Rising Shards

Plenty of chatter echoed around the hallway as Lillia’s class headed to a distant corner of the school near the nurse’s offices. Lillia spotted Ko Matora looking her way as soon as they were in line. She inched closer to the nearest friends, which happened to be Oka, Kalei, and Zeta. Lillia figured if she could work her way into the conversation, she wouldn’t have to worry being cornered by Ko again. The class stopped at a closed door, and the teacher that led them there told them to wait as they finished getting the machines ready inside.

“It’s only once every two months, Zates,” Kalei said.

“OK, but, no,” Zeta said. “I’m not wrong to think this is scary. They just said they’re ‘getting the machines prepped and loaded.’ Are you kidding me?”

“Pfft,” Kalei said. “It’s like going to the dentist.”

“Going to the dentist is very scary!” Zeta said. “Oka, back me up.”

“Zeta, have you been brushing and flossing enough?” Oka asked.

“I think you’d find out pretty quick if she hadn’t,” Kalei said. “Bad breath when you’re kissing and junk.”

“I brush and floss plenty!” Zeta said. "Right, Oka?"

"Brushing yes, but I've seen you skip flossing..." Oka said.

“Just pretend you never do, and you really need this cleaning to make sure your breath isn’t rank so you can kiss Oka again.” Kalei said.

This was starting to become a problem for Lillia. Ko was getting closer to her, and she was finding no way into the conversation. If she wasn’t talking to anyone, Ko might pull her aside, and Lillia was not emotionally or mentally prepped for that to happen again, especially with more friends nearby.

“It’s just like a professional buff job,” Kalei said. “Like that buffer thing they do at the dentist. But for Cani.”

“But can’t I just go to the regular dentist for that?” Zeta asked.

Lillia softly gasped, finally finding an opening into the conversation.

“The deep clean machines also protect the inherent power within our fangs,” Lillia said, maybe a bit too quickly for the others to register it. “A regular dentist cleaning wouldn’t be able to cleanse the unseen, powers or void related energies.”

“See?” Kalei said. “Thanks, Lillia.”

Lillia nodded, grateful that she’d bought herself enough time saying that to ward off any potentially frightening Ko Matora encounters, as the door opened and a teacher gestured for everyone to come inside. Lillia only that specific teacher, Mrs. Junea, at events like this. No one was entirely sure what classes she taught, but her assertive personality made her a good fit for directing the traffic of a group of Cani girls. Lillia had expected her older sister Lyla to be organizing this as she was one of the school’s nurses, but the nature of the machines meant they didn’t necessarily have to have someone with a more official medical or dental background working on it.

Once everyone was in the relatively spacious room, Mrs. Junea waved towards the machines, which looked like the devices used for eye exams, but with a bright purple colored rubbery mouth grip, and a vat of a minty looking substance attached with a tube.

“Alright girls,” Mrs. Junea said, patting the machine nearest to her. “These beasts are pretty self-explanatory. Go up to em, tighten the strap around your head, but not too tightly. Once you’re good there, clamp your fangs down on the bitey part, then press the big blue button. Then you hold tight until it’s all done. Then you spit in that little side cup and press the blue button again, that’ll replace that purple part, so then you don’t have to share your saliva and whatnot with the next person.”

Lillia winced at Junea’s crude phrasing as the teacher looked around the class. “We only have six machines, so everyone get in lines of I dunno, how many are there? About twenty or so?”

Junea made everyone wait as she counted all the students present.

“Twenty-six,” Junea said. “Huh. So…about four or five together? The sooner we organize this the quicker we’ll all get through this. Oh, and the far left one is the Kanibari one so all the Kanibari go over there. That throws all the numbering off, but you guys can figure it out, I don’t know.”

Lillia began to panic again. She didn’t dare look around and catch Ko looking her way as well; since the incident at the theater, she’d been caught staring Ko’s way multiple times, and each time gave Lillia a series of confusing, conflicting emotions. Lillia thought about telling Oka about Ko. She knew she probably should soon, but she was still processing how she felt about her in general. She wanted to be certain where she was emotionally at before burdening Oka with that. On top of that, she didn’t want to seem wishy washy regarding her feelings for Naomi, which were much less muddied and much more focused.

“I don’t wanna go first!” Zeta yelled, snapping Lillia out of her thoughts.

“Oh, quit being a baby,” Kalei said. “You go first so you can get this over with. I don’t care about the rest of the order, but I want you first because you’re gonna be really annoying otherwise moaning and crying for however long this takes.”

“I’ll go second,” Oka said. “That way I can be supportive of you, Zeta!”

Zeta seemed relieved enough about that to actually go first.

“Cool, then I guess I’ll go after,” Kalei said. “If you’re cool with that Lillia. And then you and Ko can figure out who gets to go first.”

“Me and…?” Lillia said, turning to see Ko Matora directly behind her, immediately way too close.

“Didn’t want to be on the same machine as Kai?” Kalei asked.

“I don’t want my gorgeous mouth anywhere near anything she bites on,” Ko said. “Lest I catch her various gum diseases.”

“I don’t think that’s…how gum diseases work.” Lillia said.

Zeta sat down on the chair behind the machine. It took a bit for her to get her head strapped in, which immediately looked uncomfortable for how far she had to crane her neck forward to get close to the part of the device she had to bite.

“So I just…bite—” Zeta started.

“Yes,” Kalei said. “Junea just explained it. Bite down and press the blue button.”

“Want me to get it for you?” Oka asked.

“Er…yeah.” Zeta said. “On…three, please?”

Zeta bit down.

“Alright, one…” Oka said. Kalei rushed in front of her and pressed the button. “Hey!”

The machines weren’t extraordinarily loud when they were going. All six machines going at once sounded about as loud as a single vacuum cleaner. Zeta remained mostly still as the cleaning machine got to work on her fangs, but still had some nervous jerks back and forth, mostly with her tail.

Lillia didn’t want to turn around again, because she knew Ko was still incredibly close to her. She took solace in that the machines were too loud for Ko to start a conversation with her.

What if she tries something, though? What if she attempts to approach me physically, wordlessly? And here of all places?

Just as Lillia started to imagine a pretty detailed scenario of just that, Zeta’s fang cleaning machine whirred down. She practically ripped the head strap off and stood up to feel her face. “Should my fangs feel as tingling-y and kinda maybe sore?” She asked. “Is this a problem? How soon can I eat again? Hang on, I need to check 3WMB for this…” Zeta got her phone out and frantically started searching.

“Maybe stay long enough for Oka to finish so she can leave with you.” Kalei said.

“Or…you two can both…stay the duration, perhaps?” Lillia said. With Oka gone, Lillia would lose her main social defense. With Zeta leaving as well, the chances for Ko to find more room to talk to her would be higher.

“Kalei, quit telling us what to do,” Oka said. “Saying what group we need to be in, what order we go in, it’s getting me a bit miffed. And potentially PO’d.”

“One of us has to, or we’re gonna sit here forever debating really pointless stuff.” Kalei said. “Remember the bacon egg breakfast sandwich incident?”

Oka pondered for a moment. “…alright, good point.” she said. “How are you doing, Zeta?”

“Do we have to stay here after we finish?” Zeta asked, sounding on the verge of tears. “My fangs are still tingling…”

“If you have to cry, I won’t blame you,” Oka said as she strapped herself in. “But try to hold it until I’m done so I can be there to console you.”

"I'll try..." Zeta said.

While Oka was getting her fangs cleaned, there was some commotion in a corner of the room. Laenie was in full Exa beast form, clinging to the ceiling, shivering. Aira tried to teleport up and pull her down, but kept getting swatted away.

“She must’ve gotten spooked!” Mrs. Junea yelled. “I’ll get the hook, y’all just keep going!”

Junea power walked off as the next round of machines finished.

“No teacher…” Ko said, her voice sounding like she stood maybe a centimeter behind Lillia.

Lillia refused to let her see any kind of reaction to Ko’s breath on her neck, even though part of her wanted to.

“Whoa, they do feel weird,” Oka said, rising from the machine. She immediately looked to Zeta. “Oh, Zeta’s…crying.”

Oka rushed to comfort her girlfriend, rubbing her shoulders gently. “She’s crying. I’m gonna get her somewhere not here. She’s crying.”

“N-no…” Lillia whispered, watching her defense slip away as Oka led Zeta out of the room. Once more she realized she had to tell Oka soon, because if Oka had known about her situation she wouldn't have left as hastily. Kalei climbed into the chair next, and even though the next round of fang cleaning made a conversation difficult, Ko was still standing incredibly close.

Does no one else notice this? Why couldn’t someone else join our line?

Most of the rest of the class were either chatting with each other or watching the corner where Laenie had been successfully pulled down with a big pool hook by Mrs. Junea, but was still in her Exa form, rolled up into a ball to prevent having her fangs cleaned.

Lillia’s fingers interlaced. She tried desperately to think about anything else, but an image wormed into her mind that she couldn’t ward off. The image of Ko suddenly wrapping her arms around Lillia’s waist, quietly holding her while no one else in the room noticed. Lillia shut her eyes as she imagined Ko’s breath on her neck again, leaning closer, holding her tighter in her strong, athletic arms, whispering softly…

“You wanna go first, or should I?” Ko asked in Lillia’s imagination. “Will I catch you staring if I go first?”

“Lillia?” Kalei asked.

“What?” Lillia said. “Huh? What? Huh?”

Kalei was already up from the machine, looking her way. “You’re up, dude.”

“Oh,” Lillia said. “Of course.”

Lillia cleared her throat and sat down, pressing the blue button to replace the mouthpiece that Kalei forgot to do.

“Er…sorry.” Kalei said.

Lillia looked back to Kalei before strapping her head in. At first, she thought Kalei was apologizing for not replacing the mouth guard, but she gave a quick glance between Ko and Lillia before leaving. A strange, almost regretful look.

That’s strange, Lillia thought, making a mental note to investigate that later.

Lillia’s fang cleaning went without incident, even though the whole time she had to actively resist the daydream of Ko Matora suddenly holding onto her. She thought she felt fingertips on her back, gently massaging her, but guessed afterwards that it was just a muscle twitch. She got ready to bolt out of the room, but Ko stopped her. She wasn’t standing as close now at least.

“Hey Lillia,” Ko said. “Let me see how they look.”

It took Lillia a second to realize Ko wanted to see her fangs. She obliged, offering a slight smile that showed them.

“Stunning,” Ko said. “I think I’m feeling a bit like Zeta…”

“How…so?” Lillia asked, hating that she felt immediately and intensely flustered. Her freshly scrubbed fangs feeling off didn’t help her already mushed feeling mouth.

“I’m feeling a bit scared by all this,” Ko said, tilting her head to the side. “Could you stay a bit and help me out?”

“I…suppose, that is, if…” Lillia said.

What is happening?

“Hmmm,” Ko said. “You know what would make me feel a lot better? You might think it’s a little weird…” Lillia didn’t answer, so Ko continued. “Could you…brush your hands through my hair? Just my ponytail, you know? That’ll calm me down.”

As Ko got ready in the machine, Lillia screamed internally as she for some reason moved to stand behind Ko, staring at her ponytail. Ko couldn’t look back with her head strapped in. Lillia knew she could just run away. Even a brisk walk would get her out of this. Still, her right hand reached out and began gently petting Ko’s hair. Even as the machine started and shook Ko around a bit, Lillia continued to rub her hand down Ko’s smooth hair. When it finished, Lillia took a step back as Ko practically leapt to her feet.

“Thanks,” Ko said. “Let’s do that again sometime.”

Ko winked at her and left. Lillia at some point wandered out of the room as well, something she didn’t notice until she had completely left the building. She was too busy staring at the hand that stroked Ko Matora’s hair.

What. Is. HAPPENING?