Sparks flew in the air of the Halifax YMCA's ping pong room late that afternoon. Kaela Kovalskia, who was chewing gum while playing Minecraft on her smartphone, held up a scoreboard with one hand: a two-two tie between Bread Dog Insurance Limited and North Elysium Insurance, it read.
Baelz Hakos, with ping pong paddle in hand, squared off against Axel Syrios. Blue, Australian eyes glared into Australian blue. All the while, the employees of the two insurance companies cheered for their team. Bae dribbled the ping pong ball on the table and watched her opponent arch his back.
TOK-TOK-TOK!
Across the table, Axel smirked. Bae grinned. She caught the ball and served.
PAK!
Axel struck the ball back and Bae answered in a heartbeat. A furious back-and-forth rally ensued. The Insurance salespeople gathered around the ping pong table cheered. Among them was Irys the Nephilim who watched the battlefield with her two-colored eyes. In particular, her eyes were fixed on the rat-girl as she dueled the red-haired dingo.
' She still has the moves. ' Irys thought, watching Bae closely: from the way Bae's eyes followed the ball to the split-second pivot of her feet to the twitching of her tail before she strikes the ball, ' Here it comes!'
PAK!
Right on cue, Bae hopped back and smashed the ball with her paddle. The ball shot through to the very edge of Axel's side of the table, but the smirk never left Axel's lips. He flipped his own paddle and gently tapped the ball lightly.
POK!
The ball sailed back just over the net. Bae's jaw dropped.
TOK-TOK
The ball bounced twice. Then, Kaela turned away from her phone for a second to update the scoreboard. North Elysium won the match - and the day.
"YEAAAAHH!" Axel roared, pumping his fist and his paddle up into the air.
The rest of North Elysium Insurance boys joined him, charging towards him at full sprint. Fist bumps were given. Bare chests clashed mid-air. If they were on the beach wearing aviator shades, Irys could have sworn they were recreating that volleyball scene from Top Gun. Either way, the boys were over the moon.
Irys saw Sana and the rest of Bread Dog wearing somber frowns on their lips. She watched their fists clenched in anticipation come loose and she heard sighs bellowed. However, this did not last long. Sana's expression brightened and she started marching towards Altare Regis, her counterpart CEO with her hand extended towards him.
However, someone beat her to the punch and crossed the aisle first.
Baelz Hakos.
The defeated rat-girl sauntered past the ping-pong table and held her head high. She walked past the cheering boys towards Axel and faced him. Axel mellowed out from euphoria and faced her too. Then, the two Australians smiled and shook hands.
"Hell of a match, ya dingo." Bae cheered.
"Damn straight, it went down the wire, ya rat." Axel answered.
"Heh, you might have won this time, mate, but I'll get back at ya." Bae warned.
"Oh, I'm quaking in my boots, chief." Axel teased.
The two Australians laughed. Whatever else they said next was drowned out by the staff of Bread Dog and North Elysium coming together to shake hands too and chat. Then, when Sana joined the mix, their Australian accents got so thick that Irys got worried that her horns might not be able to cut through!
Rather than trying to make sense of the enigma that was Australian English, Irys smiled and joined the ranks of Bread Dog to mingle with North Elysium.
Once everyone made their rounds, Fauna cleared their throat and ended the festivities.
"Thanks again to everyone for coming to today's Health and Wellness Event." Fauna announced with joined hands, "Bread Dog and North Elysium may be industry rivals, but that shouldn't stop us from letting loose getting along. Our industry's pretty tough, so the last thing we need is bad blood." Her golden eyes swept through the crowd until she found Irys and Bae. Then, she smiled, "That said, the facilities of the YMCA are reserved for us until the evening today. Please enjoy yourselves to your hearts' content!"
The staff of Bread Dog and North Elysium cheered again. They started to break off into smaller groups and disperse, fanning out in the many facilities of the Halifax YMCA - into pairs almost. It didn't take long for Irys and Bae to find themselves alone in the ping pong room.
Now that everyone else was gone and the fanfare of the competition had died down, the cheerful demeanor painted on Bae's face tarnished just a little. Her smile softened and her eyes turned down to her shoes and the ping pong paddle in her hand.
Irys stepped towards Bae and patted her head, flattening her drooping rat-ears tenderly.
"There, there." Irys cooed, "You did your best. We were just fighting for bragging rights. Things turned out alright in the end too."
"I know…" Bae groaned, "But I… but I…!"
Bae clammed up and fell silent. Irys, on the other hand, could tell what was on Bae's mind.
'" I wanted to look cool." was it? ' Irys guessed.
Bae told her something like that in the past during their university sports fests, Irys recalled. Tempted as Irys was to tease the rat-girl, she just stayed there and ruffled Bae's head of red hair.
After a while, a teary-eyed Bae looked up to Irys and asked, "D-do you mind if we do… you know, just like we used to? Just one minute. Just once."
Irys felt her cheeks flush red. Then, she smiled and spread out her arms.
"Two minutes." Irys offered, "And I'm doing this as your colleague, okay?"
Before Irys could say anything else, Bae threw herself onto her and hugged her tightly. Irys hugged her back and the two of them stayed like that for two - and then three minutes. Even then, Bae seemed like she wanted to cling onto Irys even more but Irys peeled the rat-girl off of her.
' Hmm… she's taking this whole loss harder than I thought. ' Irys mused. Then, her two-colored eyes shimmered, ' Ah, I know how I can cheer her up…! '
"Say, Bae." Irys started, "I just remembered that we weren't able to go swimming yet. Wanna hit the pool with me?"
The moment that Irys said this, Bae's drooping rat-ears perked up, her tail stood in attention and her blue eyes shone like the Gold Coast on an afternoon drive. Bae clenched her fists and nodded vigorously.
' You're too easy, Bae. ' Irys chuckled in her mind. Then she smirked, ' Plus, it's not like I'm getting nothing out of this. '
The Nephilim started eyeing Bae from head to toe, imagining her old flame in a swimsuit just like before. She had to lick her lips to stop herself from drooling there and then - so much so that Bae started raising her brow with suspicion.
Irys didn't flinch.
"Imagining me in my swimsuit, are you?" Irys teased.
Bae nearly yelped. She started fretting and squirming and eked out a reply, "N-no, I wasn't…! Dumb, thirsty Nephilim!"
' Too easy, Bae. Too easy. ' Irys smirked again.
"What are ya smirkin' about?" Bae pouted.
"Nothing." Irys turned around and started marching towards the YMCA pool, "C'mon! We've only got till' sunset!"
"O-oy!" Bae protested. She set down the paddle and jogged after the Nephilim, "Wait for me!"
With that, Irys and Bae made their way to the pool.
…
Bae finished changing first, entering the pool room wearing a tasteful light-blue two-piece bikini with a ribboned top and a frilly bottom and a pool towel draped over her shoulders. Her hair, now free of her ornaments, was still wet from shower water and shimmered in the sunlight pouring in from the sunroof.
She sat at the poolside bleachers and looked around the pool room. Sana and Fauna, now in matching competition swimsuits, were swimming on the fast lane with incredible speed. At the shallow side of the pool, a one-piece clad Ina was helping Gura - who had floaties on her arms - how to swim.
Closer to her, Bae saw Mumei and Kaela seated at the nearby bleachers. The two of them were wearing swimsuits too, but they were shrouded in unzipped hoodies and they both wore shades. Kaela had her smartphone in hand, as usual, while Mumei had her camcorder rolling.
Mumei turned her camcorder towards Bae and waved to her.
"Oh hi~!" Mumei spoke with her sweet, cheerful tone.
"Hey, Mumei." Bae greeted back.
"Are you here to enjoy anatomy too?" Mumei suddenly asked. She made the OK sign and added, "Nice swimsuit by the way!"
"Thanks!" Bae smiled. Then, her eyes turned to the camcorder, "But what do you mean by enjo-"
Bae saw Mumei's camera lens zooming, etching a frown on Bae's lips.
"Oy…" Bae covered herself up with her towel even more.
"I haven't done anything yet!" Mumei defended herself.
"Yet…!?" Bae gasped.
"I mean, uh… never mind!" Mumei pouted
' Looks like our HR's in sketchy hands… '
As soon as Mumei said this, the owl-girl turned her camcorder away from Bae and towards the changing room door.
"Oh my!" Mumei cheered.
Bae turned to where Mumei was facing and her jaw dropped. There, Irys marched out of the changing room. Her maroon hair was tied back revealed her long, sharp ears and made her two-colored eyes shine even brighter. She wore a daring black bikini that accentuated her… her everything! Top and bottom, left and right - Bae didn't know where to look!
' Holy crap! '
Irys found Bae seated at the bleachers and waved to her, accentuating her features even more.
"Bae!" Irys called.
Bae, on the other hand, felt her cheeks grow warm.
' She's showing off, isn't she? She's doing this on purpose! '
But it was at this time that Bae heard heavy breathing coming from behind her. Mumei Nanashi licked her lips and trained her camcorder at Irys.
"Now this… is anatomy!" Mumei cheered, "It's perfect. Perfect! Down to the last minute details. Uoughouhaugh! "
Bae frowned. She found the cap of Mumei's camcorder dangling from the side and plugged it back over the camcorder lens. The rat-girl looked the owl-girl straight in the eyes.
"This is my anatomy to enjoy, Mumei." Bae declared.
Mumei couldn't say a word. Bae got up from the bleachers and marched over towards Irys with a wide smile.
"C'mon Irys, let's go for a swim!"
And so, the rest of the afternoon went by swimmingly.
…
Nowhere With You
Embers
…
To Be Continued