“Nova! Your sister-from-another-mister is here!”
I laugh as I watch Koira open the door. She smiles wide at me, bouncing a little with excitement.
“Hi Koira.”
“Iki!” Nova’s youngest sister leaps forward to hug me tight. She giggles after I take a step back.
“Where’s Nova?”
“Probably with Yuku.” Koira sighs. “Yuku has recently gotten into makeup looks. I think she wanted to use Nova as her test subject.”
Well, this could be interesting.
I lift my dress bag over my shoulder as I walk into the house with Koira. The stairs give their familiar creaking noise while we travel up them. I chuckle under my breath a little. Some things never get old.
I notice Koira has a little bounce in her step. She looks back to me before we stop in front of a closed door. I hear music playing on the other side. There’s a bit of chit chatter, but I don’t pay any mind right now. I’ll hear the conversation once I’m in the room.
“Do I get to see your dress now?” Koira asks. Her voice is in a hushed whisper as she grins.
I look over to her. “Huh?”
“You haven’t let me see it yet! I want to know what you’re wearing to prom!”
I smile. “You’ll see once your sister and I are ready to leave.”
“Awwww. No fair!” Koira crosses her arms and gives me a playful pout. She shakes her head. “Why are your secrets so tough to crack?!”
“There are perks to having tightly sealed lips,” I playfully roll my eyes, “Maybe I can show you the ways.”
The youngest Haruwiki then knocks on the bedroom door. We wait for a moment while we hear some movement. The music still plays. As the doorknob turns, it creaks open to reveal Yuku standing before us. She smiles at Koira and I as she tilts her head, her blue and white ombre french braids moving with her.
“Iki! You’re finally here!” Yuku says. She looks back into the bedroom. “Nova’s in here.”
Koira grabs my free hand. “Come on! Let’s get you dolled up!” She says before dragging me into the bedroom.
There are four bedrooms in the Haruwiki house. One of them is shared by their parents; Daichi and Ena. The second is shared by two of the triplets, Isha and Eren. Then the third is shared by the younger sisters, Yuku and Koira.
The fourth is Nova’s alone.
This bedroom has dark blue-green walls, holographic stars on the ceiling. This galaxy themed room is the home of my best friend. There’s a white vanity against one wall, where Nova is sitting with half-done hair. She smiles in the mirror as she sees me.
“Iki!”
Nova gets up, rushing over to me. She hugs me tight when I wrap my arms around her in return. As she looks up at me, I give her a grin.
“I’m so glad you’re here!”
I give a laugh. “It’s good to see you. Should we get ready?”
“Yep!!” Nova smiles wide. She starts to walk back to her vanity. “Yuku’s going to finish curling my hair. Do you want anything done with yours?”
I look at my long hair. I didn’t put it into a braid or ponytail this time. I didn’t really think about how I wanted my hair to look tonight. There’s never really been an occasion where I needed to make my hair presentable.
There’s never been a situation where I need to be formal like this.
“Maybe in a bun?” I shrug. “Not sure… Yuku, wanna go to town?”
Yuku nods. Her twin braids bounce a little. “Heck yeah!”
Nova sits down on the bench. “Alrighty. Iki, if you want to put your dress bag on my bed, feel free!” She grins.
Yuku stands behind her again, picking up the curling iron. She takes a bit of Nova’s hair and starts to wrap it around the hair tool. She grins a bit as she hums to the music. We exchange glances as I go to lean on the wall near the vanity.
Nova looks like a goddess already. She has a smokey eye design for her makeup, with glitter corners to her eyes. It goes well with her bright eyes. As Yuku continues to curl her hair, I notice how the blue locks frame her face. She grins in the mirror before looking at Yuku again.
“Alright!” Yuku says as she finishes the last curl. She picks up a star bobby pin. “Where should I put this, Nova?”
“Maybe on the left?” Nova asks. “I think it would look cute there. Besides, it matches my Charm.”
I look at Nova’s wrist. I notice her Charm is still on her right arm like normal. As I place a finger on my ring, I see the turquoise haze of magic flowing from it. I smile.
Koira sits on Nova’s bed. “Man, I wish I could go to prom!! You look like a princess, and you’re not even wearing your dress yet.” She whines. She then looks at my dress bag. I see her grin. “Can I look now, Iki?”
“Noooo,” I tease. “Just wait a bit.”
Nova stands from the chair after Yuku finishes up.
“Okay! Iki, you ready?”
I nod. “Alright. Let’s do this.”
I go to sit down before the mirror. Yuku bounces behind me with her hair tools. She grins at me in the mirror, swaying a bit.
“You said you want a bun, right?” She asks.
I nod. “Yep.”
As Yuku starts to fix my hair, I look in the mirror. I watch her as she continues to do her work. She smiles at me.
“Man… Koira’s right. I wish I could go with you guys. It looks like it’ll be so much fun!” Yuku says.
“You guys shouldn’t be wishing your lives away,” Nova says softly. “You should be enjoying your lives. Live in the moment. You’re only young once.”
I smile. “Nova’s right. You guys have plenty of time to enjoy your high school years. Enjoy it.”
Koira giggles. “Fine. We will.” She gets up and leaves.
“There we go!” Yuku finishes putting my hair in a bun. “Now, come on!! Get dressed! We want to see your dresses!”
Yuku and Koira leave the room. I exchange a glance with Nova, and we both laugh a little. She gets up and comes over to me. She hugs me tight as I put my arms around her.
“How are you doing today?” I whisper.
Nova shrugs. “Eh… I guess better than usual. I still had that nightmare about my siblings getting Charms and having to face Corruption.”
“I’m so sorry, Nova.”
I close my eyes. I know she hates that nightmare so much. Her siblings are her world. She doesn’t want anything to happen to them.
“Any pain? Headaches?”
“Nope.” My best friend smiles up at me. “I’m feeling okay on that end. But… Thanks for checking in on me. It means a lot.”
I smile a little. After giving her one last squeeze, we both separate from the hug. I smile down at her as she bounces a bit. Nova’s eyes have a sparkle in them as she goes to her closet.
“Come on! We gotta change.” She says. “Sakasu and Amai will be here soon!”
I laugh as Nova goes into her closet. As I walk back over to her bed, I pick up my dress back. I pull its zipper down. Once I open it, I reach in to pull out what I’ll wear. I look over it, checking for any damage. I shrug after a moment, deciding it’s time to change.
A few moments later, I slip on the black dress. Once ready, I replace my boots with my heels, making sure they’re on correctly. I stand to dust off my long skirt. When I walk to the mirror, I adjust the front. Despite having no sleeves and the neckline going above my neck just slightly, there is a small window just above my chest. I watch it as I zip up the back of my dress, making sure I don’t have any wardrobe malfunctions.
We don’t want that.
For a moment, I glance at my ring on my right hand. The giant purple jewel that gives me my powers.
“Hey Iki,” Nova calls from her closet. “Can you help me with the zipper? I think it’s stuck.”
I walk over to the open closet. Nova stands there in her high-low dress, tinted with a light turquoise hue. The dress holds on to her right shoulder and gently swoops down. As she walks into the room, the light gives her dress a certain sparkle. It reminds me of starlight.
I mean, she is the Masked Starling.
Nova turns around. I reach out to grab the zipper of her dress. Once the dress is secure, I take a step back. Nova turns again to smile at me. She comes forward to hug me again. I hug her back before we both start to head to the door.
“Nova! Iki!” I hear Koira yell from downstairs. “Your friends are here to take you to prom!”
I look at Nova.
“Ready to go?”
“Let’s do this!”
We walk downstairs. As Nova and I make it to the living room, Koira and Yuku gasp. The younger sister grabs onto the middle sister’s arm as she bounces. I smile at them as they run over to us.
“You look amazing!” Koira says as she circles the two of us. “I love your dresses- especially Iki’s. Look at the ombre colors!”
Yuku hugs Nova tight. “You look like princesses!”
“Alright, alright.” Nova giggles. “We gotta go meet up with Amai and Sakasu. We’ll see you soon.”
“Bye!! Have fun!”
We leave the house. Just outside the house is a black limo on the street. The door opens to reveal two of our friends. Sakasu waves at the two of us as Amai checks her phone. When I sit down in the limo, I see Aura and Ren on one side.
I forgot they were chaperoning tonight’s dance.
I look over to Sakasu. She wears a red, two-piece dress with golden embellishments here and there. The skirt has light and flowing material compared to the form-fitting top of the ensemble that swoops down her chest slightly. She has a white rose as a corsage; maybe to remind her of Naomi? Her hair is fully down without a hair tie to be seen, and her eyes accented with minimal eyeshadow. She still has her Charm around her neck.
Amai wears a pink dress with a ballgown style. The skirt is definitely made of layered tulle that swoops down to her feet. At her waist, there is an intricate, silver design that seems to shine in the sun from the windows. Her hair is tied into a low bun with her Charm as its accessory.
Fitting.
“Are you girls ready to go?”
We look over at Aura. Ren puts an arm around her as she smiles at the four of us. I notice as Nova bounces in her seat.
“Oh yeah!” She says. “We gotta pick up Juniper and Saisho. We definitely cannot leave them stranded.”
Sakasu grins. “And we need to take photos. We can’t forget to do that!”
“Ren,” Amai looks up from her phone. “You brought your camera, right?”
Her stepfather nods. As he lifts the bag next to him, I see his eyes twinkling in his smile.
“You know I wouldn’t forget, ‘Mai.”
“Let’s get going then.” Aura says. “We don’t want any of you to be late to your special night.”
The four of us smile at one another. I sit back as the limo begins to pull away from Nova’s house. My eyes close as I’m lost in my thoughts.
I hope I can enjoy a night that doesn’t involve worrying about Destiny.
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