"You know, Amari, I simply don't understand why you don't just use your human disguise all the time," Moira said, slinging a light backpack over her back. "It certainly is more… conventional than your armor."
I don't feel the need to , Fareeha replied. The body I have is a good reminder of who I am now. Instead of metal, however, her hands had the appearance of flesh and bone. Fareeha's human disguise, courtesy of Angela, was her mortal appearance from centuries ago, with tanned skin and mid-length dark hair. A small tattoo, the udjat , adorned her cheek beneath her right eye.
Moira scoffed. "Reminders of the past do nothing to help the future. Besides, I haven't seen your human appearance in a couple hundred years, it'll take some getting used to."
That is where I beg to differ. Before Fareeha could elaborate, however, Angela came out to see them off.
"Stay safe, okay?"
"Angela, please. I'm not a child. Plus, I have your dashing and heroic Guardian with me, how could anything happen?"
The Witch rolled her eyes, then turned to Fareeha. "It's been quite a while since I've seen your face, ja ? I've missed this." She ran a hand over Fareeha's "cheek," but, as expected, all she felt was solid metal, proof that despite her outward appearance, Fareeha was still a soul trapped in a suit of armor. The lips of her disguise curled up into a small smile as Fareeha wrapped an arm around Angela.
"If you two are done here, we should get going. The sun will come up soon, and the rest of the human population will soon follow."
"Yes, yes, I'm well aware." Angela released Fareeha with a quick kiss to her other cheek. "I won't keep you longer."
And they were off, two figures speeding through the dim light of the approaching dawn, faster than the mortal eye could track, moving toward the east in search of the absentee father of the girl they had raised for fourteen years.
Lena laughed triumphantly as she placed a card down on the pile in front of her. "Uno!"
Sitting to her left, Mei sighed. "I do not understand why I take time out of my schedule to play this game with you people."
"As if you have anything else to do today," Brigitte shot back, placing one of her cards down on the stack. "It's Friday afternoon, Mei. We have two days of relaxation to indulge in idiotic activities."
"I do! I have another campaign to organize, and I have another article on climate change to finish writing!"
"Yeah, yeah. The world is burning up, we're all gonna die, what's new?" Lena smiled at the Chinese girl. "You deserve some time to have fun too, love."
"I do have fun! Do you remember that one time we went to the arcade?"
"Yes, you spent most of the time glued to Jamison and giving him puppy eyes while he played Terminator." Zarya scanned the cards in her hand, then placed one down. A skip. Emily gave the pink-haired girl a dirty scowl, receiving an innocent smile in return. Mei's face took on a deep shade of pink.
"I- I did not! I just thought it was cool!"
"Uh, guys? I hate to interrupt, but your man in question just got here." Hana glanced over towards the door. "Oh, and he brought Lucio."
"Oi, mates!" Rat practically kicked in the door to the common room and sauntered in, holding a box of donuts. "I got the goods!" Lena shrieked in delight and pounced on the box, the game of UNO completely forgotten. Lucio followed his roommate in, holding a stereo and a few CDs, which he placed on a nearby table. He waved to Hana, who waved back, albeit a bit sheepishly, as she walked over to look at the CDs he had brought.
"Is this your music?" she asked, picking up one of the discs. On it, in blocky handwriting, was written "TRACK 1 - 11."
He nodded. "Yeah, it's actually one of my first albums, but they seem to like it better than my most recent music." He put the disc in and the stereo began to play.
The first song had an opening of what Hana could only describe as "waves" of sound, backed by a steady beat and synthesized chimes. Lena was right, I guess it is pretty good music.
"And you make all of this yourself?" Hana turned to Lucio, who had his eyes closed and was nodding his head in time with the beat.
"Yup," he replied. "I've gotten inspiration from other EDM artists though."
"It's really cool." Hana didn't know what else to say, given that she didn't know much about music herself. Lucio nodded his thanks and their conversation lapsed into silence. Fortunately, Hana was saved from further awkwardness when a shout sounded from the far end of the room and a chair flew across her field of vision, followed by an angry-looking Brigitte chasing after Rat. Shortly after, the room exploded into raucous laughter.
The sudden, unorganized loud noises had startled Hana, Lucio noticed. He scooted closer to her and placed an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, Hana, you alright there?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. I'm fine. It's just-" She paused. "I know you probably don't get this, but I just have this… thing where loud overlapping noises tend to screw with my brain." In truth, it was due to her superhuman hearing and ability to hear every little noise made by her friends in the room. Normally, Hana was able to filter out which ones to pay attention to, but an auditory overload such as the one she was currently experiencing gave her some trouble.
"Heh. Well, the funny thing is," Lucio rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, "I don't usually talk about this, but sometimes I get sensory overload too, y'know? It's not usually from sound, because, well, I work with music, but it happens sometimes." He stood up and jabbed a thumb at the door. "Wanna go outside and get some fresh air?"
Hana looked up in surprise at the boy's confession. "Sure, thanks." After following Lucio outside, the more ambient atmosphere and familiar noises of nature began to settle her nerves. Despite it being the beginning of fall, the weather was still adequately warm, a welcome change from the cold winters in Eichenwalde. After a few minutes, she turned to Lucio. "So, Lucio. Uh, We haven't really talked much, have we?" In the two weeks she'd been at Watchpoint, she'd seen him in the hallways and in the cafeteria at lunch, always wearing his signature headphones. They'd waved as they passed, but hadn't exchanged words since their first meeting before the beginning of school. He occasionally hung out with them, but mostly kept to himself, as far as Hana knew.
"Hm. I guess not." He tilted his head slightly, contemplating. "I do tend to get too caught up in my music sometimes."
She let out a soft laugh. "I think it's nice that you're passionate about something." A pause. "But hey, if you ever wanna come hang out with us more, I think they'd really like having you around."
"Haha, yeah. It's usually Rat who drags me to outings, 'cause he's my roommate and all. 'Lucio, ya need ta learn to have some real fun!'"
Hana laughed. His impression of Rat was almost flawless. "Hey, he's doing you a favor." She elbowed him teasingly. "Oh, by the way. We're going into town tomorrow, if you'd, uh, like to join us. I mean, you don't have to, I'm not forcing you into anything, but-"
"Nah, it's fine. I'll go with y'all." Lucio smiled.
"Oh, uh, great!" Hana's phone buzzed. A missed call from Angela. "Uh, I gotta take this, but yeah! I'll see you tomorrow then?"
He nodded. "See ya, Hana!"
Arriving at her room, Hana called Angela, but received no response. Opting instead to leave a voice message, she sat on her bed and began to speak.
"Hey, Angie. School is actually kinda fun, for once. I've made a bunch of friends and I'm getting my homework turned in on time. All the usual. I'm settling in fairly nicely. I haven't had any problems with my disguise yet, so thanks for teaching me those spells." She continued on, talking about her classes and schedule, until the tone beeped to signify the limit on message length. Smiling, she snapped a selfie and sent it to Angela along with her voice message. She started another message and began speaking into the phone again.
"So, Angie, there's this guy, Lucio. And we really only talked today, but he's really nice and sometimes I feel like he gets me, y'know? He makes music and it's actually pretty good. He's nice and I really like him, but probably not like that . I mean, I wouldn't know what that feels like. I was actually hoping to get your advice on this. 'Cause like, he's my friend, or at least I think he is, but I've never really connected with anyone else like this before, not even my old friends.
And the thing is, I don't know if I want to date anyone at this stage of life. I mean, I've got loads of other problems, right? I just…" Hana trailed off, pausing the recording. She flopped backwards, head hitting the pillow.
"Ugh, what am I doing?" She stared at the ceiling. "I've literally known him for two weeks- I mean, we're really only talked twice ." Hana stared at the unsent voice message, thinking for a few moments. "...nah, it's fine. It's probably just the fact that I'm making so many new friends. That's probably what it is." Deleting the message without sending it, she lay back again. At least that's what I hope it is.