There Be Dragons in This Here Dungeon

by signelchan

Nah's life is a little messier than she'd like it to be. Between a job that has her doing much more than one person should, a second unofficial job babysitting someone on her mother's behalf, a family that treats her like she's younger than she is, and her friends being some of the nerdiest people alive, she could use a change. Why not find that change in the year of the dragon?

2. How Not to Handle Bad Situations

tw: self-pleasure & self-harm references (not at the same time)

Every week was the same routine, with the same rotation of schools to work at, the same day off each week, and the same plans for after school on Tuesdays. Nah enjoyed how predictable everything was, and so when things came about that disrupted the rhythm, she didn't handle it super well. Losing out on her session to having to take Ribbon home was one such disruption, and she went into work the next morning a bit irritated over things, but mostly fixating on the other element the situation had dredged up. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about how overly kind it had been for Brady to catch her up like he had, and she couldn't wait to see him again to thank him properly for what he'd done.

Because of the nature of her life, she knew that it'd be the next Tuesday that she'd get that chance, so she had nearly a week to prepare for the encounter—until she rounded the corner at the school of the day and saw someone she immediately recognized as Brady's mother standing in the front lobby of the building, looking fairly prim and proper as she waved students inside for the day. "Oh for Naga's sake, what is she doing here?" Nah asked, stepping back behind the corner as to not be seen by the woman.

It wasn't that she'd had bad experiences with the woman in the past, because she truly hadn't—every time she'd met her while over at Brady's house she'd seemed nice enough. It was more that she was thinking about how nice and kind and caring her son was, only for her to be right there, acting as a road block between Nah and the other side of the school. "Well, no point in hiding forever," she lamented, realizing that she could go nowhere but forward in that situation. "If she sees me, she sees me."

If it wasn't for one of the students loudly calling out her name and running toward her, perhaps Nah would have had a chance to get by without being noticed. But the second that the words Miss Dinah! rang through the lobby, the well-to-do blonde woman was looking straight at her, a curious expression upon her face. Nah gave the child a quick hug as requested before coming to stand by the woman, looking anywhere but at her. "Why are you here right now?" she asked in a whisper, as the woman's attention went back to welcoming the students in for the day. "This isn't something I've ever seen you do."

"We had a school board meeting last night and one of the high concerns parents had was about student happiness upon entering the buildings, so I took the day off work to come do some investigating." That made sense, as Nah knew that Brady's mother had been on the school board for the district since they'd been in school themselves, her wanting to be as involved as she could be with her son's education before realizing that she actually liked being able to make decisions for the entire district. "Surely you understand, seeing as you see these kids every day."

"Uh, no I don't," Nah replied, realizing that she was speaking to someone who didn't seem to know the specifics of how her position worked. "I'm only here on Thursdays, every week. I rotate between schools on a daily basis to, you know, help out where I can with the kids that need it most."

"How could I forget that? Another concern brought up was the lack of support for struggling students in the district, and how what they are receiving is a pittance compared to what they deserve." The woman turned up her nose as she shifted her physical presence away from where Nah was. "Tell me, Dinah, do you notice that the students you serve need more than what you can give them in the time you have?"

"My name is Nah," she reminded the woman, almost like she'd done that many times before, "and I would say that that's the case, especially since I'm only at each school I work at once a week, no more and no less. Why, do you plan on fixing that?"

The woman's shoulders stiffened as she stopped focusing on greeting the students and looked back at Nah. "Your mouth needs to be watched, especially in this setting. Shall we meet after the doors close so we can discuss this in an appropriate place?"

"Uh, sure, I'll be in my office." Side-stepping away, Nah hoped that the woman wouldn't know where her office was and that the entire encounter would be over and done with, but she knew that wasn't likely. She knew that she'd be looking for anyone who could direct her toward the office, calling her the legal name that she so deeply resented to everyone she could get the attention of. And sure enough, the woman was walked down to the student services office that Nah had a desk in by one of the school administrators, looking very uptight about being able to lead a board member somewhere in the school.

"Dinah Balakin, I have some concerns to address with you," the woman stated the moment she was in the small office alone with Nah, who promptly reminded her what her preferred name was. "No, none of that, you are a professional and will be addressed professionally. None of this nickname nonsense that you have yet to grow out of."

"Right, because the name I've chosen to go by as long as I can remember is the biggest problem here." Leaning back in her chair, Nah motioned around the cramped office, which was cluttered with several adult desks and multiple student ones. "Aren't you, and shouldn't you be, more concerned with how shoddy special education services here in this district have turned out to be? They've got me, someone qualified to work with the students in need of the most supports, switching between schools every day to try and fill gaps I just can't fill."

There was a moment while the woman looked around the office, at how many case files were visible on the adult desks and how many textbooks littered the floor around the student desks. Then, without any indication of what she was doing, she pulled her phone out of her purse, tapped on the screen as she held it to her lips, and said into its receiver, "Maribelle here, there are deeper issues than what we've been informed of at the most recent meeting. Before next month's meeting we need to find a way to start addressing them."

"How do you plan to fix this?" Nah asked, watching as Maribelle lowered her phone and sent her voice message off on its way. "I doubt there's enough qualified people in Ylisse to give every school someone in my role, which means that schools are still only going to be able to get by with one visit a week by someone who can help their most special students."

"We will have to look into some options, perhaps try and entice people from outside of Ylisse to come work for our district. There is always the possibility of offering competitive pay to support these struggling students, but…" She shook her head. "I personally have no faith in that option panning out. The legal elements are far too involved for me to wrap my head around, and I work with law as my day job."

"Trust me, I'm well aware of what your day job is," Nah snarkily replied, thinking about all of the times Brady would tell her that she needed to be on her best behavior because of his mother's role as a lawyer for the higher-class members of Ylissean society. "How does that work out for you, balancing the school board thing with law?"

Once again, Maribelle's nose turned up at what she heard Nah saying. "It goes far beyond anything you would personally understand, sorry to say. Even with the complications of your particular role here at the school, I feel that what I handle on a daily basis is far more complex. Then you add in the things I do for the board and it becomes more than one pair of shoulders should bear, but here we are anyway."

"Right, because you can immediately say that you have it harder than someone who works with the most difficult of students." Nah's eyes rolled without her thinking about the consequences of the action, and she was instantly met with a spindly finger pointing in her face, waggling back and forth in disgust.

"Miss Balakin, how dare you speak to someone who is directly responsible for your raises here at the district in this manner. I am appalled that you would find that remotely appropriate in any way." Her finger slowing its waggle until it was merely pointing straight in between Nah's eyes, Maribelle made it very clear that her unhappiness with what had happened was not a merely performative action. "Perhaps I should speak to my fellow board members and eliminate your position entirely, instead of trying to alleviate some of the stresses you put up with…"

Taking in a series of deep breaths where each one was shakier than the one that came before it, Nah tried to compose a way to respond to such a stupid comment but found herself only growing more frustrated with what had just happened to her. "You do that, and you ruin education for vulnerable children. That's the truth, sorry to tell you."

"You may not have a vulgar mouth, but you're just about on par with people who do." Dropping her finger entirely, Maribelle turned her head to face away from Nah, before saying, "No wonder my son enjoys spending as much time with you as he does. All the riffraff has to stick together."

"Hold on one second." While she had figured from the start that the sudden animosity between them would call back to Brady in some way, Nah hadn't expected it to be brought up so casually. "You're going to threaten me with losing my job because I'm not afraid to be honest with you and that makes me similar to your son? Are you really doing that?"

Maribelle rolled her eyes, grabbing her phone and beginning to start another voice message, before she sighed and put it away without saying a word. "I suppose when you put it that way, it does paint my motivations in an unflattering light. But, dearest Dinah—"

"Nah."

"—Dinah, you must understand that I raised that boy to be a functioning member of society, and he became…well, must I even point out his flaws to you?" There was a pause as Maribelle resumed looking in Nah's direction, even though Nah was not interested in meeting her gaze in any capacity. "He has zero redeeming qualities beyond being devoted to loving his family. His hobbies, his choice in friends, his inability to finish school, all of it puts shame to our family name. And then there's you, someone he speaks highly of, who has proven herself to be capable in many ways but so, so disappointing in others."

Glancing at the clock and seeing that it was well past time that she needed to be with a student, Nah sighed and waved toward the door. "I'd love to get to hear more of your disdain for your son and how it somehow makes it okay to hate me as well, but I have a job to do. You'll have to meet with me during my office hours on a day that's convenient for you, or we can perhaps meet after school another time, Mrs. Hoffman, but I do need to get…"

She trailed off as she realized that Maribelle was looking at her with a shocked expression, her mouth hanging slightly open and silent. "What, did I say something wrong?" Nah asked, confused as to what had garnered such a response. "I seriously have a job that I'm being paid to do, and I'm sure not doing it while I'm talking to you."

"None of Brady's friends ever call me an appropriate name, they always call me Ma like he does or just go straight for my first name. Perhaps I've misjudged you, Dinah." Seeing that Nah was opening her own mouth to correct the usage of the proper first name, Maribelle let out a defeated sigh. "Sorry, but I draw the line at referring to a capable and professional young woman with a name as hurtful as the one you've chosen."

"Too bad that you don't get to dictate what's a good name for me or not, but if you're going to stick with formal names can you please go for the professional one and not my first name? I can at least somewhat tolerate someone calling me Miss Balakin on the regular." Nah would've been fine if she didn't get that agreement made, but Maribelle seemed fine with that change, and they were able to walk out of the office with a shaky understanding of each other that hadn't existed that morning.

However, it came at the steep cost of Nah receiving texts from Brady that night whining at her about why she would've spoken to his mom at all, and why she would have reminded Maribelle that he had friends that were better at life than him. "I couldn't help it, she was at my workplace and we just got to talking about special education services," she started her response with, speaking the message as she was writing down a legal note about one of her students and couldn't spare the time to type the message out, but she knew that a million different reasons wouldn't make Brady feel better about feeling incompetent compared to his friends. "Besides, you can say you've done more school than most of our friends, shove that in your mom's face and see how she reacts."

She waited for his response, but when it didn't come within five minutes she began to wonder if she'd struck a nerve with him that he'd rather not have had touched. Rather than pursue him for further information, she set her phone aside and accepted that she had probably just ruined one of the best things her life had to offer at the moment, and she went back to focusing on her work. This went well for a little while, until it wasn't her phone going off again that was interrupting her, but rather a frantic knock at her bedroom door, Nowi standing on the other side looking to speak with her daughter.

"Do I want to know why I'm getting late night calls from someone I only know because she ran the cultural events at your high school?" Nowi asked, and Nah knew at once that she hadn't gotten any sort of answer from Brady because he'd gone straight to his mother about things, and she'd naturally gone straight to Nah's mother in retaliation. "Something about having an ungrateful child under my roof, I really wasn't paying much attention to what nonsense was coming out of her mouth after she called you a disgrace."

"Uh, thanks for letting me know she did that," Nah replied, wishing she hadn't opened the door to invite this conversation into her life. "I'm not surprised, honestly, given the sorts of things she was saying to me at the school earlier today. That woman really needs to sort herself out and stop worrying about policing others."

Laughing, Nowi seemed amused by the response she'd gotten. "You're right about that, but I think she's let all the social power she's got get to her head. Does that even make sense? I don't know if that makes sense. Would you tell me if it makes sense?"

"Mom, it makes enough sense that I get what you're trying to tell me, but I don't get why you're telling me this now. Couldn't this wait until it isn't past your bedtime to be handled?" Nah reached over and gently tapped her mother on her forehead, Nowi looking up at where she'd been touched before laughing again. "See, you're completely exhausted if you think me doing that is that hilarious. Off to bed with you, go."

"You really need to learn how to loosen up." Nowi's words came as she turned to head back to her bedroom, the urgent part of the conversation having ended. "You've always been an old woman in a young body, and it hasn't gotten any better even as you've gotten older. Maybe you should look into ways to, I don't know, reclaim your childhood or something like that. Just an idea."

Shaking her head, Nah waited until she saw that Nowi was just about back to her bedroom door before she replied with, "What do you think my Tuesday night plans are for? I'm not sitting around a crowded dining room table playing games with characters from my imagination because I'm getting anything useful out of it."

As she closed her door and went back to working on her documents, a thought crossed her mind that she hadn't considered previously. Maybe she was a part of Morgan's whole gaming group simply because it was tapping into aspects of her mental state that she'd sorely neglected while growing up. It seemed reasonable enough when she thought about it, her having always been more serious about things and never quite as interested in playing games or building elaborate fantasies like some other people she'd grown up around. Now that she had an avenue for being creative and getting silly, she was finding enjoyment in it, but was it because she wanted to enjoy it, or because she felt like she was forced to do it by the other people involved?

That was fairly par for the course in Nah's life, she knew, being forced into situations and activities that she would have rather not had any part in. The biggest, most prevalent example was her being required to carpool Ribbon home once a week, but that was only biggest and most prevalent because it was current and ongoing. There was also the example of which college she was expected to go to, lest her mother get her scholarships for being a manakete revoked on the grounds of her not actively practicing most of the culture's beliefs. Then there was the whole thing about manakete culture in general, something that Nah felt very loose ties to that she was still somehow being pulled back in by over and over again.

She sighed, setting aside the work she knew she needed to get done and laying on her bed, staring up at the posters hanging on her ceiling. There were some fond memories attached of getting those things up there, her being propped up on a friend's shoulders so she could get the pins pushed into the ceiling. Nowadays, she doubted she'd have the courage to get up on anyone's shoulders unless they were a strong, well-built man, but she'd love to change the posters to turn them into something more appropriate for a grown woman. It did bring her comfort to see the young faces of the musicians she loved when she was in high school, but it would've been even better if it was a landscape waiting up there for her to look at every morning and every night.

"I don't get what the big deal about wanting to 'reclaim' one's childhood is," she said to herself as she looked at those young faces staring down at her. "I'm perfectly content with being my current age, both physically and mentally—I don't need to look into how to connect with my kiddy side. In fact, I think I'd prefer it more if I could completely disconnect with it most days."

Chuckling as she reached up and traced fake mustaches onto the faces of the men on the poster, Nah thought for a second about how doing exactly that was considered childish, but she was alone in the comfort of her bedroom. What behaviors she took part in behind closed doors were hers and hers alone to worry about.

Until her phone started blaring with a tone that showed that someone was trying to call her. Not a message, not asking for permission to speak with her, going right for calling. She groaned as she sat up and grabbed her phone, staring at the screen and how it was Morgan calling her. "Do I…have to answer this?" she asked herself, before rejecting the call and messaging him that she was busy doing work and needed focus and quiet. "He'll understand, I think. He usually does."

As she settled back onto her bed with the eyes fixated on the men on her ceiling yet again, Nah's mind went back to where it had been previously. She was alone in her room, the place she'd called hers since fairly early in her childhood, and there was nothing stopping her from doing anything in there that she wanted. Sure, there were activities that would be frowned upon by her parents if they knew they were taking place, but she was a grown woman and she needed to act on that fact every once in a while. That was especially true after stressful days or nights spent being called ungrateful by snooty women that held unnecessary grudges against her.

She rolled over on the bed to get closer to the wall, where she reached down and pulled up a bag that was covered in little dragon shapes. Putting the bag next to her, she got as far as unzipping it before her phone started ringing again, and just like before she met the sound with a groan and going to check on who it was that was calling her that time. Once again it was Morgan, and once again she replied by ignoring the call and telling him she seriously couldn't spare the time to speak with him.

For all he knew, she was being honest about needing to focus on work, and if she was in the mindset to be productive and not shoot herself in the foot, she definitely would have been getting those documents written. But she wasn't planning on finishing that work that night, and she wanted to take care of her mental health by prioritizing herself physically over getting work done. The collection of toys she'd amassed was nothing short of impressive, given that she looked impossibly young and had to buy each and every one of them in person, since shipping things to the house would mean Nowi would be inspecting them to make sure they were safe and appropriate for manaketes to use. This time she got as far as selecting a sleek little bullet before her phone went off once more, and the surprise of the sound had her dropping the toy back into the bag before she loudly told her phone to leave her alone and let it ring without interruption.

Morgan wasn't going to listen to reason, so she was just going to ignore him. A solid plan, until the sound of the ringing phone was enough to get Nah's parents coming to investigate what was going on. At the sound of the first worried knock at the door, Nah had her toy collection getting shoved back under the bed where it belonged, her incoming phone call getting ignored again, and her somewhat flustered self going to speak with her parents. "Is all okay in here?" her father asked, concerned as he looked down at her when she opened the door. "There has been a lot of unusual noise."

"And we're trying to sleep, so it hasn't exactly been appreciated," her mother chimed in, scrunching her face in Nah's direction. "Can you keep it down in here, or are we going to have to look into finding you your own place?"

"I can…try to keep things quieter, but you know I have to keep my phone on overnight in case the school tries to contact me about something." As she was saying that, her phone began ringing once more, causing her to roll her eyes, close the door in her parents' faces, and finally answer the call. "Morgan. You are—"

"Nah, I know it's late and you've got important work stuff, but you need to come get me. I'm scared and I don't know what's going on." By how many gasping breaths he'd taken in what he was saying, it was clear that Morgan had been crying, panicked in trying to call someone to get him out of whatever situation he was in. "My parents aren't answering, Lucina's not answering, no one was answering until you finally did, and I need you. Please."

"—you're going to get me killed, I hope you know," she hissed. "My parents are outside my door and I'm going to get an earful from them about this."

"Would you rather get an earful from them, or have me stuck in a place I shouldn't be? Come on, Nah, use your head and come rescue me!" He hung up on her then, giving zero indication of where she needed to go to save him, but she used the time to reopen her door, meeting her parents' stunned looks as she explained to them that she needed to go and pick a friend up from some bad situation and that she'd be back at some point.

The two looked between each other, before Nowi said, "Of course you'd be the responsible friend, the one who would never get caught out in the world doing things you shouldn't be. People must be so, so happy to have a stick-in-the-mud friend like you."

"Nowi, this is far from the time for that. If she's the friend to rely on, we should be proud of her." Smiling at his daughter, Gregor took a second before clasping a hand on Nowi's shoulder. "Now back to bed for us, the morning alarm waits for no one."

Nowi allowed him to lead her away a few paces, before she was calling out, "Don't take this as a reason to not come back tonight, though! I expect to see you in the morning!"

"No promises," Nah muttered under her breath, not sure in the slightest what she was about to get herself wrapped up in trying to find where Morgan had gone off to. She made herself slightly decent, choosing to keep her warm pajama pants on but electing to properly dress her upper half for the occasion, and while she was getting her sweater on she received a message from Morgan that had an unfamiliar address attached.

It was so unfamiliar that Nah didn't have the slightest idea of what part of town it was located in, and when she looked it up on her way out to her car she found it wasn't in town at all. If her map was giving her correct directions, Morgan was stuck off some dark, lonely road far past the outskirts of Ylisstol, in the parts of the country that people didn't ever drive by themselves after dark. "Of course you'd be out there, why couldn't it be somewhere safe for me to get?" she lamented as she climbed behind the wheel of the car, taking in a deep breath before she began backing out of the driveway and following the directions that her phone was speaking out to her.

When she got within a few minutes of the destination, Nah had a realization strike her about the general area she was driving in; this was not the first time she'd been out in that particular area of Ylisse, even though it had easily been five-plus years since she'd last been around there. The specifics of the place she'd gone before were long lost to time, but she knew who lived there and why she'd been there in the first place. And if it was the same place, for whatever reason, she would be picking quite the bone with Morgan about why he was panicking in calling for help in getting picked up from his cousin's house.

The good news was that it wasn't the place that Owain's family called home, but the bad news was that it was within a stone's throw of the farm that they lived on. Morgan was sitting on the side of a dirt road, his phone cradled in his hands as Nah drove up beside him, rolling her window down to speak to him. "What are you doing out here?" she asked, watching him jump when he heard her voice. "You weren't out here visiting Owain and forgot how to get home, were you?"

"Look, I'll explain when you're driving me home, it's…it's a lot and I want to forget any of it happened." There was evident shame in Morgan's voice as he spoke, and even after he'd gotten into the vehicle and Nah was turning around, her new destination being his house so that she could avoid any drama in the morning about a boy being in the house again, he seemed like he was embarrassed to bring any of it up. But he'd said that he would tell her when they were in the car, and he made good on it once city lights were flooding the air around them. "I tried getting out to Owain's place, but I got dumped right there and couldn't bring myself to walk all the way up to the house. He's not even home and I don't want to be bugging my aunt and uncle at this time of night and…"

"How did you get dumped out there?" Her hands gripping the wheel in case she needed to try and fight someone on her friend's behalf, Nah slowed the car to give them a bit more time to discuss, given that they were rather close to his house coming into the city on the side they entered on. "That doesn't just happen to people, Morgan, and you and I both know that. So what gives?"

"Remember the manakete party and how my mom left because she got into a fight? Well, the person she was fighting with…ugh, I know I shouldn't have let her talk to me when she saw me, but she offered to buy me dinner and I wasn't going to turn that down. She seemed really nice, Nah! Nicer than most people I've been told are horrible." Morgan bit his lip as he looked away from Nah and remained silent for a few moments.

Nah used that silence to her advantage, trying to remember who the person in question was. "That was that Aversa person, wasn't it?" she questioned, listening to him sniffle in response to confirm her guess. "Right, well, I know very little about her aside from the fact that she's not a great person at all, so I'm sure your family's super thrilled to know you fell right into her clutches."

"I didn't want them knowing, I really didn't. But then she forced me into her car and told me that I needed to be a good kid and just go along with her, so I…did, until she started talking bad about my mom and I couldn't take it, so I demanded she take me home." He froze, glancing at his phone before shaking his head. "I remember the look in her eyes at hearing that, which told me that she was obviously going to use taking me home to her advantage, so I might have…given her Owain's address to get her as far away from my parents as possible, and I think she realized we weren't going to my house so she kicked me out there where you found me."

"That's horrible, Morgan. I'm so sorry for not helping you out sooner." Nah did feel a bit of regret in ignoring his calls and trying to do something a bit more self-serving with her night, but she hadn't had any idea what the reason for his frantic calls were and didn't know that they dealt with such a pressing matter. "Do you want to go get your car before you go home, or what?"

He shuddered. "My car's at home already, I was out with the guys when Aversa saw me in the first place. That's why I know Owain isn't home, because he was going to be hanging out with Brady tonight and I know that's going to end in him just crashing on his couch. Hopefully. I think they're past sharing a bed when they have a sleepover?"

It shouldn't have done anything to her, but the way the color and heat began to rise in Nah's cheeks when she heard that fun fact was a bit abnormal. "Uh huh, well, I'll get you home safe and sound and then we'll never speak of any of this again. Sound like a plan?"

"The sooner I can forget about how stupid I was to let any of this happen, the better. Thanks for being such a reliable friend, Nah, I'm lucky to have you in my life." The subdued way that Morgan was speaking made it clear that he'd truly suffered in some way in all of the night's events, and she felt bad for him because of it. But she wasn't the one that had decided it was acceptable to go out for dinner with an estranged family member, so she couldn't feel too bad for him in the end.

When she got home nearly an hour later, her eyelids were barely staying open and she was ready to crawl back into her bed and actually go to sleep this time. Based on how the house was completely dark, she figured that it would be safe to assume that she would be meeting the questions about why she'd needed to leave in the morning after all, and that was perfectly fine by her. It gave her time to figure out how to lie to her mother about what Morgan had gone out doing, because she knew if she mentioned Aversa's name in any capacity, she'd have a completely different problem on her hands.

The issue there, though, was that Nowi was too good at sniffing out Nah's lies, and she'd be living on borrowed time if she actually lied in the first place. But that was a problem to handle in the morning, and she carried herself to bed with full intention of thinking about how to handle it until she fell asleep, only for sleep to come on swiftly. Then when the wake-up call came in the morning and Nah was asked about her night's activities, she had zero idea of how to lie about any of it in a believable way.

In one of the dumbest things she'd ever done in her life, Nah opened her mouth, looked her mother straight in the eyes, and said, "I had to rescue Morgan from a date gone wrong. Turns out that when someone's dating profile says they're a dragon, he should've known they're not actually a dragon, if you know what I'm saying."

Nowi did, in fact, know what she was saying.

She didn't believe it for a single second.

And just like that, she knew that Morgan had gotten involved with the darker side of manakete culture, and there was no way that was being kept secret from anyone.

---

If anyone was going to share what Nah had gotten up to that night, they would have done it fairly soon after it had happened, so when a few days had passed and nothing had come of it she felt it was safe to assume nothing was going to happen at all. Of course, she hadn't exactly spoken to Morgan since dropping him off at his house, so for all she knew something had happened and she hadn't been informed of the details. But Tuesday was coming and she knew that she'd find out details that she may not have gotten anywhere else.

There was one thing standing between her and that possibility, though, and that was an afternoon spent taking Ribbon home. She knew that the girl was at school that day, she'd seen her in the hallway a couple of times but hadn't tried to get her attention and hadn't been followed when she shouldn't have been. That alone was enough of a red flag in Nah's mind, but she wasn't going to call any attention to it until she knew that it was a genuine red flag and not just a false one.

When Ribbon came to her office that afternoon after school, she looked rather downtrodden and couldn't meet Nah's eyes when the older woman tried speaking to her. "Look, something's wrong and I'm here to help you through it," she said, hoping that the assurance that she was a support that the girl could use. "So please just tell me what's bothering you."

"Nothing's bothering me," Ribbon replied, grabbing her long braids and pulling them in front of her face. "Nothing at all. Can I go home now?"

"I mean, I can't legally keep you here and I've got plans tonight, so…" Trailing off, Nah watched as Ribbon began to wrap her braids a bit tighter around herself, tugging on their ends, and all of the training she'd been through kicked in as she grabbed the girl and wrestled her hands away from her hair. "What in Naga's name are you trying to do to yourself right now, Ribbon? Is this appropriate?"

"Do you really think I was going to strangle myself with my hair?" Ribbon's breath had been stolen in the sudden tackle she'd just endured, and she sounded quite scared with each word she spoke. "I wasn't going to, even though I've tried. D-don't tell my parents that I've tried."

Those feelings of her training kicking in for a second time, Nah forced the girl down into one of the chairs in the office, thankful that she was in there completely alone in the time after school. "Legally I have to report this to the city, so they can investigate what's got you acting on these self-harm urges," Nah explained, opening her laptop but watching Ribbon over the lid just in case she tried anything else. "You're not doing anything more than experimenting with stuff like this, are you?"

"I'm not even experimenting with this," Ribbon said, rolling her eyes and throwing her head back against the wall behind her chair. "I've just been doing it to get people to leave me alone. No one wants to mess with the girl who isn't afraid to wrap her hair around her neck."

"Until someone sees it as an opportunity to grab the ends from you and pull it tightly. Your hair's so thick and long that it could easily double as a rope, and that'd be the end of you if they're mean enough with it." Already typing out a report in the loosest sense, just to keep herself in line with the law, Nah sighed before asking a follow-up question she knew she didn't actually need to ask. "Do your parents suspect that you're doing things like this?"

Ribbon seemed to freeze up, her eyes darting from side to side, until she shook her head. "I think Dad might suspect that I'm dealing with bullying again, but Mom doesn't care at all about it and she wouldn't ever guess that I'm using my hair as a weapon to combat it."

"Bullying? Can't people just leave you alone?" While Nah hadn't personally witnessed a single moment of the bullying that Ribbon had been going through all of her life, she'd heard enough stories about it from everyone who'd been handling her up until that year that she knew it was serious business. "You're really going to benefit when you can get out of this school and go somewhere with a bunch of new faces."

"Why, so that they can all pick on me too? Between being the middle child when my brother's twelve years older and my sister's twelve years younger, being one of the last of my culture, and having a mother that's known for coming in and giving the most boring speeches to entire schools, I'm doomed to be bullied wherever I go. I'm seriously considering just asking if I can be homeschooled instead because this sucks." There was no denying how serious Ribbon sounded as she spoke, showing that the years of being bullied had serious effects on her mental state. "But I know my parents won't allow it, they can't afford the time to devote to me. Surprise, surprise, am I right?"

"I…understand, but there has to be a plausible solution to this problem that doesn't involve your parents making such big sacrifices. Plus, I don't know if I'd trust either of them being responsible for your education at this point in your life." Nah jotted down a detail about the student she was reporting on requesting alternative schooling, knowing that any information about that desire would strengthen the report itself.

"Yeah, but I'd rather be stupid than have to deal with being laughed at every day that I'm at school. Which, you know, is every day because my parents won't let me stay home for any reason ever."

Nah's eyes narrowed as she looked at Ribbon carefully, judging just how honest the girl was being with her delivery of facts. But there was no denying that she was telling the truth, especially as she looked so forlorn and devastated as she spoke. "Have your teachers done anything about this for you, this year or in years past? I know that my mom has told me to keep an eye out for you and how you're treated, but there's only so much that I can do with my job being as hectic as it is."

"They've tried, but some of these kids have gotten really sneaky about what they're doing to me and you know that teachers don't have the time or energy to deal with some of the super sneaky stuff. The notes they're drawing about killing bunnies and about ugly long-haired girls and stuff like that…yeah, teachers aren't paying attention to any of it." Ribbon grimaced, before adding, "Oh, yeah, and the time someone threatened to throw rocks at my head because I'm tall and they wanted to aim at me like a basketball hoop."

Sending the report without gathering all of the information, Nah stood up and motioned for Ribbon to do the same, something the girl only did after some hesitation. "We're taking this to the administration, right now," she stated, something that had Ribbon going right to wide-eyed and staring at the woman with a scared expression. "You can't be expected to just sit around and take that sort of treatment, Ribbon, even if you think you have to. No wonder you're miming trying to strangle yourself, you clearly need an out from this situation."

"No! I can't let someone else start fighting my battles for me again, that's when the bullying only gets worse and I don't want to be called a crybaby and a loser for getting the principal involved in everything. Please, Nah, you can't make me go up there and talk to them about this, please!" Tears were beginning to flood the corners of Ribbon's eyes, as she looked to Nah for the support she wanted without needing to put in any more effort. "I just have to survive until the end of the school year and then maybe, when we all go to new schools next year I can luck out and—ha, yeah right. What am I saying? Me? Luck?"

"I'm sorry that you feel like you can't bring this up with the people in charge of your safety, but I can't just stand here knowing this and not do anything about it. You're being bullied to the point of threatening to strangle yourself, there's something that has to be done here." Nah's hand reached for the door handle, her fingers gripping it at the same time that Ribbon's hands grabbed her shoulders and began trying to pull her back. "I know, you don't want this to happen, but you're the one who confided in someone who has to do something about what you've said."

Ribbon's fingernails dug a bit into Nah's shoulders, her wincing at the feeling of being clawed at. "It isn't fair! I should be allowed to tell you whatever I want, and there shouldn't be any consequences to it! This is a huge, huge, huge consequence!"

"And I'm sorry about that, but what I'm doing is what I have to do, by the word of the law here in this school district. Now either you come with me, or I'll consider telling your parents all about what I know." There was no chance at all that Nah actually would tell Ribbon's parents a thing, leaving that up to administrative choice, but the girl didn't need to know that it was an empty threat. In fact, it was enough to get her to comply with following along, the girl's feet dragging down the hall as they headed up to the front office area together. The principal was still in her office when they got there, which Nah was thankful for but Ribbon didn't want to see at all; just their heads appearing in the doorway had the principal setting her current work down and waving for them both to enter.

What transpired next was something that Nah wished she could've stayed far away from, but something that Ribbon desperately needed at that point in her life. Through the retelling of what had happened back in Nah's office, as well as what had been happening over the course of the school year thus far, Ribbon painted a picture of herself as a helpless, bullied student that was everyone's favorite target to aim at. The principal, listening with a kind heart and worried eyes, nodded along as names were dropped, classes were references, and entire incidents were relived through excruciating detail. "You know," she said after Ribbon had brought herself to sobs with recalling everything, "you are far from the first to bring these sorts of things to my attention this year. Are you aware that these students are targeting several others as well?"

"They are?" Ribbon asked, sniffling as she reached up and wiped a stream of tears off of her cheeks. "I mean, I'm not always in class with them so I guess it makes sense, but…"

"Yes, Miss Leichtfoot, they are quite the group of bullies that we've been trying to put a stop to. Do you know how hard it is to handle situations like this when students are afraid to speak up about them, and teachers don't pay attention to what's happening?" The principal looked to Nah, who grimaced at the attention she was being given. "Miss Balakin, do you know why you've been confided in with this today? As far as I'm aware, this young one isn't on your caseload."

"Oh, uh, Ribbon's a family friend, and I take her home on Tuesdays as a favor to her family. I noticed that she was feeling off when she came to my office after school and things sort of…spiraled out of control from there." None of it was a lie, and Nah knew that she was being as truthful as she could about how she'd learned things that day. "I've already gone through with putting in the official report, per training standards."

The principal nodded, her dark hair bouncing as she did. "Very good, on all accounts. I'm glad that a student such as Miss Leichtfoot can turn to someone like you in her time of need."

"So, um, is anything going to happen to my bullies or…?" Ribbon's question was very hesitant, as if she recognized that she wasn't asking at the greatest time, but she was looking for the answer right away. "I want to know if I'm going to be able to come to school tomorrow and have a good day or not."

"Seeing as you're the second student I've spoken to today about this same group, more or less, I think I can say that you should be able to have a good day here tomorrow." The principal gave Ribbon a small smile, before once again turning her attention solely to Nah. "However, Miss Balakin, in order to ensure that she is able to have good days going forward, we may need to discuss restructuring your contract with the district. Since she's clearly more comfortable in confiding with you than anyone else present, we may need you on campus more frequently."

"I can't give up my other placements, not mid-year like this," Nah said, knowing that in her heart she wanted to be able to help not just Ribbon but the other bullied students as well. "I do have availability on Fridays that I could use to come sit in the building and be present in case they need someone to speak with, but Fridays are my designated day off due to the nature of the work I provide for the district."

Nodding sagely, as if she'd just been enlightened in some way, the principal seemed to be hearing Nah's words but wasn't fully sold on following them. "I will speak with the other schools, and the board if I have to, in order to give students such as Miss Leichtfoot a fair chance at feeling safe at school."

"Yeah, because I'd rather tell…her things that are happening than anyone else, that's totally right," Ribbon stated, motioning toward Nah when she realized that she couldn't just drop that nickname in conversation with her school principal. "But I don't wanna be a problem with her jobs that she does at other schools, please don't make her stop working where she wants to just for me."

"That's not a decision that I want her to have to make, not at this time," the principal assured Ribbon, eyes focused on Nah's reaction to her words and finding that she was doing her best not to react at all. "I do think that being available as a confidant to students who feel that you're a safe place will do many good, though."

"Then I can step in for a little while on Fridays starting this week, that's fine. But this should be a temporary fix, not a permanent one." Nah didn't truly want to give up her extra day off, but if it meant being seen as a hero to the students at the school, then she would be okay with it on a short-term basis.

"Naturally. Thank you, Miss Balakin, for understanding the gravity of this situation and being willing to take action when you can. I will be speaking with the students involved tomorrow and, well, we'll see what happens from there. Thank you ladies, and have a good night." With that, the principal motioned for them both to leave, something that Ribbon seemed relieved to do while Nah was decently eager in her own steps as well.

They didn't talk about it until they were out in the car, Ribbon throwing her backpack in the back seat before hopping into the passenger's side seat and slamming the door behind her, all while Nah was taking her spot behind the wheel. "I never would've guessed that there were other kids getting bullied too, I always thought it was just me with those people, but I guess they're just mean all the way around."

"That's pre-teen kids for you, they don't know how to be decent when they think they need to be mean to be cool." Starting the car, Nah wanted to say more on the matter but she felt that any words she had to offer weren't going to matter. She'd just gotten her way, getting the help that she needed in the situation, but things had gone so far off the rails that she was convinced that she'd just ruined the rest of the year for herself. "I'm glad that you won't have to deal with them, and that it won't be obvious that it was you who ratted them out."

All of the happy feelings that had been building in the time since she'd heard the good news dissipated immediately, as Ribbon slowly turned to look at Nah with wide eyes and a tremoring bottom lip. "I…did rat them out, didn't I? They're never going to believe it if I say that it wasn't me who did it, because I did do it, even if I wasn't the first one that said something to begin with. They're going to chew me up and spit me out and make everything horrible every day until the end of the school year and then—"

"Stop, stop, you're starting to jump to uncomfortable conclusions and I think you need to calm down about it." Nah reached over and placed a hand on Ribbon's knee, squeezing it as much as she could with her small fingers. "You're going to get yourself all worked up and then your parents are going to know something's up and then I'm going to be late to my session tonight because I'm stuck talking to them."

"—you mean you're not going to tell my parents what just happened, for real?" Her jaw dropping at that news, Ribbon did a small dance in her seat before picking Nah's hand up and removing it from her leg. "You're so great, Nah, like seriously. I don't know what I would be doing without you."

"I can come up with some ideas for what you might be up to if I wasn't around," Nah said, thinking about how one option involved Ribbon's impossibly long braids and using them for self-harm purposes. She hated that she'd seen the little girl in that sort of vulnerable state, and she hoped for her sake, and for the sake of everyone in Ribbon's family, that there was never another instance of that again.

After a few minutes, they were driving up to the front of Ribbon's house, the girl looking thankful to be home as she told Nah she'd see her again next week before jumping out of the car, barely remembering to grab her belongings before she was bolting up to the front door. Nah sat outside waiting for the door to visibly open and for Ribbon to be let inside before she drove off, and her cue to leave that day was a small, thanking wave from the girl as she was greeted at the door by her father. "I hope Ribbon has it within herself to tell her parents about what happened today on her own, before someone from the school or the district reaches out looking for answers about why she was trying to strangle herself," she mumbled as she started to drive away, not wanting to be the one to address it so that she could say that she stayed true to what she'd assured the girl.

Thoughts of the situation weighed on her mind as she drove across town to Morgan's house, and as she made her approach in his neighborhood they were beginning to be replaced with memories of her last encounter with her friend. She still didn't know what had come of his little nighttime escapade with someone he wasn't supposed to be interacting with, and she doubted that she would be getting any insight into that matter while she was there with the whole group that evening. Yet, the hope that she'd be pulled aside and caught up to speed on where things were lingered in the back of her mind, even as she parked her car outside of his house and came inside to a decently full dining room with the entirety of the party already gathered in one place.

"I didn't think I was going to be that late," she joked, bowing her head as she came to her spot at the table next to Brady, who greeted her with a shaky smile. "What gives, why is everyone here so stupidly early this week?"

"It just kind of worked out that we all got here around the same time this week, except you, that is," Brady told her, cutting off several of the others who seemed to be trying to say roughly the same thing. "I mean, I've been here for over an hour now, which I know ain't possible for you with what you do before gettin' here and all."

"I mean, if everything was perfectly normal and I was able to leave work at the usual time, I could've been here, like, half an hour ago, but things happened." Nah paused, thinking about what she could say on the matter, and what she should say. "Things that I won't be dwelling on, at any rate. What's got everyone else here so early too?"

Across the table, Owain shrugged. "I got here not long after Brady did, but that's my normal time of getting here. I didn't exactly have anything going on before this, though, so if I had wanted to I could have arrived as early as this morning to take the position as first person present for the session."

"We all know there is zero probability of him actually doing that at any given point," Laurent commented from his seat at the table, his head resting on his hands as he looked at everyone else who was gathered. "There are far too many games for him to sit at home playing for him to consider arriving somewhere with any amount of haste."

"Dude's got a point," Brady said, motioning toward Laurent. "Which, by the way, good on ya for actually arriving ahead of time today."

"If I am late to the session it is not of my own volition. Mother is requiring a lot of extra support in getting her shop open for business and I have been doing my best to keep the numbers crunched in her favor. Even though my specialties come in the sciences, Mother respects my ability to keep a ledger organized." Lifting his head, Laurent tilted it toward Noire, who sat in the seat next to his, her arms folded over her chest. "I would be wrong to neglect to mention Noire and her ability to keep worker morale high with encouraging words when they need it most."

"And, like, a bunch of donuts from the café down the street from where the shop's going to be. I'm spending so much time running back and forth, and for what? To be ogled by the worker guys who think they're going to get snacks and a show?" Her shoulders were visibly tensing up, as Noire was growing agitated with her own retelling of her day's events. "I am not a piece of meat for those wretched men, I'll tell you that much!"

"Maybe you should find someone else to do snack runs," Nah remarked, getting up from where she'd sat to dash around the table so that she could try calming Noire down herself, while Laurent reached over to do something with the same effect. "I don't think spending time around a bunch of construction lunkheads is going to be the greatest for your mental state, Noire."

"It sure the hell isn't," Noire seethed, trying to push away all of the hands that were now coming at her, but she was unable to buck off all the contact and she was able to be calmed down relatively quickly. Once she was apologizing for her outburst and going back to being her meek self, Nah was able to return to her seat, and all eyes were focused on the man of the hour, who'd been allowing his party to talk amongst themselves while he'd finished setting things up for their early start.

With a commanding cough, Morgan brought all side conversations to a stop as he quietly counted that everyone was there, and that everyone seemed to be ready to begin. "Hello, some of you missed last week and I think we should catch you all up to speed before you get started on conquering more of this dungeon," he said, his voice trying to match the volume of the cough he'd given but failing miserably. "So, uh, there was a lot of logic traps and even a couple of dead ends, and then what happened after you guys finally found the real path?"

"Roshan almost got eaten by a fake statue of his patron god," Owain answered with a nod, before realizing that he was getting looks from the others at how nonchalant he was about the situation. "Okay, I know it doesn't sound great, but hear me out, he kind of walked right into it, thought he could sneak in some worship time, and the rest is history."

"Yeah, and then he got saved by a giant dragon that wasn't my giant dragon," Brady added, motioning toward a piece on their drawn-out dungeon map, which Nah recognized as coming from a game set that she'd bought for Morgan and his sister years previously, a game that had nothing to do with what they were playing. "She's friendly, she's here because we were down two explorers and Morg thought we'd be in need of some extra firepower."

Morgan nodded, before tacking on, "I only made her a dragon in honor of you, Nah, I swear I wasn't trying to be offensive or anything. She's named after my mom, too, because she's also kind of a manakete and she thought it was a good idea."

"I'll tell you I did no such thing," Morgan's mother interrupted from the kitchen, where she came out with a giant knife in one hand and a cutting glove on the other. "I told him that I thought including a character to fill the void was a good idea, I said nothing about species, gender, or class, and he went wild from there."

"Mom, seriously with the knife? You're making it seem like you're trying to be scarier than you really are," he replied, flustered at the presence of his mother but collecting himself once she'd returned to whatever it was she was doing. "So anyway, we've got Robby the dragonborn along for the dungeon, although now that we've got the whole party back I suppose she could go back to her cave within the dungeon and leave you all to your own—"

At once, the three who'd been there for the previous week's session told him, in various ways, to keep the dragon woman exactly where she was. "Yeah, I think it'll be fun letting Farona get to interact with yet another dragonborn," Nah said, steepling her fingers together as she thought about all of the entertaining ways those interactions could have gone if she was given the chance to have them.

"—well, I mean, if the majority of the group says to keep her, I guess she can stay until you're done with the dungeon at the absolute latest, but who knows if she'll even make it that long. Come on now, let's get started and see how close to over with this we can get before you all need to go home." With that, Morgan began setting the current scene for what was happening in the game, and for the next several hours, their little group was able to slip from reality and play around in the world of their friend's creation, fighting monsters and solving puzzles that he'd arranged for them.

Time seemed to fly while Nah was pretending to be her elf instead of herself, the character she'd built from the ground up someone that she could only aspire to be. She was brilliant, she knew her way around most weapons and even had some spells that she'd inherited access to (but never used), and she was a born leader to the rest of the group. Farona's one flaw was that she had to spend her time more or less babysitting her less intelligent companions, which really boiled down to Brady's dragon and Owain's average human, although the latter of the two was more because Owain felt it was funny to play dumb.

Their session was interrupted partway through by Morgan's mother coming into the room with a covered platter of different meats she'd cooked for the occasion, hence the knife she'd been wielding earlier in the night. "I figured brave adventurers could use some protein in their lives," she told them all with a laugh. "That, and Morgan asked if I could make something tonight so you all wouldn't have to contend with the delivery times."

"Last week it took over an hour for pizza to arrive, I wasn't subjecting any of us to that a second week in a row." Morgan thanked his mother, who seemed more than happy to be of help to her son's friends, before he called a temporary pause on the session for them to all get to eat to their hearts' content. Getting a meal provided right there saved Nah the trouble of needing to get food on her way home, which she was thankful for, but she was a bit underwhelmed with the options given to her there at the table. She wasn't the most fond of nothing but meat, although she knew it smelled delicious and certainly tasted the same; this was undeniably a result of her spending so much time with other cultures similar to the manakete, a lot of which were either fully carnivores or were vegetarian in nature, both extremes making her happy to be right in the middle.

Still, she stomached enough of the meat to feel satisfied in her dinner, and once everyone had finished eating they were back to muscling their way through the dungeon, Morgan having way too much fun throwing different obstacles in their way. "You're a monster, you know that?" Noire stated out-of-character after a boulder narrowly missed squashing her tiefling into a messy pile of blood and guts. "I've worked so hard on getting her to where she is, and you almost ended her like that?"

"Not my fault you can't roll well, it's just lucky that you barely rolled better than me on that one, or else you'd be sitting here watching everyone trying to avenge you. Against a boulder, not even an enemy." Morgan grinned, before narrowly dodging the plastic cup that Noire lobbed at him in retaliation. "You know, violence against your DM can result in serious consequences. Do you want to risk that?"

"It'd be best if you didn't, and took vengeance against what almost fell you in the heat of combat later." Owain winked at Noire, who grumbled a few choice words before demanding that they get back to playing without further interruption.

The second half of the session was even more intense than the first half had been, beginning with the boulder incident and culminating in a battle against a band of goblin thieves that took their new dragonborn friend hostage and threatened to cut her to pieces unless they swore they'd leave the dungeon forever. Nah's initial reaction was to comply with the demands, but her character had a different perspective and therefore acted on a completely separate set of morals, to the point that she was bargaining with the goblins in whatever way she possibly good. "I refuse to let you slay Robby in this manner, you fiends," she spat, the words carrying so much power when they were coming from a stately elf, not a small little manakete woman. "So it seems you need to make good on your threat, because we are not leaving this place without her."

"What are you doing?" Brady's dragonborn asked, him speaking quietly to try and make it seem like he was genuinely in character and looking for explanation, even though in real life he was already aware of what Nah's angle was. "They're gonna kill her because you're talkin' to them like that!"

"They are bluffing on this matter, there is simply no—"

"Without any hesitation," Morgan said, in his best narrator voice, "one of the goblins brandishes a knife and holds it against the front of Robby's throat, slicing enough just to draw the tiniest amount of dragon blood. 'Do you really think we won't do it?' the goblin asks, sneering at you. What do you say to that, Farona?"

"I say they can meet the business name of my weapon," Nah replied, the spirit of her character taking over her as she looked around at the party, all of them nodding in agreement with the turning of the tides in the situation. "Come now, everyone, to battle!"

They were able to blitz through the band of goblins with relative ease, although there were several close calls with hits barely missing on the side of the enemies, and hits barely connecting on the side of the party. There was a moment where it seemed the goblin with the knife was going to be able to cause more damage to their hostage, but Noire's character was able to swoop in and shoot his weapon out of his hand before he had the chance to do anything more. "Nice hit, Zelaia," Laurent said as his tabaxi jumped to take on one of the other goblins, knocking them to the ground defenselessly without any hesitation. "We work together almost purr-fectly, wouldn't you say?"

The use of the cat pun, while something that had been established as part of the character's behavior, was something that snapped Nah out of the focus she'd built on the session. At once, she was no longer her elf leading a band of adventurers in battle, but rather just a woman sitting at a table with friends, playing a game that existed mostly in their imaginations. "I…think I need to head home soon," she realized, knowing that the timing was off given that there were still ends that needed to be cleaned up in their battle. "It's starting to get late and I never know how things are going to be driving home in the dark."

"Give it ten more minutes, then you can go," Morgan whispered toward her, before calling for the next player to make their move. For those last ten minutes, Nah's entire mindset toward the game was nonexistent, her focusing on how utterly ridiculous it was that they were getting so attached to these characters they'd made up for themselves to play once a week. Every time she heard people talking about the actions they were making, she grimaced and reminded herself that this was something to be ashamed of, pretending to be fighters in a dungeon that needed cleaning from some bad guys.

When her turn came back around she inhaled deeply, trying to get into the swing of her character just long enough to make it seem convincing. "I, uh, take a stab at the nearest goblin and hope that I don't miss," she declared, before rolling her dice, averting her eyes at seeing what she'd rolled for as long as she could before the pause was no longer dramatic.

It was, without a doubt, the worst roll she could've made, and she couldn't hide that fact from the eyes all trying to get a glimpse of her dice in front of her. "That's going to miss," Morgan told her with a flat voice, before inspecting the table and how their characters were all arranged. "Or, should I say, it's going to miss the goblin you were going for. Instead, Farona takes a stab and pricks Byacek right in the backside. Go ahead and roll to see how much damage that is for Brady."

"Why am I not surprised you're over here touchin' Byacek on the rear," Brady said, putting his foot on top of Nah's under the table and gently stepping down on it as she rolled for his minimal damage that his character was now having to account for. "Sounds like someone's a bit distracted in all of this, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that much," Nah replied, mumbling her words as she felt embarrassment beginning to course through her veins. She, thankfully, wasn't expected to be in character again for the rest of the session, and the second Morgan called things over and done with, she was bolting for the door, needing to get away from the situation as fast as she could.

No one could get her to turn back around and rejoin everyone for the closing of the session, and she was heading out to her car within three minutes of the last action in the combat. She hated the feelings that were all colliding and connecting with each other inside of her mind and in her heart, and she wanted nothing more in that moment than to curl up in her bed and sleep until morning light. That wasn't in the cards, especially since she still needed to drive home and inevitably talk to her parents when she walked in through their front door, but she was at least going to be closer to that goal than she would be if she was still sitting there at the table.

Her phone began ringing inside of her purse, which she ignored consistently given that she was driving alone in the dark and she didn't want to be responsible for wrecking on her way home. After one call was ignored and sent to voicemail, another would come in after it, and the cycle went on and on for as long as she was driving, whoever was calling her being quite insistent on getting her to answer. Finally, once she was parked in her spot outside of her house, she checked the phone to see that every single person who'd been at the session had been calling her, and almost none of them left a message for her to listen to.

In fact, the only one who had left a message was Brady, and that felt simultaneously predictable and like the worst possible scenario she could've been faced with. "Please, tell me that I forgot to bring something with me and you just want me to know that," she begged as she called to listen to the message she'd been given.

The message came on after a few seconds of silence once the voice telling Nah she had one new message had quieted down, and in those few seconds Nah felt like she had just been called on accident and that the message wasn't actually anything at all. Then, out of the silence came the voice she was dreading hearing. "Look, I'm not even gonna pretend like I know what's gotten into ya lately, but something's off about ya and it's got all of us worried, especially me. Please don't feel like you can't be a part of things, 'cause we're gonna be sorely unprepared for a lot of things if you leave on us like that. Just…remember that we care about you, no matter what, and we'll see you next week."

Another pause, Nah's breath catching in her throat as she wanted to snarkily say something about how serious Brady was but she couldn't find the words for it. "I'm lookin' forward to seeing you more than any of them, though, just remember that." The message ended there and she deleted it without a second thought, not wanting to have that evidence lingering around where someone could find it.

"He…cares about me," she whispered, looking at her reflection in her phone's screen and knowing that she'd always felt like someone caring about her wouldn't happen in life. She looked too young, came from one of the oldest cultures in Ylisse and surrounding countries, acted super mature compared to her age, and all around wasn't the most interesting person to spend time with. "He cares about me. Even when I run out on the session. Even when I pick fights with his mother. He cares. I…wow. Okay."

She glanced toward the house, where she knew her parents were waiting for her to come back inside and prove she was home safe and sound. "One of these days, I'll be brave enough to ignore them and chase you down, and that's a promise," she said confidently, tapping her phone as she thought about the message she'd heard. "But not today, and tomorrow's probably not it either. Someday."

And with that, she got out of the car and headed inside the house, a lightness to her steps that she hadn't anticipated would be there with how bothered and upset she was. There would be time in the coming days for people to reach out and try and smooth things over about what had happened, but by the time anyone was able to get through to her she'd mentally moved past it all and was raring to go for the next week's session. However, there was one small road block that she'd failed to consider in that being the week that she let things start to eat a bit too much at her, and that came jutting up in front of her before she had the chance to react to it.

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A/N: you see, I remembered the whole "ribbon threatens to strangle herself with her hair" plotline very well, but I forgot all about the "nah has a collection of secret sex toys" one until I was rereading this before posting it. oops.