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Apo's head was fuzzy, to say the least. It was a couple hours after her very short albeit eagerly awaited knighting ceremony. Apo never knew how to describe this particular headspace of hers, she felt smaller and it was usually very hard to persuade her demon against shapeshifting herself much smaller as if they were a child again.
Right now, Alistar and Ren were having a party with the red kingdom memebers that followed right after Apo's knighting and Apo to say the very least was quite overwhelmed. Cherri knew at least a little bit about Apo's headspace, in fact she ended up playing with Apo when she was.. like *that*. Alistar knew quite a bit because Apo did it back in Soluna after nightmares of Thornhelm, Ali would usually sit her down in the kitchen, make her some hot cocoa and gently guide her back to bed, well, it was usually Ali's bed because Ali could not resist the baby demon's eyes looking up at him not unlike a wet cat with her tail wagging, he just couldn't.
"Hey, you okay?" Cherri asked her, pulling her to the side and knocking Apo out of her head. Apo looked down at the princess blearily, have the lights always been this bright? Apo was tired, and fuzzy, and happy, and they wanted Ali to read them a story.
"I think so... I feel fuzzy?.. I don't know how to describe it" Apo replied confusedly. Cherri nodded, getting the unspoken message that it was probably better to go home, while Cherri had never dealt with a cranky little Apo, they best decided it was better to keep it that way.
"Well how old do you feel?" Cherri knew Apo usually fell to age 5 or 6, right before she joined Thornhelm's army, but there were times when Apo felt a little well, littler when especially happy or sad. Apo held up 3 fingers, then 4, then back to 3.
"So, somewhere around there, right?" Cherri asked her knight, gently grabbing her hand, earning a nod from the demon. Apo looked down at their hands conjoined and smiled a little bit, seemingly fascinated by it for a moment. Cherri was sure if Apo's illusion charm wasn't on, that she would see her tail wagging.
"Wan' Ali though.." Apo murmured, leaning into Cherri because 1, no one could even see them as they were in a side room in the mage's guild, 2, Apo didn't usually hide her regression from Cherri, and 3, she was very tired and would become very cranky soon if she was not put in bed because it was too loud and too bright and too everything. Cherri panicked a little because there was no getting Alistar away from Ren without outing Apo essentially and because Apo would indeed start crying if they didn't have Ali near her in the next 30 seconds.
"Alistar get over here!" Cherri dragged her father's right hand into the hallway during the party. Alistar was about to ask Cherri why she had dragged him out of his fun at the party, but he was a little too busy being hugged by Apo. He got the memo pretty quickly to Cherri's relief.
"Hey starlight.. what's wrong? Why so upset, bug?" Alistar asked the much younger moon knight in his arms, Cherri saw Apo's cloak on the ground and Apo was very much as big as a toddler with her horns, pointed ears, and tail out. Cherri knew the illusioning charm was just on the moon pin, although it seems Apo just needed it off and couldn't work the pin. Cherri also saw that Apo was crying, but their tail was wagging a little.
"Missed you.. and I'm a big strong knight now," Apo told Alistar, who settled Apo on his hip and bounced her a bit before she just clung to him and he stopped. Both Moon Knights had been under so much stress the past two months that he didn't blame Apo for not only being littler than usual, but missing him too. After all, he was a bit of an older brother to Apo, with all of their jesting and competing against one another.
"That's alright, starlight, Ali's here now, aren't I? And being a big strong knight is what you always wanted, yeah?" Alistar said to her gently, wiping her tears with a calloused thumb before his hand settled on the back of her head.
"My hand? Where did you go?" King Ren called from the dining hall in the other room. Alistar panicked a little bit and handed Apo to Cherri before running off, leading Apo to start bawling albeit very quietly. Cherri held the now sobbing Apo and tried to comfort her by rubbing her back, forgot that she can't feel it because of her armor, and then tried murmuring sweet nothings to her to make her feel better.
It really didn't work trying to comfort a toddler who only wanted one person. Cherri was a little concerned with how quietly she was crying, but took Apo a little further down the hallway, just in case. While doing so, she caught a glimspe of Alistar talking to her father. They were talking, obviously, but Cherri had the feeling her father was a bit looser(?) he was probably drunk so that's what it is.
"I'm back, and your father is turning in for the night, so you might wanna go tell him goodnight and I'll take Apo back to you guy's house," Alistar informed Cherri, taking Apo from her once again. Cherri scurried off to some room in the Mage Guild her father was staying in. Meanwhile, it took a bit longer for Apo to calm down this time as now the right hand had to convince this very quiet, crying, and clingy demon because now she had to be reassured that no, Alistar would not leave her, no, he's not going to again if he can help it, and finally, no, he sadly cannot make her any hot cocoa as he's pretty sure these kingdoms don't even have cocoa.
"Ali?" Apo mumbled as he carried her back home. Alistar looked down at her, she had stopped crying, which was good. He never liked seeing her so worked up about stuff he could've easily prevented, sure she was mentally younger, but screw him for not wanting his all but blood little sister to cry all the time.
"Yeah, little star? What's up?" he asked her softly, finally finding the bedroom in the Soluna house, geez Apo went a little crazy with this, but like she had said earlier, it's good to have hobbies. He sat her down and kneeled down to her level in front of her.
"'m tired, can we go to bed now?" the little Moon Knight asked him, he laughed, she still had her armor on for star's sake, not to mention her hair still in a bun at the top of her hair, along with needing pajamas, if she even had any.
"We gotta get you ready for bed first, bug. We gotta take off your armor, take your hair out and brush it, then get your pajamas on. After all that then you get to bed, kay?" and with that, he waited for her to nod so he could start taking off her armor. That didn't take long and was one of the easy parts of this whole ordeal. After all the armor sat on a stand, he moved to take the ribbon out of Apo's hair, grabbing a hair brush that he was sure Cherri wouldn't mind them using for this. He was about to brush before realizing Apo's hair was pretty wavy with some little curls in some places, it was probably better to let big Apo take care of that, so he put the brush back.
"But you said you would brush my hair?" Apo asked him, teary eyed again, "I prepared for it and everything!" Oh.. that was a problem. Alistar forgot she was very particular about some things and if she had a routine, it was best to follow it, plus the fact that she wasn't the best at transitioning to other activities, no matter how small, so if you skipped a step, she'd know. So he took the brush and brushed very gently at the ends of her hair, satisfied, she leaned back into him, head in his lap as he but the brush up for the second time.
"Alright, you got pajamas, little one?" Alistar asked her, leading to Apo shaking her head. He knew Apo would start crying again if he said that maybe she could just sleep in her uniform. Luckily, Cherri walked in from telling her father goodnight, and began taking off her armor.
"Cherri, you wouldn't happen to have any pyjamas for Apo, right?" He asked her, trying to convey with his eyes that Apo will start crying if she is told she has to sleep in her uniform after Ali told her she would change. Cherri seemed to get it well enough at the very least, thinkng for a moment.
"No, but Katie might, after all she is a tailor. I'll be right back!" Cherri ran off leaving Apo and Alistar alone. Apo's tail was flicking his nose and he looked down in mock anger at the little demon. He lightly flicked Apo's forehead, causing her to giggle. It truly didn't take long for Cherri to get back, and Apo and Ali were just teasing each other until she did get back.
Soon enough, Apo was dressed and ready for bed. She laid down in her bed, Alistar on a stool next to it and was about to fall asleep. Alistar pulled his fingers through her hair which did help her fall asleep a bit easier.
"Ali.. will you tell me a story?" Apo asked sleepily, Cherri flopped on the bed next to Apo's, smirking at Alistar. Alistar sighed, but nodded.
One story later, and Apo was asleep, thankfully. It usually didn't take this long, but these were different circumstances. He said goodbye to Cherri and made for the Mage's Guild to go guard his King's room. He was happy he got to visit his little sister, and he knew she was glad too. Heck, half of her whole reason for going little was because she missed him. Alistar knew once they got back to Soluna, he was going to make her all the hot cocoa she wanted.
Maybe Thornhelm could wait, and two families could reconnect for just a little longer. Nah, who was he kidding?