“I uh… since you don’t seem to read our notices I chose to deliver it to you so I know you’ve read it.” Arlo handed me a slip of paper.

“I’m not going to listen to this… you know that right?” I asked. “In fact you telling me where I shouldn’t go because theres a abundance of monsters is telling me where to get an abundance of resources.”

“...You are the most annoying person I’ve met.” Arlo looked at me with a deadpanned face.

“You somehow found out my address without me telling you so… I think the medal of most annoying goes to you.” I shot back.

“I asked Presley.” Arlo told me how he learned the forbidden knowledge of my home.

“How dare he…” I yawned.

“I thought you said you were a morning person.” Arlo chuckled.

“Yeah, after 6 am… Good day.” I closed the door and went back to my comfy bed. Last night’s late night was stabbing me in the back and making me tired.

Another knock. A bit of time had passed now.

I got up, it was probably Arlo… so I got back up from my warm bed.

“What the fuck do you want now?” I opened the door faster than last time.

“...Who woke you before 6 am?” It was Daliah! My sister! And it was exactly now 6 am, yay!

“Arlo did…” I answered. “What are you doing here?”

“I chose to finally take some personal days so I could visit you for our birthday! Oh I love your hair cut! It suits you so much more than before.” Daliah answered.

“Thanks…  I kinda forgot that was next week… let me guess you’ve worked so much you have over a month of personal paid days built up.” I chuckled.

“Yep!” She smiled.

I let her inside my home and after that I let her take a nap in my bed since she had had a long journey. While she was asleep I sat at my desk and flipped through dad’s old workbook for building recipes and instructions. I needed to know how to build a bridge. Apparently I already had enough materials considering how long I spend doing that so then It’d just take 3 days to construct each part, then a day to set it up at its desired location. 4 days. Meaning I’d have enough time to have free time with my sister to celebrate like she wanted.

I chose to get a head start and began building the bridge heads at the assembly station, so before I went outside I got changed into a yellow jacket and black jeans. After I was half way done with the first one Dailah had woken up.

“Aki! What’re you making?” She asked.

“A bridge, its for my first commission by the Civil Corps. They need it to connect the mainland here, to amber island, a smaller island that the mayor apparently wants to do something with it.” I’d overheard a bit of facts about it.

“Oh thats so cool! I remember when we used to be-”

“Yo Aki, did you get Arlo’s notic- why are there two of you?” Sam must've been on patrol and saw me.

“I’m Aki’s twin sister. Name’s Dailah! Nice to meet you!”

“Yes Sam I did. And if any of you wake me up before 6 am again there will be blood…” I was still pissed about it.

“Its true, I did it twice in a row once and he punched me. Do NOT wake him before 6 am.” Dailah agreed with my statement, “And what notice?”

“Aki has a tendency to not read the notice board and some how show up where we specifically say not to somehow.” Sam answered.

“Oh! Tell me where we shouldn’t go Aki! I want to work on some target practice.” Dailah smiled up at me.

I bursted out laughing. Me and my sister were alike like that… we loved to do the opposite of what people told us to do because it was unsafe. Thats what made it so fun, we loved danger, and it was fun. Yet at the same time so was peace.

Once I calmed down with the laughter I answered Dailah’s question, “No. Cause trust me when I say it pisses off Arlo, Sam, and Remmington… They already think I’m annoying. I don’t need them to think I’m extra annoying.”

“Aw… ok.” Dailah was a bit sad about my answer.

“Thank you Aki! Thank you!” Sam exclaimed as she went back to patrolling.

“I’m going to go and explore then! Portia looks so cool!” Dailah smiled.

“Kay, and if Arlo asks who the fuck you are just say you’re me… It’ll mess him up!” I chuckled.

“Got it!” Dailah laughed a bit as well then ran off.

I was back to being alone, just working on building the bridge head. It took a lot of stone, nails, and wood. Considering it was only my first commission I was a bit nervous, but It was fun to craft it with my own hands. I never realized how much work went into things like buildings, bridges… but now I kinda do. It takes a lot of time, a lot of work, and a lot of effort. But its so fun!

The day went by fast and at sundown I saw Arlo dragging my sister by her hood back to my place. He looked at me. Looked at her… he was so fucking confused. Yep, Dailah messed with him.

“Aki. Take better care of your sister.” He still somehow figured out the one who was Aki was the one building.

“...She’s a responsible 30 year old. I don’t need to take care of her.” I replied.

“Yes, yes I am.” Dailah agreed with me.

“No she’s not! She ended up getting into a fight with some monsters and nearly got hurt-”

“Key word: nearly. I can protect myself.” Dailah commented, “Danger is like, our middle name.”

“I swear she’s not normally like this…” I told Arlo.

“You two will probably be the death of me with your crazyness…” Arlo dropped her off and walked off. He was already done with my sister’s shit.

“Damn… he’s strong.” Dailah commented after Arlo left.

“That he is.” I agreed, “He’s also very sweet.”

“And hot.”

“Yep.” FUCK! I agreed, and now sis knew that!

“Aw! I brother has a crush~” Dailah teased.

“I will end you if you continue down that road.” I threatened.

“Ok… fine.” She stopped… for a moment, “He does seem nice, how’d you two meet?” Dailah asked.

“Noo… leave me alone about this…” I didn’t want to talk about it.

“He seems to at least like, care about you.”

“Arlo cares about everyone. Mainly their safety.”

“…bitch- sorry bastard- you gotta admit he gives off some not straight vibes. But like, kinda straight.” Dailah commented.

“Leave it alone, it's fine. I’ll just do what I always do. Never confess.” I stated.

“Oh come on! You used to be so confident!"

“You know I’ve changed since him… he was so toxic… I don’t want to get into another relationship like that. I know not everyone’s like that… but I’m just scared. You know how I tend to fawn when it comes to abusive relationships… they were all so toxic. I don’t need to confess to anyone, I don't need friends to get too close… cause I have you. My sister. And that’s all I need. I don't need anyone but you worrying about me.”

“...Okay. I wont make you do anything.” Dahlia hugged me.

She was like that, she wanted me to be able to make other friends. However, I was so scared I couldn’t bring myself to ever do it. So she’d eventually give up trying for a bit then try again. But I’d always be too scared to let someone get close again. Other than my sister, Dailah.

“Thanks.” I muttered as she held on tight, and I held on just as tight.

I finished the bridge a day later than I expected but it was fine, I still had time with my sister. Just a little less. My sister continued to annoy Arlo sometimes, and his face everytime was priceless. She defended my sleep cause she got up at 5 am so she got the notice from Arlo so I could sleep in a bit more.

The day of our birthday we chose to not listen to Arlo’s warning. We made it to the spot where the monsters were first and began to attack.

“You go low I go high!” My sister threw her daggers

“You got it!” I rampaged with my axe that I hadn’t used in battle in a while so it felt nice to use it.

We cleared them with some daylight left over… it was so boring!

“You two reckless idiots are in so much trouble this time.” Arlo appeared, he was so pissed, more pissed than Sam and Remmington.

“Fuck…” I realized how mad he was. He was like me if you hurt my sister.

And for the record, I’d kill and die for her. And if someone hurt her, mentally or physically, they were dead to me.

“Would you give us a free pass if you consider it our birthday present? I mean, the most trouble i’ve caus-”

My sister was interrupted by Remington, “No, you two are so reckless yet you don’t get hurt at all… its crazy. And you two are civilians. Its our job to protect you, not the other way around.”

“You two are so annoying… I swear most of my work now is making sure you two don’t cause trouble. Sure you don’t break laws but you still do dangerous stuff when you’re told not to.” Sam added.

“Why would you think it being our birthday would give us a pass on this? See in situations like this, I’ve learned, you just let them lecture you.” I sat down on the ground looking up at the 3, “Alright… I’m ready to be lectured…”

“I’m not lecturing you this time… you’re now under house arrest for a week. That should teach you to listen.” Arlo told me my consequence.

“Oh, you’re fucked.” Dailah chuckled.

“And Dailah, you are two. You’re also placed under house arrest, at Aki’s. You cannot leave that property.” Arlo pointed out.

“Damn it…” Dailah pouted.

“This is the consequences of your actions.” Arlo was even angrier than I had suspected.

“Hold up, I work builder’s commissions, so I can take my consequence, but Dailah is only here because she has many personal days built up because she often works over time-” I was worried she’d get fired from the flying pigs because of the lack of work she could do.

“Oh I have an entire year of personal days build up. I’ll be fine for an extra week don’t worry Aki.” Dailah interrupted me.

“Kay.”

“You are a worse workaholic than Arlo.” Sam grimaced.

“Ha! Aki had over 5 years built up, when he retired from the same job I still do! You think I’m bad, he’s worse.” Dailah laughed.

The 3, even Arlo grimaced at the new found fact.

“I can explain-”

“Nope, I don’t wanna hear it.” Remington interrupted me.

“I kinda want him to…” Arlo’s grim look shifted to curiosity.

“Then you learn. I’m gonna finish my patrol.” Sam ran off.

“Same!” Remington followed suit.

“Okay, so basically, I always finished my work quickly, and that let me have free time when I should still be working. So I’d pick up even more jobs and more jobs. That led me to working overtime to finish the extra jobs I took up. So I always did my normal workload plus extra stuff.” I explained.

“...And how long did you work there?” Arlo inquired.

“I’d worked there for 15 years…”

“You really are worse than me when it comes to being a workaholic.” Arlo sighed, “I’m guessing that your job had something to do with combat, otherwise I doubt you’d be as good as you are.”

“Oh however, did you guess?” Dahlia chuckled.

“Any way, I’ll be taking you two home now.” Arlo sighed. He really was tired of our shit.

Arlo took us home, and we basically just chilled for the rest of the day. And it was pretty boring… except for the fact that we played a board game, one that we made years ago… it was pretty fun to try and remember the rules we never wrote down.

After the week my sister had to leave, which was understandable, they needed her for an important mission.

I guess I forgot to mention that me and my sister were apart of the highest rank in the flying pigs, so when we were called out and given an emergency mission it was super serious. Our level was called the ninja. It was me my sister and 3 others who were apart of it. We were all from Pennyworth and possessed the abilities with iron. I also forgot to mention that depending on how often and how long, or how large the amount of iron is controlled with our powers… we can lose our minds.

When someone like us lose their mind… we go crazy, we are then able to control iron without a voice, and we can control any iron so our blood doesn’t have to be fused with it, but we attack everyone and everything. We basically turn into monsters who want to kill everything near us… we can’t remember who is who all we feel is the need to kill. Its common to see someone who’s lost their mind as someone who doesn’t talk, their eyes are just the whites of your eyes. Its extremely rares but people have managed to be snapped back to reality by the person who knows them most the one person they’d rather die than hurt and they lose their power at the cost of being brought back. When they lose their mind… like in the beginning, as their pupils roll back into their head they bead blood… cause of course they’re trying to fight it, noone makes it back from the moment the blood begins to fall.

It’d be nearly impossible for my sister to lose her mind because she uses her powers a lot in battle… but me? If I were to use my powers like she does then I’d easily lose my mind.

I guess it really is a good thing I left the flying pigs because I could’ve lost my mind if there was an emergency to where I had to use my powers like that… then I couldn’t protect people like I still can. But now… my sister is alone, so the chances she’d lose her mind are higher… not by much but it still worries me.

I was chopping wood, gathering resources that didn’t need to be gathered by in the mine. Because I didn’t feel like being in the dark at the moment, and thats ‘cause when I’m in a severe anxiety mode like I was the dark only made it worse. It made me thing someone or something… Maybe a monster was watching me… the dark was horrifying when I had anxiety… or when I was in an extremely depressed mood, because it reminded me of myself… it made it less energetic. So the dark right now was a bad idea.