"You know," Harume started and Nova turned to look at her. "I think you let yourself get carried away back there."
"Hardly. If he treats every common Yokai like that he'd miss out on several opportunities."
"Well you're not wrong on that front, but he's been very patient with you today, advocating for your needs when he could have just kicked you out. And there may have been two of the staff unoccupied by customers but that doesn't mean they weren't busy doing something else important for the business."
"Ah, I don't think I considered that," Nova said, feeling a tinge of guilt creep into her stomach. Lion she didn't care for, he was everything she said and maybe more and she wanted him to seriously reflect on his actions, but the rest of the staff didn't deserve her wrath.
"Oh, and the whole time you were telling him off you're eyes were slowly turning black, it was a little creepy. I know you were defending your friend and all, but if you make minor maltreatment out to be as bad as you or him becoming phisically hurt, you could really cause trouble for yourself in the future when it comes to how you actually need to react in those moments."
Nova's immediate reaction that she managed to hold inside was the building of rage again, both for being lectured however softly and for being told NOT to defend him, but that in itself confused her. Why was she so mad? This treatment wasn't even half as bad as when she was a human back in high school. What was really triggering her?
Oh wait.
"I just... I hate it when people step on him, and I also don't understand why it makes me so mad."
She had said it softly, but Harume nodded in understanding. She wasn't aware that Nova was still irritated that she too had brushed off Beil.
"Well have you tried just removing yourself and him from the situation? If it isn't an emergency, you can just up and walk away."
"Well yeah, but it's the fact that these 'situations' happen in the first place. It's so unfair for him."
"You really like him, huh?"
Nova's face flushed, not having any scales to hide it this time, and a highlighter yellow and a little bit of a pink color flicked into her eyes.
"Yeah, he's great, can we change the subject please?"
"Sure, sorry I made you uncomfortable. People tell me I talk too much," she said with a reserved expression. Nova calmed and her mood dipped back down into normalcy when she saw the girl's face. It reminded her of her much younger human self.
"No, but certain subjects should only be among people you trust."
"I see," she said and her eyes brightened, "well I trust you, your sense of justice is refreshing, and so is your commitment."
Swallowing the weird lump in her throat, Nova decided not to comment and stepped out of the curtain, took out an additional five silver and six copper and handed it to Lion wordlessly, who not only looked her up and down in doubt like 'what's the catch', but also wordlessly altered the document in his hand in full view and had her sign it, which she did without hesitation and motioned for Beil to follow her out of the store.
Lion's face was stoic but inside he was a bit of a mess. Why did she give more than she said she would after putting on a show like that? If she was just going to give in and pay... well, almost the full amount, then did she realize she had gone too far and someone convinced her that she had over reacted?
He looked around and spotted Harume who had a proud and gentle smile on her face and decided to give her a raise, after a bit of questioning that is; however, that snake was obviously in love with that useless creature. What would be a good way to convince such a prodigy like her that he wasn't worth her time, and in doing so prove himself right?
Ah.
A grotesque sneer jarred his handsome face into something that frightened Harume very much and she jumped back into her work as if Nova had never come. She half regretted talking the snake girl through her feelings, but since she was the one Nova favored and she wasn't sure how her boss would treat her afterwards, she was protecting herself by doing so. That didn't exactly ease the feelings of guilt and anxiety though, and Harume watched the back of their heads as the pair left down the road.
Nova sensed something was up and looked back behind her at the boutique that was now almost too far away to see fully, eyes locked on the figure standing in the door frame that backed away and turned to go back in, until Beil carefully took the coin purse from her.
She hopped in surprise and he lightly sniffed out a laugh before paying a vendor she had not even realized they had approached and been standing in front of for two turkey legs.
Appreciating how he handed her one and, after ripped off a piece of his own with the tip of his beak before motioning that she should eat, started walking in a random direction. Nova's mind eased at his decision and she smiled at his antics and followed after him before taking her own bite.
Confusion was a regular experience today when Nova noticed two things about this drumstick. One, it was delicious. The crispy dry rubbed skin grilled with butter and garlic was exceptional, and the meat was still juicy instead of dry like turkey can sometimes get, but something was still off.
It wasn't nearly as satisfying as half of that meat dish back in the mountain village, and it was a pretty sizable portion of turkey. Okay yeah, turkey wasn't as fatty as pork, and red meat just had a stronger taste in general, but this was something else.
"Is something wrong with it," Beil asked and she shook her head.
"It's really tasty, reminds me of the food from my home town during the fair, but..."
"But it is not much energy."
Nova looked up at him in realization. "You can call it that."
"That is the problem with city food," he said in disappointment. "The time it takes to deliver the ingredients and game from their original habitat, or if the livestock aren't given the diet or environment they need to thrive, the more energy seeps out and they begin to taste just like meat from the Apparent Realm. I only buy food in the city when I feel nostalgic for the flavors of my past, and I thought you might enjoy it for the same reason after the store owner tried his best to ruin our day."
"Speaking of which," Nova said and looked him in the eyes, something she didn't really do often with him because she knew her eyes intimidated people and today she even learned they flaired with colors, "you didn't seem very much bothered by all of that back there. Actually, you never do. It's like you've chosen to never defend yourself."
"Why bother? I defend myself if it is truly necessary, and words are not like blades," he added with a nonchalance that only emphasized her point and made her scoff.
"So you actively choose to just role over and take it? It's mental abuse, Beil. You're being treated like a lower class citizen, even by your own Nana."
Beil watched her rant and breathed in deeply before letting out a long sigh. "Sweet Nova," he said in a low voice, and her attention was sent spiraling for a moment before she yanked it back, disoriented. She chose not to think about why it made her do so at the moment and refocused on him.
"Words are not stones, or knives. They do not cut or bruise, they do nothing to prevent us from walking away, and if you do not allow those who wield them as a weapon to intimidate you, you will have the upper hand.
"It is much easier for me to say this than for you to experience it yourself and learn how, but you must choose your battles carefully, and a fight without fists is hardly worth your time."
Nova hesitated for a moment.
"That was kind of like what Harume had said, the lizard girl," she clarified just in case, "but what if you turn the other cheek and instead of words they use a dagger or something?"
"Then it has escalated to the point where you can fight back, that is the time where an empty threat has become a true threat and you need to take action. At any point before that they can holler and snap at you, make idle attempts at intimidation or humiliation, but if you decide that it no longer bothers you, that you do not care what others think of you, you are much more secure within yourself. If you give them what they want, which is a reaction and proof that they are able to harm you by simply speaking, then you have allowed them to win their game."
"Well sure, I figured out how to stop talking back like that when I was beaten up and bullied in middle school," she threw out there and Beil's worry lines deepened dramatically, both because he had not had any idea of what she had been through in her previous life, and because she didn't get the point.
"But," she continued, "by high school I realized that being a push over in my experience only ever lead to the offenders seeing me as an easier target and I was never taken seriously. That's why after a while I just punched them if they didn't shut up."
Beil sighed and shook his head. Sure actions like that worked in the moment, but it was like putting a golden cap on a still rotting tooth.
"In instances that extreme it is wise to ask for help," he said and looked of into the city, "and I do acknowledge your attempts to defend me from what you perceive to be a threat at my expense, but I have dealt with such treatment for the majority of this lifetime that it no longer has any affect on me. They always say the same things."
He looked back and saw her face become discouraged and wanted to wrap his wings around her, but he held back. "Protecting others is a virtue many have forgotten to uphold, but Dear, I have already come to terms with how quickly people tend to judge my value based off of my appearance and how I naturally carry myself. I am content among the chaos."
"That... that doesn't make it right," she said and bit into the turkey with a new form of vengeance. It helped a little to picture it as biting that stupid Lion right on the leg, but her human form lacked the satisfaction of wrapping herself around it in a death grip, and the pathetic energy it gave her wasn't enough to replace what she used up in her anger as well as the transformation into her human form.
And that's when it hit her. He had just called her 'Dear'. It wasn't 'child' this time, even if she was acting more like a child today than she had since she had met him, and as she remembered the 'sweet Nova' from earlier she turned her warming face away from him to hide it.
What's with the pet names today? Was he okay? Did it bother him the way she had acted? He had been so generous and patient with her, just like always, but today she had stuck up for him and for the second time almost started a fight on his behalf and it only caused him trouble. If he wanted her to ignore the cruel and irritating comments she would, just to bring him some peace of mind, but she was disappointed with the society of this world now.0
She had hoped it would be a better place, without human cruelty or negative stereotypes, but that was just wishful thinking and deep down she knew it, she just wanted to pretend it wasn't that way... just a little longer..
"Try not to think so hard on it."
"Huh?"
"Nova, when you dwell or worry, when your own mind becomes a collection of negative thoughts, your eyes turn grey."
Nova sighed. "That's not fair."
"What?"
"You can read me, have been able to read me, so easily since God knows when and you didn't tell me?"
Backed into a corner, Beil quietly stopped walking and clenched his tallons into the gravel. Nova looked back at him and watched his eyes. It was hard to read him sometimes, what with that beak intead of lips and a strange mix of body languages that she still had not figured out quite yet, but she could see the guilt in his eyes as well as his gears turning.
"If I expressed every detail that I have learned about you, I would not stop talking for a week."
Nova's mouth fell open. Does he mean what she thinks he means? No, he can't like her, she's a child in his eyes... and didn't he already say that it was not his choice that he had acted the way he did back when she had him stuck in the infatuation spell?