Chapter 5: "Asked Too Late"

Sying frowned as he watched Krissy and Christian after class. He was trying to find an opening to ask her out. The fall formal was still a ways out, but… he figured if he got the jump on it now and asked her to something big and fun and not too intimidating… after all, it was also his birthday, and it had always been a chance for their group of friends to get together.

But she was almost always with Christian, working on his powers with him. He wasn't sure if it was just because she and Chance had been the ones to rescue him from Norway or what it was, but it seemed like Christian was monopolizing all her time.

But he finally managed to snag her as they headed to combat — since Christian wasn't in that class with them.

"Hey, Krissy, do you have a minute?"

She spun around to face him with a grin and threaded her arm through his. "Hey, Sying."

He swallowed hard and then bit his lip. "Are you … going with anyone to the fall formal?"

Krissy went totally still as she stared at him for a moment, turning fully his way with her lips slightly parted. "Oh. Sying…" She looked honestly upset. "I … I just told Christian I'd go with him."

"You did?"

"He … he wanted to know what the big deal was about the Halloween party, and … and one thing led to another and…"

Sying swallowed and shook his head. "It's fine."

"If I'd known you were going to—"

"It's fine, Krissy," Sying said. He gave her a short smile. "What are you two going as?"

"Sying-"

"Krissy, I was too slow, it's fine," Sying said.

Krissy frowned at him and then reached out to grab his hand. "I just… he spent two years in a weapons program, Sying. I want him to have a good time."

Sying let out a breath. "No, I think ... you've always had a big heart, Krissy. I'm glad you've got someone to look out for," he said evenly before they ducked into combat.

"Ellie," Krissy said as she appeared in Elin's room the second Elin had returned from her Friday classes. "Ellie. I need your help. I'm in crisis."

"What happened?" Elin asked as she temporarily abandoned her books.

"Sying asked me to the fall formal," she explained in a rush, her eyes wide and her tail moving erratically behind her.

"What's wrong with that? I thought you liked him," Elin said with a frown.

"I already told Christian I'd go with him!" Krissy said.

"Oh." She frowned and dropped onto her bed with her hands folded in her lap.

Krissy started to pace. "It was, like, within hours of Christian asking me, Ellie, and if I'd known…"

Elin took a deep breath and nodded her head a couple of times. "Okay. But … you're going as friends with him, right? Why not ask Sying to ice cream before then?"

Krissy bit her lip; her tail was moving quickly behind her, so she grabbed it and tugged on it anxiously. "I... "

"You like the new guy," Elin said with a falsely surprised expression.

Krissy dropped into the seat next to Elin. "I think I do," she admitted. "He's nice. We spend a lot of time together, and I really think he could use someone, and I don't want to do that to him - you know, flirt and drop him — when he's been alone for years and I just…"

"Are you the only one that talks to him now?" Elin asked.

Krissy twisted her hands in her lap. "Well, sort of. We spend all our time together, so he doesn't really know anyone else and I — I—"

"You gotta go slower, Krissy," Elin said.

"I know," Krissy said. She looked up at Eln with wide eyes. "He can hardly even hold my hand, Ellie. It's not like it was with Chance."

"I don't mean physically," Elin clarified. "I don't want you throwing your all into it right out of the gate. Don't you think he should work for it a little bit? Even if you can't do more than hold his hand. You're worth more than that."

Krissy's shoulders slumped, and her eyes were bright as she hugged Elin and rested her head on her friend's shoulder. "You say the nicest things, Ellie."

"It's nothing you don't already know, you silly Elf. You just get so wrapped up in everything ... " Elin gave her another squeeze. "You gotta slow down."

"I really should," Krissy admitted, shaking her head. "And Sying…" She leaned forward, her eyes bright. "You should have seen his face. I … I… I hurt him, and I don't want to do that, because you're right; I do like him. I really do. I thought I was going to date him when I got back, but I just… I got so … caught up…"

"Date. Around. Just do stuff with him and see how it goes. There is nothing that says you can't date more than one boy," Elin pointed out. "Just don't keep them both as boyfriends."

"No, I would never do that," Krissy said, her eyes wide. "To either of them. Ever."

Elin smirked at her and shook her head. "Who knows … maybe you have more admirers to fight over you."

"Oh, I hope not. I can hardly handle this."

"You're looking at this all wrong," Elin teased. "You could have them duel for your honor."

Krissy shook her head at her friend. "So… I should try to …" She wrapped her arms around herself.

"Don't let it be a 'whoever got there first' situation," Elin said. "Yes, make them chase you a little, but you are the one who gets to decide." She shook her head. "Did I tell you about Takashi?"

Krissy shook her head.

"Kitty gave me — no. Kitty is still giving me a hard time about a boy I met in Japan," Elin said. "We weren't even dating, but apparently, now I'm 'breaking hearts' in the span of like … a week and a half." She gave her a little smile. "We had fun. Nothing close to serious. And that was it."

"Well, if you didn't like him, then you didn't have to keep dating him," Krissy said reasonably.

"I did like him," Elin said. "He was sweet and kind and a lot of fun. But … we had not quite two weeks. And that's the end of it." She shook her head again. "I don't think I would have dated him much longer if we'd have been there for another month."

Krissy reached over and pulled Elin into a hug. "I'm so glad you had fun. You deserved something fun after Nolan and all that fallout."

Elin smiled at her after they separated from the hug. "There is nothing wrong with just having a little fun. I got to see all the new spots in Tokyo because of it."

Krissy nodded and then darted in to hug her again. "I love you, Ellie."

"Love you too; now stop stressing out about this. If you're stressing, it's not right. Have a little fun. Please." Her voice dropped lower. "I can't believe I have to tell you this."

"You knew I was a drama queen since… forever."

"Yeah, but you have to relax a little," Elin said. "You have multiple boys chasing you. Multiple. Enjoy it."

Krissy couldn't help but smile at her. "Okay. You're right. You are. I'm… I'm going to ask Sying to go out with me this weekend."

"Good. I will not be able to see you until late Friday night," she said. "But I want to hear about it."

"Date with Jacob?"

"Yeah, I figure I'll give it a shot. He was singing outside of homeroom yesterday."

"He was… what?" Krissy's entire expression betrayed how entertained she was.

"Singing. To try to get me to go out with him."

"Ohmigosh, Ellie."

Elin waved her hand. "He's a football player. Probably head trauma."

Krissy laughed at her and hugged her again. "I want to hear about it too."

"We'll meet up here … or in Storm's old attic. Your call."

"Attic — just in case," Krissy decided.

Elin grinned. "You're still afraid of my dad, aren't you?"

"...maybe a little bit. And only when it comes to boys, because I swear to you, I really, really think he has it out for me."

Elin rolled her eyes but was smiling. "He does not have it out for you."

"He growled at Christian the other day!" Krissy insisted.

"Well … maybe he deserved it," Elin said. "Dad's rarely wrong."

Krissy shook her head. "He did not. It was an accident. He can't control it, and he accidentally touched your dad…"

"Wait … what happened?" Elin asked.

"He makes people hallucinate when he touches them. It's usually something from their own mind or from his if he's concentrating," Krissy explained.

"Oh … that … that's not good at all," Elin said, the smile gone entirely.

"But it wasn't his fault," Krissy said. "Really."

"How did he touch him, then? I thought he wore gloves."

"He got knocked over by someone in the halls and he hit his head… on Logan," Krissy said.

"What did Dad do?" Elin had shifted how she was sitting so she was more cross-legged and clearly more engaged.

Krissy frowned. "He, um, grabbed Christian and twisted him up — and I had to spend, like, forever promising that he wasn't going to get murdered in his sleep."

"That's ridiculous," Elin said, looking put off. "Dad would never kill anyone in their sleep."

"I know that, and you know that, but Christian doesn't know that," Krissy pointed out.

"I am reasonably sure that anyone that's even remotely aware of who and what my dad has been knows he wouldn't take someone out in their sleep. Maybe in his sleep if he was bored …"

Krissy couldn't help but smile at Elin. "Yeah, well. Anyway. I'll tell you about my date with Sying on Friday night."

"And team practices on Saturday — fun!"

"It really will be," Krissy promised before she giggled and disappeared in a poof of purple - but not until after kissing her friend on the cheek.

Sying could hardly believe it when Krissy had cornered him after class and all but informed him that they were going to go out to ice cream together. But he definitely wasn't going to argue it.

He really didn't pay any attention to anything else that happened that day all the way up until he met up with Krissy after class. She looked great.

"What made you change your mind?" he asked as he offered her his hand.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I thought you said—"

"Sying, I have a date to the dance. I don't have a boyfriend," Krissy said.

He raised his eyebrows at her for a second, but he shook his head and decided not to say anything about it. He wasn't going to argue it when Krissy had finally agreed to go out with him. Even if it was just one date. This… he really needed to at least try this. Charlie was right; he wasn't going to get over it otherwise.

They went to Krissy's favorite ice cream place, and he honestly couldn't stop grinning. She looked a little bit odd in the inducer — still dark-haired and wearing a gorgeous blue dress but without any of the purple fur.

"Should I have changed the hair too?" Krissy asked when Sying still couldn't stop grinning at her.

"No, no, you look more like yourself this way," Sying said.

Krissy flushed bright purple but smiled down at her ice cream. "Thanks, Sying."

He watched her with a little smile before he took a big bite of his banana split. "So I'm trying to decide what I should do for my costume."

"I liked the Darth Maul one you did a few years ago."

"That took forever," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but it was amazing. The makeup alone was perfect."

"Yeah, but then everything tasted like black lipstick," he said, shaking his head.

"Well, what about… you could be an Avenger. Like Captain America?"

He blinked at her for a moment. "Really?"

"Well, yeah. I bet you could pull it off. We'll get you a shield…"

"You know what, I think I'm going to have to do that now, just to throw the shield around," he said, shaking his head with a smile.

She grinned at him and leaned over to steal the maraschino cherry off of the top of the banana split to pop into her mouth. "And you'd look good in the uniform."

Sying turned bright red, cleared his throat, and looked out the window so he could try to get his blushing under control — though he was totally derailed when he saw Elin with the tall, blond football player. "Hey, look!"

Krissy startled and looked out the window just in time to see Jacob pick Elin up onto his shoulders. She grinned. "Oh, I'm so glad she's having fun."

Sying watched the two of them and shook his head lightly. "He's ... "

"A good rebound," Krissy finished for him.

"Yeah."

"She's just trying to have fun," Krissy said. She smiled lightly. "That's what she told me. That there's nothing wrong with a little fun."

"She told you that?"

"I know, I know, try not to die of shock," Krissy laughed.

Sying shook his head and then turned his attention back to Krissy. "So are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Having fun?"

Krissy flushed bright purple. "Yeah," she said, looking back down at her ice cream. "A lot."

He just grinned at her and went back to his own banana split, his own face flushed pink with pleasure as they ate their ice cream in silence.