(TWST Idia/Cater) so i'll dance with Cinderella

THE AUTHOR CANNOT DRAW, SORRY

Starting over was harder than it sounded, especially when the two starters-over in question were Cater and Idia.

It was difficult to pinpoint whose fault it was, really.

On one hand, you could blame Idia for not making an effort to continue their conversations, whether online or in-person. He, however, refused to inculpate himself—it'd be hard for anyone to even open the DMs where you had once poured your heart and soul to another person and read them over again as "just friends!" And for all the parties involved, it was pointless to ask Idia to pursue the friendship IRL, considering he rarely left his room and preferred the company of no one.

Cater, being on the braver side when facing embarrassing situations, was able to power through their backlog of DMs, but for once, the social butterfly was at a loss for what to say—er, type—next. Why was he suddenly so bad at this? He was usually an excellent conversationalist! It was totally one of his best qualities!

And at first, he wasn't particularly sensitive to Idia's desire to stay in his room. His interest in preserving the friendship was strong enough that he would occasionally invite Idia on outings. Going outside was already a terrible idea to Idia, but Cater went the extra mile by also inviting other students to come along with them. This caused said terrible ideas to unwittingly turn into Idia's worst nightmare, and he declined every invite.

That was until a week later, when Idia was hunched over his computer on an admittedly slow round of Some Game 2, a knock sounded at the door. The sound was muffled through his headphones, but upon hearing it and realizing Ortho wasn't around to answer the door, Idia dragged himself away from his computer to dissuade the knocker from pursuing any further course of action. He was surprised, however, to see Cater standing on the other side.

His disbelief swelled when Cater walked in carrying a large sheet tray covered in aluminum foil. "I brought focaccia—Trey made some for yesterday's unbirthday party, so I thought I'd swing by to share." He peeled back the foil to reveal a large slab of bread covered in cheese and apple slices, which were arranged in a delicate Heartslabyul rose pattern.

Idia took a step back. "Uh, um, w—what are you doing here?" This was the first time since he'd been sick that he'd said more than two words to Cater across any platform.

Cater sighed. "C-M-I-I-W, but you like hanging out in here, right? I don't know why I didn't realize that, or else I totally would've suggested it sooner."

Hanging out? Is that what Cater wanted to do right now? Idia had never hung out with anyone in-person before! Well, anyone besides Ortho! And Ortho wasn't here to save him at present—he was helping Azul at Mostro Lounge! But could Idia really say "no" without being rude, especially when Cater had brought him ... bread ... and was trying so hard to accommodate him?

"Oh! T—that's super nice of you to offer, but I kind of ... um, have a lot going on at the moment." Apparently, he could.

As if on cue, they both turned to look at Idia's holoscreen monitor. Cater raised an eyebrow. "I recognize that game. Lilia's talked about it before—Some Game 2, right? It's where you do some super low-key fighting stuff and then go AFK for a while as the game ... I-D-K, refreshes your stamina? Or something? I've never played it."

Idia winced. Well, that jig was up.

"Come on," Cater urged, "I promise I'll be, like, chill, and everything! And I'll leave in fifteen minutes, anyway, since I need to catch a perfect sunset snapshot from the Heartslabyul Lounge windows."

You can handle fifteen minutes of socialization, Idia, his internal monologue babbled, Underworld knows you've spent way more than fifteen minutes socializing with this person before, anyway, even if it was just online.