Rising Shards

Evy sighed as she held Stella close. 

“Long day?” Stella asked.

“A bit,” Evy said. “Finals time can get a bit intense. I had a bit of a scary moment today, too.”

“What was it?” Stella asked.

“We were doing some void junk, and for a minute or so I thought we lost Zeta again because she wasn’t with the group. But she had fallen back because she was looking at some Raina Starlight toy leak. It wasn’t even on her phone, she just printed it out, which was precious, but, yeesh.”

“Oh,” Stella laughed. “Yep, that’s her.”

“I thought you’d be more upset,” Evy said.

“No, that one is not on you,” Stella said. “Sorry she spooked you. Again. Zeta has scared me so many times when she’s distracted by something, usually Raina Starlight.”

“Oh yeah?” Evy asked.

“About a year ago, we were at the store at like midnight for some last minute holiday buys, and she slipped away from me and terrified me.”

“I feel like there’s a story here.” Evy said.

“Not too much of one, but…” Stella said.

* * *

“Alright, Zeta, talk to me.” Stella said, rushing past another aisle. “Tell me where you’re at so I can get you home.”

“There…there was a man.” Zeta said, her voice shaky.

“A man? What kind of man?” Stella asked, trying not to sound too frantic. Internally, Stella screamed at herself for thinking it’d be a good idea to take a trip to the store in the middle of the night like this, and even dumber to let Zeta wander off on her own. Now her sister was having an anxiety attack being left alone.

“A scary guy…” Zeta said. “On the TVs.”

“On the TVs.” Stella repeated, the tension of a scary man chasing her little sister around evaporated. “So you’re in the electronics?”

“I was,” Zeta said. “The lights on all the TVs were really bright and it kinda freaked me out a lot, and then this freaky guy showed up on a TV.”

“So where are you now?” Stella asked.

“I’m…by some crafts? They look kinda crappy…” Zeta said. “I think…I’m starting to calm down. Is it OK if I check if they have some Raina Starlight figures I’ve been looking for?”

“No, don’tmove.” Stella said. “As soon as I find you, we can go look at the Raina toys.”

This wasn’t the first time Stella had to rescue her baby sister from a store freakout, and it wouldn’t be the last. The repetitive nature of the task didn’t bother Stella. Once she found Zeta poking at some really dinky looking wood kits, she gave her sister a bearhug.

“Heh,” Zeta said, hugging back. “Miss me?”

Despite her frantic voice on the phone, Zeta had calmed down now. Which was both frustrating and relieving in a big sister guardian way. Frustrating because of course Zeta had Stella in a frantic rush to check up on her, sounding like she was going to faint or something, only for her to be settled down by the time she was found before Stella herself had fully calmed down. Relieving because at least Zeta wasn’t freaking out anymore. Frustrating because they probably could have avoided all this but relieving that everything ended up alright.

The two sisters bonked heads, beaming. “You’re an idiot.” Stella said.

“Can we still get some Ultra Taco after this?” Zeta asked, completely earnestly.

“Zeta, it’s past midnight. They’re not gonna be open.”

“Aww.”

“We can get some tomorrow. Want to just pick something here before we go?” Stella asked.

“And check on those Raina figures on the way?” Zeta asked. “Oh, maybe we could split up again since they’re kinda far apart—”

“No,” Stella said. “You aren’t leaving my side again tonight.”