Suddenly, she dropped the flower and it fell to the ground. "Aph- Aphro- Aphrodisiac? Haha! Perfect, I've hit the jackpot!"
"What's so great about that?" Arius was taken aback by the gleam in her eyes.
"Everything! What do I need to turn it into an Aphrodisiac!?" Zuna stepped over the Haima flower to stand only a few inches in front of Arius.
"What… do you need it for?" Arius's eyes met her pleading gaze, and as much as it swayed him, he couldn't help being cautious of the excitement that showed through.
"Pranks! Despite the way he acts, Tibet is the most cruel of all people! Not even those he is close with can count on him!"
"How so?" Arius liked hearing her go off on someone that wasn't himself.
"Well, I can at least count on Jeffrey to have my back a lot of the time, however Tibet has no conscious! He started this war long ago, and I swore on my life to finish it!" She seemed hell bent on ruining Tibets life, it must be quite a story as to how he fell out of her good graces.
"Alright, I'll help, on one condition."
"Whatever, just tell me what you want and I'll do it!"
Hearing that, Arius was tempted to ask for… no, he was a gentleman. "Tell me what Tibet did."
"That man, he doesn't put friendship in his eyes! We had 10 years of being friends and he had still called the police on me, can you believe that? All those years of water bucket pranks, ugh, I should have known!" Zuna spoke fast. "Has anyone ever told him that if he can't take it, don't dish it out?"
"What did you do?" Arius felt himself wanting to cry when he heard that she had the police called on her.
"It wasn't that bad, he couldn't even handle a few gallons of pig blood!"
"..." Arius didn't know if he wanted to continue. "Where did you get it?"
"Uh…" Zuna paused for a moment. "That's not important, what is important is that he continued with worse pranks even after I got him back!"
Arius was at least impressed by Tibet's courage, to be able to head to head with her. Shouldn't Eirik have said something? Did neither of her parents teach her any discipline? Actually, does she remember her mom? "What happened to your mom?"
"Why are you asking about that so randomly?" Zuna calmed down a bit as she rolled her eyes.
"Just curious."
"Okay, on account of the fact that you're helping me against Tibet, I'll tell you." Zuna walked past Arius, and then down the stairs. "Come!"
------
She sat on the couch with her legs crossed, completely forgetting about her less than stellar hair style, or even the way her clothes looked to be quickly thrown on. "I won't simply tell you how she died, I'm going to tell you the whole story! Before I was conceived, my dad fell in love with a mortal. That mortal already had a daughter, so my dad didn't think it would be necessary to give her a baby, but she became pregnant with me anyway. However, you know my power? She died moments after my birth because of me, and although I had a sister I never saw her. My dad raised her for years, often neglecting me."
Arius wouldn't have thought that Eirik, the doting father, would have ignored Zuna at all.
"My sister died at a young age. I used to blame myself for cursing her to death, but then dad change his attitude toward me and told me it wasn't my fault any of them died. That was the first and only time I had ever seen a change in expression from him." Zuna smiled softly at the memory.
"Do you trust me so much to be able to tell me this?" Arius wanted to tease her, but his words came out sounding peaceful and content.
"It's not about trust, I'm simply over it by now. What do I even have to worry about when I tell people?" She shrugged with a bit of arrogance, one would have to be dumb to pity her for her past. It was a clear reminder for Arius that what he had been through back then didn't matter, and perhaps in the eyes of Zuna it would be completely irrelevant. That story, however, was for another time, back in time.