“I have to admit, I feel rather guilty for not responding to Terra.”

Chika rolled her eyes, carefully nudging her prosthetic out of the way so she could move enough to peel off her jeans. “She’ll be fine. Soledad’s been going everywhere with her lately; I’m sure she went. Besides, we were busy. She’ll get it.”

Adela fidgeted with her necklace as she sat on her bed. “True… I just feel as though we haven’t been giving her as much respect as she’s due. She isn’t perfect, but she is still our leader.”

“If she has a problem with it, she can tell us,” Chika replied. “We can offer her more ‘respect’ when she actually starts leading us.”

Adela frowned. “She’s doing her best.”

“Yeah, well, she can do better.”

Just as she opened her mouth to respond, the door swung open, and in walked Soledad with a wistful smile and a skip in her step. She grinned at Chika and Adela as soon as she caught sight of them.

“Ah, good evening, ladies!” she sang. “How was dinner?”

Both girls paused.

“…What do you mean?” Adela asked.

Soledad raised an eyebrow, but her smile didn’t disappear. “With Terra? Tonight? I’m terribly sorry I couldn’t make it, but some… other plans came up, and I—”

“Wait, wait,” Chika interrupted, grabbing her crutches. “You didn’t go?”

Her face fell. “Alright, I know you don’t like me that much do you really ignore me so much you didn’t even realize I was missing?”

“No, idiot,” she snapped, “We didn’t go either!”

Soledad froze.

With a groan, Adela dropped her head in her hands. “We should have said something…”

“Why didn’t you go?” Soledad asked. “She asked us all to be there!”

“Yeah, and that includes you, doesn’t it?”

“I’ve been with her all week!”

“So what?!”

 ---

Terra was just entering the hall, wiping her glasses dry from the drizzle outside, when she heard the angered voices echoing from behind the door. She closed her eyes and sighed; she was too emotionally exhausted to be afraid, and the knowledge that she needed to deal with this added weight to her already tired bones.

She crept closer, meaning to enter before she could overthink it, but that sickening fear settled in her stomach again.

“It shouldn’t be my job alone to go along with whatever team-building things she wants to do,” Soledad snapped. “You’re on the team too, you know! We’re supposed to share our burdens, not shove them all off onto one person!”

Burden.

Terra stumbled back a step, feeling as though she’d been shot.

“We’re not forcing you to deal with her. She’s our leader.”

Adela scoffed. “Funny you should be the one to say that.”

“Yeah, Miss ‘Terra’s not my leader until we can trust her’.”

“Well, it’s not like she’s proven herself yet, has she?” Chika shot back.

“She shouldn’t need to prove herself! She’s our leader, whether you hate it or not!”

“Oh, yeah, and that’s why you skipped dinner tonight, huh?”

“I had other plans! Just because I don’t want to spend every waking moment with her doesn’t make me a bad person!”

“None of us want to!”

“Exactly! That’s why you need to do some of it, too!”

Terra felt something inside of her snap.