Summary: The power of friendship.

a/n: Chapter title from the song by BUMPER.

Happy third Butterfly Soup anniversary! Here's something short that I quickly scrambled together based on a post I made on tumblr. I hadn't planned on posting anything for the anniversary, so this is messy.

If you happen to be a reader of Memory Pools, an update should be arriving this month! It'll just be one chapter; the next one and bonus will be posted at a later date, as I don't want to make people wait even longer for an update. I'm just really drained too, lol. Thank you for your patience.

Take care!

"HEY, I BET-"

"Shh." Noelle urged Min to lower her voice. "Akarsha's asleep. She pulled an all-nighter studying for the history test last night."

"Wow, I can't believe you're actually acting nice? ...I bet you have a mean and evil plan all up in your head right now."

"I am merely taking the opportunity to get back at Akarsha, if you would just be quiet as I told you."

Noelle carefully pulled a sharpie out of her pencil case, removing the lid and placing it on the lunch table.

From there she began her work, taking care to write each letter neatly and legibly. Noelle smiled connivingly.

"Man, it's fucking weird how excited gets over these things." Min grimaced.

"Hmm. I'm just glad Noelle looks like she's having fun." Diya added.

Min sunk back in her seat and tilted her head towards her girlfriend. "So what'd Akarsha do this time?"

"She poked holes in the lid of Noelle's water bottle using a safety pin. It was like one of those super soakers except a water bottle, like what kids used to when we had sports day." Diya clarified.

"Damn. Wish I could've seen Noelle get owned, that would have made my day."

Noelle wanted to raise her voice at Min but stopped in her tracks. She couldn't ruin her plan before she had even finished... That would be too much of a waste.

"I mean, not as much as when I get to see you, Diya," Min continued, "You make my day everyday."

Min clasped Diya's left hand in an overly romantic gesture.

"Thanks... Min..." Diya paused between mouthfuls of Noelle's leftover fried rice, "Being with you makes me happy too."

"Wait. You got something on your face. Hold on, babe. Let me help." In the peripheral, Noelle can see Min removing a grain of rice from Diya's face.

"Thanks." Diya smiled sweetly at Min.

Noelle rolled her eyes at the annoying couple before turning away and refocusing her attention on the task at-hand.

Akarsha must have been exhausted to not stir in her sleep at least once.

Her eyes followed the listless curves of Akarsha's face.

...Regardless, she was almost done; she just needed to finish drawing the arrow.

"You aren't gonna just write the word "annoying" with a dumb arrow and that's it. That's mean." Min interrupted.

"That's-"

"But not mean enough. Here let me show you how it's done."

Min grabbed the marker from Noelle without giving her the chance to respond.

"Wait, you should at least ask first before you take things. I wasn't even done yet."

Min shrugged. "Sucks to suck."

"So your idea of 'showing me how it's done' is drawing a knife, a cartoonish-looking piece of poo and writing the word 'shit'?" Noelle looked unimpressed.

"Shut up. It's way cooler than your boring idea. See, look at how I wrote the 's'. You can't top that."

Min held out the marker to Diya, "Here, you can draw something too."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea..." Diya looked at Min worriedly.

"I know anything you draw will be great. I just know it."

"What're you drawing?"

"I'll show you in a bit, Min, okay? I'm almost done."

After a moment of silence, Diya finally finished putting the final details on her doodle.

"A fish...?" "I mean... it's... a really cool fish, like a shark with a four pack-"

"Min... It's... not a fish. It's a butterfly. Those are supposed to be wings..." Diya corrected Min with some reluctance and embarrassment.

Min panicked. "A really cool butterfly, yeah, a butterfly. THAT'S WHAT I MEANT-"

"It's okay, I know it's bad. That's why I said it was a bad idea... I won't be sad if you're honest about it."

"LOOKING AT IT CLOSER, YOU HAVE A NATURAL... TALENT... FOR EXPRESSION OF... ARTFUL ARTISANAL ARTISTIC ART."

"YOUR SHAR- BUTTERFLY... IT LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BEAT SOMEONE UP. YOU CAN TELL IT'S NOT ORDINARY OR ANYTHING BORING LIKE THAT, LIKE HOW IT'S WEARING SUNGLASSES."

"Min, you're making it worse. Shh... You're going to wake Akarsha up." Noelle tried to stop Min.

"Those are antennas... Min, you can stop. It's fine." Diya added.

"Antennae."

But Min continued digging herself deeper, with her voice continuing to increase in volume in an attempt to convince Diya (and herself) that it wasn't as bad as it really was.

"YOU KNOW, WHAT THEY CALL THAT KIND OF ART THE KIND WHERE THERE'S A LOT OF SHAPES AND MEANING AND SYMBOLICISM..."

"That's not even a word. You mean 'symbolism'." Noelle corrected Min.

"SHUT UP. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT SO IT DOESN'T MATTER IF WHAT I'M SAYING ALREADY MAKES SENSE."

"How would what you're saying make sense if you aren't even using real words, let alone using them in the appropriate context?! It's embarrassing to have to hear, let alone witness."

"WHY YOU-"

"You're both going to wake Akarsha up..."

"Too late for that."

The three of them turned to look in Akarsha's direction as she let out an exaggerated yawn.

"Why're you all staring at me like that? Miss me that much?"

"..."

Diya, Min and Noelle huddled together.

("So... are we gonna tell her?")

("No, that'd just ruin everything.")

(Diya nodded.)

"Hey, c'mon, don't leave me out of the conversation!"

a/n: Akarsha's weirdly impressed by how awful and mismatched all of the doodles look together. Yes, I didn't finish writing this. This is just a reminder to myself for the next time I look at this. I'm really sorry.