-her shadow surrounds her, chilly but comforting, stretching out and filling the space with its thin presence.

Tenebris.

She closes her eyes and lets herself be envelopd in his dark embrace. It's cold, but she tucks her feet into blankets under her and hums a little. The badness of the day, of the doctors and nurses and even the other patients. The drugs...

He makes it better.

He flutters softly around her, tucking close outside her blankets, and manages a purring sound, trying to soothe.

The fears and pain of the day wash away into the tide of him and she finally lets herself drift...

Outside the cupboard, the brightness of the room slowly changes, turning a warmer, red-gold, rather than the harsh white it had been. A soft crackling noise fades into hearing, and the smell of... Something delicious, rich and meaty, fills the air. It's maybe more obvious in the dark silence of that space than it would be, otherwise.

...Tenebris shifts around her, his attention turning to the outside.

"...Tene?" she mouths, completely inaudible.

He flutters closer to the crack where the light comes in, leaving her warmer around the shoulders. He feels... hungry-want-curious?

Anxiety forms in her chest, pulled forward even with him surrounding her. She's scaredscaredscared, but his wants and needs and curiosity fuel her own and even if they didn't he should have. He's so limited, stuck so close with her. Confined.

Ava reaches forward and... pushes open the cupboard door.

The first thing she sees - well, it depends what draws her eye first. It might be the fire: directly in front of the piece of furniture her cupboard is now in (whatever it is, it's not the same desk) is a fireplace, lit by a softly crackling cedar log fire, sweet and warm. Or, it might be the snow, falling from above, covering most of the floor like a carpet, even up to the fireplace itself, and then piling up in larger drifts closer to the walls. Somehow, despite the warmth she can feel seeping into her bones, it's not melting.

Speaking of the walls, they - and the brickwork of the fireplace - are festooned with long vines of holly and mistletoe, their healthy green and red colouring probably helped along by the way they appear to be growing out of the very walls. They lend the room an extra festive feel, along with the softly twinkling snow globes on the mantlepiece.

Safe to say, this isn't where they came from. Not remotely.

Ava stares.

Tenebris stretches! It's a little difficult in the light, and he has to squish down into a denser form to manage it, but he can just poke a little tendril out around the edge of the - side table? Their cupboard is now in, to peer in the direction of the tantalizing scent.

Avaline crawls out of the cupboard, sticking close to him. He can't go too far away from her, but he's good at pulling her along.

Around the corner of the side table the room opens up much larger. It looks to be some kind of restaurant, full of tables and booths, and a long counter to one end, bracketed by a window through which they can see - darkness, lit by explosions of light, like fireworks in a night sky.

The room is also empty, aside from a single patron, sitting with his back to them at a table.

It's a boy, around Ava's age, maybe. He's seated in a wheelchair, his focus on whatever he's eating - presumably the source of the smell Tenebris is so interested in. He hasn't noticed them, yet.

Tasty smell! Tenebris wants it.

"Would be rude to take," she says silently to her shadow.

But she's not really paying attention because what? This isn't the hospital... it's- some sort of- she's so confused.

But tasty? Her shadow turns back towards her, hang-dog.

It's looks like it's lost it's roof, is what it is. The warm snow doesn't stop at the area around the fireplace - everywhere no one is likely to walk there's a thick drift of the stuff, and thin carpets of it otherwise. She can actually see the track of the wheelchair's wheels leading up to where it's now settled.

Why is there snow inside? It's awfully messy and her mother would be horrified.

Ava tries to ignore Tenebris' emotions but she can't. She's so sensitive to them. She knows he can't help it, that's it's her that's wrong so she just nods and... walks carefully over to the boy.

The crunching of her feet in the snow (warm and soft and unmelting under her feet, it doesn't stick, just sloughs off as she lifts them again) warns the boy of her approach. His head turns to try to see her over his shoulders, and then he grabs the sides of his chair to pull himself up for a better vantage point.

"Luna!" He beams at her, immediately craning back around and trying to shove himself back from the table, "You're okay! You're okay, right? Did the door steal you from your bathroom, too?"

Tenebris coils down around her ankles, out of sight, his focus still on getting at that food without being caught.

She quickly steps back, pulling Tenebris with her, and puts a table between them and the boy.

He stops, smile turning to a frown, "Uh. You are okay, right?"

Avaline shakes her head. She wants to crawl back in her cupboard and bury herself in her shadow and -

"That's not my name?"

That's clearly not a response he was expecting!

"...oh." He considers her. "I guess, maybe, you look a little younger..." He trails off, drooping, "I'm sorry. You look like my friend, Luna," he explains. 

Avaline nods, slowly. Anxious. He's so sad. Can feel it from here, adding to her and Tenebris' emotions both. Hurts.

"My name is Avaline. A door stole you?"

"Mm!" He nods, "I was coming out of the bathroom. It's supposed to lead to my bedroom, but it lead to Milliways instead."

...Tenebris slips his long snakey body into the table shadow attached to hers, angling towards the boy's table again.

Avaline follows him on instinct, before having second thoughts and pausing and stopping his movement.

"Milliways. That's what this is called? I was in my cupboard and the outside changed and it opened here."

He diffuses out of shape, petulantly.

"Yes that's this place. It's a restaurant! What were you doing in a cupboard?"

"Sleeping. I can't turn off the lights in my room, so I sleep in the small cupboard in my desk. It's just big enough." Which is true, just not the whole truth. The cupboard is the only place she and Tenebris can properly snuggle. It's small enough and dark enough that he can stretch himself out and surround her. "Milliways is a magic restaurant?"

"Mhm. The bar is a person, she gave me spiced apple cider and burrimund." He waves towards his plate, "It's really good! She also said time is paused while I'm in here, so the crownsguard won't be worried."

Her eyes flick down to Tenebris then back up. Knows he wants to try it, the way he wants to try all new foods, but they can't just ask. And they don't have any money.

"She can freeze time? What are the crownsguard?"

"No, I think the door does that? When it's closed, anyway. Outside the door it's the same time it was when I came in," he nods. "The crownsguard protect father and I, they have father's magic and they're very strong and they're everywhere, especially since we came back from Tenebrae."

Tenebris perks up a little. That was almost his name!

That's a lot of information. But she can feel her shadow's excitement, so she starts on that.

"Tenebrae like... dark? In Latin."

"Latin? I don't know that. It does mean darkness, though," he nods, "In Solein."

"I don't know Solein. Do you know the Solein word for 'night'?"

He brightens, "That's me! Noctis. My name means night," he nods.

"Nox is night. Noct too, when it's at the start of a word, I think. Like 'nocturnal'. They're Latin."

"Mhm! Maybe Latin is like Lucian? Or like the old Lucian, that's on all the old statues and in the old old books in the library. You can call me Noct, if you want," he adds.

Little nod.

"Where is Tenebrae? I'm from Yorkshire."

"It's on the western continent. Luna lives there, her mother is-" he pauses, forehead furrowing, wrapping his arms around himself.

"Her mother was the Queen."

"The Queen of... England?" Avaline is pretty sure the Queen doesn't have a daughter named Luna. "Or another western country?"

He squints at her, "The Queen of Tenebrae. What's England?"

"It's.... England? Part of the UK. Is Tenebrae in Europe?"

"No... Oh. I guess... Bar said something about other worlds? I wasn't really paying attention to that part."

"You're from another planet?"

"I'm from Eos! Where are you from?"

"Earth. It's the third planet from the sun in our Solar System. Are you in the Milky Way too? That's the galaxy Earth is in. Though I guess you might call it something different..."

"Third planet from...?" He shakes his head, "I've never heard anything like that." He shifts in his seat a little, getting more comfortable, "We could ask Bar?"

- Ava shakes her head! "It's okay! We shouldn't bother her."

Ava knows that asking questions of someone that isn't a kid like herself is bad manners and they should probably leave before they get in trouble anyway.

"She was nice, though! She gave me a free drink and this really good fish - are you hungry, you should get something too! We can eat together, having dinner with special people you meet is important," he nods.

Tenebris perks up at the mention of fish, eager.

Of course she's nice to him and gave him free things. He's important enough to have a crownsguard, which probably means he's a prince? She's not anyone. She shakes her head at Noct and Tene both.

"We can't," she says to her shadow.

He vibrates with outrage! They've been offered fish!

"Why not?"

"We're not allowed to bother people. Especially important ones."

"That's silly. It's not bothering if I want you to. Besides, father says we should always make some time to talk to people," He nods.

She wasn't talking about him. Well. Maybe a little bit since he's a prince but - anxiety spikes in her chest and she wants her Tene and her cupboard and she's going to be in so much trouble-

Tenebris shlorps back towards her ankles from under the table, coiling around them, firm and comforting (and pulling on her anxiety).

- and Ava bends down and reaches for him, curling up on herself. TeneTeneTene.

He's here! He diffuses a little from his semi-solid form, curling through her fingers and around her arms like thick smoke, omni-present and cool.

She snuggles him as much as she can, and shivers a little from the cold and the way he pulls at her emotions. It feels familiar. Hurts. Like he's pulling on something deep inside her body and she doesn't have any control of it, but it's good because it's him and he loves her and it feeds him and -

He could take them? He wants them, and it would help her calm down.

Noct cranes his neck but he can't really see what she's doing down there without un-jamming his chair from the table and wheeling over a bit. It's a slow (and loud) process.

Yes.

He tugs harder at the bubbling feeling in her chest, dragging it out sharp and quick and drinking it down.

Digestion goes quick - shortly he's a little more substantial than he was a moment ago.

Noct pushes against the table again and finally gets unstuck, calling over to her.

"Hey- Avaline? Are you okay?"

The pain is just as quickly over - sharp-pulling-cold - and she lets out a relieved breath and... blinks and looks up at the boy.

"Better now."

Tenebris shoops back down into black snake form around her ankles before the boy gets a good look at him!

Noct squints - what was that...? But after a moment, he nods, coming the rest of the way around the table and holding out a hand to help her up, "Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry if I did."

She stares at his hand for a little too long, probably, before she hesitantly takes it and pulls herself up. It'd be rude to refuse and she doesn't want to upset him.

"I'm just... I think my being here is a mistake and if my mother or the doctors find out I'm going to get into trouble and you might too."

He squeezes her hand and then let's go.

"The doctors? Are you sick? You should sit down!" He moves back out of the way of the normal chairs at his table.

Closer to the food!!! Yes!!!

...Ava sits. "Not that kind of sick. My brain is bad and I feel and do wrong things, so I'm staying at a hospital so the doctors can fix me."

"Do you need medicine? I bet Luna could fix it, her mom fixed me..."

Tenebris climbs up her leg to pool in her lap, most of his attention on the fish. So close.

She resists the urge to pull her legs up onto the chair and curl around them and Tene, but instead puts her hands in her lap to hold him there. As much as she can hold a shadow.

"I'm on lots of medicines. The doctors have been trying different ones."

"They tried a lot of medicines for me, too, before dad decided to just take me to see Queen Sylva. I'm getting better, now," he rubs his knee.

"You got hurt?"

"Mhm. I can walk a little, but I'm not supposed to strain myself. Queen Sylva said that if I'm careful I'll be almost as good as I was before the attack soon."

"Oh." She pauses and... buries her hand fully in Tene's self. "This is all magic, isn't it?"

Her fingers are more solid than he is! He oozes into a more liquidy snake around them.

"This place? I think it must be. Queen Sylva and Luna have magic, and father and I do, too. I can warp, a little! I'm not supposed to do that, either, yet, though."

She looks down to her Tenebris. Should she tell him? Tell him about her magic and him and... he's been so nice to her and he's a prince. Even if he is an alien one, doesn't that mean she should help him?

Her little puddle of shadow snake doesn't feel suspicious, but then much of his attention is still on the fish. It's more or less up to her.

"I have magic too. Me and Tene," she forces herself to say, and pulls her shadow up into view.

Squeak! He emotes but does not say, drooping snakily over her palm.

"Aah!" Noct pushes his chair back, "Is that a daemon?!"

Ava curls around her Tene in panic at his reaction.

"He's not a demon," she snaps. "He's my shadow. He protects me and loves me and hasn't ever hurt me. He's not evil."

His breaths go fast and frightened, and he's very pale, and pushing back against the back of his chair, trying to be very far away from the black shadowy snake! It's just like- he stares at it and it seems to grow larger in his mind, it's just like the daemon and it's going to eat him he just knows it and he'll be cold and sick again and Sylva can't save him now she's dead-

Tene shrinks back from the crying, hysterical child, confused and very concerned for his Ava!