You Only Live Twice

XII

Olivia flopped down on her bed completely exhausted.
She'd arrived back to the estate not too long ago but only got the opportunity to lie down right now despite planning to pass out as soon as she got home.

Estelle had freaked out when she saw her disheveled appearance and scrubbed her head to toe, then she was forced to eat dinner in the dining room with the rest of the Auclairs.
Feeling like an outsider with your own supposed family isn't the most comfortable experience in her opinion.

Olivia let out a long sigh, despite the later half she considered today somewhat successful. She'd gotten most of her plan done she only hoped it wouldn't get too much harder from here on out she doesn't think she has the energy or patience for anything else.

Staring out the large window to her right Olivia slowly drifted off to sleep watching the stars shine brightly in the dark night sky.

Olivia would like to believe she made it back to the overgrown wizard tower just from her amazing memorization skills but in reality she knew it was just once again pure luck.
She debated knocking on the door as Amos seemed pretty upset with her inviting herself in last time before she could though, the door swung open and a familiar white-haired boy stood in the middle of the room, arms crossed.

"Didn't I tell you not to come back?" He said irritated, his finger tapped his arm impatiently his eyebrow quirked up.

"I don't recall?" Olivia gave him a cheeky smile walking past him and up the stone stairs.

"Wha-! Who said you can come into my house?!" Amos hurriedly followed her up the stairs.

"Well we're friends right? Friends play at each other's houses."

"We are not friends." Amos stated firmly putting emphasis on not.

"Don't be silly." Olivia giggled and brushed him off. "What do you even do here all day by yourself anyway."

"That's non of your concern." Amos rushed in front of her once they'd arrived in his room he threw his short arms out to the sides of him seemingly trying to stop her from proceeding any further.

Olivia walked past him and up the final set of stairs leading to the room she hadn't gotten to explore the day before. "
He-hey! Wait a second!" Amos scurrying not far behind her.

The room seemed to be the roof of the tower as the hallowed ceiling spired into a sharp point. As expected this room was identical to the last previous three spaces except much cleaner. There was scarcely any dust, the papers and books set about the room had a organized mess vibe. A warm breeze gently flowed through the window giving the room a light feel to it as if it was well taken care of.

"What's this place?" Olivia asked walking over to one of the wooden bookshelves picking up a red book lined in a golden yellow, the title of the book was written in a foreign language. Olivia opened it and flipped through random pages, it was written in the same language occasionally accompanied by a drawing. She closed it and put it back in its place on the shelf.

Amos let out a long sigh, "It's my laboratory," He grumbled out reluctantly finally giving up on his futile attempts to kick the little brunette out. "It's where I do all my studying and stuff."

Olivia walked over to a desk piled with papers and flipped through them as Amos stood by the stairs pouting and grumbling something about 'annoying nosy little girls'.
After skimming through multiple essays and research notes with strange drawings and symbols Olivia stacked the papers and firmly concluded that this boy had no life.

Even she didn't study this much in her past life and that was saying a lot. All this work was making her nauseous and light headed.
Olivia spun around on her heel with resolve and beamed, "Let's go play outside!"

Amos whipped toward her looking looking taken aback—offended almost, "What?!" He exclaimed.
Olivia gave him a strange look, "Uh..I said we should play outside?"

"But—but—" Anxiously the white haired boy whipped his head around, down the stairs then back at Olivia, down the stairs then back towards Olivia and repeat. This went on for about four rounds, back and forth before he slowed down and dropped the volume of his voice.
"The..." He stopped himself and continued to anxiously fidget in place like a child afraid of getting in trouble, "The outside is dangerous..." Amos was whispering by now Olivia had to strain her ears to hear him.

Olivia was beyond confused by now, was he not allowed to go outside? "It's not dangerous? I'm from outside and I've done just fine."
Amos looked her head to toe and gave her a kind of shrug while scrunching up his face as if implying something. Olivia gave him a nasty look.

"Look I'll show you." Olivia stomped over to Amos and grabbed his arm. "Hey! Hey wait a minute!" He protested as she dragged him down the multiple flights of stairs.

"How...would you...know....if you've never..been!" Olivia grunted out her words as she vigorously tugged on Amos trying to get him out the front door.
Meanwhile Amos held onto table long since anchored to the floor with a death grip.

"No! I've been doing just fine inside!" He refuted, his eyes shut tightly.

A quiet crack went unnoticed by the two children as their tug-of-war intensified, the sound drowned out by their high pitched voices.

"You've gotta face your fears!" Olivia said.

Another crack, louder, coming from the old wooden table.

"I am not scared!" The white haired boy argued back with the same sentence he'd said time and time before, his face turning red.

Another loud crack followed by a deep snap snuffed out by the children's yelling.
The now stood connected only on three unstable legs tilting a slight bit towards Amos who was still desperately trying to keep himself inside the comfort of his stone walls.

"Ever heard of immersion therapy? Well you're free membership starts now!"

With one last strong tug and a few quick cracks and snaps both Amos and Olivia are sent flying out of the doorway and tumbling out into the open onto each other.