Rising Shards

Evy pulled into a small parking spot in an alley.

“Yeah, I know you were expecting a lab,” Evy said, sounding a bit bashful. “Or something probably better, but…”

She weakly gestured past the backyard near the parking spot, towards a one story house.

“It’s cute!” Stella said.

The snow falling on it made it look even cozier than the cabin restaurant. Stella and Evy got out of the car, greeted by a good foot of snow on the ground.

“Maybe we should walk around to the sidewalk.” Evy said.

“Lead the way,” Stella said.

The two penguin-walked down the alley and around the block through the snow and slick spots. Stella kept almost falling, but she could only giggle each time. There weren’t many other cars out, so the blizzard brought a gentle quiet to their surroundings, with only intermittent laughing from near falls echoing around them.

“I have one neighbor with a snowblower that gets to it pretty quick,” Evy said. “There used to be a Cani with snow powers that had a pretty affordable service but he moved to another town, and my landlord got cheap anyways.”

“Well, your landlord can figure all this out then,” Stella said. “Or I guess, our landlord. For the night at least. And then maybe the month if I get the job.”

“I already told you,” Evy said, suddenly grabbing Stella’s arm at her elbow. “You’re gonna get it.”

“I…” Stella said, internally screaming at Evy’s grasp on her arm. It was somehow comforting and powerful at the same time. “Thank—whoa!” While she was lost staring at Evy, she misstepped on a particularly icy patch fell over into puffy snow. With Evy’s firm grasp on her, she tumbled too, landing right on top of her. Stella’s heart was pounding.

“Oh my god, that could have been so bad.” Stella said. "Good thing you're a doctor. If I was hurt, you could...fix me up."

Evy was on top of her still. Saying nothing.

“Sorry!” Evy said, getting up quickly. “I was just spacing out a bit. Sorry.”

“I-it’s fine,” Stella said, admittedly a bit disappointed.

“Are you alright?” Evy said, holding her hand out to Stella.

“Yeah, the snow’s really soft and fluffy. I don’t mind this kind of blizzard, honestly.”

“And we’re home, so we don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the night.”

“Yeah!” Stella said.

Evy led Stella inside her rental house and the two stomped the snow off their boots and shoes and got their coats and gloves put away. With all of Diast’s talk about garbage, Stella didn’t really see much of a mess. It wasn’t a big place, with mainly just a living room, two bedrooms, and a kitchen on the main floor. There were plenty of bookshelves that seemed to have a healthy mix of bound scientific journals, mainly about Cani studies, and all kinds of fiction. There were lots of figures on each shelf as well, which Stella found incredibly adorable. Evy scowled as she showed off her former roommate’s room, which was currently empty.

“They really cleaned out quick, huh?” Stella asked.

“Yeah,” Evy said. “They must’ve hired movers or something, ugh. But, thanks to you, I don’t have to worry!”

“Yeah!” Stella said, holding her hand up for a high five. There was a moment of awkward waiting, but once Evy noticed she reciprocated with a smack that probably had some leftover, built up fiery rage reserved for the roommate that abandoned her.

“So this would be my room, then?” Stella asked.

“Yeah, once we get the stench out.” Evy said. “I’m not one for tours, so sorry if I showed you all that pretty quickly. I can explain the little stuff later, like how you have to jiggle the stove handle to get it to go sometimes. But…aside from that, what do you think? Are you still good about it now that you’ve seen the place?”

“It’s fantastic,” Stella said. “And it’s so close to the school and…”

“What’s up?” Evy asked. “You’re trailing off there.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking," Stella said. “You’re not this nice to every new recruit at the school, are you?”

“Hell no,” Diast said. “Well, I mean. I’ll help out. Just. I want to help you out a lot more.”

“Ah,” Stella said. Even though she was just lying down in snow for a bit, she still felt very warm. Evy led her to the couch in the living room and handed her two remotes and a game controller.

“It’s not a great couch but it works,” Evy said. “I don’t really have people over, so I use it more for when I want to give my back a different bed when Sare was out.”

“Gotcha,” Stella said, sighing as she sat down on the couch.

“And here, one sec,” Evy said. “Put whatever you want on, I don’t have cable but my eGame Home has all the good streaming stuff on it.”

Stella nodded as Evy left.

“I know I’m a jumpsuit girl, but when I’m home I gotta be a bit cozier.” Evy said. “I’ll go grab you some blankets, too.”

Stella tried not to think about Dr. Evy Diast changing clothes a room away from her. She tried very hard not to notice that Evy didn’t shut her door fully, leaving a sliver open that had Stella’s imagination racing. She made sure to text Zeta to let her know she was safe and had made it to her ‘hotel’ for the night.

Thinking more about her own warmth than anything else, Stella abruptly took her sweater off; she had a camisole under it but she still felt like she was doing something more akin to stealing a precious ruby from a highly guarded museum (a museum run by villains or something nefarious of course, Stella wouldn’t even imagine herself committing crimes without some kind of noble pursuit behind it). Now that she was comfier, she found an easy to watch sitcom on one of the streaming apps on Evy’s console, happy to see they each had viewed the same hundred-plus episode show in full.

Evy returned to the room with a couple blankets and some cans of soda, and Stella tried really very hard not to stare at her sleepwear. It was just a t-shirt and shorts but seeing Evy in a t-shirt and shorts made her feel a lot of things at once.

“I know it’s more caffeine but…” Evy seemed to pause seeing Stella in her camisole. She turned to the TV. “Yes, Koz’s Pizza Place, great choice!” Evy sat down next to Stella on the couch, with each getting under a blanket.

For the length of one 22-minute episode of Koz’s Pizza Place (with a few commercials thrown in, Evy had the basic plan for OKWatchThis), the two sat relatively silently, chuckling a bit at the show, and for any brief arm bumps from how close they were sitting.

“I could watch this all night,” Stella said.

“Same here,” Evy said.

“It’s just a perfect comfort food show. And not just because of the pizza.” Stella said. “It’s also a good background show. You know?”

It took Stella a second to realize what she had just said.

“Yeah,” Evy said. “Really great to just have on in the background while you do…whatever.”

The focus on the TV seemed to slip away. Stella found herself biting her lip with her fangs each time Evy leaned forward, resting her elbows on her legs as Stella leaned back on the couch. After a second episode, Evy yawned.

“Are you going to bed soon?” Stella asked. It came out a lot whinier than she intended, but she didn’t want the night to be over already.

Evy seemed to think over her answer for a while.

“That depends,” Evy said. “Do you want me to go to bed?”

“I…” Stella said, also thinking over her answer. “I think I’d like to put a few more episodes on in the background. While we…do whatever.”

Evy smiled. “I wouldn’t mind joining you for that.” She sat down back beside Stella, a bit closer than last time. She leaned her head on her fist as she had her elbow on the back of the couch, eyebrows raised. “What kind of whatever were you thinking, Stella?”

There was a brief pause between the two, a last silent moment as they both had their eyes firmly locked onto each other, making sure they both wanted the same thing. Then Stella wrapped her arms around Evy, and within an instant their mouths were desperately pressing against each other’s, their reciprocal affection finally erupting. Both took turns being more dominant, pushing the other back onto the couch.

“I like this kind of whatever,” Evy said between kisses when she was over Stella.

“We are gonna be up all night,” Stella whispered as she trailed kisses up Evy’s neck, stopping at her ear. “Plenty of time for whatever. Right, doctor?”

Evy’s shuddering reaction was just what Stella wanted, and when Evy caught Stella giggling at it, she started laughing as well.

“We are going to have a very good night, Stella,” Evy said.

* * *

Stella stared up at the ceiling. She and Evy had eventually ended up in Evy’s bed, and each only had a blanket covering them as they caught their breath, both pretty sweaty but both also immensely satisfied.

“Oh my god,” Stella said.

“Good oh my god, right?” Evy said.

“Yes.”

“Because yeah, me too,” Evy said. “Because. Wow.”

“Yeah. Oh my god.”

The two needed a few more minutes to catch their breath. Once things were more settled, it started to sink in for Stella that all that had just really happened, and wasn’t an elongated daydream on a boring work shift. Stella rolled over to face Evy, unsure of what to say next.

“You know, I was just happy to see you today,” Evy said. “So to say things went better than I expected is an absolutely absurd understatement.”

“Me too,” Stella said. “I guess everything just fell so perfectly in place tonight, I’m still kind of in shock. Pretty good welcome party…”

“If you do suddenly regret all this and decide against paying rent or staying the month, I wouldn’t blame you.” Evy said. “Just so you know. I’d get it. And if you regret…this.” She gestured to their blanketed bodies. “And rather would have this be a one-time thing…I’d get that.”

“Well, my first thought,” Stella said. “I’d hope you’d blame me if I turned down paying your rent after saying I would. That’d be pretty scummy. And also pretty stupid, because that was genuinely the best sex I ever had in my life and…yeah.”

“I keep thinking ‘mindblowing multiwave of pleasure experience’ over and over in my head right now and that’s barely grammatically a phrase but yeah. It was that good.” Evy said.

“That describes it pretty well for me, too.” Stella said. She winced as a thought suddenly hit her. “Can we maybe…not tell Zeta yet? Obviously not about the sex, but the…once I’m at the library here…”

“Yeah, no. Right. Don’t worry,” Evy said, sitting up. “And there are some paperwork things we would have to fill out if we…kept it going while you’re. It might be a bad look to come out of the gates at work swinging with. Announcing…” Diast sighed and smeared her face in her hands. “You get me, right?”

“Yeah. But I also I don’t want all this to be like. A one off.”

“Oh.” Evy said.

“Unless you want that? If you want that, I—I well I guess I could deal with that, too.”

“No, no! I don’t want a night like this to be a one off either. This is the best I’ve felt since before I was with Caya.”

“I don’t want to rush you,” Stella said. “And we are going pretty fast here, but…” Stella traced her fingertips up and down Evy’s back.

“We could take it slow,” Evy said, shivering at the goosebumps from Stella's touch. “Well, the slow parts slow. We already took some fast parts fast.”

“I’m very much fine with taking the fast parts fast if it stays that good.” Stella said. She sat up as well, and kissed Evy on her cheek. “We do have a month, after all.”

“Yeah,” Evy said. “And we probably have a snow day tomorrow…”

“And I am still keyed up from the caffeine...” Stella said.

Evy didn’t hesitate to ask. “Ready for another round then?”

“Yup,” Stella said, not hesitating to answer.