—✶—

“Vaaaaal, I’m hooooome!” Maya called into her apartment and giddily got herself out of her shoes. She placed her bag on the chair in her corridor and washed her hands. 

She practically skipped through the rooms, humming a cheery tune. It had been a long time since she last looked forward to getting home and having homemade cooking that wasn’t hers by someone she truly liked. The month since she first found Val was pure bliss—except for the Draugr attack.

Not even her projects and papers—piling up on her desktop like a little Mount Everest—didn’t pull her down as much as they usually would.

“Val, are you here?” 

Maya popped her head into the living room. No one was there. 

“Maybe the kitchen?” But there were no signs of the Valkyrie either. Maya couldn’t hear a single sound in her apartment—except for the long drawn-out pattering of the sink she used.

A nervous drop of sweat rolled down Maya’s face. “Maybe she went jogging, and she’s not home yet?” she checked her watch. “4 pm… I could work on my paper until she comes back.” 

Maya set herself up with a cup of tea and went to her desk to work. She tried to cut back on caffeine as it worked up her hunger. Instead, she opted for a light biscuit, assuaging her appetite until Val returned.

She typed away fast on her keyboard, flashing from one page to the next and reviewing her notes. Maya visited the linguistic department of her university; it ran in their family.

Her mother and grandfather loved telling her stories about her famous great-grandmother. She was a Professor in New York despite being a foreigner and a black woman‌.

Not that Maya ever met her, but apparently Maya had the same talent for languages as her ancestor did. 

Maya’s studies focused on the connections between old languages with their contemporary and modern counterparts. She specifically had a knack for Germanic languages and once visited Germany for a year. 

However, her visit wasn’t as great as she imagined it to go. After a talk with her pen pal from Sweden, she switched to Scandinavian Studies in the latter half of her second year.

Though unlike Austin, who was an expert in Norse Mythology, Maya barely knew anything about it, only the most random and obscure details he shared with her. 

Then she remembered something Val said to her a few weeks ago.

“‘Dúllan mín’,” Maya repeated the words, wondering what they meant. Some words still confused her, and after a quick look up at the local search engine, Maya was even more confused. Her head was steaming. “She called me ‘Sweetie’?”

A tingle wandered over her lips. Maya suppressed a squeal from delight.

“Ah, that can’t be right, right?” Maya rubbed her reddened cheeks; the smile persisted. “There’s no way she called me that, did she?” 

Maya made the mistake of looking up the deeper meaning of the words. She heard from Austin and her pen pal that the Scandinavian language had peculiarities when they developed from their common root—Norse.

The word she looked up was Icelandic and more commonly used as a sort of endearment between girls—with a less romantic feel to it than Maya first thought. 

“Ah, fiddlesticks, I misinterpret it.” Maya let out a strained laugh. The edges of her mouth twitched; the smile dropped. “Ah… I’m crashing. I need a coffee to keep working.” 

The chair screeched as the legs ground against the wooden floor. Maya pushed herself out of the chair and briskly walked into the kitchen. 

While the coffee maker made its typical annoying sound of half dying and half exploding, Maya checked her watch again. 

6:30 pm. 

“Where is she?” wondered Maya and took a quick look outside her balcony, hoping to spot the Valkyrie returning soon before the coffee was ready—she didn’t. 

Maya took a quick sip and bit her lips, scrunching her nose. She felt agitated and peckish, a poor combination paired with her pent-up stress.

Checking her watch one more time and outside, Maya raided her pantry. She deliberately kept it locked with the key hidden to control her hunger so she wouldn’t check on her snacks every few hours.

It rarely worked.

Snacks filled up her work desk and drowned out all her lecture books and papers. She worked through half the mountain in under 20 minutes, grinding through at least four pages in a go. 

Maya dreaded editing work. She could hook herself up on an IV with coffee, but would only for half as fast without something to nibble on.

By the time the clock hit 8 pm, Maya had finished one of her assignments, downed three cups of coffee and half her pantry of sugar, salt or whatever other grub she had at hand. 

There was no accomplishment to have finished the assignment. Maya felt sick, awfully full, disgusted with herself and ashamed, and more than anything, she felt upset that Val was still not back.

“She had promised to make something special today. I came home earlier for her.”

Maya suppressed a sickened groan. She loved Val’s food, but she enjoyed her presence even more. She felt sad about her predicament and sighed. The blue screen of her laptop and finished assignment blinked back at her, humming a silent robotic tune.

“One more cup and I’ll be done with the last assignment of this month.” Maya groggily walked over to the kitchen and sickly held her bloated stomach, which grumbled at her angrily in defiance. “Shut up. I know my mistake… one cup, I swear… and maybe a leftover box of donuts before I—” 

Suddenly, Maya heard the front door unlocking and creaking open. 

There were only so many possibilities on who opened the door, and Maya could count it down on one hand and subtract it by three. 

Heat rose into her face, and all the agitation dissipated when she saw Val return home, beaming at her when she saw Maya in return.