“Hello, Litvir!”
“Hello, Miisa…”
Normally, Litvir would be much more enthusiastic about their regular cookie meet-ups with their forever-friend Miisa, but clearly they weren’t doing too well. Miisa noticed this immediately and decided to be blunt and ask what was wrong.
“You are not right today.”
Litvir inspected Miisa somewhat before answering, then wished they hadn’t. Miisa looked good in their Below Twenty armour. Really good. The black armour accentuated Miisa’s purple plating and light purple higher-caste trims. Litvir wasn’t sure why they had only just noticed this though.
“You are really not right today…”
With a sigh, Litvir rubbed their eyes. “I am sorry. I am rather tired. Work work work. Is all I do lately. Work and worry.”
“Worry? What are you worrying about?” Miisa asked. “Do you want to tell me? Maybe talking about the worries will make you feel better?”
“I guess…” Litvir frowned, then paused and looked at Miisa again. “You are pretty.”
That statement caught Miisa off guard, but they smiled and accepted it. “Thank you. You are nice as well! But you are also very stressed.”
“I am. All work, no rest. Makes me think weird. But also, things are just… uneasy overall. Mama Gath is… I do not know if I can say…”
“Are they ill?”
“No… Alright, please… please do not tell anyone… But mama Gath is… egg-ridden… Soon, I will have a little sibling. But also mama and dada are both very stressed about it because of mama’s past. And I feel I cannot talk about it to anyone.”
“Why can you not talk about it?” Miisa asked. “Having a little sibling sounds amazing!”
“Because mama Gath does not want to tell anyone until they lay the egg and then the egg hatches. Because of last time.”
“That… that makes sense. But you can still talk to me!”
Litvir grunted. “I guess. But there are many things going on that I cannot talk about. Like, Kyr Kairos has been acting weird, and old mama Elkay has been super busy, and I have been doing more patrols again because Kyr Epani is scared and… and…” Litvir trailed off again, then looked at Miisa some more. “And… I am having thoughts I do not like at all. I keep on looking at you and thinking thoughts that I am not old enough to have. I think it is because I am stressed though.”
“It is okay. Your life is weird. You are allowed to be stressed. I want to help. Is there something I can help with?”
“Not really…”
“Is there a small thing you want to talk about?”
“I… I guess?” Litvir went back to thinking. “Mama Gath is going to go to Thresisa where they used to live, to have the egg. They want privacy and get more of it there. But they do not want to go on their own, and they have asked me to go with them on the flight.”
“That does not sound too bad?”
“Yes but…” Litvir hesitated. “I am scared of two things. They are very silly things.”
Miisa shrugged. “You are allowed to be scared of things. We are all scared of things but it is how we act that determines how good things are. Do you want to tell me what you are scared of, so I can help?”
“They are silly fears.”
“I do not know if they are silly unless you tell me.”
Litvir sighed, then relented. “The first thing is that I am scared of being on a ship. I have not been on a ship before. It is loud and scary though and I do not want to be trapped inside a tube.”
“Well, I get that, but ships are very safe. Rethan ships in particular are very safe!” Miisa smiled. “I would offer to also come with you but I do not think you need me there. I will however give you a fact: outside of the Sudden Darkness, there have been very few Rethan ship crashes. There as not been a single Rethan ship incident for as long as you have been alive!”
“That… I have not been alive very long though.”
“When there are hundreds and thousands of ships every single day, a year and a half is a lot.”
“I… I guess…”
Miisa noticed that Litvir seemed somewhat convinced and decided to move onto a new subject. “So, what else are you scared of?”
Litvir frowned. “When we go to Thresisa, I will be meeting mama Gath’s parents. And I have no idea what to do or say or what to expect. I mean, me having parents was a somewhat new thing, but that made some sort of sense. What… what even IS a grandparent and how do I talk to them? I do not want to upset them, doubly because mama and dada say they are the best people ever…”
Miisa blinked. They had forgotten briefly that Litvir was not that normal. After a moment of thought though, Miisa came up with an idea.
“That is alright. Do you want to meet my parents and my grandparents and get all the awkwardness out with them first?”
“That… that is even more terrifying.”
Miisa shrugged. “Maybe, but my parents and grandparents are very normal. My dad and my grandparents work on the farm and my mum works in an office doing maths stuff. They would like to meet you anyway because I talk about you a lot.”
“You do?”
“You are my first proper forever-friend, so of course I do! Also I know a god in person so they ask a lot.”
“Oh…” Litvir hesitated. “Sometimes I forget that I am a god and I am weird to everyone else.”
“You are not weird in a bad way.”
“I guess…” Litvir awkwardly nibbled at a cookie while they thought about Miisa’s idea. “Are your parents nice?”
“Yes. They made me, after all.”
That comment made Litvir giggle. “When are you next seeing them?”
“This weekend. Sunday.”
“Can I come?”
Miisa smiled. “Of course. Meet me at my place at 1100 and I shall take you.”
Litvir smiled back. “Thank you, Miisa. You are a great friend.”
“WE are great friends!” Miisa laughed. “Now, let us eat these cookies before we have to go back to work.”
“Heh, good idea…”