Vol.4 Ch.10 – Impeccably Bad Timing
Chapter 10: Impeccably Bad Timing
Sub— Aurora woke up in an unfamiliar room. It was sterile, impersonal, not a trace of life in it. Of course, that was to be expected. It was her room she'd woken up in and she had no personal belongings to give the room life and personality. It made the room feel dreary and lonely. But she refused to let this get her down.
She saw this room not as a reminder of what she'd been through but as a chance. She would fill this room with life, with souvenirs and decorations. And she knew exactly where she would start. The room clearly lacked a fruit bowl.
She shook her head. No, that was her stomach talking. Of course the room did need a fruit bowl but it wasn't the main priority. The main priority was finding out more about who she was now that she was free. And she wouldn't learn that through navel gazing. She was going to try and spend time with her new team.
Of course, there was also the matter of Mariana. The girl had seemed so lonely. Aurora would try her best to spend time with the girl. She had, after all, given her her name back, as well as one of her fondest memories. That magical birthday party with the fairy wings. The fairy wings that were now far more than a cute accessory.
Once she'd come to terms with her newfound freedom she had started wondering whether they made her a freak but she had already dismissed those concerns. They drew gazes, certainly, but none of those gazes had been bad so far and even if they were, if thirteen year old her could weather the annoyed expressions and eye rolls of people who found those wings childish then the version of her right now would be able to weather any reaction to them, especially now that they weren't a choice anymore.
She simply refused to view this change that had been thrust upon her as a bad thing. She'd always known there was magic in the trees and the forests. Now she was simply part of it.
She hopped out of bed, went to the bathroom to freshen up – warm water! – and put on one of her sundresses. She had a few stops to make and the first one was Elaine's room.
**
Mariana dancing in her undies was certainly a sight to wake up to but Elaine wasn't entirely sure what to do with the situation.
At first glance the girl seemed... unaware of her surroundings at best, though Elaine was starting to wonder just how true that was. Maybe dancing was something the girl did on her own every morning, though Elaine doubted she danced this sensually when she didn't have an audience. But if this was an attempt at seduction, it was about as clumsy as one could make it. Not the dance, mind, but the situation.
The girl had admitted last night that she was interested in Elaine. As she had started this whole scheme before diving into Elaine's memories this was clearly not like with Cassie, who had only decided to pursue Elaine after learning about her... condition. However, Elaine was under no illusions that the girl had been inside her mind and hadn't found out about it, which left only the conclusion that Mare knew and was fine with Elaine's circumstances.
The real issue was that Elaine found the girl incredibly difficult to read. Even this situation. With any other person she would have known how to take this but with Mare there was a disconnect there. With anyone else she would be taking this dance as an invitation. Whether she would have taken the other person up on the invitation was a different question entirely but with Mare she wasn't even sure whether this was one.
On the other hand, if this was an invitation and she didn't take it Mare might think Elaine didn't want her. And on a purely physical level Elaine was very attracted to her. Mare had just enough curves to look womanly but was light and lithe enough that Elaine really wanted to try manhandling her. But that was way, way too early. Mare had only just expressed interest and not only did Elaine want to establish a proper relationship before anything physical happened but she definitely needed to clear things with her girls before she added anyone else to this weird relationship.
Thankfully, in this situation Elaine didn't have to worry about offending Mare. The girl had started dancing before Elaine had woken up and she wasn't facing her while she did. And so Elaine could simply pretend to be asleep until Mare was done. All it would take would be to go against every instinct that years and years of military life had drilled into her and simply stay in bed.
**
Mare wasn't prescient, exactly, but the snippets of memories she'd snatched up since the start of Project Divinity had brought her pretty close to it. She always woke up exactly when she needed to and she had an uncanny knack for finding the right timing. And so she'd gotten up only minutes before Elaine had woken up.
It had been just enough time to take off her jeans and sweater, put on a bra and start dancing. Oh, and of course to place down a little hand mirror so she could see when Elaine woke up.
It was a stupid thing to try, she knew. Even if Elaine was interested in her, which wasn't a given, the chance of Elaine actually acting on the situation was minuscule. But that wasn't the point. She wasn't doing this so that Elaine would lose all self-control and jump her, though she certainly wouldn't have minded it.
Rather, Mare's plan was to show off in a deniable way. Mare wasn't like most introverts. She didn't think herself unattractive. She was aware that, objectively speaking, she was physically attractive. It wasn't vanity, really, but she was aware of the fact that she was pleasant enough to look at. The reason people found her off-putting was her mannerisms, not her looks. Her body was on the slender side but, honestly, she preferred it that way. It was mostly because she sometimes forgot to eat but she didn't mind people not being interested in her for being too slender. It clearly didn't bother Elaine.
Elaine made sure to act very neutral around her but Mare could tell the woman wanted her. Her gaze, the way her pupils dilated, her quickened breathing, all of it told Mare that physically at least, Elaine was very attracted to her. And that's what she wanted to capitalize on. She wanted to show off for Elaine, to show her exactly what she could look forward to if they ever got serious.
Of course Mare was also aware that her looks were just about the only way for her to seduce Elaine. Not only did she know that people didn't consider her sterling company but her experience in romance was purely hypothetical. All she knew about the physicality of a relationship came from books and videos. If anything happened, she would embarrass herself real quick if Elaine didn't take the lead.
But Elaine wasn't doing any of that.
Thanks to her little mirror Mare knew that Elaine was awake and was watching her. The gorgeous brunette had an almost hungry look on her face but she wasn't acting on it. And that was okay. It was why Mare was facing away from Elaine. She wanted to show off, she wasn't opposed to Elaine taking the lead but at the same time it gave them both plausible deniability. Mare could pretend that she had just been dancing for herself, completely oblivious, happy to finally have an Awakener who cared, while Elaine could ogle as much as she wanted without having to admit it. It was manipulative but not really in a bad way.
Her begging Elaine to stay, that had been the bad kind of manipulative. She'd played up her vulnerability to get this gorgeous woman to cuddle with her, she admitted that. And so this was, at least in part, also a way to make up for it, to give Elaine a show as an apology for hogging her last night.
However, there was one thing Mare hadn't calculated for: The knock at the door that almost caused her to stumble.
**
Elaine's door was locked.
There weren't any panties on the doorknob, either. Aurora wasn't quite sure what to make of this. Did Elaine forget about her promise? Was she unwilling to let her in after all? Or, more likely, was she simply out?
Aurora bit her lip, considering, then did something she should have much earlier. She turned her CARD on.
She'd futzed with it for a couple hours, catching up on what she'd missed while under Caulder's thumb, but had turned it off before falling asleep. She had been told it was safe to keep turned on at night but while she had managed to fall asleep with it around her neck she hadn't trusted the device enough to keep it running while asleep.
In truth, though she hated to think it, the weight and slight tightness around her neck felt familiar and even a little bit comforting. It should remind her of the horrid choker Caulder had made her wear but somehow, just as she'd treated the thing as a weird kind of safety blanket, the CARD felt good around her neck, calming.
It turned on quickly and efficiently like most brand new electronic devices, filling her vision with a sleek UI, showing her the time of day, access to her message feed and a couple other helpful pieces of information. Most prominently, however, was the virtual button hovering in front of Elaine's door, saying:
Aurora pressed the Yes and immediately the door swung open, showing an empty room. She squished her lips to one side, then quickly checked the bathroom. Empty as well. Okay, so at least Elaine hadn't simply lied to her. But that left the question of where to go now.
She could, of course, head to the cafeteria and see if Elaine was there. Even if she wasn't, there was a good chance someone else of their team was. Or she could head to Mariana first. Yeah, probably for the best.
**
Mare panicked.
She hadn't expected anyone to just show up at her door. She never, ever got visitors. Yesterday had been a complete novelty. Even when she'd dived into Alejandro's memories it had been in his room rather than hers. Who could it even...?
“Mariana? Are you in? It's me, Aurora.”
Oh shit. Aurora? Now? But why? Go away! Of course she couldn't bring herself to tell the girl that, after everything she'd been through, and so Mare was at a complete loss as to what to do.
If she'd been calm she would have realized that it would take her roughly ten seconds to throw on her pants and sweater and to simply answer the door. But faced with a completely novel situation and a severe disruption of her thought processes Mare did not react rationally.
Instead she jumped right into the bed, next to Elaine, landing close enough to startle the brunette awake even if she had still been asleep, and squeaked out:
“Come in, it's unlocked!”