Callie's Heroes

PART I: SPILL!

"Okay, spill!" Callie demanded as Lena returned from the showers.

"What?" Lena replied with a shrug while hanging her armor. She'd washed the dirt and mud off a bit, and then dried it with a towel, but it was still damp. The Brownies would take it away sometime in the night and return it pristine-clean come morning, or if not tonight, soon after.

Callie, sitting cross-legged on the Ogre bed blanket fort, crossed her arms, giving her friend an incredulous look. Pixyl, sitting right next to her, was doing the same thing. "Spill!" Callie demanded again.

The bunkerball victory celebration a short time ago had been completely derailed when Juniper had come sweeping onto the field to intensely lock lips with a mortified Lena. Once the obligatory catcalls subsided, Lena had mumbled something about needing to go clean up and quickly walked away from the rather stunned gathering, Flashstepping to flee as soon as she was clear of the people.

Eyes turned to Juniper, who was just smiling away as she watched Lena go, her fingers waving in goodbye. Behind her, Vanis was covering his face and shaking his head slowly. He quickly took the Dryad's other hand, pulling her away from the crowd before anyone could start to say something, Callie distinctly hearing, 'Juniper, you cannot do that!' from Vanis with her Gnome-hearing.

While waiting back at Ogre house for Lena to return from the showers, Callie and Pixyl had compared notes on their observations the previous evening regarding their cabinmate and Juniper. Between the two dancing and laughing together, coupled with the flower Callie had seen Juniper presenting the Elf, things had certainly become quite friendly. Juniper had also called her 'Lenora', and Lena didn't even get upset about that. Pixyl then pointed out Lena hadn't come back overnight. Callie had assumed their friend had just gone out to watch the shooting stars, either passing out or simply falling asleep in the pleasant night air like a few other people had. That wasn't seeming like the case any longer.

'We're waiting," Callie said flatly, refusing to let Lena evade the question.

"Fine! Yes, she kissed me."

"No kidding! We all saw that!"

"She called you 'm-m-my love'." Pixyl pointed out.

"She's … strange," Lena replied. It was an obvious deflection, and a poor one at that.

"And where were you last night?" Callie said, some part in the back of her head realizing she was sounding just like her mother asking the same question under probably similar circumstances. "You never came home."

"Just … out and about?" Lena suggested, vaguely waving a hand in the air, hoping it would be enough. It wasn't.

"Out and about where?"

"At Juniper's tree."

"And what were you doing all night?" Callie continued. "Or who!"

"Um …" Lena said, knowing she was trapped. She sighed, shoulders sagging as she fell to a seating position on her bunk.

"Ha! I knew it!" Callie said, pointing in victory. "You got with her last night, didn't you?"

"It's Midsummer?" the Elf tried as a deflection.

Callie and Pixyl just looked at Lena, neither saying anything as they smirked, as if demanding more juicy details. The atmosphere had a sense of a bunch of silly teenagers gossiping in debriefing after a friend's first date. While it was an interrogation, it also felt like it was mostly in fun, and the three of them knew it.

Lena, for her part, just put her hands to her face. Groaning in exasperation, she quickly lay back in her bed. "I can't believe I did that."

"First," Callie said, holding up a finger, "way to go." She added another finger. "Second, I had no idea you were gay … er ren … er, one of us."

"Sometimes. When in the right mood, usually when I'm drunk or the like," Lena sighed. "Not normally." Then she added, "Feminine energy and touch is nice occasionally, you know?"

"Ah! Gotcha! A 'Tequila Lesbian'," Callie grinned. "I've met a lot of them over the years. Happy to make out when they're drinking or high, but not so much otherwise."

"Tequila?"

"One of the most evil alcohols on Earth," Callie warned. "The cause of … and solution to … many of life's problems. It's done me bad many times over the years." Then she waggled her eyebrows. "And good, sometimes, too."

Pixyl couldn't help but laugh at that description.

"We had fun dancing," Lena continued. "It was all light and flirty and the wine was there and then she conjured a pretty flower for me and …" Lena roughly rubbed her face. Then she added, "Damn, I just realized I left the flower back at her tree. She said it was permanent and I wanted to keep it."

At least Callie now understood why Lena had been distracted during the game. It hadn't been long ago that Callie would have been all over a chance to get with Juniper, and not just because of that first-day seduction charm. Of course, once the Dryad and Vanis became a thing, and especially since pairing up with Pixyl, it became more of an admiration from afar. She still understood the sentiment, though.

"'My love'?" Pixyl said, asking again for an explanation. "What's that about?"

Lena simply repeated her groan, wrapping her arms tightly around her head. "I don't know! But Vanis said that she'd probably never … you know … been with anyone else."

"Really? Not even him? And she's now throwing love around? Damn girl, how good are you?" Callie asked with a laugh.

"He never let it get physical," Lena continued, ignoring or not hearing the teasing question. "Apparently that Nature/Nether thing."

"Wait, so you were her first?" Callie gasped wide eyed, putting the math together and recalling the conversation from the day before. "Like … her first first?"

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"I guess."

"Whoa, a five-hundred year old virgin," Callie said in an awed and surprised voice. Pixyl looked just as surprised as she did. Callie tilted her head, adding, "Then again, I assume she's been mostly isolated in this forest for all this time. There's nobody but the camp in the range of her tree, and it wasn't built here until a few years ago. Dunno where she would have learned to speak, though. Maybe her parents? Do Dryads have parents?"

"I wish I'd known," Lena groaned and sighed simultaneously.

"Would it have mattered if you had?"

"Yes! Well, maybe." Lena gave it another thought and sighed. "No, probably not. But after our talk yesterday, now I'm worried I didn't make it special for her."

"Lena! Girl! She seems pretty damn happy to me!" Callie giggled, waving Pixyl's puzzled expression off with a silent 'later', since she hadn't been part of the conversation with Xin.

Rolling her eyes a bit, Lena was forced to agree with that assessment. "Maybe too happy. She's using … that word."

"She definitely seems to at least have a massive crush on you," Callie agreed. "What are you going to do? Maybe more importantly, what do you want to do?"

"I don't know. I suppose I could just ignore her. And we'll be leaving soon, so the problem will simply sort itself out, right?"

"While I usually subscribe to the 'ignore the problem' method, in this case, that's sorta cold and childish," Callie said. "Juniper is one of us."

Then she saw the conflicted look on Lena's face. "But … you don't want to ignore her, do you." Callie carefully continued, filling in Lena's unsaid words she was having problems saying. "You're feeling something for her, aren't you? Maybe not love, or at least not yet?"

"I don't think so, not romantic I mean, at least not with her. She's starfire and fun and …"

"Wait a minute! 'Not with her'?" Callie snapped, her eyes going wide as she caught the words. She looked across the room to see the bunk that Vanis would normally occupy. A bunk that had very definitely not been slept in the night before. "Pixyl, Vanis didn't come home last night, did he?"

"Nope," the Pixie said flatly, slowly sounding out the word and emphasizing the final pop, trying really hard to keep her face neutral as she looked at Lena with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Lena! Did you bang Vanis last night, too?" Callie demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

"No!" Lena replied quickly. "Of course not!"

"Oh. Good. We already have enough sexual awkwardness in Ogre House with me and Pixyl."

"It was this morning," Lena mumbled quietly, but easily loud enough that even Pixyl was able to hear it.

"What?!"

"It's Midsummer! It doesn't matter!"

"Nuh uh," Callie said, wagging a finger. "You don't get to play the Midsummer card on this one, because you distinctly said it wasn't Juniper you had romantic feelings for. This firmly implies that there's someone else that you do have feelings for, and I'm pretty sure it's not Xin or Tazrok. I thought you hated Vanis because he was all rich and nobility and stuff?"

Lena rubbed her face with the palms of her hands again, then ran them over her bald head, exasperated. "He's … sweet. And kind. He's a good person."

"True."

"He has a really nice arse, too."

"I suppose, if you're into that kind of thing on a guy."

"He's just not what I expected," Lena sighed, "and he's grown on me a bit." She laughed once. "You know, last week I asked him to be my companion for Midsummer. He turned me down flat. I knew it was bad timing as the proclamation about his grandfathers had just arrived, but there was never going to be a good time after that. Then, a few hours later when we came back here and he'd torn the place apart … I had a moment of panic in worry when we found him injured and unconscious. I think that's when something changed. I find myself drawn to him now, and part of me wonders if there could ever be anything more. And there is that nice arse thing, too."

"I fell for Callie just looking into her eyes," Pixyl said. "It happens how it happens."

Lena waved her hand, as if to wave away a troubling, bothersome fly. "I'm sure there's nothing to it. It's just Midsummer to him, after all." Then, she reached for her pillow and covered her face with it, before a muffled scream of general frustration sounded out.

Callie and Pixyl looked at each other, unsure what to say or do. Lena's confusion was obvious and understandable, but neither of them had any kind of good advice. Callie was also a bit torn. Normally, she'd happily encourage people to get together, and if it was just Lena and Vanis as part of this equation, she'd be all for it. Could there be drama? Sure, even likely. But life is drama, and if you wave off your feelings worried about that, then ultimately you end up wondering 'what if' and it eats at you.

No, the problem, or at least Callie's concern, was that Juniper was part of this little love-triangle. Obviously, the Dryad was reading way more into the night with Lena than Lena was. In fact, from all appearances, Juniper was head-over-heels. This meant that she was guaranteed to get hurt in the end, either by Lena not reciprocating the same level of feelings, or ultimately when her time at the camp was over, likely both. Not handled correctly, that kind of emotional damage could cripple a person, especially one as emotionally naive as Juniper was.

"In all seriousness, Lena. What do you want to do? About both Juniper and Vanis?" Callie asked.

"Absolutely nothing! I just want to hide away until it's time to leave."

"No, you don't," Callie scolded with a laugh as she rolled her eyes.

Lena sighed. "You're right, I don't. I do like Juniper. She's fun and eager and beautiful and … she's … comfortable. I was able to just relax and really be myself for the first time in a long time with her; for the first time in a couple years maybe. That's sometimes hard to do with males. Sure, I was mostly drunk, but I find I do sincerely care for her for some reason. I just don't think I ever see myself being in love with her. Does that make any sense? It's hard to articulate."

"I think so," Callie said quietly. "People are complex, and who and how we are attracted to each other is complex, too. But you both need to be on the same page, especially since this is all so new for her. If you're not, one or both of you are going to get hurt. If you really care for her, you need to talk to her."

"What about Vanis?" Pixyl asked.

"It's Midsummer," Lena said flatly. "There's no expectations of anything, so we can just let that die and ignore everything I said here."

"Uh huh," Callie said disbelievingly.

"I mean it," Lena said, in a more serious tone this time. "Just a passing moment for the holiday. I'm content with that. I'll be leaving in a few weeks and will never see him again, so that issue is resolved. He certainly understands that, and I'm sure feels nothing for me. Besides, I can't have the distraction."

"Okay," Callie said, raising her hands in an exaggerated shrug. "If that's what you want, we'll obviously keep quiet. You're right, you and Vanis are both at least adult enough to talk this through. But, you have to promise us you'll talk to Juniper. Like, right now, before the evening festivities even get started. Not tomorrow or the day after, when the holiday is over."

Slowly, Lena nodded in agreement. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to be there with me?"

"Fuck no! This is your mess to clean up, girl," Callie said with a giggle, Pixyl giggling along with her. Then, she got more serious. "Just be honest with her, okay? And be gentle. I'm sure Vanis has talked to her a bit, too, so maybe ask him how best to approach the subject? He might want to be there."

Lena flumphed the pillow over her face again, letting loose another muffled and stressed scream, but eventually nodding in agreement. "Fine!" she growled into the pillow, and standing, she threw it against the wall in frustration. "I'll go find Vanis." Roughly pulling on her beret, Lena hesitantly left Ogre House with a deep sigh, stepping into the bright sunlight.

"She is absolutely in love with both of them," Pixyl said with a laugh. "Isn't she?"

"Oh yeah," Callie agreed. "Completely. I haven't heard such adamant denials since I broke my grandmother's cookie jar and blamed it on the neighbor's cat." Then, she snapped her fingers as if she'd forgotten something. "Dammit! I was going to congratulate her on managing to out-slut Ambria. Remind me to do that later."