The streets were busier than Lyra had expected, what with it being around noon on a weekday. But maybe that shouldn’t have been too surprising, considering a lot of working adults would be on their lunch break right now. They were normal members of society with normal routines, unlike her.

Part of her felt left out from that, like she was missing out somehow. But she knew what she was doing was necessary. It wasn’t really a choice at all. And another, deeper part of her felt a bit glad about not having to adhere to such a mundane life path anymore. Things had become both easier and harder for her, in a weird way.

After her fight against Finn yesterday, Frameshot and Azur had continued with the parameter testing, as promised. Casey Wardell had left soon after their duel ended, apparently not interested in observing the rest of their training. Once she was gone, the training session passed without any further hiccups. Except for the tension she felt being near Finn. It was pretty obvious that he wasn’t in a good mood after the match had been ruled as a win for her, but she had avoided bringing it up. Should she ask Jack about it? He’d known Finn for much longer than she had.

Either way, she hoped her friend would be over it today, or their meetup was likely going to turn awkward. Well, she wasn’t even sure if it was reasonable for her to expect that of him. Honestly, she was surprised he still agreed to come when she’d asked for confirmation over text.

Why had she followed through on this anyway? The moment Finn revealed that he had told his mother they were… seeing each other, was still fresh in Lyra’s mind. It was just an excuse to explain his absences whenever they were out in costume, yes, but the way he mentioned it so nonchalantly wasn’t something she could understand or imitate. It was still hard to believe. She never pictured him to be the kind of person to talk about that stuff. And they were most certainly not about to have that kind of encounter.

Nope.

This was definitely not a date.

Not at all.

She surreptitiously used her power to provide herself with feedback on the area surrounding the sidewalk she was standing on. The many analog clocks in her vicinity told her only a minute had passed since she last checked the time. Fidgeting, she checked her phone so she wouldn’t look like a weirdo staring off into the distance. Then she realized she could’ve checked her time like this in the first place, and she wanted to kick herself. But that would look weird, too, so she didn’t.

One of the people walking by stopped a few paces away from her, and she turned. In front of her was a teenage boy with olive skin, jet black hair, and green eyes boring into her own. His features were different, somehow. More angular. And was his nose bigger too, or was she imagining it?

“W-wow,” she said. “I knew you wouldn’t look the same, and I’m still having trouble recognizing you.”

“That’s the point,” Finn said, his voice flat. His clothes were all-black. He normally wore blue denim and a t-shirt, but she wasn’t sure if he was using his power on his usual wardrobe or if he was actually wearing something else. Aside from the jacket, anyway.

“Right, of course…” There was something else she noticed, though. “Did you… change the way you breathe and walk to sneak up on me?”

A pause preceded Finn’s next words. “I don't know what you’re talking about.”

“Really?” She could hear the obvious lie, but she didn’t know why he would deny something like that.

He just stared that intense stare of his, not saying anything else.

Lyra didn’t dare to try and push further. She’d asked because she thought he was trying to improve his stealth after his fight with her. She just couldn’t help it; his disguise only worked so well because of how skilled he was, and if he was actually still sour about her being ruled the winner of their match, she wanted him to know that. But she had no idea how to convey that without sounding like she was gloating, or worse, pitying him.

“So,” she said, changing the topic. “I have ah, a place I like to visit every once in a while. It’s only a minute away if we walk.”

Internally, she cringed. What did she mean, if they walked? Of course they were going to walk. What else would they do? Steal a car? Fly? Sprint through the streets like a pair of lunatics? It hadn’t even been two minutes and she was already messing up.

“Alright,” was the response she got.

For whatever reason, she suddenly felt a lot of pressure. Contrary to their missions, she was leading this not-date, so she had to walk in front, and Finn would follow her. The thought made a weight settle on her shoulders. Why was something so simple making her feel so uncertain? It was just a few steps and then they’d be there.

She hoped she hadn't stood still for too long before she began walking, casting a glance back at Finn to make sure he wasn’t about to leave or something. With her power, there was no real need for that, but she also found his disguise fascinating. She looked a second time.

He met her gaze.

Lyra turned away again, simultaneously wanting to slow her pace to walk next to him so they could talk and wanting to get this walk over with as soon as possible.

“It’s right there,” she said when they made their way over to the next street.

Finn didn’t speak until they came to a stop a short while later. “A tearoom,” he observed.

She nodded. “Mhm. Do you like tea?”

“...It’s been a while since I last had it. You said you’ve been here more than once?”

“Yes,” she hurriedly replied as she opened the door. “I’m sorry, I hope you don't mind if we just sit down here for a while and share a drink? Uh, I mean, we both sit at one of the tables and each have our own, very separate, not-covered-in-somebody-else’s-saliva drinks.”

Oh gosh. She was absolutely ruining this, but she tried not to let her nerves show on her face when they sat down and ordered from a nice waitress working the afternoon shift.

Lyra got her usual honeyed cranberry tea, and Finn took a second before he decided on lemon. Then, when it was just the two of them again, silence fell. She scrambled for a conversation topic and came up empty.

What did it say about her that she had nothing to talk about other than Aegis work which she couldn’t mention out in the open? Well, maybe it made sense because Finn practically never volunteered personal information, and she rarely felt comfortable asking. Most of the things she knew about Shade out of costume were anecdotes Jack told her about. Plus, she had never been the social butterfly type, so it wasn’t too surprising that she couldn’t just let the words flow like water, but still.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to come here,” she said after a few moments. “You probably think I’m boring.”

Finn slightly raised one eyebrow at her from where he sat across the table. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re wasting time you could have spent training and I didn’t even have the decency to be a good host, or friend, or…” Date. Wait, no, not that last one. “Or anything,” she finished lamely, slumping in her seat.

“I’m not bored,” Finn said. “It’s not like you’re unfunny.”

Was that a roundabout compliment? Did he actually think she was funny? She wasn’t even trying to make any jokes yet. “But then why haven’t you laughed?”

The boy crossed his arms, as if challenging her. “You’d have to do way more to get me to actually laugh.”

“And what do you suggest I do? I’ve never seen you smile, not even once!” she exclaimed, gesturing at his face with a hand. Then she realized what she was doing and quickly retracted it. She’d apparently made a good impression; she couldn’t ruin it seconds later.

“I didn't ask you to do anything,” Finn said.

“No, no. I can be funny, just listen,” she insisted. Clearing her throat, she began by saying, “Why did the bird paint her room with feathers?” She waited a moment. “So she could finally nest in peace!”

He just stared.

“Okay, I’ll do another one. Why did the fool switch from juggling flowers to juggling torches?”

“Why,” Finn said flatly.

“He decided it was time to ‘turnip the heat.’” She shifted uncomfortably. “Get it? Because turnips…”

No reaction.

Thankfully, before she could embarrass herself further, their order arrived. She thanked the waitress and sipped her tea to cover up the heat in her face.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Looking over at the boy who’d miraculously not yet run away from what must have been the most awkward conversation imaginable, she tried again. “So,” she began, scouring her mind for a change of topic and coming up short. Maybe honesty was the way to go here. “I realized that I never actually asked if you have any, uhm, niche hobbies or activities you like to do with your family?”

Finn looked away for a moment, considering. Lyra continued, “Because for me, I’d visit tearooms like this one with my mother from time to time. It wasn’t much. W-we didn’t have much. But it was our thing.”

After a few moments, Finn spoke. “I can’t say I have anything like that. Not since I moved to this district. But what you said doesn’t sound bad.” His eyes met hers. “Time spent with family isn’t something you should take for granted.”

And wasn’t that the truth? There were so many things she wanted to say to her mother that she simply couldn’t, now.

“You’re really focused, you know,” Lyra said.

“Focused?”

She shrugged. “Maybe driven is a better word, but you really have, I don’t know, a clear direction? Most of the time I feel like I have no clue what I’m doing, both in and outside of… work.”

Finn regarded her oddly. “If you don’t have a clue what you’re doing, what does that say about me, losing to you?”

Oh, maybe he wasn’t really sour about their match. Either way, she had to say something about this. “Someone competent? I saw your latest clip. Or montage, I guess. It went viral. Needless to say, if I was in that situation, I’d be dead in two seconds.”

If Finn appreciated the praise, there wasn’t any sign of it on his face. Rather, he regarded her seriously before he said, “You’re better than you think, Lyra.”

Through a herculean effort, she managed to take the compliment with something approximating grace. “Thank you,” she said with a smile, consciously avoiding saying his name in turn.

She wasn’t sure why, but hearing him say her civilian name still felt strange, somehow. Was it something about his voice or tone? Or was it because he just didn’t use it that often? Also, “civilian name?” When did she start thinking of herself as Calliope first and foremost?

Seeing as she couldn’t come up with a solid answer, she automatically sipped her tea. And at that point, she realized that she had missed this. Honestly, even before she ran away from her old life, she failed to recall the last time she did this, or anything like it, with anyone outside her family. At least in a one-on-one setting. Group hangout sessions were more common, back then.

The conversation went a bit more smoothly after that, with Finn being more willing to answer her questions than she’d feared. Then again, maybe he always had been, and her worries were simply unfounded from the start. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time she fretted about nothing. She just couldn’t help it.

“How did I do?” Finn asked after they finished their drinks.

She blinked. “What?”

“In the interview we just did,” he said. “Assuming you don’t have anything left to ask.”

Lyra stared at him, incredulous. Then she gave a very unrefined snorting laugh. “It wasn’t- I’m sorry, okay? I was just trying to get to know my friend better.”

Again with that tone; he sounded so serious when he was joking, it was hard for her to tell when he was messing with her. Especially because he didn’t smile or give any other indication of mirth when he did so.

“But, well, yes,” she said when the moment passed. “We can go now. There's someplace else I wanted to introduce you to.”

Finn fished around in his pocket and casually handed her fifty apos. “For the drinks,” he clarified.

Lyra sat there with the bills in hand, unsure what to think about his frivolous treatment of currency. “No, I invited you. I should…”

“It’s fine,” he cut her off, already getting out of his seat and heading towards the entrance.

Paradoxically, she felt more comfortable now than she had at any other point today. Shaking her head, she went and paid for the tea and followed Finn with the rest of the money.

Outside, she fell into step with him, and noticed him looking contemplative. He wasn’t easy to read. So, wondering what he was thinking at the moment, she decided to just ask, “What are you thinking about?”

Their eyes met. “Tonight.”

Her brain ceased functioning for the second it took her to remember they were going to be training at that time. Yeah. Training. Not anything else. Focus.

She exhaled. “Oh, yeah, I’m still getting used to it. To me it still feels like we should be jumping rooftops instead of what we’ve decided to do.”

Somehow, that was what did it. It was a small thing, almost imperceptible, but Lyra caught the smile on Finn’s face when he turned away. “I’m not disagreeing,” he said.

They walked in contented silence for a while before the mood shifted. She heard Finn’s phone vibrate, and he stopped walking and withdrew it from his pocket to look. He tensed.

“What’s wrong?” Lyra asked. “Is there an emergency?”

Finn didn't respond, so she stepped over to look at the screen. And what she saw was a news article, detailing the death of Novastra. While she hadn’t been a fanatic in her childhood, she had recently started looking into the hero scene more at Jack’s behest. Which was the reason why this name was immediately clear to her, as opposed to just vaguely ringing a bell.

The face of Solvarna had just died. This was huge. Huge and terrible. She read further, until Finn scrolled down to an image of the perpetrator.

Omega.

Assimilated.

Lyra reared back. The voice was active again, but she didn’t for the life of her understand why. More strangely, it only spoke a single word. She knew what it meant, but she had no idea how it fit the context. Or what it wanted her to get from that. She waited for it to speak up again, but no. It remained quiet.

This was bad, she didn’t know how to get rid of this thing, and she was too scared to tell anyone about it. Maybe she could ask Finn, but this was not the time. He looked pretty agitated right now.

“Are you okay?” she asked, once again being met with silence. Verbal silence, at least. His heartbeat was through the roof.

She put a hand in front of his screen and repeated herself. It got his attention. His expression was furious.

Her hands came up in a placating gesture. “I don’t know what’s going through your mind, but you can talk to me, okay? Please?”

He just put his phone away and kept staring.

Thinking quickly, she pointed to an alley nearby. “We could… go over there? Might be better if we don’t do this in the middle of the sidewalk.”

She started in that direction, and he thankfully did follow, albeit slowly. In the alley, she waved a hand to make a sound dampening barrier; they were face to face away from prying eyes and ears.

“What do you want me to tell you,” he said. It was phrased like a question, but his tone made it clear it was a statement or demand more than anything.

“Whatever is upsetting you so badly,” she answered softly.

He’d schooled his expression into the usual one he wore. “I’m not that upset.”

Her face fell. “I can hear how fast your heart is beating…”

He froze. “Since when?”

“Since the surgery. I know you were lying to me when I asked about your goal the other day.” Which was honestly understandable. It wasn’t like he was obligated to tell her his life story. Besides, she was being a scumbag hypocrite by calling out his lies when she was literally hiding a voice in her head which might very well compromise her sanity and cause her to kill them all at one point, if it hadn’t already. Wow.

She couldn’t just leave it at that. “I don’t mean to- to confront you about it, just…”

Finn said nothing. He scrutinized her for an agonizingly long time, causing her to fidget as she waited.

Eventually, he seemed to come to a decision. “You saw what I was reading,” he said.

“An article about Novastra? You’re clearly invested for some reason besides general concern, right? Did you figure out something I didn't, or is it personal?”

“Omega killed my father,” he said without preamble.

“...Oh.”

“I’m going after him. That's the main reason I’m doing all this.” He meant hero work, she knew. Going out and doing Aegis missions, catching criminals, saving runaway girls from crazed gang members. It was all in preparation for this?

“The number four villain in the world,” she breathed, bewildered. And climbing the ranks, too.

Finn’s fists clenched. “Don’t tell Jack about this.”

She was shocked that Jack didn't know, but nodded all the same. She straightened her posture. “Do you need my help?”

“No!” he snapped. “You’re not getting involved.”

“Sorry! I didn't mean to press you, Finn.”

She shifted uneasily. This would be the moment where she confided her own secret in him, but the words just wouldn’t come. Guilt gnawed at her, yet her mouth didn’t say what she hoped it would.

Finn, unaware of her internal dilemma, chose that moment to close out the conversation. “We should move on to the next spot you had planned.” He turned to leave.

A spike of panic ran through her, and she reached out to grab his shoulder. “Wait! Listen, I… I understand.”

His eyes fell on the hand she was touching his shoulder with, and she quickly retracted it as though he were a burning stove.

She swallowed, considering how to phrase this. “What I meant to say was that, while I don’t really know what it’s like to lose a parent, I understand that feeling of having a goal so important that death in chasing it is a better outcome than sitting still and going with the flow. Doing nothing, knowing you should be out there.”

Though Finn was obviously much more determined than she was. She still recalled that night, the two of them huddled together in front of the tentacled primebeast. Lyra, sobbing pathetically as the end came near, in contrast to Finn, simply staring at it with grim resolve. She’d found out exactly what the difference between them was, then. What set him apart from a failure like her.

In the present, however, Finn was nodding at her. “Good. Now let’s go.”

He was walking out of the alley, marking the end of their little private discussion. But she had to say something.

“Finn.”

He looked over his shoulder.

She fiddled with her dyed brown hair, and asked, “Can we make this a regular thing?”

“Training takes priority,” he said immediately. He sighed. “But alright.”

Her grin was wide and goofy and dumb, and she was only half as embarrassed about it as usual, too eager to keep her new closest friend.

She wouldn’t let him down. That was a promise.