Rising Shards

There were enough boxes to make a fort in my apartment. Evy and I planned to move the bigger stuff like the bed over the coming weeks, as I opted to only move smaller boxes of things while I was on my watch over a recovering Zeta week. I had just gotten back from dropping off some of my things in an all too brief visit to Evy, but Zeta demanded enough attention sometimes that she distracted me from the pangs of missing my favorite doctor. I hummed as I got our dinner together, a mildly spicy casserole (we both enjoy spicy foods, me more than Zeta as she has a more sensitive system than I do and can’t handle things too spicy.

“Stella, ugh!” Zeta cried out from the living room. “I thought you said you weren’t gonna pack my stuff!”

An example of Zeta demanding attention: when she got in a bratty mood.

“I said I’m leaving the important stuff to you!” I called back. I tried very hard to not immediately retaliate, because she had been through the ringer and was still recovering.

Zeta pouted and held up one of her toys. “This Arlit figure has a loose elbow joint, it needs to be packed very carefully!" She demonstrated the slightly wobbly elbow of the toy. "Honestly, it shouldn’t be packed at all, I want to just personally carry her over. This is one of my rare ones, Stella!” She stormed off into her room. She wasn’t a door slammer, mercifully, but there was a slight forcefulness to her shutting herself in her room.

“Dinner will be ready in about half an hour!” I said. That probably made her angrier, but she cooled off pretty quickly. And was the most precious thing once she cooled off after getting steamed about something.

As I waited by the oven, I decided to text Evy, sending a picture of the casserole. “Dinner is almost ready!”

“Yummy. Save me some?” 

I was glad neither of us cared about how long to wait between messages. I had definitely over thought message speed in the past.

“I think we’re gonna eat it all, sorry. I’d rather make you one from scratch just for you, though.”

“I’ll look forward to it! But seriously if there are leftovers, gimme. That looks amazing.”

“It’s spicy!”

“I’m drooling Stella, all I have here are microwave dinners.”

“Is that your way of saying you miss me today?”

“Depends, is making me jealous with your badass dinner your way of saying you miss me?”

“Maybe. ;)”

“How’s our recovering intrepid void adventurer doing?”

I made sure Zeta’s door was still shut because I had to sit down and bury my face in my sweater sleeves for a second. Evy caring about Zeta just hit me like I was getting a hug from someone I hadn’t seen in years.

“She’s mad at me right now. Fine otherwise! Still getting better.”

“Why mad at you? Or, why is she mad at you, rather? That came out a bit caveman.”

“We’re texting, Evy, it’s fine. I didn’t pack one of her toys right.”

“Ahhh, I see. You don’t mess with Zeta’s Raina Starlight stuff, that’s an amateur mistake.”

I snorted. I wanted to just gush about how good Evy was with Zeta so far and how much I adored it, but as I looked across the kitchen table to two empty seats.

“I wish you were here with us right now. When we’re all clear, and if we’re still...a few steps above casual…would you want to have dinners with us together?”

The idea of having Evy for a dinner, something that’d make it feel like…the word ‘family’ came to mind, but my family dinners when my parents were around weren’t great memories. I felt something cozier picturing Evy at dinner, Zeta there too, at some point after I worked up the courage to tell her about us.

Lys would have immediately laughed the idea of a dinner with Zeta. I don’t know why I was even thinking of my ex so much as of late. Maybe the things that were going well for Evy and I were reminding me of the things that didn’t go well with Lys. And like Zeta, I needed to recover and heal from the wounds of past relationships. I told her it takes time to heal, and I needed to take that advice for myself.

As I was lost in my contemplations, I didn’t even notice Evy had written back.

“I’d like that a lot, Stel.”

All I managed to text back was “Good.” The feeling I got from picturing a cozy dinner with the three of us, that somehow becoming normal, became clearer. It was like a warm, comforting blanket was wrapped around both of us, despite how far apart we were.

“Seriously, if there are any leftovers, give me some. Or should I say searously?”

“Nooooo don’t make my typo a thing!”

I excused myself when the casserole finished, promising to talk more soon. As I finished prepping, Zeta shuffled out of her room, her head low. An example of Zeta being the most precious thing after a thunderstorm of a mood passed her: when she apologized for it. The routine was the same every time, but I never got tired of it.

She kept her head low as she handed me a homemade card. “M’sorry…” She said quietly. Then we hugged. We sometimes bonked heads, exactly like two cats, and this was a definite cat style head bonk Zeta apology.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll do my best not to mess with your toys. I think you’re entitled to some angry time this week too, you know.” I said.

“I’m feeling better now,” Zeta said. Her stomach growled. “And hungry.”

“Well, you’re in luck then.” I said, getting her plate ready.

We had a nice dinner, but I couldn’t deny I kept looking at the empty chairs at our dinner table and daydreaming that Evy was with us.