Hell Hath No Fury - Book One

Too Many Talks

"I retract my previous comments calling you unfunny," Cooker conceded and sat back in her chair and jutted her chin towards Theo, "you look like you were on the losing end of a fight with a bunch of forest fairies who can pack a punch."

Xyra snorted and brought her hand to cover her mouth. Theo still caught the noise though. She narrowed her eyes at both of them.

"If the jesting is done, we can start this meeting," Theo didn't try and hide the annoyance she was feeling that morning.

"We can't start. Red's not here," Cooker said, "which is odd. I'd assume she would come with you."

"She had some quartermaster shit to attend to this morning," Theo cleared her throat and shifted her gaze away from the girls.

"Everything okay?" Cooker asked, sensing the tension emanating from Theo.

"Aye, everything's fine," Theo shifted in her seat and scratched her head, restless and wanting to focus on debriefing each other, "hey, listen, did Red -uh- did she mention anything about me on your journey?"

Xyra raised an eyebrow, "I am going to need more context to your question."

"Did she say anything about me? Or her and I?" Theo asked, pushing her hair out of her face and looking up to meet Xyra's concerned face, no joking that time around, "Like about us?"

"Aye, she spoke about you. She was not writing poems about how much she missed you and reciting them to the whole crew but she mentioned missing you several times," Xyra replied, seemingly treading lightly with how she responded, "it was pretty obvious, it was not really something she had to announce. She was getting pretty anxious to see you those last suns of the journey."

"Okay," Theo looked down at her pants and picked a piece of lint off of it then placed her hand on her bare stomach, staring at it.

"Is... there a reason you're asking?" Cooker asked slowly once she realized Theo was not planning on elaborating.

Theo shrugged, "Just wanted to know. Was thinking about it yestersun and just wanted to follow up."

"Right," Xyra said but she didn't sound convinced, "speaking of following up, we never got to dock at the port that had the information about Red."

Theo shrugged and sank further back into the chair, "I'm sure it's fine."

"For getting laid last night, you sure are in a fucking mood," Cooker said and exchanged a look with Xyra, which Theo caught and raised her middle finger at.

"And you woke up late," Xyra added and opened her book again, "which makes even less sense as to why you are giving us an attitude."

"Will you both just shut up?" Theo closed her eyes with a huff.

"Maybe she's hungover," Cooker pointed out, "or hungry. Hey kid, you hungry?"

"It's hot and I'm still tired, that's all," Theo insisted, cracking one eye open.

"Cook, you heard her. Let's leave her alone," Xyra hummed, her nose already buried back in the book.

"Thank you," Theo sighed.

Theo was left alone, thanks to the policing of Xyra. That also meant she was left with her thoughts. She still hadn't fully processed what had happened the night before because what the fuck had happened? When they were leaving Corinspe, Ava was about to confess her love, and then their first night back together and she had ended things. Paused things. It was the same, she didn't get to be with Ava anymore. It was all so confusing. Theo didn't know what she had done. Ava had told her that they were fine, Theo hadn't done anything, and that it was all to protect their feelings; but it just didn't make sense.