The worst thing about whatever this situation with Halen was, her former classmate slowly strolling down the long walkway that connected the various restaurants but hardly anyone ever used because it was more time effective to use the exit line, even Free Coloniers borrowing one of the small devices Halen had designed that allowed them to interface with it—Halen had insisted their destination
wasn’t that far
—was that Emilia was pretty sure
she
was the one making things awkward.
Everything about this situation felt weird—Halen being here at all felt weird. He shouldn’t be here, and he definitely shouldn’t be slowly making his way to a restaurant just for her, nothing about him rushed, as though he actually wanted to spend time with her. This was Halen being nice, and it was a
nice
she wasn’t used to from him.
Over the years, Emilia had been in plenty of prank wars with other classmates, but with the exception of Halen and his friends, most of those wars had been short. Generally, it didn’t take long for people to realize they could never match her ability to block skills or design new and terrible ones. Halen had never given up on messing with her, and as a result, that meant he’d never been able to try the tactic her occasional other prank rivals had: being nice in an attempt to trick her into letting them get close.
Halen and her were not people who could be nice to each other without a really fucking good reason. Occasionally, they had come up against a common enemy and been able to collaborate, but with the exception of the time they’d trashed another school together—they’d had it coming—their relationship still hadn’t been nice or kind, and honestly? Emilia was surprised they hadn’t killed each other during those moments of collaboration, Simeon usually ending up as a buffer between them because while Halen wasn’t friends with Simeon, he also wasn’t the sort of jerk to take his annoyance with her out of the ECC Dyad.
For all that Halen could be a massive ass, he was a decent person when it came to manoeuvring around and accommodating various irregular deviations. It was part of the reason she was almost positive that not only had he never said anything negative about her own silverstrain, but had probably told his friends off for saying bad things.
Certainly, when the shitbag who had assaulted her had mysteriously disappeared, Halen had barely batted an eye, something telling her that maybe he had known something had happened, and he shouldn’t mourn the so-called friend who had done it. Sometimes, Emilia wondered how Rafe had managed to figure out who did it, when she herself had no memory of their face. Sometimes, Emilia wondered if Halen had turned Rafe’s attention towards his friend—a friend Halen had refused to even speak of since his disappearance a decade earlier.
So, yeah, Halen could cooperate with her for a good cause, he could maybe even be nice in a passing sort of way. Halen could not, however, be nice to her.
“So,”
Emilia’s brain repeated for what felt like the millionth time,
“what the fuck is happening!?”
“Where are you all going after this?” Halen asked, finally snapping the tension between them—tension that, again, Emilia was pretty sure was only coming from her as her brain turned itself over, trying to figure out what this situation was.
“Don’t know… Olivier won’t tell us. It’s supposed to be a surprise…” Emilia peered at her former classmate, not even trying to hide the attention she was giving to him—Halen, always so observant, would notice anyways. In that way, he was just like a non-dev: someone able to take in the entire world around him without being distracted by the chatter they passed by or the water vessels slowly making their way from the Dionese border to the docks in front of each restaurant. In many ways, it was annoying that Halen of all people would be like that; in other ways, it was likely what had made them such counterbalances to one another, able to play and prank each other to the best of their abilities, only her own larger aetherstores really giving her an edge when it came to blocking whatever skills he came up with to fuck with her.
That said, Halen had become terrifyingly good at creating such long-lasting, low-aether-usage skills as a result of trying to get through her defences. It probably helped that, in many ways, she enjoyed their prank wars, and sometimes—only sometimes!—purposefully didn’t activate her defences fast enough or let them drop a little sooner, all so their war could continue and she could get even.
Playing with Halen was, rather unfortunately, one of the most enjoyable parts of her life—or, had been, she supposed. A thousand images of Halen, pissed at her for ruining another set of clothes, for spattering him with glittering aether that had lingered on his skin for days, for accidentally—it had, despite Halen’s claims, 100% been an accident!—erasing all of his code for a class assignment minutes before it was due, flashed through her head.
Yeah, Emilia really didn’t think Halen looked back on their pranks with anything other than annoyance. Her personality gave way to a level of forgiveness she knew was self-destructive, and as a result, she held very little animosity towards Halen over the things he had done over the years. Her former classmate, on the other hand…
Was he the sort of person who would forever hold a grudge over their pranks? Or had he enjoyed it just as much as her, viewing the whole ordeal as a long game between them?
Emilia had no idea.
“What?” the man asked, giving her another too-soft smile, just the slightest hint of his normal, cocky smirk lingering under it. “Something on my face?”
“No,” Emilia replied, a little too much bite in her voice for the simple fact that Halen was just too attractive. Even if his face were covered in mud, he’d still be gorgeous.
“Then, what is it?” he asked again, suddenly reaching out and looping an arm around her waist. “Careful,” he laughed over her indignant squeak as he pulled her away from the edge she’d been about to walk off. Almost immediately, his arm was gone, and seriously!?
What. The. Fuck.
“Why are you here, Halen?”
“I told you: product management. That dish was horrendous. We definitely need to hire someone to go around and try all the food, then do upkeep on the new dishes.”
“
We?
You’re gonna work with your parents on this?”
Halen’s steps faltered—the sort of faltered that only someone who had spent hours watching him, looking for weaknesses, was likely to even notice. “No, I suppose not. I’ll still send them the information. They’ll handle it.”
“You wanna talk about it?” Emilia asked before she could think better of it. Apparently, Halen being weird was making her act weird—too nice and forgiving for her own good; unable to just hold her tongue and not offer her entirety to someone who probably had no one to talk to.
This time, Halen’s steps completely faltered, and it was her turn to reach out and grab hold of his arm, tugging him back towards her before he toppled into the window of the restaurant they were walking by.
“Careful~” she teased, unable to help herself from throwing her voice lower in an attempt to match Halen’s own baritone. Could she have emulated his voice with a skill? Sure, but where was the fun in that.
“Thanks,” he said, shooting her what almost seemed to be a grateful smile, but definitely couldn’t be. “For the catch, and the offer.”
Then, they just went back to walking side by side, passing enough restaurants that Emilia was beginning to think the place they were going wasn’t actually that close! Was it a nice day for a walk? Sure, but this was just weird! Halen was weird, and he was making her act weird for it.
“I hired a couple of people, and they think my parents are being crazy.”
It took a moment for Emilia to realize Halen was actually taking her up on the offer to discuss his family issues, her mind having picked up on a conversation a couple in a nearby restaurant were having about grain prices at the northern Dionese border going up due to an aetherscar popping up on the supply line.
“What did you tell them?”
Snorting, Halen summarized what she had already more or less known about his family situation: his parents wanted him to go into working for their company, or at least working under their umbrella, if he continued insisting on coding—as much as Halen was putting out innovative skills, there wasn’t much profit in it, everyone so content with the shit skills the world ran on. Coding only made a profit when it was powered by war. Instead, it was infrastructure and raw materials that tended to make the most profit, both of which the Mhrinas had their hands in.
“Most parents would be happy their kid already had a passion and that they’re going after it while skipping their gap decade,” he huffed, finally stopping in front of a restaurant, but not entering. Instead, a moment later, a waiter exploded out of the building, offering up bags of food and some drinks to Halen before scurrying off. “Shall we?”
A request to glide along popped up in Emilia’s Censor, Halen offering a hand to her. He could just as easily tell her where they were going, but apparently that was too easy.
“I can’t leave Seer'ik'tine,” she told him severely as she accepted and found herself being dragged towards the exit line.
Technically,
she could leave, she supposed, but there was a chance someone would give Olivier shit for it, and she didn’t want him getting in trouble due to her… not that she wouldn’t firmly put the blame on Halen for kidnapping her.
“We aren’t going far,” he replied, stepping onto the line.
The world blurred and bled before they were popping out in the small park that sat close to the Dionese-Seer'ik'tine border, the exit line extending along the shoreline until it hit the border and dropped off. The park was man-made, reaching a little ways into the Second Tide. The green space was one of the few areas outside of the zi’huta wards that featured climate control, and there were a number of playgrounds scattered between the trees, as well as a water park and a generally crowded beach for swimming, along with plenty of benches and tables for eating.
“Maybe they’re worried you’ll regret not taking your gap decade later?” Emilia suggested as Halen continued dragging her along, sliding them towards a table tucked under a tree and offering a little rest from the burning sunlight that even the climate control couldn’t quite stop. “I know I worry the triplets will regret it later. It’s not like they can go back and enjoy time with their friends—”
“You mean you? I’m pretty sure those boys only like you,” Halen had the audacity to point out. Rude.
“—with their friends,” Emilia insisted, glaring at the man as he laughed, muttering that she was delusional if she thought the triplets would willingly spend time with anyone who wasn’t her. “The point, is that they can’t turn back time, and neither can you. Your friends are going off to enjoy themselves, and if you skip spending these years with them, you can’t go back and do it later, and your connection to each other might drop away.”
Emilia resisted pointing out that Halen’s friends all sucked. They were, amazingly, even worse than he was. Sure, Halen could be a jerk, but it often felt like an act. His friends, on the other hand? Emilia had known most of them since her first year in The Penns, although a few had moved into the area from other parts of The Penns in her teens, their parents intent to get them into the best school in The Penns. Halen’s friends had always been assholes, only softening up a little once Halen became the centre of their world.
If Halen didn’t like something, neither did they. If Halen loved something, so did they. It was embarrassing, and honestly, the man’s parents should be happy he was getting away from those losers.
The look Halen gave her… it was almost like he was thinking the same thing—like he knew that he should be breaking whatever terrible connections he had to their former classmates. Emilia had always thought most of them greedy shits, only being Halen’s friend to get at his money and the fame they all knew he would eventually have. Unfortunately, their classroom had largely been split in half by the time Halen started at their school, when they’d all been around sixteen and recently tested for their D-Levels.
D-Levels weren’t the only things that had split them into various classrooms—interests, grades, and personal connections had played a part as well—but they were a big part. Most of their class had been low-dev, and little shits at that, always pushing the teachers’ patience with their antics and inability to be controlled. Giving them Censors hadn’t helped, and their class had largely been trouble students, something Halen had been at his previous school.
The fact that so many people in their class had also been brilliant had likely been part of it as well, but that had partially been the problem. Their classroom had been a mix of people who were brilliant troublemakers and troublemakers who refused to utilize their potential—although, even they had kicked it up a bit during the times when their class had been going crazy with their study habits, intent to keep up, if only to stay with Halen. Still, their teachers had probably been hoping to inspire the troublemakers into using more of their brain
all the time
, not just in drips, by including them in the class. It hadn’t worked, partially because those lines were already so firmly drawn.
Her friends wouldn’t be friends with
them.
They wouldn’t be friends with hers—with
those kids.
So when Halen had come into their school and within hours the two of them had come into conflict, his personality still the defensive, arrogant thing it had become at his previous school, he had been forced onto the other side of the line.
Halen didn’t belong with Emilia and her friends, so he’d sought friendship with the troublemakers who didn’t care a bit for school. Thankfully, he’d still continued to be brilliant, and his personality had mellowed some over the years. Still, Emilia wondered how different their lives would have been if they hadn’t drawn such a deep divide between them that first day, setting off half a lifetime of war between their two groups—between the two of them in particular.
So, no, Emilia couldn’t say she was too upset that Halen wouldn't be spending a decade with his friends. Even in their first few months of freedom, she’d already heard far too many stories of the shit they’d gotten up to, and the fact that she, of all people, was concerned should say a lot.
Still, it felt like she’d be a hypocrite for not treating Halen the same as she did the triplets.
If she thought the triplets were making a mistake not taking their gap decade, she should feel that about Halen as well. Yet, she knew him—knew what he wanted in life and how much he loved what he did. Without good friends to spend his gap decade with, what was the point in taking it?
“If I invite you to our parties and shit, will you come?” she asked. Today was a day for being weird and insane, obviously. Maybe she’d regret asking later—certainly, she’d regret it when she had to explain to her friends why she was inviting Halen to their get-togethers, but that was a problem for future Emilia—but she knew Halen could be a better person. He should stay away from his terrible friends, but he also shouldn’t completely miss out on what was often considered the most joyful part of every Baalphorian’s life.
Arc 9 | Chapter 304: Why Does This Feel like a Date!?
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