Chapter 12

The servants had already prepared their rooms so they all went straight to their respective rooms to freshen up, speech minimal amongst them.

Daisy frowned as he stepped into his room which was in the middle of Aster's and Lily's rooms, something was at the fringes of his mind that he couldn't really remember.

He didn't know what to think of his fellow Heroes yet but he did like Poppy, although she seemed to treat him like he was female but that was just her being nice right.

As he got started on the top buttons of his shirt, he realized that he had left his outer jacket in the living room. His shirt was untucked and a couple buttons loose but he didn't think too much of it, knowing that the rest were too busy in their rooms so no one would see him looking that way.

 Absently he fiddled with his thigh high boots as he made his way slowly to the living room, the hallway was quiet, maybe the rooms were sound proof.

His coat was exactly where he'd left it, draped over a sofa's arm. Snatching it up, he made his way back.

Aster had already taken off his thin black shirt before he realized that his trenchcoat was beside the fireplace, cursing lowly he decided that he was too lazy to put it back on, only to take it off again so he decided to just go get it half naked.

He stepped out of his room only to come face to face with the pale haired Fairy, what was his name again? Or was it her name?... Blinking, he paused and leaned closer, definitely a boy right?

Ah! He wasn't interested anyway, he huffed, continuing his journey to retrieve his lost clothing.

Daisy stood frozen in front of his door, his face was burning up so hard, he was surprised how he wasn't on fire yet. If he thought that a half naked Lily was mind blowing, it didn't even come close to what he had just witnessed.

Slipping bonelessly into his room, he didn't miss the sparkle of Fairy dust that littered around, grumbling he started to get ready for dinner, clean up was going to be a hassle.

Eden was already set, since they all decided not to go to the main hall to eat, she wore comfortable clothes that she used to sleep. 

She was building up her weaponry as Fairy metal was absolutely useless, there were darts made out of vines and throwing stars made from flower petals.

She had to keep on practicing though, because they broke easily after a while, she knelt on her bed with a sunflower on the bed in front of her, it took intense concentration to harden it and manipulating it took even more work.

The most she could go was a single flower in four hours and that just wouldn't do, she would push hard, practice over and over and over again, till she was good enough, till she was strong enough.

A knock rang out.

"Who is it?"

"My apologies Sire." A servant's clipped voice came through. "But dinner is served."

"Oh!" She jumped a little, her nerves had taken care of her lack of a proper meal the entire day but now that she had settled down, her stomach growled with a vengeance. "Be right there!" She called back, looking around for her comfy nightshoes, she padded around in the knitted stockings that Poppy had hand-made for her.

She wondered where the servants that prepared her room had kept it, after a considerable while of searching, she found them neatly placed beside her bed.

Clicking her tongue in exasperation, she put the soft-soled shoes on. Doors had opened and closed a long time ago so she was most likely late for dinner.

Hurrying out, she nearly flinched back at the conversation she walked into.

"Why are your bloody insects crawling over my food?" Li asked in a composed rage, glaring daggers at a disinterested Orchid who just leaned back and speared tiny pieces of chicken into her mouth.

"There's no need to argue." Poppy said quickly with a nervously laugh, waving her bracelet filled hands around. "I can get rid of them…" she started to offer.

"I'm not arguing." Orchid drawled, cutting in, shrugging her shoulders in the sleeveless, body hug, crop top that she had on, the black material was ripped in several places. "Block head over there just likes to yell."

"Say want you want but if another bug crosses my plate one more time, I'll light it on fire." Lily growled.

"Seems you all are having fun." Eden noted, walking closer to the last empty seat that was in between Poppy and Orchid.

"Thought you were too good to eat with us." Lily said, cynically, ignoring Orchid and her bugs.

Eden gripped her spoon so hard, Poppy was scared that the silver utensil had bent. "Seems you enjoy picking fights." She fired back at him.

A bug scurried across her plate and without thinking she raised a fist to smash it.

Poppy let out a short squeak, quickly grabbing the ladybug before it got squashed by her best friend.

Orchid cut a glare at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She demanded, wiling the bug to come towards her, which it did, scurrying over Poppy's cupped hands.

Eden just shrugged, taking a bite of her food. "You don't see my vines, climbing over cups and plates, now do you?"

"Please let's just all calm down and try to get along, we're going to be team mates anyway." Poppy tried to appease the roiling tension.

"I'm not teaming up with those two weaklings." Orchid scoffed at Eden and Li.

Sounds of anger left them as they glared at her.

"Watch what you're saying?" Lily threatened darkly, hazel eyes darkening to a burnt gold.

Orchid just shrugged carelessly, eating languidly like she wasn't stirring up a hornet's nest. "Why? It's true isn't it? You're both weak, they should have just left the Hero count at four."

Before Li could even react and light up his hand, Eden beat him to it, hardening a vine from a plant that was at the centre of the table and manipulating it in Orchid's direction at a ridiculously high speed.

Poppy gasped, if the sharpened and hardened vine were to touch Orchid it would make a hole through her body, killing her instantly or at least dealing a fatal blow. "Noooo…" She started to scream, reaching out to try and make it return to it's first form.

But Orchid beat her to it, with a lazy smirk, she lifted a hand slightly and metallic spider threads shot out of her hands at a wicked high speed, wrapping around the zooming dart mid air and crushing it.

It fell to the ground in tiny pieces in front of her face.

Poppy gasped and Eden and Lily shared hard expressions.

Orchid snorted and turned back to her meal. "As I said weak."

Eden grinded her teeth, her rage clearly written on her face, soon she shot up and stormed away, most likely to her room to train.

Lily still glared at Orchid, the tips of his fingers were sparking, itching to light on fire.

Poppy looked desperately to Daisy, the gentle Fairy could change Li's mind from whatever he planned to do but she just realized that she wasn't even aware of what was happening at the table.

"Daisy!" She called out in a panic. "Do something!"

"Huh?" Daisy blinked slowly, his big, pink eyes refocusing, he'd gotten lost staring at Aster and he bowed his head a little, cheeks flushing. "What's wrong?" He asked Poppy quietly when it was obvious that cold faced Aster hadn't even noticed his very obvious staring, he was just staring at his food with disinterest and eating mechanically.

"Li is about to attack Orchid!" She exclaimed nearly thowing her hands up, her cooling food long forgetten.

Daisy looked at them in shock and truly, Lily's hard face made it obvious that he was calculating how best to strike.

"Lily don't!" He reached forward, if Lily lost control while handling fire it was very dangerous and right now, he was beyond reason.

Lily clenched his teeth. "I said don't fucking call me that." He bit out lowly so only Daisy beside him could hear, raising up a lighted hand to throw a fire ball at Orchid.

Orchid didn't even look hassled at the obvious ball of fire gearing up to come her way, another slight flick of her hand and webs quickly spun over his burning hand, extinguishing the fire.

Daisy just retreated into himself, retreating further when Li shot up and stormed out.

"Tch." Aster scoffed, taking a sip of wine. "You are all too noisy." He muttered, getting up with the same look of disinterest and boredom and making his way languidly to his room.

Orchid just got up quietly, her plate empty now and slinked away like an animal, the pattering of the feet of many bugs following in her wake.

Poppy and Daisy just sighed heavily as the tension bled away from the table, training was going to be scary.

"Are you okay?" Poppy found herself asking Daisy who looked like she might start crying.

"Y-Yes I am." He mumbled quietly, rolling his food around his plate, appetite gone.

Even though she didn't look very fine, Poppy let the matter go, not wanting to push. 

She stared out into the darkness as maids came in and cleared around her, Daisy had long gone, she really wanted the Heroes to get together and she would try her best to make sure that happened.