Rising Shards

We took a cab to LE, as Pippi told me the place she found had good drinks.

“I’m down for a few, but I probably won’t get super wasted on a Sunday before work.” Evy said.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t either,” I said. “Don’t want to start my first day completely hung over, you know?”

I had spent so much time being nervous about this new job at Rising Shards that I had burnt out my worry reserves a bit. I still had pangs of nervousness about actually starting, but it had been long enough without work that I was ready to get back and do something.

“That might make it go quicker, but it would set a probably really bad first impression.” Evy said. “See, I waited til my second week there to come in with a big hangover.”

“Really?”

“It was probably like a month in,” Evy said. “And I wasn’t that hung over. Kinda was just saying that part to sound cool.”

“Saying you came into work with a big hangover to sound cool?” I teased.

“Yeah yeah, it’s not very cool,” Evy said. “But I do like impressing you.”

“You do that all the time.” I said. I hoped the cab driver didn’t find our flirting annoying.

“Still, you should probably not go too hard here.” Evy said as we reached our destination.

“I’ll do my best!” I said. “Now where is this place?”

I texted Pippi to try and find her because I didn’t see anything that looked like a restaurant or bar around the address she sent us. Just a plain building without any signs or anything on it. I then got promptly distracted by something else.

“Any word from her?” Evy asked.

“Nothing yet,” I said, not looking up from my phone as I added a doll to a wishlist. “Zeta’s texting me pictures of a new Raina toy, not so subtly hinting what she wants for Safe Silver.”

“And you’re making sure you don’t forget already?” Evy asked.

“Uh huh,” I said. “Safe Silver’s big for us. We already bought a lot of presents with a big Haven coupon deal, but I think I can spoil her a bit more.” This would be my first holiday season with Evy if everything worked out. “You don’t have to get her anything for Safe Silver.” I blurted that out without thinking. I didn’t want to pressure her. “I won’t be mad. OK, I might actually be mad. But I’ll get over it if you don’t—”

“I’ll get her something, I want to!” Evy said. “But I may check with you beforehand to make sure I don’t get her something she already has. Or something she’d totally hate.”

“I bet you’d be really good at figuring out what she wants,” I said. “She does make her hyperfixations pretty clear.”

“True that,” Evy said. She had a thoughtful expression as she too spoke without thinking about what she was saying. “Zeta’s great, out of all my students, I can’t think of a better one to have as a canon daughter.”

“What the fuck is that?” I laughed. “What?”

“I’ve…told you that, right?” Evy said.

“Uh. No?”

“It’s kind of an inside joke we have. She helped me and Caya talk a bit more so I kinda…declared that she was my canon daughter.”

“Why canon?” I laughed. “Like canonical like in a story?”

“Y-yeah…” Evy blushed so hard. I was caught off guard with it but they had a little inside joke together, that was so cute.

“How about canon big sister/teacher now?” I suggested. “Wait, that’s clunky.”

”We’ll workshop it.” She hugged me, her hands just a bit above my butt. “And I’ll have to get you something too.”

My giggling fit was interrupted by Pippi calling me.

“She says she’s inside.” I said. “Somewhere in this nondescript building is our…place. Food…place. I can communicate.”

Evy was smart enough to track down the entrance; the way inside looked like a set of tornado doors somewhat obscured by a little nook of a stairwell. They opened automatically for us, which was more than a bit creepy. As was the dimly lit stone hallway.

“There you are!” I said as Pippi waited for us. “I can barely see you in there.”

“The actual restaurant is a bit further in.” Pippi said.

Evy was too polite to trash this choice, but Pippi’s my bestie so I had no qualms saying it straight up.

“Pippi, what the hell is this place?” I asked.

“I have a coupon!” Pippi said. “Before you judge it too much, the reviews say the food is really good here.”

“OK, but why the creepy hallway? Do you want Evy to think you’re bringing us to serial kill us or something? And this is Evy by the way.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Evy said.

Pippi looked over to me. “Alright, it is a bit dark in here, but you weren’t kidding about hot doctor.”

“Hot…doctor?” Evy asked.

“Now I maybe hyped you up a bit to Pippi,” I said.

“And she lives up to the hype!” Pippi said.

I couldn’t see very well, but Evy’s hand felt warmer as we walked ahead, so I assumed she was blushing even harder, which was really cute.

There were two bouncer looking types waiting at another set of heavy metal doors.

“Password?”

I looked over at Pippi, wondering if she had actually brought us someplace shady.

“Uh, reservation for three?” Pippi said. “Under Pippi? I have a coupon.” She showed her phone to one of the bouncers, who nodded.

“Welcome in.”