The Paladins walked the path from the main mansion building to the student dorms after a pretty brisk team training session. Mister Rasputin was a good teacher. He didn't approach our training as cerebrally as Miss Pryde did, but the man had no trouble heaping on the practical work. Since he knew from experience that Hisako, Laura, and I could handle it, he correctly believed that we would have no problems working to get Eddie and Ruth up to team parity in the field.
It was only a matter of time until the Field Day sessions started where squads would compete against each other, and we were feeling good about our chances of standing out. Some of us were also feeling good for other reasons. Well, one of us, really.
Eddie had managed to snag a second date with Cessily. Good for him. He hadn't managed to goof things up on the rest of the group outing after I'd been removed from the scene. Of course, since he hadn't, it would have stood to reason that he didn't need to come to the rest of us to beg for input. That didn't stop him from doing it, though.
God, he pestered us all day after we found out he had another rendezvous with Cess for the weekend. I swore, by the end of squad training, Hisako was going to armor up and slug him into the clouds.
"Eddie, enough!" With the exception of Laura, we all flinched away from Hisako's sudden outburst, "We will not use Ruth's powers to psychically wingman for you. I don't know about everybody else, but I've got better things to do on a Saturday night."
"Like what?" Eddie challenged, and all of our ears were primed for the response. We all sincerely doubted Hisako had plans, not that she cared.
"Literally anything. Just name it," She replied. She wasn't wrong either. None of us wanted to waste our time holding Eddie's hand through a date when there was nothing in it for us.
He continued to beg, smartly keeping well out of Hisako's reach and keeping the decibels of his whining down, "Come on. Last time was easy because we were with everyone. What if it gets awkward?"
I put my hands on his shoulders, because I felt that if I didn't have some kind of hold on him, he'd start groveling, "If that was a problem, I think it would have come up already," Have some pride, man, "Remember what you told me? Just... don't be you, at least not all at once."
Hisako agreed with me, for once, "Yeah, ease her in to how annoying you are," She said, making a smooth, slow line with her hands.
"Thanks, guys," Eddie droned sarcastically, "But I don't even know where to take her. I don't know what's good for dates!"
I threw the dog a bone in order to get him to screw off for the time being, "Okay, this is all I'm doing for you. Life Pro Tip: If you don't know, don't ask a girl where she wants to eat. Ask her to guess where you're taking her to eat, then take her to the first guess," It wasn't a guarantee, but more often than not, it had good results.
Hisako looked at me as though she were impressed, "That's... a decent idea. You pull that on Pixie, Bel?" She added.
I scoffed, "No, I didn't. I fucking asked what kinds of things she liked before we started going out on our own. Wrote it in my phone," I wiggled said electronic device for emphasis.
"Honest Bel," Hisako continued to tease, "At least you didn't take credit for straight-up remembering it."
I blinked at her in confusion. Last time I checked, those two things weren't mutually exclusive, "I mean... I do, but it's nice to have a cheat sheet too," Also, I remember the gist of everything that I write down, but saying that out loud would have sounded even cockier than I was already being.
Eddie looked between Hisako and I in a bit of disbelief, "Do you guys really think I can do this?"
Hisako let out a laugh, "I sure hope so, seeing as how you've been complaining about being single for the last year," She joked, "But seriously, just worry about having fun. That's what this is all about, right?" She offered supportively.
"And you two have so much in common," I added, "You have red hair... she has red hair. Gingers unite," I held up my hand for a 'too sweet', and received nothing in return, "No?"
Hisako shook her head in the negative, "I'm not co-signing on that."
Eddie gave me a whack on the shoulder, "My compatibility to girls doesn't boil down to our hair color, you dick."
Even Ruth chimed in, "She is sorry, unfunny jokes are unfunny. Bellamy can do much better."
I didn't even laugh at the joke either, but that was stone cold. Damned humor snobs. All of my stuff couldn't be ten-out-of-ten. At least one member of the team didn't pile on, "That's fine. If I want to have an intelligent conversation, I guess I've got to rely on-," As I went to turn to the person I was referring to, it turned out she wasn't there... again, "What? Where the hell did Laura go? She was right here a minute ago."
Literally. As in, right next to me. Like, right behind my shoulder. I didn't even feel her presence leave mine. I'd stopped in my tracks to retrace our steps and try to determine when she'd slipped away.
"Dude, calm down," Eddie said, "If she didn't head back to her and Blindfold's room, she went to get food or something. I'll ask Cess. She might have gone to her."
I tried and failed to keep the hint of bitterness out of my voice, "That's interesting, seeing that your new girlfriend, who isn't on this team, sees Laura, who is on this team, more than we do."
To my surprise, I received no support on my point. Eddie looked at me as though I were crazy, "What are you talking about? Who's 'we' here? I see Laura all the time, dude."
Hisako offered her point next, "She's a really good workout buddy, actually. She's much quieter than you two morons, definitely."
Then was Ruth, who pleaded her case for Laura as well, "Yes. Good roommates see each other quite often, yes."
So, it was just me. Fantastic, "What the fuck? You jerks are all telling me that you see Laura all the time? It's just me who only sees her during squad practices?" Everyone didn't seem to know how to answer, other than a vacant shrug, "I can't even find her to confront her about this shit!"
Hisako gestured to me as though I'd just answered my own question, "Maybe that's why she's avoiding you? Because she knows you'd want to talk about whatever's bothering her, and she'd rather not feel that uncomfortable."
Tough titty. Clearly, we had some kind of issue that needed working out. Also, Laura was my friend too, goddamn it. I liked having her around, and felt very sore about the fact that this did not seem to be a shared sentiment between us. I had her over my house for the summer. Hell, we 'too sweeted'! I thought that meant something!
"Hey, look at the bright side," Eddie offered, throwing an arm around me, "At least it isn't affecting our teamwork."
I grumbled my response, "Yeah, silver lining, I guess," The Paladins were, for the most part, a well-oiled machine – whatever that was worth, in the grand scheme of things.