Yay I'm all caught up to Ao3 (although now I have to write the next chapter...)! This chapter title is also from "Rue" by Girl in Red. Hope you enjoy! It's also very dialogue-heavy, so be forewarned.

There was about a minute's silence. Zarina and her mother just stared at each other, waiting for one of them to say something. Neither of them wanted to be the first.

Finally, after a while of them sitting in awkward silence, Rina's dad broke it.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, walking into the kitchen where Zarina and her mom had been arguing.

"We were just…"

"Come on, I need to talk to you," her mom jumped in, steering her father into another room out of Zarina's earshot. "We have many things to discuss."

Ugh. He's just going to agree with everything he says, Zarina thought glumly to herself. I'll never be able to convince him otherwise. So she just sat there, shifting uncomfortably while her parents discussed.

It almost felt like what she imagined it would if she went to one of the Forbidden Cities. She could tell that they were talking, but nothing they were saying made any sense.

Zarina sat there for what seemed to be hours, but was probably only about ten minutes.

Then, they finally came out of the room they'd stepped into. Her mother's face was completely unreadable. However, while her father's face was similarly expressionless, she could detect a slight twinkle in his eyes.

"Zarina," he began, as Rina sat at rigid attention, "we have decided…" Her father paused, and Rina internally groaned. "That you can stay friends with Miss Torven."

Gasping, Zarina stood up and smiled. "Thank you so much!"

"However," Rina's mom cut in, scowling, "you are still on very thin ice with us, Zarina. If you do anything to disappoint us in the future, this…privilege may be taken away."

Rina didn't care. As long as she was allowed to talk to her best friend, nothing else that happened mattered. So despite the possible consequences, she waved to her parents and walked up to the Leapmaster, calling out, "Maplebranch!" There was about an hour until they normally left for Foxfire.

Lyrei was already there, waiting for her friend at the entrance of the house when Zarina arrived. Somehow, she'd known that Rina was coming.

"I knew you'd come," Lyrei called to her, waving and smiling.

"How?"

"You always do after you have an argument with your mom. Plus, I figured you'd want to have a bit of time to relax before school started." Lyrei stared at her intently before asking,"So what was it about this time?"

Rina sighed. "Somehow, my mom figured out what happened with Nylian. She threatened to split my friendship with you, but my dad was able to convince her not to."

"Oh, that's good. Even so, are you okay?" Lyrei's fingers twitched, as if she wanted to hold Zarina's hand but had decided against it. "You look like you have something else to say."

"Do I? No, I'm fine."

"Okay."

Zarina smiled at her friend, glad that Lyrei understood that she didn't want to say anything else.

Lyrei smiled back.

Since they had about an hour until they normally left for Foxfire, Rei and Rina decided to climb the big maple tree that was Mapelebranch's namesake. They had spent many an afternoon high up in the branches, enjoying the quiet and serenity of nature.

High up among the leaves, Zarina could almost forget about…well, everything. Ever since her mom had made her get a boyfriend—no, ever since her mom first split up Rina and Rei—things had been different. The main problem in Zarina's life was that she constantly worried about her parents, and what they were thinking, and whether they would take Rei away from her if made a certain choice.

"Do you ever feel useless?" Zarina randomly said. They were each laying across branches parallel to each other, staring up at the leaves and the bit of sky poking through.

"What do you mean?"

"Like whatever we do, my parents are still going to dislike you. Even if you manifest as, say, a Telepath, they will keep trying and trying to separate us." Rina looked at her friend and blushed. "Sorry. That was kind of random."

"No, it's fine." Lyrei smiled grimly at her. "I get what you mean. I doubt I could ever get your parents to like me, because they've spent so much time hating me."

Zarina hummed. "Hate's a bit of a strong word."

"Yeah, and your parents have some strong feelings. Would you maybe prefer 'despise'? 'Loate'? 'Detest'? Maybe 'abhor' is better suited to your—"

"Okay, stop! I get it," Rina cut her off, laughing. "Sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?"

"My parents. They say that they 'want what's best for me,' but then they go and pull things like that business with Nylian," Rina shuddered at the thought of him, "or when they took away my Imparter. The point is, I'm going to try and convince them to be less…"

"Annoying? Pushy? Invasive?"

"Yes, all of those things and more. I'm pretty sure my dad's on my side, because he's the whole reason that we're still friends. So maybe if I talk to him, he'll talk to my mom more."

"That's a good—oh, shoot!" Lyrei sat up quickly, a panicked expression on her face.

"What?"

"We're going to be late for school!"