Meliora - Emanate - 28

[lady_mab]

No Kaito

Between making sure that everyone is limited to two drinks and setting up for Mia’s acoustic concert, I have very little time to actually sit and talk. Far less than I thought I would have.

Lysander arrives with a redhead I don’t recognize in tow, though they quickly part ways after a brief exchange of chaste kisses and private words. He moves to join Rhys at one of the freestanding tables, though Rhys watches the redhead go with a curious stare.

Wait -- what?

Who is that?

Since when did Lysander have pretty little flame-tops in his life?!

The worst part is that I have to spend all of Mia’s performance and several minutes after it running over scenarios in my head. The logical answer is, of course, that he got a girlfriend, but I can’t believe that he wouldn’t tell any of us.

Once I finally get the chance to break away, I bring a tray with their usual drinks and tuck myself snugly into the middle of their conversation.

Rhys eyes his uneasily, as if already calculating the costs that this will add up to during our next meeting.

“You know I wouldn’t make you pay for it anyway,” I tell him, forcing the glass into his hands and making sure to close his fingers around it so it doesn’t drop. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re keeping very close tabs over how many drinks everyone has had so far. “

“Perhaps.” He concedes and takes the beer with little argument.

I hold out Lysander’s drink to him, but quickly pull it back when he starts to reach for it. “And who was that cute little ginger on your arm?”

“A girl.”

“No, that I could see. I meant who is she to you.”

“Just someone I used to know from before Eminence.” He tries to make another grab for the drink, but I keep it away.

I dance to the other side of Rhys to increase the distance between us. “How did you meet her? What’s her name? And why haven’t you brought the date over to meet us?”

He sighs and rolls his eyes. “This isn’t a date.”

“But she’s your girlfriend.”

“Yeah? So? We don’t have to do Meliora-related things together, do we?”

I pout and finally let him reach for the glass. “I suppose not. But I still would have liked to meet her. Wouldn’t you, Rhys?”

Rhys glances up at me like he was hardly listening to the conversation, but turns around and glances across the bar anyway. I follow his line of sight to spot the elusive ‘girlfriend’ of Lysander’s, sitting with a dark-skinned young man and the bright-haired Jonas.

That must be her partner, the two of them making up Jonas’ mystery team.

I’m incredibly curious about both of them.

“He must be terribly embarrassed by us if he won’t introduce us to her,” Rhys finally says, voice as absent minded as his expression.

I want to ask him what’s wrong, but I know he won’t answer truthfully in front of Lysander. So I go with the easier option, and press my hand dramatically to my chest and fall against the table. “I can’t believe it. His very best friends. An embarrassment.” I roll to the side to sprawl against Rhys and press the back of my hand to my brow. “It’s almost as if he just doesn’t want to show off how much more awesome we are than him.”

There’s a huff of laughter from Rhys that I feel more than hear before he shoves me off. “Correction: I think it’s just you that’s the embarrassment.”

“Oh, ouch.” I turn to Lysander, who is trying very hard not to burst into laughter. “Tell him that he’s wrong. Tell him that you really do love us and that there is some other reason you’re not introducing us to her.”

Lysander replies with a vague wave of his hand, having a hard time forming words through the building chuckles. “I shan’t tell lies.”

“Rude.” I straighten my posture and hold my glass aloft. “I’m going to go say hello.”

Rhys reaches out to stop me. “Don’t be a pest, Kaito.”

“I’m never a pest.”

“You’re going to go and bother her with intrusive questions.”

I gently pull his hand away from my arm. “Lysander, tell our good mother hen of a friend that I’m not going to pester your girlfriend with intrusive questions.”

“Short of physically holding him back, there’s nothing much I can do on that end.” Lysander shrugs, the grin remaining across his face.

While clearly not the answer that Rhys wants, he doesn’t push the topic. Instead, he just fiddles with his glass like usual without drinking from it.

I sigh and set my own cup down on the table with a bit more force than necessary. “Dude, that’s only glass one. You can’t pretend that you’ve had too much to drink and ignore that one.”

“I’m not. I’m just thinking ahead about how much work I’m going to have to do tomorrow. Unless you’ve forgotten that I’m going to be the reason you don’t go bankrupt by the new year?” He still refuses to meet my gaze as he swirls a finger in the air -- indicating the entire bar. “And now I’m thinking if I’m going to have to start setting aside money for lawsuits for you harassing people.”

“Ouch,” Lysander and I say at the same time, earning a frown from Rhys.

“I’ll have you know I am very professional when charming people.” Part of the job description after all.

Lysander salutes me with his glass. “Just watch out for her tongue.”

This is what finally manages to break Rhys’ serious facade and he doubles over with laughter as I raise my eyebrows.

“Is that permission, sir?”

“Fuck--no, that’s not what I mean!” Lys is laughing too hard at his own slip to properly correct himself. “I mean, er… What do I mean?”

“A rapier wit?” Rhys offers, and Lysander nods in agreement.

“Yes, one of those.”

I wiggle my eyebrows as I pat both of them on the back. “I’m sure that’s what some people might call it.” And because Rhys is finally laughing, I decide to push my charming luck a bit farther and nudge him until he looks up at me. “If I don’t come back with a literal slap in the face, you have to try and enjoy yourself, okay?”

His grin doesn’t abate, so I consider that a victory. “Don’t think it will be that easy.”

I wink and am rewarded with a fresh bout of laughter. Whirling about, I dive back into the crowds and almost plow into Mia as she weaves through the bodies.

“Ahh!” she shouts, though it’s more in relief than in surprise. She tosses her arm around my shoulder and pulls me after her, saving me from embarrassment without even knowing it. “I’ve been looking for you!”

I go willingly, allowing the crowds and the noise to whisk me along behind. “You were great up there, Mia!”

We come to a stop next to the stage, I can see Rain and Rajesh helping pack up her equipment.

“Thank you.” She is all smiles and endless energy. “I couldn’t have done it without your help.”

“I’m thinking that I might make the next venue more concert friendly. I could get a good pull from the local talent pool, don’t you think?” Her arm is still around my shoulder, and we lean against one another while surveying the take-down of the stage.

“If not, you always have me,” she teases. Mia pauses a beat, then glances over her shoulder. “Ne, shitsumon.”

I’m about to turn as well, to see if there is someone creeping up behind me, but she grips my chin between her hands and forces me to look at her. Squishing my cheeks in for a comical bonus, I suppose. “Nani?”

“Megane-kun ga sukidesu ka?”

It takes far longer than I would like to admit for my brain to translate and process her question. But when it does, my eyes immediately jump back toward the table where Rhys and Lysander are talking and not looking in my direction. “Eh? Iie iie iie. Machigatteiru.”

She draws out a long and innocent “eeehhh?” in response, arching an eyebrow in the process. “Honto ni?”

“Really really,” I say in English, because for some reason I don’t feel like I’m getting my point across in Japanese. “He’s my best friend. It’s not like that.”

Mia doesn’t let go of her skeptical look, but she at least releases my face. “Okay,” she says in a tone that clearly doesn’t believe me. “Could have fooled me.”

I feel something twist unsettlingly in my stomach. “What makes you say that?”

“Anyone with eyes in their nog could take a wild guess.” Her smile softens as she pats my cheek. “I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.”

I don’t know how much of my shock showed on my face. I never considered making lasting friendships outside of Meliora with the Participants. “But you’re a Participant. Don’t you plan on leaving after this?”

She taps one painted nail to her chin. “Not really, no. I’m internet famous, not really… in-person famous, you know? I can show my videos all over the world from my living room. And I was born and raised here, and everything I’m fond of is here.”

“Then why participate?”

“Why not? Not like I’m taking anyone’s place.” Mia turns and shouts, “Raj, do you plan on leaving after this?”

I find it odd that she hasn’t even figured out her teammate’s view. I wonder if he can even hear her over all this shouting. I wonder how many other people participating are like her and don’t plan on leaving.

“Fuck yeah I do!” he shouts back from the stage.

Rain pauses next to him. “He’s got to get back to his not-girlfriend, remember?”

“Ooh, right. How could I forget?” Mia rolls her eyes fondly as she returns her attention to me. “His parents have a fancy estate back in India and he’s totally in love with one of the staff.”

“Then… why did he come all the way out here?”

“Raj! Why did you come out to Eminence?”

Before I can ask if she even knows, Mia holds a finger aloft with a grin.

On the stage, Rajesh strikes what must be a dramatic pose if Rain’s annoyed gesture of defeat is anything to go by. “I set out to prove myself, to Nina and to my family!”

“And how is that going?” I ask.

His smirk is the first to falter, and then his shoulders slump. “About as well as could be expected…”

Somehow, I understand perfectly what he means. I feel the same way, even though I’m not too certain what his exact details are.

Rain hops off the edge of the stage and joins us. “What about your team?”

There’s a weird twist in my stomach that I ignore. “They’ll be leaving. Heading back to Ireland.”

He nods, lips set into a thin frown. “How’s Lio? He didn’t look too good at work the other day.”

I think back to the check-in, and how all I could do was sit there and watch Rhys try not to break down. I remember the phone set on the table between us, just waiting for some sort of indication that something had gone wrong. “He’s doing better. He’s here now.”

Mia’s eyes light up, and she opens her mouth to say something but Rain jabs her in the side. “Don’t you even dare,” he warns, and she breaks off into giggles.

There’s a flash of red from the corner of my eye, as the crowds part enough for me to see straight through to where Jonas’ crew sits.

“As much as I’d like to stay and chat, I need to make the rounds and see how everyone is doing.”

We say our goodbyes, and I dive into the crowd to chat with teams standing around. At least it doesn’t look like I’m trying to single out one specific person.

I’m leaving a table when I hear a bright peal of laughter from Jonas’ team’s direction. Alright, enough beating around the bush. Might as well go say ‘hi’.

I pull up short in front of their booth, the greeting dying on my lips as I spot a pile of drink tickets between them. “What the fuck?” I ask, brain scrambling to catch up.

“Oh, Kaito, good.” Jonas reaches forward and slides the pile toward me like a man playing poker and putting everything in. He clears his throat and announces, “Barback—” I scoff, offended, “bring us your best bottle of booze.”

Lysander’s girlfriend dissolves into a fit of giggles while, across the table, the third teammate groans and tips his head back against the booth. “Don’t encourage them,” he says, though I have no idea what I might have done.

I decide to focus on the things I can comprehend. “Where the hell did you get all these tickets from?”

Jonas wraps a finger around one of his purple curls and bats his eyelashes at me. “I’m single and very charming.”

“And a criminal mastermind. This has to be the result of like… wooing fifteen people!”

“Please. Only ten on my end. Ayn helped.”

She tosses her hair over her shoulder, immediately putting on an air of superiority even though the giggles are still lingering around her lips. “I’ll have you know that I did not steal those tickets. I found them.”

“In some unlucky sod’s pocket?”

“Of course not.” She plays innocent very well, her eyes already naturally wide. “I haven’t even used my two, and then there was an abandoned one on the counter.”

Looks wise, she’s a lot younger than I would have pegged as Lysander’s type. She’s bright and fresh, and sits with very good posture. I always thought he would have gone for someone older, or closer to his age. Someone who was equally worldly and grounded.

She must catch me staring because a polite and easy smile falls into place. “Jonas,” she says, “aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“What? Oh. Kaito, this is my team: Fletcher and Rosemary or someshit.” He says this with a bored drawl and a casual wave of his hand. “Ask her if she has any butterscotch candies in her purse.”

In the second time in as many minutes, my brain shorts out in an attempt to follow this conversation. “Who?”

Lysander’s girlfriend rolls her eyes. “Jesus fuck, Jonas.”

“Hey at least I didn’t call you ‘harpy’ this time.”

“I count my blessings.” Nothing detracts from her charm as she leans forward and extends her hand toward me over the pile of drink tickets. “I’m Ayn. It’s nice to meet you.”

I shake her hand warmly. “Lysander hasn’t mentioned you.”

“Oh?” She hesitates, uncertain, as her teammate snorts dismissively. Realization dawns across her face and a brief flash of a smile touches her expression. “Oh! You’re the Informant for the Darcy siblings! Lysander explained the situation to me when we went to go check on Liala and Lionel the other day.”

Not the reaction that I expected. Perhaps she and Lysander agreed not to talk about each other outside of Meliora. But it is good to know that she was able to help Lio and Lia when it mattered most. “Thank you for doing that, by the way.”

She waves a hand. “Think nothing of it.”

I turn to the man at her side. “And you’re Fletcher?”

He looks terribly out of place alongside his two companions. Dark skin and hair, dark clothes, and a frown to top off his dark expression. Ayn is radiant at his side, and I wonder just what exactly made her pick him to work with. “Charmed. I’m surprised that Jonas hasn’t talked about me.” He leans forward to shake my hand, grip short and strong.

“The things I could say about you would fill a novel, sweetheart.” Jonas is sorting through the tickets at this point, piling them into neat stacks, so he misses the eye roll from Fletcher.

“Or a bright pink journal with lots of hearts over the I’s,” Ayn mutters.

I finally force myself to smile and say, “It’s great to finally be able to meet the two of you. I know most every other team, but you were a bit of a mystery.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we’re not terribly exciting,” Fletcher replies, which I don’t quite agree with.

Their entire collection is a mystery. I don’t know how they know each other, or how they even work together. But from what I can tell from my few interactions with Jonas, they are a team who gets the job done.

Jonas counts out the twenty-fifth and final ticket. He turns pink eyes up at me and arches a delicate eyebrow.

Everyone turns to look at the tickets.

I shrug, unable to come up with a reasonable explanation to Rhys as to how his system might have been cheated. “Dude, I don’t know what you want me to do with them.”

Jonas perks up, clears his throat, and holds a finger aloft -- but Ayn reaches out and smacks her hand across his mouth.

“Okay, no, not that again, it was only funny once.”

He glares at her as Fletcher reaches out and takes three tickets from the top of the pile. “Ayn, would you like to accompany me to get drinks?”

“If it means leaving Jonas here to annoy empty space, gladly.” She slides out of the booth and Fletcher follows her. With one last smile tossed in my direction, Ayn leads the way towards the bar on the other side of the room.

Jonas leans back into the seat, teasing demeanor vanishing with his teammates. “Going around saying hello to everyone again?”

“Honestly? I just wanted to meet Lysander’s girlfriend.”

He makes a noncommittal noise and gazes out over the crowd. I recognize his calculating expression from the first time I met him at the Informant meeting.

When he doesn’t add anything else, I leave it at that, and maneuver back into the crowd to continue my rounds.