BXBX NOVEL Chapter 73 - Break
* NEFFEX - Alive *
***
Seeing and understanding what Raven\'s actions were meant to achieve, Maria couldn\'t help but chuckle softly, "You\'re so smart, lil Raven..."
With a soft kiss to Raven\'s cheek, she grabbed another big blanket and made sure everyone was warm underneath.
Joey got to have his own as he was sleeping a few feet away from the rest of the group. Nonetheless, they all seemed so peaceful and carefree that it made Maria fall asleep faster than usual, with a relaxed and calm mindset.
...
"Mnu..." opening her eyes lazily, Raven realized she was in her own room inside Maria\'s house.
Smiling softly while imagining her mom carrying her from the garden all the way to her room made her feel so happy with how her life has turned out to be.
\'From hell to heaven in one swoop huh?\' she smiled to herself at the thought as she looked to her side, confirming that Kuru was still sleeping quietly besides her.
\'I\'m so happy I was so tired that I couldn\'t move a muscle, otherwise you would have ended underneath me,\' she thought as she started stroking his silky fur and fluffy mane for a few seconds, before getting up to the bathroom.
"Damn, I haven\'t seen you in a while Mr. bathroom, how have you been?" Raven started having a one-sided conversation with her bathroom. "Oh me? haha I\'ve been doing great thanks for asking, you\'re so polite you know that?"
"Raven? You\'re awake already?" Maria\'s voice came from the other side of the bathroom door.
"She obviously is, didn\'t you hear her greet her Mr. bathroom?" Maya\'s voice was so thick with sarcasm that she almost choked before bursting out with laughter.
"Hey, I told you not to discuss her Imaginary conversations!" Maria whispered, yet Raven could hear it all.
"AHEM!" she coughed as if to clear her throat, "I am awake, and Maya, at least I don\'t have the Opera House hidden in my cupboard!" she snapped back as Maya was known for singing loudly while taking a bath.
"But my voice is beautiful! Isn\'t it mom?"
"Eh? Ah of course it is, honey!" Maria smiled awkwardly. None of these facts were a secret, but she never liked talking about that because-
"Speaking of embarrassing habits, mom did you have a good night\'s sleep with Dr. Fluffy?" Maya asked with a grin that\'s so big for her little face. "I bet he missed yo-"
"But why? I didn\'t do anything to you!" Maria turned red at the mentioned of her Dr. Fluffy. Even though she was an adult woman she had always had Dr. Fluffy by her side.
He was a small stuffed brown bear in a white lab coat. It wasn\'t a gift from anyone, but she herself bought it when she enrolled in med school back in the day. And up until now, she still finds it hard to sleep without him being next to her.
Hearing the conversation outside, Raven could already tell that her mom was being harassed by her little sister.
Putting on a white bathrobe, she open the door and hugged Maria softly, "I personally think it\'s so cute, mom! Don\'t listen to the devil." she said pointing at Maya.
"Me? The devil?" Maya said with so much drama that for a stranger, it would look like she was shot in the chest with a poisoned arrow. "Hehe, took you long enough to realize! Wuhuhaha!"
After spending some "quality" time with her family, Raven got back to the washroom and took her bath.
Needless to say it wasn\'t easy for her because of her previous identity as a boy, she was so tempted to stand up and look at the mirror in order to \'explore\' her new body.
\'Maybe if I look down in the water? It\'s so bubbly that I wouldn\'t see anything? Right?\' she kept questioning herself.
Kayla was feeling so awkward at that point that she tried to hide deeper into her imaginary place in Raven\'s mind.
Fortunately for her, Raven had eventually, after some hesitation, decided to finish her bath early and go have some breakfast. She was starving after all.
However, even starving didn\'t prevent her from staring at her face in the mirror. It was the first time she saw herself, aside from the small mirror Rain had let her burrow while they were at the cave, and she had to admit, "Hell, this girl is on fire!"
Turning red the moment she thought about that, she appreciated her crimson-purple hair and majestic golden eyes.
Her skin looked so flawless that she couldn\'t help but give her cheeks a little squeeze to make sure that\'s really her actual body.
She remembered her face from the trial too, she saw a small girl with same face she has now. "I wonder who that was, it couldn\'t have been me because I\'ve been someone else..."
The thought of her stealing her sister\'s body or someone else\'s body was painful to bear. But she knew for a fact that this was her real body.
Both Kayla\'s had confirmed that multiple times. Camilla even saw her transform.
...
It didn\'t take her long to get dressed and go have she breakfast. At the kitchen table she saw that everyone was awake and in a good mood.
"It\'s like we\'re a big happy family, I like it!" Camilla said as she hugged Maria with a silly smile on her face.
No one paid attention to her red face when their bodies touched, other than Maria that smiled awkwardly at her but still didn\'t resist.
They all had a small conversation before starting their meal. During that time, Kuru had woken up and joined them.
Sitting on Raven\'s lab was apparently his new hobby. And it was a bliss that he could eat human food as they wouldn\'t have known what to do otherwise.
Raven was so happy that Kuru was not as scared or stressed as when they had previously met. He even got to meet Baby Rituxi.
"Oh my she\'s so adorable!" Raven said as she held the baby girl in her arms. Kuru wasn\'t so happy about it as his spot was stolen from him, but he made do with Raven\'s shoulder for now.
Baby Rituxi was roughly six months and wasn\'t on the heavy side of the scale. Similar to but not completely like Axane, she had bright silver white skin, two cute silver eyes and short black hair. Short because she was still young.
Needless to say, the contrast her hair made with her other features made her look even more adorable.
Spending some time with eachother, Maria, Maya, Raven and Kuru, Camilla, Axane and baby Rituxi, Rain, and Joey become more familiar with everyone\'s public background, schools, work, hobbies, and other interests.
Their relationship had ranked up from strangers who met because of the first dungeon outbreak, to be a close circle of friends.
"Alright, umm, do you want to watch some TV? Maybe see what happened while we abandoned the city?" Camilla said sarcastically.
By the time she woke up, she found so many missed messages from the EDA, Jaime, and other people she knew.
But even so, and with knowing what was happening outside, she couldn\'t care less about her job or rank anymore.
It was a kin to someone working so hard to reach their goal, but in her case she\'s already found her goal.
Having Maria and the others by her side made her feel at ease, peaceful, and happy. That was all she\'s ever wanted in her life.
They were people who respected her and loved her for her personality, nothing else.
But even so, a part of her was feeling guilty as she could be abandoning people she might be able to save.
"Sure, we can do that, I\'m feeling good enough that I can help if desperately needed, I guess," Raven said while stroking Kuru who was cuddling happily on her lap.