Sleepover Again!

"Sleepover Again" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Aria finally managed to get away from the relieved and happy clutches of her father and sister after returning. She ran up the hill to the house at the of the road that she had become familiar with, and knocked excitedly.
asha-the-viking
Asha and Katryn both looked up from the book Katryn was reading aloud to the door. Siri and Ander wouldn't knock when they came home and they weren't expecting anyone.
Asha stood up from the table carefully and made her way to the door. She opened it and was pleasantly surprised by who she saw on the other side. "Hello Aria,"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Hi, Aunty--!" she began with a raised hand in greeting before abruptly stopping herself upon realizing she forgot Asha's name, "--Aunty Siri and Katryn's Mom! I'm back to visit! Is Kat home?"
asha-the-viking
Asha laughed at Aria's cheerful forgetfulness and work around. "Yes, she's here."
Katryn appeared at her mother's side. "Aria!" she said excitedly. "You came back!"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Kat!" she gave the girl a big hug, "I'm back! Wanna play?"
asha-the-viking
Katryn looked up at Asha. "Can I, Mama?"
"Of course, sweetheart." Asha replied with a smile, happy that her daughter had a little friend. "Just behave yourselves, okay?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Yes'm!" she saluted in attention, then ran off giggling with the youngest Anders child.
"Where should we go?"
asha-the-viking
"The meadow!" Katryn said happily, clapping her hands together. "We can go play there!"
akkeyagentofhelheim
They sped along to the fields, laughing and narrowly avoiding the townsfolk.
"So what happened while we were away?"
asha-the-viking
"The raid happened and Siri's boyfriend got hurt, he's okay though! Also Siri's been acting kinda funny. My mom and dad seem kinda worried about her." Katryn replied, jumping over a rock. "What happened when you were gone?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Oh no! Are they okay?"
Aria kicked a loose stone across the road, thinking, "Uhm, I met these really nice people. They were part of this group that helped others in need, and they even accepted me as a member! I helped around with the wounded and sick. It was super fun!"
asha-the-viking
"They're okay!" Katryn replied cheerfully, bending down to pick up a particularly interesting stick.
"Wow," Katryn said softly. That sounded so grown up. She wished she was older. "How many people do you think you got to help? How's your sister?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"I... Uh, I dunno," Aria thought about it. It felt like everything only happened in the last week and she didn't really meet a lot outside the Stryx, "I did learn to some neat new stuff! It's different from what Daddy does. I saw him and Iona when I got back. They looked okay! I don't know what Iona's been doing though..."
asha-the-viking
Katryn shrugged and scrunched her nose. "Big sisters are weird sometimes."
Siri was worried about Will, which was definitely causing her to act funny. But something else was odd too.
"Do you think we'll be weird when we grow up?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Maybe?" Aria twitched an ear, thinking of all the grown ups she knew. Everyone was weird at some point in her memory, "It looks kinda painful though. I wouldn't want that..."
asha-the-viking
"Painful?" Katryn questioned, wandering over to sit on a log in the meadow. "What do you mean?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Uhmmm, like..." Aria crossed her arms in thought, leaning to the side, "Like when my Aunty gets weird she kinda looks like she could cry anytime. She forgets a lot of things and Mommy says we have to leave her alone for a bit. She looks like she hurts on the inside."
"Daddy, too," she added, "Sometimes he talks to himself and gets really weird, and he looks mad. But right now even when he was happy to see me again he looked like he was mad at something."
asha-the-viking
"Oh," Katryn said, a look of realization crossing her face. "Sometimes my mama gets scared if we come up behind her and she doesn't hear us. Daddy and me and Siri are supposed to tell her we're there, but sometimes we forget. She looks like she's gonna cry sometimes too. And Aunt Grey sometimes."
Katryn picked at a thread on her skirt. "Siri says it's because of the Rebellion. A lot happened and it was scary and they remember too much."
Katryn wasn't supposed to be out after sundown without a grownup, that was a rule from her mother that Siri said was because of the Rebellion. And sometimes her mom had bad days where she got really sad and her dad would stay home with her. It made Katryn sad.
akkeyagentofhelheim
"If we grow up like that, I kind of don't want to grow up..." she said in a somber tone, the corners of her mouth turning down, "If I get weird like that, would you help me?"
asha-the-viking
Katryn nodded very seriously. "Of course I'll help you. You're my friend. That's what friends do." Katryn reached her hand towards Aria's out pulled it back shyly. Maybe she didn't want that.
"You can come find me if you ever need help. Ever ever."
akkeyagentofhelheim
"You too!" she accepted the hand the hovered and held it gently, "I'll help you too."
Aria gave her a huge grin,."Thank you Kat, for... Being my friend."
asha-the-viking
Kat felt heat rise to her cheeks as Aria took her hand.
After a moment of her words escaping her, Katryn spoke again. "Thank you for being my friend too. I missed you."
There wasn't a lot of kids around her age on Haligan. And those that were close enough to play with often excluded Kat, not always intentionally, but it still hurt.
akkeyagentofhelheim
She blinked at that, wondering why she hesitated. Not because she didn't like it, rather it was very much the opposite, "I missed you too! Now I'm back and we can play while I'm here." she smiled softly.
asha-the-viking
Katryn smiled. She liked to play. “What do you want to play?”
"Uhhhhmmmm..." Aria racked her brains for a game. It needed to be a good one. She scrunched up her nose in thought, then an idea popped in her mind, "Oh! How about Seek and Seek? We played it a lot when I was with Orne and the others..."
asha-the-viking
Katryn turned her head slightly. "Who's Orne?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"She's the leader of the group I stayed with! She's super nice, she taught me a bunch of things. And she assigned me to be their healer!" Aria replied brightly.
asha-the-viking
"That sounds very grown-up," Katryn commented. "You got to play though?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Yeah! We played Seek and Seek a lot." she recalled, "D'you know that game?"
asha-the-viking
Katryn shook her head. "I know hide and seek. Is it the same thing?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Kind of." Aria took a stick and started scribbling in the dirt, " We start on opposite ends of the playground, and we try to seek each other. Whoever finds the other first has to tag them and run back to home base without getting caught by the other person."
She hopped on one foot, "It was really fun, we were swinging in the trees and jumping around."
asha-the-viking
"Can you play with two people?" Katryn asked with a little frown. That certainly sounded like a group game to her.
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Yeah! Me and Orne played it just by ourselves many times. Lots of it were up in the trees though. Sometimes I fell."
asha-the-viking
"I can't climb trees," Katryn admitted.
Siri and her cousins had tried to teach her a few times, but her sister lovingly said she had chicken arms. Also she was kind of afraid of heights.
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Oh," Aria said quietly, then placed a hand under her chin in youthful, serious thought, "Maybe we can use the dragons? That would be more exciting!"
asha-the-viking
"Dragons?" Katryn asked "Real ones?"
Certainly Aria wasn't suggesting riding on dragons. Not that either of then had a dragon to ride. And besides that, Kat wasn't allowed on one by herself yet.
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Yeah!" she grabbed Katryn's hands in excitement, "That way we can go really high up! Wouldn't that be fun?"
asha-the-viking
Katryn pulled her hands from Aria's, crossed her arms and shook her head. She was very much a rule-follower, just like her mom. And the opposite of her sister.
"I'm not allowed on a dragon without my mama or sissy. Not until I'm thirteen. Or... fourteen?"
Kat couldn't remember. Either way, that was not a good idea.
"We don't have dragons anyway!"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Okay..." Aria slouched in disappointment, but realizing Katryn was right. They didn't have dragons of their own. "That's too bad..."
asha-the-viking
"We can play something else though!" Katryn said cheerfully. "I don't know what but I'm sure there's something!"
akkeyagentofhelheim
"Hmmm..." Aria stared off into the distance, and her profile glowed softly in the late sunlight. The half breed seemed to be thinking hard, but after a while Katryn noticed an odd change in her eyes, a dead whiteness, like she couldn't see in front of her anymore, like she forgot that she was sitting beside her.
asha-the-viking
Katryn shivered. She didn't like that. She hesitantly put a hand on her friend's arm. "Aria? Aria! Are you okay?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
They were down to two in the game, and for once Aria was one of them. She hid behind the upper trunk, keeping an eye out for Orne coming frok anywhere. It was oddly quiet around, and the hairs on the back of her neck were on alert.
Suddenly there was a rustle and Aria whirled around, ready to run, thinking it was Orne. But before her was the girl again. The girl who looked eerily like her but with golden hair and eyes, staring silently at her. 
Her heart was pounding in her chest for some reason, and she heard herself asking, "Who are you?"
The strange girl opened her mouth to respond, "I'm--"
"Aria!!!" Katryn called out to her, and she was shaken from her trance.
"Hmm? What?" she blinked, "Kat? What's wrong?"
asha-the-viking
"Your eyes got funny! And you weren't answering!" Katryn replied. "Are you okay?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
She blinked multiple times, visibly confused. She didn't know what Katryn was talking about, "I'm okay! What do you mean? We're trying to decide what to play, right?"
asha-the-viking
Katryn frowned. "Aria, your eyes turned white! I don't think they're supposed to do that! Do you feel okay?"
akkeyagentofhelheim
She really didn't know what Katryn was talking about, "I'm okay, I promise! We can play house if you like!"
asha-the-viking
Katryn, still not convinced, pressed a hand to Aria's forehead, which is exactly what her mom did to her when she wasn't feeling well.
Aria wasn't warm. That was good.
"Only if you pinky promise me that you're okay."
akkeyagentofhelheim
She held out a pinky towards her friend, now worried herself at how worried Katryn was for her, "I promise."
asha-the-viking
Katryn wrapped her own pinky around Aria’s. “Okay, good. Let’s play house!”
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Katryn Haralson
Category:Aria Lindholm
Category:Asha Stenberg