A Warm Blue

My hands are getting tired of me wringing them out. Why is it that I'm always nervous when it comes to the girl with colourful hair?

"She's really not that intimidating," Lev says. He's just as fidgety. His trembling is from fanboy excitement though, not whatever my nervousness is.

Every time we've met I've been completely fine. Is it the near-concussion, maybe? Or the fact that I'm inching ever closer to actually fighting her without a single idea what her weakness could be?

"Aika, chill. I'm not going to be ditching you this time, so I can insert the charisma you lack."

"Wow, low blow, Lev," I finally manage to squeak out. He grins and pats the top of my head like I'm his cousin's black lab.

"Relax." He draws out the word and shuffles closer to me as a group of people head into the diner. "This isn't another one of your insane training sessions, you don't have to be on guard."

Before I can respond I see familiar blue hair stick out against the crowd across the street. It's Evren. She's with a couple of friends – probably Maeva and Faith, who she said she invited. Yep, that's them. She waves at us and Lev and I both wave back. Lev's going a bit overboard, though. I should probably stop him.

Evren laughs as she approaches. I can feel my face warming. "Hey," I manage to croak out in a somewhat normal voice. Keep cool, Aika.

"Hey!" she responds, her voice filled with enthusiasm and energy. "Glad you could make it."

"I'm surprised every one of you made it, too," Lev says. "Don't you have work or school or something?" Lev only made it because he schedules his classes as late as possible to be able to sleep in. Brunch time is Lev's morning. Actually, I'm surprised he's so chipper at this hour without a coffee.

"Well you already know about my job," Evren says. "Aika and I are both pretty flexible, I imagine, unless we're in scheduled fights." I see her glance at me and I smile and nod. "You're in school, right? So's Faith. She has Thursdays off."

"What?! I wish!" Lev exclaims.

"You really don't!" Faith chirps in reply. "I was this close to a three-day weekend, but no, admin was like, "This course section is full – you'll have to take the other one," and I was stuck with the 8AM Friday class." She sighs dramatically and I try to suppress my giggle. She and Lev are rather alike.

"I usually work a couple of shifts," Maeva suddenly says, completely ignoring Faith, who looked ready to continue ranting just now. "But Evren and I had this brunch planned since a couple of weeks ago. Adding more people's never a problem, as long as their schedules work."

"Oh, cool," Lev says before he points to the door. "Should we go in, then?"

"Yes, let's go," Evren says as she walks toward the door. Lev holds it open for her. "Oh, wow, je vous remercie." She curtsies. Lev laughs in response.

"Je vous en prie," he says, sounding equally posh. I'm going to have to be careful about putting Lev and Evren together in the future or I'll have to endure constant shenanigans.

I can hear Faith start going on about something to Lev in French behind me as we all walk into Angel's Diner. Her accent is different from Lev's but it still sounds like the same language. They're speaking way too fast for me to understand anything.

"Nice to finally meet you properly." Maeva's suddenly appeared next to me and is looking at me curiously. She's smaller than me but she gives off an incredibly intimidating vibe. Different from Evren, who's just dazzling colours. I'm reminded a bit of my Halloween witch costume. I wonder if she could tell me her secret, honestly.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," I say as I extend a hand for a handshake. Her grip is firm and she barely has to look down to find my hand while we walk. "How do you know Evren?" I ask. I'm curious how Evren managed to pick up two such different people as friends.

"She and Faith are childhood friends," she says. "As for me, I spilled hot chocolate all over her art project in middle school." She shrugs, as if this is totally normal. My mouth is shut before it opens to retort, though. Mine and Lev's friendship also kinda started from disaster.

"That's awesome," I say. Genuinely, because it's nice to know that other people's friendships are just as weird as mine. Maeva gives me an approving smile, so that seemed to be the right thing to say. Good. I'm doing good. At what, exactly, I'm not sure. Don't think too hard on it, Aika.

"Have you been to Angel's before?" I ask Evren when we're finally seated at a booth. She's across from me, Maeva and Faith sandwiching her and Lev sitting beside me.

"Oh yeah, dozens of times," Faith answers for her. "We've made sure she's eaten at every establishment worth people's time since she's moved to the city."

"You're not from the city?" I ask. The way she's rattled off directions to Nevaeh and me, I would have expected her to have grown up here.

"Not at all," Evren answers. "I grew up on the outskirts of Cardend. Near one of their local churches."

"Cardend? That's all farmland and empty space, though," Lev says in disbelief.

"Yep!" Evren smiles. "Quiet, natural, nothing around – except the church, I guess –, not even a gas station until you get closer to downtown."

"'Downtown' is an overstatement," Maeva says. "We've driven by there before; it's a tiny strip mall across from a city hall-post office combo."

"It's quaint," Evren argues.

"Sure." Maeva humours her and picks up the menu.

For all of Evren's enthusiasm and people skills, I would have expected her to have always been a city girl. She really is an enigma.

"Ok, enough about me though, tell me what you two have been up to," Evren says as she, too, takes up a menu.

"School," Lev groans, elongating the word. Faith chuckles and mutters a quick "Same, man" in response. "And giving emotional support to Aika at all hours of the day, of course." Ugh, why are you like this, Lev?

"Oh, you doing ok?" Evren's now staring at me from above her menu. Her tone was light but she looks a bit concerned.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, don't worry." I quickly wave my hands and glare at Lev. "Someone just likes to play Tragic Teen a bit too often, despite not even being a teen anymore, technically."

"Says the person who's whining about not being able to give her brother a personal autograph for his birthday," he retorts.

"Hey, I only did that one time. Takumi's hard to shop for," I tell him. "He never tells me what he wants."

"Oh, you have a brother? How old?" Evren asks.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Takumi. We're only a year apart; he's younger," I say. She nods.

"Gifts are hard, especially for siblings. Faith, you're always saying how Evens and Anel drive you nuts." Evren turns to Faith as she speaks and Faith immediately replies.

"Ugh, yeah, and they're twins with expensive tastes." Faith suddenly turns to me. "Aika, honestly, just get your brother a prepaid Visa."

"No, that takes all the fun out of it!" Lev protests. "What about the love that goes into a hand-picked gift?"

Faith scoffs. "I show my love for them every other day of the year by feeding them dinner and making their lunches. Money to them is the ultimate prize."

"Well, Takumi's not a middle school kid. And he's probably not as money-hungry as Evens and Anel are," Maeva says. "Those two are... special."

"You could always go to an event together and have some sibling bonding time," Evren says.

It's a good suggestion but I'm not sure that would fly, although I'd love to. "We don't really have that much in common." Oh, I guess I'm admitting it out loud then. "We managed to do go-karting last year but he asked for that beforehand. I'm really active and outdoorsy, but he's more of a shut-in type like Lev is." Lev throws me an offended "Hey!" but I ignore him. "And he doesn't need much right now except textbooks or manuals or whatever, really."

"Hmm, that's a tough one," Evren says. "I think-"

"Hi guys-" a server suddenly interrupts us, "Oh, sorry! Is this not a good time?"

"No, it's ok. We should probably order before we get too chatty," Evren says.

I scan the menu quickly, as I hadn't been doing that earlier. I'm last, although I'm still kind of at a loss of what to get by the time they get to me. "Uh, I could definitely go for a milkshake but the ones here are huge." I'm eyeing the chocolate strawberry mix to go with some waffles.

"Anyone want to share?" the server asks. "We can split it."

I look up at the table and lock eyes with Evren. She raises a brow. Sharing a milkshake with the Commander of Space? Is this how far we've come already? But it'd be cheaper. And I wouldn't mind. Which is a weird thought? I raise my own brow.

"Sure, I'll take the other half," Evren says to the server, flashing her usual dazzling smile, as we finish up our orders. She turns back to me once he's collected the menus and left. "If your brother's practical, Aika, maybe you can find a multi-tool or one of those cool gadgets for his phone I always see online."

"Maybe."

We go over a few ideas, the most interesting being Maeva's suggestion of a sun lamp alarm clock that apparently keeps Faith on time for her classes. I'm not convinced though. I'd also need to order something soon if it's online but I think I can make it work.

Takumi is always forgetting where his phone is. Maybe he could use one of those phone chains that attach to his jeans.

That'd be hilarious, actually.

"Ooh, Aika's got her mischief grin on," Lev says. Evren raises a brow at me as he and Faith start chattering. I shrug innocently.

"Hopefully that's not any mischief at the diner's expense," our server suddenly pipes up as he carries two trays of drinks over to our booth. He gives me a wink. "Water, coffee, milk, and chocolate strawberry milkshake to split." He hands out five drinks. "I went ahead and split the milkshake into two glasses for you guys."

"Thanks!" erupts from everyone around the table.

The chocolate and strawberry are perfectly mixed. The whipped cream at the top is a bit overkill, but whatever. I deserve some indulgence.

Evren and the rest of the table are quiet for a while before Faith pipes up with some story about her brothers.

"Evren, why'd you start her on this?" Maeva groans as Faith continues chattering away.

Now it's suddenly time to pay. My stomach feels like it's grown to at least twice its size, and the warmth in my chest has grown even larger. Lev was right, it's important to make time for this kind of thing too.

"Do you need the machine?" our server asks as Lev pulls out his card. "I'll grab that for you, just a minute," he says after Lev's affirmative. Then, someone else has already replaced him at the side of our table. They're reasonably tall but still look like a teen. Obviously athletic, judging by their arms.

"'Scuse me, Evren?" they ask, looking directly at the Commander of Space.

"That's me. What can I do for you?"

The person just holds out a marker and piece of paper.

"Oh, of course!" Evren shifts in her seat and immediately autographs the paper.

The person - a fan, clearly - inclines their head a little and scurries away, snatching the paper and muttering a simple "Good." I don't catch where they go, exactly, but they do look back a couple of times. At me? Maybe they recognize me, too.

"A little... much." I can't help but say it.

Evren shrugs. "I used to be pretty anxious around people, too. I don't mind."

"For now, maybe, but you know fans," Lev pipes up. "The bigger you get, the more you collect, the higher chance of bumping into one that's really bad news."

"Well, I haven't bumped into one of those yet." Evren responds confidently, but she wrings her hands a little. "I like to think I've been doing a good job with them so far." She winks for emphasis and relaxes her hands as the server returns with the card reader.

Fans, huh? I wonder when those might start appearing around me.