He looked out the glassed entrance of the cafe, watching how the leafy trees struggled to keep their stand against the vengeful gales.

“That’s a good line.” He said to himself, typing down on his laptop with fast fingers. It felt nice.

It had been months since he got the chance to write anything, focusing more on reading when he had time, or being forced to come up with bedtime stories on the spot for his sister. Elias reread the last sentence he had written, wincing at the line he had thought was good.

“Nope.” He simply said, pressing backspace on his keyboard.

The doorbell rang as it opened, but he was too concentrated to even notice that someone was walking towards him. He leaned back on his chair, holding his chin with his hand, his other arm under his elbow for support. Eyes focused on the screen, he hummed under his breath. This wasn’t working out…

“Elias!” A voice rang in his ears, startling him. He almost fell from his seat, but managed to keep himself from jumping out of his chair.

When he looked up, his eyes were met by the black abysses that were Mia’s. She smiled in a way that made a chill run down his spine, a smile that said she was scheming. Scheming against him.

“Hey.” He managed once he steadied himself.

“Hello.” She chirped. “What are you doing? You were so concentrated I thought you were about to reach enlightenment or something.”

“I wished.” He laughed faintly. “I’m just trying to write, but I’ve been so out of it lately that nothing’s flowing.” Elias stood up, pulling the other chair for her to sit.

“You write?” Mia took his invitation, allowing him to be courteous.

“From time to time, yeah.” He nodded, going back to his own chair. “Maybe I just have writer’s block.” Dropping his head back, he ran his hands over his face, under his glasses.

“What do you write?” Mia asked, pulling his computer to her.

“I try fantasy and action. I’m terrible at romance and even worse with horror or sci-fi.” He answered matter of factly, going over his work mentally. Maybe the line from before wasn't as bad as he thought, so he'd rewrite it- if he could remember it. But worrying about a line was useless, the main issue was how his main character needed development and he wasn't sure how to go about it.

He'd look into that later, now that Mia was here, it was better to put the computer away.

Elias sat straight and freed his face, only to see Mia’s eyes run across the screen line after line. “W-What are you doing?”

“Reading. Shh. This is good.” She waved her hand at him, slowly leaning closer to the screen.

“W-wait!” He pulled the computer away from the girl, holding it over his head. His face was red, and his chest heaved. “Y-You can’t read this!”

“Why not? From what I see there’s nothing dirty in there- Or maybe farther in the story?” She grinned.

“Of course not. I told you I don’t write romance.” Elias slowly placed the laptop down on the table, telling out a deep breath.

“It doesn’t have to be romance to be erotic.” Mia laughed mischievously.

“Shut up.” He glared at her.

“So why can’t I read it?”

“Because it’s bad.” Elias slumped on his chair, looking at his document that had been scrolled to the very top of his eighty-eight pages. She had managed to read three of these while he was lost in his own self pity.

“That’s not true!” Mia leaned on the table, her smile wide and sincere. “Elijah is a good character. Only a mage apprentice but determined to prove to his teacher that he can be the next dragon tamer if he only gets the chance!”

“But it has no depth. My characters are shallow and the world building is all over the place…”

“Well I don’t know about that, you didn’t let me read past Elijah’s and Luminou’s introductions.” Mia berated him, crossing her arms. “Come ooon, what’s the worst that could happen if you let me read it? If anything, I can give you some feedback. Sure I’m no expert editor but I consider myself to have a good eye for criticism.” She puffed her chest, exuding an air of confidence.

Elias looked at her for a moment, back at his laptop, then back at her. He’d never let anyone else read this story. Even Jamie had only gotten a glimpse of some stuff he’d left unfinished throughout the years, but this document in particular was special to him, his magnum opus- if he ever managed to make it a coherent story that is.

But maybe a fresh pair of eyes would be able to see things he couldn’t, things that were so obvious to him that he had been overlooking since he started writing The Dragon Tamer- name was subject to change- at the start of the year.

“Fine.” He sighed. “You can read it.”

“Heck yeah!” Mia celebrated, throwing her arms up in the air.

“Um… Excuse me?” They heard someone call out to them. “May I take your order?” Asked the waiter with a nervous voice.

“Oh.” Elias and Mia said in unison. “A moment please!”

***

The sun had long gone and the cafe was nearly empty by now. Elias had lost count of how many cappuccinos he’d had while waiting anxiously for Mia’s review of his work in process. He wasn’t expecting much, he knew it was far from perfect, but it still made him nervous.

Would she understand the magic system? Would his asian inspirations confuse her? Or maybe she’d think it was weird to fuse that with more European ideas… Maybe he shouldn’t have used Japanese as his base for spells after all, but Latin was kinda boring…

He held his head with both hands as he waited for her to be done, his heart beating nervously as his mind ran with one and a million things that could be wrong with his writing.

Mia herself had left her apple pie half eaten, and her white mocha latte had gone cold but she would still sip from it from time to time.

A waiter had neared Elias, letting him know that they would soon close, so he paid the bill while Mia still focused on her reading.

Her reactions mused him. Her lips would twitch to smiles and frowns, her eyes would open wide and sometimes furrow as if angry. Meanwhile Elias wondered what parts of his story elicited such reactions.

Just before the waiter walked up to them again, Mia turned to Elias with shining eyes. She was about to burst out in words when her friend stopped her.

“Let’s head out, I’ll hear you on the way home.” He closed his laptop and tucked it on it’s case, getting up right after and nodding at the waiter in gratitude for his patience. He also left a generous tip.

Mia smiled at the waiter and followed after Elias, skipping all the way to his car. “I have so much I want to tell you!” She said.

“First things first. Your house or Citara’s?” He asked as he opened the door for her.

“... Citara’s.” Her mood clearly soured at the question, but she quickly recovered, sliding inside the car and wiggling with excitement on her seat. “So! Elijah!” Mia blared out once Elias was next to her.

“Alright, alright.” He said as he pulled the seatbelt over him. “Let’s hear it then.”

“Yes. So first.” She cleared her throat. “You could have been a little more creative with Elijah. He’s clearly you, but I don’t mind it, because he’s also not you. He’s cooler. Nerd guy with thick glasses, dark curly hair and- I quote- golden eyes that resemble those of the Dragon King. Totally you but cooler”

“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult.” Elias pouted, turning the key on the ignition.

“Doesn’t matter.” Mia waved it off. “I did like the rest of the character introductions, but I have some questions about the world that this takes place in and how magic works.”

“I knew it.” Elias nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. “I did tell you the world building was all over the place, but you’re gonna have to tell me about the magic stuff. I tried to explain everything as best as I could.”

“You did good.” Mia reassured him. “A few tweaks here and there and you should totally share it to the world!”

“Not happening.”

“But you should!”

“Not. Happening.’

***

As Elias reached his home after the long drive back from Citara’s, he noticed the light to his kitchen was on, something he didn’t expect to see. He looked for his phone, searching for a text he might have missed, but nothing. There was also no car parked in front of his house.

“Weird.” He thought, but figured that if it was an uninvited guest, they would leave- or try to leave- once they heard him open his rail-door.

After parking his car, he cautiously walked up to his door and opened it. Before him, Jaime stood, wearing his pajamas and a dejected expression on his face.

“Goodness Jamie, you should have let me know you were coming.” Elias let out a sigh of relief, closing the door behind him and walking into the hall to take off his shoes.

“Sorry.” Jamie took a step forward, standing over Elias. “How was your day?

“It was good?” Elias looked up at his friend, sliding his feet into his slippers before straightening his back to stand tall. “And yours? Where’s your car?”

“It broke down at the studio.” Jamie let out a sigh tiredly. “The mechanic is going tomorrow to check what’s wrong.”

“Then you took the bus over here?” Elias asked, a bit of alarm in his voice. Jamie shook his head, but Elias didn’t feel relieved at all. Jamie had still come to his house, which he normally didn’t if he had to take the bus from the studio.

“I went home for a change, but I just had to see you today.” Definitely not helping Elias’ nerves.

“Did something happen? At the studio? On the bus??” Elias took his friend’s shoulders, shaking him as lightly as he could, but he was dreading the next words that would come out of Jamie’s lips.

“How about we sit down.” Jamie laughed softly, freeing himself from Elias’ grip and walking to the sofa just a few steps behind.

Elias followed his friend, taking a seat next to him on the couch. Jamie began telling him his unfortunate encounter on the bus, draining the color out of Elias’ face. He slowly recovered as Jamie continued to tell him about how Citara had saved him and how they had spent some time together. It sounded like they had gotten to talk things through. That was good.

“Oh Jamie.” Elias reached to pat his friend’s head. “You could have called me, I would have rushed home.”

“I didn’t want to interrupt your date.” Jamie stuck out his tongue playfully.

“It’s not a date.” Elias rolled his eyes.

“Sure.” Jamie grinned. “But I came because I wanted to apologize to you…” He looked down, his cheeks coloring in shame.

“It’s ok Jamie. If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”

“You don’t have to apologize, and it’s also not ok.” He shook his head, tensing his shoulders. “Citara said I was being an asshole and she’s right.”

“She called you that?” Elias questioned, feeling a little bad that his friend had been called so by his crush.

“She’s right though.” Jamie sighed. “I was taking out on you my anger and frustration and that wasn’t fair. Just because I’m insecure of myself doesn’t give me the right to mistreat my friends… I’m sorry.”

Without losing a beat, Elias reached for Jamie and hugged him.

“I’m just glad you’re talking to me normally now.”

Jamie nearly teared up, hiding his face in his friend’s chest and returning the hug before his weakness was once again exposed.

“I’m sorry, Elly.”

“Me too.”

Slowly but surely, things seemed to return to normal, to smoothly move forward. Slowly.