NOVEL NEXT Chapter 15: Second Thoughts
Augusta hung back as she pulled her observation shift. She was certain Svetlana was angry at her (with good reason), and so she’d asked Plynx not to mention she’d come back just yet. She needed to figure out an apology before meeting up again.
Keeping Svetlana safe from aliens couldn’t wait for that, though. Hence tailing Svetlana from several metres away.
She did wonder where her love was going, wearing a reasonably modest black and purple sundress and a large hat to match. It was odd for Svetlana to wear something so quiet and unassuming. Even her shoes were fairly conventional for once.
All in all the outfit was closer to what Augusta would have thought ‘Kevin’ would wear if born a girl than the outfits Svetlana normally went for.
She was even more intrigued when Svetlana popped into a cafe patio for her brunch. Especially when it seemed like she was waiting for someone.
Svetlana looked over the menu another time, glad this place had all day breakfast. Sure, she didn’t mind steak and wine for breakfast, but Noah was on nights this week too and might be pickier about breakfasts.
She was about to check her phone to see what time it was when he walked in, that charming soft smile on his face.
“I hope you weren’t waiting long,” he said as he sat down.
“No, no. Besides, there’s a lot of good choices, so it gave me more time to figure out what to pick,” she replied.
Noah let out a small laugh as he picked up his menu. “Oh, wow. You’re not kidding. I think this menu counts as reading a novella.”
Svetlana gave a little giggle, perhaps more to sell her femininity than anything. Noah spent a few moments looking at the menu as she weighed between two options. She noticed that he seemed to spend as much time looking at her as looking at the menu, however. That caused a smile to grow on her face.
Augusta blinked, as she watched Svetlana and this man. He… he was flirting with her love.
She supposed that was no surprise. Svetlana was so beautiful she’d tried to convince herself her attraction was envy for a good few days after Svetlana had changed. (Not that envy was much better than lust, but…)
What was getting her, though, was that Svetlana seemed to be… returning the flirting? That didn’t seem right.
Perhaps Svetlana was just being polite?
No. No. Svetlana was giggling and…
Then, perhaps Augusta was just reading too much into it, projecting her own insecurities about how Svetlana felt about her?
Noah blinked as their plates arrived, eyes drifting to Svetlana’s breakfast spread.
“What?” Svetlana asked, honestly confused as she grabbed her fork and knife.
“It’s just… I guess you always did have an appetite, but the way you were batting your eyelashes and all that… I thought you would order a salad or something,” Noah replied with a blush.
“…Is it a problem?” Svetlana asked, starting to pile a bit of omelette on a slice of toast.
“Oh. No! No… I guess I’m just curious how you’ve changed and how you haven’t,” he replied, eyes drifting up from her plate, but pausing a moment before they made it to her face. “Um… gosh, I’m making a terrible impression, aren’t I?”
Svetlana shrugged. “We’ve known each other for years, you doof. You’re past first impressions.”
“Right. There’s just… lots new, so… I’m messing this up, aren’t I?” Noah mumbled, eyes now dipping to his own plate.
“Hey, I knew you were terrible on first dates going into this. I’ll remind you it was my shoulder you cried on in grade 12 after your date with Rebecca MacDonald,” Svetlana replied with a grin.
Noah turned an adorable shade of pink as she ate her omelette and toast.
Augusta grabbed her phone, texting Plynx for help. Sure, Svetlana’s gender wasn’t being interfered with by the ray, but she was out here flirting with a man. That was definitely new, and therefore concerning.
The rest of the meal continued as small talk, Noah remaining awkward. He got a bit better, but still nervous enough that Svetlana could feel giddy about him reading this as a date.
The conversation on the way over to the art gallery was a bit less normal, Noah wanting to learn about the aliens thing. Svetlana felt rather full of herself, explaining that she was the heiress to a lost empire, but, well, it was the truth and had been shoved on her.
Plynx nodded as she watched Svetlana and the unknown man sitting and chatting on the rooftop plaza outside the art gallery.
“They’re definitely flirting,” Plynx said, continuing to nod. “This is quite unsettling.”
“I thought so as well. Do you think it’s from the ray not being calibrated to a human, or a natural result of changed neurochemistry?” Augusta asked, as they remained hidden behind a concrete tree pot.
“Are you… you not a lesbian?” Plynx asked, not sure what she should specify Augusta as right now (that would be read as polite).
“Qu’e—what does that have to do with anything?” Augusta retorted, cheeks going red.
“It should solve the idea of estrogen making Svetlana-dearest like men, no?” Plynx replied.
“I—I believe you might be able to push at the edges of one’s sexuality with hormones?” Augusta explained. “I think
?”“Maybe Thisbe-friend would know better,” Plynx offered. “Blood carries most hormones and it is what she eats after all.”
Augusta nodded. “That is logical.”
Svetlana tilted her head, staring at the statue in the gallery room in front of her. “Is it a… thing? It looks like it’s supposed to be something, but I can’t place what.”
Noak leaned forward, reading the plaque at the base. “It says it represents the ‘loneliness of the human condition’.”
“Ok, but, it could still be a… darn. It’s on the tip of my tongue what it reminds me of,” Svetlana replied, walking around the statue to see if a new angle helped.
Bending nearly completely sideways, the answer hit her, and she raised a hand in celebration… only to lose her already precarious footing with the motion. Luckily she fell towards Noah, who caught her under the shoulders. Slumped in his arms, she looked up and smiled.
“The spaceship for the final level of Aura 2,” she said, with a finger raised in happy success.
“What?” Noah replied, blinking.
“That’s what the statue reminds me of,” she explained. “You know. On the Yboy…”
“Oh. Right,” he said, looking up and over to the statue. “I suppose it does… you falling kind of distracted me.”
“I knew you were behind me somewhere,” Svetlana said, shifting her weight so she could stand back up in one smooth motion. “You always were good at catching me.”
“I have to be, you’re always falling off of things,” Noah replied with a blush. “At least when Vivian isn’t around to catch you first… I swear, you’re part monkey with how much you like climbing things.”
“Well, duh,” Svetlana said as they walked over to the next room. “Humans are phylogenetically monkeys, as Plynx loves to point out. Though vampires apparently have bat genes in there somewhere… and then there’s other supernatural creatures… So many more of those than I realised before.”
“Mmm. Fox folks and such,” Noah replied with a nod.
Thisbe sniffed the air, trying to get a better read on Svetlana’s feelings. Unfortunately, things were being more than a little drowned out by the panic and worry flooding off Augusta and Plynx. It was making it hard for her to stay calm herself. Then there was the background noise, so much emotion radiating off all the works of art in the gallery, while the building itself was designed to absorb everything.
Still, she could tell she was picking up some sort of romance in the air.
“Could this be just hormones?” Augusta whispered.
Thisbe still wasn’t sure what she was doing back, but decided to ignore that for the time being. “Maybe? Those sorts of hormones don’t tend to affect me when I feed, though. I think I pick up adrenaline? But that could also just be the energy of having food in my system.”
The other two women nodded, growing deep in thought.
“Should I be worried about the others I zapped?” Plynx muttered to herself.
“You zapped other people!?” Augusta blurted, covering her mouth and eyes going wide too late.
The trio scrambled to hide before Svetlana could look their way.
Svetlana glanced over her shoulder, having thought she’d heard Augusta of all people for a moment. There was no one when she looked, though.
She and Noah finished up their tour of the gallery after a little while longer. It had been nice, their time together going smoothly in general. It helped that they’d known each other since high school, even if Noah didn’t know how to handle her being a woman now.
Noah offering to walk her home was an extra layer of nice. He’d always been a gentleman.
Vivian blinked as she watched Plynx, Augusta, and Thisbe slinking along the street following Svetlana. She was also surprised to see Noah Heartwright walking with Svetlana, having not heard he was back in town. She supposed his three year stint up north was probably over now, though.
The other three took her more immediate attention, though. They were up to something. She crossed the street and walked up behind them.
“Is there a good reason for this?” she asked, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised.
“Ah! Down, down!” Plynx hissed, panic in her eyes.
Slightly confused, Vivian obeyed. “Ok, so, I’m crouching now… can I learn why?”
“Regardes,” Augusta hissed, gesturing to Svetlana and Noah.
“I’m looking?” Vivian replied.
“Something is very wrong with Svetlana-dearest, no?” Plynx whispered.
“I…” Vivian began, not sure what she was looking at.
The others seemed convinced, though. So she decided to stay quiet and follow. Whatever it was would become visible shortly, right?
“So,” Svetlana asked, as they stepped off the elevator to her apartment. “That was nice, no?”
Noah blushed and nodded. “Definitely. I’d love to do another date, when we’re both free again.”
Svetlana smiled, her cheeks going warm with joy. It had been nice. Normal. No alien attacks. She needed more relaxing days like this.
“Well, I can’t make any promises, but, hopefully we can have another one soon. As long as—” she was interrupted by the other elevator door opening, and four of her girlfriends bursting out.
Well, three of them, with Vivian leaving in a more controlled manner.
Wait, was Augusta still her girlfriend?
“I cannot stay quiet any longer, Svetlana-dearest!” Plynx shouted.
Svetlana blinked, confused. “About?”
“What you-dearest have done today!” Plynx replied, waving her arms about.
“You’re clearly not yourself, chérie,” Augusta added.
“I’m… not? Why?” Svetlana asked, before looking down at herself. “Is it the… shoes? I can wear normal shoes if I want to?”
“You were with him!” Augusta said, pointing at Noah.
“Me? What did I do?” the gentle eyed man asked.
“You-stranger tried to take advantage of Svetlana-dearest’s brains being scrambled,” Plynx said.
“Wait. He did?” Vivian asked. “Noah. What did you do to her?”
“N-nothing that I know of?” he replied, arms up in confusion.
The door to the apartment opened, an annoyed looking Cartridge standing there in only boxers and a bra. “Do you people not know what an ‘inside voice’ means?”
Noah gave her a once over, before turning red enough he could stop traffic.
“Oh, hey Noah,” Cartridge said, waving at him. “Been a—oh! You’re checking me out!”
The redhead smiled as Noah spun to look away, studying the wallpaper across the hallway.
“N-not really. It was—it was shock, not leering!” he blurted.
“Well, if you want to see more you’ll have to sign up to my LonelyFans. As a lesbian, only cute girls and adjacent enbies get free access,” Cartridge replied with a grin.
“Really? What’s your accou—” Noah started, having turned halfway around, before he looked over to Svetlana and blushed. “I mean… um…”
Svetlana tilted her head, not sure why he was staring at her like a deer in headlights.
“Wait. How is the petite pervert still only into women, but not Svetlana,” Augusta asked, turning to Plynx.
The feline alien slid deep into thought for a moment, until the sound of Vivian slapping her forehead drew the attention of everyone.
“That’s what you three thought was wrong with her?” Vivian groaned. “Svetlana’s been a bi disaster as long as I’ve known her… you all have just kept her too busy for any dating efforts.”
“I’m not a disaster,” Svetlana protested. “I’ve been quite successful in most of my romantic pursuits.”
Her three other girlfriends blushed, quietly mumbling apologies as they all filed into the apartment to stop disturbing the neighbours. Noah was quiet as he sat in one corner, watching as M’gnyz Mynx played an old JRPG on the tv and ignored the rest of them. Cartridge returned to her room, not invested in whatever happened as long as no one trashed anything.
Svetlana focused on asking the three blushing disasters what they were doing following her, and felt a bit annoyed to learn they decided to watch her without telling her.
“Well, you did go on a date without telling us,” Vivian said with a shrug.
“I—wait, one second,” she said, turning and walking to her room. Opening the door, she found O’tmyil browsing through Digipedia on her computer. “Did you not tell anyone about my date?”
O’tmyil turned to her, confused. “I just wanted to check a few dozen articles on the history of this planet first. That—wait… oh. It’s been four hours. I forgot how slow browsing was without a direct hook up.”
Svetlana rubbed the bridge of her nose. She couldn’t really be upset with O’tmyil. It was her own fault for forgetting to charge her phone last night, and O’tmyil was still injured and recovering from the fight.
Speaking of, her own side was starting to hurt again, the painkillers she’d taken before the date were wearing off.
“Keep browsing,” she said, waving to O’tmyil before heading back to the living room.
While she’d been away, apparently Plynx and Augusta all decided they needed to interrogate Noah, who was looking more than a little terrified.
Svetlana was about to try to save him when the apartment door swung open. She spent a moment realising she didn’t lock it, before processing who’d open the door. It was a mysterious woman in an outfit that, while suitable for the heat of July in Hammer City, was clearly of Inuit design. Which probably meant she was Inuit, rather than East Asian like Svetlana had first thought. The woman also had hair that was dark grey with white highlights.
Her ears were—well, as the woman marched past, Svetlana saw she had a fox-like tail, which must have meant her ears were fox ears.
“Noah!” the woman shouted, drawing everyone else’s attention.
“… Ukilak? What are you doing here?” he asked.
The fox woman began to cry, throwing herself at him. “I missed you too much! I’m sorry I said I’d never move south with you!”
Noah and the fox girl proceed to gush their hearts out to each other. Svetlana smiled, happy to see the joy on her friend’s face, even if he was finding love somewhere else.
It was also maybe nice to learn she wasn’t the only one with a crazy life.