Where Demons Hide

[Kensie Barnett]

It had been a little while since Kensie saw her sister, who had been out on some sort of mission for the last two weeks or so. In that couple of weeks, Kensie had gotten into no shortage of trouble, between two blue Pegasus boys, one of which she helped stop a robbery, one thought she was an honest to goodness princess. She had also snuck into the theater and been given a part in the play that she was fervently rewriting with Verity, and survived an encounter with an old woman whos’ bitterness and hatred of kids had been worse than any demon; not that the girl with imp magic was so afraid of demons.

Today was the day. Sonya was back, and had stopped off at Fairy Tail to report to Ranor Taiga and get paid before she visited Kensie. Kensie wasn’t about to wait for her idol to find her though. Instead, she had wandered to Fairy Tail, herself. She was immediately told that Sonya was already here, and that she was busy with Ranor. So, Kensie took up a post right next to Ranor’s door, though she was unable to stay still like the sentry it looked like she was trying to be. She was just too fidgety. She looked like she always did; pigtails accenting her long hair she wore down, black dress and matching boots. She never really seemed to wear anything else unless she was swimming or something. Not without complaining a fair bit.

Finally, Sonya exited the room, and Kensie jumped at her, hugging her taller sister tightly from behind. “Sissy!” she exclaimed excitedly. “You’re back! It’s been so long! So much has happened since you left, and I’ve met people and stayed compleeeeetely out of trouble and got into a play on accident and also I haven’t cleaned our room since you left.” She was certainly more excitable than anyone had seen her since Sonya left. Even with other people occupying her, she basically worshipped Sonya, despite their personalities being almost nothing alike.

[Sonya Barnett]

Sonya had been busy with a longer job than normal. Things hadn’t gone right, and it got complicated quickly. Oh well, the job was done and she was home. Sonya honestly was worried what her sister had done while she was gone. Kensie seemed to have a knack for always getting into trouble. It wasn’t good. Sonya worked hard to stay behaved and a good girl, but… her sister was not that way. What would Kensie do without Sonya to keep her in line?

The meeting with Ranor Taiga went well. Sonya reported what all had gone on and told him about all the difficulties and complications. She tried to keep her obvious frustration at things not going to plan hidden, but he could tell and tried to be supportive. She had gotten the job done regardless of the complications. Sonya came out after the meeting feeling better only to be surprise hugged.

It was Kensie and Sonya smiled. ”Hey there!” She was glad to be back with her sister, even though she probably had caused trouble. ”Oh? Who did you meet? Were they nice?” She hoped they were, if they were mean to her sister she would not like them at all. No trouble hmm? Sonya had a lot of trouble believing that. A LOT of trouble believing that. Especially since Kensie had emphasized how compleeeeetely out of trouble she had been. And oh no… how messy was the room. ”How bad is the room?” Sonya looked worried.

[Kensie Barnett]

Sonya wasn’t nearly as excitable as Kensie; in fact, she seemed to be far, far more subdued in her demeanor. She’d been like that for a long time, and it made her seem all the more powerful and impressive, and not just to Kensie.  “Oh, just a couple of boys,” Kensie told Sonya, letting go and backing up and giving Sonya her cutest smile. Hector had been nice and given her candy. Elrowan had treated her like a princess.  He also thought she was a princess… so there was that.

Sonya grew concerned at the mention of the room being messy; she liked things orderly and neat. She even replaced clothing that got any noticeable wear pretty quickly.  She asked how bad it was, and Kensie’s adorable grin grew into one of those impish grins that said it was worse than she wanted to say. “Um… nothing’s broken. That’s good right?” Kensie told her instead. After Verity had visited their room, Kensie had gotten busy with play things, and wasn’t good at cleaning anyway. Dresses and undergarments and other clothing were everywhere. Even on Sonya’s bed. Hampers were hard.

“So when do I get to go with you on a mission, huh Sissy?” Kensie changed the conversation to what she always did when Sonya came home. “You prooooomised I could soon and I’ve been good and not done any dangerous stuff without you just like I said when I joined Fairy tail…. Oh, and also Mikey is very cute and helpful and wants you to go on a date with him. “ She added the last part because she’d promised to reward him by putting in a good word to Sonya for helping to fix the window Verity had broken.

[Sonya Barnett]

Sonya was much more subdued, but no less happy. She was very glad to see her sister again and hugged her back. ”Boys? Nice boys?” Sonya had no interest in dating, and so not really any interest in boys. But she knew what boys could be like, and what they could do, so she did not want her sister around those kind of boys. Kensie should have good judgment but… Sonya knew she didn’t always. ”Just be careful with boys.”

Their room was probably destroyed for all Sonya knew. Why was it when Kensie said something, Sonya doubted it? That impish grin didn’t help, but it was cute and contagious. Sonya grinned too at that. ”So long as nothing is in fact… broken…” And hampers were not hard, they were easy. They were a box you shove dirty clothes in. A big box… that’s it. They are holes for dirty clothes. Someone apparently didn’t get that. Sonya would have a lot of cleaning to do.

Oh? A mission with her sister. She might be ready, maybe. ”I know I promised… do you think you are ready?” She knew Kensie would say she was. Of course Kensie thought Kensie was. Wait… what? ”A date? Who is Mikey?”” Sonya rarely got flustered, but this flustered her. ”What did you tell him? Did you tell him I would?” She really hoped her sister was kidding.

[Kensie Barnett]

“One got me candy when I begged him,” Kensie informed Sonya as she asked about nice boys. She looked thoughtful, but most of her thoughts were going to don’t tell her about the robbery they stopped by showing up at the right moment. “Oh, sissy,” she waved a hand nonchalantly as the pair headed to their shared room. “I’m always careful with boys. Besides, I’ve never even liked one, remember?” She’d never had a crush on anyone yet. Not that she could remember anyway.

“Oh, and the other was a boy from Blue Pegasus. He treated me like a princess. That was fun. We went to the aquarium and looked at the octopus. He’s always funny,” Kensie kept going, not revealing that Elrowan had actually thought she *was* a princess. “We should visit him sometime if we travel that direction. We hit it off nicely and everything.”

As they walked, Kensie piped up “Nothing’s broken. Anymore. Just messy! I’m in a play now. That’s a loooong story but I get to play a beautiful and sassy ghost girl who’s just like me. Mikey knows about it. He’s totally nice and fixed a window for free that Verity clumsily broke. She breaks everything you know. It wasn’t even in our room.” Kensie shrugged. “I just said if he’d do it for free I’d put in a good word for him, since he’s totally crushing. But you know, he does seem like a really sweet guy. When Verity’s not hitting him with scripts.”

[Sonya Barnett]

Kensie could be very manipulative, and Sonya was proud of her sister using her talents to achieve things, but being that manipulative could be very dangerous. But getting a guy to give her candy was harmless unless she was stringing him on to do it. The other boy treating her like a princess though, that could also be dangerous. That really sounded like Kensie was leading him on or stringing him along. It was never good to toy with someone’s emotions. It always hurt in the end, especially if both parties had a conscience. Sonya knew her sister did. ”Just be careful… and be nice to boys.”

Nothing is broken anymore? Sonya did not like the sound of that. She leaves her sister alone for five seconds and things break. Well, not five seconds, she was gone for a while, but you get the point. ”You broke a window? But you got it all fixed right? It doesn’t matter whose room it was, you broke a window…” Sonya sighed loudly. She did not want to go on a date, she had no interest in going on a date. ”I appreciate that the guy fixed the window, but I don’t want to go on a date… whats he like?” The things her sister got her into.

[Kensie Barnett]

Kensie was always nice to boys. She was nice to everyone. Sure, sometimes she could tease people a bit much, or insist they were stupid if they were, well, stupid a lot. But she was always nice. Nice and cute got her what she wanted, after all. In answer, she only gave a big grin and nodded. Kensie had strung Elrowan along a little. But not like… emotionally. He was just harmlessly crazy, and he assumed she was an actual “Lady,” and she had just let him think so because he was really nice to her for it.

“No no no!” Kensie shook her head when Sonya started scolding her for the window. “You have to listen to your sister better, sissy. I said Verity broke the window. IIIII was trying to read a script. I’m a good girl, remember? The kind that is good enough to get to go on missions with you…” She was following Sonya to the dorms now, bouncing along behind the older girl. She occasionally twirled, her dress flaring up slightly as she did, though never enough for it to be bad. “Mikey’s niiiice. Except when you throw scripts at him and he drops his hammer from the second story. Stupid Verity. Oh! And also he’s cute and he knows how to do things.”

Finally, they made it to their dorm room on the second story. Unlike when she’d shown Verity the room, it was no longer half messy (on her side) with Sonya’s side clean. Kensie’s things were spilled onto Sonya’s side, both clothing and other supplies for things she enjoyed doing when she had some time alone. Sonya’s bed looked like it had been sat on at times too. At least Kensie’s bed was… mostly… made. Kensie made a face, revealing she'd forgotten how bad it was. "... um... welcome home?" she told her sister, with a cute nervous chuckle thrown in as she rubbed the back of her head.

[Sonya Barnett]

For some reason Kense’s grin didn’t reassure Sonya, not one little bit. But she didn’t know what her sister had done, and so long as no one was hurt, it didn’t matter. She guessed it didn’t anyway. It probably did matter though. She would just have to spend more time with her sister to keep her from doing ornery things again. That probably wouldn’t help though.

Just because she said someone else did the breaking, that didn’t mean it wasn’t her fault. However, Sonya gave her little sister the benefit of a doubt. She could be telling the truth, and until Sonya had proof otherwise, she was going to trust her. ”Fine fine…. I believe you. And… maybe you can go on a mission with me. Just to test things and see if you are ready. Something nice and simple though. Nothing too dangerous.” She did not want her sister in danger. Not ever. Even if she was crazy powerful and could handle anything, she would still not want her sister to be in danger. She really cared for her.

Oh the room. Sonya visibly twitched when she saw how messy it was. She had to clean this… now. She went over and started sorting things. She assumed laundry on the floor was dirty and got thrown into the hamper. Why did her sister do this to her? She sighed as she cleaned, her eyebrow still twitching. ”You… you really need to learn to be more clean.”

[Kensie Barnett]

“You… really need to learn to be more clean.” If Kensie had a jewel for every time she heard that… “I am clean! I take a bath every day you know,” Kensie told Sonya with her mouth twisted into an insistent frown. “I’ve just got things to do…” Like find free candy, practice for plays, or lay on the bed bored - In addition to all of her secret practicing she’d been doing with her magic, of course.

“Oh! I’m getting better with my magic, Sissy!” Kensie told Sonya excitedly. If she showed her she wouldn’t change her mind about taking her on a mission after messing up the room. Plus, Kensie really wanted Sonya to be proud of her. It was why she trained in secret. Kensie’s features suddenly shifted in a puff of magic, tiny imp wings stuck out of her back, a devil’s tail poked out from under her dress. Tiny horns and fangs adorned her face, along with the shift in eye color that normally accompanied the transformation.

“See?” Kensie held out her arms as she spun around like she was showing off a dress. Her imp wings fluttered a bit as she spun. In her hands, purple fire appeared, which she carefully fired at a candle that was sitting on a desk nearby. A purple glow accompanied the fire on the candle as it lit. Kensie looked really proud of herself. She’d lacked that control not too long ago, at least as far as Sonya knew. There was always the problem of the magical feedback tiring Kensie out potentially, but that wasn’t the case this time, thankfully. Instead she stood there with her demon transformation activated, looking a lot more impish, as matched her personality, and also rather cute, for a partial demon girl. “Now I’m not catching random things on fire! So I won’t be a danger on our mission!"

[Sonya Barnett]

If she had a jewel for every time she heard that, Kensie would be rich and could live in luxury. But sadly Sonya didn’t spit jewels when she talked. ”Okay… you need to learn how to keep a room clean.” That wasn’t too much to ask was it? It must have been. Sonya had so much cleaning to do. It really was awful sometimes. She kept telling herself she would wait her sister out, but there was not waiting her out.

It was cute how much her sister wanted to impress her. It really was, and that softened the often stone hard Sonya a bit. ”Very good. I’m glad you’re getting the hang of it. You probably are ready to go on a job with me, but… after we clean the room. Once its clean again we can go look for a job to do, something simple.” That might work, bribe her sister with the chance at a job if she cleaned. Maybe then Sonya would not have to do all the work.

She was a bit surprised when her sister lit a candle with fire. ”Be careful… its good you’re not catching random things on fire, but don’t risk it… you should only use that outside where you can’t accidentally burn the house down.” This is exactly the thing she would hate to explain to the head of the guild. Why did the dorm burn down? Oh, my sister just wanted to light a candle… yeah that would go well.

[Kensie Barnett]

"Ohh you worry too much, Sissy," Kensie waved her sister off nonchalantly. She didn't mention the fact that she hadn't tried to light a candle indoors before, so it was probably a good thing it had worked. Either way she'd impressed Sonya successfully, despite the tooootally unneeded scolding about being careful with her fire.

Despite the excitement of getting to go on her first real job, Kensie was *not* excited to clean up the mess she’d made. Why did Sonya have to be so picky? It was just clothes. They just needed to be picked up and washed. By Sonya, preferably. Still, if she ever wanted to go on the trip… “Okay, sissy, I’ll help pick up my things. But I don’t want to go on some baby mission. I can do those by myself. I hate babysitting old women or old cats,” she decided aloud, thinking about her time with Ava and Mrs. Crone.

Kensie bent down and started picking up her various dresses and nightgowns – all of which were basically dresses. The girl literally owned one pair of pants, and she was a terror to get into them. She hated pants. “You can make your own bed~” Kensie told Sonya, despite being the reason it was messed up.

[Sonya Barnett]

”I worry just the right amount, but probably not enough to be honest.” Her sister could get her to let her guard down better than anyone else could. She worried about that, like she did everything. It was probably okay, her sister wouldn’t abuse that ability would she? She probably would.

Oh no, Kensie needed to clean up. They were not going to go look for jobs until the room was back to the way it was. Sonya wished she could get Kensie to get it clean to better than before. She knew her side needed cleaned badly, but that would have been a lot of work, and probably would have taken hours. ”It won’t be a baby mission.” It wouldn’t be exactly. She wanted to get an easy enough job that it wouldn’t be dangerous, but it could still give Kensie something to learn with. It was better to walk before she tried to fly. She did not want her sister to get hurt.

Sonya was happily surprised when Kensie started picking up. That was good, better than it could have been. ”Fine, I’ll make my own bed. Even though you are the one who got it all messy…” She did a little pretend glare at Kensie.

[Kensie Barnett]

Kensie would totally abuse that ability. She’d abuse the heck of it. Just like any other ability that helped her get what she wanted. At the very least she was a decently innocent girl despite all of her conniving and manipulation. She’d never intentionally hurt anyone with her antics. Sonya assured her it wouldn’t be some baby mission. Kensie would have to work to make sure it wasn’t something that was still insultingly easy. “It’s not my fault you didn’t tell me not to sit on your bed~” she told her sister in a jovial voice. “Besides, sissy, with all the abandoning me you do for your missions I get lonely and it reminds me of you.” It was manipulative, sure, but it was also true. At least mostly true. She’d also made Verity sit on the bed a time or two.

Kensie got to work, however slowly, and started picking up her dresses and other articles of clothing, throwing them in her hamper from about halfway across the room. Well, she was trying to throw them in the hamper from across the room. About half the time she missed and the pile just grew around the hamper. “There! All my dresses are off your side of the room. And some of them are off of my side!” she declared after about half an hour of work that would have taken Sonya about ten minutes. Part of it was her bad work ethic if it wasn’t her secret training. Part of it was her trying to remind Sonya why she usually did the cleaning. “Now, what mission are we going to go do?”

[Sonya Barnett]

Abusing something was never good. Sonya tried never to abuse any ability she had. Nothing good could come from her doing that. Control, that was important. Control and discipline were things her sister did not have. Sonya would work on that with her though. She had enough to probably make it on a real job, if she had assistance. That was kind of cute, and Sonya believed it for the most part, but it seemed to be layed on a bit thick. ”You are more than welcome to sit on my bed, just don’t… get it super messy.”

Sonya was happy to see her sister putting clothes up, again that was a good sign and good progress. Even though she was kind of just moving the pile, she was moving towards clean…er. Sonya guessed that progress was good enough. ”Fine…. Close enough for now. But we are getting this room cleaned.” By this point Sonya had her side pretty much back to normal. She was a fast cleaner after all. She made a thoughtful face. ”I don’t know. Come on, lets go look at the jobs.” She grabbed her sister’s hand and headed down to the job board to see if anything good was posted. Anything that would fit the two of them well. ”Do you see anything you like that is within reason?”

[Kensie Barnett]

Sure. They’d get the room even cleaner. Later. Like, after a really cool job. Yeah, that’d work. Kensie allowed her sister to hold her hand, mostly because of the whole affection thing she had for her, and she stared at all of the jobs one by one, almost making a show of it as she wiggled and looked at the various posters that were put up by various people. She fidgeted with her hair or her dress or whatever else she could get ahold of while she looked. Eventually, her eyes lit up as she picked up a mission and pulled it off the board. A C-rank mission, judging by the label that Vanix had given it when he’d looked it over.

“Sissy! This one!” she exclaimed, shoving the letter into her sister’s face. It was something about guarding a rich girl while she was on vacation in Hosenka. Yeah, that was going to be real hard from the looks of it. More likely she’d been awed by the fact that they’d be around the legendary spas and forgotten all about wanting something challenging to look good. Or maybe she thought she’d get action *and* a vacation. “See? She’ll be at the spa’s and stuff, so they need a couple of girls to watch her and make sure nothing bad happens to their daughter. And they have money. And spas!” she nodded to herself and Sonya. Her eyes were practically glittering.

[Sonya Barnett]

Kensie would learn not all jobs were cool. They were work. You did what you were paid for, sometimes it was exciting, sometimes it was boring, sometimes it was grueling, and sometimes it was a combination of all of them. If you were lucky you would leave the job with more money than you started, and feeling good about yourself. Sometimes you felt bad about yourself after a job, and you would hate life. It didn’t always go well. Hard lessons would come later, right now it was fun.

Sonya was looking at the job board with her sister. She had a more studious eye, and less excitement and glee. She hardly noticed her sister grab one, but really noticed when her sister shoved the job in her face. She took the letter and studied it. The job looked good, and honestly it sounded like it would be boring for her sister, but boring was good, and not deadly. ”I think you picked a good one siss. A really good one actually.” She looked at it some more and thought. Yeah, this would totally work. ”Alright, we’ll take this job and you can see how a job really goes.” She hoped her sister was ready. She really did. ”You sure you are ready to do this?”

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