Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Belle put the reheated tuna bowl in Ellen's hands before going to lean on the shelves by the TV. The thiren barely responded, now staring blankly at the bowl instead of her knees.

Most people, Belle thought, wouldn't have thought much of Ellen staying quiet. The thiren did put up a pretty good wall of teenage aloofness. But she knew Ellen enough to understand just how wrong all of this was: the unfocused eyes, the uncertain step, the monosyllabic monotone, the lack of subtlety while knocking on the door to Random Play's archive (where she knew semi-illegal proxy gear lay sprawled across the office) just before closing time.

She and Wise hadn't seen much of her since the two made it clear that yes, they knew she was flirting with both of them when she came by to watch that movie about proxies, and no, they weren't interested in someone two-thirds their age. They honestly thought they'd lost her and she'd stay away out of sheer awkwardness. But here she was, in her ruffled maid uniform, staring blankly at General Chop takeout.

"Take your time, girl," Belle said gently.

It took a couple minutes for Ellen to respond.

"... we had a fight."

"You did?"

"Me and Ruby," Ellen said flatly.

"You two just graduated, right?"

"Yeah. This morning. She... she wanted to talk about colleges. I didn't."

"You didn't?"

"'m not going. Why? Already have a good job. Pays the bills. At Victoria. Had," she said with a sniffle.

Belle's eyebrows rose, but she let it pass. "What did Ruby say?"

"Everybody else's going to the same school. We talked about it. They thought I was going too. I have the grades for it," Ellen said, a little sardonic emotion slipping into her voice before draining back out. "Why would I go to college? I hate everything about school except the three of them, I'm not gonna go through years of that if I don't have to. So what if I 'don't have any ambition', Lynn?" Ellen's voice began to heat up. "I don't care how smart you think I am. I can walk to the campus from my apartment if I have to, we won't stop being friends just because I'm not spending all day trapped in a desk my tail won't fit in, I'm not 'wasting my potential because I'm too lazy to do anything else', I'm not," her breath caught, "I'm not gonna get myself killed in a hollow and leave them alone." She let out something between a choke and a sob. "They're why I haven't yet."

A pause. "I was... was getting reckless before I met them. I was so lonely, didn't care about anything. Fighting... made me feel alive. A - a couple times... after I met them, they made me their friend, I knew they'd be sad if I died, so I didn't take a few really stupid risks." She sniffed. "I never told them that before. I think they thought I was..."

A longer pause. "I've never yelled at my friends before."

Belle waited, and when nothing more came out, she prompted, "what happened next?"

"Had a shift at Victoria. Not a hollow shift, just cleaning some mansion. Corin... she's so good in a fight, but she just... I had to clean up after her. I always have to clean up after her."

She paused, but just when Belle opened her mouth, Ellen continued, "Corin knocked something onto me. A vase, I think. I - I," her voice caught again, "I got so mad. I hit her. Knocked her over." A sob. "It wasn't even that hard."

Tears began to fall. "Lycaon didn't even yell at me. He told me to go home. 'Get my head in order.' But, but to go home from there I had to go past where Lynn and Monna live, and, and I couldn't see them, not after I sh-shouted at them, and the other way goes through a park Ruby likes and I... I couldn't..."

Belle sat down next to Ellen, making sure to avoid her tail, and began gently rubbing circles in her back.

"... I care about my friends so much. And, and working for Victoria is boring most of the time, but - but they're the only people who took me in when they didn't have to. And," a real sob, "and they're all I have. Without them I'm just another stupid orphan on the street again. I worked so hard and in a day I fucked it up. The only people in the world who cared about me and I fucked it all up! I don't have anywhere else to go. They don't want me anymore. You don't want me," Ellen said emptily. "I don't even know why you let me in."

"Oh man," Belle said, carefully gathering Ellen in her arms without disturbing the noodles in her lap, just like Wise used to when things got tough. "I'm sorry if we... we don't like you that way, but we still like you. You're our friend. We'd never make you deal with something like this alone. C'mere..."

As Belle held her, Ellen's near-silent crying transitioned into audible sobs, then weeping, then full-on bawling. Belle gently stroked her hair until the tears gradually slowed.

"Do you feel better now?"

"A little," Ellen said, sounding smaller and more vulnerable than Belle had ever heard her. "But I don't know what's going to happen to me, now... now that..."

"Hey, when's the last time you ate?"

"Don't know. Lunch time?"

"Then you should eat a bit. You like tuna, don't you?"

A shaky nod.

"That's a General Chop original tuna noodle bowl you got right there in your lap! How's about this - why don't you eat a little now. You don't have to eat the whole thing, just as much as you feel like. Then you stay the night on the couch. We told you sleeping on the couch is a rare honor in this house, right?"

"Y-yeah. But... tomorrow-"

"Tomorrow, we'll deal with. Wise and I'll help you draw up a game plan in the morning. We'll make sure you clear things up with the people you care about."

"...Why?" Ellen asked in a small voice. Why put in all this effort for..."

Belle gave her a squeeze before pushing her upright. "We know what it's like to feel like you don't have anybody. Wise and me, we wouldn't've made it past childhood without helping each other. We're not gonna throw you to the wolves if we can help it. But that's tomorrow. Now, do you feel a bit better?"

"...A little, yeah."

"Good. Eat your noodles."

Chapter Text

Belle opened the Random Play's front door to find a significantly more casual Ellen in a blouse and long skirt bearing several bags from the 141. "Lunch," she said shortly, her deadpan back in place.

Belle leaned back. "WISE, GET DOWN HERE, ELLEN'S BACK AND SHE BROUGHT FOOD!"

Wise, who had been restocking the next isle, winced and gave Belle a long-suffering look. She beamed back so faux-innocently Ellen managed a small smile.

"Let's take this to the back," he said, and waved the other two through the archive door, sitting them down and distributing the three box lunches appropriately. Wise went to work and Belle consumed hers like a starving animal, as was typical for both of them, but Ellen hunched over her chicken cutlet and picked at it until Belle finally had enough room in her mouth to ask questions.

"So, how'd it go?"

Ellen smiled a little.

"Have you ever tried to walk through a doorway with three crying girls hanging onto you? I had to literally carry them, it was SUCH a pain."

The siblings relaxed a bit.

"I didn't know because I forgot it at the," her breath caught briefly, but she pressed on, "the mansion, but they spent, like, all last night blowing up my phone trying to apologize... we had a talk today. A long talk. There's a lot of things we didn't know about each other. They reached out to me because I liked a photo Monna posted, they didn't know what my baggage was and didn't care, but... they deserved to know.

"We worked it out. We all talked about all sorts of things and we're still friends. They don't... they don't like me putting myself in danger, and they want me to find something to so that's a little safer, but they get why I do it and wanna stick by me wherever I end up." She smiled wryly. "Lynn kept looking up raiding tips and throwing them at me. I'm happy she cares, but..."

"And Victoria Housekeeping?"

Ellen looked at her lap.

"Yeah. I went there first, actually. Everybody was really understanding, Rina gave me some gummy bears, I still have my job. Happily ever after. But..."

She crumpled her skirt in tight fists.

"... Corin's afraid of me now. There were like two people in the world she wasn't even a little bit scared of and now there's one."

Ellen gave both siblings a quick glare.

"I know I've been spilling all my secrets and shit to you guys, but you don't get to know what happened to her. She's been through way too much for me to just tell random people. And... and she says she isn't mad, and I don't think she is, but she keeps shying away from me and apologizing for everything again. It's like rewinding the last three years. It hurts to watch. And I did that to her."

The thiren sat up as straight as she could with her tail under her and looked the two in the eyes.

"I'm think I'm done with housekeeping for now. The girls were right, I need a new job, even if it isn't the kind of job they were thinking of. I'm not asking you guys to employ me or anything, but I know you know everybody, so I'd owe you a serious favor if you could point me somewhere."

The siblings shared a look. After a second, Belle's eyes went wide and she nodded enthusiastically at Wise, but he ignored the hint for a moment.

"I wouldn't say it's a bad idea, but leaving Victoria is a pretty dramatic decision. Can I ask why?"

"I hate cleaning and etiquette and shit, I always have. I like the fighting whenever we got the chance to beat people up and I seriously owe Lycaon and Rina for taking me in when they could have just kicked some dumb kid back out on the street for stealing their client's food years back. But, I'm an adult now, and I don't wanna feel like I'm a charity case every time I go in for the day, even if I know I'm not. Like Ruby said, I need to think about what happens next in my life. A part-time job won't cut it. And," she winced, "I gotta give Corin some space. For me as much as her, honestly, I feel guilty every time I look at her right now and I don't think that's gonna make this any easier. So I need to find something else. At least for now."

She gestured vaguely at the empty lunch boxes.

"Went with the cheap supermarket shit instead of Chop for a reason, don't know how well I'll be paid and I gotta save up."

Wise gave a little nod to Belle and she perked up.

"Well," she said conspiratorially, "I do know SOMETHING. Do you know the Cunning Hares?"

"Uh, no. Wait, weren't they the guys you were running with in the Ballet Towers?"

"They're an odd-jobs agency: escorting VIPs, delivering sensitive packages, minor demolition work-"

"They're hollow raiders," Belle cut Wise off. "They do a little bit of everything but they're mostly hollow raiders. Ever since that stuff with Vision shook out, they're getting more and more business and they really need some extra hands right now."

"Actually," Wise added, "how are you with numbers? I'm talking tracking expenses and keeping accounts."

"I got good grades in math?" Ellen shrugged. "I don't think I wanna sit in front of a calculator all day but I do know how to balance a budget and stuff."

Belle nodded. "Nicole could use more people to carry out jobs but what she REALLY needs is help keeping her company out of the red. She's just... really bad at managing money." Wise sighed in agreement. "But the Hares don't get enough work to justify a full time accountant, so you'd be spending plenty of time raiding too. Go find Nicole Demara, tell her we recommended you and why, and she'll take you onboard on the spot."

Ellen blinked. "Wow. I - I knew you guys were good but I didn't know you were that good. Are you sure? I don't want to make you, like, stake your reputation on-"

"Trust us," Belle said, "I know it sounds like we're doing you a favor here but really we're doing one for her. Both of us like and respect her, we use the Hares as our default raiding crew for a reason, but she's kind of a mess when it comes to money."

"Plus," Wise said, "I know you like fighting, but you still don't have much job experience in general, so there's stuff out there you'd be good at that you just don't know about yet. If it turns out accounting works for you, it's the sort of thing you could make a real living off of in the long run."

"I don't think I'll be getting rid of my scissors any time soon, but... I see what you mean." Ellen shifted in her seat. "I know you keep saying I don't owe you anything, but..."

"Just think on it first, and make sure you talk to Lycaon before you quit if you're sure you want to go that way. You don't know whether he'd offer something for you to do you haven't thought of," Wise said. "And don't thank us until you've seen how Nicole tracks expenses."

Chapter Text

"Did you really, literally throw the book at her?"

"I tossed it to her after I was done yelling and it hit her in the nose," Ellen mumbled into the counter, face red.

Wise decided he was very happy no one else at General Chop's stand was looking their way.

"Okay look. Math class in grade 11 was all financial education and shit, they decided we didn't need all that algebra a couple years back and tried to make us learn something practical. That's all I know about budgets. I got an A both semesters, I get the basics, but I'm not any kind of professional, right?"

Wise nodded.

"And then I saw her book. Not books, not spreadsheets, she has a literal book she writes everything in. She's not measuring cash flow, she isn't keeping track of her assets or liabilities. She keeps invoices in a drawer where she can forget about them! She literally just writes down expenses when she remembers them - I'd say she's embezzling if I thought she was smart enough. I tried to tell her, but... the conversation didn't go great. I can't believe she told me to come back tomorrow."

"Ah," Wise said.

Ellen sighed dramatically. "Maybe I should go back to Victoria. Rina'll be nice and kind and condescending because she knows it gets on my nerves, but at least she knows what she's doing..."

"You know, you never told me how that talk with Lycaon went."

"Oh. Yeah. That was a conversation that happened."

She leaned back a bit, looking forward seriously.

"Lycaon... he told me I didn't owe him anything. He was 'grateful for my assistance and consideration' and 'there comes a point in every thiren's life where they must decide...'"

She trailed off and glared at Wise.

"You told him what was coming, didn't you."

"Oh, uh, I didn't, " he said evasively.

"He was way too ready, Lycaon's all erudite and whatever but he had a full speech ready to go."

"Really, I didn't!"

"Don't lie to me," she said dangerously.

"It was Belle."

She growled.

"She didn't tell him anything specific, she just told him we'd talked to you and you had something serious you wanted to talk to him about. I saw the texts, I swear!"

Ellen sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Man, I don't want to believe you, but Lycaon totally would just figure everything out from context clues. Makes sense why he told me to talk stuff over with you, too..."

She heaved a sigh.

"Basically, he said he never expected me to stay forever, and I don't owe Victoria Housekeeping anything, and that he's understood for a while I wasn't a hundred percent happy with the work, and it'd 'do me some good' to at least see what's put there so I can make decisions about my future, and there's always a position waiting for me, and he wanted me to promise to stay in touch, and I said yes, because I was gonna do that anyway," she said with a little edge. "Like, I don't care about my real parents and Lycaon and Rina and Corin are the closest thing to an actual family I have. I'm not gonna leave them behind just because."

She cringed. "He did make me explain that to Corin, though. On my own. If he really wanted to punish me, there's no better way he could've. The good news is she wasn't afraid of me any more because she was too busy crying. I had to promise to introduce her to the gang to get her off me. That's either gonna go really well or really badly, but either way it'll be fun to watch.

"... I really don't wanna go back to Victoria right now. Maybe later, if the Cunning Hares suck as bad as Nicole's math skills. But... it is nice, making my own decisions and everything." She shrugged. "Especially when I have something to fall back on."

Chop's mechanical arms lay down their seafood bowls in front of them. Ellen frowned as she picked up the utensils.

"You know, Lycaon said I was way chattier that usual, more comfortable talking about my feelings and shit. It feels like I started spilling my shit to you guys after my little crisis a couple days ago and haven't shut up since. I don't talk to people like this." She snapped her chopsticks. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

Chapter Text

"So," Belle said, practically bouncing in place, "First week at work is over, you have your first raid in the afternoon, tell me how you're feeling about everybody!"

"Sure thing, mom," Ellen said, rolling her eyes as she leaned against the Random Play, taking advantage of a rare gap in customers.

"Nicole is... well, at least she's better at negotiating than accounting. And better at managing. And... you know, I think I'd like her more if the first thing I saw wasn't her fucking horrible bookkeeping. She keeps us busy all day, but somehow we always have enough time for breaks and get ourselves home on time. Lycaon runs a pretty tight ship, but Victoria has to deal with personal staff for a lot of rich assholes. Not everybody is so lucky." Ellen paused. "It's weird how she skimps out on everything but blows money on us and like, orphans all the time. Definitely not a bad weird, though.

"As for Anby... what's Anby's deal? I can't tell if she's funny on purpose or not."

"Its complicated and up to her what she wants to explain " Belle said. "I can tell you she kind of showed up one day and Nicole just took her in."

"Damn. No wonder she's so attached. And respect to her for trying to help keep the accounts straight, even if she didn't really know what she was doing neither. I don't really GET her, but far as I can tell, she just wants to eat burgers and watch movies, and I can understand that. Girl LOVES her burgers and movies. Dangerous, too. Had a chance to spar with her and I'm looking forward to seeing what she can really do in a fight.

"Billy is... he..."

"He's a lot sometimes?"

"He can't fucking shut up. I wish I liked him more, he's not a bad guy, but holy shit is he high-energy. I'm not having as much trouble with motivation as I usually do - which is... weird, when i think about it, but whatever - but being around him makes me tired. I feel like he bootstrapped himself to intelligence just so he could rant about Starlight Knights to people who could understand him. Good at lifting boxes and jobs and such, he's better than Nekomata," she said, voice lowering briefly, "but it's gonna take me a bit to get used to him."

Belle frowned. "Did first contact with Nekomata not go so well?"

"She bit my tail," Ellen fumed. "She spent my whole first three days chasing me around like a ball on a fucking string until she saw the chance to strike. Do you have any idea how fucking rude that is? And my tail is tough enough to use in a fight, but that shit hurts. And she told me I smelled like fish when I walked in. And, and, look at her! Thirens have animal traits and sometimes that comes with animal behaviors, too. That's a thing. That doesn't mean you act like the fucking animal! She literally licks her paws, what is she doing? She's wandering around acting cute to make humans and androids do all her work for her and - you know what," Ellen threw up her hands, "I'm done talking about Nekomata. Next time she tries to touch my tail it'll slap her into a wall and maybe she won't bother me anymore."

"And now I feel like an asshole," Ellen said into her late night decaf, frustrated. Belle frowned sympathetically as she leaned back in her chair, the pleasantly cool evening air outside the coffee shop taking the edge off.

"I thought the raid went well?"

"It did, just..." Ellen sighed and took a sip. "Okay, I know you're gonna want to know about all of this, so I may as well just take it from the top.

"Now that I've seen Nicole in action as a squad leader, it's even weirder that she sucks so hard at keeping track of money, because she's good at, like, everything else. She's kinda goofy and self-absorbed all the time -"

"Definitely sounds like Nicole."

"- Oh yeah, absolutely, but she knows how to give orders and keep people supplied. Also, I don't know what I thought she had in her briefcase, but I definitely wasn't whatever that ether-cannon-machine-gun thing was. Points for style, I would make fun of her for spinning that thing around mid-charge and sitting on it but I'm not that much better.

"Anby... you know she's ex-special forces, right? There's no way she isn't," Ellen said, taking another drink.

"Well, maybe," Belle said not-commitally.

"Nobody fights like that without military training, rebels like spears and guns more than swords, and Outer Ring militias don't have that level of equipment to throw around, they'd hunt her down and take it back. Guess I shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth, though, we make a great team; she stuns things and I stab them, she blasts an area and I start cutting everything there. Nicole eventually just split us off and had us handle harder targets while the rest of them covered the chaff.

"Actually, speaking of the rest of them, I definitely underestimated Billy. Guy dual-wields pistols and I don't think he EVER missed while we were in there. You know how hard that is? Maybe it's an android thing, he's doing ballistics calculations in his head or something, but I don't know anybody organic who could pull that off. He's pretty capable when he decides to focus. It's nice to have covering fire for once.

"But Nekomata..." Ellen sighed and shifted back in her seat as Belle put her chin in her hands, listening intently. "I mean, she's definitely good in a fight. She's fast, I didn't expect her to move that quick. Crazy acrobatic, too, and she's really good in support. Better than I thought. But that's not why I feel like an asshole."

Ellen frowned. "So, as we were wrapping things up we ran into a bunch of rebel heavies, mining something I think."

"Inside the city limits?"

"I guess, we didn't exactly stick around to ask. They were armed to the teeth, but from how they acted they certainly weren't looking for trouble. Anyway, Nekomata told us to hang back and hide, stalked them for like 15 minutes, then she just waltzed out and started talking like she was one of them. If I didn't know who she was I wouldn't have recognized her."

"She does that sometimes - she'll do some information gathering, come up with a persona, and pass herself off as somebody else. I worked with her for a couple operations in a row where she tricked a bunch of PubSec officers into thinking she was another officer she'd taken on as a client."

"Okay, that is more impressive that what she pulled off today, but I believe it. She just stepped out, dropped names I'd never heard of - she must have overheard them or something - cracked a couple jokes that I didn't understand but got them good, then told them she was some kind of messenger from command and there were ethereals in the area and they had to run. They just shrugged, thanked her, and moved on. And then I started kicking myself because it took me so long to connect the dots... how do I get at this?

Ellen toom another sip and narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, hmm... actually, I think Rina would be fine with me telling you this. It's not like you'd try to use this against us. I mean, Victoria. Whatever," she shrugged. "Anyway, she'd mostly gotten over this by the time they found me, but apparently when she was a kid, Rina was kind of scary-looking and really shy, so people started calling her a ghost and shit. She started leaning into it, picked up the stuff that lets her and her ghostboos float like that, and started selling her combat skills with that as her trademark. She's not pretending to be anything now, she's comfortable with who she is, but she's still a little spooky... What I'm trying to say is, sometimes people who get shoved into a role end up leaning into it to survive, and after a while it becomes an actual part of them.

"So Nekomata?" Ellen shifted her tail a bit. "I can see how it might've gone down. Nobody cares about a random street brat, I know that from experience. A cat thiren? Less common than dog or bear thirens, which makes you a target. But a catgirl!" Ellen gestured grandly. "People like catgirls. She's good long as she can protect herself from the really dangerous fuckers out there, which she definitely can. And it doesn't hurt that she's kinda small and very cute. That shit kept her alive. She steps out in front of these guys and her body language goes real tough and dangerous, then she turns back to us and she's all nya's and putting her paws up again. There's no way that's natural, I should have seen it coming. Definitely would have been nicer at first."

"She did bite your tail," Belle said.

"And I haven't forgotten that, believe me," Ellen growled. "But I'd rather get her not bite me again than hold a grudge. I've dealt with people like Nekomata before. Ruby was like that when I first met her. Usually the trick is phrasing things so they play to the persona, and I can do that."

Ellen finished her coffee and looked down at the cup. "I dunno, maybe we can be friends instead of fighting each other all the time."

Chapter Text

"So," Wise said, "Corin's meeting with your friends is coming up soon?"

"Yeah," Ellen said a little absently, unwrapping another lollipop and tossing the last straight into the dumpster. The air behind Random Play echoed with the sounds of a city at night; as summer approached its end, the only bearable time to talk outside was well after sunset.

"I'm a bit nervous. Maybe I shouldn't be, especially now that I'm spending time with the Hares I guess, but, like... it's like the two biggest parts of my life up until a month back are colliding and I'm paranoid about something going wrong. 'Specially with Corin's issues being around too many people and the constant rescheduling as Victoria gets new jobs... it's a mess."

"I know a little about your friends..."

"But you want me to ramble about them, we've done this before," Ellen said with a slight smile. "So, Ruby. She'd be pissed if I didn't start with her. Blonde, a little loud, very social, likes her gacha. She's like the biggest gossip I've ever met, but she always seems to assume the best, so listening to her doesn't get annoying. Very sweet, she's studying to be a social worker." She frowned. "Apparently some shit went down in middle school and she got the blame - it really wasn't that big a deal, honestly, and she wasn't even at the center of it, but the real perpetrators pinned everything on her and she ended up with a bad reputation. Rina was still tutoring me to get me ready for school then, so I wasn't there. People avoided her for years, which sucked extra hard for her since she's the type that doesn't like being alone.

"She made friends with Monna... early last year of middle school, I think. Monna's a goat thiren, a little strict, she's a sports nerd, real athletic. She's kinda overbearing and has to wrangle the rest of us, but she's pretty tough for a civilian and looks out for us. Ruby sat down one day at lunch and started talking at her, and when Monna said she wasn't big on talking, Ruby was like, "that's cool, you don't have to if you don't want to because I talk enough for two people," which is like the most Ruby thing ever." Ellen smiled gently. "Eventually Monna gave in and they started hanging out. Ruby's really good at pushing people's boundaries without ever crossing them. She can make sure everybody gives Corin the space she needs without babying her.

"Lynn... she's way different now from when I met her, I can't imagine what she was like when Ruby and Monna got to know her. She can get loud and she's a bit awkward, but she's even nicer than Ruby and one of the smartest people I've ever met. She'd say she wasn't, but then she'd launch into a lecture about "general intelligence is a myth" and "that's a false positive due to neurodiversity" or whatever and immediately prove herself wrong." Ellen's smile grew. "I hear she didn't have any friends and barely talked in middle school, but these days... she's the kinda person to help people with homework and spot people in group projects without realizing she should be complaining, so by the time we graduated she was actually pretty popular. She thinks everybody has something interesting to say. With Corin, Ruby'll push her to open up, Lynn'll make her feel heard, and Monna'll keep her from getting overwhelmed."

Ellen sighed. "I was doomscrolling and feeling shitty about everything a couple nights before high school started and a picture of them popped up on my feed. I already knew all of them and we were kinda friends, but I didnt know they knew each other and they looked like they were having fun. I liked it and moved on, forgot about it the moment it went off my screen. First day of first year, Ruby shows up at my desk with Monna and Lynn in tow and they all drag me to lunch with them. I didn't know what I was doing. Like... Lycaon and Rina did their best, but you don't stay innocent in New Eridu if you can't find an orphanage and my kill count had already hit double digits. But.. I was just another student to these guys. I wasn't weird or dangerous, I wasn't hot and mysterious, I wasn't somebody to sweep up into a club, I was... I was just some kid at a desk who looked as lonely as they used to be."

She abruptly straightened up and pitched the lollipop stick in the dumpster. "So they're my best friends in the world and I trust them with everything. Even Corin. And that's it."

"Feeling better?"

"Nope," she said, "but I want to trust my friends more than my issues."

"So," Ellen said, stretching out on Belle's bed, "Nekomata had an idea."

"She has those sometimes," Wise said diplomatically from his spot leaning on the TV. Belle, crouched the stool, winced.

Ellen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know, I remember what happened with the trash can on our last raid, but she ran this one by me first. So, you know how Anby desperately wants Nicole?"

"...No? Belle?"

"That one's news to me."

"Oh please," Ellen scoffed, "you guys don't have to work with them. Like, I know Anby doesn't emote much, or, at all, but she is DEDICATED. She spends like half her day following her like a lost puppy. Dude, she took on Nicole's last name immediately after moving in! I'm pretty sure she watched a movie or something and was like," Ellen's voice dropped into a monotone, "'I see, this is how organics seduce one another', but Nicole never picked up on it because why would she? Nicole has a weirdly low opinion of herself. God, everbody you know does. Anyway, Mana - she said I should call her that - Mana's been brainstorming ideas with me and I wanted to run them past you..."

As Ellen chattered about several schemes of various levels of dubiousness, Belle and Wise shared a look, both taking a second to place the name.

"So," Ellen said, "ideas?"

The twins turned back.

"Movie night sounds like the obvious idea," Wise said, "but I'm not sure they'd appreciate being locked in together like that."

"Have you... asked?" Belle said. "It might be good to know what they think about each other in their own words. If you do this at all. People usually don't like being pushed together like this even if they do like each other, you know?"

After a moment, Wise said, "if you're nervous about Corin meeting your friends in a couple days, there's probably better ways to do it."

Ellen winced. "...Yeah, I'd shoot that down if I didn't give up on keeping my secrets a while back. I dunno, Mana's really invested in this though."

"Hey, I'm glad to see you and Nekomata are getting along better now, " Belle said.

Ellen shifted and took her tail in her lap. "I didn't tell you about that, didn't I? Yeah, I walked up to her to try and get my point across and she - she apologized. She looked down and said she was sorry about the tail and she wouldn't bother me again, I had to, like, cut in and get her to stop, that's not what I wanted. We... talked. And we've been hanging out ever since."

Ellen began gesturing. "She's sharp, you know? She remembers everything. Did you know she's actually a little younger than me? We dont know exactly, she doesn't remember her birthday, but it's pretty close. She didn't get a solid education 'cause she was out on the street, but she'd definitely have better grades than me. I mean, you've seen her do this - she's a quick thinker, she comes up with these incredible plans on the spot, if we start bringing in more people she's probably gonna end up Nicole's second-in-command. And she's, she's sweet when she wants to be and she's willing to help and she has a wicked sense of humor she doesn't use on people who don't deserve it! And - and I don't think she thinks she looks good, I think she gets caught up on the 'like a cat' thing, but she looks great, she's pretty and everything she does is cute and she looks so delicate but she's not, she's all muscle, I haven't seen any fat on her even though I haven't seen her in the shower yet and, I, uh, um," Ellen's head caught up with her mouth and she turned red, burying her face in her tailfin. "The-the communal showers. At the base. You know"

Wise and Belle decided independently not to mention they knew the Cunning Hares' "base" was Nicole's apartment.

After a moment, Ellen sat up a bit straighter and said quietly, "I don't have anybody like her in my life. Every relationship I have has, like, a purpose and a group of people involved. I really need to talk about something important or get advice, I find you two. When I wanna relax with other people, I go to my friends. Going to Victoria is like going back to see family, you know? But Mana... our friendship is ours. Like, it's doesn't fill some need, I don't need other people around, it's mine. I feel like I have the whole Nekomiya Mana to myself. And I've never had anything like that before."

Chapter Text

Ellen pushed through the front door with her hip, only to find the Random Play storefront uncharacteristically empty. The lights were on, the door was unlocked, everything was set up for sale, but no one was in sight.

"Belle? I know you're here, Corin met with everybody today and I bring news and also milktea."

Belle's phone sat face-down on the counter. Ellen set her drink carrier down and flipped it over; she'd sent a message to Wise half an hour before, but she couldn't see what past the lockscreen.

"It went well, but there's some stuff I wanna talk about with Corin and stuff."

The archive room was both unlocked and empty, even though neither half of Phaethon was careless enough to leave their proxy gear easily accessible to the outside. The lights were on but the room looked untouched.

"Billy showed up and I don't know whether I should thank him or punch his face in, you should be all over this shit."

The stairs creaked slightly as Ellen walked up them. The door to Belle's room at the end of the hallway cracked open, though no light shined out.

"Belle, normally this stuff is like catnip to you, are you okay -"

Belle sat on her bed in the dark bedroom, her sheets wrapped around her; she stared emptily out into the room, her face completely slack. 18 and Eous sat on either side of her, stroking her sheet-covered arms and crooning softly despite the lack of response. They looked mournfully at Ellen as she walked in, but neither said anything.

Ellen set the tea down and crept up to Belle, waving her hand in front of her face. Up close she could see Belle was breathing and shuddering slightly, but her eyes didn't track the movement.

"... I'm not qualified to handle this. Belle, I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm gonna go get Wise and -"

"You don't have to."

Ellen whipped around to see Wise peeking through the door. He gestured to her and she followed him out into the hallway.

"It isn't always this bad," Wise said, "but this happens every few months. She sees something that reminds her of... before... and she can't shake off the memory in time. I go through something a little similar, but it comes on much slower, so Belle always sees the warning signs first and heads it off. With her, it kicks in so fast she barely has enough time to send off a text before she ends up in her bed or a corner somewhere. She'll respond if there's something dangerous happening, and sometimes you can speed it up, but for the most part, we have to wait it out."

"How long, usually?"

"When she's like this? A few hours. Less if you have something unusual to lure her out with, but... not always."

Ellen sighed sympathetically.

After a long pause, Ellen noticed Wise visibly struggled with something.

"I... I feel like I should..."

He closed his eyes in resolution.

"Don't," Ellen said.

"It -"

"You obviously don't want to talk about why, so don't. I don't come to you guys because I want to dig into your issues, every time I've done this since my little episode it's been something I chose. If you want to share, you can. If you don't, you don't. I thought that was obvious by now."

She rolled her eyes at his conflicted look. "Seriously, I've watched Corin stumble over her feelings enough to tell when somebody doesn't want to talk about something. Forcing that shit never works. You don't need to make this even or whatever, I'm not gonna pry."

After a moment, Wise sagged slightly.

"So. 'Something unusual', right? What's that look like?"

"Something unthreatening, odd but not negative. It has to surprise her, too. The same thing never works twice."

Ellen turned it over in her head, then sighed. "You guys have fine china?"

"Porcelain you eat with? I don't think so. We don't even have a kitchen. We just have a few plates and some silverware."

"Do you just live off takeout and instant dinners? That shit's bad for you." She sighed again. "I think I know where to pick cheapo set in Lumiya. And I'll grab an electric kettle too, sounds like you people need it."

Maybe 20 minutes later, Wise sat quietly shoulder to shoulder with his sister. Ellen had bustled past them and grabbed the drink carrier a few minutes earlier, but Belle was just aware enough to track her with her eyes. The two sat in silence, their bangboos keeping them quiet company. Then the door opened, and what came in earned a flabbergasted look from Wise.

Ellen was still wearing the same outfit as when she'd left, a perfect example of the bolder, edgier look she'd adopted since changing careers: torn and worn black jeans cut low to accommodate her tail, a deep red band T-shirt with the sleeves torn off to show her arm muscles, combat boots off a rack at a store barely in her price range that had somehow survived actual combat. But instead of the slouch and slight swagger she normally walked with, she was now straight-backed and stiff-necked, her face a mask of polite neutrality, taking deliberate small steps with her tail trailing behind her in an elegant S-shape. The tea set in her hands, a steaming white teapot with a simple floral design on a matching tray with two mugs clearly borrowed from elsewhere, looked like it sold for less than the tea inside it, but she carried it with all the dignity of aged royalty. Wise stared at her, a little dumbfounded; Belle's eyes finally focused on something, her blank face gradually filling in with confusion.

Ellen set the tray down on the table and, with her back still perfectly straight, bent over to pick up the pot. She gracefully poured the tea from earlier, reheated, into the thicker mug, then scooped it up and strode confidently to the bed.

"Your tea, madam," Ellen said in an eerie echo of Lycaon's accent. She placed it delicately in Belle's hands as the proxy looked at her like she'd sprouted wings. Ellen stood up straight, clasped her hainds in front of her waist, and in the same voice she continued, "does madam have anything else she'd wish to request?"

"Are you real?"

All at once snorted Ellen dropped the facade. She sagged and muttered "fuck, I hope so", squeezing a watery laugh out of Belle before flopping down next to her. "You can't work for Lycaon without picking up how to do his high society bullshit, but I forgot just how oppressive that shit was from the inside. So, how're you feeling?"

"Raw," Belle said eventually, her voice soft and scratchy, as Wise radiated support from her other side. "I'll be better soon, but I don't feel very good." She took a sip. "I don't want to think about myself right now."

"You wanna hear about Corin's Totally Bogus Adventure?"

"What?" Belle said with a shaky laugh.

"That's what I'm calling what she and Billy got up to today."

"What was Billy doing there?"

"Shut up, I'll get to that," Ellen said without heat. Belle leaned over and slumped against her side, and Ellen fought off an old crush before continuing.

"Corin... we ran into her, almost four years ago I guess? Lycaon didn't scrub our clients like he really should have, so we signed up to work for... uh. I really shouldn't say who for a couple reasons, but we worked with NEPS to put 'em in jail while we were still under contract with them. Lycaon NEVER does that, it proves just how fucked the whole situation was that Victoria came out with a clean reputation despite breaking, like, one of the biggest rules of working for rich assholes.

"Anyway, we took Corin in while everything blew over. She was... I know you hang out with her sometimes, she's afraid of basically everything but she always seems to pull through. She was like that back then, except instead of apologizing when something went wrong she'd ask where she should go to get... God, the shit she thought she deserved when she messed up. And she was twelve." Ellen shivered. "This was before I met my friends, I was an antisocial piece of shit, but the shit I saw happen turned my stomach so bad I basically taught myself how to be nice so I wouldn't fuck her up further. And, and she isn't bad at what she does! She's never been very precise, you do better having her pick up furniture to clean under it instead of making her clean it herself, but she's crazy good in a fight and she never gets tired. Like, I don't mean she works herself to the bone without complaining, I've seen her hold up pieces of furniture for hours and not even blink."

Ellen shifted, gently jostling Belle. "Maybe she would have been better off in the orphanage system, but... maybe it would've been better for me, too, but I already had blood on my hands by the time I ran into Victoria, they wouldn't even look at me. Corin, she had too much politics behind her, nobody was going to take that leap, and like, I get it, you're not gonna put all your other kids at risk for another one, but also they can go fuck themselves for that. So she stuck with us."

Ellen sighed. "Anyway, it took years for us to get Corin to where she is now. She's put in some HEROIC effort, too. She deserves everything and it kills me when she doesn't get it. There's a reason I melted down like that when I smacked her a few months back, it took me a while to get over doing that. And I'd just gotten her past calling me 'Miss Ellen' too... she doesn't seem scared of me any more, thank fuck. I talk to her every week or so and she mostly just seems lonely."

Ellen paused for a bit.

"You know, I feel like my friends meeting Corin should have been some seismic event, but it really wasn't. I grabbed Corin at the station, we went and met my friends at this little rooftop cafe near the HIA building, and she shoved a whole pizza down her face as we all talked. It - I... I feel like Corin grew up while I was away. She's still kinda hesitant and apologizes too much, but she was listening to Ruby gossip and Lynn ramble - they both really like physics - and she was socializing better than I do sometimes." Ellen frowned. "Something's going on with Monna. School just started and Ruby and Lynn had plenty to talk about, but... Monna's usually pretty quiet anyway, but she wasn't really following the conversation. I don't think Lynn or Corin noticed, they were too busy talking about chainsaw physics or whatever, but I know Ruby picked up on it. I'll have to follow up on that. But that aside the whole thing went like a dream."

"What about Billy?" Belle asked quietly.

"Oh believe me, I have PLENTY to say about Billy." Ellen snorted. "So, we'd just wrapped up. Ruby made sure to add Corin to the group chat, and the fact she's the first person Ruby let in there since me says a lot. We were on our way back to the station - and there was fucking Billy, carrying boxes for... whatever Billy does that isn't rewatching shit. So he greets her, says something dumb about Starlight Knights because that's what he does, and Corin says, all wide-eyed, 'what's that?'" Ellen scoffed. "Should've guessed she never watches TV, she's a romance novel girl. Gets them from Rina. That and textbooks she reads for fun... I guess I shouldn't've been surprised she and Lynn get along. Whatever, doesn't matter. What DOES matter is what he said next. Can you guess what he did?"

A mumbled negative from the pile of blanket next to her.

"Billy said there was an afternoon showing of the first Starlight movie in walking distance - because of course there is - and he offered to watch it with her. And buy her popcorn and soda."

Belle poked her face out of her blanket, blinking. Wise said, "I'm not the only one who thinks that sounds an awful lot like..."

Ellen shook her head. "I don't think it occurred to them he was asking her on a date. They kind of assumed I was coming with, and I would have invited myself along anyway. And the movie was better than I expected! Not amazing, a little simple for me, a good enough way to kill a few brain cells. But... Corin spent the whole movie practically hanging off him, she was so absorbed. Billy told her she had stars in her eyes when we walked out and he wasn't wrong, it's like she had a religious experience. And... I've never seen what Corin acts like when she likes somebody, but I'd put good money on her crushing on him. Do you guys even know if AIs can like people back?"

"I guess?" Wise said. "I think it varies depending on how they reached sentience."

"That's a useful answer," Ellen grumbled, leaning back and knocking her head against the wall. "I feel like I should be defending my sister's honor or whatever. But... I don't think I've ever seen Corin this invested in anyone or anything, and Billy's too much of a goober to really hurt her. Plus," she said, shifting uncomfortably, "I learned pretty early not to try and make Corin avoid risks because I get nervous about shit. She's a big girl, even if she jumps at her own shadow sometimes. So, whatever. If she decides she wants to date the guy who loved a kids show so much it turned him into a person, she gets to. Not gonna buy her any action figures, though."

"Baby birds leaving the nest, huh?" Belle said, her voice wistful but stable.

"Yeah. But if he hurts her I'll wipe his hard drive and fill it with whatever porn he likes the least."

The three sat in companionable silence for a short while. Then Ellen's eyes popped open.

"Aw fuck, my tea!"

Chapter Text

Nekomata crept in through Random Play's front door, slinking up to the counter with her tails waving behind her. Ducking out of sight, her eyes skipped past the counter and cash register before she found her quarry: a powered off phone. She snatched it up, switched it on, waited for the facial recognition to fail, tapped out the keycode, and began browsing the contents with increasingly frustrated focus.

Belle and Wise quietly came in through the back door, looking at the thiren behind their counter then at each other. Belle shifted the empty box in her arms, originally intended to help transport movies during restocking, and earned an amused look from Wise.

"Nekomata, catch!" Belle shouted, tossing the box across the counter. Nekomata yowled and tossed the phone in the air, scrambling to grab the box and let the phone fall gently in - only for it to bounce off a cardboard flap and slide off to the side. She dropped the box, grabbing and missing twice before diving across the box and intercepting the phone inches from the floor. Then she looked at the twins, blinked, and gave them a cheery "heya!"

"How's Ellen's phone treating you?" Belle asked innocently.

"Oh, she forgot it and told me to swing by to pick it up."

"Is that how you l know the passcode?"

Nekomata briefly froze, her eyes widening as she glanced between them. Her eyes then narrowed then her face relaxed into an expression so innocent butter couldn't melt in her mouth. The whole exchange took a fraction of a second, and had the twins not known what to look for, they'd have just seen her give them a confident smile.

"Yep," she said cheerfully, clambering out of the box. She licked the back of her hand and used it to wash her ear, the picture of feline insouciance. "Had to check to make sure it was hers, you know?"

"So why didn't she pick it up herself?" Belle asked.

"She's busy with the books right now. Now that the Cunning Hares ade expanding, she's got a lot on her plate. In fact, I should be getting back to her..."

"The funny thing is -"

Wise cut her off. "We'd believe you if we didn't already know all your tells, Nekomata. What are you actually up to?" Belle pouted at him.

Nekomata froze again, eyes widening and narrowing as she thought quickly. But then her face relaxed into neutrality and she gave them a calculating look.

"Actually, I could use your help. Do you have someplace private we could talk? I promise I'm not trying to cause any trouble."

Wise wordlessly opened the door to the archives and gestured for her to follow. Wise claimed the chair and Belle draped herself across the couch, but Nekomata stayed standing, rocking on the balls of her articulated boots. She brought up her hands and held them cat-like in front of her. "So, I know Ellen uses you guys as sounding boards. Can I do that too?"

"Of course," Wise said.

"Well... I need to know if Ellen likes me."

Belle's eyes sparkled and she opened her mouth.

"Don't you dare," Wise said.

She closed her mouth.

"Don't you dare what?"

"If somebody tells us something in confidence, we keep it confidential," Wise said. "We won't tell you her secrets, but we won't share anything you don't want shared, either."

"That's better than the other way around, I guess."

After a moment, Nekomata began to pace, stalking back and forth across the archive.

"I still don't know why she didn't just turn me away. I don't... have much experience, so I didn't handle being attracted to her well. I fell back on the cat thing because I always do that when I'm uncomfortable - which I didn't realize until after she pointed it out, I sorta owe her for that - and, well, you can imagine how that went with an aquatic thiren. But then she turned around and forgave me and started spending time with me."

Her pace sped up. "I tell her things and she keeps them secret. She tells me things and I keep them secret. I..." Nekomata stopped and turned to them. "I never had a chance to really go to school for more than a few months at a time, so there's stuff I'm not good at. I can read, but I'm just not very fast, alright? But she's been spending her free time teaching me how to read and write, and she's teaching me math - she spends half her day doing math now that we're hiring people to keep up with our workload, but Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, she sits down with me just to help me. To help me! We're meeting tonight!"

Nekomata started pacing again, wringing her hands. "I thought I'd get over this stupid crush eventually, but we met six months ago now and it's not going anywhere! And it'd be different if I knew it was one-way, but I don't! She catches me looking at her delicious forearms and she tells me my back muscles are amazing! We hold hands while walking sometimes! That's not just friend stuff, right? She really did send me to pick up her phone, but she didn't tell me the passcode. Do you know what my first guess was? The day we became friends. And I was right! But I don't want to trust that because I don't want to be wrong and push her away from me."

Nekomata slumped, head down. Belle and Wise glanced at each other, Belle silently asking for and receiving permission to lead.

"I won't say whether or not it'll turn out well, but bottling your feelings up like this won't work out for you and isn't working out for you. And..." Belle shot Wise a meaningful look, and he gave her a reticent one in return before sighing, "while I won't say anything too much, that definitely doesn't sound 100% platonic. And even if it isn't returned, Ellen's the sort of person who won't let go of people she's close to unless they tell her to go away."

"That does sound like her," Nekomata said ruefully. She put her arms up, leaning forward and bobbing them gently. "But if this goes wrong, you're getting the blame."

"Council of war time."

Ellen sat in the computer chair in the archive, spun around to face the twins standing by the door.

"So, Monna. Goat thiren, never talks for too long, pretty thin considering how much she works out. You've run into her in the past, I know, but I don't think you know her very well."

The two proxies nodded.

"I know I've said there's something wrong there for a while, and..." She sighed. "She's been off for months now, but I didn't start digging until she showed up at our last coffee meetup with bruises. And I kinda wish I hadn't but I'm really glad I did.

She shifted in her seat. "Monna doesn't really do well without structure. She tried to run herd over us enough to make that clear. Her parents are sweet but very controlling, and I think she went to college just to make them happy. So she leaves the house, falls apart with nobody to keep her in line, and," Ellen winced, "at some point she joins up with a gang. Which is a pretty dramatic jump, I know, but apparently some asshole friend sold the idea of exploring hollows with them as some kinda thill-seeking-slash-stress-relief thing and she swallowed the bait whole. She wouldn't have done that normally, but she's always been happy to push herself and she's kinda hardcore under the surface, and she wasn't in a good headspace anyway. Mana's contacts confirmed it, apparently Monna's already been on a couple raids, that's what's up with those bruises. Now, it's been a while of this, her grades are dropping low enough to start really hurting her, it's only a matter of time before the cops figure her as an affiliate and she gets a record, and she won't tell anybody because she doesn't want people to worry or think she's a failure."

"I take it you want to intervene," Wise said seriously.

"Normally I don't like making life decisions for other people, but right now, I feel I kinda have to." Ellen put her chin in her hands. "I've seen people go down this road before and there's nothing good at the end of it, and I'll be fucked if I just stand back and let her suffer."

"Sounds like you need a plan," Belle said.

Ellen shook her head. "I already have a plan, I know how to get through to her, but I need a place for her to go. We can talk her out of the gang, I'm pretty sure, but she might just slide back into something else if we don't have a way forward already laid out."

"You mean like a job?"

"Yeah. But it has to be something that'll work for her, or she might just leave."

"I hear Belobog's hiring," Wise said, but Ellen shook her head.

"I'm not optimistic. From what I hear, it sounds like the same bug bit her that bit me a while back and she's starting to fall in love with combat. Belobog has to fight sometimes during resource extractions, but that doesn't happen all that often and she might find standard construction work a drag. Maybe she clicks and she stays, maybe she decides she's bored and wanders off. Don't like that coin flip."

"I'd recommend the Cunning Hares," Belle said, "but they're a little too chaotic for her if she needs structure."

"Yeah, she's too quiet to really vibe with us. Not a tight fit, more chance she regresses."

"We only have so many contacts, and I'm not sure the standard job search will work for her..." Wise said.

The three stayed silent for several moments before their eyes widened.

"Victoria Housekeeping Company," all three said at once.

"Lycaon runs a pretty tight ship, so she'll have all the structure she needs," Belle said.

"There's enough work to keep her busy, so she won't have the opportunity to backslide..." Wise said.

"... And Victoria does enough fighting to satisfy her there," Ellen concluded, "plus they're down a combat specialist since I left. This - this could actually work, I should be calling Lycaon to let him know how I'm doing anyway so I have a good way to open the conversation."

"Lycaon spoke to me yesterday, actually," Belle said, "and he wanted me to help Rina with finding something. I can bring it up with her, too."

"This is all assuming we can persuade her to leave her current life in the first place," Wise said.

"I'm sure we can," Ellen said, getting up from her seat, "me, Ruby, Lynn, and Corin together isn't something Monna will just ignore. I can't say anything for certain, maybe it's too late or we're not as close as we thought, but, whatever. I'm meeting Mana tonight, I'll talk this over with her and see if it makes sense. I think this'll change things for the better."

As Belle and Wise set up shop the next morning, they were surprised by an unexpected showing from an Ellen both more and less self-assured than normal. She was smiling slightly, but a little flushed and visibly poleaxed by something.

"Everything okay there?" Wise said.

"Yeah," she responded, "Yeah, definitely. I think. Uh. I have a girlfriend now. What the fuck do I do next?"

Chapter Text

"I think congratulations are in order, " Belle said from her bed, eyes twinkling. Ellen sat red-faced on the stool; Belle had shuffled Wise out to watch the counter on the logic of "no boys allowed", leaving the two to debrief in her room.

"I, I think so. I think I'm happy. I'm also a little overwhelmed, and I'm panicking a bit."

"That's no good, are you..."

"No, no, I'm net happy. Just..." Ellen took her tail into her lap and began playing with the fin. "This is so new! This is so new. I definitely wasn't ready for anything like this in middle school, and high school, even if I had the time and energy to seek somebody out - and between schoolwork and Victoria, I didn't - none of the people interested in me were interesting back. Lotta people into tall, dark, and mysterious, some assholes looking for a trophy, a couple muscle or thiren fetishists, nobody worth trusting. Barren landscape all around.

"And then..." Ellen rolled her eyes. "I got my first girlfriend like three weeks after graduating and neither of us realized it for months. God, that's embarrassing. Study dates three times a week, going to movies together, we started taking each other out to good restaurants once a month a while ago, it was so fucking obvious..." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I set the passcode on my phone to the day we got together - sorry, the 'day we became friends'. It was pretty much immediate, wasn't it? 'She's so important to me, she's like my best friend!' Best friends don't share straws at the movie theater, bitch! She must've sat there running circles in her head thinking about indirect kisses while I was like," Ellen opened her eyes wide and innocent, "'this is a totally normal and platonic relationship to have with somebody you're attracted to but haven't admitted that to anybody yet!' Fuck, how? It's like I stapled my eyes shut. At least neither of us knew what we were doing, so we have that excuse going for us."

She sighed, then smiled gently, face slightly flushed. "Well, we talked it out now and it looks like we're basically going to have the same relationship as before, except we kiss each other sometimes," she flushed a bit more, "and that's a definite plus."

"But you still seem a little... unsettled?" Belle asked.

"Yeah, definitely." Ellen took her tail in her hands again. "I like my life better now, but... it really hasn't been that long since I left Victoria. It's just a few months, but I feel like a completely different person. Like, the last time anything big changed in my life, it was my friends bringing me into the group, and that was more adding to something that already existed, even though it was really important. The last time things really changed for me like this, REALLY changed, was when I ignored the hollow siren, broke into a building looking for food, and got sucked into a hollow where Lycaon found me nearly unconscious from ether corruption a couple days later. And, and it was terrifying at first. I had no reason to trust these people! I thought they were gonna sell me off or something, it took me months to start thinking they weren't secretly out to hurt me. I did, and I'm glad I did, but looking back it was maybe the scariest time in my life."

Ellen began playing with the tip of her fin. "It's all changing so fast. About this time last year, I remember, I had to work for an afternoon in this one cafe so I could intercept some fuckers looking to beat up an old man. I had some aggression to work out, because not only did I the job keep me from a meetup with my friends, but that morning every club in school decided it was time to try to recruit me. Again. I was doing the same shit as the year before and the year before that, it was normal. I mean, I wasn't having the best time in the world, but at least I knew what was gonna happen next."

She winced as she twisted her fin a little too hard and rested her hands on her tail.

"After a year of - this is back when I was a kid - of major anger issues causing me problems, Rina convinced Lycaon to shill out for therapy sessions. And, I mean, they didn't magically solve all my problems, but I picked up a lot."

"You always seem pretty in touch with your emotions and what they mean, I thought we were just really mature."

Ellen laughed a little self-deprecatingly. "Nobody's that mature. I knew I had issues, but I was starting to trust everybody at Victoria and I got scared they'd decide I wasn't worth the effort if I didn't do better. So, I thought of therapy as a kind of brain training session, and it worked. Doesn't mean I'll ever stop having issues, but I paid enough attention to carry stuff forward. But whatever, getting distracted. My point is, I remember talking about this shit in therapy: when you're used to things being worse, when things get better, it gets scary."

Ellen shifted in her seat, looking up at Belle. "I had my first kiss with my first girlfriend last night, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I'm working harder for the Hares than I ever did in high school for less pay, but I'm not having motivation issues any more because the work's more important and more interesting. And speaking of which, thanks for recommending me to Ben -"

"He thanked me, he's glad to have somebody to listen to him."

"He's a sweetheart. I never thought fuckin' accounting of all things would be right up my alley, but... he's been giving me tips and guidance, and it's kinda weird to think I'm considering going to night school even while I plan on talking Monna out of school. Well, out of the gang, at least. Dunno what she thinks about school in general, but I'm not optimistic - we'll see, I guess."

"Oh yeah! You still getting ready for that?"

"I mean, I was gonna spend last night planning but I, uh, didn't." Ellen let out a grounding sigh. "Ah well. Gotta decide how to tell everybody or whether to save it for after we get the plan underway." She smiled a bit. "And I have to calculate just how smug I can be when I tell them."

"If you need my help, let me know; I'll just have to make sure this housekeeping assessment thing is under control."

"It's been a little while, hasn't it?" Ellen said from the stool, eyes twinkling. Belle sat red-faced and smiling on her bed, blankets wrapped around her. "I think congratulations are in order,"

Ellen ostentatiously checked a watch that didn't exist. "It has been exactly one year - actually, wait, our first anniversary was two weeks back, Mana took me out for sushi - a little over one year since we were last here. I believe you have something to report?"

"Rina and I are together," Belle said. "It's been really nice."

"And you didn't want me to KNOW?" Ellen said, mock-scandalized.

"We didn't want to tell anybody unless we were serious! We decided we are, and also Wise is manning the shop while we spend a week in a nature hotel near the Outer Ring, so it would be pretty obvious," Belle mumbled.

"Not 100% into mommies myself - more short, dark, and mischievous here - but I can't fault your taste. When did this happen?"

"Well, we were helping this sweet old lady with Cognitive Corruption Syndrome who was looking for her 'sweetcakes'. And Rina was kind and patient and strong and gentle, and she was so dedicated but she wasn't afraid to be silly..."

"She tell you about her guitar?"

"Yeah! When first got started. When she said she played an instrument, I wasn't expecting that - and she's really good, too!"

"She must have been pretty relaxed, she doesn't tell people that if she's trying to play the perfect maid. You musta struck her really well."

"Well, I'd have had to," Belle mumbled. "I don't even remember what I said, but when after we made sure Granny was comfortable when we wrapped up, my mouth ran ahead of my brain and I said that she was my sweetcake or something."

Ellen's smile widened into a grin. Belle, whose face was slowly returning to her normal color, went red again.

"And I was so embarrassed, but she thought it was sweet! And she asked me out for a nice meal and I kinda realized there was something there. She was busy getting Monna settled at first, so we didn't spend much time together at first, but a few months ago we started seeing each other more seriously and we just decided it wasn't worth dancing around anymore. So I have a girlfriend!"

"I am loving everything I'm hearing, feeling so privileged to watch true love bloom in front of my eyes," Ellen said.

"Come on, we didn't take months circling each other like you did! And we're still not that serious, we haven't moved in together like you two."

Ellen rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's not like we have kids or something."

Belle paused, then said thoughtfully, "you know, I can picture you guys as good parents. Nekomata would be fun and indulgent while teaching kids good habits, making sure they have what they need to succeed while making sure they know what makes them happy."

"Shut up, don't you dare."

"And you'd be stern but kind, helping them learn boundaries and making sure they can keep themselves safe. You'd scold them when they did something wrong or dangerous, but you'd always make it clear what they did wrong and how they can fix it. And sometimes, you'd wink at them and take them out for ice cream -"

Ellen, eyes wide, lept across the low table and slapped her hand across Belle's mouth.

"You shut your face before somebody hears and decides to make you a prophet," Ellen said firmly. "I just hit 20, I'm way too fucking young to be a parent."

Chapter Text

Belle and Wise sat quietly in the hospital lobby, backs upright and eyes bright in the relaxed alertness of those used to observing combat. The office door opened and Cunning Hares streamed out, their face a mix of relieved and contemplative. The others trickled out the front door, but when Nekomata spotted Phaethon, she pulled Ellen down and gave her a gentle, reassuring kiss before abruptly pushing her towards them. As the siblings stood up to walk with her, she looked back as the twins silently met her gaze for a moment, then shook herself.

"Right, sorry. So. Good news - no permanent danger, whatever happens. The rest of her will make a full recovery, and from what the doctor says and by her behavior - she is NOT happy sitting around there - there won't be any kind of psychological damage or trauma or anything."

"And the bad news?" Wise asked gently.

Ellen sighed. "The leg will never fully heal. She'll be able to walk around on it without much pain, but she won't be able to run for very long and extreme stress might put 'er back in the hospital. They told Nicole she has two choices. Choice one: keep her leg as is. She'll be able to get around just fine, but combat and heavy labor are out of the question, so she'll end up spending all day behind the desk at the new office. Choice two: she has it amputated and replaced with a prosthetic. Move around better than before on that thing, but there's always a risk of rejection or shit going wrong during surgery, plus it's pretty expensive."

Wise winced. "I can see how that could be a problem."

Ellen laughed a little ruefully. "Believe it or not, and it feels so fucking weird to say this, but cost isn't an issue. Our worker's comp policy - which she put in place for US, not her - covers this kinda injury, and we have enough liquid reserves to foot the bill for implantation, rehabilitation, and maintenance without significantly hurting our bottom line. Turns out night school is really paying off!" She gave an off-kilter laugh. "And I know she's kinda vain, but aesthetics isn't an issue here either. Like, what's-her-face, the short cop - Qingyi! Yeah, girl's an android and she's got thighs for days, we can find Nicole a similar prosthetic without breaking the bank."

"This all sounds like good news," Belle said, "but YOU sound like you need another talk."

"Haha, yeah, its been a while, there's a cafe up on the terrace, my treat."

The three wandered up into the cafe, gave their orders, and settled in to watch as the sun just began to sink over the river.

"So," Ellen began, "When we all got there, she announced she's gonna keep the leg, at least for now. Nicole's officially decided to step back from field operations and take on a more administrative and managerial role."

The twins looked at each other in surprise.

"And like, I get it. When there was just like five of us and I hadn't beaten the need for proper paperwork into her head yet, it wouldn't've made sense for her to stick around in an office. But right now? Gentle House, LLC has just over 40 full-time employees. Ben just recommended us a full-time accountant so I can safely split my time between that, hollow runs, and night school. We're doing great!

"And everything's fucking changing again," Ellen sighed again. "Spent a year getting to know where I was and I was comfortable with it. Now it looks like Nicole's thinking of reorganizing everything to be more efficient, delegating responsibilities a bit more formally. But that's not what's getting to me."

The conversation stopped for a moment as food arrived. Ellen tore through hers as the other two made their steady way.

"No, what's getting to me is that I care this much. Because it's not a bad change! It isn't even that big, I'm not going anywhere, nothing's changing other than Nicole being around more often, and that's not exactly a tragedy."

The twins took a moment to think. Eventually, Belle asked, "what's Nekomata think?"

"Oh, she's fine. Excited, even, she's getting more pay. Nicole says she's gonna be one of our dedicated raid leaders, it's a big deal. And... I think that's the issue. Cause it is, for me. I don't WANT things to change. I don't want an accountant to take over, I like keeping the books, but I really don't want to stay trapped behind a desk forever either, and it's not like there's enough work to justify one and a half accountants.

"I need to talk to Nicole about this. Maybe there's a solution I'm not seeing. Maybe there isn't, but I can't let myself get caught in this trap of not knowing what to do. I'm not gonna just bail, but... I lucked out with the Cunning Hares, but that accelerated course is about to wrap up. Once I got the degree... maybe I should think about other options."

Ellen awkwardly adjusted the cutout in her suit around her tail as she walked into the office. She took the measure of the woman sitting at the desk as she gestured towards a chair across from her: a blonde human, stiff-backed and attentive, clearly used to commanding any room she entered. She wore a suit jacket over dress clothes cleverly tailored to hide muscle, a particular mix of lean and bulging that marked a professional fighter with decades of experience.

They also clung distractingly to her features, but Ellen did her best to ignore that.

As she went to sit down, Ellen caught the woman's eye and paused for a moment. As well put together as the woman was, something in her violet eyes rang true to her experience: despite her formality, they were full of life, of the sort that only came after a time they were empty of it. A look of recognition passed between them and the woman relaxed slightly as Ellen tucked her tail under her.

Without preamble, the woman said, "let's dispense with standard interview questions, it's a waste of both our times. There were two aptitudes we prioritized in the listing. Go through how you meet them. In order, please."

Ellen shifted slightly, uncomfortably aware of her own, shabbier suit as she scraped up every ounce of formality she'd ever learned in schooling and serving. "Certainly, Miss Chevalier. Gentle House was my previous employer, and despite an excellent track record and reputation in the field before I came onboard, they struggled to remain solvent with four employees. After my two years at the company managing their finances, their employee base has increased by an order of magnitude just to keep up with demand, all while maintaining several times previous profit and an attrition rate in the single digits. I was able to help them achieve this while attending an accelerated accounting program and performing all the duties I was originally hired for. "

"Which were?"

Ellen spoke as carefully as she could. "Package retrieval, VIP escort, and protection details. Speaking of which, about the second requirement - between Gentle House and my previous employer, Victoria Housekeeping Company, I have over seven years of combat experience with a variety of targets and scenarios." As Ellen had hoped, instead of incredulity or horror at the implications, she saw wry recognition on Chevalier's face, then continued, "I was their dedicated combat specialist in my time at Victoria, helped train both of my two successors, and helped the company source one of them as I departed. I served in a similar role at Gentle House, though in combat I had a more specific role as a frontline fighter defending both the target and supporting combatants. I figured that, given you're starting a label after splitting from a famously, uh, jealous holding company, you would appreciate not just an experienced fighter, but one used to protecting valuable goods and personnel."

Chevalier blinked her violet eyes and, after a moment of thought, said, "you brought your combat gear as requested?"

Ellen nodded.

Chevalier stood up. "This way. Use the locker foom on the left to change and join me in the sparring room through the other door."

A short change later, Ellen walked into an open gym, square and broad with configureable obstacles and hazards visible through the windows on a large set of side doors. Ellen still wore a version of the maid outfit she'd learned to fight in, but much slimmed down; no collar, headgear, or wristbands, fewer frills and more padding, but still the same sort of subtly reinforced dress, stocking, and dress shoes. Chevalier, on the other hand, hadn't changed at all, though Ellen did notice she seemed to be wearing the jacket like a cape. She hefted her scissors and eyed her seemingly unarmed opponent as they took up positions.

"Begin," Chevalier said, and after a moment Ellen rushed forward to deliver the opening cut she favored, only to dodge left as a garrotte seemed to leap out of her opponent's hands and nearly wrapped around her throat.

It wasn't the sort of matchup Ellen would have chosen. She preferred combat at a slightly longer range, enough to build up momentum and use her scissors to their utmost. Chevalier, on the other hand, always seemed to close as fast as possible, trying to catch her opponent in her wires before dealing powerful kicks - only to be met with blows from Ellen's tail, powerful enough to knock her back and nearly pull the wire out of her hands any time she dared try and catch it.

Still, Ellen was outmatched and she knew it. Chevalier just planned and reacted faster, putting her obviously greater experience on full display, and over time bruises built up on Ellen's skin in exchange for mere knicks on hers. Ellen could tell the other woman was pacing her, putting visible effort to match her skills level without truly revealing what she was capable of, and she rapidly realized she'd lose the battle of attrition their spar was slipping into.

Eventually, a risky jump and feint baited Chevalier into moving her weapon just the right way, and with all the force and leverage she could muster, Ellen caught the wire between her blades and snapped it neatly into thirds. As Chevalier froze in shock, Ellen lunged forward, her scissors angled just right to miss her opponent's chest, a clear killing blow if she'd intended it to land -

- Only to find herself flipping through the air, Chevalier ripping off her suit jacket to reveal another wire and catching the thiren around the waist. Ellen landed heavily, and her eyes widened as the new garrotte caught fire and sketched a charred half-circle into the polished floor inches in front of her, signifying what would have been at least a debilitating hit if the woman wanted her dead.

"Well fought," Chevalier said, calmly extinguishing her weapon and putting it away. Ellen got up and followed her on shaky legs off to the side, where the victor opened up a minifridge Ellen had somehow missed and passed her a water bottle.

After a moment, Ellen cautiously asked, "is there a time I should expect a followup on acceptance or more interviews?"

"You have the job already," Chevalier said casually.

"Uh," Ellen said.

"You're probably the best candidate we have," the older woman admitted. "Everyone else is an accountant who took self defense training or their background check came back with something we couldn't overlook. You could use more financial experience, definitely - but we found your connection to Phaethon doing your background check and Astra - Miss Yao - got excited after hearing what they had to say."

"Oh," Ellen said. "Thank you, Miss Chevalier." Still a little hopped up on the endorphins, she couldn't help adding, "I kinda hoped I'd get in on my own merits."

Chevalier shrugged. "I would've turned you away if I really thought you weren't right for the role. But, I don't." She frowned briefly. "And Miss Yao - assuming you accept the offer - is your employer, not me. If we're to work together going forward, I'd prefer you call me Evelyn, instead."

Chapter Text

Ellen had never been to a release party before. She'd attended similar functions as a servant in her teens, of course, but being a "guest" was new to her.

Not that she really was a guest. Staffing Astra's new label entirely with combat-ready employees instead of hiring a dedicated security team seemed like a bit of a stretch to Ellen, but they did live in New Eridu, she supposed; the Hollows were so omnipresent you could find hardened veterens in the oddest places. Evelyn really managed to dig up enough candidates to keep the lights on while making sure they were some of the best defended lights in the city.

The downside? This conversation.

"... of course, the pre-Hollow global economic trade network provided all the necessary materials for industrialized civilization, shifting resources from across the world to specialized factories located in less prosperous urban centers, but between second-wave oceanic Hollows disrupting those trade networks and the resulting destabilization, both economic and political, of international society, the planet's multiple and overlapping crises at the time prevented any such transport..."

Many of her coworkers were on formal security detail, manning entrances or watching cameras, but a few posed as attendees to watch the main room and provide immediate support if needed - including Ellen, who, like it or not, was the most photogenic of the bunch, and the least likely to set off the instinctive alarms that alert rich people when poor people get too close.

The most photogenic of them outside management, of course. While, as always, the cameras focused on Astra, Evelyn had more than her fair share to dodge this time; to celebrate them breaking free and starting over, Astra had finally, finally talked Evelyn into doing a track with her - and it turned out Astra was right to. Evelyn had a powerful, soulful singing voice, clearly less experienced than Astra's but perfectly suited to moody rock. Ellen had run into Evelyn's dedicated fanbase while researching the job; she had a few bets with Mana on how rabid they'd get after the album released.

Mana thought Ellen was pretty enough to spawn a fandom of her own. The thought filled her with fear.

"... therefore maintaining the traditional bulk manufacturing capabilities that defined pre-Hollow industrial civilization is no longer necessary in New Eridu, as the constantly-regenerating internal nature of Hollows allows, among other things, the harvest of effectively infinite concrete, rebar, multiple types of wood, tiling, sheet metal, piping, wiring, abandoned tools and electronics, and even plants and canned food (accounting for detecting and purging corruption before use, of course) from an area without influencing the area once the Hollow departs, all for only the cost of labor and protection - despite the fact that such harvesting violates conservation of mass as we understand it, but, though we are moving outside my area of expertise now, I do know the exact nature of Hollows and their interaction with conventional physics is still poorly understood despite years of research..."

The problem with being ordered to watch and mingle is actually having to watch and mingle. Ellen had nothing in common with the sorts of people invited to red-carpet events, but her time in Victoria taught her plenty about handling rich idiots. One of the first things Rina taught her (after she got over her anger enough to listen) was two ways to put their clients at ease: ask them about something they enjoy and ask them about something they're proud of.

Looking for a good cover, Ellen had approached a portly middle-aged man standing strategically near an entrance, pegged him as an academic, and asked him about his field of study. And to his credit, the conversation hadn't started out this way; despite him constanly clearing his throat mid-sentence, he was an engaging speaker, drawing questions out of her and letting them direct the conversation, and it wasn't like the topic wasn't interesting or useful to know about.

But that was fourty-five minutes of rambling and saliva-filled wheezing ago.

"... that isn't to say New Eridu doesn't have manufacturing or resource extraction operations of its own (perish the thought), but such operations focus on producing new or luxury goods or parts for repairs in the manufacturing sector and bulk basics like fresh food or fuel; for example, the majority of our city's petroleum is extracted from an oil field partly submerged by a Hollow, and the infrastructure in the area relies on the crude that pours out of the Hollow without draining it so far that lowering levels disrupt conditions within the Hollow (which would of course be catastrophic), and in fact local culture has evolved around fuel extraction and transportation in ways quite unusual by New Eridu standards..."

Ellen spotted Evelyn subtly intercepting a server heading for Astra and switching her drink for an identical one - one of Evelyn's usual tricks, a quiet way of making sure nothing dangerous ever reached her talent/charge/best friend/girlfriend (Ellen wasn't sure on the specifics). She clearly wasn't expecting it to be necessary, otherwise she wouldn't have immediately taken a sip.

Ellen managed to catch her eye as her boss scanned the room for threats, and seeing the glint of desperation, Evelyn made her way over and unsubtly coughed into her fist right behind the man. He jumped, looked around, and stumbled off as if waking up from a dream.

"Anything to report?" Evelyn asked.

"Nothing over here, boss," Ellen said casually. A minute or two passed awkward silence; her boss took another drink, larger this time, as Ellen dug for a conversation topic.

Then she kicked herself, because somehow she'd forgotten the obvious.

"Excited for your big debut?"

Evelyn cleared her throat again and shot Ellen a resentful look. "You too?"

"Hey, it's a big deal. I hear Astra's been pushing you for ages to record with her."

"She's hard to say no to." Evelyn licked her lips, then finished her drink. "She's been asking for this from me for years, and, I suppose there's no better way to start Lyra. She wants me to have some of the spotlight. I know some of Astra's fans like me, but I'm just hoping this won't put them off."

Having heard the track, Ellen could say with absolute certainty they were about to lose their minds.

Evelyn swallowed. "I can't tell her no. She's too reasonable to really push the line, but she just opens her mouth and I cave."

The conversation went on, and as tended to happen around Evelyn, increasingly revolved around Astra. But the longer it went, the less Evelyn paused to hear Ellen's opinions, and the more rapid and uncontrolled her speech became.

"... which wouldn't be as much of a problem if she kept her security detail tight, but she says she has to be open to fans. And I understand! I should know. I've been," she stuttered, "I've been there, I know what the threats look like to her, I - I was one, it took me getting to know her for my resolve to break and it was already breaking anyway, I was already cracking or I would have killed -"

Evelyn froze at the look on Ellen's face.

"I'm not drunk," she said. "Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong."

Ellen glanced at her boss in the passenger's seat, still dealing with the antidote's side effects, and thanked whatever deity kept Belle's prophecy from coming true this wasn't her mess to clean up.

The plan was, in its subtle, malicious way, almost beautiful. The mastermind used a form of sodium pentothal carefully exposed to certain ethereal contaminants, which causes excessive salivation and a drop in inhibitions as the dose sets in. It worked dramatically well, bypassing the standard twenty minutes most drugs took to enter the bloodstream - except something about the trace ether corruption prevented the body from assimilating too much at once, so no matter how high the dose, it would just make the suggestibility last longer. The substance always passed through the system and did no more damage than making them groggy for the rest of the day, but in the meantime, the victim could spend potentially hours babbling every secret that came to mind and not even notice.

Ellen still wasn't clear on the details, but somebody'd dosed at least some of the drinks and spread them around, probably hoping to catch something incriminating from the wave of accidental confessions. Astra might not even have been the main target; enough celebrities and industry figures showed up a bad actor could make a fortune off anything they managed to record.

However, Astra seemed just fine, like most of the attendees, and no pattern jumped out from the names she knew on the victims list she snuck a look at. Besides, the drug's subtlety made it far, far less dangerous than most poisons they could have slipped into everyone's drinks. She'd put down money the incident wouldn't even make the news.

It was still Evelyn's responsibility to prevent this, and she'd let her guard down so far they managed to get her too. It had to be hitting her hard. But while that might have been enough to send Evelyn into silence, it didn't explain her behavior in the passenger's seat. Ellen could see disappointment in her hunched back, but she also watched her employee out of the corner of her eye with the wariness of an animal observing a possible threat.

After several lights, some contemplation, and a few complicated memories, Ellen quietly pulled into a side lot and put the car into park. Evelyn bristled, but her driver cut her off before anything further happened.

"So. There was a low point in my life where I really thought I'd fucked myself over. It took a couple serious reality checks to put me back on track. I can't make you talk about whatever shit's eating you up right now. I'll drive you to Astra's apartment and never mention this again. But if you need to get something off your chest..."

Evelyn tilted her head just enough to acknowledge her but did nothing more.

"Hey, look, I'll start. So, Phaethon. You know I had a massive crush on both of them at the same time back in high school?"

Evelyn's eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, they were older than me, but they were so cool. Like seriously, who wouldn't? Unbelievably embarrassing when I found out they'd known the whole time."

She caught a quirk in Evelyn's lips out of the corner of her eye.

"But, that's not the big thing."

The quirk smoothed out.

"You probably already picked this up, but... I'm a killer. I learned how to fight keeping myself alive on the streets, and when Victoria picked me up... maybe they could have sheltered me, kept me away from the bad stuff, but I was an angry little kid. I wouldn't have put up with that, and they knew it. So, they trained me, helped me keep that part of myself under control. I've never hurt somebody who wasn't threatening somebody."

Ellen shifted in her seat, the tail indent she'd splurged on giving her just enough room to settle comfortably.

"I never stopped liking fighting. I don't like causing pain for its own sake, I never liked causing permanent harm to a person, but the fighting... the rush, outsmarting enemies and dodging weapons, fear in people's eyes... back when I was still having sleep issues, it's what kept me awake. I try to do good by everybody I care about, but there's always a part of me that wants to hurt people.

"I say this because - well, I don't actually know this, but I'm pretty fucking sure you got a similar background. You hide it pretty well, but the way you move, the way you fight, how you scan a room, the way you panicked when it came up and immediately shut everything down... you went through something similar. You went through something similar and judging by your reaction at the party I don't think you ever actually talked to anybody about it."

She patted the dashboard, just above the ignition.

"I'm not gonna make you talk. I know damn well THAT doesn't ever work out. If you tell me no, I'll drive you back to Astra's place and never say anything again. What I'm saying is, if you wanna bust it out, maybe get some perspective, there's maybe nobody better for that than me. I'll tell you from experience, this shit will keep resurfacing at the worst possible time until you deal with it. I think you got it under control more than I ever did, but trust me, it's just gonna fester."

Ellen looked over, and Evelyn met her eyes, her face unreadable.

"Somebody did this for me and it turned my life around. You mind letting me pay it forward?"