Nobody spoke for a moment, as they were all watching the water in the pot slowly start to bubble. Then Kevin asked Astra, “you walked all the way across town from here to Sparklecon?” He was eyeing her with incredulity from beneath the brim of his fedora.

“Yeah. I needed the money,” Astra replied, even though she didn’t really like how much he was prying. Of course, when Ruse did it, it was fine. But when Kevin did it, he was just trying to get a rise out of her. She wouldn’t let him succeed in doing that, though. “People do crazy things when they’re hungry. Not that it was crazy for me...I mean, I was hungry, but I’ve ran track all my life. I got the stamina. I could do it again if I really wanted to.” And she knew for a fact that Kevin, this nosy bastard, couldn’t. He probably couldn’t imagine what it was like to be athletic. A walk up one set of stairs would probably send him straight to Jesus; death by exhaustion. “Besides, I know I can sing. I knew I could win that contest. I got the talent to go with the confidence. If they were holding another contest tomorrow, I’d go right back, and I’d win again.”

Then she changed the subject to get Kevin off her back. “Ruse, I have a couple’a plastic forks in my bag, can you grab them for me? They’re in the front pocket.”

Ruse grabbed the forks, which were each sealed in plastic. Astra had probably taken them from a restaurant that gave plastic utensils away for free. Ruse handed one to both her friends, and kept a third for herself. Astra and Kevin both opened their fork packets while Ruse left hers on the floor to her side.

“You know,” Astra continued, not that her two guests were being very receptive to conversation, “I haven’t really eaten much over the last few days. Not since I got kicked out, I mean. This’ll be my first actual meal in like a week.” She swished the pot again, then used her fork to spread out the softening noodles. The fire crackled softly. “I only took what I could fit in my bag, and honestly I just chose food, you know? You don’t need clothes to survive, so I just grabbed some stuff to cook with and some dry food.” She looked up for a brief moment at the ceiling, then laughed grimly at a thought that had just come to her. “...And some Axe, I guess. Gotta smell nice if I want a cutie to make me her boo. Sometimes I just sprayed that stuff across me like,” she mimicked spraying an ‘x’ across her chest, “instead of taking a shower. Gross, huh?”

“It’s just as good,” Kevin said, agreeing with Astra for the first time.

“My man,” Astra nodded to him.

Strangely, Ruse didn’t react at all, and considering that she had reacted positively to all the silly things Astra had said up until this moment, something felt off. Astra turned to her to see her staring at the ground with a far-off look in her eyes. “Hey,” she said, sounding concerned, “you alright?”

Ruse snapped out of the dissociation that had swallowed her whole for the last few minutes. Ouch… She was not handling this situation as well as she thought she had been. “Oh, um… sorry… It’s just that…” She took a quick pause to gather her thoughts. “I thought I was doing okay at first, but now I think the adrenaline is running out and reality is settling in...I’m just tired and I really miss my apartment.”

That, and she hoped Henry would just take a long walk off of a short plank.

But now her eyes were slowly gaining their liveliness again, and what Astra said about the Axe finally hit her. She blurted out the nicest thing that came to mind: “you don’t smell at all, by the way.” This was her unfiltered, honest opinion, of course. She had spent the majority of the time since meeting Astra snuggled up in her underarm area, and she had yet to catch a whiff of anything dank.

Astra smirked. “Thank you. But, you know you don’t need to apologize for anything, right? Today has been crazy for you. Reach back into the bag, I have a few cans of Mountain Dew if you’d be so inclined. It’ll wake you right up.”

“Aw yeah, gamer fuel!” Kevin cheered. But when Ruse produced the cans, he noticed that the labels on them were in Japanese. “Wait…you stole those ones from my shop!”

Astra shrugged. “I was just tryna survive, man. I said I’d pay you back. I will.”

Ruse handed Kevin one of the green aluminum cans of caffeinated goodness. He immediately opened his can and started slurping down the unnaturally green liquid, all the while eyeing Astra with suspicion. There was no evidence of her having that money she kept saying she’d pay him back with at whatever point. She could’ve been lying about winning that Sparklecon singing contest too, for all he knew! And if it was all just made up, he for sure didn’t want Ruse to pay him back on her behalf. She was too kind a soul, too soft and sweet, and he would not let Astra take advantage of her.

Ruse set her can of soda aside with her fork. She was not much for American beverages, especially not ones with as much sugar as Mountain Dew. She was more of a Ramune girl. But she liked Astra way too much to decline her offer of refreshments.

Astra kept notice Ruse’s behavior though. “Listen,” she gently said, “you don’t have to stay awake if you don’t want to. It was just a suggestion. It’s fine by me if you just wanna sleep. I don’t have any blankets, but there are some towels in the janitor closet downstairs that work just as well.”

Ruse gestured with her hands as if to say ‘no, thanks’. She didn’t want to impose, and she definitely didn’t want to be the only one asleep while Kevin was awake in the same vicinity. Not even if Astra was there as a buffer between them. “No, it’s okay. I know what I can do to stay alert.”

She set her two bags in front of herself, then pulled open the floral flap of the one and grabbed her sketchpad from inside. In the spiral binding was a mechanical pencil. She pulled it out and flipped open the sketchpad in her lap. There were pages upon pages of dress designs sketched throughout the book. Sketching had always kept her pleasantly occupied, and she’d lost countless hours to the hobby. “I’ve been wanting to do a Rainbow Brite design,” she said, picturing the dress in her mind before getting started. “I like the colors and the accessories and the bloopy style of clothing from the series. It’s so cute.” She rolled up her sweater sleeves and started scribbling basic shapes and lines. At least this distraction was intentional. “Though, it’s not what I normally do. I prefer lolita style dresses and accessories. I just thought I’d do something different for a change.”

“Wow,” Astra commented, her eyes following the pencil as Ruse drew. “You’re good at that.” She set the pot of fully-cooked ramen down, which caused burning carpet fibers to hiss. “How long have you been drawing? These are nice.”

“Since before she met me, that’s for sure,” Kevin responded through a mouthful of noodles. He then leaned over and laid on his side with his face over the pot and continued to eat from it.

How typical of him to have already started eating.

“Since college. I wasn’t paid for it back then, though,” Ruse said with a slight crack in her voice. She usually would never allow anybody to watch her sketch from over her shoulder, but Astra made her feel weirdly confident. And although her skin was dark, it was very obvious she was blushing.

And Kevin had asked Astra why she hadn’t gotten a job... Well, now she had one. She was the CEO and sole proprietor of Steal Yo Girl Industries.

“He…” Ruse started, “Henry convinced me that doing this wouldn’t get me anywhere, so it took me a long time to even consider selling the things I make.”

“I helped.” Kevin added with a slurp.

Astra looked from Ruse, to Kevin, then back to Ruse. They were two remarkably different people, but they seemed so close, so on the same page. “How did you guys meet?” She too stuck her fork in the noodle pot then, and began to serve herself some dinner, all the while smiling expectantly at Ruse.