Morningstar

Phoenix is at Zanna’s room. She is looking out the window. Her eyes are on the building next door, which is another girl’s dormitory.

“What are you looking at?” Rin asks. She is lying on the floor.

“Waiting for Tilray to arrive,” Phoenix answers.

“Why?”

“She found me walking out of the mentors’ dorm,” she says. “She knows that I am seeing someone.”

“Does she know that it is Icarus?

“I don’t think so,” Phoenix answers. “I need to act as if I still hate him in front of her.”

“Wait, you don’t hate him, slash, like him anymore?” Rin asks.

Phoenix shrugs. “I don’t hate him when he is being honest.” She looks again out the window and spots Tilray. “There she is. She is making her way towards her dorm. Once she is there, I am going to see Icarus.”

Zanna stands up from the bed. “I should talk to Wither,” she says.

“Wait, you are leaving too?” Rin asks, sitting up. “What am I supposed to do while you are gone?”

“Find someone to hang out with,” Phoenix answers.

“Shawn should be free to–” but Phoenix doesn’t hear the rest. She is already out the window and climbing down the building. “There is a door, you know?” Rin shouts after she lands. Phoenix ignores her.

She walks towards the mentors’ dorms which are almost a mile away from the students’ dorms. She walks quicker than usual, but not trying to draw attention to her. Icarus does not want anyone to know that they are something and she will respect his wishes. When she makes it to his dorm, she knocks on the door.

Icarus opens the door. “Hello. Come on in.” When she enters, he closes the door. Then he pulls off his mask and is the first one to kiss her. “I wanted to do that this morning.” He moves away from her. “I am making omelets. Do you want some?”

“Wait, you eat anything apart from apples?” she asks.

“Of course, I do,” he says. She cannot help but stare at his smile. It doesn’t fit his character. His smile is warm, while he plays a cold assassin. He told her that he was going to be vulnerable with her, and he has kept that promise.

“Sure,” she answers as he heads to the small kitchen in his one room and one-bathroom dorm. She sits down on the small table. “I need to ask you something.”

“All right,” he answers. She cannot see his face since he is facing the opposite direction.

“I spoke to Quin today,” she says. She sees when he lowers the spatula and his back tenses. “Is she who I remind you of?” When Icarus kissed her for the first time, he told her that he reminded her of someone. She thought at first that he was speaking about his best friend that died, but now she does not know.

“You are nothing like her,” Icarus answers.

“That’s not an answer,” she says.

Icarus remains quiet for a few minutes. “At first, you did,” he says. “You are both strong and independent. You both carry yourselves and the rest easily. You will do anything to get to your goals, or so I thought. At the assassin’s trial, I tested you with Rin. I asked you to shoot me, but if you did, Rin would die. I thought that you would, but you didn’t. Your goal was to kill me, but you changed that for your friend. Quin would never do that.”

Phoenix nods, even though that he cannot see her. He turns around with two plates, and Phoenix sees that he has lost his smile. He places one plate in front of her with utensils and he sits across from her.

“I lied to you,” he says after a while. “I lied to the whole group. What I told you about the night before the assassin’s trial on Nightlight is not completely real. Yes, we were punished for a day without food, and yes, she and I snuck out of the dorms to steal food. We were caught by Night, but this is the part of the story where I started to lie. Night did punish me, but it wasn’t just because I took the blame. My friend had made a deal with the assassin and Night. She was supposed to convince a couple of the students to sneak out. That way some would have gotten caught and killed. I was the only one foolish enough to do what she said.

When Night caught us, he did shatter my leg, but he also pulled his whip and whipped me several times. That’s how I got these two scars on my face and on other parts of my body. My friend and Night left, thinking that I will bleed out and die.”

“What did you do?” Phoenix says. She feels bad for asking, but she is curious.

“Crawl my way to the dorms,” he answers. “A student saw me crawling her way. She quickly picked me up and took me to her room where she cleaned my wounds and stitched them. The next day, I was limping my way to the assassin’s trial.

“The worst thing was when I saw my best friend. She didn’t look relieved, not even surprise, to see me alive. I was in love with her, and she had betrayed me for a safe passage on the first trial and to be on the assassin’s team on the rest of the trials. She was not the only one, though. Four other students also formed a deal with the assassin to help him hunt us down.”

“So, she didn’t die?” Phoenix asks, remembering the story.

“No,” Icarus says. “She survived. She even tried to kill me again on the assassin’s trial.” He holds his fork firmer. “She was Quin.”

“What?” Phoenix asks. She cannot believe what he is saying. That’s why he punished her when she mentioned Quin. “I am sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he answers. “I am the one who should be sorry. I mentioned that you reminded me of her. You are nothing like her.” He looks up at her. “What did she tell you when you spoke to her?”

“That she knows about us,” she says. “And that I am your new kitty.”

“Ah,” he says. “Same thing that happens every time. She said the same thing to Fey. Don’t pay her any attention. She is trying to get to you.”

“But why is she doing that?” Phoenix asks. “Is she jealous?”

“Don’t know, and don’t care about it,” Icarus answers. “She can go rot for all I care.”

Phoenix nods. She takes a bite from her omelet. She did not expect it to be this delicious. Where did he learn to cook?

“My name isn’t actually Phoenix,” she says after minutes. He has been sharing his darkest secrets with her. She should start doing it. “Phoenix is my last name. My real name is Angelina…” She looks at her plate, waiting for him to answer, but he doesn’t. “Well?”

“I already knew,” he says. “I read your file before the trial, just like everyone else’s.”

“Then why do you call me Phoenix?” she asks.

“Because that is what you wanted me to call you,” Icarus says. “It is not my place to question it. I will continue calling you Phoenix until you tell me otherwise.”

She smiles, but her smile fades quickly. “Aren’t you going to ask why no one calls me Angelina?” He shakes his head. “I will tell you anyway. Ever since I remember, everyone has called me Phoenix. Maybe it is because of my hair and the relation with the firebird. I don’t know, but Drano was the only one who called me Angelina.” She looks back at him. “Wanna make out?”

“Excuse me?” Icarus asks. Is he not accustomed to people being straightforward?

“I’m tired of talking about this,” she says. “Let’s make out.”

He smiles. “Thought that you would never ask.”

***

Rin left Zanna’s room with her hands in her pockets. What should she do while Phoenix is getting her freak on with Icarus and while Zanna is figuring out with Wither what they have going on? She told them that she is going to see Shawn. He should be free.

She makes her way to the boys’ dormitory. As she walks in, she spots some students inside. They stare at her, grinning in the process. Rin knows that entering into the boys’ dormitory is at her own risk. Men act like pigs, and even more when a woman is at their safe haven.

Rin smiles at them as she moves her black hair. She doesn’t care if they want her. They can see, but they cannot touch. If they try to, she will simple shoot their manhood.

When she reaches to Shawn’s room, she is about to knock on the door when she sees that the room across from Shawn’s room is open. There are a few guys, like five or six, drinking and talking loudly. One of them moves to the door as Rin knocks on Shawn’s door.

“Hello,” the person who headed towards the door says. He is tall with brown hair. He has green eyes and his face is somehow shaped like the letter V. “Aren’t you Rin from the legendary gunslingers?”

“I didn’t know that we were legendary,” Rin answers. “But yes, that’s me.”

“Are you kidding? Everyone knows you. You four are some of the greatest students at Morningstar.” Rin realizes that he is counting Meer. He extends his free hand towards Rin because in the other he has a cup. “I’m Padden.”

“Rin,” she says as she shakes his hand, “but you already know that.”

The door opens in that moment only enough to reveal Shawn’s face and part of his black hair. “Yes?” he asks.

“Phoenix and Zanna had things to do,” Rin says. “So, I came to waste time.”

He looks back inside. “I am a little busy right now.”

“Doing what?” she asks. He does not answer. “Come on, open up.” He does and she enters only to find him naked. She finds a woman at the bed covering on sheets. “Ah, not a what but a who. You could have said so.”

Shawn shrugs. “Care to join us?”

“Don’t be a pig,” she answers as she turns around to leave.

“Then what are you going to do in the meantime?” Shawn asks. She catches the eyes of Padden still standing by the door and looking towards her.

“I guess that I am going to spend some time with Padden and his friends,” she says as she walks out. She stops in front of Padden. “Room for one more?”

“Of course,” he says, and he turns to face everyone in the room. “Everyone, this is Rin.” It doesn’t take long before they hand a drink to Rin and start to create dialogue.

***

Zanna does not know which room is Wither’s. She does not even know if he is spending the night at Lexan’s. She walks inside one of the boys’ dorms. She continues to look straight up, ignoring whoever is looking at her. She walks up to two persons that are standing on the hallway.

“Excuse me, do you know where Wither’s room is?” she asks.

One of the men looks at her from down to up. “Looking to have some fun with someone?”

“No,” she says. “I just want to talk. Now, where is Wither’s room?”

The man looks at his friend and this time his friend speaks. “I can offer more than what Wither is offering.”

“I do not need anything from you besides directions to his room.”

He looks at the first person who spoke. “She does not get it.”

The first person to speak looks at Zanna. “Come on. I’ll show you something else.” His hand goes to Zanna’s shoulder. Before he can touch her, she grabs his arm and bends it behind his back.

“Don’t touch me,” she says. She glares at the other man to not intervene. “I am going to ask again. Where is Wither’s room?”

“Two floors up, second door to the right,” he says.

Zanna lets go of him. “Thank you,” she says. She begins to walk away, but she feels him heading towards her. She turns quickly and punches him on the stomach. He falls to his knees and she continues her way. She said no, and that should have been enough.

She follows the directions of the man. She climbs two floors and knocks on the second door at the right. The door opens to reveal Lexan smiling.

“Oh, hi, Zanna,” he says. “What brings you here?”

“I need to speak with Wither,” she answers.

“Of course,” he says. “Come on in.”

Zanna enters the room. She finds Wither sitting on the bed. Vil is sitting on the floor with a weird doll and pins in front of her.

“Z-Zanna?” Wither asks.

“I need to speak to you,” she says.

“Vil and I will wait outside,” Lexan says.

“Why?” Vil asks.

“Vil,” Lexan warns.

She groans. “Fine.” She leaves the doll on the floor and leaves the room.

Wither stands up as the door closes. He leans on his cane. “W-What brings you h-here?”

“Rin and Phoenix told me that I am not being clear,” she says.

“About?” he asks.

“The kiss,” she says. “Are you confused?”

“A little,” he says. He looks at his hands. “I-I-I don’t know what it was about…”

She looks at her hands too. “I felt like kissing you… I still do.” She suddenly finds something interesting on the back of her hand. “I don’t talk about feelings.”

“I’m, um, bad at talking also…”

“What I am trying to say is that you have my permission to kiss me,” she says. She looks quickly. “That is if you want to kiss me.”

“I-I think I do…” He shakes his head and looks at her. “No. I do.”

“Well, you also have my permission if you want to grab my hand in public,” she says.

“All right,” he says. “Can I…” He trails off and speaks the next sentence in a lower voice. “Can I call you my-my-my…?”

“Your girlfriend?” she asks. He nods slowly and continues to look down. “If you want to. But if you do, I might call you my boyfriend. Do you mind?”

He smiles shily. “I don’t,” he says. He looks up at her and for a few seconds, they stare at each other. “Can I kiss you?”

She nods. Wither takes a step closer towards Zanna. One of his trembling hands rises to her face. His hand feels cold against her skin. Then he catches his breath and leans in. He kisses her and she lets him until something inside of her makes her pull him and kiss him until she has enough.