xihe | FICTION: pheres dysseu, calls

PHERES DYSSEU | 8.7 SWEEPS / 18 YEARS OLD

port mina, hanhai district
q. one missed call.

The phone says Quanin, in a blood colour brighter than you’ve seen in ages.

You’re curled in tight against Kit, cheek pillowed on his collar bone (and there’ll come a point where you’re not comparing him to Emerel in this, you think, where the softnessof him doesn’t surprise you every time you move), and he’s focused on his conversation. Something about sewing, you think. His fingers have been twining through your hair, claws scratching lightly at your scalp, but they stilled when the conversation hit sergers, and now he seems to have mostly forgotten you.

That’s good, you think. Right now, you’re not sure you can deal with him.

I miss her, part of you says, petulant. It’s been perigees since Quanin’s acknowledged you. She’d been busy, at first, and then she’d just gone silent all together. You’d thought it’d be a week or so, at most, but then it’d hit two, and then three. You’d thought it might just be a spell, then. She was never very social. She was always so awkward, so stilted in the strangest of ways for her age, and that’d been part of why you’d pitied her, hadn’t it?

That’s why you pity her. Because that’s the chill discomfort twisting in your gut: the same feeling you get whenever you reach out to touch Emerel, or he brushes his hand against you, or the two of you make a joke, and then you both remember. You can’t just turn off the feeling.

.. but you can deal with it in the best way you know how, you think.

Her name disappears just as quickly as it came up, and then you roll over, resting your chin on his chest. Kit blinks at you, pausing mid-word. “Pheres?” he says, a little amused, a little lost.

“Ah. I’m dreadfully sorry to interrupt, but - I was thinking -” You tap a finger against his cheek. “- you should pay attention to me,” you offer, with a fake mouie, and surprisingly - delightfully - he does.

(It’s easy to kick your phone under the couch. She hasn’t said a word in perigees and perigees. She can wait a few weeks.)