Justice/Loneliness (Aspects Book 2)

by L. C. Mawson

  Jealousy raised an eyebrow as soon as they were gone. “Did she just ask them because they’re boys?”

  Love shook her head. “I’ve found it’s best to not dwell on the eccentricities of the experts Em mimics.”

  Jealousy folded their arms. “I don’t know that I would call sexism an ‘eccentricity’. And why did she lump me in with the girls?”

  “Well, it might be more that you’re not a boy,” Hate figured with a shrug.

  Jealousy sighed. “I suppose...”

  Em and the boys returned after not very long.

  “All fixed up?” Justice asked.

  Em nodded as she morphed back to look like Love, though her hair turned to Pain’s shade of sandy blonde. “It should be safe to sleep in tonight. I’ll do some more work in the morning.”

  The others followed her back inside, taking their things.

  Love wasn’t sure what kind of building this had been before – maybe offices? – But the walls had now been reinforced with the same kind of material that the Towers had been built out of, and Love couldn’t feel so much as a draft.

  “I think I’m going to go for a walk around the building,” Empathy said once she'd put all of her things down. “I still need to clear my head.”

  “You want some company?” Love asked. “To act as a palate cleanser.”

  Empathy nodded. “Yeah, that would be great.”

  They headed out of the building, only for Jealousy to jog up to them. “Are you guys heading out? I know we just walked here, but I could really stretch my legs right now.”

  “Too small a space for you?” Love asked once they were out of earshot of the others.

  Jealousy nodded. “It’s a little crowded,” they admitted. “I’ll be okay once we all go to bed, but I might go crazy in the meantime.”

  Just as they were leaving the building, they passed Vengeance, standing outside.

  “Are you on the first lookout watch?” Love asked him.

  He nodded. “The rest of you are still young and need your uninterrupted sleep. And Loneliness needs it for the baby. And since I didn’t want to ask my sister to leave her, that just leaves me.”

  Love folded her arms. “Hate and I aren’t that young.”

  “You’re still young enough to need your sleep.”

  “You can’t do the lookouts all on your own,” Love pointed out. “You would never sleep. Hate and I can help as well.”

  Vengeance nodded with a sigh. “I assumed you would have to eventually, but I can manage for most of tonight. Not to mention, you’re the one who has to deal with the creatures. It would be best if you got your sleep. And if Hate doesn’t get hers, she might get tetchy, and the two of you might end up arguing, which I don’t imagine would help your abilities.”

  Love sighed, folding her arms. “You’re saying that as if everything is perfect right now between us...”

  “It’s not?” Empathy asked with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

  Love sighed. “I had hoped you would be able to tell me.”

  Empathy shook her head apologetically. “No, I haven’t been able to spend much time with her recently. If you want, I could talk to her...”

  Jealousy frowned. “You shouldn’t use your sister as a barometer for your relationship,” they scolded.

  Love shook her head, holding her hands up defensively. “I was just asking!”

  “I don’t mind,” Em said quickly.

  Vengeance gave a hum of thought. “I wonder, Em, do you really not mind, or are you drawing from Love, who doesn’t mind?”

  Love frowned. “Wait, are you suggesting that she’s drawing from my want to know the truth about why Hate is acting weird around me or my want to help people?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Jealousy cut across sharply. “You should talk to your girlfriend to find out why she’s ignoring you, instead of asking Em.”

  “They have a point,” Vengeance agreed.

  Love sighed, folding her arms. “Don’t you think I’ve been trying? I keep asking her what’s wrong, but she keeps deflecting and ignoring the question.”

  Jealousy shrugged. “Then just give her time.”

  Vengeance nodded. “I imagine she would appreciate time, though your abilities are tied to Hate. If you want to be able to relocate every nest in the city, you probably want to figure this out sooner, rather than later.”

  Love sighed again. “I’ll ask her about it when we get back, but I doubt she’s going to give me another answer...”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  As soon as they returned, Love found Hate sitting in the corner, on her own, engrossed in a video game on her tablet.

  As Love entered the room, she couldn’t help but glance over to Justice and Loneliness, who were huddled together in another corner of the room, smiling as they talked.

  Love found herself smiling at the sight. If doing this, if clearing out this city, would help Justice and Loneliness find some kind of long-term happiness, Love would do it thousand times and more.

  As Love approached Hate and sat down next to her, however, her smile faded.

  Usually, when Love sat down next to her while she played, Hate at least took out one of her earbuds. Even when she was in the grips of hyperfocus.

  This time, Hate just ignored her approach.

  Love tried to reason that away, thinking that Hate simply hadn’t realised, or maybe she was in the middle of a particularly intense part that she didn’t want to pause.

  There had to be some explanation that wasn’t just that Hate was ignoring her.

  Love leaned in to see if her theory about Hate being at a particularly intense part of the game was correct, only for Hate to finally pause the game, taking out her earbuds.

  “Did you need something?” Hate asked, a little sharply.

  Love frowned. “No... I just... I’m back. I thought you would want to know.”

  Hate sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m just tired.”

  “Maybe we should get some rest.”

  Hate shook her head again. “I’ll be fine. You don’t need to baby me.”

  Love’s frown deepened. “I’m not. I just... It’s getting late, we should get some sleep. We both should.”

  Hate just looked away.

  “Is everything okay?” Love asked. “I mean, you seem like something is wrong.”

  Hate shook her head. “Everything is fine.”

  Love sighed. “Look, it’s pretty clear that something has been wrong for a while now. Ever since we agreed to retake the city, in fact. I know you need space, and I’m trying to give it to you, but our powers are tied together. If something is wrong, we need to figure it out, instead of just letting it fester. Even if the reason you feel off has nothing to do with me, I still want to know. I’m still your girlfriend, and I want to be there for you.”

  Hate just looked away, frowning in thought for several moments.

  After a while, Love decided that she needed a little push and moved closer to her, drawing her attention before nodding over to Justice and Loneliness, who were still smiling at each other.

  “You know, I kind of just became resigned to what my life would be like as an Aspect. I mean, once I realised that I had enough control over my powers to not die immediately, and that most of the danger was over, all of my immediate concerns went away. After that, it was just... It was just this realisation that my future would never be the way I had pictured it. That’s the thing about not being able to remember my family, I spent years thinking about the day when I would have one again.”

  “You found your sister,” Hate reasoned. “And you have the rest of the Aspects.”

  “And that’s nice, but I still wanted to get married someday. To have kids. And I had just sort of become resigned to the fact that I would never have that.” She nodded over to Justice and Loneliness again. “Doing this – seeing them together – it makes me hopeful again.”

  Hate looked at
her and Love found her expression indecipherable.

  She was about to ask what she was thinking, but before she could, Hate closed the gap between them, capturing Love’s lips in hers and erasing any thought of the difficulties between them.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  They headed out to the edge of the city the next day, trying to decide where to build the walls that would protect it from the creatures.

  They weren’t going to build the walls in their entirety, that was too complex a task, but they could make sure that the initial construction was done. Just enough to discourage any creatures from trying to get into the city, making it safe enough for them to bring in construction crews. They would still probably have to stay in the city to oversee everything – or maybe have other Aspects allocated who would eventually occupy the new Tower once it was built – but setting up the preliminary walls and getting all of the creatures out of the city would be the most critical stage.

  If they did that, they would prove that they could manage this.

  Empathy figured out exactly where they should start building, before giving them all instructions.

  They were relatively simple, as instructions went. A lot of moving materials from one area to another, and the plates that the walls were made out of interlocked without much hassle.

  As soon as Empathy had set the others to work, she stopped mimicking the construction expert, just as she had the night before.

  “I really hate being that guy...” she muttered as she made her way over to help Love.

  Love raised an eyebrow. “Couldn’t you find another expert to mimic?”

  Empathy shook her head. “He’s the best one I could find video of. It’s fine, I don’t need to be him much. Just enough to get us started on the construction.”

  Love nodded as she picked up one of the panels.

  “So, how did things go with Hate?” Empathy asked as she mimicked Love’s muscles before picking up a panel of her own.

  Love shrugged. “It went fine.”

  “Really? So you found out what was bothering her?”

  Love looked away sheepishly. “No, not exactly... But... Well, she seemed to perk up a little. I mean, even if she didn’t really tell me what was bothering her, she stopped avoiding me.”

  Empathy frowned. “She stopped avoiding you, but she still wouldn’t tell you what was wrong?”

  Love shrugged. “Well... I guess we were both a little distracted for talking...”

  A loud snort came from behind them and love turned around to see Serenity shaking her head.

  “What’s so funny?” Love asked.

  “Sorry,” Serenity said. “I didn’t mean to overhear, but... Well, whenever Love – I mean, the Love before you – was upset by something, she had a nasty habit of not wanting to talk about it. Every time I would ask, she would distract me. It looks like Hate has the same tactic.”

  Love looked away with a sigh. “Oh... I hadn’t realised... I was just happy that she didn’t seem to be avoiding me anymore.”

  Serenity gave her a sympathetic smile. “You shouldn’t worry so much about this. She will talk to you eventually, just give her time. Whatever is bothering her probably has nothing to do with you. Especially not if she’s, well, distracting you.”

  Love nodded, deciding she was sick of talking about it. “So, Serenity, how are you feeling about us reclaiming the city and getting more freedom? You haven’t really talked about it.”

  Serenity looked away, folding her arms. “In all honesty, I’m not sure. Whenever I used to think about how little freedom I had, it was something I thought about in relation to your predecessor. I was angry that the two of us couldn’t be together... But now? Now I’m not sure what I would do with this kind of freedom if I were given it. Without her, being an Aspect is all I have left...”

  A howling screech pierced through the air and the three of them spun around, all drawing their weapons at once.

  They all recognised the sound of a creature.

  Love’s eyes quickly scanned the area, finding the creature.

  It was approaching Justice and Loneliness, its teeth bared.

  It was looking for a fight...

  Justice drew her broadsword, standing in front of Loneliness.

  “Calm down,” Serenity yelled over to Justice. “If we kill one monster, more will come.”

  Loneliness nodded before placing a hand on Justice’s shoulder. Justice quickly glanced over to her girlfriend, only to see her completely disappear.

  She would be safe until the creature was dealt with.

  Everyone turned to look at Love, and she realised that they were waiting for her to deal with it.

  Love approached the creature, doing her best to focus her mind on Hate.

  The focus came more than easily to her as she recalled the night before, but the usual warmth those kind of memories brought was quickly cooled by her morning realisation.

  That it had all just been a distraction.

  Worry began to seep in through the cracks in her resolve.

  Why didn’t Hate want to talk to her? What was going on with her?

  Was something going on with them that Hate wasn’t telling her about?

  The creature growled, getting ready to pounce.

  Love heard the noise of Justice preparing her sword again and panic flooded through her.

  Serenity was right, if they killed this creature, more would come, and Love would have an even harder time getting the others out of the city.

  And Serenity had also said that whatever was going with Hate likely had nothing to do with Love, so maybe she was right about that as well...

  The creature began to calm as Love stepped forward once more.

  She held her hand out and did her best to repress any feeling of anxiety as it approached to sniff her palm.

  After a moment, it bowed its head, and Love let out a sigh of relief.

  It wandered over, openly curious about them and what they were doing. Usually, Love would have just let it, but she had too much anxiety over the possibility of her losing control and the creature attacking once more.

  “Go on, go home,” she said to the creature.

  It whined a little, before doing as it was told and scampering off.

  Once it was gone, the others got back to work, though Justice walked over to Love as she sheathed her sword.

  “What happened?” Justice asked as she approached. “For a moment, it looks like you weren’t going to get the monster under control.”

  Love shook her head. “It’s no big deal. I’m probably just tired. I was sleeping in a strange place last night, after all. I’m sure I’ll be okay in a couple of days.”

  Justice frowned, concern evident in her expression as she placed a reassuring hand on Love’s shoulder. “It’s okay if this is too much to ask of you. If you’re not going to be able to handle getting all of the creatures out of the city-”

  Love cut her off before she could continue. The last thing she wanted was to disappoint Justice and Loneliness. “I'm all right,” she said quickly. “Really. I am. Like I said, I’m just tired right now. I’ll be okay in a couple of days. I promise.”

  Justice continued to frown for a few moments, before eventually nodding. “All right. If you say so.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  By the time night began to approach, all of them were exhausted.

  While they often trained and exercised during the day, their physical activity usually didn’t last more than a few hours.

  Not to mention, it usually wasn’t as monotonous.

  But then, it would be dangerous for anyone else to attempt to build the preliminary walls, and it was easier for them to put them up themselves than to guard other people doing it. Especially since it would be unfair to ask anyone else to take that kind of risk.

  Empathy once again mimicked the construction expert as they finished up for the day, finding another nearby building to reinforce.

  It would take too long fo
r them to keep on returning to the building by the tunnel. Especially once they got further out. It would be quicker to simply keep finding new buildings to camp out in.

  When Empathy found a suitable building, however, Justice frowned.

  “Are you sure? We’re so close to the edge of the city. So close to the wastes...”

  Vengeance gave his sister a reassuring smile. “We’ll have lookouts again. Don’t worry, no monster is going to sneak up on us.”

  Justice didn’t look entirely happy with that, but still, she nodded.

  “I’ll take the first watch,” Hate told them. “I think my sleep schedule is messed up at the minute anyway.”

  The rest of them headed inside to get some sleep, but Love followed Hate up to the roof.

  Maybe she would be ready to talk tonight...

  Hate raised an eyebrow as she spotted Love following her, but didn’t object.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep as well?” Hate said after she settled down by the edge of the roof. “I mean, didn’t you tell Justice that a lack of sleep was why you struggled with the creature today?”

  Love sighed as she sat down next to Hate. “I’ll go inside later. We haven’t really had a chance to talk today.”

  Hate shrugged. “Yeah, I guess we were both busy dragging around heavy plates.”

  Love nodded in agreement before nudging Hate gently. “Do you know what being up here reminds me of?”

  Hate raised an eyebrow.

  “When we first got together. For real, I mean. After we defeated Geral. You led me up to the roof of the Tower, and we finally agreed to stop ignoring our feelings.”

  Hate sighed, rubbing her arms to ward off the cold, despite her leather jacket. “Do you ever think that was a mistake?” she eventually asked quietly. “Us ignoring the danger of being together, I mean...”

  Love shook her head. “No,” she said without hesitation. “Why? Do you?”

  Hate sighed. “You couldn’t control the creature this morning. At least, not right away. That would only happen if things... If things weren’t right between us.”

  Love shrugged. “I wouldn’t know, it’s never happened before. Maybe it’s just something else.”