Arc 9 | Chapter 305: You Cannot Distract Me!

Halen was silent as he dished out their food—food which, Emilia had to admit, was perfectly to her tastes. Most of the dishes were meant to be shared, a mixture of vegetable and vegetarian-protein heavy dishes with the occasional carb heavy one, each of the latter placed closer to his side of the picnic table because, as she discovered on her first bite of a delicious looking piece of shuto, the shiny sauce it was lathered it was extremely sweet.

“Olivier is gonna be pissed when you send me back on a sugar high~” she teased, holding her plate out for Halen to load up more.

“It’s kiro based,” he noted, amusement shining in his eyes, “so you probably won’t be too terrible. Wouldn’t mix it with too many carbs, though, unless you want to torture the poor man.”

Emilia eyed up the strange food, with its sauce sweetened with fruit that grew only on a small island off the Zironia coast—one that had long been a source of tension between Zironia and Chinsata, due to its various mineral stores—and a protein generally found in Norvellian and Ngen cuisine, although it occasionally reached into the other Free Colonies along the western coast as well.

“That is about as distant as a fusion can get,” she noted—not that she was complaining; it truly was delicious. While dishes out of Norvel tended to be meat heavy—much like those out of its neighbour, Byshire—Zironian dishes were a mix, and had become increasingly vegetarian over the last few decades, since Pylenius and his followers had begun making a habit of avoiding meat where they could. Annoyingly, one of the few lectures she’d ever tried to request a copy of, only to be denied, was one about

why

the weird non-dev preached for less meat. Was it for ethical reasons? Health based? Based on her own

we don’t actually know enough about the aether to assume we aren’t creating some artificial animal in a pocket dimension and turning it into meat

issues?

Speaking of which… Halen had mentioned something about that when he’d interrupted her and Olivier’s conversation. While it shouldn’t surprise her that he also knew about those theories, his mind just as buried in the aether as her own, she wondered if he believed it. On her part, Emilia wasn’t sure what she believed, but certainly, there was so much about the aether that they didn’t know. Every skill they used could, realistically, be causing it pain, or redirecting some sort of pain elsewhere. Really, she hoped they’d never confirm it one way or another, but the lack of confirmation along with the knowledge that she wasn’t eating meat because of the harm it caused…

Well, it would be one thing to realize, years from now, that every interaction with the aethernet caused it pain and to feel some guilt over playing a part in that; somehow, it felt different to face the idea that in an attempt to avoid causing harm to one creature she would inadvertently cause pain to something else.

That said, she didn’t feel the same guilt about potentially causing it harm with, say, the skill that had killed ‘ariah, which she had done to spare her and Lux pain. So, yeah, complicated, and Emilia was still pretty sure her conflicting thoughts on all this made her weird. Better to just not talk about it.

“Your friends will find it weird if you invite me to things,” Halen finally said as he scooped a small portion of fried jrut noodles onto her plate, more shiny, sugary—even if kiro fruit would agree with her brain more, it was still sugar to feed her particular brand of ADHD—sauce glazed over it. Probably, she shouldn’t take more—and she had little doubt that Halen would attempt to stop her if she tried to take more from the container he set down so close to himself.

Still, she might just try to take a bit more when he wasn’t paying attention…

“Maybe,” she agreed, scooping some of her noodles up before they softened under the glory of the sauce. Moaning, she continued signing at him—with the exception of a few of their classmates who had outright refused to learn, virtually everyone in their graduation year had at least a basic grasp of the language she and her siblings had designed while still at the orphanage, then later taught to Simeon and the rest of their friends.

“But, I don’t think anyone will really complain? As long as you don’t start anything too big~”

The look Halen gave her said he didn’t trust

her

not to start anything. Fair.

“There’s a difference between not really knowing each other while often butting heads and being on different sides of a prank war, and actually, you know, disliking each other,” Emilia pointed out, eyeing up each of the dishes Halen had put onto her plate. Was it weird he’d dished out for her? Probably. Oh well. “I don’t think most of us actually dislike you… most of the time. You can be an ass.”

“So can you.”

“Oh, totally~” Emilia laughed, wondering when the last time she and Halen had talked like this was.

Probably, it had been never. Even when they’d been working together on class assignments, they didn’t generally talk about themselves. During the rise of ‘ariah’s issues, Halen had once asked if she was okay, but she’d mostly blown him off. Even when they’d trashed the rival school, they’d mostly just talked about how terrible the school’s teachers and students were. It had only been chance, her stumbling onto Halen as he stomped off to destroy the school after finding out why exactly their new transfer student had left its abusive, dismissive halls for their school. The pair of them had bonded in their hatred for that place, passing skills between one another as they left the school so ravaged it was shuttered to this day—it was a safety hazard, some of their skills so powerful they still lingered, splattering glitter on anyone who got too close even years on. Then again, she’d been high that night, so who really knew? Maybe they’d bonded more in between her moments of giggling destruction.

“So… if I accept your offer, does that mean our prank war ends?” Halen asked, and oh. That was actually something akin to regret in his voice, wasn’t it?

“Not if we don’t want to.”

“Do you want to?”

Emilia smiled, bright and cheerful, as she tilted back and threw her feet onto Halen’s knee, using him as a footrest.

“I like fucking with you,”

she admitted, realizing it wasn’t even that hard to admit, even if leaking secrets into the world always felt easier when she signed—like they were both more fluid and more solid, all at once. Here, in this city where the only other people able to understand their signing were whichever Hyrat clones were assigned to the embassy, Lan’za, Meerik’za and a few of his harem members—she didn’t think any other members of their coren’taz were in the city-state currently—these were words just for them.

Even if there were someone from Baalphoria watching them, their Censor recording and trying to translate, reporting back to the OIC System, it would do no good; the man who had taught Emilia to hack had worked for the OIC and had long ago requested it erase whatever knowledge it had of their personal sign language and never try to decipher it again. The OIC had apparently seen no issue with this and acquiesced, leaving their sign language one of the few languages the OIC had no clue how to interrupt. There were a few more—High Falrion being the most untranslatable, as it was only used by the Falrion Aristocracy in private settings, the language of the Grey Sands a close second due to the OIC’s refusal to catalogue it for similar reasons to her own sign language—but they were rare.

Halen blinked at her, slow and assessing, something she couldn’t quite interpret lingering in their bright, almost golden brown before one of his hands was darting beneath the table and locking around her ankle.

“I like fucking with you, too.”

Something settled inside Emilia at his words—that lingering feeling that, if she never spoke to Halen again, he would forget about her entirely evaporating. Through all their years of pranks and annoyance and occasional hatred, their time in school had still been fun. There had been glitter bombs and stolen clothing, meals spiked with spice enough to cause tears and viruses that chased through their Censors causing this or that annoyance. In the end, for her, and maybe for Halen as well, it had all added up to being

fun.

“Okay, then…” she breathed out.

“We keep fucking with each other?”

“Definitely.”

“And I’ll invite you to this or that— or maybe it’s easier to just add you to the group chat? Eh… then you might just not respond and not come, and I’ll have to hunt you down anyways…”

“Why would you hunt me down?” Halen asked, truly sounding like he’d lost the entire point of her inviting him along to their gap decade events.

Sighing and slowing her words—the glare Halen gave her for treating him like he had no functioning brain cells was worth it—Emilia explained that, for one, she thought the triplets were stupid for skipping their gap decade, and therefore, she was going to treat him like he was stupid as well. Ergo, he was coming to at least some of their events. “I’m not stupid enough to try and talk you into taking a proper gap decade—you’re way too much of a workaholic, and you love what you do, so what’s the point? Still, you don’t have to go so all out. Plus! Working too hard will make you age prematurely~”

Leaning forward conspiratorially, Emilia whispered that she’d recently seen Olivier’s work-obsessed mother in person, and years of taking no breaks had taken a toll on her. “You don’t want to ruin that pretty face of yours, do you?”

“You think I’m pretty?” Halen asked, the cocky smile she was much more familiar with falling over his face.

“Halen.”

“Emilia.”

“Are you serious?”

The look Halen adopted was all severity as he said, “I am always serious,” in a perfect imitation of one of their least favourite teachers. The guy hadn’t been the first or last teacher their entire classroom had collectively hated, working together to make their lives miserable until they quit. A few had hung on for an entire year, but not many people could survive the combined might of their class’s terror. Not just her and Halen, but a half dozen black knots? An ECC Dyad who could connect to the aether in ways that even the best security systems had trouble tracking? Plus a bunch of kids who weren’t afraid to get in trouble or act as the ever innocent alibis?

Yeah, they had probably driven a few teachers into early retirement—not that Emilia had any regrets! Some of those teachers had truly been miserable pieces of shit who needed to stop being allowed around children.

“I’m sure you’re aware that you are one of the most attractive people most people will ever meet.”

Her former classmate’s smile shifted into something ever so slightly softer—still cocky, but with an edge of true appreciation for her words in it. “Right back at you, Emilia.”

Emilia would not blush. She so totally would not blush. If she was blushing, it was only because it was so hot out!

Resisting the urge to thank him—that would be insane, when he hadn’t even said she was attractive outright, just reversed her words onto her—she went on to explain the second reason he actually needed to show up at some of their get-togethers: his parents.

“If the reason they’re being weirder than usual is because they don’t want you missing out on your gap decade, you’re gonna have to actually prove to them you aren’t completely skipping it. If you can’t regularly show up to family game night—”

“You have a family game night?”

“Yes. It used to be a few times a week, but it's currently only once every week or two because bubbling home is boring.”

“We really need a proper slide line down the whole Penns.”

“Yes, yes, we do.” Currently, the slide lines that reached the southern point of The Penns, where they lived, were so disconnected it required nearly twenty transfers, the result of numerous bureaucratic nightmares. It would take less time to slide from Roasalia to her home outside of the lines than deal with that tangle.

“And a better way to have game nights in virtual space,” Halen added, contemplation Emilia knew all too well entering his voice and eyes.

“Even a better system wouldn’t have snacks.”

“There could be virtual snacks. All the sugar your little heart desires without the buzz.”

Emilia contemplated that before shaking herself. Halen was trying to distract her instead of agreeing that he needed to not be a shut in who did nothing but work!

“Virtual snacks would be nice. It would also be nice if you could tell your parents you had done more that week than sat in your sad little office—”

“My office is great and beautiful. It even has plants.”

Honestly, Halen did have great taste in clothing, so it wouldn’t surprise her if his office actually was nice—not that she was going to give him more compliments today.

“—connected to whatever crazy ass Virtuosi Rig you’ve got going—”

“It is pretty fucking sweet. You should come take a spin in it sometime.”

“—and programmed the next big release for Hail.”

“Weren’t we talking in the scope of a week?” Halen asked, blinking long lashes at her, as though anything could make him look innocent. Even with his weirdly nice energy, the man still radiated almost as much mischief as she did.

“Yes?”

“Well~” Halen laughed, leaning in slightly, his hand still an iron grip around her ankle, “if it’s a whole week, I’ll have programmed three or four of Hail’s

next big releases~

”

“Oh? Is that is? Doesn’t seem many, considering how much time you have to dedicate to coding~” Emilia couldn’t help but tease. At the height of their prank wars, they’d each been programming a new skill every day—occasionally even multiple skills, always hoping to catch the other off guard.

For a moment, Halen’s smile fell, something almost sad entering his eyes, the hand on her ankle loosening until a thumb was rubbing gentle circles over the bone.

“What can I say? It just isn’t as fun coding only for myself.”