2. Odd

Aya would have preferred to spend the entire morning in bed. The previous night she had barely scarfed down her dinner that Eve had made and collapsed into bed after a quick shower. Unfortunately, Eve was always an early bird and the noise of the shutter flapping open along with a barrage of summer sunlight forced Aya into consciousness.

"Blugh, just pretend I'm a vampire." Aya covered her face with her pillow while Eve was trying to coax her from sleep.

"Sis, I know it's your day off, but sleeping until noon isn't exactly a good thing." Eve's attempts to wrench the pillow from Aya's hands weren't exactly fruitful. Apparently Aya had some sort of kung-fu grip on the thing.

"You don't have to deal with the things I do though."

Eve, getting impatient, pulled on the pillow with all her strength, sending her, Aya, and most of the bed sheets tumbling to the floor. Aya, now fully awake, shook her head and through her drowsy daze she saw Eve puffing her cheek out perturbed.

"Alright, I'm up." Aya stretched, Eve disentangling herself from the bed sheets on the floor.

"Honestly, I shouldn't have to be doing this since I'm the younger one."

Aya never would have imagined that Eve would grow so much; in fact, she now stood at Aya's height. Her hair was grown longer too, going about halfway down her back. If it weren't for those differences she and Aya would look the exact same.

Eve threw the sheets back onto the bed and exited the bedroom while Aya clothed herself. Feeling lazy she merely put on her underwear and one of Seph's shirts. Needless to say, Eve rolled her eyes at seeing Aya in a minimal amount of clothing.

"Don't give me that look." Aya pulled up a chair at the table and poured herself a glass of orange juice from the jug.

"I think I've seen you in Seph's clothes more than your own. I guess you've just gotten used to living with him now, eh?"

Eve had finished her second year at the university. During the school year she lived on campus so Aya and Seph were usually the only denizens at the apartment. During those months Aya was quite used to not wearing anything besides one of Seph's previously worn shirts.

Eve walked from the kitchen to the table, setting down a plate of eggs and bacon in front of Aya. Aya grabbed a fork and started digging in. Eve, having already ate, took a swig of tea.

"Seph called last night."

"Oh, guess I was out already."

"Yeah, he said he'd be coming home in two or three days." Eve fiddled around with the tea bag in her cup "Said he'd be bringing home a couple of gifts."

"That's just like him." Aya smirked dryly before drinking from her glass.

Seph was in Japan at the moment, having taken Maeda along as a translator. Another thing that came with this NMC boom was an international community so the anti-NMC organizations often convened together to share information and sometimes even technology. Maeda for instance was nothing less than the leading expert on NMC activity and biology, something Japan was sorely lacking though they did have cutting-edge technology in experimental weapons (something that was kept a closely-guarded secret outside of the anti-NMC community). Aya couldn't really hazard a guess as to why Seph had to go along though.

Eve fiddled around with her tea bag again. Aya finished her eggs and went into the kitchen to grab some bread. Eve glanced over her shoulder at her sister, seeing her put a couple of slices of bread into the toaster.

"Hey, Sis."

"What?" Aya head was currently in the fridge.

"When are you and Seph finally gonna stop fiddling around and just get hitched?"

Aya closed the fridge with a jar of blueberry jam in her hand. She looked at Eve almost boringly and went looking for a butter knife in the drawers.

"Eve, that's not something I feel like talking about. Besides, I don't see how it's really your business."

"Sis, Seph has been living with us for two years. I might as well make it official that I have an in-law. Now that I think of it, you two have the weirdest idea of lovers I've ever seen."

"Welcome to adult life, it kicks the ass of all that b.s. romance you've been force-fed over the years." Aya bit into the jam-covered toast she had in her hand.

"I'm pretty sure even most "adult" relationships are nothing like the one you two have."

Aya cocked an eyebrow at Eve's snide remark. Yeah, Seph and her didn't really have what most would call an normal relationship. They didn't really do any of that romantic dinner or pretentious lovey-dovey bullshit. Neither of them really knew WHY they decided to move in together, much to Eve's surprise, or why they weren't in a hurry to prove themselves to society. Aya came to one possible conclusion as to what their relationship was.

"Understanding." Aya finished her toast and went back to drinking from her glass.

"…Eh?"

"I thought you wouldn't get it. Then again, I guess I could be mistaken."

"Okay, screw it, I'm going to stop trying to understand this."

Aya smirked as the gears in Eve's head were straining to comprehend Aya's admittedly oddball affair with Seph. Most found it to be a joke, like a sick play by some demented writer. She was fine with it though as she'd rather have something like that than a hollow, sugary idea of what a relationship actually was.

Eve was adjusting the blue t-shirt she was wearing and getting her shoes on. Aya put her dirty dishes in the sink.

"Got somewhere to go?" Aya asked over the running water.

"Yeah, I'm working at the Borders near the park, remember?"

"Oh, right, keep forgetting that."

"Gee, thanks for making me feel loved, Sis."

Eve was obviously in a hurry by the way she was frantically gathering her stuff. Aya practically had to throw the girl's wallet at her as she was going out the door. Aya put her dishes in the sink and stretched, feeling particularly lazy. If Eve hadn't woken her up she would have been content to just laze around her apartment a bit longer.

Due to it being late morning there couldn't be anything good to watch, so Aya decided to lie on the couch. Aya lay on her side, doing little more than looking at the ceiling with her thoughts. Well, she would have had it not been for the enormous sword hanging on the wall above the couch.

Seph had been an odd presence in her life for the past few years. She still remembered how that silver-haired androgyne showed up one day killing NMC's and GOLEM's. He wasn't exactly some sort of homicidal maniac, though he was far from a saint or altruist. Aya guessed that only way to describe him was as himself. Odd, but the only way she could summarize the man.

The phone rang unexpectedly, making Aya jump. She didn't feel like answering, so she let the machine get it while she relaxed. However, she forgot who exactly could have been calling at this time of the day.

"Aya, you must be very stupid if you think I won't know you're there."

Speak of the devil. She strolled over to the phone and put it on speaker.

"So, I would guess you've just gotten out of another meeting or whatever." Aya pulled up a chair from the table and sat on it.

"Unfortunately, yes. Practically every waking moment I'm over at the federal buildings talking through Maeda at a bunch of bureaucrats."

"I'll take that as you'll be full of enough frustration to keep the city clean for awhile." Aya did her best to muffle a chuckle.

"Yes, Masamune shan't be put back on the wall for a good long while."

Aya hugged one of her legs to her chest as she listened to Seph talking through the speaker.

"So, Eve tells me you've been busy lately."

"Yeah, I had to deal with some pests yesterday."

"I told you, this is how things were going to turn out."

"And it pisses me off a bit about how you're right."

Aya heard Seph chuckle in that playful tone he practically had a copyright on. Of course he was amused at the thought of increasing NMC activity. Seph never actually thought of anything of the NMC's' extinction nor their theoretical expansion. He might as well be the ubermench in the world.

"Oh damn, I think Maeda is going to drag me back to that cursed federal building." Seph didn't seem very pleased.

"Alright then, don't lose it too bad and rip someone's head."

"Trust me when I say I've been seriously thinking about it."

"Hey, Seph."

"What is it?"

"We…never mind, I'll tell you when you get back."

"Alright then, I'll call later."

Aya turned off the speaker shortly after Seph hung up. It'd be another day or two until he was back so she had time to think about things. There were a lot of things that had been on her mind recently. First though, she was going back to bed.