Iris drove Amelie to the diner and Amelie laughed as Iris reverted a car out of its parking spot. "Oh, stop it. We can walk a little."
Iris put it back. She drove a bit further away to find a space, and as they came to the initial avenue, Amelie dipped her arm in the crook of Iris's elbow and smiled as they made their way across this avenue. It was odd, for while Amelie was likely stronger than her, she still liked to feel defended by Iris. It was not an unfamiliar position, yet she had always thought it better to be independent and not subject to the needs of others.
Iris thought of it as a series of expectations Amelie had placed upon her; if she fulfilled each then what they shared could continue. But when she thought of what might be beyond that, her self would retract; she thought that perhaps she did not wish for this to move, for if it did not move it could not leave.
As they were seated, Amelie was checking her ranking. It was a tablet specifically given to her by Kate after Claire refused to let her borrow her own. She still occasionally credited Claire a kill, enough that she would not be expelled.
Iris watched Amelie, and from this angle the screen of the tablet appeared a slit to her. She thought the whole of it was a slit into Amelie's life; it was these rankings she checked and wanted to ascend, fighting multiple times a day and frequently traveling for contracts. Sometimes she seemed to shrink herself into it.
It had not left much time for the cultivation of what they shared, though this did not bother Iris much. The disjointed segmentation of their relationship seemed to represent the actual fragmentation of Amelie's mind; how she would suddenly invite Iris over then ask her to leave, or think herself too ugly to continue intimacy. Not every day; but enough that Iris noted it.
Amelie glanced up at her, and seemed to realize Iris had been watching her. Her previously uncommented demeanor crumbled a little, then reconstituted, as she brushed her hair with her fingers. "How do I look?"
"You look great."
Amelie smiled, then reached over and picked a bit of lint off Iris's flannel, showing it to Iris. Iris picked it back and placed it onto Amelie's shoulder, who laughed.
"I'm sorry, I was just checking the rankings." said Amelie. "I'll need to be fighting about four or five hosts a week, if I'd like to achieve two-star before the end of the year."
"Will you be alright with that pace?"
"A little overwork is nothing new to me." She brushed her hair again, anxiously preening herself to Iris. She smiled and ordered, then resumed: "Have you fought a lot of hosts on your investigation? I know you can't give much more detail than that."
"It's mostly been fewer hosts, but more difficult ones, as far as Natasha says." She relayed the running fight they had with Overpass Eclipse, leaving out her wheezing and Natasha's greater cardio. She was pleased that Amelie seemed impressed; over time she learned that Amelie's pleasure with violence matched her own.
Amelie laughed. "I suppose I haven't had a fight go that long yet, no. The one earlier certainly seemed a bit more difficult than the usual. I'm sorry again about what happened, I just-"
"It's alright."
Amelie nodded, though she seemed unsoothed; Iris doubted there was much she could do but change the subject. "…well, alright." She glanced down to her tablet again, then back to Iris. "By the way, I was about to say something earlier until I remembered Natasha was there. Would you like to know what it was?"
"After your penis coladas?"
Amelie laughed. "Yes, in the dune of a cape." She leaned in and whispered: "I was going to ask if you'd like to make love at midnight tonight."
"I'll be there."
Amelie smiled and sat back down. "Good. I'll make sure Claire is... well, if not off campus, at least not home. But, as I was saying about fights, even a few of my first investigations, well -- most of them were hosts confessing to murder on social media. …but, Kate's wanted to put me on something more difficult recently."
"Do you worry it'll slow you down?"
"I'm always worried. But I can't call myself a good host if I've only dealt with the most obvious and weakest of them."
Iris nodded and their food came back, speaking while they ate. "Is she as austere as everyone says? Kate?"
"A bit, but people like to confuse strictness for cruelty, especially in women. I don't like to be judgmental, but there's certainly a few students in our class that only hunt once a month and expect the higher-achieving to subsidize that." She sighed. "I'm sorry, Iris. I feel like I often ask to spend time with you, and then I ruin your expectations of me by simply venting about some obscure issue I'm dealing with. But I do enjoy our time together." She smiled. "And you know how I think of you in other areas."
"I don't mind if it comforts you to rely on me some. I'm just not sure if there's something specific you're thinking of that I could help with."
"…well, Claire, recently. Certainly her." Amelie shook her head. "But it was before that, as well. I remember someone approaching me when I started climbing the ranks, asking for advice with their Revenant. I must have spent nearly an hour talking and thinking through with them, but it was soon clear to me that it was a pretext to come along with me in fights and leech off my credit. It was when I first began hunting solo, so I suppose I had assumed..."
Iris felt nervous. "I would've offered to hunt with you."
"That was before I met you." Amelie smiled.
Iris was relieved, yet this was a base reaction for her; she did not necessarily like whenever Amelie mentioned talking to other women and she felt guilty for the envy it caused in her. "Do you remember who it was?"
"Catherine, I believe. Do you know her?"
"Admittedly, I haven't interacted with anyone much besides you and Natasha. I saw Isabelle out a few weeks ago, but she pretended not to notice me. Don't know why."
"Oh, Isabelle is a bitch to everyone." muttered Amelie. "I wouldn't view her aloofness as indicative of anything. She's my primary competition, and she seems very irritable over that fact. I almost think she would prefer I do worse and let more criminals free simply so she might achieve two-star first. Not that I wouldn't mind reaching it before her, but not to the Ahabian extent she seems to possess."
Later, there will be time to delve into Isabelle's own narrative and her similarities to Amelie; one might say that when Amelie viewed Isabelle she was burdened by the flaws of such a close mirror image of herself. But one could never accuse Isabelle of friendliness.
They finished eating and drove back to Natasha, who pretended she had been engrossed in investigation at the home. Iris kissed Amelie. "I'm not sure how long it'll take for me and Natasha to sift through everything here. Maybe a few hours. I know you're close to two-star, so I don't want to force you to stay here and possibly slow you down. Want me to drive you home?"
"Don't worry, that won't be necessary. I don't want to keep you from your investigation." Amelie smiled as Delinquent's legs & wheels formed. "But remember what we planned earlier, alright?" She began to leave, then laughed as Iris whispered to her: "I'll show up at midnight wearing nothing but Phantom."
Natasha watched as Amelie left. Iris seemed to have good taste in long legs. "Hey, you feeling alright, Iris? Did you not want her here?"
"Eh? I just didn't think it'd be right to force her to wait around for a few hours while I Timeline."
"Oh, yeah. I can't pretend it's not boring as shit."
"That honesty is why we're friends." Iris went to the middle of the living room, sat down and focused. "Phantom: Timeline."