Arael gets an invitation from someone she sort of wishes she didn’t.
Characters: Arael/Diana, Tonantzintla
Warnings: N/A
Wordcount: 1,491
Vibe: chat is this gay
wtf. gay people sprints curing my writers block. mariska is also sort of here i guess. if u squint
part one of ??? .. takes place in arc III aka arael is Grown Up now but still does not know how to handle emotions. speaking of which i need to finish that keyart and updated sprite >>;;
It was raining. Storming, even.
Usually all Waterfall got was heavy rains, but even since that day, thunder and lightning had made a reappearance to the region after 3,000 long years.
It was nice ambience, but…
Arael couldn’t help it. It was just another thing that reminded her of…
Ever since she had overthrown Id, Arael had done more than plenty of self-isolation – after all, saving the world and returning the light that’d been missing for longer than one could fathom was… overwhelming, to say the least.
There was a return to normalcy briefly for her 18th birthday, where she was able to reunite with her friends beyond just a group chat. Where she was able to reunite with her.
And though there was the expected banter between the friends, Arael still wasn’t able to muster the courage to say anything.
She fucked it up with Maria. She fucked it up with Daisy.
She… couldn’t afford to lose her.
Arael was seldom one to feel remorse for hurting others like she had, always under the impression it was their fault for getting hurt.
But Diana…
Arael snapped out of it. Someone was creaking up the ladder to the loft where her childhood room was.
“Hey, we’re back, kiddo!”
It was Arael’s mother. The woman was an impressive height, so she was only willing to peek her head into the loft for now – lest she repeatedly hit her head on the ceiling like she’d done in days past.
“Haz and I stopped by the pub and brought food home, if you haven’t eaten already.”
“I’ll be down.” Arael said with a huff.
While Arael’s mother was a bit offput by her daughter’s seemingly spacey affect, she just nodded and headed back down.
Arael grabbed her phone, just to check to see if anything interesting was happening before she went to join her family.
She’d missed two texts, both from…
> hey! sorry this is so short notice @_@ i’ve been so caught up in conferences and paperwork, it’s crazy adjusting to it all and the date snuck up on me
> long story short!! my mom is holding a party (like she does for everything lol) for pre-inaguration and i know you’re not a fancy party type but i’m not either, so if you’d like we can suffer together!!! even if just for the food wwwwwwwww
it’s at carina starting literally right now, knowing you i’d hope they’d just let you in ^^
…Ah.
Shit.
—
It was… a quick decision.
Arael rushed down out of her loft, and skidded past her parents.
“Hey sorry I’m going out, be back soon, love you!!” she said, her tone bordering that of a shout.
It looked like both her parents wanted to say something, but neither spoke up as Arael haphazardly conjured up a wormhole to her destination.
Arael jumped through and landed on the marble floor on the other side – only to quickly realize that in her moment of adrenaline, she’d neglected to consider the fact that wormholing into the lobby would draw quite a bit of unwanted attention.
And that it did – as Arael’s vision settled after going through the wormhole’s harsh light, she was unpleasantly met with the entire lobby staring at her.
She was… unsure of what to do as the wormhole closed behind her. While the gazes were more baffled than persecutory, Arael still felt frozen in place. She scanned the lobby for anyone she may recognize… Isa and Beck had to be here, right?
But there wasn’t a single familiar face to be found.
Time felt like it stood still for eons – but really, it had only been a few minutes when Arael noticed the stares of those around her shifting…
…Shifting to something… behind her.
“I didn’t know you were coming, but I’m not surprised.”
Tonantzintla.
Arael spun around to face them, and was quickly unnerved by their imposing figure – up until this point, Arael had only seen Tonan in their small, cat-like form… she could definitely understand why others found them intimidating now.
“Hah, geez, yeah, uh… Diana sort of last minute invited me, haha…!”
With Arael’s reply, the stares slowly ceased, and the groups in the lobby went back to minding their own business.
“Alright. Here, come with me.” Tonan nodded.
With a silent nod of acknowledgement, Arael followed as Tonan led her past the velvet rope and security agents and into the larger party hall.
Arael had never actually been beyond Carina’s lobby before… but it definitely wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the interior’s level of grandiose was on a similar level to the palace of Lunaires. Shining whites, golds, and marble were at every turn – as were well-dressed party guests that made Arael feel practically naked in comparison.
Tonan paused.
“Hold on, let me check where Diana is…”
Arael was a tad confused by what Tonan meant at first, but quickly remembered their level of semi-omnipresence. It was… weird – but Arael figured they ultimately had benevolent interests for Diana and the friendgroup despite how offputting they could be at times.
“Hm.” Tonan mumbled.
“That’s not reassuring.”
“Eh? What’s not? Something’s wrong?”
“In the bathroom, alone. Leaning against the wall, on her phone.”
Arael didn’t quite get it.
“That just sounds like Diana at a party, though?”
Tonan shook their head.
“Follow me.”
Arael tried to tug for more elaboration, but Tonan’s pace towards the bathroom continued – until they stopped just short of the entrance.
“Hey, what’s the hold up?” Arael huffed, her hand already on the door’s metal pushpad.
There was a pause from Tonan.
“I figure you may be the best to deal with this.”
“What?” Arael asked in return.
There was no response from Tonan, even as Arael waited. Eventually, the wait got awkward, and Arael just pushed in to the bathroom on her lonesome with a groan.
Diana was indeed inside.
Despite what the upbeat tone of her texts would have seemed to imply, she looked stressed out and awful – her eyes having a puffiness indicating she’d been crying.
“Shit.” Arael said under her breath, promptly jogging up to Diana.
“Did something happen after you sent the text?!”
Diana shook her head. After a few deep breaths, she finally spoke.
“No, no, I…” she started – followed by a deep inhale and exhale.
“It’s a me problem.”
“A ‘you’ problem?”
“I psyched myself out of this too bad… I thought I could deal with such a big event, but…” Diana sighed, shaking her head.
“…I still… I don’t know. I can’t take on a massive party like this where everyone wants to talk to me all the time. I thought I could tough it out, but…”
“…Ah.” Arael said with a hushed voice. She let Diana breathe a bit more before letting her continue.
“Yukarin and Tonan got into a bad argument, and Yukarin left… but then… I had nobody to fall back on.” Diana continued to explain.
“My mom was doing her best to take attention away from me, but… it just got to loud.”
“Why did you text me, then? If you were already miserable about this whole deal?”
Diana averted her gaze for a moment, and put her phone back into her jacket’s pocket.
“I…” she started, but quickly lost her words and paused before continuing.
“You’ve always been so fearless and confident, Arael. You don’t let anything stop you…”
Arael flushed up, but Diana didn’t seem to notice.
“I thought that… if you were here, you could help me be a bit braver about this whole thing, too.” Diana sighed.
“It’s a bit silly, I guess. We’re adults, I need to figure out how to grow up eventually.”
Complicated emotions and feelings aside…
Arael had to push past them right now. She couldn’t let those screw this up for her. For… Diana’s sake.
“Shit, huh.” Arael huffed. She reached to grab Diana’s hand – even if she struggled a bit to keep her composure when Diana grabbed back.
“It’s… not silly, I think. Sometimes, someone else’s gotta do the talking.”
Arael put on a big grin, and puffed out her chest with an air of bravado in order to change the tone in the bathroom.
“Heheh, I’m sure people would go crazy seeing the so-called ‘hero of the world’ alongside, the… uh…” she said, pausing as she thought.
“What, uh, are you being inaugurated for, anyways?”
“…Ambassador of the Ultra Station. Tonan sort of pushed for it.” Diana replied sheepishly – though she was already sounding a bit better.
“Again, I’ve just been so busy, I think I never properly told anyone…”
“Wait, seriously?!” Arael gasped.
“That’s crazy?! Geez, and here you are acting like this is just a glorified birthday party.”
Diana snickered a little.
“Well, I’ll do my best!” Arael smiled.
“We’ve been in this bullshit together for way too long – I can’t just give up on you now, because you’ve never given up on me.”
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