Anxiety

Coming home had been in the back of Anxiety's mind for a long time, though she had never considered it a possibility. Now, however, as she stood in front of the worn door of her parent's house, she could barely believe she was even here at all, a month later, a changed dragon. She could hear shrieking coming from inside, and chastising voices from multiple rooms. Anxiety bit back a small smile. And without a second thought, she knocked on the door.

The voices inside quieted a little, and small footsteps could be heard. The door opened slowly, and Anxiety was met with the biggest pair of purple eyes she had ever seen. She sucked in a breath of surprise as she observed the dragon in front of her, almost a carbon copy.

"Celeste, sweetie, who is it?" Anxiety could hear her mother's voice, and against her will, her eyes filled with tears.

"Mom?" She choked out, not quite sure why she felt so emotional. The eyes of the tiny spiral in front of her grew twice as large as before.

"Are you me?" Celeste whispered quietly to Anxiety, too quiet for her mother to hear.

That made her chuckle a little bit. "No, sweetie, but I am your-" Anxiety started, but Aiko called again, clearly walking through the house and peeling the door open wider.

"Who is it, Celest-" Aiko's voice died in her throat, her own eyes filling with tears. "O-oh."

Anxiety sniffled a little bit. "Hey there, Mom," she tried, offering a small smile.

And then Aiko was wrapped around her, and Anxiety's mother was crying into her shoulder. "Oh, my baby, my baby girl!" She cried out, squeezing Anxiety tighter. "You came home! And you're so big now!"

It was all Anxiety could do to smile, clutching her mother even tighter, holding onto this moment with all of her might.

---

Anxiety sat awkwardly at one head of the table, where she usually sat when they had family dinners as a kid. This time however, whenever she glanced over to look at Morality or Harlem, she was met with Celeste's bright eyes and Thistle's inquisitive ones. Aiko and Nox sat across from one another, as they always did when they ate. Anxiety closed her eyes briefly, almost able to hear Morality talking about the latest fashion trend, or Harlem geeking out about his newest astronomy discovery. Her throat closed up a little bit.

"Are you okay?" Celeste's small voice startled Anxiety out of her state. She smiled at the small spiral with as much warmth as she could.

"Of course. I apologize, I just got a little caught up in my thoughts. This dinner is lovely by the way, thanks, Mom."

"Oh, your father cooked tonight," Aiko said, swallowing a mouthful of her own portion.

Anxiety almost spit out her food. "Excuse me?"

"He's been working on it. As soon as you left and took all the good cooking with you, he started to really try some of the dishes you made. I'd call this one at least a success." Aiko commented, smiling.

Anxiety nodded mutely, making contact with her father, who was smiling a little bit, his eyes also filling with tears.

"Tyler and Kai hated it," Aiko continued, as though Nox was not sitting beside her, tears of happiness and bittersweet regret. "They were basically his test subjects for everything. No wonder they moved out to serve the Tidelord and Icewarden so quickly..."

Anxiety's stomach twisted in a way that had nothing to do with the food. "There were more?" She asked softly. "Siblings I didn't get to meet?"

"Well, yes, dear," Aiko frowned. "But they heard quite a lot about you, you know."

"Oh, I see," Anxiety nodded rather lamely feeling conflicting emotions. "Thanks, Mom."

"Of course. And both of them looked up to you. It was kind of incredible really, the way they trusted you on nothing more than blood," Aiko smiled.

Anxiety smiled back at her, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.


Credit to potatho