"How are you holding up?" He asked concerned, without a second thought she started pinching his cheeks.

"What're you doing?" He babbled his complaints.

"Is it really you?" She was a bit skeptical, this could very well be a trick. But then again an illusion wouldn't feel this soft.

"Whatever I say, you won't take my word for it." The fox was undisputedly right, she began to consider that maybe it was him.

"What happened to Nukpana?" She changed the subject, this time poking his face, subsequently touching his ears.

"As good as dead. He fell into a snake's nest, wanna see?" He was getting annoyed by her antics, yet chose to bear with it which amused her.

Now that he mentioned it, she did hear some ludicrous yells and snake hissing. Poor thing, it shouldn't just put anything it finds in its stomach. It'll cause indigestion.

"No, I believe you." Resting her head on his chest she could listen to his heartbeat, she clutched his shirt happy to find out it wasn't a escapism her mind made up to ease her pain, it was reality.

"In the end you didn't answer my question." He sighed, avoiding the topic wasn't a good indication. Knowing her, she wouldn't ask for help even if she was on a deathbed.

Jiya keeps her problems to herself, she likes solving them on her own, even the ones she can't shoulder alone.

 I'll keep an eye on her.

…

Ever since that day Jiya was bothered by the minimal lack of light. She panicked at the thought of being engulfed in darkness, she couldn't fall asleep unless there was a mini sun beside her bed.

Plagued by nightmares and intrusive thoughts, she didn't pass one night without intercalating to wake up sweaty, heart accelerating and continuously trying to calm herself down. It was an involuntary reflex that came to action whenever the light extinguished.

Sneaking in and out to steal anything that could gleam, she managed to don't let her condition show. Jiya didn't want anyone to know, to see her like this. Her father slept like a rock, on the other hand Kyro had a light sleep, the smallest sounds would wake him. She watched out so he wouldn't catch her red-handed.

Despite her hard work to keep him from putting the pieces together, the fox had the puzzle figured out a long time ago. He was just seeking an opening to confront her.

So, when the light-eating monster went into her room Kyro had a great reason to enter without being labeled as an invasion of her privacy, words she's using a lot to forbid even her father's access to it.

"You're afraid of the dark." Jiya stiffened at his statement.

"What makes you think that?" She grew distraught, restlessly thinking up a way out.

"Why else would you have twenty five candles and ten lamps in your room? That's what attracted the monster here to begin with."

"I was looking for…" She inspected the place for an object not in view to be her scapegoat "my hairpin!" 

"Couldn't you wait til morning? And for that you'd need a single candle and where did you even get all those?" Her murky explanation didn't dupe him. 

She fell silent, eyes fixated on the floor. The more she talked the less she made sense and the more obvious her lies were.

"Look, I can't help you if you don't tell the truth." His downcast expression changed her stance, her recent comportment didn't bring a solution nor it would.

"Promise it'll stay just between us?" She didn't ask directly, but was clearly begging to don't notify her father. He was lenient with anything, except for lies.

"I won't tell a soul." 

"I feel like something is watching me from the shadows… waiting to get me." She was on the verge of tears, she hated looking vulnerable in front of anyone. Yet now she didn't mind if that someone was Kyro.

"I'll figure something out, okay?" He was as lost as her on what to do, He went to his room ruminating a solution for this situation. Under normal circumstances, not ever Kyro would recourse to that person, but alas…

"Hilda, you're a fossil sorceress aren't you? Come up with something-" 

"You've insulted me yet expect me to succor you?"

"It's not for me, it's for our candle thief."

"I am not associated with such a foolish person."

"You're always making a fuss about her and when she needs your help you turn your back on your sole admirer?"

Hilda gave him a list of ingredients to make a never dying lantern light. A blue frog's tongue, a red bee's wings and the blood ,preferably, of your sworn enemy.

"Yep, everyday stuff." Following the recipe, he mixed everything and bathed the lantern in the liquid. A blue fire shone inside the lamp, he tested dousing it but to no avail. It was truly an undying luminosity. 

With all ready, he delivered the gift before dawn. It was a pretty white lantern and one could tell it was handmade by the amount of hard work and care put into it.

"I'm sorry, I should've asked for your help sooner." She was moved by the gesture, moreover ashamed of how she dealt with the situation. Things could've worked out this easily from scratch if she didn't refuse to be assisted. 

"It 's fine, as long as you do it from now on." He doesn't see the point in holding grudges, simply isn't worthwhile.

"I will, thank you." A heartwarming smile spread across her face.

"Anything for our lovely candle thief." He teased her who huffed embarrassed.