Ch 2.44: Carly

The group split up once they were inside the school itself, Tira going to report their mission and Flora breaking off to go change in her dorm room. “We should probably shower,” Elaina said as she looked down at herself. Her uniform definitely wasn’t in the worst shape it had ever been, but it had been two days since she’d last bathed, and she could definitely justify changing into her spare jacket and skirt as well. “And we need to put our bags down anyway.”

“You’re probably right,” Carline said as she continued walking.

Elaina was almost underwhelmed by the reception they were getting, or lack thereof. A couple people seemed to glance her way, probably at the dirt on her uniform, but she expected more, some acknowledgement that they’d fought a golem, avoided an assassin, beat five mythical creatures. Instead, she was just another student, one who most people probably didn’t even know had left the school.

“That wasn’t how these missions are supposed to go, is it?”

“No,” Carline said. “At the most, they probably expected use to find a handful of poachers without aspects…”

Things were different now though, whether people realized it yet or not. “Hopefully Tira can convince Alonse that these missions,” Elaina whispered. “I mean, students really shouldn’t be going on them. We got lucky, and we’re us.”

Carline’s hand moved to her neck, stroking her throat. “Yeah, I know.”

They didn’t speak the rest of the trip to their dorm room. Elaina let out a sigh of relied as she opened the door and shrugged her bag off onto the bed, smiling as she thought of the warm shower she was about to enjoy, what might happen after the shower if Carline was in the right mood.

But her excitement dissipated as she turned around and actually looked at Carline. She was stood just inside the doorway, arms shaking as as her legs were stuck to the ground. “Carline?”

At the sound Carline fell over, catching herself with her hands and knees as she began panting on the ground, tears welling up in her eyes as the contents of her bag spilled onto the floor.

“Carline!” Elaina shouted as she ran over, dropping to the ground next to her and lifting her head up. “What’s wrong?”

Carline threw herself into Elaina’s arms, bawling.

“I didn’t even see the knife at first, not until you all pointed it out later.”

The assassin’s knife, in the cave. Elaina pulled Carline in, doing her best to cradle the girl while still on the floor. The dagger had disturbed her too, caused her anguish the night it happened, but Carline had seemed fine the whole time, had made everything seem fine while they were out there. “Carline, it’s okay. We’re safe now.”

“I can’t see her. Not with my eyes, not with my aspect… She could be here right now, watching us, toying with us, waiting to to strike… How do we know we’re safe?”

A chill ran through Elaina’s body. There wasn’t a way to know, as far Elaina could tell. “She doesn’t have a reason to go after you. We were in over our head, somewhere we really shouldn’t have been, but we’re back home now. She’s going to be worrying about that cave, the crystals, and we’re not there anymore.”

Carline didn’t respond, just buried her head into Elaina’s jacket, still crying. Elaina felt more helpless in that instant than she had on the entire trip. She’d rather fight off ten golems, a hundred assassins, a thousand giant platypuses if it meant Carline would feel safe. But she couldn’t do that, so she pulled Carline into her with one arm, and grabbed Carline’s hand with the other, using her fingers to slowly trace circles around the back of her friend’s hand. It wasn’t even a conscious decision to start messing with Carline’s hand like that, just absent-minded fiddling while she tried to hold her friend close.

She continued doing it for a while, fingertips dancing over carline’s hand, across her wrist, down her fingers, over her joints while Carline stayed pressed into Elaina’s chest, slowly coming down from the emotional high she was at, sobs fading, breathing returning to normal. Eventually she lifted her head up, watching Elaina rub at the back of her hand with slightly confused, slightly teary eyes.

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m not really sure,” Elaina said. “It just… felt like I should do something. Does it feel nice?”

“Kind of? Mostly it’s just… distracting.”

Elaina laughed at that, dropping Carline’s hand and pulling the girl close again.

“I didn’t say you had to stop,” Carline said, a slight blush appearing on her cheeks.

“Okay,” Elaina said, grabbing Carline’s hand and resuming the motions. “Do you want to talk more?”

“Not really. I think I’m… mostly okay. Not like, okay okay, but…”

“I understand.” Elaina continued rubbing Carline’s hand and fingers, looking down at her friend as Carline closed her eyes, still breathing heavily. If Elaina had found her like this she’d assume Carline was asleep, but she could tell the difference with her in her arms, that Carline was just doing her best to stay relaxed, a task Elaina knew the difficulty of all too well. Despite the discomfort of sitting on their dorm room floor though, Elaina was willing to hold forever, maintain the embrace her best friend needed for as long as she needed to.

Best friend? The words felt strange in Elaina’s mind, words she hadn’t really thought of in a long time. She’d had friends as a kid, but that was back when everyone was your best friend, anyone you vaguely liked being around anyway. By the time people started having actual best friends, Elaina herself had been friendless, so she hadn’t ever really felt this way before.

“Hey, is it okay if I call you Carly?”

Carline opened her eyes, looking back up at Elaina with even more confusion in her eyes, even more blush on her face than when she’d stopped crying. “Huh?”

“Never mind,” Elaina said, feeling blood rush to her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said it, it just sort of came out…”

“No,” Carline said, pushing herself to her knees and wiping her face. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s fine; I like Carly.”

“Right.” Elaina really didn’t know why she’d asked. It was like rubbing Carline’s hand, just something her body had decided to do without consulting her brain with first, but she wasn’t exactly upset that either had happened. “Then… Do you still want to go on that walk, Carly?”

Carly smiled lightly, a bit of life jumping into her eyes. “I do. But I don’t think I want to shower first, actually. Let’s unpack first, but keep a spare uniform in your bag.”