They’d turned in their group projects for the first semester, and now… the stress, of waiting for their grading, and wondering what they could have possibly done better. Still, she’d be the first to admit, she hadn’t had it quite as hard as Avyr. The tale of growing that torch ginger had been harrowing even heard secondhand, and his history project… well intentioned as the group might have been, picking the pre-imperial Aoyang period for their project had just been dumb. So little survived from there, and so much of it was steeped in legends even amongst the sects…

She shook her head, focusing back on the meal in front of her. It wasn’t much— the orphanage meals never were— but it wasn’t little, either, and that sufficed for her. A bit of rice, some meat buns, a heap of whatever vegetables they were able to get their hands on to the side… it was enough to support even an active lifestyle, and she was grateful for that.

It even tasted pretty good, today. Cooking was usually the job of some of the younger kids— the ones in that inbetween phase where they weren’t academically challenged but also were old enough to pick up a bit of responsibility, but foisting the duty off to them tended to make the meals… saying that their varied significantly in quality would be an understatement. Anyone who’d lived in the 32nd Precinct’s orphanage knew to keep a few snacks under their bed, just in case…

The table creaked beside her as someone else sat, the aroma of cooked rice mixing with her own meal’s. “Having fun?” Ah. Lily restrained a grimace and turned to Mimi. “You looked lonely, so I thought I’d sit with you today.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“No, obviously, but would you have sat with the others?” Lily nodded slightly, conceding the point. Pogua’s dataslate had finally given out, and she was beyond wroth with everything while she waited for her replacement. Jedda had broken up with his girlfriend and he wasn’t all that much fun to spend time with either, moping around as he was… “I’ve got to say,” Mimi continued, after swallowing the large bite of her rice she’d taken— “that I can kind of see what you see in that cat.”

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Lily blinked, nonplussed. That wasn’t the direction she’d expected the conversation to go in… usually when she had to talk to Mimi, they kind of just chatted about inane stuff. Mimi’s life always felt so normal to her— friend group drama, who was more popular in class, whatever TV show or song was Topping the charts…

She supposed that, different as their relationships to him were, Avyr had been a bit of a shock to their lives. There wasn’t much more that screamed different than normal than a giant seven foot long scholar-cat.

“I mean, he’s nice. That’s not something you can say of every boy…” Mimi continued, entirely ignorant to Lily’s surprise. “If he wasn’t a big cat, then he’d be perfect boyfriend material.”

“That’s gross.”

“You’re the weird one, you know?” Lily mocked growled at her, and Mimi just launched, flicking a grain of rice her way. “Anyways, he’s nice, and smart, and determined. I didn’t really see it at first, cus’ he’s got it a different way than you, but I don’t think he’s any less determined to get into the sect than you are. I wonder where he gets it from?”

Lily shrugged. “It’s not really something I want to pry into.”

“I mean, your parents got killed by the empire, and he came from that way—” she didn’t finish that sentence, because Lily had reached across the table, grabbed her shirt in a fist, and dragged her bodily out of her seat.

Eyes ablaze, she glared viciously at the suddenly meek girl. “What did I tell you not to bring up again? What did I say?”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I, you—”

Lily snarled, and tossed Mimi to the ground, storming out of the dining room before anyone could think enough to get her in trouble. Stupid, idiot…

Bad memories.

The orphanage felt a little darker, that night. Colder.

Lonely.

………

The semester went on.