Eirwyn

“Karis, you’re not even warmed up yet! Hurry up!”

“No, that’s not how it goes. Do it again, Karis.”

“You’re not in time, Karis! Speed up!”

She came to a stop a few feet away from her skating partner, who stood arms folded across his chest, frowning. “I swear to god if you don’t stop barking orders at me, Derrick, I’ll-”

“I’m sorry, this competition means so much to me...” He lowered his arms, slowly skating towards his partner.

“And it does to me, too.”

“Just doesn’t seem like it, that’s all.” Derrick put his sturdy hands on her shoulders, trying to look her in the eye as she kept glancing away. “It doesn’t help right now if you get... Involved... With another guy...”

“There’s nothing between Karik and I.”

“Certainly didn’t look like it.”

“He’s an old friend...”

“If that’s what you want to call it.”

Karis shrugged his hands off her, nimbly skating backwards to create much needed distance between them both. “He’d heard you’re a bit of a dick and decided to make you jealous. He knew the kiss wouldn’t be enough, so added the thigh grope for good measure.” She smiled at his scowl. “It’s funny cos it worked.” She spotted their coach at the side of the rink and skated towards him. “Just because you’ve not had any interest in you since I left you!” She called over her shoulder, knowing how infuriated she’d now made him.

Karis loved their coach. Not only did he have a brilliant mind for choreography, he was totally on her side. Joshua treated her like a kid sister, and despised Derrick for trying to control her. Problem was, he was also a brilliant skater, it would be difficult to get rid of him.

Training went smoothly with Joshua’s arrival. Well, at least she enjoyed it more. As she glided around the rink, she couldn’t help but get random threads of conversation pop up in her head. Although the Scions apparently didn’t leave much of an impression on her before, they certainly were now.

Moshinas grabbed her the most, though. “So which of you is in charge this time?”

That made it seem like someone else other than Nazara was. And the way he said it...

Nah, there was no way it was her... Was there?

Despite her absent mind, the pair of them progressed well that evening. She called Nazara afterwards, fearing Derrick’s wrath, but as she couldn’t get through, she reluctantly phoned Fenrir instead to come and pick her up.
He looked just as thrilled to be driving the Mini as the he did earlier. She waved to Joshua as she got in the passenger side, throwing her bag onto the back seat.

“You looked better in the dress.”

“Charming, as usual.”

He was right though. She’d pulled on some trackies and a hoodie over the top as she’d left. Although she wasn’t cold, everyone else expected her to be.

“By the way, Fenrir.” She waited until they pulled away before calling him by his real name. “I’m not sure if I should be thanking you, or slapping you for earlier...”

Eirwyn glanced over, watching as the smirk from earlier re-emerged on his face. “You’re welcome.”

Yeah... Of course he’d assume I was thanking him... She stopped her own trail of thought. “... I think I can still feel a slight burning sensation on my thigh...”

Fenrir didn’t get the chance to make a witty comment, because her phone jumped to life in her pocket. She tried her best to keep a neutral expression as the screen read “unknown number”, because the excited butterflies in her stomach were either rightfully there, or she was about to suffer a bitter disappointment.

“Hello? Is that Ka-”

Yay! Tellus! “Hey, can you give me a call back later? In about half an hour? I’m just on my way home.”

“Oh, uh...” He paused for a moment. “Oh, yes, okay. Talk to you later.”

“Bye!”

“Who was that?”

Ah yes. Ever the nosy one. “Just a friend.” She replied simply. For some reason, she felt a great need to protect his identity.

“You have friends?”

“Fuck off, Fenrir.” She hit his arm. “I didn’t kill all my friends.”

“They weren’t my friends.” He frowned.

They sat in silence for most of the way, it was only when that little question of Moshinas’s popped up for the billionth time that she could take it anymore and just had to ask.

“Fenrir...” Eirwyn began, twirling the chord from her hoodie between her fingers. “It was me that lead the last rebellion, wasn’t it?”

It was then she witnessed Fenrir’s poker face. Followed by more silence. By the looks of things, he was quietly, discreetly, trying to figure out what he should say to the poor little amnesia girl. Of course, there was no pity from him; she could already tell that at no point had they ever been close friends. It didn’t really occur to her that he might be considering what he was allowed to say...

“I take your silence as a yes.” She laughed awkwardly. “I still don’t remember, don’t worry, it’s just something Moshinas said.”

For a moment, he looked curious. “What did he say?”

“So which of you is in charge this time? With a big emphasis on the this.”

“Subtle.”

“A little, I suppose. But he didn’t know that I couldn’t remember. And your lack of response only makes my gut feeling stronger.” She drew her knees up to her chest, resting her forehead in the palms of her hands and pushing her hair out of her face. “I fucked up, didn’t I? Don’t answer that.”

As they pulled up outside her house, she wasn’t sure who was more relieved out of the pair of them. She got out without a word, retrieved her bag and was walking down the path to her house before Fenrir called after her. “You got your phone this time?”

She fished it out her pocket, waving it at him. “See you tomorrow.”

As she fished out her keys, she felt her legs complain. She’d forgotten to stretch before she left the ice rink and she knew she’d pay for it in the morning if she didn’t do it now... Ah well, she had time to kill before Tellus called again.


TAG TELLUS My plan hereafter is to have the lovely phonecall with Tellus, perhaps run into him on the bus in the morning, dump her stuff at the Cathedral then bugger off to fetch Zedona. Excellent. Toodles!