Hiding In Plain Sight

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hi. So like. Kinda been a while again lmao. I know this is becoming redundant, but I'm so sorry for the late update again. I've been swamped with exams and work and whatnot, so writing has been put on the back burner. Now that I finally have a bit of free time, I should be ready to start updating regularly again! At least, I hope I am. 

Thank you to the people who've stuck by me even though I haven't been able to give this story the attention it deserves. I will never stop being grateful for you all. With all that said, enjoy the chapter! 

Nashi had never been more stressed in her life than she was now. For the past forty-five minutes, she had to sneak away from the group, sneak into the next room, look over everything in it, and sneak back into the group all within the span of however long Natsu spent talking to the others and however many times as the number of rooms in the house.

Sometimes, she thought he knew what she was doing and purposefully spent a short amount of time checking out a room right before a relatively big one. Or, he would suddenly change his mind on what room he wanted to visit, or he'd want to go to a room at the other end of the hallway so she'd have to sprint to reach it first.

By the time they had reached the end of the tour, Nashi was dead tired. She dug around in her bag looking for water, cursing everything in her mind.

She stopped when she saw a figure enter her peripheral vision. Storm was standing next to her with a bottle of water in his outstretched arm. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am," Nashi said, taking the water. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, you've been acting kind of weird today. Actually, you've been acting weird ever since yesterday, when that mermaid and Loke showed up. After Master picked us to come here, you went home without telling anyone and you've been disappearing the whole day."

"I'm fine," she said firmly. "It's nothing. I've just been feeling kind of nauseous since yesterday. I think it was something I ate."

"Nausea?" Storm glanced at the nearly-empty water bottle. "If that's the case, then why'd you come? You should've stayed home if you were feeling sick."

Nashi shook her head. "I wanted to be here. It's a good chance to visit home."

"You can visit any time. You could get worse if you don't re-"

"Will you guys stop flirting over there and come help us?"

The pair flinched at Malika's voice, who smirked at them. Natsu narrowed his eyes. "Flirting?"

Malika cackled. "Let's just say you're not the only one with a love life, Uncle Natsu. These two can't keep their hands off of each other."

"Yeah? They're not the only ones." Kaiser snorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cayden asked, to which Kaiser rolled his eyes.

Nashi sighed. "It's not like that. Anyway, let's go back to the library. Or actually, the kitchen. I'm starving."

"Not yet, Nash," Natsu said while still glaring at Storm. "We still have one last room to look at."

Nashi frowned. "What, the attic? I thought we already did that."

"No, Lucy's room."

Nashi froze. She had completely forgotten that her mother's room still hadn't been looked at. She didn't know how, but she would have to sneak in, clean it up, and return in a matter of seconds.

"Wait." Rose flew down the hall. "There's another room over here."

Now it seemed that the universe really was torturing her. How could she forget about both her and her mother's rooms, the two most important ones in the house?