Auntie M- Where are you? Did you leave the restaurant yet?
Pharah- Yeah, I just left. Was talking to Michael and Lucas.
Auntie M- Okay. Be safe.
Pharah- I will.

Pharah chuckled to herself and shook her head, pausing under a street light to safely slide her phone into her purse. Her aunt was an incredibly busy woman, always hustling and bustling about, especially where the burlesque parlor was concerned, but whenever it came to her young and beautiful niece, she was nothing but attentive. On Friday nights, when Pharah left to pick up their dinner, she was even more so. The teen was grateful for her aunt’s care, knowing there were plenty of girls out there whose own parents weren’t as aware as Molly, but sometimes…her concern tickled the girl’s funny bone. The Feather Drag Show usually took up most of Molly’s attention and she rarely focused on anything else for the night, but the minute that Pharah is out of her sight and she knows the girl isn’t in her room, Molly is watching her phone for text messages, alerts, and updates. And if she doesn’t get any, she’s sending them out herself.

Pharah loves her aunt.

The teen is barely a block away from The Lily Pond, the cacophony of the different clubs and bars blasting their music already floating from across the intersection and disturbing the night air, when she pauses again with a furrowed brow. She doesn’t remember getting her aunt’s credit card back from Michael and steps under another street light to check her purse; Pharah has a bad habit of forgetting things.

“Dammit,” she mumbles, clicking her tongue and rolling her eyes, “I would forget it. Christ.”

Slightly irritated with herself, and wary of the passing men from the bars who are eyeing her none-too appropriately, she takes her phone out again and prepares to send a message to her aunt. She’s only halfway done when someone calls her name.

“Pharah!” Turning behind her, she’s surprised to see Lucas jogging across the street towards her, his wavy hair tousling in the slight breeze. “Hang on! You forgot something!”

He stops in front of her and flashes a big grin that’s about as bright as the neon sign of the club behind him. “Here. Michael forgot to give it back to you,” he said, holding her Aunt Molly’s card out to her.

“Woah, Lucas the Lifesaver,” she replies, taking the card gratefully, “I just realized that I forgot it and was about to go get it. You didn’t have to come running after me, but I appreciate that you did. Thanks, Lucas.”

“Sure. Sure, no problem,” he says in return and Pharah watches as he fidgets with his sleeves and fiddles with his black stud and then rubs the back of his neck. Things go quiet between them again, the atmosphere turning awkward just like at the restaurant and the girl can’t help but wonder if this is always going to happen whenever they’re around each other. “Um…Hey, since I’m here…Why don’t I walk you back to the parlor?”

It’s hard to tell if the red on his cheeks is from the red neon signs around them or not, but Pharah doesn’t give it anymore than a passing thought as she laughs, bemused, “What is with you? Are you trying to get out of your shift or something? Your dad is going to Stroke if you just dip out like that, I promise you.”

Lucas waves his hand in front of him, obviously flustered, “It’s not a big deal, really! Mom and Dad won’t mind, especially if I tell them that it’s you I’m walking with. They’ll probably praise me for being a good son and walking a lady home. My mom will be so proud.”

Pharah eyed him and his dorky smile quietly, a smirk playing on her lips as she planted her hand on her hip- revealing more of her cinnamon-brown skin as her crop top lifted- and cocked her hip until she was breaching his personal space, leaning in close, “Believe it or not, this lady can handle herself.”

He looked about ready to short-circuit, Lucas frozen in place as Pharah’s smirk widened, stepping out of his bubble. It was only then that he forced himself out of his stupor, jerking himself free of whatever hold she had on him and stumbling to reply; “I-I know you can! I wasn’t trying to say that you couldn’t,” he retorted, the red on his cheeks an unmistakable blush, “It’s just…I would feel better if I knew that you got back safely. And I’m here now so I might as well walk you the rest of the way.”

Pharah’s smirk fell as her expression turned thoughtful, almost bored. It was funny the first couple of times, his completely random offer to walk her home, but the more he insisted, the more it perplexed her. The girl was well aware of Lucas’s existence and the fact that they go to school together. They’ve had a few classes over the past three years, him and his loud group of friends always making some kind of scene in one way or another, and with how often her aunt orders from his parents’ restaurant, it’s damn near impossible to not notice him. Never, though, in the past three years did he make any attempt to say more than a sentence to her- beyond a ‘hello’- let alone offer to walk her back to the parlor on any of the Fridays she made the trip.

The fact that he’s so adamant about it now? Baffling and she’s not sure what to make of it.

However, her resolved weakened when she glanced about her surroundings, always trying to remain aware. There was a collection of drunk guys starting to trickle out of the bars nearby, gathering in groups of friends, most being obnoxiously loud and boisterous. More and more of them were starting to eyeball her, a stationary female with soft curves and equally soft chub. Their eyes strayed to her thighs for extended periods of time and that rubbed her the wrong way.

One drunk guy, Pharah can handle. A group of them? And endless alleys to disappear in to? That’s more challenging.

Lucas paused and looked around himself, sensing her wariness. And in the blink of an eye, Pharah watched him morph from flustered, fidgety high school boy to…well, still a fidgety high school boy, but a tad…intimidating. His back straightened and his shoulders rolled back, his chin lifting; one would think he was about to stare down a bear with how big he tried to make himself seem. He didn’t have that much of a height advantage, the both of them standing eye to eye since 5’5” Pharah is in heels, but he gave off the impression that the lack of height is the least of anyone’s worries.

‘Does he know how to fight? I know Michael knows how to fight,’ she thought to herself, tilting her head as Lucas moved in front of her, ‘Well…let’s hope we don’t have to find out tonight.’

She tapped his shoulder, Lucas’s onyx eyes alighting on her face, big and almond-shaped. Pharah nodded her head forward, “Come on, let’s keep going. It’s a bad idea to mill around this area for too long.”

It took him a second too long to comprehend that she was agreeing to let him accompany her, the girl already starting to trek ahead of him, but the minute it clicked, Lucas was grinning bright and running to catch up. Pharah felt the bag in her hand suddenly disappear, Lucas taking it from her with cheeks forever spotted with color.

“I’ll carry it,” he said, flinching when his voice cracked a little; Pharah quirked a brow, but didn’t protest, simply shrugging her shoulders.

“Fine, fine,” she sighed, continuing to lead him forward.

They came to a crosswalk and quickly crossed the street when their light turned green, disappearing from the leering gaze of the drunkards that had moved to follow them, but lost them in the crowds. Pharah didn’t have to worry about them anymore, but she was more than aware of Lucas’s gaze constantly on her. However, every time she turned her head to look at him, he would whip his forward to avoid eye contact and if she looked closely, his ears were now as red as his cheeks. Why he seemed to be a blushing mess tonight, she couldn’t say…but the fact that he is a blushing mess is kind of cute.

Their journey continued in silence for the most part, Pharah more aware of Lucas’s warm presence. Their hands brushed together a few times, a result of them politely moving aside to avoid running into other pedestrians, and each time Lucas would blush harder and jump as if startled. It was weird, but also entertaining, so Pharah just let him be. And then someone accidentally bumped into him, which sent him stumbling against her near an adult store’s display window, pressing her into the glass.

If you’ve never seen a person’s face catch fire before, just know that it’s both alarming and hilarious.

“Jesus, I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine.”

“Did I hurt you?!”

“No, Lucas, I’m fine.”

“I didn’t mean to squish you like that! I’m really sorry!”

Pharah laughed and straightened up, pressing against his chest to give herself some room, “You couldn’t squish me even if you wanted to! Stop freaking out.”

He worried his bottom lip and tugged at the stud in his ear. He opened his mouth to say something, but clamped it shut immediately after when his eyes flickered behind her to the display window. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened, piquing Pharah’s interest until she, too, turned around. The window was filled with an assortment of dildos and vibrators that were apparently on sale that week, each one a different color, size, speed, and girth. Pharah walks by these shops every day and is therefore not affected by the toys. Lucas, on the other hand…different story. He turned his back on the window and hid his face from the multitude of toys.

Pharah rolled her eyes and chuckled at his guilelessness, “The 6” vibrating dildo with 4 speeds and 8 different vibration patterns not doing it for you?”

“Heh…uh…I’m more of a 6 speed, 10 pattern kind of guy,” he responded cheekily, despite still being obviously mortified.

“Is that so?” she questioned, smirking.

“Oh yeah. 6 speed, 10 patterns all day long.”

Pharah quirked a brow, amused by his nonchalance, as if he believed she couldn’t see how ruffled he was, but decided to have mercy on him anyway. Lightly pushing on his shoulder, she said, “Let’s keep going. I won’t know what to do with you if you suddenly pass out from embarrassment on me.”

Lucas quickly followed, heaving a sigh of relief, but then going right back to holding his breath when they found themselves passing another three stores just like the first one . From this short walk alone, Pharah deduced that he probably didn’t make frequent trips down to this part of town, everything coming as a culture shock to him. It’ll be interesting to see how he acts after this exposure.

Another 5-7 minutes and The Black Feather Parlor comes into view; the walk had been quiet the entire time after the incident at the adult store, Lucas just fidgeting away while Pharah left him to his struggles. She didn’t consider herself under any obligation to free him from his discomfort since she had insisted, a number of times, that he didn’t need to walk her home. It wasn’t her fault he was easily embarrassed and didn’t fully take into account just where he had to walk her. However…she was grateful that he did. Instead of returning to the parlor itself, they turned left of the building, approaching the cream and coffee townhouse that was attached to the back, separated by a small backyard.

Pharah skipped up the steps of the porch to the front door, Lucas pausing on the stairs and waiting for her to unlock it. When it swung open, she turned to him, a half-smirk resting on her lips, “Look at that. We made it alive.”

He just stared up at her, this funny little smile on his face as if he had a magical time just walking with her in the awkward silence, “Yeah…”

Pharah waited, flickering her eyes about, “Can I get my food back?”

“Oh! Oh, yeah! Sorry!” Flustered, he handed over the white plastic bag, “Everything should be in there: utensils, napkins, soy sauces, sweet and sour sauce, fortune cookies, dumpling sauce.”

“Yeah, I know. You made sure of that back at the restaurant, remember?”

“…Yeah! Yeah, of course. Just…Just making sure you remember, haha.”

Pharah to see what he would do next, watched him toy with the sleeves of his black dress shirt, his dark eyes darting left and right, struggling to hold contact with her own. He worried his bottom lip and toyed with his earring, opening his mouth as if to say something and then shutting it again.

‘…Why is he so nervous?’ she thought, realizing that she’s going to have to be the one to bid goodbye.

Setting the bag down on the wrought-iron porch table beside the door, she went into her purse and pulled out a $5 bill, holding it out to him as he stared back curiously; “Here. It’s not much, but you still went above and beyond for a customer and walked me all the way back home at the risk of your dad skinning you alive,” she explained.

Lucas came out of his stupor then, waving his hands in refusal, “I didn’t do it for the money! I just wanted to make sure you got home safe!”

“Weird, all of a sudden, but still nice of you. It’s a tip, just take it.”

“No!”

“Take the tip, Lucas.”

“I don’t want to take your money!”

Pharah, refusing to play this back and forth, walked down the stairs to him and got in his personal bubble again, rendering him frozen. Taking advantage, she swiftly placed the five in his shirt pocket and took a step back. She stared him down, as if daring him to try and return it, but when he made no move to, her features softened and she smirked, nodding her head at him.

“Good night, Lucas. Get back safely,” she said, going back up the stairs and grabbing the food, “Don’t get murdered on the way back. I don’t want to be the last one to see you alive.”

She laughed and Lucas did, too, his a bit more strained and breathless, “Yeah…thanks, Pharah. Good night.”

Another nod and she went inside, closing her front door. The girl peeked through the sheer curtains of the side window beside the door, watching him as he stood there for a moment longer, rubbing his hand down his face and then up through his wavy hair before a smile graced his face. One more second and he finally made his retreat, skipping down the stairs and hopping onto the sidewalk. He glanced at her house and then made his way towards the main street crosswalk, finally disappearing from sight. Pharah moved away and leaned against the door, sighing softly.

“…What the hell was all that about?” she asked herself, laughing and shaking her head, “I knew he was weird, but that? New level.”

Pushing off the door, she trekked further into the house, taking her cell phone from her purse and texting her aunt that she had returned and took the food to the house. Molly wrote back almost instantly, saying she was glad she was back safe and would be over to have a late dinner with her in about 10 minutes. Pharah smiled and decided it was time to change out of her eye-catching outfit, the weekend underway and her comfy pajamas finally calling her name.

Lucas and his goofy smile were soon forgotten.