Peaceful Days

“Hiiii!”

Cheryl was a little startled by the sight of her girlfriend’s parents, happy though they were to see her. The apartment was nice- once, perhaps, entering would’ve stirred nothing but envy in her, and she wouldn’t have been wrong to feel that way- but today, entering through the door with her brother Saint to finally meet the Pops, the only thing she felt was a euphoric elation.

“Oh. H-Hi.” Saint tried to reply when he noticed his sister was too struck to speak.

“Sooo, you’re Cheryl?” The mother smiled, almost sounding like she was gossiping in her tone. With her and her husband sitting around the table, extra chairs gathered from who-knows-where to accommodate her and her brother. “And Saint! So nice to see you, darlings.”

“What a delightful pair of siblings!” The father comically boasted, turning his gaze to Frankie as she sat down to eat. “Much like my own. Though I am… sorry my oldest isn’t feeling well enough to partake, today.”

Cheryl nervously sat down beside Frankie. Did they know?

“She’ll be alright.” The younger Pop sister responded to Hugo, taking her share of the fast food serving as the table’s only centerpiece. “I saw just about every side of Katie there was over everywhere we went together. This… might be hard, but… we should just keep giving her her space. She’ll be alright. Eventually.”

Mr. Pop grimly nodded with a sudden frown. Cheryl realized then that he was well aware of the situation at hand. She thought back to telling her own brother… it had been something she’d regretted, having to watch him cry like that, knowing it was her fault- but now, being here with this other family struggling through it together, using each other to keep them afloat instead of half carrying the sole burden for all of them, getting stuck in their minds… she realized that was as much as anyone could do.

Smiling, she watched as Ms. Pop urged her brother to take up a burger, which he did.

“Was the trip hard?”

Cheryl realized the matriarch was now talking to her.

“O-oh, no.” She stuttered, second-guessing the likability of her voice. “We got pretty lucky. The cab fares weren’t much.”

“Let me repay you!”

“W-what?” She froze at the sight of yet another Pop offering her compensation. “No, that’s-“

“You have to make it back, don’t you? Unless- well, I suppose if you married my daughter now, I wouldn’t need to give you this… but I’m allowed to give you one present at the wedding!”

“T-that won’t be neccesary-!” If it was a joke, Cheryl didn’t pick up on it. However, the woman’s intonation implied it to be anything but that.

“Actually-“ Frankie interrupted. “I was thinking Cheryl could stay with us? At- least, for a while. If… that’s what she wants.” She nodded before looking over at the girl.

“U-um…”

“Can we?” Bug-eyed, mouth full of beef and lettuce, Saint looked at his sister like she’d be an idiot not to accept. “Big sis, please?”

The cowgirl failed to suppress a flustered smile.

“I-I guess if it’s okay…”

“Great!” Suzy Pop clasped her hands. “Honey, do you think you could build a noise divider in their room? So Katie can still mope while they-“

“So! Cheryl.” The dad made the merciful call of stopping his wife before she put both girls in a state of embarrassed panic. “You’re from Kidneyland, right? We ourselves spent a lot of time up on the moo- er, Kidneyworld.”

“Don’t call it that, dad…” Frankie groaned.

“Sorry. Too used to the advertising.”

“Uh, yeah… wait, didn’t Frankie say… er- how’d you get here, exactly?”

“Oh, haha.” Mr. Pop looked away. “We may have… illegally stowed away on a flight back. Not my… finest moment, but… anything to spend the precious time left with the people I love. And that includes you now, too! So don’t feel bad about staying here if you want to. It would make me happy and my daughter happier.”

“T-that’s… very nice of you. I think… we will.” She smiled at Saint, who immediately broke into a joyous little dance at the table. Suzy laughed as she realized the boy’s quiet front was only shyness.

“Great!” The mom was overjoyed to have the two of them there. “We’ll take good care of you. We’ve all gotta watch out for each other, right?” She said, half-just appealing to the sharpshooter’s traditional instincts, but mostly meaning it, corny though it was.

“Y-Yeah. And I’ll- I’ll take good care of your daughter. I promise.”

“She better take good care of you!” The dad followed up, clearly meaning it. Cheryl chuckled, any anxieties she had left more than fading. Her first… though probably last… relationship wasn’t going to be one where she had to change herself or pretend things. For… once in the world, for once in all her life…

Even if the world was technically ending, for once it looked like everything really was going to work out.