I decided before the next class that since she’d made the effort to say hi first, I should make the effort this time and should have some sort of topic of conversation ready. Could I ask about…what should I ask about? Classes? Maybe, that was a common thing, but I was more interested in her. Could I learn more about her without seeming too invasive? Maybe I could ask her why she liked sunflowers. Or…would that be revealing too much? I’d only found out she loved sunflowers by accident my first year when I overheard her telling someone. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, it had been purely an accident on my part, but one I’d been thankful for nonetheless. Probably she’d find it creepy if I admitted I knew her favorite flower.
So, um, what to talk about? What was a reasonable topic to bring up that might actually be of interest to her?
I spent all night mulling over this question and had no answers by morning. Surprisingly, however, one presented itself when I arrived in class and sat next to her.
“What are you reading?”
She had a book – not a textbook – out, but had closed it when I arrived.
“Morning to you, too,” she told me with a teasing smile that made my heart thump erratically. “It’s a, uh, book.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Yes, I had gathered that much.”
Honey rolled her eyes and glanced around quickly before lowering her voice. “It’s a book on witch magic. We had a, uh, incident recently with some witches, I’m trying to figure out if there’s something better I can do to counter their magic.”
That sounded potentially dangerous, and with the look in her eyes, I was pretty sure the incident was something big. “Is everyone okay?” I asked tentatively.
She sighed, her face looking almost exhausted. “Yes, but…they nearly killed my little brother.” I was shocked, uncertain how to respond to that – I had never been in a situation where I or anyone I knew was practically involved in a war, although I knew it happened in the supernatural world.
“Thankfully my workplace shut down for the day unexpectedly so his boyfriend got there in time and found someone to help,” she went on. She glanced at me, saw my confusion, and explained. “His boyfriend and I work together. He decided to visit Ren on his campus when he got the day off, and we’re all grateful for that or he, he,” her fingers tightened on the book, almost turning white with pressure, “well, it wouldn’t have ended well,” she finished lamely.
That sounded like a lot going on. I had no idea how to provide any sort of help in that situation. “Um, I’m glad he’s okay.” She seemed really attached to her younger brother, I was grateful that she’d been spared the pain of losing him. I knew firsthand how hard it hurt for a fairy to lose a loved one. “So, uh, your younger brother is Ren?” I hoped brining the conversation to a more neutral topic might take the sadness out of her face.
It worked. She brightened up instantly at the possibility of talking about her family. “My older brother is Sorrel, he runs a vet clinic. Ren is younger than me, he’s a photographer. I didn’t realize until recently how gorgeous his photos are – we, uh, unfortunately didn’t realize how serious he was about it until his boyfriend pointed it out and made us look closer.”
“Sounds like his boyfriend is really looking out for him.”
A fond look crossed her face. “Yes, Riven is a sweetheart and absolutely great for Ren. We all love him. I wish he’d let us spoil him a little, though.” She sounded aggrieved. “He’s all on his own and trying to go to school and he barely has money for anything but he wouldn’t even let us get him Christmas presents because he felt too bad that he couldn’t afford to get us anything. Such a sweetheart, but so unnecessary. We just want to squish him and spoil him. At least Ren seems to have better luck talking him into stuff.”
I assumed by squishing she meant more like hugging, not actual squishing. “It’s good you all approve of him.”
“Well who wouldn’t love him? Oh,” a scowl passed her face, “I guess he knows people who wouldn’t, but still, he like – he just makes you want to protect him. I feel like I have an extra little brother now and I’m going to make sure no one else hurts him,” she said fiercely.
I assumed, from the way she was talking, that he had been hurt in the past by someone. Still, with Honey and her family looking out for him, this guy should be loved and protected, right? Her family seemed like nice people.
I wanted to ask her more about her family, get to see more of her happy face and learn more about her – I mean, seeing a protective side of her was new, too – but we had to start listening to the professor and pay attention if we wanted to learn anything during class.
A slow trend started to emerge as the semester went on. We both arrived at class early and would talk until the professor arrived. There were a few times other students tried to come up and talk with me, ignoring how they were interrupting our conversations, and I tried to hide my impatience and be polite so I could get rid of them as quickly as possible and get back to talking with Honey.
I lived for those conversations with her. Whether it was her telling me about her dad’s clinic and some patient she’d talked to or explaining about how their family was dealing with a coven trying to attack them and they weren’t entirely sure why, I drank in every word she said. I was worried about the coven thing – I didn’t like the idea of anyone trying to hurt Honey or people important to her – but she assured me that she was safe and she now seemed convinced that her younger brother, who had been the main target, was safe too. I wasn’t sure what had changed, but she seemed positive that the witches couldn’t really hurt them anymore, so I trusted her judgment and decided not to worry as much.
One day she came in a little later than me, pouting to me about how Ren had decided to move out into his own place. That seemed like a surprising choice for a fairy, but I listened to her complain about how she would miss her baby brother and tried to offer supporting words – I had no idea if I succeeded – and wondered to myself all night why he had decided to move out when it would just depress his family.
But the next class period she was waiting impatiently for me, her eyes virtually shining as she barely waited for me to sit down. “Riven agreed to move in with Ren!” She informed me, elated. “I guess that’s why Ren decided to move out – to give Riven an opportunity to move in with him. I’m actually surprised Riven agreed, I’d have thought he’d be reluctant to rely on anyone else, but I’m so happy he did. Now they can look out for each other and have their own little place. I haven’t seen it yet, we’re going over to dinner soon, but this is like the best possible outcome!”
Now Ren’s choice to move out made sense to me. Fairies often stayed in close family units, but would usually establish their own place once they had a partner. It probably would have been kind of weird for Ren’s boyfriend to move into Honey’s parents’ place, but living together on their own made sense.
“I’m glad it worked out, then.”
She gave me a sharp but thoughtful look. “You know, we talk a lot about me, and not much about you. I feel like you know all about my family and my job and plans for the future, but I barely know anything about you.”
I swallowed nervously. It wasn’t like I was trying to hide anything, but I liked listening to her talk and hearing about her family and didn’t think my life was all that interesting. She already knew the only thing about me that could be considered interesting – that my dad died of a rare disease and I’d decided to become a researcher as a result.
“What did you want to know?” I asked hesitantly.
“Hmm.” Her eyes narrowed. “Siblings?”
I shook my head. “Just me. My dad’s, um, abilities,” aka magic, “were always a little weaker and my mom’s low average, so they weren’t sure if they could even have one child. They didn’t try again after me.”
Her face got a sympathetic look now. “So it’s just you and your mom?”
“Basically.” I hesitated, then continued more slowly. This wasn’t really something I had talked to anyone about. “Mom…hasn’t done that well after Dad died. She’s…closed off a lot. Her work involves maintaining an orchard, which at least she can still do, or I’m not sure she would even leave the house. We don’t…talk much anymore.”
In a way, I’d felt like I’d lost Mom, too, when Dad died. She wasn’t really there for me anymore, her body there but herself…she was only an echo of who she used to be.
Honey reached out and lightly squeezed my arm. “I’m so sorry. Has she talked to anyone? Therapists or anything?”
I was well aware that her hand was still resting on my arm but didn’t dare move in case she remembered and withdrew it. “I tried talking her into it, but she refuses. Maybe she’ll eventually change her mind.” I kind of doubted it. It had been almost seven years since Dad died. By this time I think we’d both kind of come to accept that this was just how things are now.
“That’s got to be really hard for you. Do you have friends or family nearby? Anyone who can help you?” Honey seemed so genuinely concerned. I kind of hoped we were friends by now, maybe she was like this with all her friends – but I couldn’t help but wish I was special, anyway.
“We don’t live in a, uh, community,” aka fairy community, but it was hard to speak openly with human students so nearby, “we kind of live out of the city a bit. I, uh, do have some friends out there, but they’re not – not exactly the same.” Not fairies. They were mostly human, with one familiar.
“I could put you in contact with some,” she hesitated, also noticing the problem of nearby students, “people like us if you want. My family knows most of the, um, community in town.” Then something seemed to occur to her. “Is that why you wanted to sit next to me for this class?”
Fairies were usually close knit as families but we also liked being around our own kind. I’d had little enough contact with other fairies for years, really, other than my parents, so I wasn’t really sure I was traditional that way.
I shrugged slightly. “I guess?” No, that wasn’t it at all, but what was I going to say, that I’d decided I wanted a chance to talk to her and maybe be friends and I knew that was my last shot?
“You should come over for dinner sometime,” she decided suddenly. “Ren won’t be there unless we convince him and Riven to come, but you could meet my parents and Sorrel.”
That idea kind of terrified me – her parents were both super powerful and influential plus, well, they were her parents. I was over here obsessing over their daughter – what if they realized that? What if they told me never to talk to Honey again?
“I, uh, um, well – ”
I was never so happy to have the professor come and stop our conversation as I was that day. Anything so I wouldn’t have to try to come up with an excuse to say no, fail at that, and end up finding myself saying yes instead.
I had a plan for the next class. I knew it was a huge step for me, but…I wanted to ask her out for coffee. Just as friends. But so we could spend more time together than the few minutes before class. I wanted to actually have a real conversation with her, uninterrupted, as terrifying as that might be. I’d even take the risk of her trying to invite me over for dinner again.
Comments (19)
See all