"Face the world".

It's not that easy for me.

He was good at dealing with things like this. The master of family drama. Figuring out that you were related to a god was stressful. No wonder this seemed like nothing to him.

He would always try to care, but I could tell he thought I was being stupid about it. He was worried about something else, something bigger. For once I wasn't the only thing surrounding his world - in a good way.

He was right, in ways. I couldn't hide in my room forever. Not this time.

But look where it got me.

Now I was stuck getting fitted, for a dress. This random lady was poking me with needles. She had to tighten this ugly green dress because I had a "flat chest".

Fuck you, too.

Everything about the dress was tight, including the top. My legs felt like ugly little hotdogs trapped in plastic wrap.

"Why can't I pick my own thing for the dinner like Sonja or that other chick?" I asked. I glared at Faith, who was sitting in the dressing room. I guess I was supposed to love her now, or something.

Maybe it's a good thing I didn't have family.

"Well," Faith smiled. She was always smiling. Why? Our parents were dead. "This dinner is for you. We want you to look nice for the kingdoms."

"If it's my party, why don't I get consent in what I wear?"

I heard the fitting lady tisk behind me. I contemplated kicking her like a spooked horse.

Faith opened her mouth. She became more careful with her words when talking to me. She didn't care about her image as much before she found out we were related by blood.

"It's more for impressing others." She saw me frown and then immediately changed her tune. "You sadly have to do that when you're in a prestigious family."

I groaned and visibly rolled my eyes. I didn't mean to offend Faith, but it was my automatic response to bullshit.

Faith sighed, out of any idea how to make me happy. I knew what I wanted, sleep and a book, but I was to new at this sibling thing to tell her.

"But maybe we can get you a dress that's more to your taste," she suggested.

The fitting lady audibly sighed out onto my neck. She dropped her hands to her side.

"Fine," she hissed out. "What do you want."

I scrunched up my face, realizing that my legs had almost fallen asleep. "Something that doesn't make my legs look like fucking hotdogs."

I looked down at the green dress. It's bottom was translucent, and my pale legs squished up against them. Maybe they look more like bratwursts.

Faith's mouth was agape, until she saw me staring and she tried to compose herself.

"Right, yes." Her hand was covering her mouth. She scooted around on the chair, trying to adjust her arm.

Faith cleared her throat. "Maybe with less leg restraint."

The fitting lady shook her head. "Yes I hear that." She went to a rack that had thousands of garments on them. All of them looked scratchy and hideous. "Something short-"

"Would I be able to kick someone if need be?" I asked.

The fitting lady turned her head to me. Her eyebrows quirked up into an expression that was familiar to me. "What in the hell-?"

"Yes!" Faith quickly interrupted us. "You would be able to fight if need be."

"Nice color," the fitting lady mumbled out. "A nice rose-gold."

As the fitting lady chattered away Faith and I were left to awkwardly stare at each other in uncomfortable silence. I usually hate smalltalk to much to even try, but I knew she was to awkward to try to say anything first.

"What kingdoms are coming?" I asked.

Faith immediately loosened up. There was nothing that women loved doing more than being able to show how much she knew.

"Well, a few representatives from the Carnage will be coming. We have lots of trading partners from Ianaria. Athiora's ambassador is making an entrance." Her eyes lit up. "Oh! And special guests from Mianite. Ianite and Mianite want to come meet your friend from the other world!"

"Dianite." I let out.

That made sense. Dianite had been sending letters to them on and off with Mot's help. They hadn't met yet. Ianite and Mianite were busy doing "god things".

"Oh no," Faith crinkled her eyebrows in confusion. "No, I mean't the one you're dating."

"Andor?" I said out loud. What the hell could the gods possibly want with my boyfriend? He enjoyed hanging low and had no want to be the center of attention of two gods.

What had Dianite tricked my goddess into thinking? That dumbass. Also that Mot would let it happen.

"That might be a prank," I said, fiddling with my fingertips. "Andor doesn't get up to a lot."

Faith shrugged. "Maybe so."

Before I could get another question out the fitting lady walked back. She was still wearing a huge grimace and couldn't stand the sight of me. If only she would rip out her ears every time I spoke.

"Okay, do you like this?" She held up a pink dress. Well I thought it was pink, but Faith assured me it was rose-gold.

The bottom only went to my mid thigh. I think the lady took "a short dress" way to personally. Though I knew it was the only thing I would possibly be able to walk in.

The top was kinda pretty. When I put it on the golden lace made me feel like I had super powerful cobwebs on, and the draft felt nice against the humid air.

I decided I did like the dress. It was actually pretty cool. When the fitter even got done my dress had petals in my skirt.

And then as soon as I was almost sold on the dress, I was shown my accessories.

"And here's the shoes." The fitting lady lifelessly handed me the shoes.

Two high heel shoes. Baby pink heels with gold lines curling up it that I could stab someone with.

"Face the world." I remembered in my head.

I closed my eyes, wishing to god that I would be back up in bed. This was a dream, just a dream.

I opened my eyes. Still here.

God dammit!

I never got the hatred Hope has with formal attire. It was made to make you feel powerful and suave and swift. Two out of those three things Hope loved being. My suit was nice with fabric that was soft like a type of cozy silk. When I glanced in the mirror I became Mr. Darcy.

And I mean she had to spend time with Faith, but who doesn't want to spend time with Faith. She's awesome. She got her hands on all three of the good Star-Wars movies.

She had even planned this big dinner because Ianite knows that her incompetent Uncle Claudius didn't do it.

They had this big ball room that was reserved for special events only. The room was laced with landscaping of rose bushes and daises. Vines and ivy lines the walls tastefully. The tables were circular with white clothes and reminded me of weddings, and the center pieces were these candles that smelled like herbal tea, but good herbal tea.

When I stood in the ballroom for the first time, I thought I was standing on top of a mirror the marble floor was so reflective. The walls were a dazzling white, just like clouds which complemented the gold incrusted stain glass windows.

It was beautiful, but real. They weren't afraid to show the real world in their built metropolis. A utopia.

I thumbed at the table cloth. The texture was satisfying enough to keep me entertained as I waited for the rest of the team to meet at the table. Well most of them. Hope would be at the grand table, tagging Andor along as he was her date.

It did remind me of a wedding. Not just because of the decor or the dates that everyone had except for Tom and I. No, just like a wedding this was a celebration of unity. A unity of family.

Though Hope would tell me that it was "a unity of her future life of death and misery and fate." I still can't tell to this day if she was joking or not.

Sonja sat down beside me, chipper as always. Her dress was brown but not a boring brown. It had hazel lace dashed around it, reminding me of tastefully ripped jeans. It didn't really matter though, her personality was bright enough to make that slick brown dress look as florescent as the neon blue one I had seen earlier.

She tucked her skirt under her seat as she sat down. I didn't understand how any of these women were walking in the stilts designers called shoes.

Sonja stared at me strangely. As if I didn't belong here.

"What?" I commented on her dirty looks.

"Oh sorry." She scooted in her chair. "I thought you would be sitting at the big table with your girlfriend."

I squinted at her. My heart only went to one person. "Excuse me?"

Sonja was still giving me that look. That mom look. That "I know what you want before you do" look. Though it had some mischievous edge to it in her green eyes.

"Faith," She bluntly let out.

I almost choked on air. My head was starting to spin. It was just - it was just. Faith, no. Just, maybe .... well.

"Hey." Tom sat down, making my situation even worse. He had no mute button and while Sonja could take a hint he would scream whatever nonsense was in his brain.

Tom held the fork given to us in his hand, cordially showing that he was more than prepared for dinner. "What's wrong with Jordan?" He asked.

I can imagine Sonja only rolled her eyes.

"Oh!" Of course that eye-roll immediately turned on the lightbulb in Tom's brain. "Are we talking about Jordan's crazy big nerd boner for Faith?"

I almost pounced over the table. Instead I had a spazz attack and slammed my hand on the table. "Shut up."

Tom pointed at me. A stupid smirk formed on his face. "Aw, look how red he is getting."

Tom found himself correct. My face felt as hot as an overheating computer. Though that didn't stop me from wanting to stab him.

She shrugged at Tom. "We're not supposed to bring it up."

Tom then began to give me strange looks. Everyone at the table started to stare at me as if I was the weirdo. "Since when do you get embarrassed by things."

"It's," I didn't have the words to form how my head was feeling. "It's bizarre."

"Why?" Tom asked. "It's just a crush."

"Well she's Hope's sister." I added, trying to deceiver what was going on in my head. "Isn't that wrong in some sort of way."

Sonja shrugged. "Hope went from 9 to 18 and immediately decided to date a guy. She's fine. You don't really get to figure out love. It figures out you."

"Yeah." Tom agreed, though I could tell all he cared about was whatever type of pig we were gonna be able to eat. "Just go with the flow."

Something I always and never tried to do simultaneously. The act of loosing it was appealing to me, but horrifying. Maybe I could start with something small, like not eating with a soup spoon.

The doors of the ballroom opened. Faith and Liberty walked out. Liberty had his girlfriend with him, Prudence. Faith was alone though. Happy, but alone.

Maybe I had more for her. More for her than a respect of a leadership. More than being in awe of her wit. More than being able to listen to her for hours due to her calming voice.

But I mean, it's not like I was staying up all night thinking about her-

- oh wait.

"Hey," Sonja shook my arm, pointing to the door. "I think Hope is coming in soon."

Tom let out this noise between a burp and a laugh. Tucker groaned at him. Tom was welcoming himself to the free bread they had dropped by while I was contemplating.

"I wonder what they have made that poor girl wear?" Wag let out.

But Hope was my first priority. She was my teammate, my partner, and my best friend. I owed it to her to make this transition as easy as possible, no matter if it hurt me. She wouldn't hesitate to do the same.

So there I sat in the same rut. Spontaneous seemed so great but far. Maybe baby steps would last me long enough. Long enough until I got my turn to be crazy.

Maybe. Just maybe.

"Wow"

I shot Andor a dirty look.

"What?" He laughed.

I was sitting down on the hall. I don't even want to try to enter the ballroom mostly because my feet hurt so bad.

Also being a part of a family was shocking and horrifying and nothing that I would ever be able to go back from. I didn't get any options, I didn't get a choice. I got a few siblings and a new title that I didn't know what to do with and that I would defiantly fuck up and destroy.

But trust me. It was mostly the feet.

"You look nice-"

"I want death," I whined out, slamming my back against the cold wall. I could feel the ridges of it through my lace dress.

Andor looked magical as - mother fucking - normal. He had this humble motivation to him that only came with being forced to become that way. He was so good at being casually formal. I didn't know how to use silverware with both hands.

"I'm not gonna be good at this." I let out. Maybe it was just more than my shoes that was bothering me.

"Hope," He sighed out. The soft edge in his voice made me instantly relax. "No ones good at this."

I still couldn't be sure of the truth in that. Andor sure looked like he knew what he was doing when he made that life changing speech in Dagrun, or when he greeted us in the beginning of it all. But his smile made me sure that he would have my back. A lot of people would have my back.

His dimples were also very kissable.

He helped me up, and I struggled to keep my footing on the death sticks. I must of been keeping my baby-deer syndrome hidden well because Andor wasn't worried.

"If Tom could be such a good leader that all of those Dianite's respected him, than you can be this institutes trophy child." He held my hand and stared at me with his beautiful blue eyes. Just him by me made me calmer and more prepared.

My eyes bounced to the door. "Okay," I sighed out. "Let's get this over with."

We held hands and walked into the door together.

We both had the same reaction to the ball room. Complete and sudden stop. Everyone was so different and unique. I had never seen so many people in one place unless they wanted to kill me. To be fair by the frowns on their faces they seemed to want to kill themselves more. They all seemed to have a stick up their ass.

Andor was more overwhelmed at the amount of gods in one room, and how they weren't trying to kill each other.

I gripped his hand tighter. "Are you as horrified as me."

"Yes."

"Good." I already knew this was going to be the longest, most drastically boring moment of my life, and I would hate every goddamn moment of it.

I sat down, and it was awkwardly silent. At least in my brain it was. Everyone else was having conversations, but I didn't have anything to say. As much as Faith tried to get me interesting in Athoria's water system, I just couldn't care.

Andor on the other hand, for once, couldn't shut up. I love the guy and all but if I had to sit through one more sitting of someone saying "what a logical approach to the currency issue" I was gonna vomit. I never knew that he could actually delegate because he never delegated to me, but he was scarily good at it.

We still didn't get our food. All we had on the table were some melon balls. I didn't want fucking fruit. If Liberty didn't do something interesting soon I was debating on eating him.

"Hey," He whispered to me. His girlfriend had gone to the bathroom and he now had free reign of his attention span.

He grabbed the spoon. "See those dickheads who think they're better than everyone else."

I peered over the gross smelling centerpiece. I saw the tables of guests. I also saw a table of my friends being able to laugh and watch Tom stick as many forks in his mouth as possible.

I glanced back at Liberty, sighing. Everyone looked like they thought they were better than everyone else. "You're going to have to be more specific."

He nodded, agreeing. "Right."

He then pointed inconspicuously at a table. Sitting there was two old couples. One seemingly Mianite because they wore a dashing shade of blue. The other couple I couldn't tell, but they had enough jewelry on to feed a starving village.

"Oh!" I let out a little loud. Then covering my mouth I looked back to Liberty. He was trying not to laugh.

"Watch this," He had a mischievous grin on his face, and I could tell this was going to be good.

He grabbed his spoon and grabbed a melon ball, balancing the melon perfectly and bending back the arch of the spoon. "The trick is to get it all in the wrist." He bit his lip as he pulled the spoon back.

It flew, and I sat in astonishment. Not because he hit the greedy old couple - because he had gotten nowhere close to them, but because I wanted to do the exact same thing. We had the same brain. The same quirks. He even had this weird lisp sometimes like me.

Maybe I could get into this sibling thing?

Faith shot him an icy cold glare. I could tell she was trying to make a good impression on Andor so maybe he would send news back that "Faith was a cool cat."

Liberty ignored his sister and grabbed another melon ball. Faith became livid as she silently watched her older brother disobey her orders.

He grabbed another melon ball, as two very special people walked over to the table. I had already witnessed Liberty's horrible aim, so already knew how this was going to end.

He got ready to aim.

I shook Andor's shoulders. As a good girlfriend, I couldn't let him miss this. "Hey babe, watch this."

Andor turned to look at me. "What-?"

Zoom. The melon ball flew off. Liberty's eyes grew wide and his skin became pale as he realized who that melon ball was going to hit.

Plat. Right into Mianite's face.

Mianite's face was monotone and expressionless, as the melon slid off of his face. When he blinked it fell to the ground, everyone at our table silent and watching.

Mianite wiped the juice off of his face and finely pressed white suit. "Well hello Liberty. Isn't it nice to see you again."

He barely got out an expression. He gritted his teeth together. I couldn't tell if he was trying not to laugh or scream. "Hello sir."

Faith slammed her hands on the table. "Hallway! Now!"

Liberty practically fell back against his chair. Faiths voice was surprisingly strong. "But- I-"

"Now!"

Liberty rolled his eyes, and stood up from the table. His limbs were hanging loosely beside him. "Ugh, Fine."