Monica tapped her pencil on her desk, trying to gather her thoughts. She got her field data for the week, so that means… she glanced over at her calendar for the day. She had a club meeting tonight, so she needed to finish that essay right now because she had internship hours this weekend and wouldn’t have time to work on it. Lets see… oh, and if she’s fast, she’ll even have a chance to run to the store and start her laundry.
Now, there was that paragraph in chapter four that-
[Monica.] Kronya’s voice cut through her thoughts- simmering concern layered under a sharp crack of annoyance.
Monica sighed, looking up from her text book. (Kronya, I’m busy-)
[If you don’t take a break, I’m going to set our textbook on fire.] Monica felt a hint of eyes digging into her.
Annoyed, Monica muttered “Kronya, we don’t have the time for that.” She glanced at her calendar again. “We aren’t going to have time to work on this again until Monday, and we still need to make time to study.”
Kronya began gathering magical energy in their hand.
Monica slumped in her chair, sighing. She felt Kronya flash a sharp smile filled with a dark smugness as she shook her hand to dispel the magical energies. “Fine, I guess we are taking a break.”
Monica stood, gathering her things on her desk. She could take a walk, there were a few locations of magical density that she could check out for-
A sharp tug pierced her thoughts.
“Ugh. Allright, fine. I’ll go to the cafe or something.”
She put on a long silver coat from the back of the door before grabbing her purse, scanning the room to make sure she didn’t forget anything.
…Everything seemed to be where it should.
She turned, walking out the door and- ‘Locking it.’
Monica felt distracted as ‘she’ started walking to the stairs. Maybe on the way back she can go to the store. She doesn’t want to run out ‘with finals’ coming up soon. She blinks, a little surprised to be at the bottom of the stairwell. Well, she ‘keeps working herself like this’ so she’s probably… did she remember to lock ‘and jiggled the handle just to be sure.’ Oh, maybe she ‘should get coffee. My order, because I’m a bitch like that.’
Monica was holding coffee. Hot in her hands, and from the smell it was Kronya’s order. Because she was a bitch like that. Monica looked up from the coffee, seeing that she was at a park.
Hm. She looked at the table she was sitting at- dark solid wood. So that means if she looks underneath-
Ah. Kronya’s dagger carved into the underside. One of her sigils, which she absolutely had to turn every one into ridiculous shapes because “Style and pissing you off are important.” This one was just a simple waypoint, to make finding locations easier.
So that meant that she was at Kronya’s park, holding Kronya’s coffee, during the break that Kronya wanted her to take. (Why?)
…no response.
Monica took a deep breath, paying attention to the area for the first time.
A small pond rested in the center of the basin, the depression in the landscape causing the scattering of trees to hide the landscape from view. A small creek tricked down the slope, filling the pond with remarkably clean water before winding out of sight. A few ducks floated in the pond, which was odd for this late in the fall. It was… quiet, peacefull. The air tasted cleaner than anywhere else in the city. Monica could understand why Kronya had claimed this space as her own. If she remembered correctly, the only entrance to the park was through the Underpass. Kronya had mentioned that she was only able to find it due to her habit of marking sigils on places she found interesting. It probably meant that no one could find this place unless Kronya took them to it.
Monica was broken out of her thoughts by one of the ducks wadling up to her. She looked it in the eyes, sternly saying “whatever you want, I don’t have.”
The duck, despite not being able to understand human speech, honked in a way that Monica could only describe as “sad” and waddled back to the pond.
Monica refused to think about the duck any further.
Absent-mindedly, she took a sip of the coffee. She wanted to spit it back out. “How can you even drink this stuff when you make it so sweet? It’s barely even coffee at this point.” Horrible.
Monica felt Kronya’s bubbling laughter, her grin growing across their face. “It’s not my fault that your nightmare juice has removed your ability to taste!”
“Kronya!” Monica snapped, glancing about with worry.
Kronya made their body relax in its seat “It’s fine! I haven’t seen a single living thing here besides the ducks.”
That made monica pause, for a moment. “Bugs?” she filled the word with as much concern as she could manage.
“Not even a lowly worm.”
Monica sighed. “Excelent. I hate this place.”
Kronya smirked. “I know, isn’t it awesome?”
Monica shook their head, and decided to watch the ducks in silence. Kronya drank her disgusting ‘delicious’ coffee.
Only dregs were left in Kronya’s cup. Begrudgingly, Monica had to admit that she was feeling better.
“Ha!”
“Shut up, Kronya. Get me out of here.”
Kronya cackled, guiding them to the exit.
Monica watched the trees, as Kronya veered them away from the path of the creek.
Monica spoke. “You never answered my question.”
“Hm?”
“Why am I here?”
Kronya stopped, staring at the duck pond in the distance. “Because you needed a break.”
Monica closed her eyes, inhaling. “I could have done that anywhere. I could have done it at the coffee shop you went to. Monica shook the empty cup for emphasis.
Kronya gave a small grimace. Monica couldn’t tell exactly how she was feeling, but it was turbulent. “Would you have actually taken a break?”
Monica hummed. “Alright, sure.” She started to pull back so that Kronya could take them home.
For some reason, this made Kronya flinch. “Monica…” She turned her head like it could hide her from Monica’s gaze.
Monica waited.
Kronya gripped their arm, muttering as quietly as she could “Because I trust you, idiot.”
“Oh.” Monica.
Monica didn’t know what to say. She felt like she just found out she had been reading a book upside down the entire time.
Kronya started walking. “Lets get going, lots to do still.”
Monica nodded, leaving front alone to Kronya. As she did, she whispered
“I trust you too.”