Chapter Text
“Thank you~!” Mika chirped. She let her backpack fall from her shoulder and onto her elbow as her father walked back through the doorway to her dormitory. Her tail swayed left and right lazily. She pivoted a little and used the inertia to throw her backpack inside the room, uncaring to where it landed. It was her bedding backpack, it was practically designed to be fine, anyway.
Her father slowly stretched out his arms and back, obviously exerted from basically carrying every box Mika brought with her. Despite this, he still smiled.
“Really, thank you,” She stretched upwards and wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing as hard as she could.
Granted, that wasn’t a lot.
Khalid bent down a little and sort of hugged her, thought it came across as more of a back-pat.
The two of them had been hard at work for the past hour or so, since before the sun had crested over the horizon, slowly moving boxes into her dorm and making it her own. Mostly, it was Khalid carrying the boxes, while she packed her new closet and toiled over setting her laptop up. Occasionally, her mother would appear with something she thought Mika might find useful, little trinkets she found in the car and such.
It had been a casual, nice little thing.
And as Khalid left one, small box on her desk, it was coming to a close.
“You’re sure you’ll be alright?” Khalid asked.
“ Yes ,” She assured him. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You know you can call us whenever? And don’t be scared to talk to your aunt if anyone makes you feel unsafe–”
“… She’ll kick ass for me, I know,” Mika rolled her eyes in mild exasperation. “We’ve gone over this at home. And on the drive here. And when we were unpacking…”
“I know, Moof,” His eyes scrunched up with something like sadness, “I just worry.”
“I know,” Mika sighed.
He weakly opened his arms. Mika closed her eyes for a moment and let out a puff of air, before lifting her arms so he could pick her up. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist and let him hug her– for what would be the last time in a while. Despite her exasperation, the idle sway of her tail increased to full on wagging in her father’s arms. He consumed her in what could only be described as a bear hug (seriously, she’s sure he just broke a rib). She let her shoulders loosen and rested her chin on his shoulder, her ear flicking away as it made contact with his head. She tried her best to reciprocate the hug.
They stayed like that for a long while, not daring to utter a word. Mika tried her best to memorize just what his embrace felt like.
“Be safe?” He asked.
“I will,” She assured him.
She could hear a wobble to his voice, and decided to spare him the information that she knew he was crying.
Finally, he set her down. He wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his coat, and she wobbled for a second while she found her footing. Ugh, she hadn’t realized just how tired she felt until she’d been relieved of the task of holding herself up.
As she regained stability, Lazarak emerged from around a corner. His hair was braided back, exposing his forehead for the first time since he was, what, 14? A keyfob was looped on his thumb and he was tapping away at his phone, doubtlessly texting his boyfriend. He looked up as he got closer to the duo, and eventually shoved his phone in his back pocket.
“Why did we get here this early, again?” He punctuated his question with a yawn.
Right, it was still… early. Mika pulled out her phone to check the time again.
5:15. Technically the dormitories weren’t even supposed to be open for the next 15 minutes. Not that she was a stickler for rules.
But this is about when she’d go to sleep.
Cursed diurnal universities.
“Because we’re doing our best to help your sister,” Khalid interrupted her thoughts.
“Who you won’t be seeing for months ,” She stuck out her tongue. “So appreciate me for the little time you still have me!”
Lazarak just shot Mika a sharp grin, “Uh-huh, because I’ll miss the family pest so~ much.”
“Lazarak.” Khalid said, using that threatening sort of lilt parents were oh-so-good at.
Mika just snorted. She took a step forward to thump his arm.
“You love me,” She challenged.
“I harbor no such emotions,” Lazarak turned his nose up.
Behind them, their father sighed.
“You’re gonna miss me so~ much,” She crooned.
“I’ll be celebrating your absence with cake and confetti,” He countered.
Mika opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Lazarak letting out a short little ‘oh!’
“Right, Mom found a place she wants to try, it’s a bakery… café… place. On campus, actually. We walked past it while we were looking around and it smelled pretty alright.” He said. He looked between Mika and Khalid, waiting for their answers.
Khalid seemed convinced enough. He glanced down at his daughter. “Sounds good to me. Mika?”
Damn, a danish sounded good right now. Inconveniently, she was reminded of the heaviness in her limbs that warned her she might pass out.
“You guys can go,” She shrugged. “But I really wanna unpack. And sleep.”
Khalid practically wilted.
“I’m sorry,” She sighed.
Even Lazarak frowned. He reached out and ruffled her hair, causing her ears to pin back.
“At least walk us out?”
“Well duh ,” She rolled her eyes. “You’d get lost without me.”
She spun around to shut the door to her room and grabbed her father’s hand, dragging him with her. Despite her comments of him getting lost, she let her brother take the lead.
Lazarak filled the air with conversation as they made their way downstairs and outside of the building. Mika yawned more than anyone reasonably should at 5AM.
Finally Lazarak shouldered the last door open and the cold morning air hit Mika’s face like a brick. Her dropped back completely and she scrunched her face up.
Alerted by the squeaking of the door, Vera looked up and beamed at the trio. She was crouched at the base of a tree with Nila in front of her, and given how she was recoiling her hand, she’d been showing the little girl the lichen and fungi growing there.
Mika couldn’t help but smile.
Vera stood up and her long dress fell from where it was bunched under her knees. Nila followed in suit. It was obvious she was just mimicking Vera from the way her eyes were still glued to the mushrooms growing from the tree. Finally, she looked up, and her blue eyes glimmered with delight. She glanced up at Vera as if to ask for permission, and started marching towards Mika when her mother nodded. Mika’s ears pricked up in her own happiness.
“Bumblebee~,” Mika almost sang, crouching down a little and opening her arms to invite Nila into a hug.
She let out a little ‘oof’ at the force Nila used to hug her, but still wrapped her arms around her little sister and squeezed. She rocked her own torso side to side a little, shaking Nila in turn.
“I’m gonna miss you so~ much, Beebee,” She said, with a final squeeze and a kiss on Nila’s forehead.
“Remember to tell mom if you wanna call me, okay?” She kept her hands on Nila’s shoulders even as they broke from the hug. “I’ll always make time to say hi.”
“Okay!” Nila nodded.
She grabbed Nila and hoisted her up, grunting at the effort it took. She held Nila on her hip and turned to Vera.
… For about two seconds, before she desperately turned around and offered her sister to her father.
Nila seemed delighted by this exchange of hands. When she was comfortable in Khalid’s arms, Mika again turned to Vera.
“Mushrooms?”
“Better than carrying boxes,” Vera smiled. She started picking her way through the grass and towards the rest of her family.
“You could have just levitated all of them,” Mika crossed her arms.
“After my dear daughter roused me at midnight? Unlikely,” Vera laughed. “Besides, I think your father needed that.”
“Sorry,” Mika laughed awkwardly.
“Oh, hush,” The faint smile never left her lips, but a seriousness graced her tone, “No feeling sorry on such a big day.”
Once Vera got close enough, Mika practically snared her and pulled her into a hug. She had to momentarily loosen her grip, only to let Vera duck down and better reciprocate the hug. Despite her seeming confusion, Vera was enthusiastic about the touch.
“I’m gonna miss you a lot, mom,” Mika said, weakly.
“Hey, no sad good-byes yet, we haven’t even had breakfast!” Vera stepped back, but kept a hand on Mika’s face. “Laz told you two about the bakery, right?”
“She’s too tired ,” Lazarak frowned.
He seemed almost upset. Wow.
“Too tired for breakfast?” Vera asked.
Her hand brushed against Mika’s cheek, and she leaned into the touch. Vera’s thumb stroked her cheekbone, and her eyes felt like they were piercing through her soul.
“Sort of,” She yawned. The yawn wasn’t planned, but she’d be lying if she said it wasn’t convenient. “I’ll eat later, promise.”
Vera seemed genuinely upset for a split second.
Please don’t let this be something she’ll regret.
Vera sighed in resignation and hugged Mika. She just lifted her arms to reciprocate the hug and sank into the embrace.
“I’m gonna miss you,” She repeated.
“Seradem’s gonna be lonely without you, y’know.” Vera responded.
“You’ve got plenty of company.”
Vera patted Mika’s back twice before pulling away, keeping her hands on Mika’s cheeks for a few moments longer.
“Be safe, don’t let school sap your energy.”
“I know,” Mika sighed.
“I know you know,” Vera laughed.
She pressed their foreheads together briefly, before stepping back entirely.
She beamed at Mika. Her happiness was infectious, and Mika couldn’t help but smile too.
Vera glanced over to her son for a moment and backed up. She slowly meandered towards the main road, beckoning Khalid and Nila to follow. They walked slowly, as if they were in denial that they had to leave at all.
Only Lazarak stayed.
Faintly, Mika could hear Vera asking Nila for directions to the bakery, laughing with Khalid and guiding her through the right series of turns.
“You’re not staying,” Mika gazed off into the middle distance. Lazarak stepped a bit closer to her. “You know that, right?”
“I don’t want to,” Lazarak laughed. He put his hand on her head and shook her a little, playing rough.
Slowly, cars started pulling into the parking lot. Her classmates and their families, finally arriving. Signifying a new era of her life.
It was delusional, but she almost heard her parents and sister talking.
Gods, she didn’t want to regret this.
She pushed Lazarak’s hand away with her forearm and pivoted on a paw, “If you’re gonna be a dick, you should just get to that bakery, hm?”
“Oh, come on,” The frown was audible in Lazarak’s voice. He put a hand on her shoulder.
She sighed. And turned around. Opened her arms a little.
“I’m gonna miss you.”
He scooped her into a massive hug, one she sank into.
“I’ll miss you too,” Lazarak hummed. “Mom’s right, Seradem won’t be the same without you.”
She smiled and rolled her eyes, “Okay, okay that’s enough. You almost sound like you care.”
Lazarak just squeezed harder. This time not out of affection, but rather a deliberate attempt to make her gasp for air. She clawed at him, and tried desperately to push herself off of him.
“You’re evil .” She growled, once she was free from his embrace.
“Yet you’ll miss me?” He smiled.
“Go, enjoy your bread , Zack,” She pushed at him, forcing him in the direction their parents went. He lifted his other hand to ruffle her hair again.
“Will do,” He said. “I’ll be sure to text you about just how good it is!”
“Worry about texting your boyfriend first.”
She started walking towards the door to the building again, and he took a few hesitant steps in the opposite direction.
She pulled out her keycard and unlocked the door. She turned around to see him give her one final wave. A wave she reciprocated fully.
And she stepped inside.
A new chapter.
…Yay.
Once she was alone, the heaviness in her body hit her like a brick. She didn’t even bother with stairs, instead opting to shove herself into an elevator with a few other early students that were hauling bags upstairs.
She trudged to her room and fumbled with her keycard again to unlock the door, letting it fall shut behind her.
She never had the chance to observe it more than just a rudimentary square shaped room, with a few desks, a single bed on the right side, and a bunk bed on the left. She certainly didn’t have the energy now. She left the few boxes she’d personally carried right where she had put them; the lower bunk.
Her pillow was in her back, which was across the room. She decided she’d make her bed later, and instead clambered up the ladder into the top bunk bed.
She passed out about as soon as she put her body to rest.
◈◈◈
Mika jolted awake to someone knocking on the door. It was a sharp, piercing sound that frustrated her. She was tempted to throw her pillow at the origin of the sound, but… she hadn’t pulled her pillow out of her backpack. Ugh. She blinked a little to wake up, but ultimately chose to keep them closed.
Maybe the person would go away.
She frustratedly cracked an eye open as the door to her room clicked unlocked. It was swung open with a great deal of force and she watched with mild interest as hazy blue daylight streamed into the room. She rolled over onto her stomach and peeked over the edge of the bed. A tan woman caught the door with her heel as it fell shut and kicked it open, just enough to fully slip inside the room. Her hands were full with a massive storage box, so she used her elbow to flick the lightswitch on, flooding the room with light.
She was… unlike what Mika expected.
She was short. Not shorter than Mika, haha, and while Mika couldn’t properly gauge from where she was perched, she couldn’t have been taller than 5’5. She wore a red muscle tee that was cropped to show her abs.
She had abs .
What 18-year-old has abs ?
Her shoulders were similarly muscular, as were her whole arms. She was wearing a few bracelets and necklaces, both gold jewelry and basic leather cordage, from the looks of it. She had on distressed black shorts that exposed her equally muscular legs, and red running shoes. The kind with the white tips.
Her hair was dark. It was a little too red to be considered to brown, but a little too brown to be called red. Well, maybe it could be called red to someone who wasn’t well acquainted with red hair. Mika didn’t quite have that luxury. It was clipped short enough that it barely curled around the backs of her ears, but towards the front lengthened out to form messy bangs.
Messier than her emou ’s. Who knew it was possible?
Her face was sort of obscured by the angle Mika was laying from, but she had a strong, sort of masculine jaw. On her left cheek was a three-lined mark Mika was sure she’d seen before. It wasn’t evident if she was wearing makeup or not, a testament either to her natural beauty or her makeup skills, Mika was not yet sure. Maybe both. From behind her eyelashes it looked like her eyes were blue.
She stared blankly at the bed directly under Mika’s for a moment.
The bed Mika had piled with still unopened boxes. The woman took a step towards the other bed.
“Ohh, shit, sorry!” She called out.
The girl jumped a little from Mika’s sudden exclamation, and looked up. Mika was surprised by just how blue her eyes were.
“Oh hey!”
Mika grabbed the guardrail of the bed and used it as an anchor point to flip over, dropping to the floor. It was a messier maneuver than she intended, but she didn’t fall on her ass, so it had to count as something of a success. She grabbed the storage box closest to the other woman, letting out a little huff from the exertion, and nodded with her head towards the now empty space. Oof, it was heavier than she thought it’d be. She brushed past the woman for a moment to set the box on the ground at the foot of the bunk.
“I didn’t realize anyone else would be coming today,” She laughed nervously. She flitted across the room to grab another box and set it right on top of the one she put on the floor.
“All good,” The woman said. With a few strides of her own, she set her box on one of the empty desks.
Someone knocked on the door and Mika’s ears pinned back. She almost groaned.
“My dads,” The woman shrugged. “They insisted on helping.”
“Ohh,” Mika hummed. She opened the door and was greeted with four men, all as muscular as her apparent roommate. They all shared the same markings on their left cheeks as she did. They all smiled down at her and pulled the door open wider to hustle inside. The room suddenly got much, much smaller.
For a second she was sure she hadn’t fully woken up.
She pivoted on her left paw and turned back to face the woman, shaking her head a little to clear her head.
“Oh, right, I’m Mika!” She said. She marched across the room again to grab the last box remaining on the lower bunk, turning her head to the woman. A desperate attempt to show she wasn’t just talking to the air, really. “I take it we’ll be stuck together for the rest of the year?”
“I guess so!” The woman laughed, placing a hand on her hip. “The name’s Bast.”
“Nice to meet you, Bast!” Mika said. She twirled around and set her final box down.
With everything relatively organized, the four men also sprung into action, setting their own boxes down near where Bast put hers. Mika darted between them all and pranced to the window, trying to open the shades and let some natural light in.
She was blinded by the light of the sunset streaming in.
She squeaked and stumbled backwards, whipping around to face the room and covering her eyes with her hands.
“Are you okay?” Bast asked. She sounded genuinely concerned.
Mika rubbed her eyes with her hands, pausing momentarily to give her a thumbs up.
She didn’t see Bast nod and begin unpacking her boxes.
With five whole bodies in motion, she decided to hold off on unpacking her boxes for the next hour or so. She hopped up onto the bed across from the bunk, her hands folded between her legs. Ugh, this was awkward.
Bast and her fathers worked in near perfect sync. They chatted and joked between one another as clothes and appliances were pulled out of boxes and organized. She noticed they were working through sign language, pausing their work to seamlessly add to a conversation. She was intrigued, but it wasn’t her business to snoop on their conversation. Everything they said honestly went in one ear and out the other.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and idly scrolled through her notifications for a minute. Well wishes from her mother, more reminders from her father… a final ‘love you’ message. Well…what Khalid doesn’t know she screenshots wouldn't kill him.
A graphic description of the bakery’s croissants from her brother, the dick. Borderline gibberish from her sister, via her brother’s phone. Ansa and Nour had also messaged her. SHe probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. Her aunt had sent a picture of a cliff she was sitting on, with a beautiful view of the ocean just below it. A few follow ups wishing Mika was with her and such.
Mika smiled.
She glanced up again. It was just supposed to be momentary, but her attention was caught when she realized Bast was fingerspelling her name. Then she started focusing on what they were talking about.
Bast glanced over for a moment and Mika frantically buried her face in her phone again. She glanced up with her eyes only, and Bast was continuing her conversation.
What? If they’re gonna talk about her behind her back, they might as well try to actually do it behind her back.
She squinted as she watched Bast sign, but the gossip made no sense… Oh.
Mika’s ears fell back and she hid her face again. Someone had just asked Bast about her name. The conversation had moved on.
That’s… embarrassing.
She returned to what Nour had sent her, honestly it was standard procedure for them. Questions about the state of the cybersecurity and reminders to be safe. They even tacked on that they’d be willing to background check her roommates. She responded to the best of her ability, even darting across the room again to grab her laptop.
Over the course of give or take an hour, the room completely changed. Mika had been moving between sitting on the empty bed, her own bed, and the floor, whatever best kept her out of the way of Bast’s dads as they moved furniture for her.
Bast’s dads, which were apparently only four of eight. Or maybe they’d been circulating for the past hour and Mika’d never noticed. Wow. Crazy.
In the setup process, Mika even dug through her own boxes and bags, pulling out decorations she’d been procrastinating putting up as Bast’s family lost momentum. One by one, they left, until it was just Bast and Mika. She finally got sheets and pillows on her bed…
…And finally, their room started to scrape into something livable. She and Bast kept half untouched, in a desperate hope that their final roommate wasn’t a total no-show, but the side they had decorated almost felt like home. Posters lined the walls, a crazy amalgamation of the bands and shows they liked, and carpets were laid out on the floor. Mika had pulled fairy lights from one of her boxes and laced them through the frame of the bunk, giving the entire room a cozy sort of glow when the lights were off.
Mika sat on the carpet, leaning against the side of their bed. She had her computer in her lap, and she was still trying to tidy up loose ends with the router Nour had given her before she departed. Hooray for complete privacy. Bast was sitting on her bed, half looking over Mika’s shoulder, half scrolling through her phone.
“I’m hungry.” Bast suddenly said, standing up and stretching backwards. “Are you hungry?”
“No,” Mika responded, desperately rerunning her code. Her stomach growled.
She glanced up from her screen to see Bast looking at her all… smug . Mika stuck her tongue out.
After a minute of silence, broken up by the very occasional taps of her keyboard, Mika sighed and set her computer to the side.
“Have anything in mind?”
“Nope!” Bast said, popping the final consonant.
Mika pushed herself up to a standing position and copied Bast’s stretch. Ugh, she’d been sitting too much.
“Dining hall?”
“Halfway across campus?”
“You can walk, no?” Mika scoffed. “Besides, it’s, what, two blocks? We won’t die.”
“Fine, Miss Insistent,” Bast sighed playfully. “Dining hall it is.”
Mika waited as Bast tugged her shoes on, and they walked out of the dormitory together.
The walk to the dining hall was uneventful. Well, aside from the fact that Bast apparently had the stamina of a god. Despite complaining about the walk, she was practically power walking. Mika had to actually jog to keep up.
Their dinner was similarly uneventful. Again, aside from the fact that Bast ate like a beast. She had to have some insane workout routine, there was just no other explanation for that and her inhuman walking pace. Mika had to tag along with her to the gym, or something .
The dining hall wasn’t particularly special. It was designed like a restaurant, with a few different areas separated by little one-step platforms. About half of the tables were already taken by people sitting down, eating, and working on their computers. Along the back, a whole area was dedicated to a sort of buffet. When Mika glanced over, she would have sworn she saw Bast’s eyes glimmer. She couldn’t blame her. Between the smell of food and the energy, Mika herself was beginning to salivate.
Bast practically dragged Mika to the buffet,
In all honesty, it wasn’t very good. Maybe she’d just been spoiled her entire life by her parents’ cooking. She still made an attempt to try everything she dished out for herself, while Bast seemed to scarf down everything on her plate.
“We need to find a grocery store tomorrow,” She said, idly.
“Hm?”
“I can cook better than this!” She huffed, gesturing with her fork. “Probably.”
Bast laughed. Not all out, but the chuckle that left her lips mae Mika’s ears pivot forward. Mika let out a little laugh in response.
“No, really! At least I can adequately season chicken!”
“Gods forbid I ever-,” Bast laughed again, “I ever underestimate your chicken seasoning skills!”
“Oh, you –,” Mika started. She crossed her arms and turned her nose up, “Precisely why we need to go shopping, now I have something to prove.”
Bast raised her brows, “You think you have to prove this to me?”
Mika stuck out her tongue. Bast shamelessly reached over and stabbed a piece of chicken off of Mika’s plate.
“Oh, okay, yeah, this is underseasoned.”
Mika squeaked in indignance. Bast grinned. Mika failed to formulate a response, and they settled back into silence.
After a few more bites of food, curiosity got the better of Mika.
“If you dont mind me asking… Henna?” She asked. She gestured at Bast’s face.
Bast scrunched up her face and glanced behind her for a moment, before realizing what Mika meant.
“Nope,” She said, idly touching her cheek. “Tattoo. Hurt like a bitch.”
Mika hummed in understanding and leaned forward, hoping Bast would continue.
She lowered her hand and continued eating, talking breaks between swallowing and taking bites
“Got it on my 18th, it’s a family thing. I think you noticed that, yeah?”
“Yep,”
“You should have seen it a few months ago,” Bast laughed, “My entire cheek was red for a week .”
“Yeesh
“Nope~,” Bast said, “My dad did it themselves, I just slapped gauze on it until it didn’t hurt to touch.”
Mika cringed at the notion. Bast let out a snort at her reaction.
“I’m actually thinking about getting another,” She added. “A raven.”
She gestured at her torso, vaguely on her solar plexus. “Right here, probably. Sounds neat, right?”
“And painful,” Mika added.
Bast chuckled, “And painful.”
Their conversation died off and shifted topic to Bast’s dads, then to Mika’s father. They kept a polite degree of secrecy between one another, but Mika wasn’t upset by this. It was nice to talk to fill the silence.
Gradually they ran out of things to talk about and settled into silence as they ate. Mika texted her parents. And Nour.
That damned router.
When Bast ran out of food to try, and Mika ran out of bites to steal from Bast’s plate as revenge for her heartless poultry theft, they got up and walked home. Again, together.
Mika felt almost bored.
They walked the long way back to their room, checking out the campus as much as they could after dark, and with Bast’s borderline sprinting walking pace. Is to say, not much. Mika couldn’t begin to explain how grateful she was that she could appreciate silence with Bast. They seemed to be surrounded almost entirely by other dormitories, as well as the campus gymnasiums. She had to check those out with Bast some time.
When they got back to their room, Bast was eager to kick her shoes off and jump into bed.
Truly, this woman fascinated Mika with the way she could go from 1 to 100 and back again so quickly..
She elected to grap her laptop and toss it up onto her bed, climbing up after it. She could figure out Nour’s tech while Bast got ready for bed. She sat cross legged and politely faced the wall as Bast padded around the room, changing into pajamas and taking piercings out. Mika had to admit the rattling of metal piercings hitting the ceramic of Bast’s jewelry dish was a satisfying noise. The bed briefly shook as Bast clambered in.
“Goodnight,” Mika said.
“‘Night,” Bast responded.
And so they stayed like that. When Bast’s breathing transitioned to something heavier and slower, Mika shuffled a little so that her screen and typing wouldn’t be too much of a distraction.
As the hours passed by she finally got the router working, and moved onto another of her emou ’s tasks, typing away at a more relaxed pace until the sky began to lighten up from behind the shades in a way that implied dawn was coming. It wasn’t technically “morning,” so her family couldn’t hound her for her awful sleeping schedule. She’d fix it once classes actually started… yeah. She closed her laptop and set it next to her pillow, trying not to shake the bed too much as she pulled her blankets over her.
Mika passed out about as soon as she laid down. The heat of her laptop warmed her bed comfortably, and for one night she decided she didn’t care much for putting it away properly.
She didn’t dream.
◈◈◈
For the second day in a row, Mika was abruptly woken up by someone knocking on the door. She growled when that someone decided to open the door anyway. What was the point of knocking?! Mika wriggled closer to the edge of her bed to better see whoever had entered. Not that it did much good, as her figure was silhouetted by the doorway and mostly obscured by the many bags and suitcases that surrounded her. Sun almighty, did she carry everything on her own?
Mika blearily pulled out her phone, blinking as she checked the time. The screen temporarily blinded her, before delivering her the little morsel of information that it was, in fact, 6:00 AM. Two hours of sleep. Fantastic. Brilliant, honestly.
“Oh,” The woman in the doorway said, softly. She stilled completely, with her hand hovering just above the lightswitch.
The bed shook a little as Bast presumably sat up.
“Who’re you?” Bast’s voice had a rasp, as if she had just woken up. Probably because she had.
“Move-in day was yesterday,” Mika groaned, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. “Y’missed your shot, gotta go home.”
She was joking. Partially. So what if she was frustrated that her sleep was interrupted.
“My flight was delayed,” The woman lowered her hand from the lightswitch and instead walked across the room to pull the shades open. Ah, the morning sunlight was much more tolerable than evening. “I talked it through with the administration to keep my room.”
In the brighter light, Mika could properly size the woman up. Despite the bags on her shoulders, she managed to stand with an elegant sort of poise. Mika was impressed. She was tall— certainly taller than her or Bast, and despite this was still wearing heels. Her eyes were a piercing shade of yellow that complimented her coppery tan skin.
She was dressed to the absolute nines, wearing black slacks with a navy blue blouse. The blouse had a silky texture to it, and the neckline mimicked the cravats her emou still insists on wearing, with one of those wide, loosely knotted bows. A sliver of her chest was exposed.
Her hair was held up in a silver claw clip. It was pitch black, almost shining blue. Or maybe it was just a reflection of the pale blue horns upon her head. They appeared to be crystalline, and curved slightly inward. She had bangs that fell between her eyes, and longer tendrils that rested between her horns and her ears, curling ever so slightly outward. She had a thin tail that was swishing left and right passively like a cat’s might, and it was tipped with the same crystalline material as the horns on her head.
She was definitely wearing makeup, and was definitely good at applying it. Her lips were painted a shade of matte black that reminded Mika of a black hole, and she had several delicate, almost feathery strokes of eyeliner that made her eyes seem to dance every time she blinked or glanced to the side.
“To answer your question, I’m Minerva. Unless I was given the wrong keycard, I’m your final roommate.”
Bast let out a huff of air.
“I’m sorry for waking you up. It was rude of me to assume you’d be awake by now.”
As if any reasonable human being would be awake before 8:00.
“You should be,” Mika dropped her head back onto her pillow and pulled her sheets over her face.
The entire bed rocked as Bast rolled out. Mika pinned her ears back as Bast started walking around the room, her joints cracking as she stretched. She opened a few drawers and rustled through them.
“Can I unpack?” Minerva asked, trying to address both girls at once. She shrugged her bags off her shoulders and onto her bed.
Ah, so she did understand decency.
“No,” Mika growled before Bast could response. “Lemme sleep..’n hour.”
Bast snorted.
“Not a morning person?”
Mika grabbed blindly for one of the extra pillows on her bed and threw it in Bast’s general direction. She rolled over to face the wall and tried to lure sleep back to her.
“Don’t mind her,” Bast said.
“No, it’s alright,” Minerva responded. “I’ve been wanting to explore this campus anyway.
Mika covered her ears and let sleep claim her.
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Mika was roused from her sleep by Minerva re-entering the room. She didn’t bother knocking this time, and Mika was incredibly grateful for that. While the clack of her shoes was still enough to wake Mika, it was more a final push to waking up than it was a forceful awakening. She was much less frustrated this time around.
She lifted a hand to wave at Minerva, but made no moves to roll out of bed.
“Where did Bast go?” Minerva asked. Mika buried her face further into her pillow as Minerva walked around the room. Her ear swiveled towards the sound of a small box being set down.
“I’u-nno,” Mika responded, intelligently. She wrapped her arms around her pillow and curled in on herself, trying to will her body back to sleep.
Unsuccessfully.
With a groan, she sat up. Minerva glanced up at the motion, her yellow eyes practically burning a hole through Mika. Slowly, she grabbed her pillow and held it close to her chest.
She yawned and shuffled closer to the end of the bed. Minerva looked the same as she did a few hours ago. Honestly, she looked even better than before, now that Mika had the mental capacity to appreciate her appearance. Cushioned by the pillow, she braced herself against the guardrail and pulled her gloves back up. The box Minerva had set down on the desk across from Mika was a shallow cardboard box, the kind bakeries use to store half dozens. When it became evident that Mika was not going to start a conversation, Minerva turned around to open the box and pull a pastry out.
The room felt strangely empty.
“Wait, where’d Bast go?” She asked, when she was conscious enough to form a sentence.
“I–,” Minerva started, pausing for a second and sighed. “I wouldn’t know. I left before she did.”
“We’re just condemned to never properly meet, huh?” Mika laughed a little.
“I suppose so,” Minerva responded. She took a small bite of the patry in her hand, using her off hand to catch any potential crumbs.
It was a small thing, but Mika was drawn to the practiced elegance this woman held.
She hauled herself out of bed with a groan. Once her paws hit the ground, she stretched upwards, standing as far on her toes as she could and reaching for the ceiling, as well as straightening her tail. And then she made her way to where Minerva was standing.
“You’ve been forgiven for your early morning invasion.” Mika reached around the demon and plucked a pastry from the box.
“I wasn’t aware that breakfast constituted an apology,” Minerva responded.
“Well now you are,” Mika gestured at Minerva with the pastry, before taking a bite.
Oh, it was good . Much better than the dining hall food. She glanced at the box, scanning for a bakery name or anything. She had a feeling she’d be frequenting this place. She finished the pastry in only two bites, and reached for another. She devoured that one just as fast.
“I’ll… keep that in mind–,”
Bast swung the door open and slipped inside, catching it with her heel before it slammed closed again. She had a damp towel draped over her shoulders. Her hair was wet enough to clump into little spikes like an anime character. She’d changed into an orange tank top and black sweatpants, and was wearing a pair of sandals Mika assumed were acting as her shower shoes.
“The water pressure is horrendous.” She said.
Mika blinked in surprise.
“Good morning to you too,” She responded after a moment.
“Like, actually the worst thing I’ve ever felt. You could take a better shower standing in the rain.” She walked past the pair and grabbed the towel from her shoulders to hang it on one of the hooks on the wall. Mika didn’t miss a vague redness that touched her cheeks as Minerva watched her. “…‘Morning.”
“Where did you go?” Minerva asked. “You failed to tell us
The brunette grabbed a pastry from the propped open box, somehow scarfing it down faster than Mika had.
“Morning jog,” She said, glancing at Minerva. “Felt gross, so I took a shower after.”
As she spoke, she leaned over her desk to use her mirror, putting in all of her many earrings, and ruffling her hair to style it.
That… actually made sense. Of course she’d be on something like a morning jog.
“What, did you think I just vanished like a ghost?” Bast raised her brows and grinned at Minerva through the mirror.
Watching Bast clean up reminded Mika that she was wearing day old clothes and still felt exhausted. The idea of a shower was tempting, and that’s when she lost interest in the conversation Minerva and Bast were having. She made her own way around the room to grab clothes, towels, and toiletries, and slipped out with a small wave.
Bast was right about the water pressure. It was disappointing. Mika would have to tamper with the showerheads some time.
She spent a lot of time standing with her head tilted back, letting water hit her face and run down her chest, slowly washing the soap from the front of her body. Gods, she was tired. She might have fallen asleep if she wasn’t standing up.
Other than that, she emerged refreshed, and temporarily more awake.
Her outfit wasn’t well thought out. Well, her outfits never were. She had basically grabbed what she first saw, and today that managed to be a pair of wide legged jeans that brushed uncomfortably on her calves, and a long-sleeved green shirt. Her family crest had been screen printed in gold on the left breast some years ago, but it had been worn almost unrecognizable after years of use.
She pulled the sleeves a bit further over her hands. She’d need to grab gloves when she got back to her room.
She made her way back down the hallway with just a little more pep than she did forty-five minutes prior.
When she opened the door, the place was… a mess. Well, not really, but it was. Bast and Minerva were in the process of rotating a desk, and it seems like everything that was once in the demon’s luggage had been dumped onto her (now, made) bed. A few posters were already put up, and Minerva’s wardrobe door was wide open. It seems that Minerva had decided to agree with them on the notion that separating room sides was a dumb idea.
“Can I help?” Mika asked. She padded to her own wardrobe and dug through a drawer for a moment, looking for a pair of gloves while she awaited a response.
“Yes, please,” Minerva said.
Yes! She found a pair of worn leather gloves she could tuck the sleeves of her shirt into. The brown even matched the green.
“Mmkay, whaddya need?” She asked, turning towards the other women and securing the wrist straps.
Minerva explained what she needed, and the three got to work. They tried their best to reorganize the room into something comfortable for all three, and fixed the decoration placement a few times until it looked right. Mika couldn’t be more glad both of her roommates were strong enough to move furniture, because she certainly wouldn’t have been able to do this alone. Minerva unpacked all of her items and placed them all down, aided by Mika. Honestly, the fox thought she might be a witch more than a demon, because she fit an absolutely inexplicable volume of stuff into her luggage. She was impressed.
Finally, they all agreed the room looked… adequate. If they wanted to change it again, they could, but for now it was fine. Their wardrobes had been reorganized into an L shape near the door, and each of their desks acted as little section breakers through the room. The floor was now almost entirely carpeted in a hodge-podge of different styles, and posters and pictures lined the blank space of the walls.
They all sat down on Minerva’s bed with heavy sighs.
“I’m hungry,” Bast said.
“You’re always hungry,” Mika sighed. After a moment, she tacked on, “Me too.”
“There’s a restaurant within walking distance,” Minerva hummed. “I passed it when I was walking around the campus. It seemed good enough from what I could see.”
“Well, let’s go then,” Bast was practically already standing up.
Again with the 1 to 100.
When faced with the idea of standing back up, Mika was reminded of her exhaustion. She fell backward to half lay on Minerva’s bed.
“You two have fun, I’m going back to bed.” Mika yawned.
“No,” Bast said. “No, you’re coming.”
“We’d feel bad if we ate without you,” Minerva followed up, standing up as well.
“You barely know me,” Mika countered.
“I’ll carry you if I have to.” Bast threatened.
Mika didn’t doubt the validity of that claim.
Ugh. Fine. With a groan of effort, she sat up, and eventually rose to her feet. Bast patted her on the back as if to congratulate her for her effort. Ha ha ha.
Because of her height and the fact that she was the only one who knew where they were going, Minerva easily took the lead. She purposefully kept her pace slow, not that it mattered when Bast walked like she was constantly late, but Mika appreciated it.
Once they exited the dormitory and the walkway widened out, Minerva gently slowed her pace even further, granting Mika the chance to catch up. Sun, bless this woman.
“So, you had to fly here?” Mika asked, trying to spark conversation.
“Oh, yes. I did. I’m sure I could have driven, but that borders on road tripping, which frankly didn’t sound like much fun before nine months of school.”
Bast crossed her arms with a lighthearted huff, “I also had to take a road triphere! It’s not miserable if you’ve got family.”
“I would prefer dead silence over my brother,” Minerva scoffed.
Mika’s ears pricked.
“You have a brother?”
“Mhm,” The demon hummed. “Younger.”
Mika sucked in a breath, “So the Devil?”
“You could say so.”
Their conversation drabbled on as they walked, trading stories of family; of brothers and fathers and people who missed them. Ah, that reminded her that she should probably inform her worrywart of a father that she was still alive and well.
“Hey, hey wait, can I take a picture?” She asked at a pause in the flow of conversation, slowing to a stop.
It was less a question and more an announcement. She lifted her phone in the air, making a peace sign with her free hand. Minerva and Bast noticed, and stopped to pose for the photo as well. Well, Bast posed, with a bright grin that exposed her sharp canines and bunny ears behind Mika’s head. Minerva just fixed her posture and smiled politely. Mika had to adjust how she was holding her phone for a few seconds, eventually settling on a framing that cut off the bottom of her face so that Minerva could fit.
Damned giant.
The screen flashed briefly, and the two fell back to ease.
“Thanks,” Mika chirped.
Bast and Minerva continued walking at a slightly faster pace, but Mika stayed put to send the photo. With a few taps, she sent the picture to a group chat with her mother and father.
college is going great! already making friends!
Well, they weren’t friends quite yet.
She shoved her phone into her pocket and jogged to catch up with the duo, easily sliding back into the conversation.
They had a year to make it that far, though. Mika was content with this.
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