“If you don’t tell me, I’ll ask Ajax on a date.” Angelidis smiles mischievously.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Shaula replies, laughing slightly to herself. Angelidis grins widely.

“Yes, I—“

“No, you wouldn’t.” Shaula repeats, a slight ice entering her tone, laughing to herself again, this time without the naturalness of her ordinary laugh.

“Uh… n-no. Unless he asks me first.” Shaula tries to glare at her, but Angelidis looks away.

They both continue walking. Angelidis continues to walk with her arm around Shaula’s shoulder while Shaula keeps both her eyes and ears open to the movements of the undercover guards. They’re definitely going to try something and it looks like it might be soon.

Whether it’ll be right now or after the crowd thins a little isn’t fully clear to her.

Just how blatant would they really be? She wonders to herself. Could they really handle the people around Barden as well as the protesters who love him, especially without their armored comrades?

“Shaula… you know…” Angelidis’ voice slows down slightly. Shaula’s thoughts are interrupted. She feels the pale arm around her tremble slightly. Angelidis’ heart rate increases, her skin forms small goosebumps, and she starts perspiring more. She wants to say something important. Shaula decides to keep one eye on her this time.

Then, without warning (though with plenty of warning from Shaula’s senses), Angelidis grabs Shaula and pulls her into a tight embrace. Shaula and she are the same height, but Angelidis places her head against her shoulder anyways. Some tears start to rise from Angelidis’ eyes. Shaula tries to hold back her own.

“Shaula, I… I don’t want you to do something like that again, you know?” She sniffles just slightly.

“Jelli… I…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Shaula. It’s just… I thought you had… died, you know?” Shaula remembers what moment that Angelidis must have been referring to.

The moment when her chest had been impaled by that diamond spear.

Angelidis saw the blood flowing from her mouth, falling to the ground in large amounts. She had heard the statue marchers laughing, cackling like true beings of coalesced evil. It was a horrible sight. It brought back to Angelidis memories of her father’s funeral.

Her father’s human employers didn’t attend. However, when she and her mother went to see them to learn more information about how he died while working, she could see the contempt they had towards him. Towards her as well.

They had thought her father was a defective draconid.

They overworked him and blamed him for being an inferior drone. For some reason, the laughter of the statue marchers made her remember that moment. For all she knew, her father’s taskmasters were laughing at him behind their contemptuous faces. She was glad that none of them had bothered to attend his funeral.

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“Shaula… I felt so sad when I saw that, you know?” Shaula sees Angelidis’ pupils turn into vertical slits while some tears flow. Some anger is mixed into her sadness as well.

“Not just because I thought you were dead. But… because I saw what you were willing to do to help. To help… me as well.”

Shaula cannot fully deny Angelidis’ words. Part of her decision to help definitely came from how Angelidis behaved around Barden. After she had heard her talk to him, Shaula could not let him die. Even the chance of it was not something she would tolerate. Angelidis lifts her head off Shaula’s shoulder and looks directly into her eyes, her pupils normal again.

“I just… Don’t do anything that dangerous again, please?”

“…I’m afraid I can’t keep that promise, Jelli.” Shaula replies without averting her eyes.

“Huh?” Angelidis’ pupils once again turn to vertical slits.

“I… You know, I was reluctant to think of you as a friend, Jelli. Until today anyways. Do you know why exactly?”

“What!? I've thought of us as friends since the second time we met, Shaula! You only started to think of us as friends today? Rude!” Angelidis’ voice becomes loud enough to attract the people close to the two of them. Prisca in particular blushes from second hand embarrassment.

“Well, y-you know—“ Shaula tries to interrupt, but Angelidis realizes something shocking.

“Wait… does that mean that the rest of them aren’t even your friends? Olah, Meixi, Sudirja? What about—”

“J-Just listen! Friends… are important to me. Do you know how many friends I’ve had before you, Jelli? Actual people that I would consider friends? One. A friend to me… is… important, you know? If I’m not willing to put myself in harm’s way for them, then I’m not sure I can call them a friend.”

“I… I see…”

“Honestly, if I think of it reasonably, I’m probably willing to put myself in pain for Olah, Meixi and Sudirja as well. Dzan, Sigvor and Malia too. Wow, it’s like everything’s flowing out now, huh…”

Shaula considers how she’s unburdened herself with her own neurosis around friends today. She honestly might have done the same for the rest of her new friends as well. At least, Olah, Meixi and Sudirja… Dzan, Sigvor and Malia seem like they’re closer to Ajax than they are to her. Angelidis smiles as she almost sees the wheels turning in Shaula’s mind.

She’s so smart, yet so… clumsy sometimes. Angelidis thinks to herself. Shaula continues, with a sigh.

“But… you’ve seen, haven't you? As your friend, I reserve the right to get hurt in order to help you. You can’t complain about it either. I don’t just throw away my friends so easily, you’re stuck with me for a very long time.”

“Aw, really? I thought I could trade our friendship in at the store or something…”

Once again, Angelidis pulls Shaula towards her, her arms wrapped around Shaula’s shoulder tightly as they continue walking.

“I’m… I’m not going to reject your friendship, Shaula. I suppose all I can do is protect you when you’re in harm's way too.”

“Oh, no need for that. You saw, right? Even heart impalement doesn’t phase me. All you need to do is stay protected by me. And Ajax too.” Shaula whispers the part about her heart being impaled.

Angelidis starts whispering.

“Yeah… You know… when I saw… that. Do you know how much pain I felt? To see you in that state? Vomiting blood like it was some kind of red wine. I felt like killing myself at that moment. Sorry, that’s a bit heavy, you know what I mean…”

Shaula almost doesn’t know what to say to Angelidis’ statement, though she can understand what she was thinking at that moment. Shaula has seen people die before her eyes already and remembers the feeling of wanting to kill herself in those moments of intense emotional pain as well.

Though, she just scoffs.

“How do you think I felt? It wasn’t pleasant, you know!