Petunia & Brynna

“Phoebe, I’m almost running payroll out of a personal bank account!” Petunia could feel that her voice was creeping upwards, in pitch and volume, but it was like talking to a sulking child. She couldn’t afford to get too loud, though, or the rest of the team might notice. She understood her friend’s reluctance to take on another person, but the financial situation was a mess. “I had to personally authorise twenty-eight thousand Royals in payments this week, I can’t keep this up! I don’t think it’s even legal!”

Phoebe frowned, looking down at her hands. They were in the back corner of the cavernous stable – the back wall was literally bare rock, the stables here created from an ancient cave system – away from the growing rack of desks where the techs were haggling over their data and code, and the dark lump of Soot, sleeping off his meal while Adelie and Tamra assessed his stool. It had taken all Petunia's attention to catch Phoebe at a moment where she could be peeled away from her new PR manager, and they didn’t have long before Cy returned with the next round of guests.

Seeing that the dragon rider wasn’t going to respond, Petunia sighed forcefully and bit the bullet. “What if the police trace Mr. Castelloro's money to us? That bank account has our names on it, yours and mine specifically. We’d be arrested!”

That drew a flinch from Phoebe. As she did so often when pressed, she looked round at Soot, her crownfeathers curled tight around her temples. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, you’re right. You’re right, get someone. Keep costs down if you can.”

Petunia rolled her eyes and started to object, but as she opened her mouth, the stable door swung inwards.

Brynna followed Phoebe's manager and Thessaly through the doorway into the stable. The sense of exposure hit her immediately; a hundred feet away, at the far end of the space, the shutter was up and the stable opened to a view of the grey choppy sea and the bared teeth of the wind. The low hillock of the black dragon hunched on the floor did nothing to break up the immediacy of that terrifying drop.

Thessaly hesitated, and Brynna was glad of the chance to hover just inside the door, even as the long arm of Phoebe's tall, stiff-mannered manager reached behind her to close it. His name was Cy, and Brynna could tell he wasn’t happy to have Thessaly here. She’d watched him carefully as he greeted them, wondering if he was the architect of the photos linking Phoebe with Mynah Darling.

Little time left for wondering as Phoebe herself approached, accompanied by a tiny, pink-haired girl dressed like a doll and smiling like a princess. Next to her, Phoebe looked comically awkward, like a young suitor come to meet her girlfriend’s sceptical parents. Brynna etched the dragon rider’s expression into her memory so she could point it out to Thessaly later when her doubts got their teeth back into her.

It was the mermaid who spoke first, almost going for a hug with Phoebe before flinching to a “Hey.” She recovered her poise immediately. “Going to introduce me? This is Petunia, right?”

Brynna frowned as Thessaly shook the pink-haired girl’s hand, receiving bright, cheerful greetings in response. Petunia looked all of sixteen, and she wasn’t wearing a team uniform or even any insignia that Brynna could see. This was the team manager?

Petunia turned to her next, extending a delicate, fine-fingered hand. “You’re Thessaly's manager? It’s nice to meet you.”

For a moment, Brynna found herself struggling to answer. She shook the offered hand gently, terrified she might shatter against it. She had to reach deep to settle her nerves enough to respond. “Brynna Hynafol, sweetie, it’s lovely to meet you too.”

It was a relief to move to shake Phoebe's hand. The dragon rider barely seemed to notice her, her attention torn half-and-half between her mount and Thessaly. When she said, “Come on, let me introduce you to Soot,” she was looking only at the mermaid.

Thessaly shot Brynna a nervous glance, but Brynna let herself smile in response. “Run along and play, sweetie, I want to speak to Petunia a bit, okay?”

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Petunia didn’t miss the flicker of surprise that passed over the mermaid idol’s face, but the wave of relief that went through Phoebe was palpable. She turned immediately to lead Thessaly away, leaving Petunia with the two managers. They towered over her, she had to crane her neck even to look up into Ms. Hynafol's face, but as she did so she realised why the old lady had done it.

Ms. Hynafol was facing Petunia, and Cy was between them with his back to the back wall of the stable. If he wanted to monitor what Phoebe and Thessaly talked about, Cy was going to have to very obviously and deliberately leave the group of managers, walking either between or around them. Even Phoebe couldn’t be so oblivious as to miss that she was being snooped on in that circumstance.

Petunia smiled up at Ms. Hynafol. She didn’t like Cy much either. She said “What can I help you with?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that, sweetie. I was just wondering if you’d ever considered modelling?”

“Modelling?” Petunia felt her voice squeak. Next to her, Cy might have twitched a millimetre or two.

“You haven’t? But sweetie, you have such lovely features for it, your skin is immaculate! Do you sing?”

“No, um, I mean, well,” where was this coming from? It made sense for Ms. Hynafol to ask about singing and modelling, Petunia supposed, she was an idol manager after all, but Petunia had never thought of herself as a performer. “Um, I do karaoke sometimes…”

Ms. Hynafol treated her to a long, warm smile. “Well, it doesn’t look like you need a career change right now, right, sweetie? Seems like you have a good thing going with this team.”

“Mm-hm,” Petunia stalled, recovering her balance. Next to her, Cy had relaxed and was leaning against the wall, which was a small victory and also helped her feel a bit less physically small. “We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved.”

“As you should be, sweetie, as you should be. Tell me, have you known Phoebe long?” Ms. Hynafol turned slightly, almost putting her shoulder to Cy so she could look down the room.

Phoebe and Thessaly were kneeling by Soot's head, Phoebe going through her now well-practiced routine of instruction on how to approach Soot. Thessaly was gazing intently at Phoebe, but almost didn’t seem to be listening at all.

To the mermaid’s manager, Petunia said, “I’ve known her since we were kids, yeah. My dad worked for-“ She caught herself. Maybe she shouldn’t mention the Hyperio family right now. Ms. Hynafol had to know, of course, but not talking about it openly seemed to help keep the dark cloud of Phoebe's relationship with her father from lowering too much. “My dad worked for her father.”

“Do you think she can win the championship?”

Despite the friendly tone of the question, Petunia couldn’t quite keep her irritation out of her tone. “If we can keep enough money coming in and not lose any of it in the chaos.”

Ms. Hynafol laughed. “That wasn’t what I meant, sweetie, I meant Phoebe herself. She must be under such pressure. Can she keep it together?”

Petunia frowned. What was the woman asking? Looking up at her like this, with the stable’s odd lighting making awkward angles, it was hard to read her face. What was the thing she actually wanted to know about Phoebe? Phoebe seemed absolutely smitten with Thessaly – the difference to how she’d received Mynah Darling's visit was stark – which made her vulnerable to being taken advantage of.

Hard to think of that without thinking about Cy. So many people were out to take advantage of Phoebe right now, and Petunia only had to look over at Phoebe playing with Soot and Thessaly to see how unprepared she was for any of that. That was her world. This spot, near the stable door, glaring up at the two towering PR people, had to be Petunia's.

She said, “Phoebe's one of the most determined people I’ve ever known. If there’s a way, she’ll do it.”

The ferocity of the tiny pink-haired team leader startled Brynna. It wasn’t rude – she got the sense that Petunia didn’t have a rude bone in her body, even before whatever upbringing she’d had in a family that served nobility – but her intent to defend her friend was utterly unambiguous. Chuckling gently, Brynna said, “Relax, sweetie, I’m just trying to get a feel for what kind of person she is.” It was hard not to reach over and pat Petunia on the head.

“Oh.” Petunia paused for a moment. “Well, she’s a good person. What about Fi- um, Miss Pantelleria?”

Brynna couldn’t help but laugh again. “Please don’t call her ‘Miss Pantelleria' to her face, sweetie, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Oh. Um.”

“She’s very stubborn. Well, maybe you’d say ‘determined’, sweetie. She’s wanted to be an idol for a very long time, she works very hard. Your Phoebe must be the same.”

Petunia cocked her head, expression softening. Even then, she had a little bit the aspect of a kitchen knife. Brynna didn’t relax; she wasn’t fooled by the outwardly disinterested stance of Phoebe's manager against the wall either. The younger lady looked over to Phoebe and Thessaly again, thoughtful. “Maybe they’ll be good for each other.”

Which at least went some way to reassuring Brynna that Phoebe reciprocated Thessaly's feelings. Certainly the two looked like they were having fun together, laughing as Soot nuzzled at Thessaly. The dragon had seemed small at a distance when they walked in, but with Thessaly for scale it was clear he was still a pretty large creature. Thessaly took hold of Phoebe's sleeve for balance as the dragon’s snout nudged her shoulder again.