Safe and Sound (p)

Aspen Virgo hadn't seen the tunnel for a year, she hadn't seen camp and the barracks for a year, nor had she seen the walls of New Rome, the walls of her home, the four walls of her bedroom and yet coming back to this place none of the physical things mattered to her. None of the materialistic things mattered to her. What mattered most was when she saw her mother for the first time after a year of being gone. the face her mom had was something Aspen wished she never had to see again. She knew that her mother had some joy on there, but there was also shock, confusion, and hurt written all over her face. Aspen had gone so long without seeing her mother that she felt like she took her for granted in some ways.

The legacy of Victoria broke down crying the moment that she had been wrapped up in her mother's arms.  The brunette had gotten home at approximately 8:30 in the morning with four out of six of her cohort members. The other two had been in body bags. Things had gone really wrong on their way home and two of their members had died. The whole mission had gone sour a couple weeks in and there was nothing any of them could do about it. It wasn't something Aspen really wanted to talk about, but after being gone so long she was told the next morning she'd have to meet up with the praetors and the senators to discuss everything. At least Aspen and her crew came out of it successfully for the most part.

At nine in the morning was when the bodies were given their traditional send off. Aspen was there for the whole service and after she was done she knew there were people she needed to see other than her own mother. There was her co centurion, her brother, Christian, and a few of her other friends, but the person at the top of her list was her sister Sophia and after her, her brother.

She came up to the home she grew up in with her siblings and it was just the same as when she had left it. Aspen knew there had been a centurion meeting, her mother had told her about it. By now it was about ten in the morning and Aspen knew she'd be home by now. The legacy's best guess would be that Sophia had hopped back into bed, if there was anyone she knew better than most, it'd be Sophia.

After walking inside, she walked up the steps to the second floor. From there she walked to Sophia's room and gently opened the door and slowly, she knew how important privacy was. The brunette walked in softly and sat on the edge of the bed. Just looking at Sophia sleeping in that split second before her hand touched her sister's shoulder had brought tears to her eyes. Aspen shook her gently, "Sophia."

Sophia had gotten back from the Centurion meeting around 8:30, usually she slept at barracks during the week. But the house was closer to the Senate building then barracks were and the only thing that had been echoing in the young girls mind was the word ‘sleep.’ Once she had gotten to her room, she had barely kicked her shoes off before curling up under her very soft and fuzzy blanket and falling back to sleep.

Only an hour and a half had passed when she felt someone shaking her shoulder and calling her name. At first Sophia thought it was her mom, so she had pushed the hand away, and tried to roll over. She heard her name being called again, and this time she knew she couldn’t ignore whoever was shaking her shoulder and being down right annoying.

“...wha-“ Sophia started to say as she opened her eyes and turned to see who the person was. For a half-sleep deprived second Sophia thought she was looking at a ghost, she hurriedly sat up and stared at the other girl, before her brain kicked in, and reminded her that, ghosts didn’t exist.

“Aspen?!” She asked, out of shock. Well of course it was her. Before the older girl could answer, Sophia had all but flung herself at the older girl, wrapping her arms around her older sister neck, and was trying really hard to not let the tears come out of her eyes.

She could feel her hand being swatted away and usually Aspen would retaliate, but it was things like this that she had missed and it could only bring back fond memories for her. A small smile had formed on her face as she noticed Sophia beginning to actually turn around and notice her. The two girls although not the closest in age had always been close. It hadn't always been that way, when Sophia was first born and for a couple years after she had been jealous about all the time her sister had been getting. Although back when you're three or four you can't really process as much. It wasn't until Sophia was about four that Aspen really started to get along with her. That could have had partly to do with Aspen living in the barracks at that time, but she was also sure it wasn't just that.

Aspen Virgo wasn't expecting the lunge right away and was caught rather off guard. Immediately as if her body were on autopilot her arms wrapped around her little sister as she laughed a little. "You're not seeing things I promise." Aspen half joked to her sister. It was hard for Aspen to be dead serious about things, and although she had a heavy heart today, she still was able to smile about it. "Sorry I missed the centurion meeting, I really meant to show up. I guess I'll be stuck filing for years now to make up all the times I wasn't here to do it, huh?"

Sophia finally blinked away the tears that had started to form, and then finally pulled away from the hug, laughing. “I’ll take that promise seriously.” She answered, smirking a bit. “Its fine, you can take all my filing shifts. Enjoy working with Davis...” She says jokingly, as an afterthought. Then the younger Virgo fell silent, she couldn’t believe that her sister was right in front of her. Sophia had spent so much time thinking that Aspen was dead, but here she was right in front of her.

"No." Aspen stated when the younger Virgo sister had mentioned that Davis was in charge. She was in a state of disbelief as she shook her head thinking about it. "Davis is a decent legionnaire, but he'd never be my pick for centurion. I can only imagine what it's like for you." Aspen said with a bit of a sigh. Sophia had meant doing filing as a joke, but to be honest at this point in time she would be glad to do paperwork and just get a calmer life started. The legacy had been in the legion for 11 years now and have done more than her work of service. She wanted to finally make time for herself and her plan was to retire within this next year. "I'll gladly do your filing though, jokes aside."

“Working with that kid is worse than what you think it would be.” Sophia answered, smiling a bit. “You can definitely do my filing shifts if you really want too.” She added, “Mom knows your home right? Does Eli?” Sophia asked, she had a million questions. Of course, she knew she probably shouldn’t ask all of them.

Aspen laughed a little as Davis mentioned and she shook her head slightly. "I mean from memory he wasn't that bad, but I'll let you know how it goes. Besides that, I'm not afraid to kick him out and do all the work by myself. He's not very decisive, but I'm sure you know that. " The older Virgo sister said before she heard her stream of questions and took them what at a time. "I've already seen mom. Eli is next on my list after you. I don't think he's home right now though. I believe mom said he in class." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. Part of her was hesitant to ask, but she couldn't help it, she had to know. "How's Christian been? He's uh, not seeing anyone now is he?" Aspen asked, she was a little scared to know the answer, but she'd understand if he were.

From the moment Christian had come to camp, him and Aspen had managed to become friends before he fully found out who she was. From there their friendship grew and eventually they had their moments. Apsen had told Christian that she had feelings for him, but she wanted to take the chance up to go on her combat mission instead, but she told Christian when she got back she'd want to try something serious. Of course that was back when they thought she was going to be home in a couple months at most, so she'd get it if he moved on, but she had to know. Most of her relationship beyond friendship wasn't that well known among others. Eli only found out because he had caught them once and ever since Eli hasn't been Christan's biggest fan.

Sophia laughed, Davis hadn’t been too bad at all when he had been just a Legionnaire. “He hadn’t been at all.” She says, before looking over at the alarm clock that sat on her bedside table. Eli wouldn’t be getting out of class for another hour. The youngest Virgo had to think for a moment about Christian, aside from business type stuff, Sophia had never had the chance to talk to the older Centurion. Not that she really wanted to, he was mean and rude to her every chance he got. Less so after Aspen had left, but she figured now that her sister was home, he wouldn’t hold back anymore.

“I don’t think so...” She said after a while. Really, what did her sister see in the guy? He was an ass.

"Okay, I was just wondering." Aspen asked, and now she couldn't help but feel a little awkward. It wasn't something that she had really talked about with Sophia before. Aspen wasn't too open about the guys she had interest in, usually those talks were reserved for speaking with her mother. The legacy was also certain that Sophia probably didn't want to hear about it.

"Do you know when Eli will be home, I wanted to see and talk to him too."

Sophia kind of felt bad, she knew her sister really liked the guy. But he was a jerk, at least towards Sophia he was. She had no idea why the guy hated her so much, especially since Sophia herself, didn’t have any problems with him, other than the fact that he was cold and kind of rude towards her all the time. Nonetheless she was glad for the change of topic, “I think his class ends around 11:30.” Sophia answered, it was 11am right now.

"How has Eli been anyways? Does he think I'm dead too?" Aspen asked, and she understood that being gone for so long it was the safest bet to assume she was dead, but part of it hurt to know people would give up on knowing if she was or wasn't. Luckily no one had been mad at her yet and tried to call her out, not that there was anything to call her out on. Her journey was something entirely different than anyone thought it would have been. Some of it was definitely going to give her nightmares, but it wasn't something she wanted to talk about right now. Even being successful with her mission, Aspen felt like she had failed. She failed her optio and she failed her legionnaire. They both died trying to get everyone home safely and that'll always be with Aspen. Part of her couldn't help but feel her old mentor Katrina would be disappointed, something she didn't want to deal with right now.

"Also, anything worth catching me up on that I might have missed?"

“Yeah, he thought so too. Well still does. He hasn’t seen you yet.” Sophia says, “but neither of us wanted to believe. We weren’t sure.” She added. She had felt bad for almost giving up, but it was hard not too when everyone around them had been telling them too.

“You actually haven’t missed much. But I’m also not the one you want to ask.” Sophia smirked, unless it was something really big, Sophia never really paid attention to the stuff that was going on in New Rome, not unless it had to do with the Legion that is. “Things have been pretty quiet.”

"Fair enough." Aspen said sighing a little before looking around her sister's room. Nothing had really changed in the year with how it looked, in a way it was comforting. Then that brought up to her own mind about her room; Her eyes looked over to Sophia again before she spoke, "What did you guys do with my room? Is it still my room? Is my stuff still there?" Aspen asked, of course even if she had to rebuild her room up to what it had been before she would be fine. A room was a room, but it'd be nice if her painting supplies were still kicking around.

A smirk came on her face as a question popped into her mind, one she knew the answer to, but she had to ask it regardless. "So, you're fifteen now, you interested in dating guys yet? How about Davis?" Aspen teased Sophia hardcore knowing she'd get a reaction out of her.

Sophia laughed, “yes your room is still intact.” She told her. The next question got her a little annoyed, “No. Boys are pointless and stupid most of the time.” Sophia stated, of course she didn’t really think that, she just didn’t have time for a relationship right now, and most of the boys she knew were either older or ugly. “Aspen that’s illegal. And gross. Maybe you secretly have a thing for him though?” Sophia countered, smiling.

"Good, I could make it up again, but I rather just have my room." Aspen said and when she saw the annoyance on her sister's face at her next question she couldn't help but grin at the situation. She laughed a bit before she spoke in response to her having a thing for Davis. "Oh yes, I have a massive big crush on Davis. He is the love of my life, the sparkle to my star, the peanut butter to my jelly, the flame to my torch! The apple of my eye! And you know if I marry Davis, he'll be your brother in-law and then you guys can be best friends!" Aspen was usually one for such dramatic responses to things, she didn't let people get under her skin all the time, especially in this case knowing what Sophia's motive was.

Sophia laughed, “the irony is, that you suggested it first! Which means you want me to marry Davis, because you are the one that what’s that freak show in our family!” Her voice rising to match her sister’s. She was still laughing though.

~~~

Eli had just gotten back from class, and had just walked upstairs when he herd a very familiar banter that hadn’t been in the house in over a year. His sisters door was already half open, so curiously, he pushed the door open to investigate.

Aspen Virgo heard her sister and shook her head. "Sophia that doesn't even make sense!" She yelled back and it wasn't long before Eli Virgo had entered the room. A face she hadn't seen in over a year and almost instantly Aspen got up and ran to hug her brother. They had their differences, but that didn't mean she wasn't close to him. "Eli! Sophia's trying to suggest that I like Davis!" the girl said in almost a tattle tale way that was completely juvenile.

Sophia could’ve stomped her foot but she didn’t. That’s something she would have done ten years ago. Even though, stomping her foot really would have fit this current moment between siblings. “It does to make sense! Also you started it!” She whines, hoping to make Eli take her side, but considering their sister basically just came back from the dead, the youngest Virgo assumed that Aspen would win this one.

~~

Eli had not been expecting the hug. But he found himself hugging his sister back. “Really?! Not even a hi?” He asked, “am I really only good for breaking up your guys fights?” He asked, joking of course. He really couldn’t believe what was going on. “When did you get back?” He asked, once he had finally let go of his sister.

"Oh, sorry." Aspen said to her brother about not even saying hi. Once they pulled away from their embrace and he asked her when she got back she responded. "I got back a couple hours ago. But hi!" The legacy said with a grin on her face. "We'll talk soon, Eli. I'm going out later tonight for a bit though. Sometime after dinner."