Stella’s explosive laughter was so loud that nearly all the patrons in the cafe looked up in alarm. Dassah tried to hush her, but her efforts only seemed to make things worse.
“Y-You got PKed by B-Bahena’s brother?” she exclaimed, kicking around the seat of her chair and the base of the table as she struggled to breathe through her laughing fit. “Oh my god, what delicious irony is this! This is amazing!”
“The whole world doesn't have to know!” Dassah hissed at her. “Keep your voice down! You’re bothering people!”
Stella wiped the tears away from her eyes. “Oh, forget that,” she said. “Bat-boy isn’t here today, so I’ll have all the fun I want! Bahena’s brother! And you were doing so well! How much therapy do you think you’re going to need after all that?”
Across the table, Behana stared miserably into her bowl of coffee. “Somehow, I feel like this is all my fault...”
“It’s not,” Dassah assured her, scowling into her cup. Trying to take the brunt of Stella’s mockery by rationalizing the emotions she had acquired toward Sathuren and the garule in the past 24 hours, she sighed and said, “It really wasn’t that big of a deal. None of it is. I went to talk to him earlier, and everything was... fine.”
“Y-You...” Stella froze as she pointed. “You did what?”
“At least tell me he behaved appropriately when you saw him?” Bahena begged to know. “If he didn’t, just tell me and I’ll make sure—”
“He was fine Bahena,” Dassah told her with exasperation. “More than fine, given the way I treated him this whole time. And before you let Stella feed you any more nonsense about what she thinks I should be feeling about all of this, you should both understand that there was more to it than him Pking me.”
Stella scoffed. “Well, I should hope so if you went so far as to meet him in person! That’s like... That’s like if I went into a den of giant spiders! I’d die of shock!”
“What do you mean, ‘more to it’?” Bahena asked.
“Yes!” Chimed Stella. “The tea! I want all of the tea!”
“‘The tea’—what ‘tea’?” Dassah snorted. “There is no ‘tea’. You already know, Stella; you’re just missing one very important detail to understand: Bahena’s brother, Sathuren, is the same garule in my self-defense class and is the one that used to take the monorail with me in the morning during orientation.”
The young woman choked on her drink. “Him? Why didn’t you mention that before? And he is Bahena’s brother? What a twist!”
“I told you to keep it down!” Dassah kicked her leg.
Looking between them, the bronze garule asked, “What’s this about, now?”
“If he is him, then they’ve met before—even before we started living together,” Stella answered, eyes narrowing as she looked Dassah over. “In real life. Is that why he killed you? I mean, that’s the reason you went to see him, isn’t it? Correction—” she went, holding up a finger. “That’s why you were able to go see him, isn’t it?”
“Before we moved in...?” Bahena started, panic in her voice. “I-I don’t understand. Sathuren isn’t usually that kind of person, Dassah, I promise you —”
But Dassah shook her head and waved a hand to stop her. “It’s not what you think,” she said. “And I told you, it’s fine. And he helped me that day you moved in, too. As I said, I used to see him on the monorail a lot. I happened to speak to him the other day because he was helping me. I made a series of assumptions, and misunderstandings followed—he really didn’t do anything... wrong. ” She left out the part about the fact that he didn’t actively attempt to improve the situation, either—a fact that she was still mildly miffed about.
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“Well,” Stella mused. “Until yesterday.”
Dassah growled but sipped her coffee instead of glorifying the young woman’s sass with a response.
“Why didn’t you mention this to me?” Behana asked, cocking her head to the side.
Shrugging, Dassah answered, “He was just a... person... I met on the monorail. And, as coincidence would have it, one of my classes. It wasn’t an extraordinary event or anything. It just didn’t seem worth mentioning.” Reflecting on the guilt that followed her own words, she sighed before adding, “Even then, he was just someone who... who gave me a hand when I needed it. Even as Ibraxis, until last night, he was... fine.”
“I... see,” the garule woman seemed slightly deflated as she spoke. “But you talked to him?
“I did.”
“And?”
“It was fine,” Dassah shrugged.
“Fine?” Stella raised an eyebrow.
“Fine?” Bahena took a turn leaning forward.
“Fine,” Dassah confirmed. “Really.”
“Till he hunts you down in TheirWorld again,” Stella noted, sipping her coffee.
“He might,” Dassah admitted. He certainly didn’t make any promises, and if it was about the Candidate quest, it seemed like there would be plenty of reason to until she was high enough level to take him on herself. Dassah’s brows knit together as she replayed the moment in her head again. He had said that it was because they were Candidates competing for the same prize, but he had also said something along the lines of: ‘The sooner you stop playing, the better...’ Had he spoken without thinking? The sentiment didn’t seem to match the individual she had met earlier.
Stella leaned back in her chair and sighed. “Fine,” she said. “But it really sucks that you guys can’t play today. Can’t you ask him nicely to make sure not to kill you again?”
“I can,” Bahena volunteered with more than a bit of an edge to her voice. “I’m sorry we didn’t really get to finish that quest,” she said, but a glance at her face told Dassah that that wasn’t really what she was apologizing for.
“Don’t worry,” Dassah shook her head. “And seriously, don’t worry about Sathuren,” she told her. “Professor Sul made himself quite clear about the type of person he is.”
The bronze garule shifted uncomfortably. “It would be unlike him to do something to make the garuli’s image look bad. He may be a bit more rough around the edges, but he’s very conscious about the feelings of others...”
“Stop that,” Stella pointed at her with narrowed eyes. “You are being more paranoid about garuli than Dassah is, and that’s just wrong.”
Dassah considered Bahena. “You guys are really close, aren’t you?”
“Who?”
“You and Sathuren.”
“Why do you say that?” Bahena blinked.
“It’s...” Dassah started, then just smiled. “Nothing. I just wish... I hope that my brother is the same way towards me and yours is towards you—even if I never find out about it.”
Confused by the statement, Behana blinked.
“So he’s got a bit of a sister complex, does he? That is cute,” Stella joined.
“That’s not really...” Dassah said, wondering if the girl couldn’t read social cues or if she simply chose to ignore them.
But Stella followed up with: “I can’t wait to actually meet the guy again. Did I think he was attractive? I don’t recall—do you?”
“Stella!” Dassah groaned, knowing exactly where this was going.
“What?” the pretty young woman asked with a shrug and a sly smile. Then, she leaned over in toward Bahena. “Is he single? Flexible? Does he like humans? Girls? ”
“W-Well,” the garule woman struggled, scratching the back of her neck as she squirmed under the interrogation. “I-It’s really not my place to...”
“Oh, come on!” Stella said. “I haven’t dated a garule yet.”
Dassah saw Bahena’s eyes narrow. “Stella!” she hissed again.
“I appreciate your... flexibility, Stella,” Bahena said slowly, arching her neck up in a regal fashion. There was an unfamiliar nobility in her gaze, her stature, to the way she spoke her next words: “But Sathuren is not to be toyed with.”
The bronze garule’s eyes—a similar orange-y gold as those of the white garule’s—burned with intent as she stared at the girl, reinforcing her opinion on the matter. But to Dassah, it was more. Wide-eyed, Dassah stared at her garuli companion as those eyes reflected like the dragon in her dreams. But this is Bahena, she told herself, taking a deep breath to calm her heart. Bahena was not a dragon.
Unaffected, Stella shrugged with a: “Fair enough,” and went back to drinking her coffee. Glaring, Dassah wondered how the girl could live her life like she did and still be alive. She sided with Bahena on this one, but she also doubted that Sathuren was Stella’s type to begin with. Stella tended to like needy people, and Dassah had the impression that the gray-dyed garuli wasn’t like to fit into that niche.
The conversation fell into an uneasy silence as they sipped at their drinks.
“Well, ladies, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow?” Stella went after a while, collecting her things.
“See you then,” Dassah waved.
Bahena just nodded as Stella left first.