Rising Shards

"I just really am hoping they drop back sleep shift from the next game," I said as Marms and I walked around one of the hallways connected to the dance floor. I thought the other Rising Shards buildings were pretty high end, but this building was pretty sleek on the inside. The toilet in the bathroom even talked to me, that was new.

"Yeah, I get what they were going for with that, but it's just not a fun mechanic to actually play, and Tyrant Rangers is about fun at the end of the day."

"You get me," I said. "You just get me!"

"Heh, do you have friends who would say they want more of a forced real time sleep mechanic?" Marms asked.

"Well, you know how Zates and Oaks are with games," I said. "Lillia would probably agree, but like. You're just so cool."

"Where's this coming from?" Marmalade asked.

"Dunno," I said. "Maybe I'm just—"

I had no idea what I was going to say there, but whatever it was, it was interrupted as we saw someone sitting against the wall, arms resting on her knees, head buried. Aira looked up as she realized we were close, tears streaking down her face.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt," Aira said wiping her eyes. "You can ignore me if you want."

"We're not gonna do that," I said. It wasn't even a question that I'd sit down right by Aira. Marms waited for a second.

"You want me to get you some water or something?" Marmalade asked.

"That...would probably help, yeah," Aira said.

Marms nodded and took off in a hurry.

"Did Jeans give you a hard time or something?" I asked. "She doesn't want us to get Blade now, does she?"

"No, I haven't heard from her since we told her we were gonna dance some more," Aira said. "I just...it's my usual problems. Laenie."

"Did Laenie give you a hard time?" I asked, remembering that the two had a pretty nasty friend breakup.

"No, things were going well, I got to dance with her," Aira said. "We didn't really talk, though."

"Did you want to?" I asked. "I guess that's obvious."

"Pretty obvious, yeah," Aira said.

"You could talk to her now," I suggested.

"You'd think that'd be easy, but..." Aira sighed. "We patched things up after the campfire incident. I thought we were on good terms again. I mean, we're on better terms, but...it's like there's this wall between us that I still can't climb over. Every time I think I'm ready to say what I'm feeling, we just...stop there. I don't think I even said anything when we danced out there, but I could've written a whole book about what I wanted to say."

My eyes lit up, understanding exactly what she meant.

"Talking about it is hard, right?" I said. "Like, incredibly hard."

"It is!"

"Like putting the words into feelings..." Aira said.

"Tough emotions, ones you keep bottled up kinda, like those are so hard to let out, I totally get you," I said. "Like...having someone that's special to you, and you wanna just tell them what you've been thinking for a long time, and it's close to finally getting there and you just...don't..."

Aira and I's eyes met. For some reason, she looked between my eyes and my lips.

"Are you asking me out?" Aira asked.

"No, I'm talking about...I don't know what I'm talking about," I said.

Aira got less tense. "OK, phew, not that I'd be mad, just I was scared you, well not scared, because it wouldn't be a bad thing, I'd just have to say no to you."

"Aira, you were just talking about you and Laenie, I kinda figured what you meant," I said.

"Right, right," Aira said. "Sorry, I've been all crossed up for a while now."

"It can't be easy going through everything you went through," I said. "Just be glad Jeans isn't trying to date you and make you her new Zeta or Ovie."

"True, but she's not so bad," Aira said. "Or not so bad to ignore, I'm sure she is just terrible in a relationship. Or in a friendship, even."

"Yeah..." I said. "Sorry, I wish I had better advice. I can barely tell anyone anything. Took forever to admit I liked girls, took forever to tell anyone. The only people I tell about Downside are people who find out about it. I just...suck at telling people things. So that's all I got, I get what you're feeling."

"It's nice to have someone get it, at least," Aira said. "Even if we're both hopeless."

"Maybe it'll get better after you and Syval are split from our new 'friends,'" I said. "After we defeat Blade, the mission's done, and we can get on with our lives."

"You wanna be done doing this?" Aira asked. "I figured we'd just keep doing Tokickaman stuff. Find a new thing to help out with."

"Huh..." I said. I didn't really know if I wanted that. The warnings from my mom and Caya from a while back still stuck in my head. I thought if I just had this one last thing and called it there, I'd get my hero-ing desires satisfied I thought. Right? "Let me get back to you on that after the mission, I need to think about that one."

"Yeah, same," Aira said.

We sat together for a bit, not really talking about anything, just kinda hanging out. We both had a lot to think about, a lot we'd left unsaid, stuff I didn't know we'd ever get to. I wished I had better advice, but I couldn't tell her to just talk to Laenie when I had all this crap I was keeping in.

"Kay, they had waters and fruit punch, I didn't know what you all wanted so I got one of each," Marmalade said, barely holding onto six plastic cups.

"Girl, why didn't you get a tray?" I asked.

"I didn't see any!" Marmalade said.

Her coming back made us turn the conversation from our sad business and back to gaming, where we had a spirited chat about the next Tyrant Rangers. After that, Aira was feeling better enough and excused herself again.

"What should we do now?" I asked.

"I saw Zeta and Oka on the way over," Marms said. "They had some weird thing set up at their table it looked like, a bunch of people were over there."

"Wanna check it out?" I asked.

"I think I do," Marmalade said.

I realized I'd barely seen Zates and the others since I got here, so I figured it was time to talk to them. Even if I waited til after the dance to talk Downside, and even if I'd have to probably bounce at some point to stop this "General Blade" sprite, I couldn't just avoid my closest friends.

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