A Familiar Face

Difference wise, there weren't a whole lot of drastic changes between us after that moment in Jun’s office, and the changes that did happen were practically nothing but good ones.

I don’t need to go into the details, it was normal everyday life except we met each other’s gaze across the table more often than not and Jun smiled a lot more in private when we were together. It’d surprised me when they’d entwined their fingers with mine one morning but I’d been more than happy to accept it.

We kissed, too.

Not all the time, but enough that it left me on edge and anticipatory every time there was a quiet moment where work lulled or we were in a place where a break might be allowed.

Even though our togetherness was sweet and vibrant between us, work took front stage for both of us and I was happy Jun hadn’t changed just because we were… were. (We’d talked and agreed that we were definitely together; we didn’t use the word ‘relationship’ because Jun hadn’t grown up with the word like I had and partners sounded a little too much for us since our thing was so new. We had agreed that ‘together’ suited us best and we had sealed the moment with a kiss.)

I knew we would have to talk about ‘it’ at some point; my Replacement, that is.

We hadn’t acknowledged the looming doom cloud when we’d talked about more clearly defining our togetherness and what that would entail from each of us; I think neither of us wanted to face what Replacement might mean and I was ashamed that my urge to return to Earth hadn’t evaporated after I’d confessed to Jun.

I had a suspicion that they didn’t want to put any pressure on me to whichever answer I chose, and that almost made it worse since I knew they’d sacrifice their happiness if it meant I’d have mine.

They were like that as I’d increasingly discovered; infuriatingly self sacrificing while simultaneously acting as if they were somehow getting their way with all their superior smirks and sarcastic remarks.

I’d assumed they leaned that way before -towards self sacrificing, I mean- but after our conversation, I’d confirmed my presumptions when I’d had to practically drag their honest preferences out of them since they’d continued to say ‘I am happy to do whatever you are comfortable with; it’s your decision’ whenever I asked what they’d like.

I’d neared frustration somewhere around the fifth or sixth time and paused the conversation completely so I could stress the fact that I wanted to hear their thoughts on what we would do; so we both were genuinely happy and our relationship would stay a healthy one. (This is where they told me about not particularly resonating with the word ‘relationship’ after a long pause so they could digest my words. I’d been ecstatic that they’d understood my intent and our conversation had thankfully been smooth sailing from there.)

We talked a lot, which was normal for us both but there was an added level of an exciting, comfortable intimacy that also was ever present in the undertones of our conversations; the thrill of knowing ‘they like me’ still made my head swim if I obsessed over it too much.

It didn’t need to be said, but I liked Jun so much.

The novelty of our togetherness had quickly worn off for Cyan, our tentative smiles and lingering stares garnering a wide variety of displeased noises from the Fairy as she pointedly sat between us on the table top one morning so our attention was broken.

It wasn’t like we weren’t focusing on our own respective things anyway, but there was -admittedly- quite a few smiles and various expressions being exchanged throughout the meal. (I’d send a purposely too wide grin, Jun would raise an amused brow, I would widen my eyes, Jun would furrow their expression with a hint of a smile betraying their mock disapproving scowl, and so on.)

“Okay, you two cuddle bugs, that’s enough of that for one meal.”

We -of course- redirected our attention to the Fairy with twin looks of faux innocence, although Jun was much more proficient at portraying our dupe since they’d had plenty of practice from their endless amount of hellion behavior; there were more than a few times where we’d exaggerated our tactileness or longing expressions just so Cyan would roll her eyes or pretend to gag at us. And then we’d flat out deny our actions; obviously.

“And you can wipe both of those looks off of your faces before I do it for you, thank you!”

I laughed and Jun cleared their throat with a sparkle in their eyes that definitely meant they were laughing too, the three of us easily transitioning into ‘work mode’ as Cyan produced three files from nowhere and handed one to each of us.

She opened the one she’d kept for herself and gestured for us to do the same.

“I actually got asked to help on another Replacement case and I need an Auspice” she glanced at Jun, “and a Human.” Her gaze landed on me with a smile.

“And who better than my two resident–” She gestured between us like she didn’t really want to put a name for whatever was going on, like she was disgusted with the whole thing and not entirely thrilled that we were happy. (She’d cried about it multiple times to express how overjoyed she was that we were together, she just didn’t like admitting it outside those moments of weakness.)

“-you guys; anyway! Birdie, remember when you asked me about what to do about that female classmate of yours who sounded like a bit-”

“-Cyan!”

“-ter person.”

A nasty sort of self satisfied smile was shot pointedly in the Auspices direction, an expression that very much conveyed ‘ha ha, you scolded me for no reason’ and I settled a little deeper into my seat while the conversation was pushed aside for a moment in favor of them bickering.

It was back on track after a few minutes and we continued on like the squabbling had never happened; their arguments were commonplace if the Elf and Fairy were in close proximity -which was very often- so we simply worked around it without sparing a second thought.

“Yeah, I remember; your advice was to ignore her as much as possible and view her simply in facts so my bias didn’t sway my decisions when I watched her interact in real time.”

I could see Jun nodding approvingly in my peripheral and Cyan hummed in agreement.

“Yep! Well, I think this might solve your problem altogether!”

She motioned eagerly for us to look inside the files she’d given us and I made a noise of surprise when I saw the picture in the top left corner of the papers I was holding; the contents of which turned out to be a Portant’s profile and log of Training activity.

I recognized the girl in the picture, she had matured a few more years from the adolescent I had known her as but it was definitely her; I could recognize her anywhere as the person I had practically grown up alongside.

“This is Hana!”

“Mhm!”

Cyan seemed thrilled with herself as she excitedly nodded her head.

“Your Earth world really is so small; Hana-chan asked me to find an Auspice to finalize her Replacement -that’s where you come in Junie- and she chose Cupid as her final Rotation! She did some preliminary Training with me but I brought you up in conversation and she told me you guys knew each other. So! I was thinking maybe you could take over the remainder of her Rotation Training! It’d be good practice in case… you know.”

She made a gesture to encapsulate the other words she didn’t say, the overhanging ‘in case your Replacement doesn’t work out or if you decide to stay’ not needing to be said since we were all aware how touchy the topic was; we didn’t ever directly address it.

“Yeah, that’s- wow, I never would have thought that I’d meet someone I knew here. I mean- not that I don’t think anyone would meet the requirements or anything but… you know what I mean.”

I flustered a little bit, shaking my head with a self depreciating chuckle as I looked to Jun for their take on the situation.

It had been suspiciously quiet from their side of the table since they usually voiced their opinion directly after I had spoken mine.

This time they were silent, an almost discontent sort of look on their face that prompted a tentative, questioning expression from me that was -much to my surprise- ignored in favor of the file in their hands being studied.

What was that about?

“-so what do you think?”

“Oh uh-”

Since I had been preoccupied with trying to nonverbally converse with Jun, the space of time between the end of Cyan’s words and mine had stretched towards too long and -famously- Cyan was not the patient kind when it came to anything but her Subjects. (And sometimes Calliope if the Centaur was being particularly complimentary.)

“That sounds– yeah, even if I don’t Instruct her Cupid Training I want to see her again; but do you seriously think I’m qualified to be anyone’s Instructor?”

It was baffling to me that Cyan would even consider me as someone who could be an Instructor for someone else. Half the time it still felt like I had no clue what I was doing and it worried me that I wouldn’t be able to answer a question if asked and then somehow be caught out as a fraud even though I hadn’t completed anything on Oeuvre via shady methods.

“Absolutely!”

Jun made a noise that conveyed their agreement with Cyan’s vehement outburst, though they still retained their aforementioned ‘silence’ since all they did was hum. There wasn’t enough time for me to try and deduce what the matter was before Cyan continued speaking and my attention was taken by her -honestly surprising and highly flattering- words.

“I don’t think there’s been a Herald who’s progressed as fast as you in the past… who even knows; it’s so hard for them to get over the shock of Displacement -not that I blame them, it’s a lot- but there really isn’t anything else you don’t have that we do except for experience. And that’ll come with time!”

Another one of her ‘don’t worry about it, it’s not relevant’ gestures was made.

“Would it be better if you had more Cupiding under your belt? Yes. But I’ll be right there if you have any questions and if you can’t handle it I’ll take Hana-chan right back, don’t worry! This is a one off anyway, I’m not going to give you this chance again for a while so… I’d suggest you take it.”

The look Cyan gave me seemed very indisputable.

Ah, so it was like that. Well, I didn’t really have a choice, did I?

I wanted to try anyway, but Cyan’s not so subtle decision had finalized it for me.

I sent another questioning look over to Jun as the toe of their boot tapped mine gently under the table, easily stealing my full attention as I brought my gaze to theirs.

“It’s your decision regardless of what Cyan would prefer; don’t agree to serve as Instructor for– Hana unless you feel confident in your capabilities. If your performance is subpar due to your mental state, it will do a great disservice to both of you in addition to us as we were the ones who handled your education.”

Their words and actions were always so unequivocally Jun, from the way they garnered my attention -subtly with a warm undertone of familiarity, an action that perfectly fit the level of our togetherness without drawing unnecessary attention to it- to the serious, no nonsense way they voiced their opinion regardless of their potential dislike -taking from the way their mouth formed distastefully around the syllables in Hana’s name- for the person we were talking about.

Always aware of the unbiased opinion and never wanting to overstep when they thought it was someone else’s choice.

Other people not as versed in ‘Jun talk’ as Cyan and I were might have thought they were being rude, or maybe unnecessarily blunt. And to that point, maybe they were a little more blunt than the average Human to not come across as ‘mean’ but I knew they were simply sincere and -because they knew Cyan and I valued their opinions- they thought we deserved the utmost honesty.

I’d have to ask them if there was a particular reason they seemed to have some contention about Hana, but that would have to wait until the right moment.

For now, I had to make some decisions.

Did I want to be an Instructor? Did I think I could be what Cyan and Jun were for me?

Absolutely not; not at all to the degree that they were.

No way, not even on Oeuvre.

But…

If what I had to do was teach the duties of a Cupid to someone who already knew what a Herald was and how Oeuvre operated?

I could do that. I hadn’t studied and skipped sleep just to forget everything I'd learned about the Herald filing system, Oeuvre Technology, Refraction traveling, and compatible traits and characteristics in Humans; I knew those things more intimately than the algebraic formulas I had learned in school.

If all I had to do was pass that knowledge on, that I could do.

“I want to do it; I know I can do it.”

Cyan grinned wide and smugly self satisfied like my answer was directly her triumph, and in a way, I suppose it sort of was.

“Excellent! I’ll Hail her now.”