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May leaves her family’s house amidst the sounds of yelling and glass breaking.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” her mother spits out at her in quiet and almost perfectly controlled rage. “You’re going to Mantle to, what, exactly? Play hero? Pretend you’re doing something good for the world when, in reality, you’re choosing to embarrass your family for some stupid childish whim?!”
“What would people say when they see you mingling with the filth down there?” her father asks calmer, but no less just as furious. “Do you realize how this will affect our image? You’re a Marigold for gods’ sake! What are you thinking?”
May stands there, her face flushed in anger and disgust and horror at what she’s hearing. She clenches her shaking fists so hard the skin threatens to break.
She knew her family held low views of those in Mantle — they were one of the more prominent and elite families in this kingdom, and those in the city below have done the unforgivable sin of being poor — but she never expected it to be this bad. She never anticipated such a disturbingly vitriolic reaction to her joining the Happy Huntresses.
That was naivety on her part. She knew what her family is like; she should have prepared for this. She should have known better.
She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something, but nothing comes out. There’s a sick, twisted knot in the pit of her stomach — a rock lodged hard in her throat that she’s unable to swallow. A million thoughts running through her head, a thousand words on the tip of her tongue, and this is the first time she’s ever truly been stunned into silence.
The worst part is that she knows that no matter what she says, it’ll be for nothing. She can defend herself until she’s blue in the face and her voice disappears into itself and they would still not listen to a single syllable that comes out of her mouth. The course has been set and there’s no changing tracks. She can do nothing.
Frustration wells up in her and she forces herself to take a deep breath before finally choking a sentence out, steeling herself for what she plans to do next.
“I’m leaving,” she says forcefully, her voice tight and strained. “And I’m never coming back. Don’t bother looking for me. Just pretend I don’t exist.”
Then, before her parents had time to react, May turns around and sprints toward the front door. She doesn’t stop, she doesn’t grab anything, the only thing she gets is a brief glance at her cousin Henry standing away on the other side of the room, pointedly staring at the wall and ignoring everything around him like he always does despite coming to visit hours earlier.
Coward, May thinks to herself right before flinging the door open and stepping out into the cool night air.
As soon as she gets outside, sure she was far enough away from her family, she holds out her hands and turns the area around her invisible. She quickly mourns the belongings she has to leave behind — the only things she has in her pockets being half a pack of gum and the handmade Happy Huntress pin Fiona gave her.
She grips the pin like a lifeline and hurries down the street. Her family doesn’t realize this yet, but this will be the last night they ever see their son.
The last thing she hears from behind her is the sound of something shattering.
Things happen fast once she moves in with Robyn and the other Happy Huntresses.
She’s out in Mantle everyday — hunting, protecting, volunteering, or organizing something. Robyn’s strongest belief is to help one’s community in any way they can, and has rubbed that mentality off on her teammates as well. It’s hard not to feel the same way when you’re around her.
She’s busy all the time now, but she’s thriving. The freedom she feels is almost unparalleled. She has spent so long trying to get out of her family’s shadow that she forgot what the sun felt like.
But despite that, there’s a hidden nagging feeling in her. A small dark cloud covering a part of her sun.
May realizes it during one late night staring at her ceiling, unable to sleep.
This is not her home.
That’s such a silly and ridiculous thing to think. Of course it is — she lives here, she belongs here, this past month she’s felt more at home than she ever did during her entire twenty-three years living at her parents’ estate.
(Thinking back on it now, she has no idea why she stayed with them for as long as she did. She should have left the second she graduated Atlas Academy.)
Though, maybe leaving is part of why she’s feeling misplaced currently. Maybe it’s something as simple as growing pains. Other than living at her prep school and academy, this is the first time she’s truly lived out on her own without her family’s influence. And considering how she left, she no longer has the option of going back should things not work out in her favor. That path has closed behind her.
Well, that’s just fine with her. There’s not a single universe where she’d want to go back anyway. This is precisely where she wants to be.
She turns on her side. So if she wants to be here, and she has nowhere else to go, then where does the hesitancy she feels come from? Growing pains, like she guesses?
Her teammates have been nothing short of welcoming and warm to her. She’s been with them for years; they’re the ones she actually considers to be her family. She knows it has nothing to do with them. They all share a special bond with one another.
May thinks briefly of Joanna’s voice, Fiona’s smile, Robyn’s eyes… A special bond indeed, one that only she thinks might exist between them. Or maybe doesn’t exist at all.
May sighs and shuts her eyelids. She’s not getting any answers or resolutions tonight so she might as well try to get some sleep.
She’s a busy person now after all.
May had just finished loading another box in the back of the truck when she feels a soft tap on her shoulder.
She whips around to see Joanna’s grinning face looking down at her.
“Did I scare you?” she teases.
May rolls her eyes lightheartedly. “You wish. What do you want?”
“David said we can stop for the night. He and his brothers will finish the rest up. Do you wanna head out and get something to eat?”
May thinks about it for a second — which is to say, she hardly had to think about it at all. She had spent the better part of the last five hours helping a man named David pack up his belongings as he prepares his move from Mantle to somewhere in Anima.
Despite the feeling of accomplishment covering her like a satisfyingly warm blanket, she’s extremely sore and utterly famished. There was only one real choice to choose from here.
(Not that she’d ever need a good reason to accept Joanna’s proposals in the first place.)
May makes a show of holding her stomach and groaning. “Yes. Please!”
Joanna shakes her head, but grabs the point of May’s elbow and drags her along down the street. They pass by red brick building after red brick building, most of them looking the exact same unless there’s a sign somewhere or you know precisely what you’re looking for.
Which Joanna did, as she leads May through many different twists and turns until they reach a certain semi-hidden corner of an alleyway that’s particularly crowded with people.
There’s lights strung up along the top of the alleyway in straight lines. There’s the calming sound of jazz coming from one of the opened doors that is only slightly surpassed in volume by the chatter of the people around them, with the occasional rise of jubilant laughter.
A smile flashes across May’s face. She loves this kind of atmosphere.
Joanna brings her to the furthest corner through the group of people, and May can see inside the dimmed chestnut-colored windows a bar and a bunch of tables.
“A hole-in-the-wall type restaurant, huh?” May whispers. “I’ve always wanted to go to one of these.”
“Yup,” Joanna whispers back. “This is someone’s house — they converted their living room to a restaurant and they live upstairs. With their family, of course, who also helps them run the place.”
“Nice.”
They enter the door with a soft chime. The bartender wiping a glass behind the counter nods at them.
The restaurant has a calming aura in it. Like outside, it’s full of chatter but more subdued and quiet. There’s big leafy plants all along the walls, with paintings of various shapes and sizes that almost completely cover said walls from top to bottom. There are low hanging yellow-orbed lights in every room.
What a charming little place this is.
“Hello!” A perky young host calls to them. Her hair, a mix of pink and blue reminiscent of watercolors, sits in a high ponytail behind two curved ram horns. May realizes instantly that she saw this person at the local farmer’s market in the heart of Mantle last month. “Just the two of you?”
“Yup,” Joanna says at the same time May responds with “Yeah.”
“Follow me, please!”
She grabs two menus from behind the host podium and motions for them to follow. She walks them through the small building to the back where a single empty round table with two chairs sits comfortably nestled in the middle of similar tables and similar chairs all filled with other people.
“Your server will be with you both shortly,” the host smiles at them as they sit down and walks away.
“So…” May starts. “Do you… come here often?”
This time Joanna rolls her eyes. “You need to work on your pickup lines. And yes, in fact, I come here at least once a month with Robyn.”
Robyn, Fiona, and Joanna had all been in a relationship for the better part of a full year by now. Robyn and Fiona had already had an established relationship for about two years — they got together the day of their graduation in a really elaborate scene made by Robyn that still brings a smile to May’s face when she thinks about it.
“So you brought me to your special dinner date instead? Was Robyn busy or something?” She asks. There’s a strange tug in her chest that she chooses to ignore by looking through the menu.
This seems to be a pasta and seafood based restaurant. May’s eyes zero in on some sort of oyster based pasta dish.
“Nah, I just felt like taking you to my favorite restaurant tonight. It just also happens to be where I take Robyn for dates.”
May lowers her menu and looks at Joanna, but the other’s face is indecipherable from behind her own menu. She doesn’t know what this means — if this even means anything — but the fact is that they could’ve gone to any other restaurant. There’s a couple others around here, some that they had even passed as they walked over here. They had so many options.
But Joanna had purposely brought her here. To her favorite restaurant. The one she uses for dates.
“This is a date, then?” She tries to ask as casually as Joanna had responded, but she can’t stop the hopeful prickly feeling that’s threatening to burst out of her.
She feels silly for feeling like some sort of school girl with a crush but she can’t help it. Everyone has to feel hope for something.
Joanna slightly lowers her menu. “It’s whatever you want it to be, sweetheart,” she says with a pointed wink.
May can feel the instantaneous flush on her face.
You’re beautiful, you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful...
Anything she wants to say dies on her tongue when their server walks up to their table.
The library smells like dust and books.
It’s almost completely silent in here, save for the occasional chattering among those browsing the aisles with someone or talking to the librarians at the counters. Some are even muttering to themselves, wondering whether they’ve already read this book or trying to convince themself to get that book, or looking for a specific novel or author or genre.
May’s glad she’s not the only one who does something like this sometimes.
“May! May!” Fiona’s excited whispers shake her out of her thoughts. “I found it! I found Flowers in the Meadow! After all this time!”
She looks at the book. She can tell immediately that it’s an older one, made probably fifty years or so ago. The cover is a very simplistic art of a meadow covered with greens and pinks and yellows.
It looks very… unassuming. Quaint, if she were to put it politely.
But she knows how important this book is to Fiona, so she doesn’t dare share her judgmental thoughts out loud.
“Cool,” May says instead. “What’s it about?”
Fiona almost hops in excitement. Cute, May thinks to herself.
“It’s about a budding romance between a farmer boy and a rural girl that turns into a murder mystery after both of them get found decapitated in a meadow!” She smiles giddily.
“Oh. Huh.” She expected the first part but did not at all consider that curve-ball of a premise. “That’s really interesting.” She genuinely means it.
Fiona’s smile somehow grows bigger than it already is. “Isn’t it!? It’s the third in the series and I’ve spent years trying to find it. For all of Atlas’ technological advantages, it seems that didn’t really apply to their libraries.”
May laughs. “Yeah. You’ll definitely have a better time finding the classics down here than up there. But apparently nothing beats the libraries in Vale.”
Fiona nods. “I’ve heard that too! Someone once told me that there’s a library there that has every single book ever written. Every single book. Do you know how many that is? There must be thousands upon thousands! I don’t fully believe it myself, but — “ She pauses when she notices the book in May’s hand. “ — What book did you find?”
May looks down at it. “It’s called “All Structures Blue.” It’s about a bot called “Homicidal Robot” who hates killing people and has to learn the power of friendship along the way. It’s also part of a series, I think.”
“Oh! I didn’t know you were into sci-fi! Though, now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense for you.”
May grins. “I’m not a big reader, but it’s my favorite genre. Something about space and robots really gets me.”
Fiona’s smile turns small and warm, sending an instant tingle through almost every nerve in her body. “Well, now I know exactly what to get you whenever I feel like it. I hope you like gifts; I’m going to turn you into a reader yet!”
May opens her mouth to respond — with what, she doesn’t know. Something suave maybe, like “Oh, Fiona, I absolutely adore gifts,” or “My, my, you sure know how to treat a lady nicely.” Or maybe even a “This has nothing to do with our conversation, but I would really like to kiss you right now.”
She doesn’t get the chance to say anything embarrassing before she suddenly gets roughly shoved forward into her friend, both of them stumbling and dropping their books in surprise. Though she had thankfully managed to grab Fiona and steady them both before either one of them fell along with their books.
May whips her head over in time to see two young kids running away, push each other and laughing.
“Hey,” she harshly whisper-shouts as loud as she dares to in here. It accounts for nothing as they don’t even bother to turn and glance back in her direction.
“Oof,” Fiona groans as she also looks over at the two retreating figures. “What was that?”
“Some snot-nosed little brats,” May grumbles. “Are you alright?”
Fiona nods her head again, then looks down to where their books fell in a neat pile on top of each other. She puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “Hopefully none of the pages got crinkled too bad.”
And then, as though reading one another’s thoughts, they both bend down to grab their books at the same time.
Their hands graze together, a jolt flashing through May like touching a live wire. She hesitates, because this almost feels like it wasn’t entirely accidental. For either of them.
And neither of them pull away. Neither of them even move — for a moment. They both stare at each other, almost alarmed, but it melts into something softer. Something more intentional.
They’re close enough to kiss.
Fiona moves her hands first. Instead of moving to grab one of the books, she cups May’s hand with both of hers like she’s holding something precious and dear to her.
“I’m really glad you came here with me tonight,” Fiona beams sincerely and quietly, with almost no sound coming out of her at all. They way she smiles at her, the way her eyes twinkle under the library’s fluorescent lights, it pulls at something completely raw and vulnerable deep inside of May.
May breathes in and out. Her heart is racing along the path to the inevitable.
“Where the hell did you get that?”
She’s staring at Robyn bounding toward her, a gigantic, towering purple balloon hat perched right on top of her head.
“Jealous?” Robyn smiles. “I won it at that one balloon booth way in the back.”
They’re in the heart of Mantle at one of their farmer’s market events. They have it pretty commonly here— once every three months — and it’s always completely packed with people and vendors, music and camaraderie.
All along the street there are many plant and flower stalls, even more vegetable and fruit stalls, a popcorn stall here, a stall full of wind chimes there, and apparently a balloon stall way down the line somewhere. And this isn’t even half of it.
She’s mumbled and muttered about the impressively large crowd of people that gather here before, but truth be told this had quickly become one of her favorite things to look forward to whenever it happens.
It gives her a certain feeling that she has never experienced back in Atlas. She can’t point her finger on what it is yet, though.
Instead of thinking about it, she slides up against Robyn and stares at her hat.
“Is it supposed to be some kind of animal?” She guesses.
“Yes, actually. It’s a purple giraffe.”
Her own smile stretches across her face. “That looks more like a — “
“Oh, hush,” Robyn waves away May’s remark, which in turn only makes her grin grow. “You have no sense of artistic vision so you don’t get to talk.”
May puts a hand on her chest, clearly (and fakely) affronted. “Why, Robyn, is that any way to talk to your most devoted supporter?”
Robyn stares at her, unimpressed. “I don’t see Joanna or Fiona here.”
Wow. “Ouch! And here I thought we had something special.”
At that, Robyn gives her a sly grin and steps closer to her. And then closer, and then closer…
May’s head goes completely blank, her heart pounding harder and harder with each step. She’s not blushing this time — thank gods — but her insides are twisting around like a sailor’s knot.
She gets gripped by the sudden and intense want to grab Robyn by the shirt and slam them both together.
And maybe Robyn has a similar idea, because she bends even closer to her; closer than they’ve ever been before. It’s exciting, intimate, exhilarating.
She stops mere centimeters away from her, her eyes searching for something.
Permission. May slowly reaches up and rests her hands on the dip of Robyn’s hips, giving it to her.
“Do we have something special?” Robyn whispers hotly next to her ear.
May sighs and relaxes, her own mischievous smile being placed upon her face. She moves her arms to wrap around the other’s neck. “I don’t know. Do we? I might need to be persuaded, if you think so.”
Robyn doesn’t respond with anything else. She doesn’t need to. Surrounded by tomatoes and strawberries, violets and big leafy ferns, she dips May down and changes her life forever.
The snowstorm completely covers the outside in a sheet of pure white.
May shivers despite the warm sweater adorning her, and rubs her arms as she stares out of the window. At least the couch is comfortable, it makes her forget about her currently abandoned book resting on the table next to her.
Atlas never gets blizzards. Their simulated weather pattern manipulation technologies makes it so they never have to go through any harsh storms while up there. They don’t even have to deal with snow for the most part — it’s not uncommon for Atlesians to wear shorts, dresses, and t-shirts during winter months.
May sighs to herself. Sure, it’s convenient. But many people up there have never truly experienced what this world has to offer, and that’s a damn shame. She could’ve been one of those who would never get to see something as fascinating as this.
It’s been almost a year since she left her family. She kept her promise to herself and had never spoken to them since, and is gradually thinking of them less and less each day. It’s hard sometimes, with the Marigold name being as prominent as it is and thus having a semi-constant reminder all the time, but her goal is to make it a name worth being proud of one day.
She wants people to think of her and her actions of helping and building the communities of Mantle when they hear the name — and not of the rich and lazy socialites of her family rotting away in Atlas with no real purpose to their lives.
The corners of her mouth twitch up a little. It would be hilarious, and fitting, to take her parents’ name from them. Especially because that’s all they really have, and it’s all they’ll ever be.
A flash of movement catches her eye and she moves in time to allow Fiona to plop herself on her body more comfortably.
“Do you mind?” May asks as she naturally wraps her arms around the small of Fiona’s back.
“Nope, not at all,” the other grins cheekily.
She sees more shuffling to her right and looks over to see Joanna and Robyn walking toward them, with the latter carrying two mugs in her hands.
Joanna walks behind her head and May leans up just as she bends down to give her a kiss on the forehead, resulting in an accidental kiss on the eye that makes them both laugh. Robyn sets the mugs down on the table, one next to May and one closer to her as she sits on the edge of the couch.
“The news broadcasts say that the storm isn’t going to stop until tomorrow,” Joanna starts.
“So you know what that means,” Robyn continues.
May groans loudly. “Ugh, we’re going to have to shovel so much snow in town tomorrow.” She’ll do it despite her complaints, but she’s not going to be glad about it.
“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to it either,” Fiona admits.
Robyn rolls her eyes. “Okay, first of all: it’s the city that’s going to do most of the clean up. We are going to help shovel out the driveways of those who are physically unable to do it themselves. Besides,” she reaches down under the table and pulls out a board game, resting it on top. “This is what I meant, since we can’t leave the house today.”
Fiona sits up and Joanna takes a seat on the chair next to them. Robyn settles down on the floor on the other side of the table, and soon enough their small little townhouse gets filled with chatter from the three of them — along with the ambiance of the wailing wind in the background.
A warm scene that finds May trying to commit it to memory, which surprises her. They’ll probably have many more moments just like this.
May brings her mug of coffee to her lips and takes a sip; and that’s precisely when she realizes something.
This is her home. This has always been her home from the moment she moved in. But it’s not because of the house they’re in —
It’s her friends. Her girlfriends. Her teammates, her real family. They’re the home she’s been wanting all along, and she didn’t see it until now. At some point her pains had stopped completely, and she had slipped into her new life as seamlessly as a puzzle piece that she didn’t know was missing from her picture.
She watches her girlfriends’ smiles, hears their laughter, and knows that she belongs here. They have always wanted her here. She was just a little late to the party. Our special bond, indeed. She can’t believe it’s taken her this long to figure it out.
May takes a deep breath, and finally leaves the past behind her.