Rising Shards

One thing I always found a bit fun at Rising Shards during the weekends were the outfits. We didn’t have to wear our uniforms on weekends, so I could see how my peers dressed casually, which allowed me to pretend I was learning lots about them like I was a detective that could tell like a billion things just from a look at someone’s shirt collar. Sure, I got to see Oka and Kalei in casual wear a lot as they were roommates (were as in former in Oka’s case, something I still wasn’t fully good at dealing with), but weekends just felt different. So when we’d get breakfast together, I’d scan everyone’s outfits. I learned that Lillia looked stylish and pristine no matter what she wore, Roux basically wore pajamas when she wasn’t in class, Amara wore what appeared to be horseback riding clothes, Latte never wore anything but her uniform even on off days, and Iris mostly kept up with the latest fashion trends.

On the Saturday morning I was actively observing, my first subject was Maia, as we were the first ones at the table for some reason. She had a black t-shirt on with scraggly lettering I couldn’t read. As I tried to read her shirt, she scratched her ears. It felt more normal to have her back to her fuzzy self, but she had been a bit off since she’d had a Shearing Infection.

“Hey, can you. Like are you good at,” Maia groaned. “Can you just not talk to anyone about something?”

“Sure?” I said. “I mean, yeah! What’s up?”

Maia never really asked me for anything, so I figured it must be serious.

“Alright, like for real do not tell anyone this,” Maia said. She scooted her tray around. “I need your advice, basically.” She scratched her ears again. “Can we just walk somewhere quick in case someone shows up?”

I was about to whine about my food getting cold, but I was starting to get worried seeing Maia be this serious about something. We found a little nook connected to the cafeteria, and I let Maia try to find her words.

“So like,” Maia said. “You have a girlfriend.”

“Yep!” I said. I was maybe being a bit too eager to compensate for my increasing worry about Maia’s situation.

“Do you guys ever…this is so dumb.” Maia said. “Let me just start over. So like that Shearing Infection deal, I was helping out Iris to get Shearing Infection too so her mom thought I gave it to her accidentally, she bought it, so we were good there.”

“Right, right,” I nodded. I wasn’t sure how Maia getting a Shearing Infection helped make Iris’ mom feel better about it, but that didn’t seem to be what Maia was upset about.

“But…so like, Iris bit me.” Maia said.

“I’m…following.” I said. I remembered when Iris helped my friends and I get Feral Flu to get out of our Fang Fair presentation. We got bit on our arms by Ema Kari.

“Just...she bit me on my shoulder.” Maia said. “And I dunno. It was like. Different. So like, do you and Oka ever…?”

“Bite each other?” I asked.

Maia nodded.

“My last girlfriend bit me on my shoulder once,” I said. “It wasn’t a Feral Flu or Shearing Infection thing. And it hurt. But I haven’t with Oka.” I almost said ‘yet,’ but stopped myself.

“Oh,” Maia said. She clearly wasn’t satisfied with that answer. “Alright, I don’t have the words for this, our food’s getting cold, I need more time to think before I say something really stupid. Can I just ask you to do something that’s only partially really stupid?”

“S-sure.” I said.

“Can you…if you ever bite Oka, can you tell me how it goes?” Maia said.

I furrowed my brow. I calculated it out in my head a bit. Maia got bitten by Iris, and it was making her feel things. Things that reminded her of Oka and me, or of dating someone. I didn’t want to just ask her straight up about that regarding Iris since she was clearly really conflicted, but somehow if I bit Oka and reported back to her, that’d help clear things up for her?

“I’ll…do my best?” I managed to say.

“Sweet, thank you,” Maia said, sighing. “Let’s get back before everyone starts wondering where we are.”