Rising Shards

Stella still was drained of most of her energy by midday. I brought her some tea, accidentally spilling a bit on myself and hissing from the pain.

"I hope they're doing alright without me there," Stella said. I sat down beside her as she swirled the tea bag in her mug.

"Try not to think about work too much," I said. "You need to just have a nice, relaxing day."

"If I don't think about work, then I think about how my parents are near here, or at least Mom, and while I’m trying not to freak out about that because if I dwell too long, I can feel it bubbling up. And I still have barely comprehended this whole Tik business, which I’ve barely been able to contribute anything to because sometimes seeing a Cani power flashback vision of my father makes me so anxious I want to scream. Also have barely dealt with the idea that I have an aunt, but who knows what happened to her. I probably have a whole family tree I don’t know about, and chances are at least some of them are Mom and Dad level, so I hope I don’t learn about any more any time soon. Evil grandpa or something? No thank you!”

"So this might've been brewing for a while," I said.

"Probably!" Stella said. She let me under her blanket so she could hold onto me like one magnet snapping to another. She mumbled something with her face pressed against me.

“Didn't quite catch that,” I said.

“How do you put up with me?” she asked. “This must be miserable for you to deal with me when I’m like this.”

“You’re fine,”

“Sorry,” Stella said. “A cocktail of depression and trauma makes me say stupid things sometimes.”

“If I blamed you for saying something stupid, I’d be the most massive hypocrite,” I said. “And that wasn’t that stupid, it was just the depression talking, I get it.”

“Whole lotta stuff flowing down this stress river of mine,” Stella said.

“We can be each other’s lifeboats,” I said. “Wait, I think I’m getting my own metaphorical scenario mixed up.”

“I get it, I get it,” Stella said, the first smile I’d seen from her all day creeping across her mouth. “You’re definitely my lifeboat.”

That resulted in some quiet cuddling time, where I was glad I could hold her close.

As the day continued on, I didn’t have much better to say than “You’re fine,” and “It’s alright,” to Stella venting out her issues, which was an odd feeling for a nonstop talker like me, but I did my best to keep my tone soothing, at least.

"If they try anything again, I'm fighting," Stella said. "Hopefully not physically, obviously. But I would for all of us."

“I will too,” I said. “You have a lot of people fighting on your side. If they really did try anything again, they wouldn’t stand a chance. If it was just you, they wouldn’t stand a chance, either.”

Zeta had noticed we were both gone at school and sent a flurry of frantic texts. I was worried that’d stress Stel out, but the normalcy of taking care of her sister actually seemed to brighten her mood a bit.

“She says she wants to stop by today,” Stella said.

“I can go pick her up,” I said.

Stella’s brow furrowed. “You’re doing a lot today. That’s probably too much, right?”

“You help me when I’m down and out, it’s only fair I do the same,” I said.

When it was time to get Zeta, I felt a bit better about leaving Stella alone even for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure if she was on the mend just yet, but it felt like she was out of the worst of it, at least.

“Don’t get caught, you’re taking a sick day too you know,” Stella said.

I laughed. “I’ll be very stealthy approaching our workplace so they don’t see me.”

“Good,” Stella pouted. It was cute beyond words. She let out a yawn then started to get up. "I gotta make dinner.”

I gently eased her back onto the couch. "Stel, go nap, I got it.” I knew she might still make us dinner, so I promised to get her favorites from Ultra Taco. That enticed her to change her mind.

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