Rising Shards

For some reason, as Aira entered Laenie's little office in her biker gang fortress, she kept picturing an arc from Tower of Hate and Love. A character infiltrated the base of their former lover, fighting through the skyscraper they operated from (it wasn't the titular Tower of Hate and Love), taking a few episodes to reach the top where the boss was. The audience speculated like crazy about what would happen when they finally reunited. Would they get back together? Then when they finally met again, before the boss could say a single word, the invading character killed their former lover in a shocking twist.

Aira wasn't going to kill Laenie, obviously. She didn't even want to fight her. She just wanted the weight off her shoulders. But she still thought about that series of episodes. She and Laenie watched them together.

Laenie's office had a bunch of bicycles around, and pictures of her and her gang framed on them. Aira's attention was drawn to the lone desk in the center of the room. The big chair behind the desk turned around, revealing a sunglasses wearing Laenie with a weird expression. Her trying to look tough was so adorable. A far cry from her Exa Cani form. Flashes of Laenie holding Aira in her massive, clawed hand at that campfire flashed in Aira's mind, like it had many times over the last few months.

"Hi, Laenie," Aira said, fighting back tears.

"Hey there..." Laenie said. She puffed her chest out as she stood up.

"It's been a while," Aira said.

"Yeah..."

"I, um, forgot the jacket," Aira said. "It's a cool jacket, don't get me wrong. I just...forgot it."

Aira thought Laenie's face was contorting in rage. Laenie shakily reached for her sunglasses, pulling them off. Her eyes were red, and tears were already streaking down her face. She barely got a word out before Aira teleported beside her, embracing her sobbing friend, who could only say how sorry she was.

The two cried it out for a long time. It felt like they'd reached the end of a long road together, and now the path ahead was cloudy and uncertain.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Laenie said. "I was just so..."

"It's alright," Aira said. "Well, it's not. But...it's you. And I miss you."

"I miss you too," Laenie said. "I'm sorry."

It didn't make any of it right, but Laenie apologized for everything, from them ending up at Wildfire Hearts, to the misadventure in the void, to the obsessive chasing of her brother Rem, to the incident at the campfire. Aira wasn't necessarily hoping for this, but it felt almost too good to be true.

"This is going to sound bad," Aira said. "But this isn't a trick, right?"

"What do you mean?" Laenie asked.

"I mean...is this too easy?"

"This isn't easy for me!" Laenie said. "Nothing's been easy for so long."

"Yeah..." Aira said. "Have you found him?"

"No," Laenie said. "But...I got a letter."

"What? Really?" Aira said.

Laenie nodded. She reached into the desk. "He said he's in East Valataran now." She handed Aira a handwritten letter. "It's not fake."

It was a brief note from her brother telling her what she was doing. Some job for Taramin Industries that required him going out to the desert of the Pyre Cani.

"There's a phone number on here," Aira said.

"I called it," Laenie said. "He could only talk for a minute, but..."

"So you found him," Aira said. "Kinda."

Aira felt guilty she hadn't been there for it. But she also knew she couldn't stick around with how bad things had gotten. At least Laenie hopefully got some closure.

"I kinda did," Laenie said.

"So why are you doing this?" Aira asked, gesturing to the office. She thought all of this was was her acting tough to get Wildfire Hearts to promote her enough to see Rem or something.

"I don't know."

"Do you want to stop?"

"The weird thing is...I kinda don't," Laenie said. "I like being the leader. They're all nice to me."

"And I wasn't?" Aira said. Guilt struck her the instant the words left her mouth.

"You were," Laenie said. "You are nice, Aira. You could join us, you know. Did you want to join my gang?"

"Not really," Aira said.

"I kinda figured," Laenie said.

Aira felt like she was slowly pulling out a sliver. It hurt, but she couldn't stop. She missed Laenie too much to let things stay the way they were. She hugged Laenie a bit tighter, not wanting the moment to end.

"We're still friends, right?" Laenie asked.

"Always," Aira said. "But we're on different roads now, aren't we? I guess we have been for a bit."

"I guess," Laenie said.

"That might not be a bad thing," Aira said. "We could be on different roads for a while. And just because we're on different roads, and they might split in big, different ways, they'll still crisscross."

"We could always meet up at the rest stops," Laenie said. "And swap stories about the roads we're on."

"Yeah," Aira sniffed.

"I'm sorry," Laenie said. "I really messed it up, didn't I?"

"It's OK, Laenie," Aira said. She almost whispered more through their tears, told her everything she felt about Laenie, about how she'd maybe always felt. But this wasn't the time. It would probably just make things worse. After a long while, the two had cried out all they could, and it was time for Aira to go.

"You meant all that, right?" Laenie said. "This isn't...that's not all, is it?"

Aira shook her head. "No way, we got lots more. We'll talk. Real soon."

"OK," Laenie said. "Thanks, Aira. And I'm sorry, again."

"I'm sorry too," Aira said. "Next time we'll do something other than apologize, though."

"Yeah," Laenie said.

Aira felt less like she'd been walking a separate road than Laenie and more like her car had exploded and she had to wander around looking for anyone to help her as she left Laenie's office. Still, they finally talked. Things felt worse, but they felt like they'd finally moved forward.

It wasn't very surprising when she saw Zeta, Oka, and Lillia staring at a wall of pink gum, with Chumbler and Z.O.K. stuck in it.

"This should've been you three in this web!" Chumbler said. "The gum bomb guy betrayed me!"

"If you'll shut up for a second, we'll get you out of this," Lillia said.

Oka noticed her first. "Hey, Aira!"

"How did it go?" Zeta asked.

Aira didn't know she had any tears left, but she apparently had some as Zeta and Oka embraced her.

"I feel like we just broke up," Aira said.

"Oh, Aira..." Oka said.

"No, but...OK, it's really sad." Aira said.

She explained everything that happened, which was a bit tough with Chumbler and Z.O.K. grumbling about the trap they set backfiring on them.

"...but I think things could be alright someday," Aira said. "And this is the first time in forever that I really feel it. I know it doesn't look like it, but..."

"So you and Laenie are...?" Lillia said.

"We both just need time," Aira said. "I'll probably always like her. But our roads are going differently. And yes, she apologized for everything. Still hurts, but it's something."

Once she had caught them up, Aira got up and walked over to Chumbler and Z.O.K.

"Now, let's get you out of here," Aira said.

"That's not going to–" Lillia started as Aira patted Chumbler and Z.O.K. on their arms. With one teleport, the two were free of the web of gum they'd gotten themselves stuck in.

"Never doing that again," Z.O.K. said.

"Er, thanks, I suppose," Chumbler said.

"For what?" Z.O.K. asked. "Oh, you mean her. Yeah, thank you."

The weight of the day gradually left Aira as they left the biker gang maze. Instead of thinking about that Tower of Hate and Love arc, she thought about the garden club where she spent time with Laenie.

Our first garden got wrecked, but it feels like we cleaned it up, got some of the weeds out...and maybe we planted some new seeds. Who knows if they'll bear fruit, but it feels better than where we left off.

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