“Hey Tenuk!”
Elksia’s shrill, bird-like voice pierced the darkness, pulling Tenuk out of his mind fog. He had been sitting on the empty balcony, staring out into the void, minding his own business. But both Elksia’s presence and the smell of fresh, hot pizza was certainly enough to draw his attention.
“Oh, hey Elksia. Was wondering when you’d turn up.”
Elksia threw herself down next to Tenuk, dumping a tower of pizza boxes between them both. “I’m not late! Am I?”
“No.”
“Oh good! Boss gets pissed when I’m late!” Elksia continued to beam, opening the first pizza box. She hummed to herself, then grabbed two slices, handing the larger slice to Tenuk. “Eat up. You’re too small!”
Tenuk smiled. “You miss old lanky me?”
“Yep.”
“But this is how I…” Tenuk paused, looking down at himself. Blue skin, blue eyes, blue energy wings on his back and a tail twice the length of his body. He wasn’t always like this. He used to have red skin, wear long, silver nails and generated a constant blue and red electrical effect around himself. “This is how I am as a Kronospast now.”
“Do you miss being a Rethavok?” Elksia asked between large bites of pizza. It was a meaty pizza, but what the actual meat was, no one knew. “Actually, do you like you now? Do you miss the old days?”
Tenuk shrugged, taking a moment to identify the other toppings on his pizza. “The old days of being a quasi-celebrity? Yeah of course I do. We built a whole arena fighting system as a way to solve racial problems without going to war. We did so damn much. And then Arkay… went back to being a death god… and it all just fizzled out. You retired, Retvik got grumpy and my family issues all came back. It was a mess, and we kept on getting dragged into Arkay’s godly problems too.”
“So really, the universe blowing up wasn’t too bad?”
Dropping his pizza, Tenuk stared at Elksia. “What?”
“Like, it was bad for pretty much everyone. Universe went boom. Planets exploded. Stuff like that. But it wasn’t that bad for us. We all became gods. Got to do cool stuff. All ended back together. With new starts.”
Tenuk grunted, now rather hesitant with his slice of pizza. Meanwhile, Elksia had already started making her way through the second box.
“You think this is better?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Elksia shrugged, then stuffed a whole slice of pizza into her beaked mouth. “We’re sitting here, on a date, eating pizza. Good, yes?”
“That… somewhat ignores everything else that’s happened though.”
“That’s all past now. In the here, things are good! At least for us. For a change.” Elksia smiled. “Plus, I kinda always wanted us to be together.”
Tenuk blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I kinda always imagined us Dessaron would pair up at some point…” Elksia continued to smile, as she handed Tenuk more pizza. “We always had a thing. Best buddies, yes, but we are closer than that.”
“Despite the fact that we are all different species?”
“Never stopped you!” Elksia chirped. “Everyone else gets angry. Can’t have hybrid thingies. But Kronospasts are all like “I do what I want”. Plus, we’re gods now!”
“Not the same species of god.”
“That’s all… arbitrary!” Elksia paused. “Speaking of things with ‘r’s, you heard from Retvik and little Arky?”
“Not really…” Tenuk frowned. “I got a message passed to me from Retvik, but it cut off halfway through. They’re alive at least.”
“And how are you?”
“Me?” Tenuk seemed confused. “What do you mean?”
“How are you doing?”
“I am… eating pizza?”
Elksia giggled, moving the pizza boxes to one side. She then shifted herself closer to Tenuk and put an arm around him. “So am I. Could be better though.”
It took Tenuk way too long to get the message Elksia was sending. While a small voice in his mind was suggesting that this was somehow wrong… well, Tenuk had spent time with plenty of beings he shouldn’t have. Elksia here was his closest, oldest friend. What was the worst that could happen?
Smiling, Tenuk grabbed a slice of pizza and playfully fed it to Elksia. “Well, between you, the view and the pizza, there ain’t that much to make this better…”