Callie's Heroes

PART IV - THE RULES OF ATTRACTION

With Olin’s final advice, or perhaps it was a warning, Major Celeste concluded the ‘fireside’ chat, releasing everyone to relax in the glade, with another admonishment to not wander far. Juniper was still recharging for a round trip to and from camp, and it was decided in addition to the Major, that Cheena, Bratig and Ambria would also go back. Ambria continued to not feel that great, so Cheena was going to escort her to medical for another examination under non-field conditions, although still felt that the Faun probably just needed a hot shower or bath and some rest.

Next to Callie, Pixyl leapt to her feet and stormed off as the circle broke up. It was obvious she was still angry from the discussion, despite the acknowledgement of understanding she had given Celeste. Callie, a worried look on her face, caught the Major’s eyes briefly, before racing off after the Pixie.

Approaching Pixyl, Callie could swear that her wings were dimly glowing red with anger in the darkness, and she had a moment of reluctance about trying to get close. She hadn’t realized that Pixyl was capable of the kind of hot-headed temper she was showing now, and simply wasn’t sure how to interact with it. She’d seen anger back when Pixyl had kicked Bratig, but this was something else entirely, and Callie suspected it was partly because Pixyl was directing some of that anger towards herself.

“Hey,” Callie finally said quietly.

Pixyl looked back for a moment, before turning back to the colorful glowing foliage, staring into the dark, saying nothing.

“Are you okay?” Callie carefully asked.

Even looking away, Callie could feel Pixyl’s scowl, and debated just backing away to give some space. After an awkward few moments, she started to turn to do just that.

“I’m really angry,” Pixyl said quietly, a hissing undertone to her voice, like hot steam escaping.

“I can tell.”

“She didn’t have to attack me like that.”

It was hard, but Callie resisted the immediate urge to point out it hadn’t been intentional, and, at least in Celeste’s eyes, it hadn’t been an attack at all. It would just piss Pixyl off even more if she did. Still, she didn’t know what to do at this moment. Emotions were high, and Callie had a muddled sense of what she should do in response. She simply kept quiet, deciding she didn’t want to comment on the Major’s words.

Pixyl turned, hands on her hips as her wings vibrated angrily. “Do you agree with her?”

Shit.

“I think it was wrong of her to call you out like that,” Callie finally said, taking obviously too long to evasively answer.

“So you agree with her!” Pixyl snarled.

Double shit.

Callie’s brain scrambled for an answer that wouldn’t put a wedge into the blossoming something that had come into being between them. “I absolutely agree that you have nothing to prove to anyone.”

“That isn’t what I m-m-meant!”

“It’s true though. You’re amazing! Everybody can see that.”

That seemed to help a smidge, and Pixyl’s expression softened just a tiny bit. “What about the rest she said?” she asked softly, but with still a tinge of anger.

Triple shit!

Callie bent down to get close to Pixyl’s upturned face, and put a hand on the Pixie’s arms. “You don’t need to go charging into a fight to prove yourself. Not to the Major, or Olin, or me, or anyone.” Before Pixyl could even respond, Callie put a hand on each of her cheeks and kissed her. It was a manipulative tactic she’d used on people she’d been involved with in the past, but she didn’t want the possibility of a fight right now.

The kiss held for a long several seconds, and Pixyl seemed to melt in Callie’s arms, as if deflating as anger leaked away. “You did that to shut m-m-me up,” Pixyl said sheepishly when the kiss broke.

‘Yeah, I did.”

“It worked,” the Pixie said with a laugh, blushing slightly. Callie chuckled in response, her face warm and soft, and silently relieved to hear Pixyl laughing at something.

Moving towards a tree that would block the view from the rest of the people, Pixyl took a seat on the ground. “Do you think I was reckless?” she asked, looking up.

Callie sighed, realizing she wasn’t going to be able to avoid the conversation. How could she put this that wouldn’t make Pixyl angry again and still be truthful? She finally shrugged. “At the time, I didn’t think so. But after what the Major said, and then Vanis saying what it did to his confidence, maybe. Don’t get me wrong, you were absolutely amazing, but maybe …” Callie trailed her voice off, worried how she was coming across. She didn’t want to sound like she was completely agreeing with the Major, but the officer had been right.

There was a long silence as Pixyl seemed to mull Callie’s response. While she was thinking, Callie sat on the ground, taking Pixyl’s hand in her own and leaning back against the tree. Pixyl leaned against Callie’s shoulder and stared into the darkness, lost in thought.

“When I fought in the Pits,” Pixyl finally said, “my job was to m-m-make the fight exciting. Then, people would drink more and bet more. The m-m-more they bet and the more they drank, the more money the b-b-bosses made.”

Callie listened close, not asking any questions. Pixyl had always been reluctant to talk about her time as a pit fighter, having said nothing before Trainer Terrin accidentally revealed it the day of the first Demon demonstrations. Since then, Callie, Lena and some of the others had tried to learn more, but Pixyl had been at best vague in her responses, like it was a bad memory, or something she was embarrassed about. She’d been completely tight-lipped about her family and childhood, too. Vanis said everyone needed to respect her secrets, but it had been frustrating to do so. Now that she’d shared a little something, though, and given what had happened between them, Callie now wanted to know everything she could about Pixyl’s history and background, and what made her into the amazing person she was.

“Charging in blindly was a way to get that excitement up,” Pixyl continued with a somewhat-distant sigh. “Low-tier Demons and Elementals are really no threat, so that was fine. It was even f-f-fun sometimes.”

“Things have changed now, though,” Callie said, trying to keep her voice comforting. “It’s not just you any more, and entertaining the crowd doesn’t matter. Well, maybe a little when you introduce the new Demons, but we understand that it is all in fun, and teaches us how to fight them. Once we get to the front, the rules will change completely.”

“I know,” Pixyl said, a little sadness in her voice. She shuffled a bit, lying down on the cool grass with her head on Callie’s leg. “I feel like I don’t know another way, though.”

The two sat quietly for a while, both lost in their own thoughts. While Pixyl replayed her actions leading up to that last fight, Callie’s mind was still swirling around how her world changed with the girl in her lap. She couldn’t believe how clueless she’d been to how Pixyl felt about her, and she found herself feeling guilty and unsure of her feelings towards her friend. She cared for Pixyl, that was for sure, and really enjoyed kissing her. But whenever she tried to think about what a future might look like, everything seemed to get murky. Was it just because they would soon be deployed to the front, almost certainly to different locations? Was it that she still didn’t feel like this world was her home, maybe? Was it just too much too fast? That was probably it. They’d only known each other for four weeks.

“How long have you felt this way? About me, that is,” Callie found herself asking.

Pixyl looked up from Callie’s lap. “Since we got our Symbiotes.”

“Seriously?” Callie asked, dumbfounded and sitting up slightly. “That was at best a couple hours after we met! All the way back then? That fast?”

Pixyl simply shrugged. “It’s just how it happened.”

“I’m really not sure how to respond to that,” Callie said, before adding, “except with surprise. Did you tell anyone?”

Pixyl shook her head, but then added, “Ambria and Pama figured it out last Homeday. I made them p-p-promise not to tell you. Others apparently suspected.”

Callie remembered back to when Pixyl and Ambria left while she was working with Fizzlebek on the Golem arm. Pixyl had seemed out of sorts at the time, but Callie had been so involved with the mysterious arm glitch she hadn’t paid it much mind. That must have been a result of Ambria and Pama learning her secret. Suddenly, Callie found herself irritated that she hadn’t inquired more about what was bothering Pixyl at the time, because maybe the secret would have come out and they wouldn’t have lost a week.

“Hello?” a voice called. “Are you two back here?” It was the Major. She then added, “Are all your clothes on?”

“Over here,” Callie called back as Pixyl sat up. There was the sound of someone walking through the grass towards them.

“Ah, good. I thought I saw you two disappear in this direction.” Pixyl started to stand up, but the Major waved her down. “No, no. No need to stand. In fact, would you mind if I sit?”

“Uh, sure?” Callie said, gesturing towards a convenient patch of grass. “What’s up?” she added as Celeste sat down. Callie noticed that Pixyl’s expression had hardened again. It wasn’t necessarily anger towards the officer, but it definitely was a bit of lingering coldness.

Pixyl’s hard gaze was not lost on the Major, and she shifted awkwardly. “I know we’ll talk more tomorrow,” she said, looking at the Pixie, “but I wanted to apologize again for making things uncomfortable for you earlier. It was my hope it would be a teaching moment for everyone, but in my haste I didn’t think it through fully.”

Nobody said anything. Callie had hoped Pixyl would at least accept the apology, but her bitter stare remained. That felt slightly disappointing.

The Major cleared her throat, moving on. “I do have another topic I want to discuss, and it may be a little uncomfortable, too. I won’t apologize for this one, because we need to talk about it, but I will give you some perspective first.”

Callie had a sneaking suspicion she knew what this was going to be about, at least in a general sense, and was a little worried.

“When I came to the camp as a recruit for the first term, there were just five of us,” the Major started, telling a story. “It was myself, two Rangers, a Warlock and a Bladeweaver. Everything was riding on us doing well and Xera was staking a lot on the belief it was worth the cost to train Advanced classes provided with Symbiotes. It was going well. We all reached Bronze within the first two weeks, and we started to rank towards Silver. Then, I fucked up.”

That got Pixyl’s attention, along with Callie’s. The Major? How could she possibly screw up?

“The Bladeweaver and I became a thing,” Celeste said. “We were all over each other nearly every minute we could be. The officers and trainers told us to stop. We ignored them. They threatened us with punishments. We ignored them again.” She smiled slyly. “We were almost as bad at following orders as the two of you are.”

Callie’s chest tightened, suddenly worried what might come next, despite Celeste trying to keep things light. “What happened?” Callie croaked out, her throat hoarse.

“Our training started to suffer,” the Major said flatly. “We were so enamored with each other, so distracted, that half the lessons were lost on us. Xera finally had to put their foot down and they gave us a choice. Either one of us was going to be sent to the front, in the hopes the other could be salvaged, or we could agree to some restrictions.”

“And what were those?” Pixyl asked, the coldness towards the Major still in her voice.

Celeste sighed, trying to get past Pixyl’s attitude. “Look, I don’t know what may be developing between the two of you, but it's obviously been happening since you both got here, and I know full well neither of you will follow my orders if I told you to stop. I didn’t, after all, and you’re both more stubborn than I was. So, here’s my rule, and it’s the same rule I give to any other recruits that get involved with each other; the same I gave to Lena and Dregorio. Understand that this is absolutely non-negotiable! It’s simple – from the moment the thirty-minute training bell sounds in the morning, until the end of training for the day, you cannot be together. You need to focus entirely on training. That means no sneaking off! No heavy public affection! No nothing! You can eat lunch together, and give each other a quick kiss before you return to training, but that’s it. Understand?”

Callie and Pixyl looked at each other, both seeming to realize Celeste wasn’t kidding about this. “Okay,” Callie said, nodding slightly. She knew full well that the Major could make things difficult, even force them apart, and this was an entirely reasonable compromise, all things considered.

“Fine!” Pixyl snapped after a long, contemplative pause.

“I mean it, you two. Don’t cross me on this. Because of the time I was focused elsewhere, I left training only around SILVER.400. If I had kept my focus, and I suppose kept my pants on, too, I probably could have reached Gold. If I need to, I will send one of you away. I don’t want to do that, but there are bigger things at stake. Got it?”

Callie nodded immediately, and Pixyl soon followed.

“Alright then. If things don’t work out, you let me know and we’ll move one of you to a different cabin. I have a suspicion you’ll both be fine, though. Above all, training absolutely comes first! I’ll be informing Vonn and Reynard, Callie, so they can take action if you start slipping. The other senior officers will also be made aware. You two get exactly one chance to follow the rules I just gave you and maintain focus on your training. Don’t fuck it up. I almost did, and if I had been sent away, I’d very likely not be alive to give you this order.”

“Okay,” Callie said again, sending a strong vibe of urging towards Pixyl. Hesitantly, the Pixie nodded as well.

“Last thing, and then I’ll leave you be,” Celeste continued, changing the subject. “Both of you were great today. I mean that. Pixyl, your skills are absolutely amazing and Callie’s right, if not for you we never would have brought the big one down at the end. And Callie, the way you pulled everyone together to finish it was particularly impressive. Not a lot of people can take over from someone else that quickly, and then put together a coordinated attack on top of it. Xera will probably promote you back to Corporal again.”

Laughing, Callie held up her hands. “No no! No promotion.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m just going to do something else in the next couple of days and you’ll need to take it away again. Just keep score and give me whatever rank I end up with at the end. I’ll probably end up with a negative number and be demoted to whatever is below Recruit, honestly.”

“There’s nothing below Recruit,” the Major laughed.

Pixyl actually laughed too. “Trust me, something will get invented, just for her.”