3rd POV

Ava and Y/n were sitting in Ava's room. Ava was finally better and sitting up right while Y/n was laying back with her hands behind her head, eyes closed in a meditative state. Ava began to count down.

"3."

"2."

"1."

The door to Ava's bedroom burst open and in came the Daemos - all except Rhys. "Prisoner!" Asch growled, not noting the 'Predictable' said by Ava. "Are you better yet?"

"Y/n, Ava and Mrs. Oats said it would be a few suns before Ava-" Noi began to explain but was interrupted by the whines of the prince, complaining that she was 'taking forever to recover.' 

'Jackass.' Y/n thought.

"She's awake on her own today." Pierce stated.

"Yeah," Ava said, exhaustion clinging to her being like a Karen to a manager, "No thanks to Leif. Or Y/n." The girl weakly glared at the girl beside her, earning no reaction from the relaxed woman.

"Whoops..." Leif whispered.

"What did you do?" Asch interrogated.

"I kept her busy last night," Leif chuckled, making what he said sound much more erotic than it actually was.

What actually happened was that Leif was bored so he snuck into Ava's room. Inside, he observed Ava and Y/n cuddling. Y/n's body was faced upwards with an arm wrapped around Ava as she cuddled into the older woman's embrace. 

'They look so peaceful. ' Leif thought. A mischievous grin took its place on his face, displaying his sharp, canine-like teeth. 

'Let's ruin it. ' Leif twirled his sickles in his hands before approaching the bed. He approached from the side nearest to Y/n. He took the tip of one of his sickles and began poking the woman's head. 

One poke.

Two pokes.

Three pokes.

A growl erupted from the woman, alerting the assassin and making him pause his movements. Slowly, Y/n had opened her eyes, the sight freezing the assassin. 

Her eyes. The pupil had narrowed into a slit like a feline's eye about to catch their prey. Her irises glowed red like rubies and her lidded stare exemplified the effect of her gaze.

But what was the effect exactly? Leif couldn't pin-point it. He had two feelings. One of fear and one of...

Familiarity..?

He was frozen. Couldn't move. Couldn't do anything except stare into those eyes. 

Seeing that he had stopped, Y/n closed her eyes and went back to a peaceful slumber, leaving Leif to contemplate his actions. Suddenly, his eyes widened, remembering where he had seen those eyes before.

Leif and Princess Y/n were walking through the forest when they started to hear crying. They exchanged a look before rushing through the trees to find the sources. Soon, they found themselves on a branch, looking down at the clearing which had a few young Daemos in it.

There were 4 Daemos. One was being bullied by the others. The victim had orange horns and a matching outfit to go with it. He seemed to shrivel up in the centre of the beating as the other Daemos tormented the poor soul, berating him. 

"You are so weak!"

"How are you even a Daemos?"

"Weakling!"

"P-please stop..."

"Or what?! "

"Who are you gonna tell? 

"No one cares!"

Leif looked at the scene with a pout; he thought he would be able to witness a human begging for their life. But nope, it was just a weak Daemos being bullied. Leif wanted to leave. He opened his mouth to suggest that he and Y/n should leave but quickly shut his mouth after seeing his companion's expression.

Eyes. Red as the freshly spilt blood of a human. Pupils. Sharp as his sickles after filing them against diamond. Gone was her gentle smile that welcomed all; present was an enraged frown which showed her clenched jaw. 

She was pissed. 

He had never seen her so angry before. It scared even him. The girl jumped down, not giving her kill-happy friend a second glance. "Hey!" yelled the princess. "Leave him alone."

This drew the attention of the boys. The boys were about to retort until they saw her feral expression. The bullies quickly ran, their 'tail between their legs' as one might say. The princess stood in front of the victim, facing the escapees. "You call him weak, but you run in the face of danger! You guys are a bunch of wusses!" The princess yelled before sticking her tongue out at them. Leif shook his head at her antics, finally free from his fear-frozen state.

He jumped down, joining the Princess as she helped the injured Daemos up. As the Princess healed the Daemos, she began to make small-talk with him. "So, what's your name?"

"I'm Noi."

"Nice to meet you, Noi. I'm Y/n, Princess of the Crystal Region. And that's Leif, my friend."

Noi was shocked to be in the presence of a princess. He began to stutter as he was speaking to her. The princess merely giggled, finding his character quite cute. Leif, on the other hand, was hating every second of this. This interaction between his best friend and the Daemos. But Leif just put it aside, knowing that, if he hadn't tried to be friends with this 'Noi', Y/n would probably kill him. 

Or show him that stare. That stare. It burned into his memories. He swore he would never forget it.

Leif began to think on these memories. It's the exact same eyes. There was no difference. Could she? Is she? Feeling a sharp pain in the front of his head, he quickly dismissed the thought. 'All this thinking is killing me. This is why Rhys is the thinking one. '

Still bored, Leif decided to poke away at something else - Ava. He began poking her. Ava began to stir in her sleep. Leif asked bluntly, "Are you dead?"

"I'm sick," Ava responded equally as blunt, "Leave me alone." Disregarding Ava's wishes, Leif declared that he was going to wait there to make sure that she doesn't die. Ava sarcastically commented on his "thoughtfulness" before turning around and hugging Y/n's arm, as if it were a body pillow.

However, the Daemos continued to poke Ava throughout the night until the early hours of the day, with Y/n not intervening even by Ava's say so. 

"And he kept poking me throughout the night," Ava recounted, "Look he's doing it right now. And Y/n was no help what so ever because she just laid there the whole time, like she is doing right now." 

Leif muttered a "Whoops" before putting away his sickles. He quickly glanced at the (h/c)-haired woman, remembering the memories he had last night. He would need to speak to Rhys about that later.  Asch began his scolding but was quickly interrupted by Noi asking Ava if she felt better. 

"Mm-hmm. I'm feeling much better, " Ava confirmed, her entire attitude perking up at Noi's concern. "Thank you, guys, for taking care of me." Her appreciation made Noi blush, his cheeks turning red. As Ava surveillanced the room, she noticed one of the Daemos missing.

"Where's Rhys?" Ava inquired, the question spiking Y/n's interest as well as she slowly sat up, looking around the room herself.

"Good question. Rhys," Asch called, "Where are you?!" Rhys then emerged from the doorway, book in hand and glasses on face. 

"I'm here! And I'm alive!" Rhys spouted. 

"Wait, you have glasses?" Ava asked, a blush fluttering across her cheeks as she took in Rhys' appearance. Y/n sat up against the board.

"Yep, I saw him have those a couple of days back. Got them from Mrs. Oats apparently." Y/n said, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as Ava was distracted by Rhys. Y/n seemed momentarily hurt, though she wasn't sure if it was because she was ignored or if it was because of the bond between Ava and Rhys. Rhys made his way to the bed, grabbing Ava's right hand with his and Y/n's left hand with his. 

"What, why are you holding their hands?" Noi asked, confused. 

"Princesses," Rhys began, a blissful tone accompanying him, "I can see your face clearly now."

"Where did you get those?" Ava asked, having clearly not listened to Y/n.

"The wise sage Mrs. Oats bestowed them upon me." Rhys explained, enthralled by such a discovery, "At first, I wasn't sure what had happened and I assumed that she just casted a spell on me but this is lasting longer than any other spell we've tried on Daemos! It's lasting even longer than Suns-" Rhys stopped himself, his expression now downcast. The other Daemos' expressions matched that of Rhys but Asch looked around confused at the sudden change of emotion from his guards. Ava and Y/n looked confused.

"What are you talking about, Rhys?" Leif asked, anger slipping into his tone as he clenched his fist. Rhys let go of the humans' hands before facing his long time companions, clocking the outraged expressions on some of their faces for mentioning an old friend in such a way.

"Lady Grandma, she and I had been working on solving the issue with my vision distance." Rhys explained, being careful not to say Her name. "But they only worked for a period of time. But these... gl-oss-es are lasting as long as they are on my face."

"Hate to break it to you but uh," Y/n began, "that's what glasses do."

"It's wonderful! I can't believe we've never looked into something like this on Daemos, " Rhys praised, still not over the hype of the discovery of glasses. 

Soon, the pair of glasses was passed around. Y/n looked at the passing and worried for the glasses. The Daemos knew nothing about glasses and they were just thoughtlessly passing them around? Not a good idea.

Suddenly, they landed in Leif's hands, at which point Ava told them to be careful. Rhys questioned Ava as to why they would need to be careful and Leif took that as the golden opportunity to test how dangerous they could be. 

Leif began poking Ava with the glasses, the pokes gradually getting harder. Y/n and Ava tried to get him to stop: Y/n not wanting the glasses to break and Ava wanting to stop being bothered. 

SNAP!

And there goes the glasses. Snapped directly between the two lens. Rhys' face fell dramatically as he felt his world fall apart. 

Leif looked at the broken glasses in his hand as he muttered a third "Whoops" of the day. Leif turned to look at Rhys and, boy, had he wished he hadn't. Rhys' aura screamed death, causing the Daemos to drop the glasses into Ava's lap and fazing into the living room. The Daemos all left Ava's bedroom and collected in the living room to watch the battle. 

Ava and Y/n got out of bed, following the Daemos into the living room. Y/n whispered to Ava to get another pair of glasses from Mrs. Oats and quick. As Ava rushed to get another pair, Y/n was left to monitor the Daemos so they don't destroy the apartment.

"You have no right to exist!" Rhys cruelly stated, hands glowing with magic, ready to shoot.

"You're not the first person to tell me that!" Leif shot back, hands gripping his sickles in an even strong grip.

"So, why's Rhys so upset at Leif?" Y/n asked, "I mean, I'm usually upset at Leif as well but..." Y/n whistled, showing her surprise.

"Yes."

"Rhys is upset because Leif broke his gla-oss" Asch explained, boredom staining his words.

"I mean, damn," Y/n said, chuckling and crossing her arms as she leaned against a nearby wall, "I've never seen Rhys pissed off before. I didn't think he was that type." Ava then came scuttling in discretely handing the new pair of glasses to Y/n, who hid them in her sleeve. 

"Type?" Noi sweetly asked.

"Yeah," Y/n said, shrugging her shoulders as she pushed herself off the wall, "Like... Ava and I haven't seen him act like that before."

"Rhys controls his temper." Pierce stated.

"Better than any of us." Noi chuckles, earning a "Usually" from Asch. The sound of freezing drew the attention of the on-lookers. Rhys had frozen the blades of Leif's sickles, leaving an enraged assassin.

"Next time, I won't miss!" Rhys threatened.

"What do you expect me to do?" Leif retorted, "I don't have any other gla-ass for you!"

"I'm sick of you!" Rhys yelled, his vocal cords probably straining, "For too long, you've been disobedient. Despite your past, you've learnt nothing!"

"It isn't my job to learn! My job is to kill!"

"And you haven't done that now have you?"

"Silence!-"

"Will be welcomed once I destroy you." Rhys declared, summoning magic into his fists as he readies another attack. If no one stepped in, who knew what chaos it would bring about?

"Ha! Bring it!" Leif challenged, holding his iced sickles as he took his stance. Having enough of this, Y/n stepped between the two.

"No one is bringing anything, " Y/n stated, looking between the two males. 

"Move out of the way!" Rhys commanded, "He broke my-"

"Want to see a magic trick?" Y/n asked. This seemed to interest the Daemos and Ava. Y/n lifted her sleeve, waving her hand in front of it. 

"Pocula arcesse! " (An: Summon glasses!)

She then reached into her sleeve and pulled out the new pair of glasses that Ava had given her, shocking all the Daemos in the room, especially the ice mage.

"G-Gloss-es?" Rhys stuttered out, the icy flakes that swirled his hands slowly starting to diminish in speed. Y/n gave Rhys a calming smile, one he had recognised all too well. 

"Ava went to Mrs. Oats place to see if she had an extra pair," the girl explained, "and then, when Ava arrived back, I used some magic to get it out of her hands and into mine!" Y/n sweat-dropped, hoping that the mage would be satisfied by her answer.

"Thank you," Rhys stated, releasing a sigh and, along with it, his frustrations. Clearing his throat, he continued, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I-"

"Yeah, Rhys~" Leif teased, his toothy smirk lighting a fire under Rhys once again, his words only fuelling the wise Daemos' anger, "You should really know your place and conserve your magic, am I right?"

Y/n looked over her shoulder and gave Leif a look - 'Was that really necessary?' - her eyes lidded and her face stoic with disappointment. Rhys furiously raised his hands again, igniting his icy attack.

Before Rhys could strike, Ava held a Bear pop in front of his face. Rhys' every move stopped. His ice? Gone. Who was he angry at? No clue. Why was he angry? He didn't care. His eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas day as they laid their eyes on the mountains of well-wrapped presents under their radiant Christmas tree. 

"I also got this for you..." Ava said, her cheeks dusting with a rosy blush, both embarrassed for having shown so much emotion and the intimacy behind her gesture. Y/n gently smiled at her best friend - this was why she was her best friend, her kindness. And other things of course! Like her personality!

Rhys was at a loss for words, his eyes lost in the deliciousness of the bear pop's eyes. He firmly gasped the popsicle stick and drew the cold treat closer to his face, or his salivating mouth, to be specific, commenting on the now-peaceful moment.

Both women breathed sighs of relief. "Crisis averte- AHHH!" Ava screeched, finally taking notice of the... 

NEWLY ABSTRACTLY DECORATED interior of her apartment.

Books were scattered. Pages were ungraciously displayed across the floors and walls. The few potted plants that the woman had scarcely cared for were knocked over, the soil spilled over and the vases cracked. The living room table, where she had been standing the whole time, had been flipped on its side. 'How had she not noticed that? ' She questioned. Y/n's eyes widened before giving a nervous smile to the smaller female, scratching the back of her own neck.

"It's only been a day! How could this- How has this-?" Ava was stumbling over her words, looking between the otherworldly beings and her best friend. 

Licking his lips, Rhys quickly finished his treat and adjusted his newly-placed glasses on the bridge of his nose before addressing the situation. He explained how Mrs. Oates has given them advice on taking care of Ava. Mrs. Oates assured them that if they had any questions they could ask Y/n and if she couldn't answer them, they could turn to her. He then went on to tell the girls that Mrs. Oates had recounted a story from when she was younger, where the elder woman's younger self and siblings would make messes and her mother would be forced to get up to clean.

It was at that point that the women realised that the boys had grasped the wrong point of the story. They didn't think that diligent work and help would make Ava get better - no, of course not. They came to the conclusion that, by making a mess, Ava would be forced to get up.

Y/n face-palmed and Ava looked awe-struck, but not in a good way. "And it worked! You are out of bed and Y/n no longer has to watch over you." Rhys praised, innocently smiling at the women. Y/n could only laugh silently.

"What are you laughing at?" Ava interrogated, looking up at the tall female, trying to look intimidating, "Why didn't you do anything?"

"Look," Y/n tried to say between giggles, "I didn't want to leave your side, afraid that something would happen and I wouldn't be there for it." Ava's eyes softened at the girl's statement. "I mean, I wasn't by your side for two days tops and you got a fever! I don't even remember the last time you got a fever! That's why I was so determined to stay by your side."

Ava's eyes began to brim with tears as she felt Y/n's honest words hit her heart with intense strength. "Awww~"

"And besides, your bed is too comfy to want to do anything but sleep." Y/n confessed, smirking. Ava's eyes stopped brimming, dead-panning at the female and delivering a firm slap to said-female's shoulder. 

"I didn't wake up because of the mess!" Ava argued, finally putting her aggression towards Y/n to rest.

"But you woke after the mess was made?" Pierce questioned, Noi just squeaking a 'What?'. Ava growled, muttering under her breath 'That's not how it works.'

Noi walked his way to Ava, gently grabbing the sides of her face and looking down at her. "I'm just glad you're okay." Ava's cheeks glowed pink as she looked at the soft Daemos. Her eyes grew lost in the sunrises of orange in the Daemos'. The colours that shimmered in them really did remind her of the sunrise. The warmth. The comfort. 

But, her moment was interrupted.

"We will leave you to clean the mess, Princess Ava and Princess Y/n." Asch declared, holding his head high, "Please meet with us once you are done." Upon the end of his command, he strutted his way to the entrance of the Daemos portal, still outlined by the Crayola Red crayon. The Daemos entered one by one, Noi being the last as he reluctantly loosened his hold on Ava's warm cheeks.

Ava finally broke out of her daze when Y/n placed a hand on her shoulder. Ava looked at Y/n, who pointed a thumb at the entrance of the Daemos mini-palace and was delivering a questioning look to Ava. It was them she realised...

"Wait... I just let them walk away!" 

She shook her head, eradicating any fuzziness from the intimate moment with Noi and marched her way into the Daemos' headquarters, Y/n following close behind. Inside, they found the Daemos gathered in a circle.

"Stop right there, Jerks!" Ava commanded, earning the attention of her Daemos roommates. Y/n stood beside her, arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

"Excuse me?" Asch tiredly questioned.

"You guys are going to help us clean up the room." Ava demanded.

"Uhh... No." Leif said.

"Yes." Ava retaliated. 

"Why should we?" Asch questioned, his voice harsher as he grew irritated by the humans' commands. He was a prince! Why would he do a human's bidding?

"Because you want to learn more about the human world, don't you?" Y/n persuaded, "Well, now, it's time you idiots learn about RESPONSIBILITY!" The stricter woman separated the final word into its syllables as she spoke, enunciating each one to get her point across. The Daemos exchanged looks before following the humans outside of the portal and back into the living room. 

"Who told you guys this mess was acceptable?" Ava scolded, acting like the boys' mother.

"We already told you! Mrs. Oates." Rhys replied, not understanding the rhetorical question he was given.

"She didn't mean for you all to make a mess, Rhys." Y/n explained, leaning against a wall. "She was just reminiscing about her mother and how she learnt to care for her-."

"No, no, no, no, no!" Ava interrupted, sending Y/n a knowing look, to which said female nodded and let her continue. "It's come to my- no- OUR attention that we need to basically teach you guys from the ground up. In a way, we are kind of glad you guys made this mess because now you get to learn about how humans clean."

Rhys began to express his interests in cleaning but was swiftly shut down by the fiery prince. "Just use your servants to clean it and leave us out of this."

The women laughed at the prince's words. "Surprise, surprise! Not every human has servants," Y/n retorted, " and, even if they did, I'm positive we wouldn't call them servants."

"But you're both princesses." Rhys stated.

"Yes, we are... princesses!" Ava said slowly, just now realising the situation and trying to formulate a clever excuse.

"But," Y/n interjected, seeing Ava struggling, "We are living on our own. We each have our own apartments which we own and take care of. Sometimes, we held each other out but that is out of mutual respect and kindness for each other." Y/n side-eyed Asch and Leif before continuing.

"That means we do everything ourselves."

"Then, use your magic!" Noi squealed in excitement, jumping for joy at the possibility of seeing more of the humans' magic. 

"No! Cleaning your mess with magic is called 'Losing'!" Ava exclaimed. Y/n just then remembered the times when she had been to tired to clean her apartment so she just used her magic. Ah... good times... She looked at her bracelet, noticing a few turning black from the centre. She quickly hid her hand in her sleeve. 

"No, it's called being lazy." Asch plainly said, pointing his hand at a book on the floor. "Just use your magic like this." The next second, the book was set on fire. Panic coursed through Ava as she tried to pat out the fire. Y/n used some of her water magic to put out the fire; Ava didn't notice, but the Daemos did, gasping a little. 

"I agree, we should not be using our magic, " Rhys concurred, advising Prince Asch against his nonchalant use of magic. "Especially since our departure."

"I get it! We don't need to talk about that!" Asch retorted angrily.

"Departure?" Ava and Y/n questioned. One out of confusion and the other out of worry. 

"Yes, our departure from this idiotic task you are trying to get us to complete!" Asch complained. Y/n could see through his lies.

Y/n began to think to herself. Why would he lie? It's clear that he's lying about something. Is the departure from Earth? Are the Daemos leaving soon? And if so, why would they feel the need to hide it? They can't leave yet! She had so many unanswered questions. She knew who she was and yet she didn't. There was one thing she knew for sure. Her Daemos self knew them and they knew her; they were her best shot of finding out more about herself. But even if she asked them, how would she bring up the questions? 'Hey! I think I'm your best friend from many years ago that supposedly died. Can you tell me who I was?' No, she couldn't do that... Could she?

"You're stupid!"

Y/n was brought out of her thoughts by the comment. "I mean, there is some delight in cleaning," Rhys suggested, "But I do not understand why we have to do it."

Ava looked flabbergasted, looking to Y/n for some support. "Because it teaches responsibility, Rhys." 

"Uhh, fine! We'll do it if it will get your talking to stop!" Asch groaned.

"I like their talking," Noi dreamily commented, cheeks blushing.

"Shut up!" Asch yelled, making Noi looked dejectedly at the ground.

"I'm rather intrigued by this satisfaction Ava and Y/n speaks of," Rhys confessed, "Admittedly, I don't think any of us have ever cleaned before." The confession shocked the women, having them stumble on their words.

"I have." Leif said, earning a barrage of 'You have?'s from the other Daemos. "Yeah, I have. I didn't always live in the kingdom, you know." Leif's eyes softened as he remembered innocent memories of life outside the kingdom with Her. 

"What's it like?" Noi asked, life emanating from his eyes.

"It's...

One...

Of...

The...

Most...

Boring and dumb tasks ever. I only ever did it once or twice." Leif ended, voice neutral with tone.

"That's it, we're out." Asch declared.

"But, you just said-" Ava tried to argue through clenched teeth.

"Leif said it was dumb and I don't like dumb things!" Asch tried to validate his point. Y/n scoffed at this, accidentally earning everyone's attention.

"Do you like yourself?" Y/n thought aloud, allowing everyone to hear her.

"What?" The obviously-deaf prince questioned while Ava and Y/n giggled to themselves.

"Well, perhaps it's different from Daemos methods," Rhys tried to reason. This struck a cord with Ava as she gasped and grabbed Y/n's hand dragging her into her room.

Ava peaked her head out of the room, "Wait there!" A few seconds passed... She peaked her out again. "And don't break anything!" Then, back into her room she went.

The boys could only sit there and wait. Wait for whatever strange magically artifact or spell the two princesses could conjure. 

~~~~~~The End of Chapter 22~~~~~~

(A.n.: Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well! I'm done with my exams for the year but I just found out I have bridging work for next year. Good news though, looks pretty easy. So, hopefully, I'll still be able to put out more chapters. Thank you so much for being patient and for reading my book. 

I'm excited and hope that maybe we can finish this book before the end of the year. Or at least finish Season 1 of My Inner Demons in this book and make a fan-made Season 2 of the series in a separate book. You guys give me feedback on that!

As always, don't forget to comment on any improvements, anything you like about the story, or just comments that come to mind. I look forward to seeing what you think about the story and about where I can improve. Also, remember to vote if you want more and you like my stories. If you want to see more of this content, do follow me!

Anyways, that's all from me for now! Enjoy yourselves, breathe, stay healthy and have a good rest of the day/night!

Cassie, Out!)

Word Count: 4507