"What was it... that feeling?" Emma looked at the back of her hand, light spreading across her fingertips, casting a shadow down onto her. "I can... sorta feel it... I... dunno... That ability...."
"What's wrong, master?" Rider kneeled up beside her, staring.
Emma looked over to her construct companion, grimacing. "M-Master? That's what you landed on?"
"It was the best thing I could think of."
After getting an extended break from school for about two weeks, Emma finally took the time to upgrade her automaton. Rider sported a sleek, more durable frame, with fewer gaps now being visible within their armor, and along with that, a long-awaited voice box for the unusually intelligent machine.
Emma licked her lips, brow furrowed in thought. "J-Just call me by my actual name."
"But it sounds weird coming from me."
"Why would it sound weird coming from you?"
"W-Well... you created me."
"Just try it, try just... calling me by my name, okay?"
Despite not having lungs, Rider sighed. "Emma."
Who visibly cringed, "A-Actually, never mind. Uh..." Shit, what would be a good name? "Um... how about... Auntie?"
"Auntie? You're only nineteen?"
"Yeah, but like, you're barely a year old, so... it isn't too crazy, no?"
"Auntie... It doesn't sound too bad."
"Yeah, and you don't have to call me something so weighted like the word 'master' is."
"I don't really get why my calling you master is such a problem. I'm technically taking care of the chores; in fact, it's almost fitting."
"Nope, I refuse, I refuse to let you call me that."
"Okay, Auntie," Rider replied with a bit of snark behind his words. There was a moment of pause that followed, Emma returning to the deeper parts of her own mind. "What's wrong?"
"Back at the club... I... harnessed something. Dahlia told me that I harnessed some sort of... ability. I don't remember a thing, though."
"The club as a whole?"
"N-No, no. Just... a good chunk of our fight with Rogier."
Rider giggled. "I didn't remember much either."
"Yeah, that's cause ya got torn apart almost instantly as the fight started."
"Shouldn't my consciousness remain regardless, though?"
"No, when there's too much damage to your chassis, I have a switch that shuts you off so as not to cause you to develop some sort of trauma response and all that, y'know?"
"What? W-What, what does that--"
"Anyways, I have this odd ability, I think." Emma cleared her throat. "How Dahlia described it, it was as if... I was causing these odd flowers to kinda just bloom on Rogier, and when that happened, he couldn't regenerate, and Dahlia herself felt energized."
"Hm... odd. Did you get that checked out with the identifier or...?"
"I did. Got nothing, it's got nothing to do with my class."
"How does... that work, by the way?"
"What?"
"The... class thing? How does the identification work? People can change their classes whenever, right? How do they identify these things?"
"They don't? It's literally just our overall level as a mortal, and then they combine it with whatever we might be most experienced in... that's... about it."
"Oh... I thought it was much more literal; that was my bad."
"Why did you think that?"
"I... W-Well... the identifier is like... it gives a read on stats as well, no? Like... what you're best at aside from level I sorta just thought it was some sort of... destined thing maybe?"
"It's... not? It's not. It's this dumbass overcomplicated system, it's hard to describe it."
"O-Okay."
Emma's face flashed with dread for a moment, hit with an echo of a memory, and she threw herself onto the couch in response. "Oh, Gods..."
"W-What?"
"I... I just re-remembered why I was focusing on these dumbass abilities to begin with!"
"What?"
"I kissed... D-Dahlia... fuck..."
"Is that the thing that people do when they lock lips with one another?"
"Y-Yeah... I-it was during our club escapades... I... I went for it and..."
"I'm guessing you two haven't talked about it?"
Emma shook her head. "No... I... I've been so awkward around her lately because of it, but...I don't know what to do..."
"Why?"
"I-It was so sudden... I... I made a huge mistake! S-She doesn't seem to mind, but it's... I don't even know what to say. We've only known each other for two months, Rider! Two months!"
"Is that... long?"
"No! It's short! That's the problem! W-What could she be thinking..." Words quickly became muffled as both of her palms cupped her face.
"Oh... dang..."
"Dang?" Emma raised her hands. "Dang?"
"Y-Yeah?"
"You... you can say damn, y'know?"
An audible pause entered the room. "I... don't want to though..."
"Hm? What do you mean you don't want to? To... say damn? To curse?"
"To curse."
"Um... O-Okay... sure... You do you..." Emma huffed, gaze lazily landing onto the wall beside her. "What should I say to her...?"
"Isn't it better to just... get your feelings all out about that matter?"
"But like..." Emma took a deep breath, sighing heavily. "I... I don't want to ruin our friendship possibly. T-The worst-case scenario is if she didn't remember the whole thing, too, and... I don't... I don't know... I... I don't want to fuck it up like Meliana."
"You didn't screw that up, though? She lied, and your lives were on the line, so... you made the right choice." Rider gazed at Emma's face for a moment longer. "You don't need to blame yourself for how that turned out."
"Yeah... and because she didn't say anything, things got worse... so..." Emma sighed again. "Okay, yeah... I-I'll say something tomorrow."
"Communication is key!" Rider said enthusiastically, patting Emma's shoulder.
Emma's sight locked onto Rider for a moment, mouth somewhat agape, and she proceeded to push them over with a hand.
"Ah!"
***
The next day, Emma will meet up with Dahlia, steeling herself for any fallout. This was the day she was going to ask Dahlia about the incident. She entered the Academy's courtyard, spotting her quickly; Dahlia, in turn, spotted Emma.
Dahlia's face lit up, a big toothy smile spreading across her face, waving enthusiastically at her friend. Emma stopped for a moment, shakily waving back before crossing over to her. Emma sighed, stepping up to the large lady, eyes downcast.
"Emma! What's wrong?"
"N-" Emma's eyes met with the two bright, ruby eyes. "Um..." Emma sheepishly looked back at the ground. "It isn't... anything bad... I'm just..."
Dahlia blinked, expression progressively increasing in its worry. "D-Did I do something wrong?"
"No! No! C-Can we sit?"
Dahlia nodded. "O-Okay."
Both of them sit beside a fountain in the courtyard, shifting on a rough marble bench attached to the fountain.
"So... are... do you want to talk about something?"
"Y-yeah, yeah!" Emma nodded with a faux enthusiasm. "I... I... wa-wanted to talk. J-- Nip something in the bud, y'know?"
"O-Okay."
Emma licked her lips, attempting to find any semblance of confidence held within her heart. "F-First, y'know... that... that ability. I... I don't really get it... did that really happen? Did it come from me?"
Dahlia let out a sigh of relief. "Um... yeah. I'm pretty sure it came from you. Other than that, I'm about as lost as you about what happened."
"What do you recall specifically in regards to like... what it looked like or...?"
"Oh! Yeah, of course! I think it was all a part of the same ability and stuff-- First, flowers started tearing through Rogier's body... his regeneration stopped, and soon after, I started feeling myself become stronger in turn. A fairy of sorts came down and held onto me, and that's when that happened."
Emma pressed her lips tightly together with a pinched expression, thinking as hard as she could. "So... h-how do I...? How do I do that again?"
Dahlia shrugged. "What did you feel before?"
"I-I, that's the problem! I don't remember shit!"
Dahlia rubbed her chin, speculating. "Uh... like... maybe-- Maybe someone familiar with like, internal stuff could help?"
"W-What, like ki?"
"I-I dunno. It's like... It's the only real option, no?
"S-So... look for a Monk? I have to look for a Monk to help me?"
"Well... if it's your ability, then it has to be some sort of inner magical stuff, right?"
"W-What? What? I-I've never used magic in my life! I'm not magical in the slightest, in fact, I've even been tested!"
"Tested for magic?"
"Yeah! I'm unable to produce magic."
"Oh, that's unfortunate."
Emma slowly nodded. "Yeah... yeah, it kinda is, isn't it?" Emma shook her head. "No, no, back on topic. Okay..." Emma scratched her upper lip with the bottom row of her teeth. "What am I supposed to do?" Voice coming out like a whisper.
Both stay silent for a moment, Emma visibly attempting to reach some place within herself, but failing to find anything, causing her to click her tongue audibly.
"I got nothin'."
"First." Dahlia echoed. "You have something else to talk about?"
"Oh... yeah... uh..." Emma painfully squeezed her eyes shut before looking Dahlia in the eyes, visibly shaken. She rolled her tongue along the back of her teeth and swallowed. "I..." Heart racing, body breaking into a cold sweat. This was the moment. She had to bring it up; she had to gain some semblance of clarity, some way to clear the air, to clear this murkiness within her stomach. "That... wh-when we were at the clu-"
"Um, hi!" The two jump, both whipping their head around to look at the small Halfling girl they had met at the club, a glaive held tightly against their shoulder. "I'm Qicy Copperpot! Um... can I be a part of your party!? I'm a healer!"
A moment of stunned silence. "Wh-"
Dahlia spoke up before Emma could say anything. "You want to join our party?"
"Uh... yeah. I do." Qicy smiled. "I... I thought the work you guys did during that whole debacle a couple weeks ago was just... it was inspiring!"
Emma blinked. "I-Inspiring?"
"Yeah! You guys were... You all, everyone there... all so scared, but you all stepped up anyway. Is that not inspiring?"
"I... I guess it is..."
"Um... I... I know that there had been a bit of a predicament amongst your previous party members... twice. But I... I want to join you guys! I think the persistence you both show is amazingly admirable!"
"T-Thank you... uh..."
Dahlia smiled. "We don't mind if you join, do we?"
Emma shook her head. "No, not at all. We were looking for a healer, anyhow, and... uh... I do happen to remember you. You were on it throughout that entire fight, so... I... I wouldn't mind at all."
"Yeah..." Qicy smiled as well. "I was doing really well at healing, wasn't I? I... I was absolutely horrible at fighting, though, so..."
"Yeah... yeah, you were, but... y-you..." She lifted a hand, pointing at Qicy, "You were a damn good healer from what I could remember."
Dahlia clapped excitedly. "We've once again filled our third slot!"
"Let's hope... we... uh... y'know."
"Yeah, yeah."
Qicy continued to smile, but this time out of sympathy. "It's alright, you guys made the right decision, I think. Though... I do wish I could've seen Meliana in action a bit more... a little." A giggle escaped her lips.
They quickly signed Qicy up for the party and soon separated from them, Dahlia and Emma once again finding themselves on their own with one another.
After a moment of silence between the two, Dahlia spoke up first. "Did... did you want to talk about our..." Dahlia paused, face flushed as a small, shaky whistle of air escaped her parted lips. "The kiss... did you want to talk about that earlier?"
Emma staggered for a moment. She struggled to respond, mouth agape, before finally whispering out something, anything, something to say that this mattered to her. She nodded, "Y-Yeah... I-" She nodded again.
"Uh... d-" Dahlia chuckled. "N-Now that I'm talking about it now, I-I'm really struggling to say what I'm thinking, y'know?"
Emma chuckled in sympathy. "Y-Yeah... yeah."
"D-W-Well, you... Did... maybe..."
"I... I initiated... I... I was being really dumb at the time, so I really hope that you didn't find it... uncomfortable."
"I-I didn't." Dahlia shook her head, attempting to emphasize her answer. "I... I really didn't."
"T-That's nice... b-but... I... I'm still... sorry... I... I really jumped the gun, I dunno what I wa--"
"Did you not like it?"
"N-No... I... I liked it!"
"Then... p-please don't say that."
Emma's face flushed red, her cautious gaze locking onto Dahlia's feet. "O-Okay..." She wheezed out the words. "D-Did... w-were you...?"
"I didn't mind it..."
"W-Why? With me?" She pointed at herself in disbelief. "I... I dunno... I... I feel undeserving."
"You shouldn't."
"What do you mean...?"
"You shouldn't feel undeserving."
"But... but..." Emma tried to find the words but failed.
"I don't know why it didn't bother me, but... I... I liked... it..." Dahlia paused. "I... I wanted it..."
"With me? You wanted... it?"
Dahlia chuckled. "That is... definitely what I said."
"I... I'm not even... I... Compared to you..." Emma stumbled over her words, motioning aimlessly. After a few swings of her arms, she flexed her fingers. She attempted to use the friction of her fingers pressing against her palms to remain calm. "I-I-I... I... I can't see... why you would... want that from me..."
"Do you... I... Do you think you aren't worthy or something? I-I'm not... some diety... Emma."
"N-No... no... I'm... I just... do you like me? Do you... Why... would you? I..."
"I like you."
"H-"
"No, I... I like you a lot more than a best friend should."
"W-Woah... uh..." Emma buckled, propping herself up against a nearby wall, trying to play it off with slow, methodical movements. "W-What?"
"I... think you're kind of amazing."
"W-What? Why?"
"You're a better person than you think, you know?"
"What?"
Dahlia squeezed her hands together nervously, eyes flickering through the snapshots of her mind. "I remember... after the mine. We had a... very violent end to one of our fights, and we had saved that girl from her entrapment, Kaliopi, I think her name was." Dahlia swallowed. "I... I panicked back then. I dunno... our... our conversation stuck out to me." Dahlia's ears periodically flicked wildly, her face lightly flushed.
"What do you mean?"
"It was... we were still walking. I calmed down, and we all just started talking about our lives. Where we're from, and all of that. You surprised me, though."
"With what?"
"What you said during our talk." Dahlia paused. "You... honestly, if I didn't know any better, I would say it was uncharacteristic of you, even. But... I... I don't think that's the case. You were talking about how... You hope that you were better company than the others I've been around, and that you didn't, or rather... couldn't, understand the discrimination I faced. You were pretty blunt about all this, even going so far as to admit that you found me scary at some point, but you continued... 'We did a good thing!'" Dahlia laughed to herself, recalling the moment. "You were trying to cheer me up, right?"
Emma nodded. "Y-yeah... I guess. I... I'm not good at that whole thing, but I... y'know, when you calmed down, and we were talking... I dunno, the conversation led to it."
"It wasn't really something you'd normally do, right?"
"No... no, not really. But... I wanted to make you feel a bit better, because you shouldn't feel guilty for what happened."
"When... when you were saying these things, I couldn't help but stare. You snapped me out of it, forcing me to chant.
"I-" Emma laughed. "I didn't force you to chant."
"It made me feel better. I can't help but feel a little bit of guilt at the back of my mind, but I think back to what you said, and I chant to myself in my own head. 'I did a good thing.' Even if it hurts someone else, I at least protected what I believe in."
Emma nodded. "Killing to protect something is very different than killing for the sake of it. If you did it for the fuck of it, of course, though, my opinion would be so different about you." Emma chuckled.
"I'd expect no less!" Dahlia, in a sudden, small gesture, pressed her fist against Emma's shoulder, ears still flicking wildly from embarrassment. "And it's that... that, that stuff. What you just did now. I can't help but... like that... a lot. It's a contradiction to your base nature, I guess-- not really, but... I can see it in you, that instinct that you have whenever something goes wrong, but I feel like it's always like that for you, right? Whenever you think... whenever you do something? You contradict yourself. You carry a lot more wisdom than you let on... and you're way kinder than your nature makes you think you are."
Emma looked into Dahlia's eyes, the wavering glitter of lights shining against them. She couldn't respond; she could only stare. She didn't really understand what Dahlia meant, but it plucked at something within her, making her jump as if she were being pointed out in a crowd.
"I like a lot of that... I like how blunt you are... how flawed you are... how you're... to be blunt, a little bit of a loser."
"Rude."
"I also just think you're pretty."
With a flustered look on her face, Emma visibly jumps back, bopping her head against the wall behind her. "W-What? What?"
"Plus, you've saved me a lot... no way I wouldn't feel a little affection towards you after that, y'know? Just a little bit." Dahlia smiled. "I just thought the other things were just as charming, and it grew from that. I don't know what I really feel here... or... if it's something more extreme, but I know that I like you... and I didn't mind that kiss we had..." Dahlia's words faltered as she finished what she had wanted to say, taking a step back, her fingers intertwined.
"I..." Emma's lips shook as if a frigid breeze had run across her skin and bones, goosebumps running across her entire body. "I... uh... I... I think I like you a bit more than you like me... b-but maybe I'm just easy, I don't know..."
"I heard that almost dying a lot with a person could do that to them."
A crooked smile crept across Emma's face. "I guess we... sh-should... do the healthy thing and work through this... together?"
Dahlia scoffed, which broke into laughter. "W-What are-- you're so dumb. We'll see where we can go from here... I... I hope we can still stay... friendly...?"
"I-I am at your whim."
"W-What?"
"Um... I-I'm fine with whatever and however you want it..." Emma is sweating buckets.
"You don't have to wrest yourself of your own autonomy, Emma." Dahlia chuckled.
"O-Okay..."
Suddenly, Dahlia hugged Emma, her massive frame wrapping the girl like a warm blanket. Emma let out a slight yipping noise before reciprocating the hug, frozen still.
"I don't really get to hug people often..." Dahlia spoke. "So... I hope you don't mind..."
"I-I would never... m-" Emma's voice hitched. "I-I would never mind."
"Thank you."
Emma took a deep breath, taking in Dahlia's warm, homely smell of firewood and herbs, and sighed, calming down. "I... we'll figure it out, I guess... right?"
"I hope so."
"That's... d-don't go dooming us so soon with that..." Emma paused. "I know so... we'll do it. Let's say that."
"We'll do it."