?” She snapped, arms folded, eyes narrowed. I blinked, as I often did when confronted by questions without context.

“What?” I asked and Aria pointed past me to the room Adagio and I were sharing.

“What have you done to her! She’s acting all weird. Adagio was never like this but since she met you she’s gone all...weird.”

Clearly Aria couldn’t come up with a better word for it.

I felt a little attacked. Attacked, I say! I held up my hands.

“Hey, I’ve done nothing! I don’t know what’s going on, look at me, how could I? She’s just - I don’t know. It’s not great. I thought you two might have an idea what was up. That, uh, gem thing of hers doesn’t look right and honestly I’m getting a little worried.”

“It’s probably your fault,” Aria said.

“Maybe it is, but that doesn’t exactly help Adagio just you saying it, does it?”

That shut her up, temporarily at least.

“What’s that about her gem?” Sonata asked, popping up behind Aria and peering cautiously around to see if Adagio was coming back. She didn’t, and Sonata approached more closely.

“Her gem thing is coming back together but it’s coming back together all, like, wonky? I’m not an expert but it doesn’t look right. Have you two seen it?” I asked.

Aria Shrugged. “It looked alright when she showed us before.”

“Yeah but it’s not looking so hot now, trust me. Try and have another look. Maybe it’s coming back together wrong. This ever happen before?”

I figured they’d know more about this sort of thing than me, because I knew nothing.

“Never seen one break before. Never seen one start fixing, either. Didn’t know it could happen. The breaking or the fixing,” Sonata said.

“Yeah, what Adagio’s doing is nothing either of us could have come up with,” Aria said, shrugging again.

Helpful.

“Well that’s great…” I said, rubbing my face and screwing up my eyes and hoping that by the time I’d finished they might have come up with a better answer for me. By the time I finished they had not.

“Okay look, I’m going to go see how she’s doing, you guys go get something to eat. Hell, go out to the same place we did, it was great. Forget it’s name.”

I can be unhelpful too, see? How’s that feel?

“You’re just going to try and escape again, aren’t you?” Aria asked.

There was no pleasing some people!

“Damnit woman. A, if I did why would you even care? B, if I actually did manage to escape from the one of you who could easily stop me don’t you think I deserve to?” I asked, hoping a smidgen of my exasperation got through to her.

She gaped a moment or two before conceding:

“...point.”

“See? Exactly. Now go, go, eat! Or don’t.”

Sonata looked to Aria pleadingly, her bottom lip wobbling. Aria rolled her eyes.

“Fine, fine, since you’ll be the one taking the blame if we get in trouble.”

“Indeed I will be, on my word,” I said, grabbing a fistful of notes and shoving them into Aria’s hand. “Off you go,” I said.

It looked for a moment like she might try to have the last word on this but Sonata was already pushing her towards the door so she didn’t get the chance. They left, locked up, and were on their way. I sighed.

Life used to be simple, didn’t it?

Still, one thing at a time. I slouched off to Adagio’s room. Adagio and my room, in fact.

Adagio was sat on the edge of the bed when I opened the door, nervously fiddling with her gem and chewing her lip. She looked up when I came in.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” She asked.

“You really don’t remember?”

“I just remember...being angry. Sonata was getting too close to you. Was she trying to hug you again?”

“No, no, just passing by me, that was all,” I said, waving a hand.

“Oh. Yeah, I remember now, she was just next to you. I should have thought. I was just so angry, it just happened…”

There was a snap and Adagio’s hand whipped away from her neck.

“Ow,” she hissed

“You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said absently, frowning at her fingertips a moment before looking back to me.

“You can come closer, you know,” she said, patting the bed.

I was going to have to get closer sooner or later. I sat down next to her. Neither of us seemed to know what to say after that. She was still in a towel, I noticed, though really at this point I could probably survive knowing that.

“Is Sonata okay?” She asked me, quietly.

“She’s fine. I said they should go get something to eat, use some of the cash. Said I’d take the blame for it if you got upset.”

Adagio let out a muted laugh.

“It’s probably a good idea for them to eat, yeah. Kind of surprised they hadn’t already.”

“I think you might have rattled them a bit.”

That made her go very quiet, which made me feel bad for having mentioned it. I swallowed.

“This is getting bad, whatever it is. Isn’t it?” I asked. Back on this topic again. Not something we could easily avoid.

Adagio nodded.

“When it’s just you and me it’s fine, I barely notice, but when there are other people, other girls I…”

She trailed off, frowning, thinking, fidgeting.

“It’s like I want something - that’s not new, that’s pretty normal - but then on top of that there’s this need to make others not have what I have. To keep it away from them. So that it’s just mine. Like I don’t want them even looking at it because it’s just mine.”

“The ‘something’ here being me?” I asked. Adagio blushed and nodded.

Could have made an issue of that, but decided to roll with it. Just take it as read and roll with it. Can’t help her deal with the problem if I start trying to pick holes in it. There’ll be time to muddle over details later. And, you know, help drive home that I’m not a thing. That’s probably important.

“Sounds kind of like jealousy to me, if I’m being honest. Well, possessiveness and lots of other things besides, but of the jealously guarding variety. Though I could be wrong,” I said.

“I don’t get jealous, Sirens don’t get jealous. Not like mortals, at least. Mortals get jealous, I know that. It’s delicious. But we’re not supposed to. We just see things and we get them, there’s nothing to be jealous about.”

“I don’t know what to tell you then, Adagio. I’m just a guy.”

“Not just some guy…” she mumbled.

Swear I’d heard that before somewhere.

“It’s weird,” she continued. “It’s really weird. I can’t describe it. I have my focus back, which is good, and I have a lot of my powers back, which is also good, but I also keep thinking about you. Which is fine! Don’t feel bad, it’s not your fault. It’s just...weird. It’s never happened before. It’s kind of distracting. Not in a bad way but, well, distractions aren’t helpful. Especially for me, now.”

“Not going to get rid of me, are you?” I asked, jokingly, but it looked as though she took what I’d said deadly seriously.

“No. Never,” she said.

“Never?”

“Not ever.”

Adagio was looking me dead in the eyes as she said this, her face utterly determined. Again, I found myself unable to look away.

Which meant I was operating on a minor delay when she rose to start drying herself off, dropping the towel in the process. I was half a second or so behind on the uptake but then immediately threw myself flat back on the bed and clapped my hands over my eyes.

“Jesus Christ give me some warning next time!”

That, at least, got a proper laugh out of her.