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Xochi loves her garden. When she isn't making clothes or hanging out with her friends, she loves spending time in her small garden on the top of her building. Of course, her powers help her in tending to it.
Today is the day she combines two of her three favourite things in life—her garden and her friends. Atzi, Dezi and Marino are coming over to her flat and see her garden.
Atzi is the first to arrive. She brings a bottle of soda and a pack of chips as well as sunflower seeds. After not seeing her for a while, Xochi is excited to see her.
"Atzi, honey! How are you?"
Atzi smiles. "Good, good, and you?"
In the past three years, since the last Sunbearer Trials happened and they got kidnapped by Obsidians seeking revenge, Atzi has grown. The baby cheeks almost melted away and she's grown a few inches taller. She's also became a bit more serious, though all her sweetness didn't disappear.
When the two girls settled down on the couch, waitingfor the boys to arrive, Atzi says, "Before Dezi and Marino come, I want to ask you something."
"Fire away."
"So, um, I kinda have this thing happening with Xio... I like them and and I think they like me, but I'm not sure, and we've been such great friends so far."
Xochi arches an eyebrow. "And you want to ask me for advice about that?"
Atzi looks down shyly. "Yes."
"Sol, you should really ask Dezi and Marino how they got together. You know I haven't ever dated someone I was friends with beforehand."
"Maybe that’s why it never lasted," Atzi comments.
Xochi huffs. "Maybe. But," she quickly adds, shifting her body on the couch to turn towards Atzi, "you'll need to tell me all about Xio."
Atzi rolls her eyes. "Like you don't know them."
•○●○•
Dezi brings a bottle of wine and a bottle of apple juice, but the wine sits undrank on the counter. Atzi, still underage, isn't a big fan of alcohol, despite Dezi and Xochi's tendency to drink at least a glass every time the two see each other.
Marino comes with Dezi with a bag of popcorn and a block of chocolate in his hands. His other arm is around Dezi's waist.
They settle on the rooftop next to Xochi's garden. Xochi pulls out plastic chairs from the communal garage and they sprawl out in them. Dezi pours them each a glass of apple juice, but after the glasses are finished, they abonden them and just pass the bottle in a circle.
"Your garden looks great," Dezi signs. "I'm amazed at how you keep it all by yourself. Any plants I choose to grow always die."
"That's because you're not doing it right. I can show you how it's done."
Marino scoffs. "Yes, by using your powers."
"Cheater," Atzi chimes in.
"Continue like that and I'll stop braiding your hair, Atzi," Xochi teases.
"As long as I get to braid yours."
"What if you don’t get to do it?"
Atzi gasps exaggerately. "No!"
Xochi laughs. "Actually, could you do it now?"
"You know I love it." The daughter of Tormentoso pulls her chair over behind Xochi and starts working on her hair gently.
As Xochi chugs the apple juice, Dezi steals a kiss from Marino. The song of Agua looks closely at the garden. "Could I get some of these tomatoes? I'm visiting Teo on some city bussiness in two days, he mentioned he didn't have time to but them."
"Sure."
The conversation they hold is miniscule. All the deep conversations happen when they need to, so more often that not due to their work schedules, they happen over the phone, wether it's a call or a long texting thread. If anything important happens, the other three are first to find out over the phone. Their hangouts happen simply because they want to see each other in person.
Atzi mentions training with Lluvia, her sister, in the Academy, and how both of them are getting better. She also always finds a way to mention Xio in the conversation.
Dezi and Marino, as the couple of the group, spend more time together, so they recount embarrassing stories of each other. To counter, Xochi tells funny stories of Atzi. It's all innocent, like spitting juice through the nose (which happens again on the rooftop).
"So, Atzi, when are you going to ask the boys what you asked me?" Xochi queries with a teasing smile.
"Xochi!"
"What is it?" Marino asks.
Xochi looks at Atzi and raises her eyebrow. The younger girl, defeated, replues, "I like Xio, but I don’t know if they like me back. So, I guess, I just wanted to ask, how did you two exactly get together?"
Dezi and Marino share a look. "It's an, uh, long story," Marino says.
"We have time," Xochi points out.
"We, uh, kissed after the fifth trial, but then we didn't have to figure it out afterwards," Dezi says.
"And during the last trial, I saw an illusion of Dezi hanging off a cliff and I couldn’t save him. I think that was when it settled with me I was in love with him," Marino admits.
"So when Aurelio, Niya and Teo saved us, we had to work out our relationship as well as everything else. Not that it was hard, because we both knew at that point we liked each other."
"But how?" Atzi whines.
"Because we kissed," Dezi signs. "When you kiss someone, you can feel if they like you by the way they kiss."
Atzi looks at him sideways. "I've kissed people before. I know. But how did you go in for the kiss? How were you sure?"
"We weren't. It was a... well-educated guess and a hope for the best," Marino says.
Atzi sighs. She didn’t get what she hoped for, but she got something.
"Maybe if you told us about your relationship with Xio we could help you better," Dezi suggests.
The next fourty-five minutes are spent doing exactly that. Xochi, listeningand participating in the conversation, realises once again how much she cares about these people. She knew them all before, of course, she had most of her classes with Dezi and Marino, and Atzi followed her around during her first weeks at the Academy. But, after the Sunbearer Trials, they've become so much closer. Like a family. She truly can't imagine a life without them anymore.
"It's a beautiful sunset," Marino remarks, as the sun starts to set.
"That's why I love it up here," Xochi says. "I can watch the sun set or rise in peace."
"You know we are a part of why it's possible?" Atzi asks.
"Oh, yes."
•○●○•
It's way past midnight when they go to sleep. Dezi and Marino wanted to go find somewhere else to sleep, but Xochi insisted on all of them staying in her apartment. Dezi and Marino took the couch, Xochi forced Atzi in her bed and she's on the air mattress on the floor in her room.
Marino snores so loudly Xochi can hear him from the living room. She wonders how Dezi puts up with that all the nights they spent together.
During the night, close to the morning, Xochi is awoken by Atzi's quiet sobs.
"Atzi?" she whispers. "What happened, honey?"
Atzi quietly crawls out of the bed and next to Xochi. "I had a nightmare. I— I—"
"Shhh." Xochi pulls her friend into a hug and draws circles on her back. She's shaking in her arms. "Easy, easy. It's alright, honey. You're safe."
When Atzi stops crying too hard to explain, she speaks, still through tears, "I had a nightmare I was back in Venganza's temple. But Niya, Teo and Aurelio didn't come in time, so Marino died out of dehydration. And for some reason, you and Dezi died, too, so I was left with Ocelo and Auristela."
"But that didn't happen, right? We're all here, we're all safe."
Atzi chokes out another sob. "I know."
"And we all love you, Atzi, you know that?"
She sniffs and smiles a small smile. "I know. I love all of you, too."