"No, I'm pretty sure that one looks like Leroy," I said, pointing at the cloud.

"Well, it still looks like a horse-rabbit hybrid to me," Zia replied, squinting her eyes from the bright sunlight. She was laying beside me on the grass of a nearby park, her hair forming a halo around her head. Her amber eyes reflected a tint of russet under the sunlight with no trace of her previous exhaustion.

Her hair was freshly washed too, and their lemony scent mixed with the scent of cinnamon and grass was more addicting and energising than caffeine. Zia had been experimenting with her hair recently, so they were currently layered from the front while the rest of her hair was long enough to fall just below her shoulders.

A cold October breeze blew through the trees, winding through the colourful leaves and making them fall gracefully to the ground, forming little piles of red and yellow. Tiny shops were buzzing with kids, teenagers and adults alike, buying decorations for Halloween.

Zia pointed at another cloud, "That one is definitely a fish heading towards a- hmm..."

I gazed at the cloud. "A lemon?" I asked, trying to figure out the odd shape.

She looked at me, a small smile playing on her lips, "Yes, actually. A lemon."

We stared into each other's eyes for a bit, until Zia cleared her throat and looked back up. I was pretty sure my face would have exploded from the heat if she hadn't.

We lay in silence for a while, watching the fish cloud finally achieve its goal of crossing the lemon cloud. Zia fiddled with her scarab necklace with a small frown on her face, a nervous habit of hers. I could tell she was thinking deeply about something. She usually did when we were alone like this, which was rare as it is from the growing duties with both of us practically running around Brooklyn House as mentors for everyone.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Zia looked back at me and asked, "Do you ever think about the future, Carter?"

"Th-the what-?" The heat was definitely rushing back to my face now.

"The future, or the near future, to be more precise," I waited for her to continue, not sure how to respond yet. "You know, after you actually ascend the throne and all."

I nodded, "I think about it more than I'd like to admit, actually. It's terrifying to think how I'll have to rule the entire Ancient Egypt. Of course, Amos will be there, and Sadie, and you," I took a deep breath, "but it's pretty scary. And so- so confusing. I can't even imagine my royal ass sitting on a throne again, much less accept the title and duties of a pharaoh completely."

Over the time we spent skipping around from one place to another to save the world, I'd learned to step out of my father's shadow and learn a thing or two about leadership from a lot of people: Zia, my dad, my uncle, Horus, and of course, my little sister who loved bossing me around sometimes. It was hard, figuring out how to manage responsibilities and not pressure myself into them. I was getting there, I think, albeit at an agonizingly slow pace so it was still a little scary. Which is terrible for someone like me, but I'd learned to value time after the last almost-apocalypse.

Zia chuckled softly, "Well, I'll be by your side as much as I can. Maybe then Sadie and I can actually force you to get adequate hours of sleep." She locked her fingers with mine and I probably stopped breathing for all I know.

Perhaps Sadie was right about me being hopeless around Zia after all.

~~~

The sun was already dipping below the horizon by the time we reached Brooklyn House.

Sadie was going through the snack cupboard with earbuds plugged in her ears that were probably blasting Adele's latest songs. She was wearing my jacket, which she'd "borrowed" because it "matched her outfit". My fashion skills are even worse than my basketball skills so I let her keep it for now, anyway.

She looked like your typical edgy teen, complete with bold winged eyeliner, black skirts and fishnets. And if fashion was her way of expression, then why not. It's not like I wore that jacket all that often.

Sadie was the one who had kicked us out of the mansion saying we "needed a break" (which we technically did, but I like to deny anything Sadie says for fun sometimes; if she gets to annoy me, I can too). The rest of the initiates were being forced to watch cartoons by Shelby and her gang of ankle-biters.

Julian groaned, "Shelby we've watched this episode like, fifty times. Can't we see another one?"

Shelby grinned and hid the remote control behind her back. "Nope!" she exclaimed, which was followed by a round of groans from everyone.

Unfortunately, Shelby at that particular moment happened to notice Zia and I standing there doing absolutely nothing. Before either of us could even think of escaping, she and her friends were already dragging us to watch the same old episode where Peppa Pig jumps in muddy puddles.

Sadie plopped down on the sofa next to us and took out her earbuds. She handed me a bowl of nachos as if we were doing one of our sibling movie nights.

"You want us to enjoy animated pigs talking like it's a Netflix original?" I whispered to her.

"Who said we were watching it?" she smirked the same smirk that she used to annoy me every day.

I raised an eyebrow. "We're gonna talk? The kids would whip up one of their cartoon demons and send them after us if we disturb them, you know that right?"

"Pfft, they love me too much to do that. You, however-"

"Sadie-"

"Yes, yes, Daddy! We've been jumping in muddy puddles!" exclaimed Peppa Pig as Amy, one of the ankle biters, increased the volume, probably to drown out our aggressive whispering. From the corner of my eye, I could see Zia watching the show intently. Whether she was truly interested in personified pig families or she was trying not to listen in on our conversation, I had no idea.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" I asked.

Sadie brushed the curls out of her face. She'd stopped straightening them a while ago, now that she wasn't living with Gran and Gramps anymore. They'd always expected a lot out of Sadie with our mom gone. I wanted to talk to her about it but she made it clear she wasn't ready to talk yet.

"It's," she sighed, "girl talk."

I pointed at myself, "With me?"

She gritted her teeth, "Yes," she looked at Zia, "and you can join in too, Zia. I know you can hear us"

Zia smiled, "Oh great! And uh, no, I was- I was watching the show, I would never-"

Sadie sighed, "It's okay. No need to explain yourself. Anyway, there's this- there's this girl-"

"What girl?" I asked at the same time as Zia asked, "Who? Where?"

"Dear god, I was getting to that, if you'd just let me-"

Unfortunately, the doorbell was losing its patience just as fast as I was and decided this was the perfect time to ring. I hate when that happens. It's like, one of the worst clichés in a book in my honest opinion.

There was this brief moment Sadie and I looked at each other, and then we both sprang from the sofa in unison, scaring Zia out of her wits, and ran to the door at the same time, trying to see who would efficiently escape the obnoxiously loud pig snorts coming from the television and get to open the door first.

There was a minor struggle at the doorknob as well. Yes, that's right. Two of the strongest magicians of our generation, acting like five-year-olds and fighting over who gets to open the door. Cannot get any more mature than this.

Eventually, both of us managed to swing it open it at the same time, revealing... Merida.

Well, it wasn't actually Merida, but you know, close enough.

The redhead smiled at us, "Hello there! I'm your old neighbour, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. My dad's mansion broke down a few months ago but I came here to visit some friends, so I figured I'd finally pop in and say hi."

when you write the same chapter ten times (and take like, half a year in doing that too) and still end up with the most cringe shit.

anyway, can you tell I can't write fluff 👍

i know i wasn't supposed to publish the chapter today because of my long hiatus but i felt overwhelmed seeing the number of drafts i have, so here, you can have it as a gift for making you think i abandoned this story.

oh and just to be clear sadie is bisexual (and so are carter and zia but that's beside the point). if you don't like it you can leave.

she was never in a relationship with walt (or anubis) (apologies to all the salt shippers. and the sanubis shippers. and the saltnubis shippers). she had a celebrity type crush thing on anubis sometime during the red pyramid, but her crush eventually faded and now they're besties. she and walt are also besties. she's like 14-15 now (idk do the math yourselves from the serpent's shadow to four months after the ship of the dead)