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Ryne kept having to remind herself that she had no reason to be scared—she'd spent seven years of her life on the run. She'd once been fated to die. She'd dealt with sin eaters and Emet-Selch and all the struggles they'd faced in the Empty, and lived to tell the tale each and every time. All of those things were terrifying and, what was more, actually deadly, so it stood to reason that something as simple as talking to a (very pretty) girl should not be difficult at all by comparison.
And yet.
She stared at Gaia's closed inn room door in the Pendants and sighed, feeling overly shy and very, very silly. Gaia had swept in and rescued her from being consumed by light. She'd willingly accompanied her back to the Crystarium for the time being and had even seemed to warm up to her slightly in the days to follow, smiling a little more often and being a little more patient, even as she seemed determined to maintain an air of perpetual moodiness. Ryne had even earned a laugh, just once, in a way.
“What was it you said?” she asked, squinting with her attempts to remember. “It was right after you woke up.”
“‘Your hammer matches your dress,’” Ryne said sheepishly.
Gaia tossed her head back in a cackle, but there was no cruelty in her eyes when she stopped and smiled at her after. “Yes, that was it. Very cute.”
Ryne had ridden that high for the rest of the afternoon, periodically pausing to press her burning face into her hands and grin like a fool. Gaia said she was cute and meant it. Which meant that this had to go okay. Friends went out for coffee all the time. Just asking couldn’t hurt anything. She would simply ask, and if she turned her down now, she would very graciously accept the no and then go back to her own room and curl up in a ball and die.
Perhaps she was being a little overly dramatic. She chalked it up to Thancred's influence.
Ryne pulled in a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly, then crossed the few paces left to stand in front of Gaia's door. She raised a fist to knock, tipped her fist forward, and—
Immediately aborted the mission. Wicked White, she was hopeless.
A short distance away, the Master of Suites eyed her with passive curiosity. He did not seem to mind her presence, but now that she knew she had an audience, she had no choice but to follow through. She knocked as her heart raced a malm a minute.
Gaia opened the door a few moments later, seeming surprised but not upset by her presence. She was dressed in a simple black dress and artfully distressed tights, with her abundant hair loose as always around her shoulders. She looked lovely.
"Ryne," she said. "This is unexpected."
She could already feel her face flush. "Sorry if I disturbed you."
"You didn't," Gaia shook her head. She glanced down either end of the hall, then seemed confused when she found nothing. "Is something the matter?"
"No, not at all!" she hurried to assure her. "It's just that now that we're settled, I was thinking it might be nice to go try those coffee biscuits I told you about." She waited barely a moment before adding, "If you like, of course. I wouldn't want to interfere with any of your other plans."
The excessively brief wait for her to respond felt like being lit on fire. Ryne was embarrassed to be alive. She shouldn't have even asked. Gaia was obviously far too busy and cool to want to hang out with someone like her, and it was a fool's errand to even think—
She shrugged, impassive as ever. "Might as well. The Second Serving, right?"
That was a yes. She'd said yes. Ryne let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and beamed. "Yes! It's not far at all, just over by Spagyrics."
"Let me get my shoes on, then," Gaia said. She turned away from the door to head back into her room. Ryne hovered in the doorway, unsure if she should follow or not. Walking into Gaia's space felt invasive, somehow, but after standing there for a few awkward moments, the other girl called, "You can come in, you know. I'm not going to bite you."
Right. She was being weird again. Ryne stepped inside and found herself stricken by just how basic Gaia's room was. She supposed it made sense. Though she had some few belongings of her own, it wasn't much. She was essentially starting from zero. It would be a long time before her home reflected who she was as a person.
The thought made Ryne wonder if she wasn't a little lonely.
She took a seat at the table while Gaia pulled on her boots. A half-full mug of tea had been left there, as well as an open book. Out of curiosity, she marked Gaia's place with her finger and checked the cover, and was delighted to discover it was familiar. A fantastical tale of a naive young girl who, across her three-book journey, became a powerful sorceress and saved the star.
"I love this series!" she exclaimed cheerily. It was the second, and so that meant Gaia must've liked the first enough to keep reading. "Are you enjoying it?"
"It's… interesting," Gaia hedged, as she always did. With her boots on now, she rounded the room divider that blocked her bed from view. "Thancred recommended them." Ryne must've looked slightly crestfallen, because she quickly amended, "Morgan is my favorite character."
Ryne recalled the woman, the main character's mentor: a sorceress who wore a black veil and did ceremonies under the light of the moon. She couldn't suppress a knowing smile and covered her mouth as she giggled. "Exactly who I would have guessed."
Gaia shrugged and crossed to the table to flip the book shut with the cover facing down, perhaps a bit embarrassed. After a moment of consideration, she admitted, "She makes me laugh."
"She makes you laugh?" Ryne pressed a hand to her chest, aghast at the description. "But she's so mean to Celia!"
Gaia rolled her eyes. "Celia takes herself too seriously."
"She just wants to get stronger and help people," Ryne argued, a little miffed. "Morgan teaches her a lot, but she isn't very kind about it."
"Someone has to show her the way the world works," Gaia reminded her. Eventually a smile curled her lips. "Celia reminds me a bit of you, actually."
"Oh, not really," Ryne flapped a hand. She was quietly thrilled by the comparison.
She'd always looked up to the character in a way, even if it was a bit foolish. Celia never wavered. Even when she was afraid, she always pressed on and did what was needed.
She didn't want to frighten Gaia, but she had read the trilogy more than once. They were her favorite books of all time—which was probably exactly why Thancred had recommended them. The realization warmed her a little.
"Shall we go, then?" Gaia asked, and it was only then that Ryne remembered why she was here.
She leapt to her feet, embarrassed now. "Of course. Sorry. Here I am, carrying on—"
"Ryne," Gaia said firmly.
Ryne met her eyes and found a deadly seriousness in them that made her shrivel a little. She squirmed at the feeling, not used to being so completely and utterly self-conscious. "Yes?"
"Relax," she ordered. It was only then that Ryne realized she was standing like she had a steel rod for a spine. "I know we got off on the wrong foot, but that was then and this is now. I'd like to be friends, alright?" Amusement colored her expression. "You can ask me out for coffee and tell me about the books you like. It's what friends do."
Some of the fear drained from her body at that, and for once she was grateful for how forthright Gaia was. She decided to trust her at her word. "If that's the case, then I'll need you to tell me everything when we get to the Second Serving. And keep me updated as you read the rest."
Gaia snorted, seeming to relax a bit herself now that the weird air had cleared. Ryne could talk to a pretty girl and not die. She was doing it right now. "You love these books, don't you?"
She sheepishly clasped her hands in front of her and admitted, "They're my favorite. Urianger gave them to me four years ago, for my twelfth nameday. I read all three in just a few days." She shook her head. "It's nice to have someone to talk to them about."
Gaia smiled so fondly it made her heartbeat stutter a little, then her gaze shifted to the door. "If that's the case, then I'll need your opinion on Chathwick, as well." They headed out. "He's a bit—"
Ryne sighed in disgust, recalling his many misdeeds throughout the series, but tempered herself. "I… do not like him very much."
"Coming from you, that might as well be confirmation that he's a great bloody arse."
"Gaia!" Ryne shrieked in disbelief, but couldn't help sharing a laugh with her. When their giggling tapered off, she very quietly admitted, "He kind of is."
Gaia's eyes flashed with delight at the lapse in her unfailingly polite demeanor. "He is!"
It felt good to laugh. It felt good to have a friend. And as they headed for the cafe, she desperately hoped that Gaia felt the same.