For the first two days on the train, I trained some with Ayette in our cabin, explored the train, talked to some strangers, and watched a movie marathon with Reine. I also studied some Iegashyia lore thanks to Mikasa, who summoned one of her codexes, which is an off shade of white with multiple dark grey runes drawn on the cover and has a pretty turquoise bookmark with golden tassels, and let me read it.

As of now, I'm in my cabin flipping through Mikasa's book more and Ciana is sitting next to me on one of the booth seats in her over the knee, black, lace-up boots with coral thigh-high stockings peeking out from underneath, coral colored shorts, and black oversized hoodie with white trim and a white decal on the front. Her hood is up and her head is leaning against the window while her legs are pulled up to her chest, her eyes watching the passing scenery as the cool rain outside slowly turns to snow.

"It's getting colder," Ciana says solemnly, her breath fogging on the glass.

"Yeah," I say, turning my attention from the book to look at her.

Ciana has been in my cabin for the past few hours since everyone from hers left to go get dinner and she didn't feel like being alone, having already ate dinner earlier.

"It's almost funny, actually," Ciana says and places a palm on the glass.

"How so?" I raise a brow.

"The last time I was here, in winter, it was because of Coralyinn. Now, I'm back here again years later because of Coralyinn," Ciana says, turning to look at me with her right palm still splayed on the window.

"Doesn't your family worry about you?" I ask, "I mean...not to pry, but..."

"Nah," Ciana shrugs and turns back to looking out the window as she drops her hand back down to her side, "not really."

Ciana pauses for a moment before she reaches down into her hoodie and pulls her necklace out to look at the stone hanging from it, watching as beams of sunlight glisten off of it from the window as she suspends it in the air by the chain.

"My parents never really worried about me much," Ciana continues, "we're a pretty carefree family, ya know? Almost to the point where we're too carefree. That's the thing I never liked about my family. I love that I can be myself and that I'm encouraged to be understanding and accepting of others and my parents support me in every way, but they don't seem to ever have many concerns. I feel that there's a point where you should worry about things, even if you're carefree and laidback. It shows that you care."

"Yeah, I get that," I nod.

"My mom's an artist. She paints, sketches, has her own workshop and all the works," Ciana says with a reminiscent smile, "and my dad's totally out there. He loves trying to forge new types of weapons and creating new things. They both taught my everything I know about combat, well, so did my older brother, but yeah. I guess I just wish they showed more concern for me. I mean, I told them I wanted to travel the sectors and the realms and fight and they had no issue whatsoever. Maybe it's because they don't doubt me at all, but it's...a little unnerving."

"You have an older brother?"

"I have two brothers," Ciana smiles somewhat sadly, "Branson was my older brother and Saber is my younger brother. Branson was killed when he was seventeen during training by one of his friends who betrayed him and went to fight for the enemy side. He always loved using a broadsword. That's what he used when we trained out in our back yard by our cherry tree. That's...also where we buried him. It was a rainy little funeral, black umbrellas, dark skies, and a wooden coffin with someone who didn't deserve to be dead, dead. It's kinda scary, actually. I'm Branson's age now. It's hard to believe two years went by so quickly."

"I'm sorry, Ciana," I frown, hoping she knows that I truly mean it, "what about Saber?"

"Saber is..." Ciana pauses for a moment, "Saber is thirteen now, almost fourteen. He still lives with my parents, if the situation hasn't changed. I felt bad leaving home so often because we used to be really close, all three of us were, but I had to take on a lot more after Branson died. I wanted to pick up where he left off, to bring his memory justice. So, I wasn't around as much for Saber. He ended up retreating into himself and our parents couldn't really do anything about it. I tried getting him to talk to me on multiple occasions and I kept apologizing to him, and I honestly felt terrible, but I knew I was doing the best that I could. Reine and Aislinn helped me through a lot and I'm really grateful to them for that. We all helped each other when we needed it the most. Dimitri helped too, but...he wasn't around much."

"Did you catch him?" I clear my throat, " the guy who killed your brother?"

"Of course," a small smirk forms on Ciana's face and she pounds her fists together, "no way was I going to let him go unpunished for what he did. I made it my mission to hunt him down and that was exactly what I did. He now lives in a very nice, very permanent prison cell in the Spring Sector. It doesn't bring my brother back, but...I know I got him justice and that's what he would've wanted."

"Yeah," I smile sadly back at her.

Just then, Nathan slides open the door to our cabin and yawns, stretching his arms above his head as he does so.

"Man, I'm tired," Nathan sighs as he walks inside, "Ayette just won't let up. She's been insistent on training with anyone she can. I just spent five hours working on practicing blocking and aiming with her. And the others aren't back in our cabin yet, so I figured I'd stop here and see if you guys were still in."

"It also looks like you visited the dining hall too," Ciana giggles and Nathan raises a hand to his face, dragging the back of it across his mouth.

"Did I get it?" Nathan asks.

"Not quite," Ciana laughs and I smirk and shake my head, knowing that he has chocolate sauce on the side of his cheek and nowhere near his mouth.

"Hey, they have really good chocolate lava cake here and I was hungry after spending five hours fighting. Sue me," Nathan shrugs as he flops down on the opposite booth and turns on the TV.

"I'm gonna go get some coffee," Ciana says and stands up, her eyes flickering over to me, "wanna come with me?"

"Sure, why not," I shrug and place Mikasa's book down, "I could use a study break."

"Nerd," Nathan sings out jokingly and I roll my eyes.

"At least he doesn't have chocolate on his face," Ciana giggles once more before she bends down and kisses Nathan's cheek, effectively getting rid of the chocolate.

Nathan blushes and watches as Ciana leaves the cabin.

"Way to go, Casanova," I make finger guns at him and he scowls before he curses me out and throws a pillow at me as I leave, laughing.

***

"I'll have one espresso and a plain bagel please," Ciana says as she leans on the curved, sandy colored, smooth stone counter that resembles marble to me and the barista nods as he finishes wiping down the inside of a glass and turns to make her order.

Around us, multiple passengers are sitting in black-padded chairs by little square tables made of the same material the bar counter is made of, talking as they enjoy their meals and some of them sitting on black-padded bar stools at the bar as they sip their drinks and eat their food over napkins. The barista pours her drink into a small white cup that rests on a white plate, the caramel colored liquid releasing steam as he pours it from the golden-bronze holder. He then adds a fancy crema leaf design on top and passes it to her with her wrapped bagel before he turns to the next person who wants to order.

"Let's go find a table, yeah?" Ciana smiles.

"Sure," I nod and look at the glass of lemonade and two brownies on a plate in my hands before I scan the area for somewhere to sit.

We manage to find a table across from the bar and next to a window and we place our things there before we sit down and begin to eat.

"Hey, Ciana?" I start.

"Yeah?" Ciana hums as she takes a bite of her bagel.

"You guys have a random fourth passenger boarding with you, right?" I ask.

"Yeah," Ciana frowns slightly, her eyes perplexed, "she's kinda strange, to be honest. She doesn't talk much, she has almost no luggage, and she's hardly ever there. And whenever she is there, she's always wearing this sort of cloak. We try to not think much of it, but it's strange and kind of unnerving."

"Weird," I breathe out, turning to look out the window and watch as a snowy forest made of thin trees flies by.

"Who knows," Ciana sighs, "she's barely ever there, so."

We continue eating and chatting for about another twenty minutes before Ciana's eyes widen in the middle of the conversation and she hastily places down her espresso and wipes her lips on a napkin.

"Oh, shoot," Ciana says and stands up, "I'm sorry. I forgot that I have to go talk to Reine about something quickly. She's probably back at the cabin by now. I'll go check and be right back."

"That's fine," I wave it off and Ciana smiles apologetically before she rushes off in the direction of our cabins.

I sigh to myself as I sit there and finish my lemonade, turning my attention to watching out the window again. Once my lemonade is done, I pick up my plate of now gone brownies and my empty glass and take them to the barista. As I stand there waiting, I end up standing by a woman in a pale blue dress and a white infinity scarf with thick and wavy bluish-white hair that flows passed her shoulders. She's sitting with her left arm propping up her chin as her index finger on her right hand traces circles around her almost empty glass of brandy colored liquid with ice cubes, and her legs are crossed, her pale blue stiletto on her right foot moving back and forth as she boredly swings her right leg back and forth as it rests on top of her left leg.

Somebody from the line bumps into me on accident and makes me hit the side of the woman's stool. She glances over at me and arches a brow as her silver-grey eyes make contact with mine and I clear my throat awkwardly.

"Sorry about that," I sigh.

"Don't worry about it," she laughs, "I'm Kat. I ride the train a lot, so I'm used to bumping in to people and vice versa."

"I'm Gabriel," I say and she continues to smile.

"So, what do you do?" I ask curiously, "I mean, that requires you to ride the train so often."

"I'm a designer," Kat says, "I own two stores, one that focuses on makeup products and another that makes clothing and shoes. What about you?"

"I'm just here with my friends," I tell her, unsure of what to say or if I can even trust her, "we're going on vacation for a bit."

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it," Kat says, smiling, and stands up, placing a tip on the counter from her handheld purse that matches her dress and scarf perfectly, "I should get going now. Maybe I'll see you around later."

I watch as Kat leaves and I jolt in surprise when I feel somebody throw an arm around my shoulders from behind.

"Did you miss me?" Ciana grins before her eyes flicker over to Kat's receding figure, "who was that?"

"I'm not really sure. She said her name was Kat," I shrug, "I accidentally bumped into her and we started talking."

"Huh, interesting," Ciana furrows her eyebrows, "I feel like I've seen her somewhere before."

"Yeah, now that you say that, I do too," I say with a frown, "weird..."

"Come on, let's go back to the cabin," Ciana smirks teasingly, "your girlfriend is there waiting for you. I'm sure you can't wait to--"

"Okay, okay," I say and quickly hand my stuff to the bartender, "let's go before you start making a ton of jokes. You did give your stuff to the bartender, right?"

"Yeah, I already took care of that while you were busy chatting it up with your new pal," Ciana says before she drags me by the arm out of the cafe, "now let's go! Warm blankets, here I come!"