Gratin d’Artichauts

They were there huddled for a while, Caleb’s arms wrapped around Lily’s weeping form. After a period of silence, Lily reached up and began to wipe at her eyes with the sides of her arms hurriedly, pulling away slightly.

“Sorry, this was supposed to be a relaxing time. I thought it might come up eventually, but not that it would still hit so hard,” She sniffed.

Caleb reached up and helped straighten Lily’s hair, “You don’t need to apologize, it would honestly be weirder if you kept stone-faced through all that. Jesus, Lil, I didn’t know you had been through all that.”

Lily blinked and looked over at Caleb, “Lil? No one’s called me that since…”

Caleb’s mouth formed a round “o,” and he instantly looked apologetic, “Sorry, I guess I fell into an old rhythm without thinking. I'll try to avoid it if it bothers you.”

The plant woman shook her head, “No, doesn’t bother me…it was nice actually.” She looked up at Caleb through eyelashes glistening still with remnants of tears. She then wiped her eyes and cleared her throat, “Caleb, I-this is all sorts of messed up.”

Falling back to sit, Caleb let out a long sigh, “In general, or do you have a specific thing on your mind?”

“Hey, I’m being serious here,” Lily pouted, “Obviously, this whole situation is fucked up; it was designed to be. A bunch of sick people are getting their jollies watching me in this situation.”

“You certainly don’t deserve it, Lil. You need to believe me, if I had any say in who got picked-” Lily held her hand up to cut him off.

“No, listen, please.” She lowered her hand and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before continuing, “As fucked as all this is, I hate this competition and what it does to us, and god, I still don’t know if I’ve forgiven you or not.” She punched her hand against her thigh, “But more than anything right now, I just want you to kiss me.”

This required Caleb to take a double take, unsure if he had heard correctly, “I’m sorry, Lily. I get you’re probably upset and want some comfort, but I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

“You’re an idiot sometimes, Mr. Ward.” Lily shot him a glare, but there was no heat behind her words, “Yeah, I know that’s a big part of it, I’m not stupid, but like…When we broke up, I didn’t stop loving you. I felt betrayed. I thought the person I loved didn’t think I was enough, and I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t even bear to hear any explanation beyond that, which is why I cut off all communication with you. So deep down, there is a part of me that still loves that stupid, stupid boy. I never faced that.”

Caleb scratched the back of his head, unsure of how to respond. The breakup had been hard, but he had been under the impression that Lily hated his guts; she would have been well within her rights to. Even so, he wasn’t entirely sure how any of this related to the current situation. “Lily, I can’t apologize enough for what happened. I’m trying really hard not to be that boy anymore.”

Lily waved her hand dismissively, “Caleb, I know that, I get that, jeeze, this isn’t about you, ok? I mean, it kind of is, but not directly. What I’m trying to explain is…” Lily made a frustrated expression and then gave off a huffing sigh, “Part of me still just thinks of you as my boyfriend and hasn’t moved on entirely separate from the pain I felt. I never unpacked or processed those emotions, and then, with what happened with my family, I kind of had other things taking up mental real estate.”

Sitting there and trying to listen, Caleb let the words soak in for a moment before opening his mouth and closing it again. He ran through responses in his mind and finally settled on, “What do you need me to do?”

Lily threw her arms up and let them fall before smiling and making an exasperated sound, “I don’t know! Goddamnit, Stella was right, I am a huge fuck up.”

“Lil, I don’t think you're a fuck up; I think you had a lot of unfortunate things happen to you. It makes sense you wouldn’t have processed everything.” The master said comfortably and pulled her back into a hug.

The plant woman gave a wry chuckle, “Not really helping the confusion here.” Despite her words, she nuzzled against his shoulder.

Caleb reached up and began to stroke her hair gently, “You sounded like you needed a hug, sorry.” He shook his head, “I get it, when lots of things like that happen real close together, I don’t know if anyone’s brains are equipped to deal with it. I think we’re all experiencing a microcosm of it here.”

He moved his hand to her back, “I can’t be the boyfriend you had before, and let's be real, I don’t think it would be good for either of us if I were that guy. But, if you need someone to comfort you and be there for you, in whatever way you need, I can be that person.”

Lily giggled against him, “Is this the traumatized way of telling me its ok to think of you as my boyfriend?”

Caleb recoiled defensively, “Labels are hard right now, I don’t know what to call most people here, including, no, especially, the ones I’ve slept with.” he gave a beleaguered sigh and then smiled, “One thing I’m not confused by is knowing I care about you so much, Lil.” He separated from her to look her in the eye, “So I’m whatever you need me to be.”

Lily’s face flushed crimson, and she scrunched up her face intensely to the point that Caleb thought she was in pain and called out, “Are you ok?”

“Trying! To prevent! Pollen!” She squeaked out, eyes squeezed shut, and then, after much heavy breathing and sounds of effort, she finally relaxed, “Jesus, I was about to glitterbomb this whole place, you need to warn a lady!”

Caleb frowned, “Sorry for being open about feelings?”

“Shut up.” The plant girl leaned in and gave him a short peck on the lips before retreating away and tucking her hair behind her ear. Caleb just sat dumbfounded for a minute before she looked up at him with a coquettish grin, “So what now?”

Caleb felt his mouth go dry, and he looked around the jazz club, “I um…”

“If you don’t have any ideas…” Lily smirked and got to her feet, “Why don’t we head back to your room. There’s been something I’ve been wanting to do with you, and I’ve held back long enough.”

On the ground, Caleb audibly gulped, “Um, sure…back to my room.”

Ever since the confrontation that morning, Mira had not left her room. Her hair was down out of her normal bun, and she was laid out on the bed. She knew she couldn’t hide in here forever; it wouldn’t solve anything. But now that everyone knew what had happened, she could pretty much count on no one listening to her going forward, which was trouble because there was still Stella’s date to worry about, not to mention the challenge. They still didn’t know what to expect from that, and others would surely need her guidance. She had to come up with a plan to help the others get through that.

She had to, or else the thoughts of self-hatred and shame would consume her. Why did it end up this way? She knew why Eliza needed the shove, but…she reached for the Eliza mask sitting on the bed and felt its porcelain surface. She hadn’t thought, with what she had seen…

Eliza had been in a cycle of self-doubt, crippling anxiety, and a fear that bad things would happen if she left the room. The mask was tricky; mind-reading wasn’t the golden gooze she had expected it to be. People’s mind’s it turned out, didn’t think linearly or in an organized manner. Any time she touched the mask while the professor was near, it was like diving headfirst into an ice-cold current and then, despite the shock, trying to find a specific fish.

Through repeated use, she had concocted her plan. It had to be upsetting enough to focus her thoughts, break the cycle of retreating to her room as if it were safe, and give her an enemy to focus on. It had to do all of those things. So why had it resolved the way it did? She stared at the mask. She knew why. It was banal, childish. Too stupid to waste thought on. People may hate her now, but it had worked…that was enough.

She scratched away at the skin on her arm. Maybe she’d believe that.

Suddenly, there was a sound at the door, the click of the door handle being turned. Mira lunged for the mask to hide it behind her back as the door swung open and revealed Eliza looking…different. The last few days had seen the professor leaving the room, mostly unadorned; now her makeup was sharp with dusky eyeshadow and eyeliner. Instead of her normal clothes, she was wearing a black ribbed turtle neck, a brown leather jacket, and tight black jeans that had chains dangling off of them. As she entered the room, she cocked her hip to the side and gave Mira a sharp look of disdain.

“You’re here then,” Was all she said before waving her hand, “Cmon, bring em in.” At the signal, several fauns holding shopping bags entered the room and began unloading clothes into Eliza’s closet

Eliza: 12 BP - 5 BP: 7 BP remaining

Mira watched as the fauns continued to pack the clothes in and raised her voice, “It seems like you had a busy day.”

Eliza just turned her eyes to Mira and narrowed them, but didn’t respond as the fauns finished and filed out of the room, closing the door behind them. As the click of the handle fell into place, the professor turned to Mira. “So, everyone knows you’re a piece of shit now.”

Swallowing and trying to maintain composure, Mira held very still, gripping the porcelain tight in her hands, “Caleb made sure everyone knew…he was quite upset.”

Eliza took a step forward, “So, what now then?” Her tone was even, but the way the words hung, and the way she raised her eyebrow made it clear she was waiting on Mira for something.

The agent turned to avert her gaze. There was something about the challenge in Eliza’s voice that put her on edge, and looking into her eyes made her uneasy. “I…I was just thinking about the next steps. I didn’t expect you to-grk” Her words were cut off as Eliza reached out and wrapped a finger around the metal ring of her choker and pulled her in.

The professor’s gaze was cold. “I meant, how are you going to start making amends and making it up to me personally?” Her words were even and measured and came out like ice.

Flicking her eyes to the other women before darting them away again, Mira’s mouth opened and closed several times. In terms of strength, Eliza was probably around the same as Mira, but right now, the Bengali woman’s arms felt weak at her side. Eventually she managed, “I…was just trying to-grk”

She was silenced by Eliza giving the choker a sharp tug, “Help, yeah, you’ve said that. I don’t care. You did wrong by me…you -violated- me. So I’m done hearing about your 'intentions'. I am only interested in what you are doing now to make it right.”

Mira could feel her chest heave, and despite herself, could feel her body standing on edge at the professor’s aggressive tone. Her face turned red, and she turned her gaze down, away from Eliza’s, and pulled the mask out from behind her back, offering it to the other woman. She tried to keep her voice even, a semblance of control, “A peace offering, take it and you’ll know that no one has access to your mind.”

Eliza reached out and snatched the mask from Mira with an impatience that suggested she felt the other woman might retract the offer. “Figures you’d have this, and that’s the whole reason you had me buy your mask, right? So you knew, whoever it was masquerading as you, if it came up. Well, don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of that.”

The Agent’s eyes shot open in alarm, “What do you mean?”

“See, that’s my secret, and I don’t feel like sharing it. “Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected”, that is my only hint.” She let go of Mira’s collar and let her fall back on the bed.

Mira scrambled to her knees, “Eliza, you know that in this place, not knowing where that is…people already hate me.”

“Oh, I see, that’s what's important about that? You don’t want to be hated now?” Eliza said absently as she tucked the mask into her bag, “You’re oddly inconsistent, Mira, you know that. Maybe you should have thought about that before sticking your hand between my legs.”

Mira shrank back, “Eliza, I just wanted…” She bit her lip, “You needed help, you were stuck…you’d still be in this bed if it weren’t for me!”

Eliza got up and walked back over, looking down on the agent, “Are you done?”

Mira looked down and nodded before feeling the sharp impact of Eliza’s hand against her cheek, the **** enough to send her careening to her side onto the soft mattress. She didn’t stay down long, though, as Eliza knelt and grabbed her once more by the choker.

“If you tell me one more time about how assaulting me was ‘helping’ me? I’ll kick you out of the room and let Lucian deal with you. Punishment transformations are always a real fun time here. Or maybe I’ll tell Caleb, and he can keep you from earning more VP. Or I’ll pick up a suitable sabotage that lets you enjoy how much being “helped” feels.” She let loose on the choker and let Mira fall limply before turning to begin getting changed.

Mira wanted to scream; she wanted to tell Eliza she was sorry, wanted to tell her she had never meant for it to get this bad. To explain how she had let her own feelings get in the way. But none of that was possible, and as she opened her mouth, the only thing she found coming out was her **** attempts to catch her breath as her chest heaved.

Without even turning back to look at her, Eliza spoke up again, “Also, you’re sleeping on the foot of the bed from now on. If you thought I was sharing space under the covers with you, you’ve got another thing coming. And if you try to sneak back in? We’ll revisit that topic from earlier about all the ways I can make your life hell.”

Mira stared at the wall, knowing this hell was one of her own creation, and as she straightened her outfit, resolved to endure it.

The trip back to the Master’s suite had been uneventful, with Caleb only glancing occasionally at Lily’s excited expression, trying to figure out what she had in mind. As they made their way into the suite, he was surprised to see her reach for the remote for the entertainment center and turn on the TV. Caleb stared blankly, “So when you said you had something you’ve been wanting to do with me…you meant watch TV?”

Lily blew a raspberry, “Rnng Wrong, I wanted to watch the greatest movie ever made together with you, The Princess Bride. We used to watch it all the time together when one of us was upset, and I thought it would be nice to do.” She turned to look at Caleb, her face looking crestfallen for a moment, “Do you not want to?”

Regardless of whatever expectations Caleb had had for today or coming back to the room, he smiled and shook his head, making his way to the couch and patting the seat next to him. “No, I do…I don’t think I’ve watched it since before everything happened. It will be nice to see it again with you.”

Lily’s smile returned as she clicked the movie to start and hopped onto the couch next to Caleb, leaning against him.