Waverly watched as Victor closed his eyes to get a better feeling for his new skill. He’d just told her what it did, and it sounded like he was able to drain Life Force from enemies he touched, which was super friggin cool. Of course, it could also just make people depressed. The description on skills, especially new ones, was never really all that precise, to be totally honest. They should totally let people study them, the Librii Virtutis et Lusus was centuries out of date!
Maybe Victor’s new Skill was in there, somewhere. She should totally check on that if she didn’t forget. Could be useful to know which permutations the ability had!
Come to think of it all, if Victor hadn’t totally been Waverly’s bestie, she would have thought it was super unfair. Not only did he get a level out of simply saying yes to a fight (an XP trigger she would have killed for, by the way), but he also got a really cool skill to go with it!
[Vampiric Hunger] sounded totally badass, Waverly wasn’t going to lie about that. She hadn’t really thought Victor would go for it, but she had kind of hoped, because while he was super cool and super smart and noticed all sorts of stuff that she usually missed, he was also so effing lazy she would have called it cowardice if she didn’t know him as well as she did.
But he hadn’t gone for Sneer, which also actually didn’t sound like him at all, now that she thought about it, and just picked the most badass of the bunch. Not that she hadn’t imagined him with a rapier, dropping a chandelier on his enemies, and riding the rope up. That would have been super badass, too, and he would probably have played it all cool as well! Especially after they’d ridden the Hellevator a few more times, for training.
But then Waverly quickly did the math in her head and realized with a surprising pang of insecurity that Victor was now level 19. She hadn’t leveled since that first night at college, she’d been too busy studying, and unfortunately, Werewolves had very few XP triggers when it came to learning. Sometimes, she wished she could have been born a Dark Elf, or maybe even a Goblin. She wasn’t even asking for [Sphynx] as a born class, or Dragon. It was just that studying so hard was good and fun and all, but she wished she’d get some levels out of it, too.
But that was her being ungrateful again. She should count herself lucky she’d gotten a Scholarship and went to DeSade and found a friend like Victor, and not mope about the fact that he was one level ahead of her.
Still, what if he outleveled her? The fact that it only worked out so far because he hadn’t leveled his [Catboy] class…
Waitaminute.
“Vic?” Waverly asked, and the Catboy opened his eyes.
“Yo?”
“Did you, like, not level your Catboy class because you thought I wouldn’t be able to catch up?”
Victor didn’t immediately answer, but thought about it, which was one of the many things that were so cool about having Victor as a friend because he always thought about everything you said, and when he replied it was always the truth and usually made you think in a completely different way!
“Nah,” he said, and he looked kinda concerned. Waverly could tell by the fact he wasn’t really looking at her, just kinda staring through her. He was thinking about something that didn’t fit the conversation, and so as usual he didn’t talk about it, because he didn’t want to ‘derail’ stuff.
That was the flipside of that coin, Waverly guessed. Victor thought too much, sometimes.
“Spit it out!” Waverly said, wagging her tail.
“Hmm?”
“You were doing that thing again where you didn’t even realize you were thinking, right? So, what were you thinking about?”
“Huh,” Victor said, with a reminder of his smile peeking out from under his frown, like the moon through the clouds. “Yeah, I guess. I kinda had a bit of a realization, I think. I’m not sure. Tell you about it later?”
Waverly nodded, because that’s what friends did when friends asked them to wait. Victor would keep his promise, and tell her in his own time.
“Why did you wait, then?”
“That was part of what I was thinking about. It wasn’t really a decision, you know? I just kinda did what I always did, but… yeah. I gotta think about it. When’s the fight start?”
Waverly still wanted to know, but yeah, in due time. It was time to change the topic, and the best way to do that was to just take the line he’d offered her. He was probably a little bit scared, but that was totally normal she guessed. So she did what she did best: she started to kill his bad mood with extreme prejudice.
“Ohhh, are you eager to bash some skulls?”
Victor snorted.
“Break some bones?” She was on a roll.
“Waverly, stop,” he chuckled.
“Revel in the despair of your enemies?!” Waverly asked, eyes big as saucers.
That finally got a laugh out of him and drove away his frowny gloom. She laughed with him, content with a job well done. She liked doing this kinda stuff, always had, even with her siblings. She just felt super bad when people around her were all sad or scared or stuff like that.
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Victor shoved her playfully, and as she acted as though she was falling, she made one of those derpy grimaces where she poked her tongue out of her mouth that always made him chortle.
Finally, when they were done goofing off and they both sunk into the afterglow of shared amusement, Victor said “Nah, just… I dunno. I kind of want to see how I’ll do, you know?”
Waverly inclined her head softly. So he was looking forward to the fight. That was super curious, and even though she really wanted to respect his wishes, she couldn’t help but drill just a little bit deeper.
“So, like, tonight you were looking forward to going down to the Dregs, rode the Hellevator down, accepted a duel you could totally have avoided, then picked a skill that doesn’t help you sleep, sneak, or talk, and now you’re telling me you’re itching for a fight? Who are you and what have you done with my laziest best friend?”
Victor raised an eyebrow and said “Waverly…” in that indulgent smiley tone that he always used when she was being silly.
“Just, like, saying!” Waverly said, feeling her grin widen. “I actually kinda like that look on you, Mr. Von Katzer!”
“Yeah,” Victor said, smile turning sheepish as he scratched the back of his head. “It’s… nice, somehow. Actually, a lot to think about.”
She rolled her eyes and draped her arm around his shoulders, guiding him to the stairs. She wasn’t going to get anything out of him, and she really didn’t want to push. She’d said her thing, and she knew that he knew she was… huh. Yeah, she was kinda proud of him, she guessed. So maybe he didn’t know. So as they descended to the main floor, with each step creaking under her feet, while his made no sound at all, she said:
“I’m totally proud of you, you know?”
And when she turned, she saw him grinning his thankful grin, and he said “Huh. Thanks!” and Waverly knew she’d said the right thing.
“Caw!” The Host interrupted them, and that meant: “Hey, Lovebirds! If you’re done doing whatever you do in the shadows, help me set up the stage!”
The crow was sitting on a table in the middle of the room, moving chairs and tables one by one. He used telekinesis, obviously, but Waverly knew the bird could also lift a grown-ass Kobold with his claws and toss him out of the window. She’d seen it, like, twice.
“Does that count as someone asking after the fifth sentence?” Victor asked her with faked innocence. Two chairs scraped over the floor as he picked them up.
“So first, he, like, didn’t ask, he just kinda assumed, and second, that was way after the 12th sentence and don’t you think you’re getting that coin back, Vic,” Waverly said while she shifted her arms to their werewolf forms, to better grab a table and move it out of the way.
“Caw?” “What in the fresh heavens are you guys talking about?”
“We have a bet going,” Victor said.
“Yeah, about like, how long it takes people to ask if we’re dating or not.”
“Caw!” said the Crow, flapping its wings as it shifted two tables to the side, where Waverly could stack hers on top. “That makes sense. You are giving off that energy that people often mistake for romantic interest.”
“You don’t?” Victor asked, tilting his head. His ears swiveled, curious.
“Caw.” “Oh, you obviously like each other, but I’ve known Waverly for long enough to know that you’re not her type.”
“Right?!” Waverly said, brushing a strand of hair out of her face, then fishing in her pocket for a hairband. But she’d lost her last one a while ago and had forgotten to buy new ones so she just stuffed her hair down her shirt so it stopped getting in the way of work.
Victor chuckled, clearly not insulted. But when she checked just to make sure, she caught him smirking at her. It was that kinda shit-eating grin that he always wore when he was hatching some sort of bullshit.
So what in the circles was he up to… oh no.
“Sooooo…,” Victor said in that almost-purr that only Catboys could pull off. “What is her type then?”
Waverly realized she was so fucking doomed.
----------------------------------------
After fifteen minutes of shoving tables and inescapable teasing about that one time she dated a shy troll in high school (which seemed like an easy mistake to avoid in hindsight, but he had been kinda sweet and had hung on her lips whenever she spoke, and to his credit, he’d been super understanding when she broke things off) they were finally done.
With one last clatter, Waverly stacked the last chair on the table, waited a second with hands held up to see if it would fall, and then brushed herself off with satisfied glee.
“Caw,” said The Host. He sat behind the bar again, preparing some more welcome shots for the newcomers. She was glad he did that this time, because keeping in mind which race handled which ingredient well, and what was intoxicating instead of plain toxic for whom was always a struggle for her. Plus the endless labeling and minuscule pouring…. Ugh!
Anyway, what the crow meant to say was “How did the two of you meet anyway?” and Victor, perched on top of a barstool with his feet on the seat, beat her to the punch when answering.
“Music,” he said.
“Caw.” Said the crow. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, we both kinda talked about how much we hated the tracks that Mindflayer DJ was putting on at this party. I mean like, how hard can it be to play some standard country or whatever? Sure, I’ll still hate it, but like at least it would have been tolerable.”
“Right?” Victor said, shaking his head. “I swear to the Devil, I don’t get why people like music so much. Every single genre, it’s just… noise.”
“Ohmydevs, yes! And I’ve tried so hard to find one I like, too. But whatever I like, they sure as heaven don’t play it on the radio.”
Throughout all of this, The Host had stayed quiet, which wasn’t really like him. Sure, he didn’t engage in conversation often, but when he did, he usually spoke a lot more.
“What’s up, crow?” Waverly asked.
“Caw,” said The Host, ponderously. “Have you ever heard of the Old Music?”
Victor shrugged. “Waverly mentioned it this morning, yeah, but otherwise, not really.”
Waverly, for her part, nodded. “Yeah, my Dad mentioned it like, once, and said it sucked, but like, he didn’t really sound like he meant it, you know? Why do you ask?”
The Crow stayed quiet for a second longer, then he said “Caw,” which translated to “You’re both level 18, right?”
Victor threw Waverly a glance, but she was just as lost as he was, so she just shrugged?
“Yo,” Victor said. For a second, Waverly thought the Crow would ask her to confirm that, but he didn’t. Instead, the bird lifted a shot glass to his eye, twitched his head, then polished it with a piece of cloth.
“Caw.” “You can both stay after Fight Night is over if you want. We’re going to have a little get-together and discuss some music.”
All those years, Waverly had always been kicked out at the end of Fight Night. She hadn’t minded at all, because she kinda needed to get home anyways, to watch over her siblings while Mom and Dad worked their second jobs. Still, she’d kinda wondered what the few people who stayed did after the lights went out. She’d always just assumed it was a sex thing.
But Waverly wasn’t as dumb as people thought she was, and didn’t take a genius to count two and two together. It was obvious they were going to talk about the Old Music.
Her tail started wagging violently. Fuck yeah! First, she got to introduce her best friend to the CrowBar, then she watched him pick a skill, and now she was going to fight, and he was going to fight and she could watch that, and then she was going to learn something new, and possibly kinda secret and maybe even forbidden?
This was the best. Fucking. Night. Evar!