Rising Shards

Maia felt like her life was about to implode into a galaxy destroying black hole as she waited for Zeta to say something. She knew it was stupid to be this afraid. She had talked to Zeta about her and Iris before. But that was before they started their whole B.F.S. thing. And now the three of them were standing out in the snow outside the dorms, and Zeta had just caught Maia and Iris very passionately making out.

"Um...so," Zeta said. "I should probably..." She slowly started to back away.

"Hold it right there, missy!" Iris said, pointing maybe too aggressively at Zeta, which made Zeta flinch and her tail go all poofy, a regular occurrence. This matched Maia, who was also all poofed up.

"Ack! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Iris," Maia sighed.

"What? I'm defending our honor."

"Maybe chill on the scaring her," Maia said. "Should we just...talk?"

Zeta winced. "I was about to go see if Oka and the others were still hanging out at that LE mall."

"Oh, that thing," Iris said. "Fine, you may leave, but we are gonna hash out some rules or whatever."

"Sure..." Zeta said.

"And you can't tell anyone," Iris said. "That's rule one."

"I might have to tell Oka," Zeta said.

"What did I just say? Like a second ago!" Iris said.

"Let's negotiate this later, alright?" Maia said. "Just...talk to us before you talk to anyone."

Before Zeta could object again, Maia joined Iris in pointing at Zeta, adding a claw out for added oomph. "And that includes Oka."

"R-right," Zeta said.

Maia had a cloud of worry hovering over her that night, and got Iris up early (not an easy feat) so they could decide on when and where to meet with Zeta. They settled on one of the coffee shops on campus, with Maia hoping to bribe Zeta into keeping a secret with a gingerbread latte. Because of the secretive nature of what was to be discussed, they chose the less popular coffee shop for Rising Shards students, the one that was closer to Falling Shards.

"School legend says all the Falling Shards dudes say this place's coffee tastes better," Iris said. "And that us girlies from Rising Shards say our shop's taste better. Which is true? Who knows?"

"What about people who aren't boys or girls?" Zeta asked.

"I don't know, maybe they're the ones telling the school legend," Iris said. "Anyways..." She turned to Maia making a goofy expression that'd be right at home on a poster for a D-grade comedy movie like Dentist Haircut.

"What?" Maia said.

"Shall we?" Iris said.

"Yeah, we shall..." Maia said. "So..."

"So..." Iris said.

"So...you two are dating! That's awesome!" Zeta said.

"Well, it's B.F.S.," Iris said, and Maia nodded.

Zeta's smile faltered. "B...what? Boyfriends?"

"Not BFs!" Iris said. "B.F.S."

"Which means...?"

"Ugh, I shouldn't be revealing insider secrets to an outsider," Iris said.

"But Zeta's cool, so it's probably fine." Maia said.

"B.F.S., best friend stuff," Iris said.

Zeta's reaction gave away that she didn't think that explained much of anything.

"We don't really like to put a label on things," Maia said.

"But isn't...wouldn't calling it B.F.S., hold on..." Zeta said. "OK, so you two are BFs now."

"No, we're doing B.F.S., that's our thing now," Iris said. "I told you she would be a stickler about that."

"You didn't," Maia said. "Let's just move on from that. We just wanna make sure you won't tell anybody, because we don't want to have what happened to you and Oka happen to us."

"Us getting split up?" Zeta said. "Because...Caya found out we're dating."

"Uh huh, I imagine the school will frown upon B.F.S. roommates as well," Iris said.

"What exactly does B.F.S. entail?" Zeta asked.

"You know, the usual, you saw it, we hang out, we make out, as best friends do," Iris said.

Zeta blinked a bunch of times. "Sorry, I just have a headache..."

"You probably drank your latte too fast," Iris looked around. "Don't say latte too loud, Latte might show up."

"I'll do my best," Zeta said. "And I can keep it secret, but I don't like keeping secrets from Oka. She would totally keep it on the down low, too."

"Maybe the four of us can talk it out, then," Maia said.

"I could text her right now?" Zeta suggested. "She's probably up."

"Sure, yeah, might as well get it over with," Maia said.

"Ah, wait, I think she was going to a Kilander thing," Zeta said. "I can wait to tell her as long as it's not too long."

"How are we getting screwed over here?" Iris said. "We said no telling anyone."

"Right, but c'mon," Zeta said. "I can't keep secrets from Oka...that would make me really sad..."

Zeta could bust out a real effective pathetic wet cat look when she wanted to.

"Fine," Maia said. "We can have a dual best friends meetup."

"Yay!" Zeta said. "Like a double date!"

"Like a dual best friends mashup," Iris said. "We don't like to put labels on things."

"R-right," Zeta said.

Once Iris and Maia were certain Zeta would keep their secret, they let her go.

"Phew, we made it," Iris said. "I guess I shouldn't have been too worried."

"You were worried too?" Maia asked.

"Yeah, I thought Zeta would go all tattler on us," Iris said. "Also, I really want to kiss you."

Maia's heart nearly skipped a beat. "You can't just say things like that out of nowhere."

"While Zeta was yapping I was daydreaming about me grabbing you and just making out right in front of her again to really show her what for." Iris said.

"That's not even risky anymore, that's just...stupid," Maia said.

"Yeah, true," Iris said. "But it made me want to kiss you."

"Wanna go back to our room and take care of that want?" Maia asked.

"Gladly," Iris said.

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