Mindie turned back to the Shade and gave it a once-over as it started to lumber back towards her. “So, someone else already got to you and didn’t finish you off, huh. Talk about sloppy work.”

 

She smacked her fists together with a confident smirk, her aura flaring. “Welp. I won’t say no to easy Tour cred.”

 

And she launched herself at her foe. Fresh from a few hours of rest and reenergized from a delicious dinner, Mindie unloaded an assault of fists and feet on the Shade. Slow and lethargic as its movements were, each sting struck its mark from crooked trunk to hazy canopy.

 

The Shade created more extensions from itself, grabbing at her like clumsy hands. But the shadowy branches didn’t last long, met with a flurry of martial blows that shattered them into nothingness. Its tree-like shape was barely visible now, the last of its chaos clinging to itself in a desperate attempt to stay intact.

 

Sensing the end, Mindie landed at its base and planted her feet. She began to throw fist after fist at its trunk. Each blow caused more chaos to flee its vessel. And when its existence hung only by a thread, she leaped into the air and delivered one more wallop where the trunk met the canopy.

 

With an agonized Gwoooh! the Shade burst apart, a shockwave rippling out from the point of its demise. Fragments of chaotic energy drifted harmlessly into the night air.

 

And in its place appeared a disheveled-looking man who couldn’t keep himself on his feet. He stumbled to the ground in a mess of tears.

 

“Why… Why doesn’t anything go my way…?”

 

Mindie crouched down beside him, her nose scrunching slightly as it got a whiff of his heavy booze breath. “That’s just life, buddy. You just gotta roll with the punches. Going Shade never helps.”

 

Pike stood off to the side as he listened. Nothing his partner said to the man was wrong, but still… Something about it made him grimace.

 

=-=-=

 

The incident officially came to a close when another Star came to retrieve the man who had formerly been a Shade. Mindie confirmed that she would stop by the Luminescence Department to file a report.

 

She felt a fair bit of fatigue after that bout. She leaned heavily on the railing of the lakeside pathway, her head in the cradle of her folded arms. Much of the energy she had just before the encounter had been drained, and her muscles were sore again. The breeze wafting from the lake was a nice addition to the cooldown she needed.

 

Pike leaned against the railing beside her. “Thanks for the save.”

 

“Meh. You know I’ve always got your back.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

A silence passed over them, filled only by waves gently washing over the shore. Mindie was first to break it.

 

“So, you want to tell me what’s on that artist’s mind of yours?” She shot him a critical glance. “And don’t pull the it’s nothing crap on me. I know you, partner.”

 

Caught in the trap that called on him to be upfront, Pike jarred slightly, his mind shaken out of any excuses he might’ve used. He lifted his head and traced his attention along the pathway, idly observing how the streetlights lined themselves with intermittent illumination. One of them flickered slightly.

 

With his thoughts in order again, he mused, “We’re university students now. Since you’re aiming to be a Star and all, I figured you’d want space to make friends with luminescents who’re, well… more your speed.” He slumped slightly, turning his gaze to the ground. “Or luminescents who don’t break so quickly, at least.”

 

“Was that all you’re worried about?”

 

“Well… kind of. I guess.”

 

Mindie raised a curious eyebrow towards him. “My lumi breaks all the time too, you know. C’mon partner, you’re smarter than that.”

 

Pike felt himself flush with shame, only managing an uneasy grin and a slight shrug in an attempt to hide it.

 

“You’re my best friend.” She pushed off the railing and righted herself into a stand. “Isn’t it kind of natural to want to spend time with you?”

 

Taking a moment to stretch and test the mobility in her arms, she turned to Pike and gestured for him to come closer. He knew what she was going to do next, and his uneasy smile smoothened out into something small and more genuine. As he moved in front of her, she reached up and took hold of the back of his head. Pike may not have been the tallest guy in the world, but he was still half a head taller than she was. She had to lift herself up on tiptoes to bring their foreheads together.

 

“I’m not going anywhere. So, I hope you’ll say yes when I ask you over to my house again, all right?”

 

“As long as I don’t feel your sister’s death-glare on me for doing so…”

 

Being a university student was a strange phase in life. As people shed their high school skin, they found new goals to pursue. The friends they made before would shift their focus, sometimes drifting apart in favor of new friends with similar priorities. Mindie was going to be a professional Star, and she would be relentless in her pursuit of that ambition. As for Pike…

 

It was nice to hear his best friend say she wouldn’t hang him out to dry. He was used to assuming the worst. He was used to consoling himself and accepting the worst when it inevitably happened. It was the only thing he was good at.

 

He remembered now. For better or worse, that brief moment when the Shade fed on his energy roused the real reason back into his consciousness. The reason would fade by tomorrow, buried under more immediate concerns like trying to pass his classes, trying to improve his art, and trying to get somewhere with his story. But for the brief moment that surfaced, it stung his very soul.

 

He came to HRU because he wasn’t good enough to go anywhere else.