Have You Ever Helped Your Crush With Their Crush And In The Process Gotten Crushed?

“Okay GAIA! What about… THREE speedsters?”

“Roger that, Timeless.”

The Danger Room’s holograms materialized on the edges of the space, creating simulacra of Godspeed, Red Devil and the younger Celerity. In the middle of the room, amidst a scene of Greco-Egyptian ruins, stood EliZe. The eldritch girl’s densely gold-embroidered black cape billowed outwards behind her, as three pairs of thickly muscular tentacle-arms flexed from behind it. She stood, knees bent, keeping three eyes on each opponent.

“Do you want any teammates to assist you? There are some currently in the base.”

“I just want to try this out, but anybody is free to come watch!”

The holograms left their starting positions with a burst of speed. EliZe had been distracted in her response to GAIA, losing track of Celerity. “Cheating!” She hissed, but it was less an accusation than a playful jab at the AI. She pivoted on the spot to try and keep her eyes on her opponents and--when Godspeed charged into her--launching a barrage of punches to keep him at bay. She met flashing fast fists with ones of her own, screaming loudly and excitedly as it happened. Red Devil came up beside her, but she had kept her eyes on him and had plenty of hands to take him on at the same time as Godspeed. EliZe’s laugh resounded throughout the Danger Room. “I’m doing it!”

“Heck yeah you are!” came a jubilant shout from the doorway.

Astra had been walking to the Danger Room, planning to practice their starlight dagger skills. They wanted to figure out how much they were able to move their starlight weapons when already formed and flying through the air, and hopefully train to improve their aim mid-flight and maybe even use it to psych out an enemy by making it look like they’ll miss. It would greatly increase their toolset in battle, thought Astra. That was when they heard the fighting inside. They peeked inside to see who was training, and were immediately impressed with how EliZe was holding up against the holograms of the three speedsters. So what else to do, thought Astra, than to cheer up their friend?

“Those speedies got nothing on the *Timeleeeeess!*” hollered a smiling Astra in their still casual wear of high-waist skinny jeans and button-up pineapple shirt from the doorway of the Danger Room.

“Huh?” EliZe turned her head towards the cheering and blinked. Astra?! Her other eyes all turned instinctively at the radiant star-child. EliZe felt something in her chest that she knew always came right before a rising warmth in her cheeks, but--before she could blush--the moment of her distraction allowed Celerity to come in and surprise her with a sneak attack. Off her guard, the fists of Godspeed and Red Devil slipped past her own and EliZe was pummeled into the ground. She cried out as she tried to defend herself, a tentacle sweeping around and catching one of them. “Abort! Abort!”

GAIA complied. The holograms halted and shimmered, before fading out. Red Devil thumbed his nose with a grin. Godspeed stared down on her with a stern, uncaring gaze. Celerity broke apart within her coiled tentacle. EliZe’s body relaxed on the floor of the Danger Room. She stared at the ceiling and moved her hands to cover her face. “Oh fuck, I get distracted too easily…”

“Oh no! I am so sorry!” Astra ran towards their fallen friend. Holding out a hand to help EliZe up from the floor, they continued their apology “I didn’t mean to distract you with my cheering, that’s my bad. But ya know, it’s probably something we should get used to, right? Getting cheered on while fighting? Being heroes and all,” they mused. “So, wanna try again without my distraction? Or, ooh, hey, wanna help me practice some moves?”

EliZe looked up at Astra through her fingers. She closed her fingers and groaned internally over them seeing her like this. She hadn’t wanted to learn the feeling of embarrassment this way! She took a breath and let Astra help her up. She managed a shy, sharp-toothed smile. “Yeah, I should be able to get used to an audience. I’ve had audiences before, so it mustn’t be impossible. I think I was just caught by surprise. Surprises seem to be my weakness.” She laughed a little, and it sounded like a record scratch. “Um. Yes. I would like to help you practice your moves! Show me your moves!” Her voice echoed slightly on the last line, as if another voice was overlaid on her own.

“Yeah,” said Astra, “I totally get that, surprises are hard to get used to, since they are, you know, surprises. But hell yeah, check this out!” Astra manifests a couple of starlight daggers in each hand. “GAIA, could you give me a target, like just a simple one with a bull’s eye?”

“Roger that, Star Shine.”

A hologram of a simple target appears a handful of feet away from them. “Now usually I just throw my daggers in fairly straight lines, like this,” they say while throwing a few daggers at the target, “*but now, watch this!*” Astra then turns 90 degrees from the target, throws a dagger, but as it flies through the air, they make a motion with their hand, and the dagger takes a sharp turn in midair towards the target, and hits it right in the middle. “Woo, bull’s eye! But hey, pfft, doing it like this is easy enough, I just have to control it towards the right path, and if nothing’s stopping me, well, then nothing’s stopping me, right?” Astra says confidently, “so I want to try and practice while someone *is* trying to stop me,” pointedly looking at EliZe and wiggling their eyebrows. “What do you say, want to try and chase me, while I try to hit the target?”

Some of EliZe’s eyes followed the trajectory of the daggers, others were locked onto the target, and a not insignificant amount were still looking at Astra themselves. Just looking, not staring or admiring them or something like that, obviously.

The display of their skill was impressive and EliZe rewarded their friend with an “ooohhh” and clapping in applause. “Oh, you want me to chase you? I suppose I could. I’m pretty fast. Are you fast too? It will be an even bigger challenge if someone fast is trying to stop you!” She almost gasped at her own realization, then again when she realized that she would be literally chasing after someone she was feeling like she really really liked. How did humans deal with that sort of thing? Normally she’d ask the first person available, but right now the only person available to ask anything was Astra--who was both the person she would be asking about and also definitely not human. She could ask GAIA, maybe, but definitely not while Astra was there--plus GAIA was also not human.

“Yeah! Though, I am definitely not as fast as you,” said Astra, currently unaware of EliZe’s troubling dilemma. “But, if I use Nebulim, I think I might have a fighting chance. And, ooh, hey, what if we made it interesting? I bet I can hit the target 50 times within 3 minutes while you’re doing your very best to stop me, the loser takes the winner out for lunch?” they said, again painfully oblivious of EliZe’s feelings and the implications of the bet’s outcome. “Nothing like a fun bet between friends to help getting serious with practice, right?”

A challenge! EliZe loved challenges. Human history was built on challenges, she was pretty sure. Neither of them was human, but if she had to guess, challenges were also what other histories were built out of. Challenges… that could fail. The thought made her hungry.

“That sounds interesting! And when I stop you, you take me out for lunch?” She sounded confident, with a slight echo of triumphant horns in her voice. That sounded like something she had talked about with Fearless. That sounded… like a date. At least, it would be a date if they wanted it to be. For EliZe’s part, her thoughts gave signs that on her end, the answer was a likely ‘yes, please’. Although, that did mean that if EliZe lost, she had to buy Astra lunch. That thought made her feel weird in the eldritch equivalent of a stomach. “I mean, when I don’t stop you, I take you out for lunch?” She tried her best to not sound eager about the prospect. She mostly succeeded. EliZe nodded, agreeing to the deal.

"Heck yeah! Hey GAIA, can you keep track of time and score?" Astra asked.

"Sure thing, Star Shine."

"Awesome. Let's do it." As they shapeshifted into a sports-attire version of their hero outfit, Astra gave EliZe a radiantly confident smile.

...

Astra laid on the ground exhausted, their smile had turned from confident to humble as the timer and scoreboard read 0:00 and 44. The competition had been exciting and fast. At one point Astra had slided across the floor sending several daggers between EliZe's legs. At another point EliZe had created a sandwall catching a flurry of a dozen daggers. It was close, but in the end, Astra's skills weren't up to the challenge yet. Somewhere back in their mind, they even suspected that EliZe hadn't given it her all, like she was holding back or being distracted by something. Well, no matter, thought Astra, that just meant they were still a ways to go with their new skill regardless.

"So," they said rising from the floor and turning to EliZe, "looks like it's my treat. Where do you want to go?"

Throughout the Danger Room oddly shaped structures of sand began to come down, thrown up haphazardly throughout the competition to block something or create a path for EliZe to rush along. Now they were no longer necessary. As they came down, they revealed the form of EliZe, standing between Astra and their target. She was panting, though holding up a large purple hand to cover her mouth, not wanting to seem weak to Astra. It had been a close call. She’d been waffling between winning or losing throughout, even as she gave it her all. The distraction this time came from within. EliZe noted to herself that that was something perhaps even more dangerous to her.

Her Perception Filter shifted her additional nonhuman limbs and features away and she smiled at Astra. “I would love to go to Big ‘N’ Broad Burger! Although… I’ve also heard good things about this one taco truck… Nay, burgers it is. The food of champions.” She nodded, then flushed in sudden embarrassment. “N-not that I’m a champion! Or, I mean, that you’re not a champion. You are a champion! I mean, I won this time, but you did the most champion-like things when we were at those intergalactic games a few months ago.”

Astra chuckled at EliZe’s string of... apologies? Astra wasn’t sure. “Hey, don’t worry. If you’re deciding on us having burgers, aren’t you already saying that we indeed both are champions?” they said, tapping their temple in the classic ‘think about it’ gesture. “I don’t know if I did the *most* champion-like things, I think we all pulled some amazing stunts and feats in the end. But hey, I’ll take the compliment,” they giggled with a wink at the eldritch girl, unaware of any effect it might have on her.

Astra then floated off the ground to their feet, stretching as they noted, “well, I’ll hit the showers. I’ll meet ya at the entrance in a bit? Oh, and yeah, I think I remember hearing about that taco truck as well from Hana. Close to the arcades, right? Burgers today, but we should def check that out at a later time,” they said smiling as they left for the changing rooms.

EliZe had to think about that for a second, but realized that Astra was right. She had--accidentally and against her worse judgment--called both of them champions. She had accidentally said the exactly right thing. That was good!

“Right! Showers make sense, yeah. I’ll see you at the entrance!” EliZe waved them off. As soon as Astra was out of sight, EliZe sniffed her own armpit and made a face. It wasn’t a disgusted face, it was a face of curiosity and questioning, like the kind someone has when they smell their armpit and they don’t know what they are supposed to smell, but they have seen other people smell their armpit and be disgusted by their own body odor and commented that they really needed a shower, and now they think they should smell their armpit in the same way to deduce whether or not they should take a shower as well. EliZe wasn’t even sure if she had body odor. She didn’t have sweat, at any rate. She could make herself look sweaty, but that was all just perception. She’d taken a bath once, but it was only by accident. She wondered what showering would be like. She immediately disregarded thinking about it, because the showers were already occupied anyway. She’d try them out some other time.

Instead, the eldritch girl raced from the Danger Room to the recreation room where they knew there was a computer. She looked up Big ‘N’ Broad Burger and her eyes quickly scanned over the menu. Being prepared surely would help her make recommendations for food choices to Astra! Knowing which burgers came with cheese (like the one called “cheeseburger”) and which ones didn’t seemed imperative. Maybe even impressive! Especially if she knew the contents even more in-depth than that! Yes, this would be the way to Astra’s heart: by knowing the amount of cholesterol in every burger.

As soon as she’d memorized it, she sped to the entrance of the base. As quickly as she arrived there, she had already forgotten half of the things she’d read.

If EliZe had been more familiar with showers, she would have been surprised at just how fast Astra took their shower. But when considering Astra’s ability to dress themselves quicker through shapeshifting and to dry their hair by pulsing magical light through it, maybe it wasn’t that surprising after all. “Heya EliZe! Ready to go?” Astra said, now dressed in a button-up with a tomato pattern instead of the pineapple one they wore before the challenge in the Danger Room, and giving a small wave to EliZe as they approached the entrance. “I can tell ya, I’m definitely looking forward to getting something to eat after that workout. How about you?”

“Hi! Yes!” EliZe said, ever so slightly too loud and excitedly for regular conversation. She looked at their tomato patterned button-up and upon realizing how cute she found Astra in it, her face was on its way to attaining the same shade. They just were so unfair! Well, they probably didn’t know it. Some people were just obliviously attractive, that’s what Maria had told her once, she was pretty sure. She wasn’t sure why, but she wondered if it had to do with Maria also saying she had a crush on her. Ah well, that was something for later. Right now, she had crush problems right here! “Hi! Yes, I am ready to go!”

She had at least had the presence of mind to change her own clothes to something more befitting of a non-combat situation, with a flowy white skirt (with pockets!) and a dark gray shrug over it. “Oh, psh, yeah, a little workout like that definitely is even better to follow up with some good food.”

"Awesome! Let's go then." Astra took out their Nebulim, which grew to a two person size, and climbed on. They held out a hand to EliZe. "Big 'N' Broad Burger, here we come!"

Once EliZe had joined them on Nebulim, Astra flew up and speeded through the streets and buildings, towards the burger joint. Despite getting confused about the address for a moment, they got there in record time once they noticed the big sign of two burgers--one really tall and one really broad--and touched down near the entrance.

The ride on Nebulim was something that EliZe hadn’t experienced before. So fast it could fly! EliZe herself was fast, but ultimately, to her sorrow, landbound. Having Astra take her on a ride like this was… was that what humans called “heavenly”? She looked at her pilot and how they lit up the world around them. Not just literally, EliZe felt like things just felt brighter around them somehow. She giggled happily along the way. It was a good day. A sunny day. Nevermind that the sky overhead was cloudy.

The ride was over all too shortly for EliZe’s wishes, but she satisfied herself with the thought that if Nebulim was how they had gotten there, maybe Astra could be convinced to also provide a ride when they left. She took in a deep whiff of the area, her breath sounding like a vacuum cleaner starting up. “Ah, these burgers smell good! They smell, uh, big. And broad.” They hadn’t even gone inside yet. “Oh!” EliZe ran to the door and held it open for Astra. “After you.”

“Why thank you,” Astra said, doing a small bowing slash curtsy thing that they think they’ve seen on television at some point, and entered the burger joint.

Now, here was the smell of burgers, fries, and other things being deep-fried. The sound of sizzling and people talking orders were coming from the kitchen behind the counter. The decor was calm and classic. An all-around classic burger joint experience. Astra and EliZe got in the thankfully small line to the register, and were considering what to get. “Hm, I’m not sure what I might want. The spicy chicken burger sounds nice, but so do many of the others. What about you, EliZe?”

EliZe’s eyes scanned rapidly over the menu hanging on the wall, her eyes crossing at least a few times. Everything sounded so good! A lot of the human foods did. She also didn’t exactly need any, but she’d still taken a liking to consuming them from time to time, more as a hobby. Elena’s cooking definitely helped her there. She couldn’t just choose ‘everything’ though. She didn’t have the money for it. While golden doubloons were worth a ton more than your average dollar, most places didn’t accept it. Plus, it would be too much to put on a table and while EliZe could easily carry everything, she figured that it would look a little greedy or embarrassing to Astra. EliZe didn’t want other people to laugh at them, not now.

She had already forgotten that Astra was supposed to be paying, due to losing their bet. EliZe was too eager to show off, to make sure Astra had a good time, to do what she was ‘supposed to’ do for them, to keep in mind what they had agreed on.

“Spicy things taste hot, so that’s definitely something I can recommend to you. Uh. Yeah.” EliZe answered Astra. “I think I’ll go for the spicy Hawaiian beef burger. It has pineapple, which some people think is weird, but it’s an--uh--” she thought quickly back to the one review of it she remembered from the website. “It’s a delectable main course that mixes sweetness and umami for a unique flavour experience.” Right after the words tumbled out of her mouth, she felt self-conscious. This was way too obvious. She sounded like a douchey food critic!

Astra however didn’t know what a food critic was or what they sounded like, when one is so new to Earth it is an easy thing to miss, and simply replied, “Ooh, that does sound pretty interesting. You know what, I’ll have one too. Good suggestion.”

“Welcome to Big ‘N’ Broad, can I take your order?” asked the cashier when Astra and EliZe reached the front of the line.

“Hi! Yeah, our order is two Spicy Hawaiian Beef Burgers, uhhh, both menus? Yeah, menus, please.” Astra said. They were getting better at these ordering food customs, they thought. “Oh, and maybe... wanna get some onion rings to share, EliZe?”

“Um! Uh!” EliZe hadn’t been paying much attention at first, still staring at the menu when Astra walked up to the cashier. It flustered her a little. When Astra suddenly turned to her and asked her about the onion rings, EliZe’s brain went a mile a minute. Onion rings were something she hadn’t tried before, but it probably was something Astra hadn’t had before either, so it was something new to introduce them to! On the other hand, getting them to share felt weirdly intimate! Not that that was a bad thing, it was a thing that EliZe had on her mind and she kind of wanted it, but sharing was something people did all the time. Sharing food was a bonding experience! Just… one that she’d more often than not had seen carrying some romantic connotations, at least in movies. Would they be aware of that? She could only assume. On the third hand, why was she overthinking this? Onion rings sounded good.

“Yes, let’s get some of them! To share!” She nodded excitedly.

“Hecc yeah! So yeah, and a basket of onion rings.” They said as they turned around to the cashier.

Astra paid for the food, and got the order number and the soda glasses. They handed one to EliZe. “Let’s get something to drink while we find a seat and wait for our meal of champions,” they said with a cheeky wink, as they lead her to the soda-machine.

EliZe assured herself that she had regained her composure, when Astra’s wink struck her off-balance again. She muttered something under her breath that vaguely sounded like a self-censored swearword as she hoped she wasn’t blushing. (She was.) She followed after them to get some soda. Looking at the machine, she got excited for everything, and thus decided to slide the cup along the machine and hit every drink button once until the cup was full.

She smiled at her cup, before looking up and realizing that that must have looked weird to someone else. “Oh, um! This is, uh, basically modern alchemy, isn’t it? Magic soda potion mixing!” She excused herself sheepishly with that explanation. “I’ll go find us a spot to sit!” EliZe hurried off, so that Astra wouldn’t have to suffer her embarrassment.

As she walked away, she mumbled to herself, listing things they could talk about maybe. She’d seen enough TV shows and had enough cultists praying to her old self that things getting awkward due to dead air was a thing she was worried about.

Of course, to Astra, the ‘magic soda potion mixing’-explanation sounded completely reasonable. If you liked all the flavors, why wouldn’t you mix them? But before they could agree with EliZe about their insight into modern alchemy, she had already hurried off. In the end, Astra decided to try the mix another time, and went with the orange soda.

They sat down across from EliZe in the booth she had found. “So, alchemy, huh?” Astra said, sipping on their soda. “My Mama told me stories about them in my world. How they were these eccentric masters of weird materials. Also about how much their stuff could be worth. Not just monetary, but also what it was worth in the hands of someone who could do good things for people with it.” They thought for a bit, and then looked at EliZe excitedly. “What are alchemists like in this world? Do you think the Consortium or whatever has some?”

“Huh?” EliZe perked up at the question, after just staring into her drink and at the table. “Oh! There are, yeah! The Consortium most likely does, for sure. There’s all sorts of alchemists, or there used to be, long ago. Since the Consortium does a lot of the magic organizing stuff on a global scale, they probably have a bit of magic of every sort. Y’know,” EliZe gave them a three-eyed blink, “gotta keep an eye on everything.”

“That they do, huh?” Astra said giggling at EliZe’s visual eye-pun. They then heard a number get called in the background, and rose from the table. “Oh, I think that’s ours. I’ll go get them.”

They returned swiftly with the burgers, fries, and the basket of onion rings to share. As they sat down and started eating, Astra asked “Hey, so what’s it like being able to view all of time? My Grandmother tried to explain stuff like how time works and determinism and uncertainty and different frames of reference for different observers and stuff, but it was like *super confusing.* But you probably have a really good grasp on it, right?”

“Oh! Yeah, I, uh, I like to think so.” EliZe nodded and shifted in her seat a little, feeling nervous. “I don’t do it all the time or like, continuously or passively, not… not anymore.” For a moment, EliZe hangs her head and stares at the table, as unpleasant memories creep their way into her thoughts.

She shakes her head and manages to smile again at Astra. “It’s easy once you grasp it! It just… it just takes time. Aha, ahaha…” She quickly grabbed some fries and an onion ring to shove into her mouth and stop herself from talking, distracting herself from the fact that she could easily form a second mouth to talk from. That was too awkward! Maybe she needed to shift over to a proper explanation? That was what they wanted, right? She swallowed as she thought of how to continue. “So, there is something to be said for fate and destiny and determinism, but with the way time flows, the future is wide open. While some people might like to think some things are set in stone, a lot fewer things are than they might like them to be. Like… like us coming here to eat burgers, there was a chance of that, but it wasn’t a certainty.”

“Ooh, cool. So for example, if I had won the bet, then we’d have gone somewhere else, right? And there was a chance of that, so there’s like an alternate timeline-possibility-thingy where we do. And then we’d have gone to...” Astra thought for a bit. “Philosotea, maybe? I don’t know. Getting burgers was a really good idea anyway though, so maybe we would still have gone here.” They giggled a little while drinking their orange soda.

“Do you remember anything from the future possibilities? Like, I don’t know,” they said, fiddling nervously with an onion ring, “maybe about some romances that are happening on Big Team, like say perhaps between me and maybe a certain tall and stretchy someone?” Astra was now blushing with a gentle glow beneath their cheeks.

EliZe giggled along with Astra. She was glad they were enjoying themselves too. “Burgers or otherwise, I’m sure we’d have had a great time together regardless!” She ponders for a moment. “Although I’m not entirely sure I’m there? I haven’t run into any other mes the way so many of our teammates have run into themselves, especially Ellen, so maybe I’m the only one.”

She slurps from her magic potion soda mix and makes a scrunched up face, where it looks like half her face is disgusted with it and the other half is utterly delighted by the taste. A stretchy someone, huh? EliZe couldn’t think of a way that applied to herself. She could stretch a decent amount with her tentacles, but she wasn’t made of rubber--no matter how many jokes she’d overheard about ‘rubbery squid tentacles’. She could be tall! Though mostly that seemed to have to do with someone else being tall. She knew plenty of tall people on the team! Like Ernest or Mel or A-Vis or… oh.

Right.

EliZe gulped down some soda and opened her mouth to speak, inadvertently letting out a small burp. She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sowry!” She mumbled. “Um. Yes, that is possible. Imean, it totally does happen some times! Imean, it doesn’t some times. Like, that’s the thing with the times! It all comes down to what happens, what you make happen. Does that make sense?”

Astra smiled. Partly because EliZe’s burp was kinda cute in its own way. “What you make happen, huh? Well, I did confess to him, and we have gone on a date. I’ve even asked him on a second date, though things have come up so we couldn’t go on it yet, but we totally are going to... I don’t know, I’m rambling, but like, I just feel that the ball is in their court now.” Astra looked nervous, preferring to stare down at their burger instead of at EliZe. They were still smiling, but it wasn’t quite as bright as before. “And I’m really unsure of what they are going to do. They’ve said that they are not sure how they feel yet, and I’m just... scared that they might not feel the same towards me ever. Like, we would still have had a good time, and I don’t want to force him or anything, but... just the uncertainty I guess.”

Astra finally looked back at EliZe. “I’m sorry, that was probably weird of me to just dump all of that on you out of nowhere. So how ‘bout you, you um, got anyone you like, or...?” Astra said, trying to steer the conversation away from their uncertainties, before taking a big bite out of their burger.

EliZe listened intently, nodding her head at them in agreement here and understanding there. “Uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah, in their court, for sure!” Then she was caught off guard by their question. “Pffft, whaaatt? Tshaw!” She waved it off as if it was nothing, as if the prospect of her having a crush was ridiculous. Well, in a way, she felt it was ridiculous! Here she was, talking to them about their crush, while she had a crush on them! If Astra were to find out, that would just be embarrassing, right? They probably would stop talking to her for like, at least a week! That’s what all the TV shows had told EliZe.

“Oh, yeah, nah, pffft, that’d be weeeiiirrd! Me? And… and anyone? Hahaha.” The slurping noises from her soda suddenly sounded way too loud.

“Anyway, so, you’ve gone on a date!” Not to worry, EliZe, if they were interested in one person, it might not stop them from liking others too, just ask Maria!

“That’s very cool! It’s a first step, and that’s the hardest!” Like admitting you have a crush on someone in the first place.

“He might not be certain of his feelings yet, but he’s also, like, not used to feelings at all, probably? He’s like a little alien soldier baby trying to figure out how to people.” Oh yeah, that was very familiar, wasn’t it, EliZe? And how were those feelings working out for you?

“It might not be uncertainty that he has feelings for you, but that he’s uncertain of what those feelings exactly are! Like, some people’s feelings are more about wanting to be in their presence and just enjoy each other’s company, other feelings are more about wanting to kiss them or hug them and watch old movies on a couch, and others might be about wanting to go to new places to explore things together and… and eat burgers! Y’know? Lotsa different kindsa ways to feel.” And a lot of different ways to confess them, too.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Astra said after swallowing the big chunk of spicy hawaiian beef burger they’d been chewing on while EliZe rambled. “I guess I just have to be patient, huh?”

“Also hey!” they continued, “it’s totally not weird for you to be together with someone. Unless you mean like being uncomfortable having those kinds of relationships, and that’s why it’d be weird? But otherwise, I’m sure that there’s plenty of people who’d be super happy to be with you. Honestly can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be. And you know what? I just remembered that Sapphire gave me the same kind of speech, when she told me to go for it with A-Vis. And I’m gonna say the same to you, don’t be afraid to take the chance, ok? I’ll totally support you.” Astra gave EliZe a bright smile, not knowing they are the one who they are encouraging EliZe to take the chance on.

EliZe scratched behind her head and laughed sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right it’s not weird for me to be together with someone. Ehe, ehehe. Gosh, is it hot in here?” She mumbled and swallowed. Her throat felt a little dry. Need more juice. “I’m… I’m glad you say you will support me if I take a chance with someone else, though. Thank you! Plethora. That means a lot.”

Astra giggled. “Hey, anytime, EliZe.” They gave what they intended to be a reassuring smile. “Don’t hesitate to let me know, ok?”

EliZe’s canvas-white face turned strawberry-red in a flush. She mumbled a response through a smile that couldn’t be stopped. “Thank you. I will.”

She tried to drink more soda, but found her cup empty. “I… I will go get some more magic potion for on the go. I’ll be right back.” She hopped off her seat and walked past Astra.

“Alright!” Astra said, before returning to the rest of their burger, still thinking of the cute smile EliZe tried to hide, unaware of the emotions behind it.