A tale of the dark past and lost memories (Private || Rackie and Arc || NSFW)

"Nothing that's appropriate for all of the people present," Ana surmised, after racking her head for a few moments.

"I think I know what you mean," Yurio said, with a quick glance to Eliza. He dreaded to think of the consequences if such a devious woman were to be allowed to use her cunning under the guise of playing a 'game'...

"I think we're on two different pages here," Ana said, definitely thinking that Yurio somehow meant more than the fact that a lot of party games aren't things you'd usually want to play with your parents or godparents; she could swear that Yurio looked at least uncomfortable if not just the tiniest bit frightened while trying hard to hide it.

Elizabeth sent Yurio what seemingly looked like a very nice, innocent and polite smile, but her eyes implied the true, mischievous nature of this gesture. "Ana's right, my dear. You two seem to be on two different pages. Would you care to explain as to avoid any... misunderstandings, pretty please?" The witch asked, keeping her innocent demeanor.

"W-We could... uh... uhm... tell each other some s-stories, m-maybe? T-The one who tells the best one wins..." Luna proposed. Of course, it wasn't really a game, but something she came up with in the heat of the moment. At first, it seemed like a good idea too...

"Oh! Like ghost stories 'n' stuff?!" Angela chimmed in enthusiastically.
"But g-g-ghosts are scary..." Luna replied before making an attempt to hide her face behind Ana's shoulder. It seemed like mentioning ghosts in any shape or form was enough to make the wolf witch uncomfortable.
"Well! I for one would like to hear a certain story!" Aurora said as she looked at her parents with a wide smirk.

Yurio visibly tensed up at Eliza's prodding for an explanation that she so very clearly didn't need. He stood up, going just a little bit red. "Toilet," he said, escaping the situation for the time being before anyone could stop him.

Ana was puzzled, to say the least. Something must have happened for Yurio of all people to react like that. Not that she would ask. Once Yurio was gone, she could focus on the discussion at hand. She seemed at least a little bit curious about what it was that Aurora meant...

"Fufufu~!" Elizabeth chucked quietly as she covered her mouth with a hand. Yurio's reaction proved to be far more amusing than she'd originally expected. Besides, it fully confirmed what she'd assumed was on his mind.
Aurora facepalmed and let out a sigh once it became clear to her what exactly had occurred between her boyfriend and her mother. A part of her couldn't believe that a dragon out of everyone would just run away from a fox. The witch shook her head and decided to return onto topic. It was something she'd always been curious about and had never gotten too much information about. "The story of how you met mom, dad... There are a few things about it that I'm not sure I understand, from the standpoint of a meister." Aurora said.
"Huuh? What do you mean?" Dalibor asked, somewhat intrigued.
"Hm..?" Elizabeth seemed curious as well
"I'm surprised that Gyles just let you charge into action without making sure engaging into combat was relatively safe. Like... did you forget to make sure the target... in this case mom... was alone or what? Also, knowing you, dad, I'm a little bit surprised you didn't just rush to engage in combat anyway, no offense, of course. How did mom manage to convince you that she and grandparents weren't hostile..?" Aurora bombarded Dalibor with questions.
Dalibor scratched the back of his head and laughed, probably to hide that at least one of the questions she'd asked was a little bit uncomfortable for him. "Heheh... You see... about Gyles' warnings... uh... I was confident she was alone... The mission stated that there was one witch 'n' all. Besides, all of them had Soul Protection on so... yeah. Besides, we couldn't waste time. I wanted to go for a surprise attack! Uhm... and about me... not attacking Eliza nor her folks... Don't you think attacking two witches and a sorcerer would be too much even for someone like me? About Eliza assuring me about her pacifism... Your mom can be pretty convincing, y-you know? Heheh, yeah!" Dalibor explained, becoming gradually more nervous and embarrassed the more he was revealing.
"Oh really? I can still remember the look you gave me right after charging into my living room... It was the look of a man who fell in love on the first sight. How romantic... considering the purpose of your visit." Elizabeth said giving Dalibor a smug smile, before letting out a quiet chuckle.

"L-Let's never m-make the same mistakes your uncle and your d-dad did, s-shall we..? W-With charging in w-without making sure w-we know what's waiting for us..." Luna whispered into Ana's ear. It seemed like she decided to listen to Dalibor's story and analyze it to come to some conclusions. "B-But it really is a r-romantic story, r-right?"

"Not if you add what my Dad's reaction to all that probably was," Ana said to Luna, then turning to the rest of those present. "Now, tell me if I'm right," she said to Dalibor, placing a bit of pizza crust between her lips like a cigarette, standing the collar of her jacket up a bit more, glowering ever so slightly and sighing, shaking her head. "Dumbass," she then said, trying to imitate her father's voice but mostly failing beyond the very slight accent he has and the general tone; she was a girl, after all. Also, she was clearly not shy about calling her godfather and teacher a dumbass.

Aurora couldn't help but facepalm again. The situation had already been absurd when Yurio went to the bathroom because he was scared of her mother, but Ana had to make it even more absurd. "Eeeh, I love this family..." Aurora said after letting out a sigh.
Luna, on the other hand, found Ana's interpretation of her father's reaction quite funny. She started giggling uncontrollably, before realizing who Ana said those words towards. Then her face became red and she turned her head away in embarrassment.
Luckily, she wasn't the only one who found that funny, Dalibor laughed and clapped his hands, while Elizabeth smirked at Ana. "Yep! That's exactly what he said about all that! Hahaha!" Said amused Dalibor, who didn't seem to mind being called a dumbass by her. It wasn't a big deal to him, really.

Quietly, while everyone was distracted, Yurio made his way back into the room. He sat himself back next to Aurora and almost immediately ran his fingers through her hair; he hoped that she didn't mind him doing that all of a sudden, but he didn't ask or even give any warning that he would be doing it either. Eliza can't make him uncomfortable, he thought, if he did something that was comforting to him.

"Knew it," Ana said, between the giggles that everyone's reactions to the impression had induced in her, as she fixed her collar back up and ate the crust that she used in place of a cigarette.

Aurora closed her eyes and smiled softly, enjoying Yurio's attention. It seemed like she didn't mind him doing it without a warning. On the contrary, she looked like she had enjoyed it. Finally, she looked at him and gave him a wink, before reaching out to pick her glass up. Aurora held her glass in her left, prosthetic hand. Over the years she'd managed to learn to control it so well that every single movement she'd make using it looked natural enough to make people think there was nothing wrong with it and that it was a completely normal human arm.
"Hey! You know what would be super cool? If Mark upgraded Aurora's arm and hid some gadget in it! Like in those sci-fi movies and games where people turn their arms into guns or blades and stuff!" Angela suddenly said, in an unexpected influx of creativity.
"Oh yeeaaah... Aurora Foster, the Inspector Gadget wannabe!" Aurora replied and laughed. "What do you think Yurio? Would you like your girlfriend to more of a cyborg than she currently is?" She asked him jokingly. Or perhaps half-jokingly..?

"Yeah. From my current perspective, I think I've done lots of reckless stuff since the beginning of my career. Hah! I'm even surprised I'm still alive and that Gyles hasn't left to find a better meister. I guess I used to be a giant dumbass after all!" Dalibor commented and laughed again. Thinking about good ol' times made him somewhat nostalgic.
Eliza covered her mouth with a sleeve of her sweater. "You still are...~!" She muttered somewhat teasingly.

Luna giggled a little bit more after seeing that Ana's deed didn't cause any issues. "That... that was pretty f-funny! C-Could you try imitating me m-maybe? I-I'm just curious how f-funny would it be..." She suggested, genuinely curious to see Ana imitate her clumsy behavior. The poor girl had no idea how bad that idea was.

"I-I-I d-don't think I'm c-cu-cute enough to do a good one of y-you..." Ana said, putting her best timid expression on, which is to say that it was mediocre at best mostly due to the way that her eyes are shaped and coloured; she tried to take up as little space as possible as she pushed herself up against Luna, too, and she said it with the intention that only Luna would hear. She wouldn't have bothered if she didn't think to turn it into the light flirting that it ended up being.

"I don't care how much of a cyborg you are, Aurora, so it's really up to you," Yurio said, he himself not turning his own answer to Aurora into some sort of soppy lovey-dovey talk because he was listening to what both Ana and Eliza were trying to not have heard by others. His hearing was too good for that, however. The look on his face suggested that he found both at least a little amusing.

"Oh, o-okay... Th-that's fine. Yeah... I-I was just curious... " Luna said at first, not realizing what had actually happened. A short pause followed before she finally realized exactly what Ana had done there. Her face turned red immediately. "Oh... But I-I'm n-not cute..." Luna mumbled quietly, but despite the wave of embarrassment that went through her, she managed to smile a little and wrap her arms around Ana tightly. "Y-You're... You're the c-cute one though..." She whispered into Ana's ear in an attempt to flirt back, yet her stuttering could potentially make it less effective than she wanted.

"Yikes... Wasn't that a bit cold?" Angela asked.
"Nah, Yurio's just being honest here. 'Tis the level of honesty I like." Aurora replied with a grin spread across her face. She then proceeded to ruffle his hair with her normal hand and chuckled. "By the way, you seem focused on something..." Aurora finally noticed after seeing the look on his face. A quick look around helped her find a possible answer to her own observation.

"Beautiful, then? You're beautiful," Ana then said, even more quietly, almost whispering the words to her after leaning her head nearly to Luna's ear.

And Yurio repeated exactly what they had and were saying to Aurora, doing a little bit of an impression of his own. His was purely voice based, though, since he didn't want to be noticed. "Awww... They're precious," he summarised.

Luna got so embarrassed she put both of her hands on the cheeks to cover the giant blush that appeared on them. "But... But... I'm n-not. You're the beautiful one... I'm just... average... and clumsy!" She replied almost defensively, trying to stop the wave of embarrassment Ana kept sending her way. "And... And... And you're strong and smart and... you're the only person that makes me truly happy!" Luna replied with some compliments, trying to make Ana at least somewhat embarrassed. Though, she was just being honest there. In Luna's eyes Ana was way better at everything that she would ever become. Frankly, she had an opinion that Ana was simply amazing in every way.

Aurora chuckled and leaned back on her seat. "Yes, they are. Our little lovebirds. I mean, everyone's got someone to enjoy time with. It's kind of cute. Well... Not counting Angela, that is!" She said, before looking at her sister for a moment.
"Hey, you-!" Angela growled as she glared at her sister.
"Don't worry. You'll find someone soon enough." Aurora said, before turning her attention back towards Yurio. She leaned towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder. There was a grin spread across her face. "Oh Yurio~! You're so handsome, you know that~?" Aurora told him with a cutesy voice, imitating the rest of the "lovebirds". It was clear she was teasing him.

"I really don't think I'm all that great. I just try my best," Ana said, although despite that she still let herself be flattered. A slight redness was visible on her cheeks, but she ignored it. "You also need to stop putting yourself down. I'm super in love with you, so it doesn't feel great when you talk badly about yourself."

"Oh, being told so by one with a beauty such as your own means the world, but yet, I in fact did already know," Yurio said, turning to Aurora somewhat in his seat while beaming at her, slicking back his hair only for it to fall messily back over his face in a most exaggerated motion. There wasn't a way that he wouldn't try to make someone cringe when being given a line like that, in that sort of tone.

"A-Alright... It's just... I don't think I'm all that great..." Luna said and let out a sigh. It seemed like nothing could change her own opinion about herself. Then it occurred to her. It was one positive thought in the cloud of negative ones. Suddenly she smiled at Ana widely. "A-Actually, there is this one thing... I'm very good at making sure you're not bored! Oh, m-maybe there are two things? I-I'm quite great at proving I love you deeply!" She told Ana in a sudden surge of confidence. A short giggle followed her little speech before she started hugging Ana tightly. "A-and I... will never let y-you go! Y-you're now in m-my trap!" Luna added, somewhat enjoying her little somewhat childish acting.

"Oh Lord Death... Just end me already!" Hearing the exchange between Aurora and Yurio, Angela groaned as she looked at the ceiling as if she was looking for Death to take her to the afterlife... or something. Deciding that she had enough diabetes and cringe for one day, she stood up and went over behind the counter to stuff her mouth full of sweets. To ease herself in her misery... Or to get another kind of diabetes, whatever.

"Ha! Good one! A little modesty is always appreciated." Aurora laughed at Yurio's words as she tapped him gently on the shoulder with her fist. Despite her pretending that they didn't have any effect on her, a visible bright blush gave it all - she quite enjoyed getting compliments from Yurio. Even if said compliments were given in such delivery. Aurora cleared her throat, deciding to attempt to play his little game. "No only handsome, but also eloquent, I see. Such are the traits of a splendid gentleman such as yourself, my dear." Aurora told him in the most kittenish voice she'd managed to utter and she even threw in a fake English accent as a bonus. Though it all proved to be too much for her, which led her to crack up a bit. It took Aurora a while to stop laughing and once she did she looked at Yurio and let out a sigh. "I'd be a terrible actress." Aurora said and smirked.

Ana, with cheeks now all rosy, smiled warmly at Luna. "I don't want you to let me go," she said, pressing her forehead to Luna's briefly. "But besides... You go and try and tell me you're not adorable, but then you say all that, all cheerful and just so, so, cute? Not fair."

Yurio nodded after fixing up his hair so it was no longer all over his face. "Wouldn't be a good career plan for either of us I don't think," he then said.

Luna blinked a few times, at that point unable to cover her blush in any way really. "B-But I'm just being myself..." She said in her own defense. Wasn't her fault that she wanted to do cute and nice things. It was simply a part of her nature. "A-Also... I can't help but think of c-cute things when I-I'm around y-you..." She added.

"Agreed." Aurora responded simply, leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. "However there are certain career plans that would potentially work for us. I mean, not counting working here, of course." She told him with one of her hands placed on the back of the head.

"No, I think you're just cute," Ana said, sticking her tongue out briefly at Luna and once more mussing up her hair.

"Hmm?" Yurio tilted his head at Aurora in curiosity, wondering what she had in mind. Working at the cafe was good enough in his mind.

"W-well, but I'm myself too!" Luna said with the same defensive tone as before. Feeling that her hair became a little bit messy thanks to Ana, she attempted to fix it a little bit, but without a brush or a comb, it proved to be a difficult task. "B-but you're cute too... and so pretty... so... so pretty..." Luna added, feeling she'd run out of ideas for creative compliments.

"My dears, Dalibor and I have just noticed that it is getting late. Therefore, the two of us shall be going home. Please do remember to lock the door before leaving, alright? Thank you." Elizabeth announced. Though, judging by Dalibor's face, she probably had something planned already. And that something probably requited Dalibor and her to get someplace more private. Of course, she would not tell them anything. Eventually, both her and Dalibor walked over to the door.
"Uh, yeah! Have a good night everyone! Don't stay up too late!" Dalibor said, a little bit sheepishly, which was probably caused by Elizabeth holding his hand. Soon the adults left the cafe and went home.

Angela groaned loudly. "My goodness... Please don't tell me they're going to..."
"Angela, I think it'd be a good idea if you stopped thinking about it. For your own good." Aurora said to which Angela groaned again.
"Yeah. Uh. Anyway. Where were we? Ah, right. I mean, I really like working here. It's super fun. But... think about other possibilities! I'm a witch and you're a dragon. We have our awesome powers and stuff. So, for example, I could use my healing powers to save lives. I've probably mentioned it already, but I used to want to become a nurse at our Academy. Oh, and Angela keeps telling me I'm quite a good singer so, uhm, if I wanted I could probably try to improve my singing skills a little bit and try to start a band or something. That'd be so cool. Also, working for the DWMA as a teacher or some sort of an agent or whatever sounds nice too. Some of those career paths we could take together since our skills would allow that. On the other hand... you could use your skills for entertainment! After all, dragons are badass!" Aurora explained her earlier statement, finishing her little monologue with a wide grin on her face.

"So... uhm... would you like to do something, Ana?" Luna asked, just remembering that they were still at the pizza party. "L-like playing a game or doing something fun?" She clarified. "O-oh! D-don't get me wrong! This... This is fun too!" Luna added with a bright blush present on her cheeks.

Ana helped Luna along with fixing her hair, since she was the one who could actually see it properly and was also the one who messed it up in the first place. Once Ana felt that Luna's hair was in an acceptable state, she turned her attention to the somewhat forgotten pizza again, only showing Luna that she was pleased by the compliments with a satisfied smirk.

Yurio was glad he was too distracted to overhear the conversation and/or events which had culminated in the exit of the elder Fosters. He did not comment, nor did he even acknowledge the same idea that Angela had mentioned; he was more than experienced enough with purging such thoughts from his mind. "I do like the idea of doing some work for the DWMA as an agent, but I'm not much good beyond just hunting things down. Then again, that is kind of the Academy's MO," Yurio said, thinking on what Aurora said for a little while. He seemed to wait a moment before going on, "Oh, but, no entertainment. Been there, done that. Kind of wore down my pride for a while..."

"Let's see," Ana then said, finally also returning her attention to the remainder of the party. "So, now that the older folk are gone, does anyone have any ideas for games?"

When it came to the remaining pieces of pizza, Luna had already been feeling pretty full, even though it would seem that she hadn't really eaten all that much of it. It was a pretty nice party, at least in Luna's opinion, but she wanted to make it even better somehow.

"Fair enough. Though I was more thinking about the skills you can use while being in your human form." Aurora explained, to make clear that she wouldn't really want to see Yurio in the role of a pony at a circus, but in the role of a magician. "Yeah... working for the DWMA past graduation could be pretty nice. Uncle does it. Dad does it. Imagine, You, I and my weapon working as a team... Though... to be fair I still need finally get that damned third star... I wonder if I could talk to Lord Death about my current rank." Aurora said, analyzing her options. Still, working for her mother was good enough for her, but it's always nice to think about other possibilities. At least in her opinion.

When Ana asked about game ideas both sisters looked at her, before getting lost in thoughts. "Hm... let's see..." Aurora muttered.

"Hey, what's going on here?"
"We could play 'shoot the Raccoon'!" Aurora suddenly suggested with a smug smirk.
"What the hell is he doing here?! When did he even enter?!" Angela asked, confused.
"I saw you all sitting here with pizza boxes on the table. So, I got curious." I explained in a way they could understand. Don't worry though, my presence here is probably just a short cameo. Unless you want to extend my stay. I have teleportation magic after all. Could be useful for your party. Just sayin'.

"Pin the tail on the Raccoon," Ana remarked, lifting up a hand.
"We can skip the blindfold and spinning," Yurio then added.
"We could do a Raccoon pinata," Ana suggested, lifting the other.
"Ana, you're a genius," Yurio finally said, pointing at her energetically.

Then Yurio completely ignored the sorcerer.

"Are three stars something you can get by asking nicely?" Yurio asked, lifting an eyebrow and scratching at his head in a gesture of ingenuine confusion.

Luna listened to their remarks about the sorcerer and blushed slightly, feeling somewhat bad for him. "M-Maybe we should avoid things that w-would hurt any... any r-raccoon? Please?" She requested meekly, hoping that everyone was just joking about hurting the sorcerer.

"Well, at least there's one person in this room who wishes me no harm. Thank you very much!" I said, genuinely happy to know that my creator created at least one character who actually shows any signs of sympathy towards me. That's Luna for you. Probably the nicest of his characters. Well, until she goes full evil witch because of her magic, but that's a topic for a different time. "Anyway, I assume you're looking for something fun to do, am I right?" I asked.

"Of course not. Besides, I have a new partner to turn into a Death Scythe... It's just... In my career I've collected almost 200 souls and by being dragged into worst places that were just crawling with corrupted souls. I've been risking my life and even lost an arm to create two death scythes at once. So... it's just... sometimes I feel slightly unrewarded for all that hard work I've done." Aurora explained as she scratched the back of her head.

Ana leaned into Luna a little as she squeezed her briefly, looking between her and Raccoon with eyes and a smile that seemed to simply radiate the notion of 'she's just the best thing ever, isn't she?'
After a moment of that, and sitting back up properly, she pointed to the table. "Want some?" she asked Raccoon. Since the Foster's parents left early, it seemed that there was pizza to spare. "And, what do you have in mind?"

"I see," Yurio said. He didn't quite know how far Aurora had taken her previous pair of weapons, but since she almost made two Death Scythes at once, only failing because of one dud mission... "Yeah, I think I'd talk to Death about it, too, in your shoes."

Luna wrapped her arms around Ana's waist as if to let her know that she wanted her to stay like that for a moment, so she could enjoy the warmth.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the cuteness of that. If I would have to appreciate our creators for one thing, that thing would be those two. Cuteness overload - that's what it is. "Well, sure, thanks!" I said, taking a slice out of the box. In this world, where the possibilities are basically limitless, there surely should be something exciting to do with the help of my abilities. I mean, me being here is just a plot device. After all, I'm always there, where my powers are needed. Such is the nature of my current existence. Ah, I miss those crazy times with Merry when I used to have my own threads! I also miss partnering threads, despite only having one... I wonder what will become of those two innocent souls who used to be destined to become my weapons... Ahem! Earth to Raccoon, there's a thread to do! "What do I have in mind? Well, a beach episode, for sure..." I finally replied and shook my head. "No, nevermind that. I mean, it's technically possible, but could be boring. Escape room? Hm, too generic for me. Could be exciting though. Paintball! Oh wait, I'm not sure Luna would enjoy it too much. Probably. Just guessing here... Ah! Right, I shouldn't be planning big here. After all, it's a pizza party, right? Karaoke..? Hah! I'm sure it's already been done. Hm... Dressing up..? In costumes, I mean. We'd need costumes though... Unless..." I started sharing with them anything that came to my mind. Though I got lost in thoughts there. Turning this pizza party into a costume party would be cool, but getting costumes could be problematic unless we take into consideration fact that this world isn't even real, so we can do whatever we want... Kinda... Hm...

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm considering it. Though, earning the rank fair and square with a new weapon could be fun too. I need to think about it more." Aurora told Yurio before smiling at him warmly. "But enough about me. Let's keep enjoying this party, dear!" She added.

"You have a lot in mind, don't you," Ana said, giving Raccoon side-eye as she listened to him rambling about various cliche group activities.

"It's up to what you do in the end," Yurio said with a shrug. It would then have seemed like he wasn't paying as little attention to the suddenly-appearing sorcerer as he was letting on, had it actually in fact been impossible due to not being in some small way something that wasn't entirely terrible towards him; "Now, Raccoon here seems to have had an idea about dressing up in costumes or something, and I don't hate it yet."